Ars Equus - Éducation du Cheval

13/06/2024

“The cause of behaviour is found in contexts, not in animals.”
(Dr Susan Friedman)

In my journey towards more science based and analytical (as opposed to mythological and pseudo scientific) horse training, I really loved the discussion surrounding letting go of labels such as the movement. It was also interesting how this type of thinking tended to shift the blame from the human and on to the animal/horse.

Rather than looking for the reasons for behaviour, particularly problematic behaviour, generally society decided that the problem resides in the animal and that they most likely have some kind of character or personality flaw or deficit or maybe they’re just right brained and can’t help themselves. This has often been applied to people too!

A skyrocket went off for me when Dr Susan Friedman discussed this in her course, Living and Learning with Animals (LLA). She talked about conventional wisdom, cultural fog, constructs, labels, circular reasoning and self fulfilling prophecies. One of the many problems with constructs or labels, is that using them ends the search for actual causes of behaviour that we can influence.

If we say for example, that our horse bites, because she is ‘dominant’, we can also say she is a ‘dominant mare’ therefore she bites. But this never gets to the reason for behaviour, the function of the behaviour. It merely blames the horse, sets up an expectation of behaviour for that horse, which can colour how we handle and train that horse, which in turn can cause the behaviour we were expecting, based on the label put on the horse. Much like the “chestnut mare” phenomenon whereby people approach and handle chestnut mares in a way that creates the problematic behaviour they become famous for - self fulfilling prophecy!!

In horse training, Natural Horsemanship trainers and others came up with some popular but inaccurate science about horse personalities and left and right brain functions. Remember that descriptions of personality traits are labels and constructs.

“Constructs cannot cause behaviour, because it has no tangible form” (Friedman).

One person’s “bold” horse is another person’s “fearful” horse, and so on.

I recommend everyone think about this. Labels and constructs are easy, but before you use them, because sometimes it IS easier, make sure you operationalise them (describe them fully) and agree on the definition before continuing to use them. The word "pressure" comes to mind here as well!

Here’s a great video that discusses the left brain right brain myth:

https://youtu.be/ZMSbDwpIyF4

More reading and a short video on the left brain right brain myth:

https://www.verywellmind.com/left-brain-vs-right-brain-2795005

Finally, for anyone seriously interested in enhancing their learning in regards to behaviour, training and learning, based on current science, regularly updated, Dr Susan Friedman’s LLA course (highly recommended):

https://www.behaviorworks.org/htm/lla_professional_overview.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1P230su1x9mCJRfEQOW4-CETNMn7qvM94XGMcKuVae-wLKJg4jpgGPOSU_aem_AcakHUrhWiz1F_HrRYZAEAXKPE78zTpooeUUop4W1S4Gpra9e0L-axqs2DpTWJdiaM8rHDDjkXRI33Z77o0Yugy2

31/05/2024

20/05/2024

*Is Your Horse Paying Attention during training ?*

I came across the bellow article awhile ago and it basically confirms my own experience with horses but also of others who I spoke to about attention /focus during training with Positive Reinforcemet. Those who have been untilising reward based approach to training will agree that it's not "just about food" .

One of the reasons why attention during training with Positive Reinforcemet is easily maintained is because we focus on keeping our horses under the threshold while promoting the positive learning experience.

In the past , when I used to work with horses with the application of aversives , I was observing many behaviours that were generally labelled as "trying to outfocus the human" . Those, as now I understand, were calming signals or/and displacement behaviours and included :

* looking away,
* sniffing the ground,
* licking objects,
* scratching against objects and fences,
* walking away to staring into the distance,
* moving with the head turned away from the human etc.

Other behaviours , such as standing still and not responding to my "cues" or offering behaviours other to the ones I requested were easily interpreted as not paying attention, not being focused on work...yet only since studying horse behaviour, ethology and emotions , I realise that they were responses directly related to the aversive approach I was taking to training. The standing still horse was shut down, the one who was offering behaviour after behaviour was hyperviligant. In such circumstances I would do things to "bring attention back" - mainly through application of aversives until the horse was "focused" once again.

