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 the outcome of this accident was good, the entire event was probably preventable.

The training of a foal should begin from his first day of life, not postponed until he is weaned. When people wait until the foal is older–even two to three months of age–often there is a fight, and someone is the loser, whether it be the human or the foal. Foals which have had little human contact or experience with handling have a very strong flight response. They still might regard humans as predators, and their instinct tells them to fight or flee.

You might be able to out-muscle a young foal, but in his struggle to get free, he often is the one injured. Most bad injuries are caused by foals rearing up and flipping over backward. This type of fall can lead to trauma of the head, neck, or extremities, with very serious consequences, such as blindness, brain damage, or fractures.

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