Click Clop - Equine Behaviour Consultant

16/08/2024

Last year I wrote a post about how Photoshop and photo editing was prevelant in equestrian media to hide unwanted behaviours. This is still incredibly common and recently demonstrated, to a lesser degree than many of my examples in this post, in Horse and Hounds latest magazine front page. Be aware of photographs hiding things, videos at this current moment in time are a true demonstration of the horses behaviour and therefore their welfare. Photos are snapshots in time that can easily be faked. Be cautious of pictures not telling the whole story, from both ends of the spectrum.
https://www.clickclop-equinebehaviour.com/post/editing-photos-are-we-hiding-our-horses-expressions

16/08/2024

You have probably seen a lot of posts recently about “blue tongue” since the recent report of Blue tongue from the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet and further investigation from the FEI into the Olympics. Blue tongue occurs when the horse’s tongue is deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time. During dressage this happens when noseband pressure is high and the force from the rider's hand to the bit is strong. Members of the FEI council that reviewed footage from the Olympics found numerous instances of blue tongue which they stated can cause "pain or unnecessary discomfort". Åkerström, the chief veterinarian for the FEI, stated that the presence of blue tongue was unacceptable in reference to Patrik Kittel’s horse Touchdown during the Olympics and the World Cup. The presence of blue tongue should be called out, and the riders named and shamed. Changes to FEI tack regulations will reduce the likelihood of blue tongue occurring, and encourage penalisation of specific conflict behaviours such as opening the mouth. The mandatory use of a taper gauge to assess noseband tension will allow the horse to move their mouth away from bit discomfort and highlight any instances of blue tongue without obscuring them inside the mouth and behind foam.

The science:
-Horses ridden in hyperflexion and competition frame had rein tension that exceed 5kg of force (Christensen et al., 2014). They also had much higher cortisol levels than the horses ridden in a long rein.
-Judges awarded higher marks to horses with their nose on and behind the vertical, and lower marks to horses with their nose in front of the vertical (Hamilton et al., 2022).
-Horses ridden behind the vertical had higher conflict behaviours and airway tract abnormalities, and higher lactate concentrations, while horses ridden behind the vertical had more relaxation behaviours (Tilley et al., 2023).
-Horses are being ridden behind the vertical more frequently than 2 decades ago (Lashley et al., 2014).

References
Christensen. J.W, Beekmans. M, van Dalum. M, and Van Dierendonck. M, (2014) Effects of hyperflexion on acute stress responses in ridden dressage horses Physiology & Behavior 128 pp. 39-45 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.01.024
Hamilton. K.L., Lancaster. B.E., andHall. C., (2022) Equine conflict behaviors in dressage and their relationship to performance evaluation Journal of Veterinary Behavior 55-56 pp. 48-57 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2022.07.011
Lashley. M.J.J.O., Nauwelaerts. S., J.C.M. Vernooij. J.C.M., W. Back. W., and Clayton. H.M., (2014) Comparison of the head and neck position of elite dressage horses during top-level competitions in 1992 versus 2008 The Veterinary Journal 202(3) pp. 462-465 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2014.08.028
Tilley. P, Simões. J, and Luis. J.P.S., (2023) Effects of a 15° Variation in Poll Flexion during Riding on the Respiratory Systems and Behaviour of High-Level Dressage and Show-Jumping Horses Animals 13(10) pp. 1714 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13101714

24/07/2024

Charlotte Dujardin has renounced her position from the Olympics and has received a 6 month ban from the FEI following a video being submitted to the FEI. The video in question shows Dujardin repeatedly whipping a client horse in a private training video.
The fact that a video like this exists is not shocking. In the modern equestrian world, it is a sad fact that most trainers use methods like these. The statement from the person who submitted the video however is.
You may note that the video is from 4 years ago. The client who experienced this stated that they were told by others not to share the video or speak out about it in the UK. They also believed that receiving training from an Olympic winner would be the best of the best, and it must be the best way to train my horse.
This is a clear demonstration of the power at play within the equine world, from trainer to client, from medal winner to inexperienced rider, from older riders to younger riders. The quick reaction of the FEI to issue a 6 month ban is good, however it doesn't tackle the real issue. That tradition methods that commonly use excessive whip use and promotes behaviour through fear are prolific. All riders within the FEI and Olympics will have a video out there that could warrant a 6 month ban. Empty words of "upholding the highest standards of equine welfare" will remain empty as long as these training methods are seen as okay until publicised.