I do not come across "no attention /focus" during my training anymore. This is simply due to the fact that I do not read those behaviours as lack of attention, but as information that something I am asking for is rising the horse's stress levels . This information helps me to evaluate my training and change my approach accordingly to minimise such chances occuring, but not by application of aversives , but through actions such as lowering expectations or increasing the rate of Reinforcement, setting the and environment up, replanning the training etc.

There are also times when the horse I work with will simply take an interest in things that happen in the environment that are not directly related to training, and that's totally fine. In such circumstances I just wait for them to come back to me on their own terms which happens almost instantly.

Horses are not machines, they're living beings and it's totally normal that their eyes won't be constantly staring at their human but by setting them up for success and working with reward based training we maximise the chance that they will actually enjoy the training and therefore maintain focused on the tasks.

Here is the extract from the article that got My Attention :

"(...)“Our studies show that actions of a positive value induce an increase in the horse’s attention, not only toward a particular stimulus (e.g., food) but toward the entire situation,” said Céline Rochais, MSc, PhD candidate in the equine behavior department of the University of Rennes, in France. “Attention is a key element in the learning and memorization process (as shown by previous researchers); an increase in a horse’s attention can explain the increase in its training performance rates when using food rewards.”(...)

(...)“These studies clearly show that the use of positive reinforcement (with food) is associated with an elevated attention level of the horse towards the trainer,” said Rochais. “He looks more at the trainer; he listens more to him or her (according to the direction the ears are pointed); and he seeks more contact with that person.

"By contrast, the absence of such reinforcement is associated with increased inattention towards the human," she concluded. "Furthermore, the use of touch (wither-scratching) does not induce any improvement whatsoever in the attention level of the horse towards the trainer, as horses rewarded with wither scratching appeared to show equivalent attention levels as those not rewarded at all.” (...) “ - Full Article : https://thehorse.com/116218/study-food-rewards-can-improve-horse-training/

18/05/2024

Entrainer un cheval en équilibre, c'est créer un corps et un mental equilibré.

J'ai redessiné du coup sur l'échelle de progression a gauche, a quoi devrait ressembler visuellement un cheval en équilibre du début a la fin du dressage.

Forcement, les 3 premiers niveaux semblent nettement moins flashy, mais pour arriver a developper le corps, la coordination, la force physique, la motivation a maintenir cet équilibre et garder la confiance en le cavalier dans les 3 premiers niveaux de l'echelle de progression, il faut du temps, de la constance. Passer par ces phases de consolidation de l'équilibre de portage est essentiel, sinon plus on aura d'impulsion et de rassembler et plus le cheval sera desequilibré.

Mon but n'est pas de faire de la critique négative des dessins de droite, le monde équestre semble avoir oublié la base qu'est l'équilibre du cheval, la synchronisation des poser et des levers des sabots qui permet l'équilibre dynamique (et le rythme pur qui est le bruit des poser des sabots). Mais bien se faire l'œil sur la progression saine du cheval dans sa construction physique et mentale optimale.

Que ca prend un peu de temps au début, ca claque pas, mais personne ne peut construire durable sans base solide.

17/05/2024

16/05/2024

Une étude scientifique n’est pas un catalogue…

Je vois trop souvent des personnes identifier des comportements à partir de visuels issus d’études scientifiques. Procéder ainsi est source d’erreur. Je vous explique pourquoi.

🔑Le contexte, c'est la clé!
D’abord le comportement n’est pas réductible à un catalogue de photos ou de visuels (plus ou moins bien réalisés, au passage). C’est comme si, vous regardiez le visage souriant d’une personne et que vous disiez « c’est de la joie ». Donc, la personne qui vous accueille avec le fameux sourire commercial, elle est joyeuse, vraiment ? Non, pas forcément.

Ce qui va permettre de savoir si cette personne est joyeuse ou pas, c’est le contexte, le ressenti et plein d’autres informations que vous aurez en plus (posture, non verbal…).

Pour les chevaux, c’est pareil. La photo d’un cheval n’est pas absolument égale au cheval que vous avez sous les yeux. La photo d’un cheval ne vous dit rien du contexte.

Les illustrations des études sont des repères car elles sont réalisées dans un contexte maitrisé (on est certain que le cheval n’a pas les oreilles en arrière à cause d’un bruit derrière lui par exemple). Ces repères sont très utiles, certes mais que l’on ne doit pas les plaquer sur une autre situation, sans contexte, sans discernement.

