Lauren Fraser Equine Behaviourist

18/07/2025

PAWING IN HORSES: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

Pawing is a common complaint of horse owners. It can happen in a variety of situations, but when it affects people, it is usually only happening for a few reasons.

Thanks to My New Horse for the opportunity to discuss this topic.

Wondering why does my horse paw? Learn what this behavior means and how to address pawing in horses safely and effectively.

19/06/2025

HORSE AFRAID OF INJECTIONS? MY EFFECTIVE APPROACH COMES WITH SIDE EFFECTS

When helping owners whose horses have serious behaviour problems, like needle phobias, people need to know that my approach to solving these problems comes with some very real side effects.

In addition to helping the horse be comfortable with IV or IM injections, clients may notice the following in their horse:

-Easier to catch for training sessions
-Less anxiety or spookiness in daily life
-Better recovery after exposure to life's stressors
-Improved behaviour during handling or husbandry
-Faster learning and increased ability to remember what was taught
-Increased friendliness and willingness to engage

Most horse training and behaviour change techniques come with side effects. This is because it's almost impossible to overcome problems or teach a horse something new without also affecting how that horse feels during the process. These feelings will affect the horse outside of training sessions as well and directly impact the relationship the horse has with people.

Pleasant side effects - for you and your horse - are a guaranteed part of my training process.

11/06/2025

MY APPROACH TO TRAINING HORSES AND CHANGING BEHAVIOUR

As a clinical animal behaviourist and horse trainer, my approach when working with clients is one of harm reduction. I believe in meeting people where they’re at, and working together to help their horse be happier, while minimizing any harm the horse may currently be experiencing.

This harm could be as a result of things like underlying pain or medical conditions, management practises that aren’t allowing the horse’s needs to be met, or even training techniques.

By reducing harm, we undoubtedly improve the horses welfare. In addition, as a pleasant side , I feel that by taking a harm reduction approach as a professional, I can better effect positive behaviour change in my industry.

20/05/2025

OUR MORAL & PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATION TO NOT WORSEN HORSE BEHAVIOUR

I’m frequently the ‘last resort’ for horses with behaviour problems. When I see a new client, they’ve often been to several other equine professionals, including trainers, without success.

In most cases, the horse’s behaviour has also worsened after these interventions. The horse who pulled their leg away from the farrier now rears and can’t be touched. The horse anxious about loading now rips the lead out of the owner’s hands and runs away when led towards the trailer. The horse who bolted on the lunge line now comes off the circle and attacks the handler. The horse who wouldn’t stand still at the mounting block now explodes and bucks hard.

The reason these problems worsened is that techniques were used to try and suppress the behaviour: the horse who pulled their leg away from the farrier was aggressively backed up every time they did so; the horse anxious about loading was hit with a whip every time they balked; the horse who bolted on the lunge had a chain put over their nose, and they were je**ed when they bolted; the horse who wouldn’t stand still was worked hard when they fidgeted and allowed to ‘rest’ next to the mounting block while the person tried to mount again. The horses all learned that trying to escape the source of things that caused them fear or pain wasn’t effective, so they had to try harder. They reared. They ripped the leadrope out of hands. They attacked, or exploded.

In every instance, this worsened behaviour made it more dangerous for others who followed to handle the horse – whether that was the horse’s owner, or the next professional hired to try and address the problem. This is because suppressed behaviour isn’t changed behaviour. You can make an unwanted behaviour appear to ‘stop’ by making the consequences for performing the behaviour much worse for the horse. But, you won’t have addressed why the behaviour was happening. You won’t have eased pain, or removed fear. In the same way you can make a beach ball temporarily ‘disappear’ by pushing it forcefully underwater, if you don’t address the reason why the horse's behaviour is happening, it will once again pop up – but with more intensity.

Our industry (horse training) is unregulated, which I have mixed feelings about. But one of the clear downsides of a lack of regulation is that anyone can hang out their shingle, without knowing about things like the effect of behaviour suppression, making it more dangerous for the next professional. The actions we take as trainers don’t just impact the horse in front of us, they also impact people. If we know that we can make horses safer for others to handle in the future, by choosing appropriate training techniques, don’t we morally have this obligation?

It’s certainly food for thought.

12/03/2025

WHY DO HORSES PIN THEIR EARS?

A horse may lay their ears flat back along their head for several reasons. Why horses do this, and how best to respond is covered in this latest article for My New Horse.

If you struggle with this behaviour with your horse, help is available.

Learn what a horse with pinned ears might be trying to tell you so you can take steps to stay safe and address the root cause.

07/02/2025

LEARN ENOUGH SO YOU CAN ADVOCATE FOR YOUR HORSE

If my clients could give other horse owners one piece of advice (sadly learned in hindsight) it would likely be this: behaviour problems, like fear of the farrier, can be created in the blink of an eye.

But when you understand how to recognize signs of fear, anxiety and stress, and you know how to respond when you see them, you can greatly minimize the chances your horse ever develops these types of problems in the first place.

My philosophy with clients is to give them the skills not only to be able to solve current problems they face but to be able to prevent or resolve future problems on their own, as well.

05/02/2025

EFFECT OF HOUSING TYPE ON HORSE HEALTH

Horses are frequently housed alone. This may be done in an effort to keep the horse safer and more healthy. But are horses who are housed alone less likely to be sick or injured?

