For those of you who don't know, I have been a part of the Thoroughbred horse industry for 11 years now. Most of my experience - both studied and hands on - is in the foaling of mares. Even after have delivered and viewed over 1000 foals being born, it still astonishes me each and every time the patient and loving mares bring one of their young into the world. Not only have I been apart of foaling during the months of January to June, I have also had the luxury of being able to learn and grow with the foals I have delivered and been able to watch them turn into well accomplised and talented race horses.
Although it is exciting to be there while they are growing, I find that the most important time in a horses life is within the first few hours. Although a foals instincts are very strong when it first arrives in this world, those instincts are only good from a horse's point of view. The youngsters need to be taught how to adapt and deal with our world. There are so many things that a foal will have to experience early on in life - farrier, vet, shots, halter, leading, riding - and the best time to teach these young ones is as soon as possible, once they have had their first encounter with their mother, so that you are not having to teach them when they are too hard to handle. Later on, I will discuss the steps and behaviours needed to be used around foal imprinting. And, we use foal imprinting early on so that we aren't teaching a young horse (yearling or 2 year old) to lead, especially since at that age, we will be the ones with the weight disadvantage.
This has been a dream for me for some time now - making this world a little easier, less scary, for the little rascals. But then again, it's not only easier for them, but for handlers, owners, trainers and riders as well. Don't get me wrong, some farms and owners already have these lessons in practice, but for those who don't, I can change that and I want to help.
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