🐴Un cheval qui gratte le sol peut indiquer :
- un cheval qui va se rouler (comportement habituel de l’espèce qui doit s’exprimer),
- un cheval qui souffre (comportement habituel de l’espèce pour indiquer une douleur)
- un cheval qui est frustré (comportement anormal de l’espèce indiquant un mal-être)
Donc, si vous utilisez le catalogue de photo sans contexte, vous avez une chance sur trois d’identifier le bon comportement et de vous tromper !

📗Lire une étude, ça s’apprend
Quand vous utilisez une étude, ayez la curiosité de la lire. Trop souvent, je vois des études qui n’ont pas été lues, seulement regardées rapidement.

Les études comportent des détails. Exemple : le nombre de signes à observer pendant une durée donnée dans l’étude de Sue Dyson sur les comportements de douleur du cheval monté. Sans ce nombre de signes minimal, il n’est pas possible de conclure à de la douleur.

Autre exemple : la fameuse étude sur la grimace faciale de douleur, utilisée à tort et à travers, précise bien que les différences d’interprétations entre deux observateurs sont majeures. Donc, clairement, ça manque de fiabilité. Et vous savez quoi ? Les scientifiques sont ok avec ça, ils savent qu’il faut aller plus loin dans la connaissance, trouver des repères plus fiables, entre autres.

Si vous ne regardez que les images du catalogue de comportement, sans avoir lu et sans savoir lire une étude (ça s’apprend, ce n’est pas inné 😊), vous faites fausse route. Et ce sont les chevaux qui en font les frais.🙁

15/05/2024

Relationship Banking

Every experience you have with your horses adds or subtracts from your relationship. Good experiences together add to your relationship, classical conditioning, learning history. They build strong positive associations with your presences and your trained skills. Bad experiences classically condition our relationship in a negative way, it takes away from our relationship and the reliability of our cues.

When aversives happen in our lives or training, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it takes little bits away from our relationship. If you think of it like a scale or bank account, we make appetitive deposits and aversive removals. So think carefully about when and where you want to spend those aversives, because emergencies happen.

Personally, i feel that life provides enough unavoidable aversives, I will save them for times i can’t achieve what we need positively or dont have the time to build it positively, like emergencies. Since all our horses are rescues, most start with a highly negative, “in debt” relationship account. We have to work hard to build it up and keep it strong so when medical and unavoidable crappy life things happen, we have a relationship strong enough to withstand it.

11/05/2024

Check out our latest publication: a review of choice-based procedures used to improve the lives of animals under our care. Timely and important, given the increased discussion on this topic. Also important - how surprisingly few studies met our requirements of doing a choice-based comparison measuring some impact on welfare. That includes no companion animal studies, where choice is considered absolutely critical to proper training and care. In other words, a wealth of opportunities exist for those looking to have the science match practice and vice versa, and this review could be a starting point for getting such studies going! Feel free to like, comment, and share, and I am always happy to respond to any such comments or questions. :)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380383555_The_Voice_of_Choice_A_Scoping_Review_of_Choice-Based_Animal_Welfare_Studies

07/05/2024

06/05/2024

Meg - 1ère séance

Objectif : ne pas chercher à s’approcher de la sacoche où se trouvent les renforçateurs

Comportements marqués puis récompensés : regard de côté mais tête dans l’alignement du corps, détournement de la tête

Note : Je n’ai pas fait cet exercice en zone protégée, c’est-à-dire derrière un fil ou une barrière, car je la sentais suffisamment calme, elle venait de manger sa ration. La vidéo n’est pas terrible, je vais investir dans un nouveau natel ainsi qu’un pivo mais je fais comme je peux d’ici là 😅

24/04/2024

Whenever I hear criticism of Positive Reinforcement (R+) training, also known as Clicker Training, most times it's due to less than ideal training, not because Positive Reinforcement doesn't 'work' or is unethical, unsuitable or somehow there is an animal on the planet that is immune to the way every organism on the planet learns and changes their behaviour. 😄

Problems can arise due to trainer inexperience, lack of knowledge of the underpinning science (and that especially includes Classical Conditioning, Systematic Desensitisation and Counter Conditioning) or even following incorrect or psuedo-science.

