Young Horse Education

“We here at Cambridge Stud absolutely endorse the foal education programme with Leigh Wills. Last year we had 70 foals educated, and it has been of enormous benefit to us. We highly recommend for anyone breeding a foal this year to take advantage of this great service.”

Sir Patrick Hogan – Cambridge Stud.

We provide an exclusive Foal Education service to Cambridge Stud and their clients. The process used achieves a balance between allowing the foal and mare time to bond successfully, the optimum learning of the foal and the mare’s ovulation, with safety being the most important consideration. The foals are educated between three and five weeks of age. The goal for the five to eight days of education is for the foal to be confident around people, be haltered, taught to lead, pick up and balance its feet ready for the farrier.

The education is done over non-consecutive days. This gives the foal a greater chance of processing the information they are learning, allowing for latent learning and having less stress on the mare and foal.
A safe environment is initially used with non-slip floors and padded walls. The better your environment the easier it is on your mare, foal and trainer with less chance of injury.

During the sessions other environments are introduced so the foals can generalise their learning. Horses instinctively need to learn something in approximately five different locations so they realise that the behaviour you are asking happens in all situations.

The foal is always kept alongside the mare so less stress is put on both horses. As with any learning, the lower the mare and foal’s adrenaline is, the greater the capacity to learn.

Foals and horses are extremely fast learners within a narrow scope of intelligence. Each session is about building a foundation, and then training one behaviour on top of another.

Each session is assessed to determine how much information has been retained from the previous session. Ultimately the whole education process is about achieving acceptance and respect by the foal.

Foals are naturally into pressure. When you initially ask a horse to come forward off a rope it will go back into it. We need the foal to come forward off any pressure, so in the future it can be led, loaded, go in cross ties and tie-up in trucks.

When training we need to work on both sides of the horses evenly. Foals and horses generally only transfer 20% of information from one side of their brain to the other. So you could have a perfect horse on the left or near side and an unhandled horse on the right or off side.

Foals require handling from a very young age to have their feet trimmed, so the earlier this education can take place, the easier it is on the handlers as well as the foals. There is a difference between educating a foal to handle its feet and just getting a job done by manhandling the foal. Because of the foals size it is easy to manhandle it when it is young, but you will often find that the foals will then manhandle you when they are big enough.

There are many different thoughts on the best time to handle foals. There is Dr Robert Millers Imprint Training which is done immediately after birth. To some NZ studs handling foals after the Karaka Sales when some foals are up to five months of age. Each handler and stud have a way that works for them. To minimise risk, the earlier your foal can learn to accept people the safer it is for the foals. You also need your foal to learn to think through a process of learning so in the future it can make conscious decisions as to how it is going to react and behave.

Each foal is born with its own unique individual personality and the way they process information. A lot of this is genetic and when handling foals for the first time you get a true indication of their process of learning as their behaviour is purely instinctive. In your first training sessions with a foal you are training instinctive behaviour into trained behaviour. You will have some foals that will try to be as far away from you as possible, some that will stand off their mothers and confront you, some that will try and come into the pressure you create, and some that tend to accept new experiences.

Whatever the foal's way of processing information and dealing with new experiences, this will continue on throughout their lives.
A foal is born precocial; meaning when born it is capable of conscious thought and able to move, drink and fully survive, unlike us as babies. This is why imprint training can be done at birth and all training of the foals will be remembered for the rest of their lives. With a horse’s incredible memory, being second only to an elephant, any early training or experiences will be remembered for life whether they are perceived by the foal as good or bad. A horse has the same sized limbic system (emotional system) as ours, so horses have the capacity for the same emotional range as people.

The benefits of handling a foal in the first two months:

1. The foal learns a process of learning, and will continue to learn
2. There is less chance of injury to the foal when handled by people.
3. Often the mare is still at stud and the stud facilities can be used. The better the environment the less chance of injury.
4. The foal begins to work with people, to produce a confident, balanced horse.
5. If the foal is returning from the stud to an owner’s property, there is less chance of injury while traveling and the foal has already been handled when it returns home.
6. More information can be trained and absorbed while the foal is young, hence less on-going training at weaning time etc.
7. For studs less staff are required for ongoing handling of foals.

Notes to keep in mind when educating horses.

There are no rules with horses. Each horse is an individual.

Horses change constantly during your training and you must change with them.

Your intention is very important.

You need to know what you want, and reward any behaviour towards your goal.

Firstly think – is the horse physically capable of what you are asking? If not, do not ask the horse to learn the behaviour; otherwise you will set up neural pathway with a behaviour that you do not want, or the horse will block it out. Secondly, if he is capable, does he know what you want?
If not, train him to understand, otherwise he does not see benefit in what you are asking.

Another question to ask yourself before you commence a training session with your horse is: Is your horse in an instinctive state or in a trained or educated state?

If your horse is in an instinctive state, you need to observe your horse’s natural behaviour, and discover a way to work with your horses natural behaviour to create a trained behaviour. By doing this, you are setting up a neural pathway into your new educated state.

Horses are capable of conscious thought, so use their mind, not to control them, but to get them to work with you, and for you.

Once you have discovered a successful way to move your horse from an instinctive state into a trained state without bringing adrenalin up or inducing fear, you need to train the specific skills you require your horse to have, and then have the confidence to allow the horse to do it’s job.

Equus Education (NZ) Ltd. Email Us
PO Box 690, Cambridge Ph 027 437 8870 Fax (07) 823 5688,