A field study looking at health issues of managed horses found that those housed in open barn groups showed fewer incidences of colic and lameness compared to stalled, isolated horses. While horses housed in open barns had an increased incidence of wounds, the wounds were minor enough to not interfere with the horses ability to work. You can read more here:

https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/evj.14054

27/01/2025

BLINDFOLDING HORSES TO GET THEM TO SAFETY?

Despite what Hollywood - and anecdotal evidence - says, a recent MS thesis study has shown that blindfolding horses may not be the best way to get them out of a burning building or into a trailer in an emergency.

In general, the blindfolded horses in the study required more time and greater lead rope pressure when handled: being haltered, blindfolded, and led from a familiar stall. The horses also showed more behaviours consistent with avoidance, or active refusal.

These findings suggest that in emergency situations, blindfolding is likely to increase the time needed to move or handle horses, and make them more dangerous to handle too. This could be in part because when horses are blindfolded, their vestibular and proprioceptive systems (how they balance and orient themselves in their environment) have to work much harder. The horse will struggle to find and maintain their balance, which is frightening - even for an animal in a calm situation.

You can read the full 2024 study 'Compliance or confusion? The usefulness of blindfolding horses as a handling technique' here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159124000285

26/01/2025

HERD BOUND HORSES 101

Herd bound is a term used to describe horses who become distressed when asked to leave other horses or when they are left by horses. They may call, sweat, run the fence line, weave, paw, or even hurt themselves breaking through fences or pulling back when tied, and so on.

It's important to understand a few things when dealing with the horse who behaves this way. The most important thing is that it's normal. It is normal for horses to get stressed when separated from other horses. Horses have evolved to live in groups, and outside of when a mare gives birth to a foal, healthy horses choose to be with others.

But when we humans want to do things with horses, this normal behaviour can become a problem. When horses are not sympathetically and progressively taught to deal with temporary social isolation, they will become distressed when separated from others.

Other factors such as certain weaning practices, particularly premature weaning at 4-6 months of age, and a lack of early and appropriate socialization experiences can profoundly affect how a horse will behave when separated from others. Traumatic events or lack of socialization can greatly worsen normal distress over separation. It can also make it much more challenging for horses who have experienced such trauma to ever be comfortable with temporary separation.

When helping horses overcome this distress it's critical that owners understand what to look for and how to respond. For example, during retraining, horses should show ‘attention without tension’; they should be aware of what's happening but should never be distressed. Also, the use of functional reinforcers – the very thing the horse is trying to gain by behaving this way - can be helpful.

Horse behaviour professionals do not recommend techniques such as flooding, which is fear-triggering full exposure to the thing the horse fears--in this case separation from others. Not only is it unnecessary to solve the problem, but it causes the horse great distress, makes it much harder for them to learn, and can even create new problems.

17/01/2025

SCARED HORSES ARE PRETTY HORSES

My friend Katie and I share a love of horses, good discussions, and, as you'll come to learn, photo opportunities.

A while back, my old cattle dog, Fiver, needed to wear a 'cone of shame' after having surgery. Not thinking too much about it, I let Fiver out to come up to the arena with me. Fiver wandered off while I caught my mare Viveza. As you may have guessed by the picture with this post, Fiver wandered back into view just as I was bringing Viveza into the arena.

Viveza, to the best of my knowledge, had never previously seen a dog wearing a bucket collar, and she viewed this new beast as a potential threat. Her sympathetic nervous system, the 'flight or fight' response, was triggered, preparing her body to escape what her brain had just determined to be a potentially dangerous situation:

• adrenaline was released, increasing blood flow and nutrients to her muscles so that she could flee or fight as needed
• her pupils dilated to allow more light to enter her eye, so she could better see the threat
• her heart rate and breathing increased, better allowing for the delivery of energy and oxygen to her body during this encounter
• the unpleasant emotion of fear was triggered, causing her only to be concerned with getting away safely

While we couldn't see the physiological changes occurring inside Viveza's body, we could see changes in her body language. Her muscles became taught, she stood squarely, her neck arched, her head elevated, and her gaze fixed on the dog.

I managed the situation (I had accidentally created) as best as I could, getting Fiver in a building to minimize the chances Viveza suffered either a physical or behavioural injury.

After the metaphoric dust had settled, Katie and I looked at the picture she had snapped right as Viveza saw Fiver. One of us said something we have discussed previously, 'scared horses are pretty horses'. This wasn't meant to minimize the fear Viveza felt, nor do we think frightened horses are prettier than calm horses. Rather, we have talked previously at length about images shared on social media where the person sharing feels the image shows a 'pretty' horse--but all we can see are the signs of stress or fear.

Images of stressed or frightened 'pretty' horses aren't a new, social media phenomenon. Wander around a city, and you’ll see a statue of a long-dead general on a stressed horse. Visit a museum, and view centuries-old artistic depictions of frightened horses. For hundreds of years, people have been desensitized to images of stressed or frightened horses. It's totally normal, and accepted, for stressed horses to be seen as pretty.

When we learn more about horse behaviour and begin to train our eye to recognize signs of fear or stress, such images begin to lose their pretty status. And that's OK.