Study: Human interaction with foals a 'stessor'

[paisjpq]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Inmteresting French study about the handling of foals in earliest postnatal period... Will bring this up with Dr. Alldat on ATR today and am anxious for Pais' take...

FULL PIECE:
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle....&WT.mc_id=news

Human interaction with foals at a critical early developmental age appears to be a stressor, whereas positive human interaction with the dam creates a strong model for the observing foal, according to a series of ongoing research projects at the University of Rennes in northwestern France.

The team's new findings are raising questions about the 15-year-old desensitization technique of imprinting and the common practice of guided suckling...

I for one am more interested in what our resident expert has to say on the matter.