It is common for puppies to be socialized or even go to “puppy parties” that allow them to interact with other people and dogs, but rarely do we think about doing this with our horses when they are foals. Most people actually kind of forget about young horses while they wait for them to grow big enough to ride, but it is actually the most critical time in a horse’s life for training to occur.
The ideal socialization period is from the time of birth to about six months of age when they are the most curious. Socialization is best done at liberty within a social context, meaning the horse is not restricted in any way and is allowed to approach and retreat from the new stimuli as they please. With a confident adult horse present (usually the mother or a familiar gelding), the foal feels safe and is therefore more likely to engage in exploratory behavior as well as observe how the other members of their herd react to the same stimuli.
When working with foals, it is critically important to avoid flooding (see previous blog posts) because it will cause the foal to become afraid or shut down, even if the stimulus is something we deem shouldn’t be scary. Avoid the “Oh relax, you’ve seen it before” mentality.
Ideally, foals should live in a stable/paddock with a mix of other mare/foal pairs and geldings so that they learn how to communicate with other genders and ages. It is very important to allow young horses to meet various people in a positive and relaxed context, especially equine professionals (vet, farrier, massage therapist, etc) so that they begin to create a positive association with them and do not feel threatened when they immediately begin handling them during their first appointment. These humans can offer treats and scratches to build that association.
It is also common for adult horses to be afraid of livestock and dogs, so introducing them to as many other species as possible while they are foals can prevent them from having a negative reaction to these animals as adults. It can also be a good idea to take the foal on walks with a confident adult horse to experience other species while in protected contact (on the other side of a fence from these animals) so that they may investigate while they are unable to be harmed by the other animals. Vehicles can be particularly distressing as well considering how unnatural they look, sound, and smell. So driving/riding different cars, trucks, bikes, skateboards, etc around the foal while offering food and scratches to create the positive association will be beneficial to their future experiences.
When working with young horses, training based on positive reinforcement (rewards like food or scratches) creates a more cooperative partner, opposed to training through fear. First, a foal should be able to accept human touch all over the body without having a flight, fight, or freeze response. Once they are comfortable with this, they should begin to learn to hold their feet up and have the behavior reinforced through scratches. Handlers can slowly increase the duration the foal has its foot held up. When training a foal to lead, it should ideally be taught at liberty first – we can have them follow us for food rewards or target our hand for scratches before introducing negative reinforcement (pressure & release) with the halter and lead rope as a fall back option for safety purposes while being led outside of their stall/paddock.
Oftentimes, owners forget that young horses also need to learn how to do nothing. That’s right, they need to learn how to stand still without bombarding our personal space, biting, kicking, pawing, or rearing. We can reinforce the desired behavior by withholding rewards until the foal stands calmly, then scratches or food can be given to teach them what behavior we are looking for. This “default” behavior can be put on cue to help during other situations like being tied, standing for the vet or farrier, standing for grooming and saddling, etc.
If you’re not sure how to go about using rewards or are worried you might be flooding your horse, just ask your favorite positive reinforcement trainer for help 😉
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