01/07/2024

Horses. Aren't. Moral.
Horses are living beings who exist outside of morality, morality is a human concept that no other animal should ever be held to.
All behaviour (other than stereotypies) are natural: biting, kicking, wood chewing, bucking, rearing, shying, bolting. Horses are prey animals and as such run first, ask questions later, because otherwise they get eaten. Similarly they will fight their way out if they cannot run. Labelling these behaviours as 'naughty' or 'rude' or even 'spiteful' reduces the purpose of these behaviours in our mind. We see them as a direct retaliation to us, rather than what it truly is - a scared animal trying to preserve their mind and body.
Domestication creates many issues with animal behaviour, the horse's environment is so heavily controlled and removed from natural settings, that we cannot even compare them. We can reduce stress through enrichment, and creating an environment that the horse has some control over: not forcing them to be around horses they don't like, not forcing them to listen to music, offering them different water or hay sources to choose from, allowing them to pick the route during hacking, or even allowing them to say no to riding.

17/06/2024

You've got to be quidding me!
Quidding is the act of dropping the mouthful of food a horse has while eating, usually caused by poor dental health. This occurs frequently due to old age as horses have one set of teeth for life that push up through their lifetime.
Quidding reduces the amount of forage the horse can get into their body, this can increase the risk of various problems such as: gastric ulcers, colic, choke, weight loss, lethargy, and others. One of the other issues that can develop is aggression because of the discomfort inside the gut from reduced forage intake, and from other areas of pain such as the teeth and jaw, bony areas with muscle wastage, and being unable to defend themselves easily from other horses. Positive reinforcement training can benefit aggressive behaviours, but it is important to make sure the diet is providing the horse the correct nutrients and fibre alternatives increase the forage intake to reduce the effect of quidding.

18/10/2023

Did you check and prep your horse for clipping earlier this year?

New blog post!
Why we should be assessing and prepping our horses for clipping now. Rather than wait until autumn when we start deciding our clipping rota, we should be monitoring and training our horses, especially those with problems, now while we still have a few months without the pressure of time.

https://www.clickclop-equinebehaviour.com/post/clipping-preparation

09/07/2023

This we're looking at a paper that investigated if behaviour professionals agree on 30 statements about equine frustration. The paper is open access and is an interesting start into frustration research.

05/07/2023

Today's post is a discussion of an image I saw shared a few times the other day. I recognise that these kinds of comics represent the daily struggles horse owners face in a humorous manner and don't intent harm, but many of these types of comics perpetuate issues in the community, and fail to recognise real world issues. A lot of the time this comes from intent, giving the horses more agency and intention in their world (doing something to annoy you or doing something even though they know they shouldn't).

02/07/2023

Today is the first after the hiatus, and today we're looking at a paper that investigated the different factors during riding that might impact headshaking in known headshakers. The paper did not investigate why the horses were headshakers, as such the results of the study might not benefit neurological or photopic headshakers.

28/06/2023

Something that stresses many of us is working with people who may disagree with, or actively dislike the methods we use when training and working with our horses. It's hard to distance yourself when a beloved trainer, or yard friend says that they don't believe +R works,or that you have to use a firm hand to train horses. But it's important to remember that we have a long was to come for the entire industry to change, and focusing oj the problems we face will not aid us, focus on the things you can change (yourself) and on the ways other have begun to change. Take information where you can, even if you disagree with many of the principle or methods someone uses, they might have some insight into why people train that way even if you don't agree with it. Make positive changes for yourself by surrounding yourself with people who agree and are accepting, those who are not combative or aggressive. Focus on the victories, not the losses.

