New studies challenge the idea that imprinting is beneficial to the foal. Studies in France, published in Developmental Psychobiology and the Journal of Comparative Psychology, examined the idea that imprinting is beneficial to foals.
In a recent pair of studies by a team at France’s Université de Rennes, led by Séverine Henry, PhD, Professor of Animal Behaviour, researchers reached the conclusion that foal imprinting does significantly more harm than good.
The studies found that foals handled using “imprinting” techniques during the first hour after birth were more suspicious of approaching humans and tended to hide behind their dams more than the foals in a control group that had not been handled. This difference in behavior continued to be evident even at several months of age.
The imprinted foals were also less social with other foals, and less likely to explore their surroundings or stray from their mothers, even at six months of age.
Henry explains that, though we equate frequent physical contact with good parenting, horses in fact show affection differently from humans and other domestic animals — but in common with many other hooved animals. Physical interaction is much less a part of their bonding process than we generally assume.
Suckling aside, mares lick their offspring only occasionally. Newborn foals are licked by their dams for an average of 30 minutes or less during the first four hours after birth. In more mature animals, mutual grooming takes up only two to three per cent of a horse’s time, and normally is restricted to the neck and withers. Even when horses sniff each other, direct skin contact is not common.
Given that, it’s a little less surprising that horses might perceive the human contact with foals during the imprinting process as unnatural and unwanted by both the mare and foal.
Over the years many breeders have believed that getting a foal used to human contact within a short time after birth would be of benefit to both foal and human.
In the early 1990s, a California veterinarian, Robert M. Miller, DVM, dubbed the practice of handling foals “imprinting,” after the process by which some birds and mammals fixate on the first living thing they see after birth, attach to it, and, in some cases, mimic it's behavior.
The theory behind imprinting has been that during a certain time frame known as the “critical learning period,” a young animal’s brain is highly receptive to certain types of auditory and visual stimuli.
Miller noticed that foals handled during difficult deliveries seemed later to be less afraid of him and more receptive to handling. Believing that this technique could be used with all new foals, he developed a behaviour shaping technique.
This new French study raises questions about a process that many horse owners have come to believe in as they work with their new foals. Perhaps additional controlled studies will solve this dilemma about whether or not "imprinting" is good for the foal and the human.