Effects of imprint training procedure at birth on the reactions of foals at age six months.
BACKGROUND
While imprint training procedures have been promoted in popular magazines, they have received limited scientific investigation.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of a neonatal imprint training procedure on 6-month-old foals and to determine if any one session had a greater effect than others.


METHODS
Foals (n = 131) were divided into the following treatments: no imprint training, imprint training at birth, 12, 24 and 48 h after birth or imprint training only at birth, 12, 24, 48, or 72 h after birth. Foals then received minimal human handling until they were tested at 6 months.


RESULTS
During training, time to complete exposure to the stimulus was significant for only 2 of 6 stimuli. Percentage change in baseline heart rate was significant for only 2 of 10 stimuli. These 4 effects were randomly spread across treatments.


CONCLUSIONS
Neither the number of imprint training sessions (0, 1, or 4) nor the timing of imprint training sessions (none, birth, 12, 24, 48, or 72 h after birth) influenced the foal's behaviour at 6 months of age.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, imprint training did not result in better behaved, less reactive foals.
Williams
J L
JL
Department of Animal Science, 2471 TAMUS, Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77845-2471, USA.
Friend
T H
TH
Collins
M N
MN
Toscano
M J
MJ
Sisto-Burt
A
A
Nevill
C H
CH
D000367:Age Factors; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D006736:Horses / Q000523:psychology*; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D007173:Imprinting, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D012951:Socialization; D013997:Time Factors