Horse Welfare, Laterality, Hair Whorls & Cognitive Bias-Early Experience: Training the Foal to Accept Handling is the First

In part 3 of this series, I spelled out the Horse Behaviorist UT mantra— “first experiences are critical to forming future responses.” In this post, you’ll learn there’s no comparison to the contemporary practice of halter training between what I do and every trainer I know or have read about. Anyone with experience or who has witnessed the process understands it’s often a long and torturous fight for most foals, especially those with high cowlicks. The “Old School” approach to halter training is often called “halter breaking.” I always hated that term as it implies willful disobedience instead of the truth of why the foals resist so much; fear is the only reason. Even horses with low cowlicks fear new things, but they fear it less intensely. If you search Youtube for “Halter Breaking Foals,” you’ll find several videos of foals resisting the force techniques at different degrees. Some videos are subtle but selectively edited; others show outright muggings. One is downright deceitful and made by one of the most popular clinicians with the initials MR. He starts by showing the mare and foal in a round pen as he discusses his philosophy, then “poof” the little foal has a halter on.

I don’t want to sound self-righteous here because I’ve done the same things before learning my New School approach. Some ask why I don’t do a video, and I tell them because it would consist of twenty or thirty 30-second to one-minute clips. It would look more like selective video editing than any other.

My practice of halter training is not a singular event but various events practiced for only minutes at a time over weeks or sometimes a month. It begins with the first touch after the foal has made a voluntary approach to me and learns to accept my presence in the company of its mother. When the foal watches as its mother gets attention from me as I give her carrots and groom her, it soon learns to want the same for itself. They seek attention and affection from their mother, so why not from me too? The approach behaviors in the left hemisphere include finding food, safety, playmates, and social companionship from the herd. Although they always choose other horses first, companionship from humans as surrogate herd mates is reinforced when they begin to eat solid food and see us as providers, especially when the food is sweet. In Chapter 7, Genetics and Horse Behavior (Equus caballus), Temple Grandin wrote that horses raised by me “actively seek tactile contact by humans.” She noted that my horses walk up to people on the pasture and present their bellies or rear end for scratching, even towards unfamiliar people. The behavior includes the yearlings and the older mares. Citing Lesley J. Rogers again in, Relevance of brain and behavioural lateralization to animal welfare (2010) Applied Animal Behaviour Science, V. 122, she states, “The welfare of domestic animals may be enhanced by ensuring the development of left hemisphere dominance and by shifting right to left hemisphere dominance in animals with negative cognitive bias. Taming Bob (left cowlick-left brain dominance) was accomplished by enhancing her existing left brain dominance, whereas my righty Sam’s right brain dominance involved switching her to the left. I didn’t think of it in these terms then; I just learned to spend more time scratching Sam from her right and the left side with Bob. You can imagine my surprise when I read and understood Dr. Rogers’s research ten years later.

Training Foals to Accept Handling

The neonatal handling procedure help reduces stress in foals at weaning time by developing a robust human-foal relationship. The procedure begins very early and continues throughout the time the foal is with its dam. I handle the foal three or four times a week in the mare’s presence and only for a few moments each time. All areas of the body are touched, including the legs and feet. By never using force and allowing the foal to initiate contact, the foal perceives the handling positively. Teaching the foal to accept a halter begins before I halter the foal for the first time. As part of his weekly handling, each time, I put my arm over the foal’s neck for a moment and gently pull it against his body in a “hug-like” position. The position is the same as when putting a halter on from the horse’s side and reaching over the neck. If the foal resists, I let it go. Each time I do this, the foal is more likely to accept it when there is no force. I use a calm, soothing voice and firm but gentle pressure to hold the foal during this process. If the foal has a left-side cowlick, my right arm goes over the neck, and my left hand is free. With a right cowlick foal, I reverse the process and stand on the opposite side. During the hug, I put my free hand on the bridge of the nose, moving it up and down the face. I also place my free hand around and behind the ears. These movements simulate the movements of fitting a halter.

I hold the foal longer after several short hugs over a few days. Soon, the foal completely accepts gentle restraint (hugs) without showing any signs of fear. Fear is evident if the foal suddenly raises its head, tightens its muscles, or widens its eyes. However, and predictably, the foal may try to pull away at some point, not because of fear but because it wants to do something else. Pay close attention to what I’m about to say, “once the foal gets over its fear of all the things you do, its instinct for self-gratification takes over, and resistance begins to be shaped by that attitude.” This attitude, and only this attitude, is when the word stubborn applies.

When that happens, I hold more firmly, for only a few seconds at first and then for a few minutes. By doing this, the foal learns that “I,” and I mean “I,” set the limits of its behavior, as its mother would, and my mother did to me. If I see any signs of fear, I let go. Doing this helps foal predict what is happening and gives it a feeling that it has some control over the situation. Habituation to gentle restraint occurs when you learn to recognize the difference between fear and self-gratification and treat each accordingly and immediately. The cognitive bias shifts must be understood and managed correctly to prevent a foal from becoming afraid of you or seeing you as a pushover with no say-so in how it behaves.

Remember to FOLLOW my page for the next lesson that involves putting the halter on for the first time.