28/06/2023

After missing almost a month if posts, I'm coming back online with Wednesday and Sunday posts.

01/06/2023

New blog post!
Why we should be assessing and prepping our horses for clipping now. Rather than wait until autumn when we start deciding our clipping rota, we should be monitoring and training our horses, especially those with problems, now while we still have a few months without the pressure of time.

https://www.clickclop-equinebehaviour.com/post/clipping-preparation

21/05/2023

Today's is a look at a paper investigating the resting behaviours of wild horses and any correlation between their preferred side and agonsitic behaviours.
🐴 They found that the ride side during grooming was correlated with agonsitic behaviours and horses lay down longer on the left side.

17/05/2023

🐴 When we work with horses it is easy to take behaviours for granted, or after teaching them something, assuming that the behaviour will never alter over time. Like us, horses are always learning, changes to timing, handling, health, environment etc. can alter how they respond to a cue.
🦄 Take putting on a horses bridle, you can train your horse to put the bridle on mainly by themselves, but physical changes such as pain, or environmental such as a loud startling noise when bridling in the past, or even timing such as bridling them prior to feeding.
🐴 All of these events can lead to the horse not showing the trained behaviour, they might refuse entirely, or make it difficult.
🦄 It is therefore important to never consider a behaviour finished, we can teach our horses old skills. Not doing a behaviour they have been taught is not a show of dominance, disrespect, idiocy etc. it is a demonstration that something has impacted the horses motivation or ability to perform the behaviour asked of them.

14/05/2023

For we're looking at a recent paper that took blood samples to investigate dopamine concentrations and compare it to the horses temperament and trainablility.
🐴 They found no correlation between dopamine and temperament or trainability.
🦄 This means that temperament probably plays no part in training effectiveness and should not play any part in how we go about training.

10/05/2023

09/05/2023

This episode of the Vet Times Podcast focuses on strangles, one of the most common equine respiratory diseases in the UK, with an estimated 600 outbreaks here alone.

09/05/2023

Last Saturday was the coronation of King Charles III, and with it we saw a poor display of horse use. Hundreds of horses lined the procession as a symbol of strength and power, but what did it cost?

Rewatching the procession showed that the vast majority of these horses were engaging in stress behaviours, headshaking, side-stepping, champing at the bit, and in some cases rearing. These behaviours were predominantly ignored, and the riders praised for their composed responses. Using horses on this type of scale is bound to have problems, in one instance a horse backed up onto the crowd having shown a very clear flight response which could have been caused by acute fear, or pain. A police officer was apparently injured during this. Many other horses could have done the same thing, or worse if there had been even one more stressor. Horses were showing stress signs from the very start, and were required to stand and wait during the actual ceremony for a few hours. In addition, reporters used anthropomorphic and harmful language when discussing the horses such as: spirited, enjoying themselves, excited, and even relayed the nickname for one of the horses “Colonel killer”.

Do we need to be using horses on this scale for ceremonial purposes still? They serve no practical function, and only provide aesthetics for those who watch. During a yard tour with mounted police a few years ago, they mentioned that the Queen preferred horses of uniform colours, and when watching the procession you can see a majority of dark bay and black horses with a few grey horses for specific purposes like the carriage. These horses are all of similar sizes and breeds, so what happens when you force the aesthetic is you have to compromise the temperament.

This is not to say that horses should or should not be used, but the demonstration at the weekend shows that something needs to change. This was not a spur of the moment event where there was no time to plan or train, these horses have been bred or trained from a very young age for this, and the fact that most of them could not cope with it speaks volumes.

