--- In [email protected], "Janice McDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This report just came out today of a study in France. It shows > imprinting of foals can have a negative effect or no effect, whereas a > foal witnessing gentle handling of the dam in the foals presence has a > very positive effect.
Hello Janice, Thanks for forwarding this info. Awhile ago, I had found some similar studies using Icelandic foals. The following study Controlled Study of Early Handling and Training of Icelandic Foals by Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir1 and Víkingur Gunnarsson2 1Iceland University of Education showed similar results and refers to the Tellington Jones TTeam study: http://www3.vet.upenn.edu/labs/equinebehavior//hvnwkshp/hv02/sigurjon (1).htm "These results suggest that the 22 foals in the experiment did not learn significantly by being handled, haltered, and lead during the first 2 weeks of their life. Some foals had learned some of the tasks and appeared to retain compliance later, but due to high individual variation the overall differences between early handled and control were not significant. However, early handled foals were calmer and on average resisted less when tested 3 months later compared to control foals. When analysed in detail, it became clear that the difference is due to the effect the whole treatment had on foals whose dam's were in general easy to handle. This is not surprising and supports research and the common knowledge that it takes more time to work with more stressed horses (Fiske and Potter, 1979). Although we handled the foals in a gentler manner than recommended in Robert M. Miller's video they were nevertheless forced to lie down and restrained throughout the treatment. On the basis of our results we conclude that such a forced early handling should not to be recommended for Icelandic foals. That is because foals whose dams are difficult to handle do get stressed and they did not learn to lead. Also, the foals that had learned to be more relaxed would probably have learned that through gentler handling. Many trainers do in fact recommend early handling procedures that are more pleasing for the foals and which aim to form a bond between the foal and the trainer built on trust (Tellington-Jones, 1998; Líndal, 2001)." The University of Pennsylvania also has a research association with the Icelandic University of Education and there is a treasure trove of research on Icelandics at: http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/PennVeterinaryMedicine? q=icelandic+horse&domains=vet.upenn.edu&sitesearch=vet.upenn.edu You can also use the Google Scholastic search to find a more scientific articles on the Icelandic horses. http://scholar.google.com/schhp?sourceid=sch&subid=US-ET-scholarpss I have had a lot of recent sleepness nights so I have been doing some surfing. ;-) Regards, Pamela
