>>> 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
Thanks for sending these studies in, Pamela. The above link wrapped in my e-mail, so here's a condensed link: http://tinyurl.com/2jzx7t Here's the part that surprised me about this particular study: in the introduction to the study, one of three paragraphs talks about Dr. Miller and his method. It's as if the point of the study is to disprove Dr. Miller's methods - not to talk about what DOES work. Since I've never been a huge fan of imprinting - just based on my intuition, not on actual experience - that limits the usefulness of what this study shows. Personally, and this is just me, I'm not so concerned with reading studies about what isn't effective - I'm interested in figuring out what are the BEST ways to handle foals what will grow up to be riding horses/personal partners. There are a couple of real surprises nonetheless in this study. "Subjects. Twenty-two foals, 10 colts and 12 fillies, from Holaskóli (Holar Agricultural College) and 3 farms in Skagafjördur, Iceland, were treated 4 times. In the control group there were equal number of foals from the same farms, 9 colts and 13 fillies. All the mares and the foals were kept in fields close to the farms with many other horses. During the treatments and the tests the dam was caught in an enclosure and taken under halter to a barn with the foal following. The mare was kept standing close to the foal (1-3 m) and attended to (given silage /stroked) if it was stressed." Well, ok... the mares are "caught into an enclosure" and "attended to if it was stressed." (I always notice that horses in Iceland are called "it" not she or he.) That certainly implies that at least some of the mares aren't particularly happy about cooperating. Would you expect the foals to be positively affected if their dams are nervous and worried? I wouldn't. Here's the next thing that caught my attention: "Temperament of the dams. The owners of the mares answered a questionnaire rating on the scale 1- 3 or 4 each of the following: ease of training, ease of handling, ease of approach, and general level of nervousness." Then, under "results": " Also, in the experimental group, the strength of foal resistance to handling was correlated with the temperament scores of the dam in 3 of the 4 attributes tested (ease of training: r = - 0.510, p<0.02; ease of handling: r = -0.556, p<0.01; general level of nervousness: r = 0.483, p<0.03). In the control group, no significant correlations were found in comparable tests." Then, under "discussion: "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)." So, what does that tell us? Are they assuming that "temperament" is usually genetic? Or, do they miss the conclusion that is in the study that Janice submitted, that the interaction of the dam to humans is a huge part of the equation? I find this lack of clarity disturbing because I'm thinking about Angie as I read this. She was called "difficult to train", but that is not at all what I'm finding with her. She was never given any reason to trust people, but now that she's trusting, she's showing that she can learn extremely quickly. I never saw her with her foals, but I was told that her mom was also "difficult to train." I suspect that Angie is the product of a mare like herself - one who was never given any reason to trust humans...and the cycle continued. I will never breed her again unless I'm sure that I've broken that cycle. Unless we know WHY the horse is "difficult to train", that's a useless description. Is the horse difficult to train because the trainer lacks experience, or is unaware how to read the horse's body language? Is the horse inbred, or was the horse born via a difficult delivery, where he/she might have had a restriction of oxygen to the brain for a period? Or because no one bothered to address the fear issues lingering with the horse from past experiences...? After having some of the horses here who were supposedly "problem" horses, never again will I lightly trust anyone's assessment that a horse is "difficult to train." Here's another real eye-opener about this study: "Test. Between the 10th and the 13th of October 2000 all handled and control foals were tested by the same person (experimenter) who had not been involved in the treatments in the spring and remained blind to group assignments. An assistant helped." The part that really surprised me was that only one experimenter was used. ONE. So...all of the conclusions were drawn by how ONE person interpreted Dr. Miller's methods, and only with 22 foals -that's not a lot of data. Suppose the experimenter totally misinterpreted how to carry out Dr. Miller's methods - then this whole study would be void. And I KNOW that happens. It's why I don't have much respect for Clinton Anderson - the very first time I saw him on RFD-TV, he was terrorizing a foal, supposedly imprinting him. I'm not convinced that imprinting is of real value anyway, but I'd bet that doing it as I saw Clinton Anderson do it would do more harm than good. I still don't plan to literally imprint my foals that are due in a couple of months, but I didn't find this study useful - not for the way that I handle and treat my horses. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.20/1261 - Release Date: 2/5/2008 8:57 PM
