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What can you do to help prevent injury not only to yourself, but to the foal? In this article, we will discuss some methods used to teach foals to lead without the fight, how to restrain foals in a safe manner, and handling newborn foals in order to have them be more willing to accept human contact in the future, otherwise known as imprint training.
This scenario is all too familiar to veterinarians; it seems like I hear it at least once a year: “I decided today would be a good day to teach my foal how to lead. We had just weaned her a few days ago, so we led her out of the stall, and she just started pulling back on the lead rope. I thought I could out-muscle her, but then she just went straight up in the air and fell over. We thought she was okay at first, but after a few minutes we realized she couldn’t get up…” That foal suffered a humeral fracture, which was repaired successfully, although major surgery and expense was required. While th
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Christina S. Cable, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, owns Early Winter Equine in Lansing, New York. The practice focuses on primary care of mares and foals and performance horse problems.
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