07/05/2023

As the last day of I though it only fitting that todays be strangles themed. This paper looked at the effectiveness of a disinfectant technique at removing strangles bacteria from a range of surfaces and equipment.
🐴 This research is key for maintaining a safe and healthy yard after a strangles outbreak. Strangles bacteria can survive for many days or weeks on surfaces and reinfect horses after they are found healthy.

06/05/2023

For todays post for we look at how to train a horse to accept a thermometer. Training is individual for every horse, and as such this is a brief and broad spectrum idea of how to train your horse. By combining protected contact with +R we can create a safe environment for our horse to learn in, especially for something they find difficult. Teaching your horse to move their hindquarters towards you can allow for better control of the situation, and allow you to do the process at liberty. Next you have to desensitise the horse to the equipment, classical conditioning will aid in this for example using a method like "snack-bar".
🦄 If you want to learn more for your own horse, or need help with temperature taking, then why not contact and book a training session.

05/05/2023

Day 5 of and today it's important to remember that we can only know our horse's normal temperature when we regularly take it. Regularly taking it also allows us to quickly recognise a raised temperature as possible infection.

04/05/2023

Day 4 of , did you know that taking your horses temperature daily after travelling can reduce the risk of spreading infection in situations where you cannot isolate them? By checking their temperature daily we can identify a spike in their temperature which will indicate an infection and allow us to stamp out the spread.

03/05/2023

facts for courtesy of Redwings. Did you know this?

03/05/2023

Today's the day! As part of World Horse Welfare and some incredible guests will discuss Strangles and its prevention.

02/05/2023

I discussed why enrichment is beneficial and crucial to welfare especially in less than ideal living conditions (isolation) so here are some examples of enrichment you can use. Some DIY examples, and some purchasable. Always introduce enrichment slowly in a controlled manner where you can remove it if the horse is stressed by it. As horses are being isolated due to disease, make sure no equipment is shared between horses, and is disinfected after use.

01/05/2023

Enrichment is a massive component of animal welfare, and when we remove a crucial aspect of horses needs (Friends) we automatically compromise welfare. We need to make up for this with good enrichment. This is an information dense post discussing a lot of research into the benefits of enrichment and the 5 categories of enrichment (food-based, sensory, physical environment, cognitive, and social).

🐴For enrichment to be effective you need a behavioural goal, and to vary it over time. I have given an example of this at the end.

Tomorrow I will be posting some examples of enrichment ideas in each category.

30/04/2023

Wrapping up the last 3 weeks Wednesday posts we have a recent paper for that looked at the learning theory knowledge and how it relates to accidents, horse behaviour, and welfare.
🐴 The paper collected information from a survey of Australian riders
🦄They found that only 1/4 of respondents could correctly identify 3 operant conditioning terms (+R, -R, +P) however there was no difference in the welfare, accident rate, or reactive behaviours of the horses between those who did and didn't know about learning theory.

26/04/2023

As part of World Horse Welfare will be presenting a great talk on Strangles with many incredible guests! Make sure to tune in using the link: https://worldhorsewelfare.zoom.us/webinar/register/5016794982594/WN_h1l6_87CT7-Gvj2PCwyVeg #/registration on the 3rd of May.

26/04/2023

To round out the wednesday posts about operant conditioning, a brief comparison of reinforcement and punishment.
🦄 Reinforcement works on the principle of encouraging a behaviour by telling the horse to do that same behaviour again
🐴 Punishment works on the principle of discouraging a behaviour by telling the horse not to do that behaviour again

So why should I use reinforcement instead of punishment?
Punishment can discourage a horse from trying any new behaviours for fear of punishment, horses might even develop learned helplessness if exposed to flooding techniques too frequently. Reinforcement on the other hand tells the horse to continue doing a behaviour, this makes them feel safe to express other behaviours. +R is more effective at this by giving the horse nice things that encourage them to show a greater variety of behaviours.