Further, problems can happen due to poor mechanics, lack of attention to foundation behaviours, inappropriate food and lack of attention to the animal's needs first and foremost ie. eliminating pain and ill-health and meeting the Five Domains of animal welfare.

No one has to turn up to their horse one day and be completely force free.

Baby steps towards improving how they live, how they are handled, approaching the relationship in a more reciprocal way and giving both yourself and your horse the benefit of the doubt when experiencing problematic behaviour, will reap instant rewards for both of you. Any tiny step or teeny little bit of R+ training that you do, is money in the bank of your trust account. Being kind, empathetic and giving your horse things they like, can never be wrong. It's not easy, I understand that, but for every small effort, you will reap the benefit, both you and your horse.

One of those absolutely marvellous benefits is Discretionary Effort. I've experienced this so many times, it is so wonderful and amazing.

This is not something you will ever get with Negative Reinforcement (R-) or training with R- with food on top.

"Discretionary effort is the level of effort people could give if they wanted to, but above and beyond the minimum required." —Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D.

It's one of the amazingly wonderful "fall outs" from Positive Reinforcement.

When we gain something we like for our behaviour, we feel good! It also makes us feel good about lots of things connected to the behaviour we were positively reinforced for. In a work situation, this could mean feeling good about our job, our co-workers, our workplace, ourselves and even our boss! When we feel this way, we are more likely to stay back a little later to finish a project or put extra effort in without being asked.

The same goes for R+ horse training. When we train our horses with Positive Reinforcement, they feel good about everything connected to the training. They like us, the training environment, the gear and what they are doing. We get this wonderful merging of extrinsic motivation with intrinsic motivation to do things and do even more things - because the horse enjoys it.

This can be the horse making that extra unexpected effort. For example, my horse Mercedes will offer a trot when I'm shaping a faster walk, or will continue to do laps of the obstacle course when she's supposed to be having a break, or my donkey Seymour will push his face quite hard into my hand when I'm shaping (gentle) face targets.

It's a pretty wonderful thing when you start to notice it.

It's not something that you'll ever get from using pressure release training, which is where the animal will only do the bare minimum required to make the pressure stop.

How great is Positive Reinforcement! You can read more about Discretionary Effort in this link, where the corporate world is getting on the feel good band wagon, in order to not only motivate, but keep staff happy :-

https://www.smore.com/rzygf-discretionary-effort-through-r?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0ihK6OTRP3tvwjzqIvn1rI0be5g9p0zKBTZT6yca4C4rXNeVzp1NfbSEo_aem_AVdiApL7dbQiOas2sF7zyGKOSoqDtTmdrRGZ5u0b9KJiLHJJB8rEY-W33KvyMZEShTPb4HbOeK_TzQA3EMuMzugZ

(Photo Credit: www.aubreydaniels.com )

17/04/2024

This video equally applies to equines. There are so many similarities and parallels in the horse world. There's even a dog shelter worker who says she's a horse person and then literally says the same thing horse people say as justifications for punitive training methods, things like "in the wild" and "horses do it to each other" kind of thinking, which is actually untrue, as they explain about dogs in the video as well.

Sadly, dominance theory has wedged itself firmly into equine training and mythology, thanks to the popularity of "horse whispering" and Natural Horsemanship and of course as mentioned in the video, societal biases come into play as well.

Interesting they talked about the allure of charismatic gurus and their unscientific advice, much like the horse training world as well!

The dominance thinking persists in the horse world.

"The horse is trying to be dominant"
The horse needs a stronger leader"
"You need to be the Alpha"
"Your horse is taking the p "

NO they are not!

Think about this statement at the start of this chilling video:

"There is finally a 'dominance/pack theory' recovery program.
It is called Science.

Embrace it."

- - - -

An important video that must be watched by all animal caretakers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4HFOtQVjFY

16/04/2024

If anyone, anywhere tells you to pull the horses head down (or uses leverage and gadgets to do so) they have no knowledge of healthy horse biomechanics or of correct training.
The horse's nose must always lead, with the poll highest and the gullet open. The base of the ears mustn't be lower than the withers. The jaw must be mobile. If the horse cannot chew and swallow, the hindlegs cannot operate correctly. If the hindlegs cannot operate correctly, the horse will not be able to jump, or stay off the forehand, or stay sound.
"Don’t be obsessed with the head and neck, learn to feel what the hindquarters are doing." ~ Glenys Shandley

10/04/2024

Often when trainers talk about “energy” or “feel”, etc they are using euphemisms for aversive (unpleasant) threats to get behaviour from the horse.

