The Thoroughbred of California, April, 1992

Some California farms are now practicing imprinting of foals at birth to acquaint them early with such things as halters, clippers, and trailers.

For years, some people have subscribed to the theory that racehorses respond to fear. But with imprint training, which is now being practiced at a handful of farms in California, that philosophy is changing.

Through imprint training, a young, impressionable foal is very early taught the lessons it will needs to know throughout its life. The foal learns to trust and respect people, and that does much to eliminate the fear element.

Jack Liebau and Thomas R. Capehart's Valley Creek Farm in Valley Center, Calif., is managed by Leigh Ann Howard and is among the farms in the state using imprint training with its foals.

"I first heard about imprinting three years ago," said Howard. "Young horses get hurt because they get scared and run away. If they're not afraid, they are a lot less likely to get hurt. What we are trying to accomplish with imprinting is to alleviate accidents and injuries."

Imprinting requires extensive handling of a foal at birth in order to accustom the newborn to human contact. Immediately after a foal is born it is rubbed repeatedly by hand over its entire body, including the ears and feet

Fingers are inserted in all body openings. Electric clippers without blades are run over the Foal's body and legs to acquaint the animal with the often-frightening buzzing sound of the tool. The foal is then toweled, brushed, and walked through a trailer, as well as taught to lead on both sides.

Exposing a foal to these objects and practices within the first 45 minutes of its life demonstrates to the foal that certain sights and sounds offer no danger. Thus, the young Thoroughbred will be better prepared to handle such common occurrences as trimming, shoeing, and shipping later in life.

"It takes fear away from the foal," explained Howard. "They are still respectful, but not scared. Fear is the worst thing for any animal. I think they learn all of their lessons better when they're not afraid."

Howard goes through each phase of imprinting with a foal for 20 days after-its birth, each time repeating the same process. The imprinting team at Valley Creek consists of Agustin Ramirez and Jose Ramirez. Aguatin handles the foal through the routine, and Jose performs the actual imprinting. This year's foal crop is the first at Valley Creek to receive imprint training although Howard did some of the imprinting practices on about 60 head last year.

"The first five days we are very intensive," said Howard. "Then we slow down a bit. And at no point are we met with resistance.

"When I started imprinting, I was worried about affecting the bonding period between the mare and the foal because I've always believed that you should get what you need to get done and then get out of there and leave them alone. But I have found you can do imprinting very quietly and calmly while the mare is licking her baby.

"It works great," Howard said. "I've never had any problems. As far I can tell there are no drawbacks to imprinting. But it is labor-intensive. If I didn't do imprinting I could use less help."

One of the imprinting tools used at Valley Creole is a model trailer that is open at both ends and was built by ranch foreman Jesus Gonzalez. Agustin walks the foal up a ramp into the trailer and back down the other side. Such early introduction makes shipping easier because the foal will not be as intimidated when it comes time to leave the farm.

"We walk the foals through the trailer the same day they're born." said Howard. "Horses are usually so scared of trailers and that’s where most of them get hurt. So we expose them to it early. And we always do it with the mare off to the side so she can see that everything is fine.

"1 think the trailer is a real important phase of imprinting," Howard added, "because our horses do a lot of hauling. The most obvious thing you can see in our horses compared to horses that were shipped here from other farms is the way they handle the trailer. When you see the horses that are here every day, you know that imprinting works."

According to retired veterinarian Dr. Robert Miller, who has studied the effects of imprinting for 25 years, a foal learns more in the first 45 minutes of its life than at any other time. But Dr. Miller warned that if imprint training is done incorrectly, a negative response is recorded in the foal's mind making the training process that much more difficult

"If you teach the foal wrong things, those responses are also recorded in the foal's mind." explained Dr. Miller. "If you stop the imprint training while they arc still struggling you fix an improper behavior.

Dr. Miller stresses that each stimulus, such as a rub or a stroke, needs to be done about 30 times in the same area in order to "desensitize" the foal. When a foal reaches the point of acceptance, it will cease trying to flee and become relaxed; ignoring it's natural instinct.

"A horse's natural instinct is to run from danger." Dr. Miller said. "We teach them submissive behavior. That's why it's so important to desensitize the foal beyond the point of habituation. If you stop before the foal has relaxed, you've programmed a negative reaction."

The vet also pointed out that the entire imprinting process takes place during the first hour of a foal's life. That is when the foal bonds with its dam and any other person or object it comes in contact with. Any subsequent training that follows in the days after the foal is born takes place during what Dr. Miller terms "the critical learning period," a stage of life when a foal easily and quickly absorbs teaching.

"I break my program up into three sessions, with each one lasting about an hour," said Dr. Miller. "The first session is at birth: the second is held the day after, unless I have a weak-legged foal; and the third is the day after the second session. In that time you can teach a horse everything it needs to know.

"By hammering your hand on the bottoms of their feet, you can prevent problems with shoeing later on. And by the lime you finish the imprinting process, you will be able to handle that foal for life. You can perform a rectal palpation or put a tube in its nose or throat without any problems."

While a foal's mind is receptive to imprinting at birth, the imprinting period varies among animal species. With predatory animals, such as dogs and cats, the imprinting period does not occur at birth because they are virtually helpless, and the same is true for human beings. But in prey species, such as the horse and deer, imprinting occurs much earlier.

