Re: RC: Re: Help with new baby!

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

Hi June!  Foals do go through stages where they
"apparently" unlearn everything you think they've
learned.  This is because when teaching horses we have a habit of
*assuming* that they are actually learning what we are intending to
teach.  This isn't always the case!  

I'm thinking that while you thought you were teaching the foal to be
haltered, at that stage in life the foal is actually simply accepting
what you're doing without actually truly *learning* anything.  I
guess what I'm saying is that at that stage a foal pretty much receives
the input of it's surroundings as a given, but can't really differentiate
between discrete events.  It's just all part of this new experience
called life.

Foals don't see well when they're born - it takes a few days for their
eyes to be able to focus properly.  The timing of your
"incident" is such that the newly focusing eyes delivering new
info, plus the chicken, plus falling over backwards and hitting it's
head, PLUS your being there with the halter, etc. added up to a situation
that in it's short life your foal had of course never before
experienced.   It was too much input in too short a time and
the equine reaction to something that is not understood to be absolutely
safe is to flee.  Suddenly in your foal's life this thing that had
been around since day one (you, the human) was no longer absolutely
safe.

I do not think that your foal needs to learn all that much about
haltering at this stage, but it does need to learn that you are a safe,
unthreatening being, that your handling the foal is safe and
unthreatening, and that equipment is safe and unthreatening.  Those
are three separate things to teach (not all at the same time!) and none
of this actually are addressed via imprinting.  Imprinting is
supposed to make being handled part of a foal's normal environment, kind
of like breathing, nursing, etc.  But I don't think imprinting truly
is a phenomenon of learning/becoming educated/engaging the higher brain,
any more than breathing, feeling the ground under it's feet, or swishing
a tail at flies is.  So in that sense, I don't think your foal
actually had *learned* about haltering when this all happened.

When teaching horses anything I firmly believe *the slower you go, the
faster you get there" (an original Lif-ism).   Break
everything you want to teach a foal/horse down into as many tiny steps as
you can, and then teach and make sure your horse has truly learned step A
before going on to step B, step C and on through all the steps. 
Don't try to go from A to Z in one gigantic leap!  

So - before worrying about haltering, go back to step A.  Teach the
foal *how* to learn from you before you start teaching your foal anything
else!  The first step in that lesson is going to be how to
differentiate you from the background noise of life, how to look at you
and *pay attention*, without fear.  Don't be rushed by feeling your
foal has to be haltered right away.  Keep in mind that you are
creating the foundation now for everything the foal will learn all it's
life.  Take your time now to do it right and down the line your
horse will learn things practically faster than you can teach it!

Lif Strand

Quemado NM  USA

              ______________________________________________________

                          STRAND ENTERPRISES www.fasterhorses.com

HERITAGE ENDURANCE RACE June 9, 2001 - http://www.fasterhorses.com/race.html

  Web Page Design * Computer Graphics * Internet Research * Fine Art

                Blue-Green Algae & other complementary health options