Red flag!!

If I talk about “energy”, I’m talking about how I feel and my *observable* behaviour. You can observe me moving energetically or alternatively, moving slowly (low energy), which is often the case with the fearful animals I train.

I’m not using energy in my training to try to get some kind of behaviour from the horse or donkey with it. Big difference.

Trainers using euphemisms like “feel” are generally talking about how much pressure release (Negative Reinforcement) they are using and in a way that they are toning down their threats as cues. A good pressure release trainer wants to use the most subtle of aversive cues, because it looks kinder. *Looks* kinder. “Feel” could also be about when to release the aversive stimulus (pressure), although that’s also about timing.

Really, it could mean anything and we could make any story up about it, because we can’t see it!

That’s the point.

09/04/2024

People may not realise that the "click" in clicker training (Positive Reinforcement) has more than one function. It has quite a few.

The functions of the click include as a marker signal, to mark the exact behaviour, a bridging stimulus, to bridge the gap between the behaviour and delivery of reinforcement (food for horses) and the reinforcing quality of the click as a secondary reinforcer that has been regularly paired with the delivery of a primary reinforcer (food). It can also be a terminal bridge, whereby it not only marks the goal behaviour, but also tells the animal that is the end of performing the behaviour and it can also be a cue (Discriminative Stimulus) whereby it cues the animal to do something in order to acquire the reinforcer.

Remember that behaviour happens all the time, so even though the animal has heard the click, behaviour is happening in the gap between the click and the acquisition of the reinforcer and therefore learning is also still happening between the click and the acquisition of the reinforcer/food.

An example of a terminal bridge may be that we mark the horse for a behaviour they are currently performing and can now stop, they understand food is coming (because of the Pavlovian pairing), but that it may not come immediately (bridging), but also that they may have to perform some behaviour in order to attain their reinforcer (food) such as walk over to a bucket at the other end of the training area, this is where it functions as a cue.

You might be wondering how they know the difference and often there are more than one function of the click happening at the same time. They know! It's all part of the shaping, the learning and the context that we set up for them. We need to teach all these things first and the horse learns to discriminate between stopping immediately and the food comes to them and when they have to stop one behaviour and go somewhere to get the food, therefore a different behaviour continues, etc.

Many horses do not understand or listen for the click, because there are other things going on in the training that become predictors and cues. If a trainer talks a lot or repetitively ie. "good girl", "well done" etc or reaches for the food repeatedly before they've clicked, or moves in some way before they've clicked, or stops moving before they've clicked, then the horse is watching those things and not listening for the click. Our behaviour can overshadow the click. Often it can be really funny or weird things we do, because the horse is always watching us and we are not often very aware of our own behaviour and movements. But our horses are!

Finally, a neat little video of Mercedes, who knows what the click means and can stop dead when she hears it. I later used a technique (Feeding for Position) to give her more information, so that she didn't stop so suddenly. In this video, the click is clearly a terminal bridge ie. she stops the current behaviour immediately. It's also marking the duration of the current behaviour ie. I am building her trotting for longer periods of time, rather than the actual trot itself.

You can watch Mercedes here:-

https://youtu.be/TjUYPW_MT60?si=RSiqY95rEkk73TmP

09/04/2024

Nouvel article scientifique !!
Alice a étudié pendant une période de deux ans, le bien-être des chevaux qui vivent au box en continu. Elle a observé l’évolution de leur budget temps ainsi que des indicateurs comportementaux du mal-être, et notamment le niveau d'agressivité de ces chevaux envers l'humain.

Après deux ans en box intégral, les chevaux sont devenus de plus en plus agressifs avec l'humain. Ils ont également perdu du temps de sommeil. Encore une nouvelle étude qui démontre que ce mode de vie en box, bien qu’encore très courant est loin d’être optimum pour les chevaux. Et que moins on respecte les 3F, plus on porte atteinte à leur bien-être.

