I took some new pictures of the foal today. The new filly is filling out and looking beautiful!
We wanted to do a post on how you imprint a new foal.
We don’t have any photos of imprinting on day 1 because it takes more than one person to imprint a foal. Thus, there were no hands to photograph!
There is much to say about imprinting so what I say in this post is only a small portion of what can and should be done for imprinting on Day 1. This is only a small snippet of information on what could be paragraphs and paragraphs. You also adapt imprinting based on your unique circumstances. Thus below is a basic, generic list of what you should do to imprint on Day 1
It’s very important to be aware of how your mare is reacting to your presence around her new foal. Imprinting can be very tricky if your mare is not mellow. Use good judgement. Some mares will become very protective and aggressive after foaling. Imprinting is not so important that you should risk getting hurt over. It is best to have someone hold the mare while you do the imprinting. Keeping the foal between you and the mare will help ease her anxiety.
When you imprint a foal, you continue each activity until the foal submits and accepts each activity.
1. You rub their face and head. Put on and remove the halter.
2. Rub the outside and even a little of the inside of the ears.
3. Rub the nostril and even put in a your finger and gently wiggle it.
4. Rub the foals upper lip and put a finger into their mouth.
5. Rub the foals neck from top to bottom and bend their muzzle around to their withers.
6. Rub and gently pat all parts of their shoulder, ribs, chest, and upper legs. Don’t rub the flank or the girth area when you would apply leg pressure when the foal is an adult being ridden. These areas need to remain sensitive to touch. Also, that is where the foal the mare nudges and nips him in those areas when the mare wants the foal to move.
7. Gently flex and extend the joints of the legs. Rub the bottom of the hoofs and tap their hoofs with a toe pick until they ignore the tapping.
These are the basic, generic steps of imprinting on Day 1 of when a mare foals.