"A horse s mind is receptive to learning at birth for survival." Dr. Miller said. "In the wild, a horse needs to run shortly after birth in order to flee danger, and it attaches itself to what it sees right after birth. At that point it learns everything it needs to know to get through life."

Dr. Miller has brought imprint training to the forefront of the horse world, but Konrad Lorenz is considered the pioneer of modern ethology (the scientific study of behavior patterns in animals). The Austrian scientist devoted much of his life to better understanding the various species in the animal kingdom and is best known for his work with goslings.

In 1935, Lorenz reported that goslings undergo a rapid learning process (imprinting) early in life. He also discovered in later research that goslings would go as far as accepting a person as a foster parent. If a gosling was handled from birth and hand-reared, it would follow its foster parent anywhere, as if the person were its mother.

Lorenz also found that such behavior is not exclusive to goslings. Hand-reared hares, beavers, and even boars proved unexpectedly intelligent and trusting of human contact.

Dr. Miller discovered the effects of imprinting on horses in much the same fashion.

"I've always been interested in animal behavior." he said, "and I was always told that you never mess with young horses. You just leave them alone. But over the years I noticed that the foals I delivered that for some reason or other needed handling were much easier to get along with down the road."

Six years ago, Dr. Miller put his 20 years of experience into an instructional video entitled Imprint Training the Foal. In the video, he walks through the steps of imprinting and carefully demonstrates each technique.

'Since the video came out, there has been an explosive reaction all over the horse world." he said. "But the Thoroughbred world was slow to accept it. Most people that have Thoroughbreds want their animal a little flighty. They think it makes it more competitive. But I've found that a horse will run at Lop speed without being flighty and ill mannered.

"If a racehorse is flighty, it often gets worked up before it gets to the starting gate and its adrenaline rush is gone before the race starts. Adrenaline only lasts so long, and I'd rather my horse have that rush during the race.

"Excitement in the horse is really fear, and a scared horse will run in mid-pack for security. A calm, well-mannered horse has no problems running off by itself."

One of the first farms in California to utilize imprint training was Brian Boudreau's Malibu Valley Farms, managed by Mark Cardiel. Cardiel has been doing imprint training at Malibu Valley since Dr. Miller introduced him to it in 1983.

"1 was skeptical at first," said Cardiel. "1 didn't want to take away their spirit. I was always taught that you handle horses when it comes time to break them. But I've seen so many horses and people get hurt doing things that way that I tried imprinting on one horse-and I saw a big difference.

"I don't use all of Dr. Miller's methods, but I use most of them." Cardiel continued. "I have found that you don't need to run the clippers over them that early. But if you handle them around the mouth, ears, and feet and teach them to back up, they're more receptive to new things when they get older."

Cardiel not only raises Thoroughbreds at Malibu Valley, but Quarter Horses and show horses as well. Among the Thoroughbreds that have graduated from Malibu Valley's imprinting program is California-bred stakes winner Kansas City.

"It's going to take one really good horse that had imprint training as a foal to make people take notice," said Cardiel. "Until that happens, spreading the word is going to be a very slow process."

Cark Quisenberry, the farm manager at John and Betty Mabee's Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, Calif., also practices a modification of Dr. Miller's methods.

"We've been doing imprinting for years," said Quisenberry. "We just didn't know what it was called. We've always handled our foals early and brushed on them from the time they were born. But Dr. Miller has come along and formalized the process. Her deserves a lot of credit. We are a lot more aggressive in our program now."

At Golden Eagle, foals are handled extensively at birth, brushed, and walked through a chute instead of a model trailer such as used at Valley Creek. Golden Eagle is expected to have a foal crop of about 130 this year.

"If we can get 90 percent of our foals imprinted, I'll be happy," said Quisenberry. "With the large number of foals that we deal with, it's hard. Some foals take more time than others, although eventually they submit."

While Quisenberry and Howard are convinced that imprinting works, most farms in the state that were contacted continue to practice more traditional methods of training the young horse. Often, foals are not handled much for about the first four months of their lives. Then, when they are weaned, they are exposed to objects such as trailers and clippers. In some cases, foals are not halter broken until weaning time either.

But Quisenberry and Howard both feel that once more people are exposed to imprint training, it will catch on.

"There's no question everyone will be doing it," said Quisenberry. "It's a positive program. We were more involved in last year's crop, and that proved to me that this works. Imprinting is a good tool."

Howard said that imprinting will help the backyard breeder as much as the commercial breeder.

"The guy that has his own mares, delivers his own foals, and does imprinting for the first couple of weeks can send his foal to a commercial farm and when he gets that foal back, he's still going to be able to handle it."

If imprinting is done correctly, Dr. Miller believes that the end result is a well-mannered, smarter horse that is not fearful of human contact.

"The biggest complaint I hear from horsemen is that imprinting is too time-consuming," Dr. Miller said. "And that's ridiculous. Imprinting is a time-saver. It makes learning later on so much easier."

"When 1 first started talking about imprinting. I thought I would have accomplished something if I could get Thoroughbred horsemen to accept it in my lifetime. Now with a prominent Thoroughbred farm like Golden Eagle using these methods, I think imprinting is on its way."

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