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Effects of imprint training procedure at birth on the reactions of foals at age six months
Author(s) -
WILLIAMS J. L.,
FRIEND T. H.,
COLLINS M. N.,
TOSCANO M. J.,
SISTOBURT A.,
NEVILL C. H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.2746/042516403776114126
Subject(s) - foal , medicine , initial training , training (meteorology) , physiology , biology , genetics , physics , meteorology , medical education
Summary Reasons for performing study : While imprint training procedures have been promoted in popular magazines, they have received limited scientific investigation. Objectives : To determine the effects of a neonatal imprint training procedure on 6‐month‐old foals and to determine if any one session had a greater effect than others. Methods : Foals (n = 131) were divided into the following treatments: no imprint training, imprint training at birth, 12, 24 and 48 h after birth orimprint training only at birth, 12, 24, 48, or 72 h after birth. Foals then received minimal human handling until they were tested at 6 months. Results : During training, time to complete exposure to the stimulus was significant for only 2 of 6 stimuli. Percentage change in baseline heart rate was significant for only 2 of 10 stimuli. These 4 effects were randomly spread across treatments. Conclusions : Neither the number of imprint training sessions (0, 1, or 4) nor the timing of imprint training sessions (none, birth, 12, 24, 48, or 72 h after birth) influenced the foal's behaviour at 6 months of age. Potential clinical relevance : In this study, imprint training did not result in better behaved, less reactive foals.