Pour autant, il n’est pas toujours possible de passer du box total au pré à 100%, mais des aménagements sont possibles et s’il n’est pas toujours aisé d’atteindre l’optimum, il y a toujours moyen d’améliorer les choses. j'ai plusieurs exemples en tête que je vous partagerai ici. Qui ici a mis en place des solutions pour davantage prendre en compte les 3F*, sans pour autant démolir toute son écurie ?

*3F : les trois fondamentaux du cheval : Forage (foin ou herbe à discrétion), Friends (possibilité de contacts sociaux), Freedom (possibilité de bouger librement).

Avec Alice Ruet, Julie Lemarchand, Christine Briant, Cécile Arnould,
Référence :
[1] Ruet, A., Lemarchand, J., Briant, C., Arnould, C. & Lansade, L. 2024 A field approach to observing changes in behavioural welfare indicators over 2 years in stabled horses. Animal 18, 101120. (doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2024.101120).

08/04/2024

This is an extremely simplistic diagram of something very complex, but it gives you a basic idea. The amount of times I have seen recommendations that late afternoon, early evening or overnight is the safest times to graze, is scary.

Note, after a frost, all the energy/sugars stored in the grass from the day before are still held/frozen in the plant due to the low temperatures and not used up for growth and repair overnight.

Therefore if you have a horse who is grass sensitive or overweight or prone to laminitis, keep them off the grass til the next day when the plant has used up all the stored energy/sugars overnight.

Obviously I don’t recommend stabling, but good options are creating an area off the grass that also encourages movement or setting up a Paddock Paradise and offering enrichment are safe options for equines who need to have grass restricted.

05/04/2024

This one may be a bit controversial so i'm going to disclaimer it a bit. When i mention traditional, aversive based training (aversive and relief) i do not mean its abusive or cruel or unkind, but simply, these are the life lessons we learn from using this type of communication.

Horses are great teachers, we have known this since the moment we domesticated them. We can learn so much about ourselves, how to socialize, communicate, and be good people in general, by working with animals...

No matter how we approach training we learn all the basic care, management, responsibility, time management, the value of hard work, how to keep our animals (and ourselves) healthy through diet and fitness. We learn how to read non-verbal communication and to communicate back.

But how we choose to communicate back says alot about us and what we will learn from horses. Horses, those who have thrived in domestication, have learned to be controlled through the physical and emotional force with the use of tools, escalating aversives, and threat of punishment. Even if you never had to escalate to unkind extremes, the horse is working in avoidance. Avoidance of you and your tools and the threats that they carry.

When we work with horses like that we become desensitized to their emotions, behavioral displays of stress, we learn to punish and fight our way out of difficult situations. We learn to prioritize ourselves, to be demanding, controlling, bossy, toxic, and we call it "dominance", which is debunked as a theory, so let's call it what it is, bullying. We learn skills to manipulate and control others based on what we want, at their expense, and how to hold and puppeteer them into doing it for us.

When we train horses with positive reinforcement, relationship focused approaches, we learn the opposite. Empathy, compassion, listening, and non-violent communication skills. We learn to value what they offer us and appreciate what we can achieve together. We grow in cooperation and trust. We learn to work as a team and recognize progress, becoming optomistic as we overcome challenges and work together to achieve our shared goals.

Focus your growth in kindness and compassion.

Aside:
When an instructor tells a kid "kick harder", "get after him for that!", "don't let him get away with that", "you're the boss, make him do it!", "pull pull! Harder", "let's get a stronger bit/whip/spur", "it doesn't hurt him, just kick!", "spin him in a circle", "snap the lead"... need i go on? We've all had these instructors. What lessons are kids learning about how to work as a team if this is teamwork? What are they being praised for when they win a ribbon, if this is how they earned it?

04/04/2024

Separation Distress

Separation related problems are extremely common in domestic horses, this is most likely due to widespread weaning practices where horses are weaned early and abruptly rupturing maternal bonds ( McMilan,2016, Rybovak,2022).This then can impact a horse throughout their life. It is not uncommon for horses to experience social flux on livery yards where horses are frequently added or removed from the group or in some cases kept in isolation which can exacerbate separation distress. Early in life a horse’s dam acts as a secure base from which to explore the world and the mare/foal bond is crucial for influencing future relationships both with other horses and humans. It is crucial to understand that separation anxiety is a normal response to a dependent experiencing lengthy or prolonged separation from their main attachment figure (carer), however, if it is excessive it can interfere with an individuals ability to cope.

