We studied experimentally whether horse dams influenced foals' relationships with humans. We investigated the influence of the establishment of positive human-mare relationships on foals' behaviour toward humans. Forty-one foals and their dams were involved in this experiment. Half of the mares were softly brushed and fed by hand during a short period (total of 1.25 h) during the first 5 days of their foals' lives (experimental group, n = 21). The other mares were not handled experimentally and their foals received no contact with the experimenter (control group, n = 20). The reactions of both experimental and control foals were recorded under various conditions, first, for 5 min in the presence of a motionless experimenter, when foals were 15 and 30-35 days old, then in an approach test when they were 15 days old and in a saddle-pad tolerance test when they were 30-35 days old. Finally, approach- stroking tests were performed successively by the familiar experimenter when foals were 11-13 months old and by an unfamiliar person when they were 13-15 months old. Several observations strongly suggest that mares can influence their foals' behaviour toward humans: (1) during the handling procedure, experimental foals of protective mares were further from the handler than foals of calm mares (p \textless 0.001); (2) experimental foals remained, at all ages, closer to the experimenter (p \textless 0.05) and initiated more physical contacts (sniffing, licking, etc.) with the experimenter (p \textless 0.05) than control foals; (3) avoidance and flight responses of experimental foals were considerably reduced during approaches by the experimenter (p \textless 0.01) and they accepted saddle-pads on their backs more easily (P \textless 0.01) and more quickly (p \textless 0.01) than control foals. Lastly, the consequences of handling mares had effects that lasted at least until foals were one year old (p \textless 0.05) and became generalized from experimenter to unfamiliar humans, who could approach and stroke experimental foals rapidly during a test (p \textless 0.05). This is the first report of an attempt to use observation of mother by foals to facilitate human-foal relationships, The procedure is simple, takes little time and can easily be applied to any dam-foal pair, as it is not intrusive and presents no risks of disrupting mare-foal bonds. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.