I want to share with you my way of getting a foal comfortable with humans. I don't believe in imprint training (meaning handling the foal right after birth) for several reasons; one of them being that it's not the most effective. Studies, both official and my own, has shown that the best way to get a foal confident with people is to kiss up to mommy and let the her show the foal that people are great. Being willing to wait just a little bit is a fantastic shortcut!

If you have a foal that is older than what I have described here, there is nothing wrong with doing this later. It will still work :)

Following the birth we simply put the mare and foal in the garden, and then we spend as much time in there as possible. We shower the mare with scratches and treats and otherwise mind our own business. It's a great opportunity to having people over for coffee and enjoying the fact that we really shouldn't be doing anything else… the mess in the house and other tedious tasks has to be put on hold… for once there is no guilt in just sitting in the garden enjoying the sun and watching the horses.

The other horses are kept in the paddock next to the garden so the mare can have the comfort of them near, but not having to fend them off her foal. Meanwhile she is just loving the grass, the sun and our attention :)
The clip below is from the foals 3rd day.


The first couple of days we spend as much time out there as possible (it is so nice to be there ;) ) and in the following days we just go out there for a few minutes several times a day, but we don't have to be there for many hours. Unless we want to, of course (the excuse for not doing any household chores still applies…)

The foal gets used to us being there, it becomes, to him, a natural part of the environment. From time to time he/she comes over to us to check out our stuff and us, and at first we pretend that we don't see him there at all. In the very beginning we freeze up like a statue when he's close and this gives him confidence to investigate. When he is more comfortable we "stay alive" but still make NO attempt to touch him.

This "freezing up like a statue" is what I have seen horses do with foals to gain their trust. This is shown very clearly in the next clip where our stallion is meeting his young son for the very first time.


As the foal gets bolder it is time for us to interact with him, and the moment pretty much shows itself. It's when the foal gets overly confident and tries to climb on us and eagerly investigates if our bodily extensions can be taken off or not. At that time we just block him a little, gently pushing him off, but not chasing him away. This gets him comfortable with our touch very quickly. The first few times he might get a bit worried and run away, but by this time he is so curious and confident being around us that he quickly comes back, and soon he stays with us even when we touch him. This is the time to pull out the "secret weapon"… the finger-nails ;)

We start by scratching him on the withers and (this never fails) the foal gets super-happy over this great feeling; from that point on we can touch him without problem. We still don't approach the foal, but let him/her come to us. Usually the foals will come running for scratches already the day after the first careful touch.

The following clip is filmed when the foal is 8 days old. The first scratch was two days before. The foal had found a piece of plastic that he loved to play with ,and he is becoming a brave and trusting guy. The only training/ handling done with him is what I described here.


After this it's time to let him and his mom back with the other horses; the time for that is right when the mare is not protective of her foal towards the other horses; she lets us know when she is ready. But that's another story.