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  Discussion on The Power of Imprinting
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Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2002 - 11:23 pm:

I got some good guidance from this site when I was anticipating the birth of my first foal, so I wanted to pay back a bit by recounting what I have learned this week about what a powerful tool imprinting can be.

I had read a great deal about imprinting, including Dr. Miller's book, and studied his video. I decided that I wanted to do a modified form of imprinting: I clearly understood Dr. Miller's warnings not to stop too soon - that it's important to continue with any procedure til you're well past the point of any flight reflax and the foal is totally relaxed. I felt that I would not probably be up to such an extensive routine as he practices but I also didn't really feel it was necessary - in my experience, if a horse is really trusting it will quickly accept new experiences such as fly spray, clippers, etc.

So, when my foal was born on April 5 - conveniently in the middle of the afternoon - I did pretty much as I had planned. I held her, towelled her dry, desensitized her legs, ears, muzzle, tail, etc. but then let her up to nurse. I did continue on handling her, pretty much every day, and she would let me sit down beside her when she was lying down, and would put her head in my lap to be stroked.

Then, this weekend, my 7-week-old filly had her first encounter with a barbed wire fence. She was frightened by some approaching ATVs and took flight directly into the path of the fence - we're in cattle country, so there's lots of it, but she hadn't seen one before. She turned her head at the last minute and miraculously was cut only on her right ear, but it left a big flap of flesh hanging loose (and blood spattering as she shook her little head.)

The vet came out, sedated her, and stitched it up really well. She said the biggest problem I'd have would be ear-shyness. She urged me to work at it slowly but warned that it could take a long time for her to get over this incident.

That was Sunday evening. Monday morning before breakfast I found her sleeping under a tree. I sat down next to her and she laid her head in my lap as usual. I stroked the good ear - no response; so I stroked the inside of the injured ear - no response. Then I ran my fingers over the stitches on the outside - not even a twitch.

As further proof, the day before the accident we had 3 visiting dogs, who she'd never met before. They came bounding up while she was lying in my lap: she lifted her head, touched noses with them, laid her head back down and sighed.

I am amazed at the "security blanket" that imprinting has provided for this little creature, and just wanted to share my experience.

Kathleen

Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2002 - 7:05 am:

Thanks for the great story Kathleen.
DrO
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