Separation distress can give rise to a range of emotions including anxiety, fear and even frustration as the horse seeks to re-connect with their carer or main attachment figure. Frustration occurs as the horses attempt to reach their companions are thwarted.

Social panic, bonding and attachment is opioid-mediated, so separation and social isolation produce an analogous response to that of opioid withdrawal (Panksepp et al,2005,Panksepp,2011,Eisenberger,2012,McMilan,2016). In other words, separation is physically painful. True separation distress extends far beyond simple frustration or anxiety at being on their own, instead it is a fear or aversion to the absence of an attachment figure that triggers a panic like response. Separation distress like all other struggles horses may have are multifaceted and may be rooted in a range of causes including but not limited to

🐴Epigenetics

🐴Genetic predisposition

🐴Trauma

🐴Previous experiences in particular those early in life including early weaning and the breaking of maternal bonds

🐴Early life stress

🐴Attachment ruptures

🐴Temperament

🐴 Breed traits

🐴Pain or pain memory

Separation anxiety can manifest in a range of ways including

🐴Vocalisation

🐴Fence walking

🐴Increased movement

🐴Increased urination and/or defecation

🐴 Panic

This panic response from an evolutionary standpoint is understandable as to a young mammal the loss of their dam and social group poses a threat to life.
Horses are a highly gregarious species who are extremely dependent on each other in order to survive and thrive. They also likely form bonds with human caregivers, however, research on this is sparse in comparison to the dog-human bond. The limited research that has been conducted points to attachment difficulties associated with the human caregiver occur when the caregiver is inconsistent in their behaviour such as the sporadic use of punishment (Lundberg et al,2020) This echoes the human literature where attachment problems occur as a consequence of disorganized attachment as opposed to hyper-attachment this is commonly seen in other animals such as dogs.

Keeping horses in isolation is also common practice which may lead to the development of separation distress in some cases (Newberry & Swanson,2008,Lansade et al,2022) In comparison to other species we have less understanding of how horses form and maintain attachment bonds.
Attachment behaviours include: -

🐴Proximity Seeking: Closeness to the attachment figure in order to gain a sense of security and protection.

🐴Secure Base: This is where the attachment figure provides a secure base from which the individual can leave the attachment figure and explore the world. This extends to other relationships not just that of the mare/foal bond.

🐴Safe Haven: The attachment figure provides a sense of security during times of stress or if an individual is struggling to cope.

Disturbances of social groups and contexts has been researched on other species such as elephants and given horses face similar denials of or disruptions to equine social structures it is possible that this also exists for horses and may influence their behaviour and ability to cope (Manrique et al,2022).

Social behaviour in horses involves the use of MUTUAL communication between all herd members. Horses communicate via body language and behaviours through the giving and responding of signals to develop a mutual language between them. Their behaviours gain meaning through being given consistently and predictably over time. Each individual horse has their own comfort zone or bubble around them and they communicate who is or is NOT allowed to share their space (Bartlett et al,2022, Woltee et al,2018, Kieson et al,2023) Friends or preferred conspecifics will be allowed closest but other horses they would prefer to have further away. It is important not to confuse this with resource sharing, guarding or dominance. A horse’s bubble can be influenced by stress, pain, illness or tiredness among other factors. Recent and emerging research suggests horses display social bonds through: -

🐴Proximity

🐴Mutual movement and synchrony

🐴Mutual touch

Supporting horses who are experiencing separation distress involves a combination of ensuring their social, physical and emotional needs are met, careful management to ensure that they aren’t put in situations they cannot cope with and the gradual titration and pendulation of a droplet of stress and back to safety. VERY careful systematic desensitisation and counter-conditioning is also beneficial. How this looks for each horse is unique and length of time this takes is also dependent on the individual. It is not enough to train an alternative behaviour over the top we need to address the horses underlying emotional state and recognise we can’t teach safety we can only support the conditions in which safety can grow. With time , patience and attunement we can also become a source of safety in the absence of horse friends .

If you would like support with your horse’s separation distress please send me a message for a no obligation chat 0776 3317464

©️ Jessie Sams (2024) Animal Behaviour and Trauma Recovery Service