Did you know that Buck I St Pat, an American representative in the upcoming Elitlopp in Sweden, wore harness and pulled a cart when she was one day old?
That’s right. Her breeder (and now co-owner) Dr. Ron Fuller of Newark, Ohio told me recently that he’s a big believer in imprinting foals from the moment of their birth. He became a true believer in the idea after hearing Dr. Robert M. Miller, a veterinarian from California, who has preached the gospel of imprint training from birth. And Fuller, also a veterinarian, saw enormous merit in what Dr. Miller said.
“When Buck I St Pat was just a day old, I put a little old harness on her and hooked her to a little goat cart,” he told me recently. “She followed her mother around that way. You know, a newborn foal will follow its lunch anywhere.”
He soon fitted her with a little bridle and bit.
“Horses are a lot easier to handle when they weigh 150 pounds than they are when they’re 850 pounds and have their front feet around your head,” explained Fuller.
Fuller continued to hook the baby trotting filly on a regular basis and then turned her over to his cousin Eric Nesselroad to break her. The trainer wanted to start the breaking process with her, but Fuller said that he should just hook her and take to the track.
“You can’t do that,” said Nesselroad.
Fuller insisted that he try and wasn’t surprised at all when Buck I St Pat went right off on the trot when she hit the track. The customary breaking process wasn’t necessary.
From his knowledge of imprint training, Fuller knew that the filly would remember what she’d done before and the filly broke without incident. He knows that imprinting training can’t make a horse faster, but it can teach them valuable lessons that they can carry with them into their racing careers.