Predict the future personality of the foal

Those differences tend to fluctuate during the first months of life, but become stable after the weaning, around 8 months old. Therefore, realizing a test before the weaning (e.g. exposition to a novel object) will not predict reactions after weaning when this foal will face the same situation in the future.

Field observations highlighted important individual differences among foals of the same breed from 3-months of age, kept in the same conditions.
Important variations between foals have been noticed regarding the frequency of suckling and the distance from their dam.

Suckling activities and distances from their dam are mainly due to foals’ initiatives.
It seems that some foals need a stricter contact with their mother to reassure themselves. This could reflect a general level of reactivity to environment.

Recently, scientists found that foals suckling or trying to suckle more frequently than their peers at 4-5 months of age are more likely to develop oral stereotypies before and after weaning.

In order to identify precursor signs of adult temperament, a study was performed on 32   “Selle français” foals, living in the same environment: observations (time budget measures, evaluation of relationship with dam) of those foals were performed at 3 months of age; foals were kept on pasture with their mothers and other mare-foal pairs. Then, 3 years later, these foals were submitted to 3 experimental tests, commonly performed to assess horse temperament:

• Separation from congeners (gregariousness)
• Novel object (neophobia / nervosity)
• Instrumental task (learning abilities)

Social isolation

The horse is placed alone, in a familiar arena for 10 minutes. This test is a good predictor of gregariousness.
In this test, horses are described by professionals as gregarious and difficult to separate from the others.

New Object

The horse is placed for 5 minutes in a familiar arena where an unfamiliar object has been placed. (The object is a 100 x 80 x 80 cm cage surrounded by a bright red and white ribbon).
This test is a good predictor of horses nervosity during ridden activities.

Box opening

In this test, the horse must learn itself how to lift the lid of a box to reach the food inside during 3 trials of 3 minutes each. This test is a good predictor of horse abilities to learn new exercises during working.

Follow-up of the same animals from 3 months to 3 years of age showed that early individual differences allowed to predict some adult behavioral characteristics. Indeed, it was possible to identify correlations between behaviors of 3-month foals and their emotivity as adults (table below).
Thus, foals that were often far from their mothers at 3-months of age were less emotional and less gregarious once they were adult.
On the other hand, foals that spent a lot of time suckling and close to their mothers generally become adults that are more nervous and more gregarious and had lower learning abilities.
Obviously, there is a genetic influence in these trends, since half-brother foals (same father) tend to behave in a more similar way than unrelated ones.

Therefore, it seems possible to predict some personality traits from the youngest age. Breeding practices and handling of the young horses can be adjusted considering those individual differences. Similarly, the impact of sire on the mother-foal relationship and the y emotivity of offspring should be taken into consideration in reproduction programs.