A Salute to Imprint Training
I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized that our 2007 filly, Tiffany, would be 3 months old. "Better get halter-training back on to her schedule," I said to Ed (horse-husband extraordinaire). "It'll be time to wean her before we know it, and we'll want her to have more 'handle' on her when it's time." Shortly after birth, as part of the imprint-training process, I'd haltered her and taught her to yield to pressure on her face. I repeated all when she was a day old. But since then, she'd been out in the pasture with her mom and other horses, just hangin' out and being a horse-kid. I wondered how much rodeo we'd be in for when I got filly and dam into the barn last night.
Rodeo? No way. The whole episode was basically a non-event. I crooked an arm around the filly's neck, slipped on the halter, and applied lead-rope pressure to say "come left." And that's exactly what she did. Same thing going to the right. No fuss, no fight--she remembered her imprint lessons. Encouraged, I reached down and picked up and held a front foot, as I'd done when she was just minutes old. She didn't care--not about that foot, nor about the other three when I reached for them. Next, I sacked her out with a towel. Ditto on response. There really wasn't one, because she already knew not to be afraid.
Tiffany is the third foal I've imprint-trained at birth, and they've all been pretty much like her about these necessary matters.
My salute to Dr. Robert Miller, DVM, who pioneered the whole imprint-training concept for horses. He helped revolutionize the way young horses get their starts in domesticated life.
Pretty great.
posted by Juli Thorson @ 11:36 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Juli - Dr. Miller was a true visionary and has saved so many horses from trauma and anxiety when his methods are used. My little gelding was imprinted at birth and it really shows. He's still green, but I can do things with him that would be a serious issue with others. He's a joy to handle and be around. He still has plenty of personality and lets his feelings show, but he does know what the rules are and that is fine with him. I can't tell you want a great investment in a foal's life this method is. If everybody used this on their new-borns, handling issues could be a thing of the past for all horses. How did you get your husband to become a horse-husband?
I don't know how I got my husband to be a horse-husband--he never even had a housepet with fur before we met. But he took to horses right away, even though he'd never had any big desire beforehand to be around them.
Boy, now you have me started...thinking about how the late, great Ace was the first horse Ed ever knew, first horse he ever rode, only horse he ever rode in a show...and the first horse he ever had to bury, too.
Lots o' memories there...and maybe a column topic, too.
--Juli
The filly I got, we didnt start tranin her until about a month or so ago and she was born last august!!! I fell so dumb about it to.
But congrats on Tiffany!!!:D
I love imprinting too. I think it makes things so much easier for the horse.
I have had some foals I wanted to be stallions as adults and imprinting sure gets that whole thing off on the right hoof.
It's a good thing that Dr.Miller published his book(s) on 'Imprint Training', otherwise I suspect many horse owners still would have no clue...
but I was 'imprinting' foals long before anyone heard of Dr. Miller and/or Imprint Training...and, if you think about it, what is Imprinting...it is simply using common sense, horse sense...even a non horse person should understand the concept...as with any creature with four legs, the more you have contact with it, the more it will accept you and your touch.
A few decades ago I worked on a Thoroughbred breeding farm and the first bunch of babies I had to deal with were like wild horses. Everything we had to do with these youngsters was a fight and some of them were dangerous to be around...simple common sense ruled the next crop of foals born...every one was handled from the minute it hit the ground...I did just about all the same things Dr.Miller made popular years later...and the foals were a joy...even when it came time for de-worming, which way back then was done by a vet via a tube, the babies were all wonderful to deal with.
Imprinting is simply common sense.
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