Whole Horse Equine Behaviour & Training

19/07/2022

Concordia Equestrian Magazine - July/Aug/Sept - Issue 4
https://issuu.com/concordia.ec/docs/issue_4_concordia_magazine
Over 40 pages of great - free - reading for horse lovers worldwide.
Please give us your feedback and please share far and wide!

14/01/2022

Even Mighty Kings need naps.

I know it's the time of year where many of us are, or feel we should be, planning our year, deciding on our goals and pushing ourselves to get started on them.

If you're feeling tired, exhausted, floundering on your goal setting or otherwise just can't seem to bring yourself to plan for the year, know that it's OK.

We are humans, not robots. Our organic, animal bodies aren't meant to go and go and go or sit and sit and sit. They need rest. They need sleep. They need movement and balance. Our brains aren't meant to run 100 miles an hour, 365 days a year. They need fun. They need to ponder things other than our work. Our hearts aren't meant to absorb the battering they often take in the world of work that has evolved. They need peace. They need connection with friends and family.

What does this have to do with our horses? Simple. If we don't take care of ourselves, we'll have a hard time being our best selves for our horses. Take care of yourself for now, even if that means taking a break from training, and focus on enjoying time with your horse for a bit. You'll have the energy to get back to training after you take care of yourself.

So if you feel for any reason like you're limping over the starting line of 2022, or flat out tripped and fallen on your face, it's OK. Be gentle and kind to yourself. It is no indication of how the year is going to go or who you are as a person. Take this time to rest. Your body, brain and heart will let you know when they are rested and ready to get excited, plan and strive for your goals. 💚🧡

23/05/2021

13/05/2021

Learning some moves ...

26/03/2021

Ann Blake puts it so well, listening is hard, we tend to take our own spin on what we understand our horse is saying, but it takes a big shift and a lot of effort to truly listen

What is your first memory of listening to a horse? Not standing next to a horse and being certain he loved you. Not daydreaming about galloping him on the beach or burying your tear-drenched face in his mane and hiding. None of these things are listening. They are moments we might feel a connection....

01/03/2021

“He’s just naughty and needs to learn to stand still”

In nearly 22 years of being a vet and working with horses, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard this. I have recently been working with a couple of cases where handling issues including whilst being tacked up were a big concern. In both cases it had been suggested by someone that clicker training might be the answer.

In both cases I found significant back pain.

“The display of many behaviours during tacking‐up or mounting is likely to reflect lameness or tack‐associated discomfort. Owners must be better educated to recognise these behaviours.”
From Dyson and colleagues 2021

When faced with undesired behaviours the most important thing is to RECOGNISE the underlying motivation for the behaviour.
It’s great that positive reinforcement (reward) training is receiving more attention in the equine world BUT addressing the underlying cause of a behaviour is way more important to both the welfare of the animal as well as helping to actually address the undesired behaviour.

In 2020 Dyson and colleagues published work highlighting the high frequency of abnormal behaviours when horses were tacked up.

“There was an equal frequency of abnormal behaviours during bridling and saddling in 52% of horses; 34% of horses showed more abnormal behaviours during saddling than bridling; 15% of horses showed more abnormal behaviours during bridling than saddling. Repeatedly chomping on the bit occurred most frequently during bridling (67%).
Ears back (57–65%) and an intense stare (54–62%) were similar in all phases.
Fidgeting was more common during saddle placement (32%) and girthing (21%), than bridling (9%).
Tail swishing was more frequent during saddle placement (20%) and girthing (34%), than bridling (10%).
Turning the head to the girth was only seen during saddle placement and girthing (11 and 40%, respectively), in addition to attempting to bite (5 and 15%, respectively) and rubbing the nose (8 and 21%, respectively).”

Conclusion
Abnormal behaviour during tacking‐up and mounting was common.

Now Sue Dyson’s teams new study (just published) has highlighted how many of the horses/ ponies showing these abnormal behaviours during tacking up were associated with current pain / lameness.

“Riding School horses comprised only 12% of the sample population, but had higher rates of abnormal behaviours during both tacking‐up and mounting compared with General Purpose horses. The rate of abnormal behaviour during tacking‐up for horses with moderate or severe lameness was 1.4 times higher than for nonlame horses. Horses with lameness in‐hand or ridden had 1.5 times higher rates of abnormal behaviour during mounting than nonlame horses. Tight tree points and epaxial muscle pain were associated with higher behaviour scores during tacking‐up. Higher static saddle‐fit scores were associated with higher behaviour scores during mounting.”

Owners AND professionals need more education on equine (and canine and feline and rabbit ... well, all animals they handle clearly) body language and behaviour.

And we have to acknowledge that pain and disease are FREQUENTLY present in undesired behaviours meaning that training alone is not enough to help the animal, even if that training may benefit the humans.
Animals can learn to suppress behaviours through training - both through punishment based and reward based training.

In a recent study Professor Daniel Mills highlighted how as many as 80% of the dog behaviour cases seen by vet behaviourists have pain as a contributing factor.

We simply must not keep turning a blind eye to what motivates behaviour. We must stop thinking that training is our first approach.
We must first investigate/ understand motivation.

Dyson, S., Bondi, A., Routh, J. and Pollard, D., 2021. An investigation into the relationship between equine behaviour when tacked‐up and mounted and epaxial muscle hypertonicity or pain, girth region hypersensitivity, saddle‐fit, rider position and balance, and lameness. Equine Veterinary Education.

Dyson, S., Bondi, A., Routh, J., Pollard, D., Preston, T., McConnell, C. and Kydd, J.H., 2020. An investigation of behaviour during tacking‐up and mounting in ridden sports and leisure horses. Equine Veterinary Education.

Mills, D.S., Demontigny-Bédard, I., Gruen, M., Klinck, M.P., McPeake, K.J., Barcelos, A.M., Hewison, L., Van Haevermaet, H., Denenberg, S., Hauser, H. and Koch, C., 2020. Pain and problem behavior in cats and dogs. Animals, 10(2), p.318.

19/02/2021

Carrot stretches are a regular part of our weekly routine. We try to fit them 4-5 times a week and they’ve made a massive difference to posture in both my horses.

One of the things that has never sat right with me is the fact that we lure the horses head around and then tease them with a hay cob or the carrot, until we get our quota of seconds and then allow the horse the food.

One of the things that I’ve found to work really well is to use chaff. I grab a big handful: as much as I can grab, lure the horse into the stretch and then allow them to eat while I count down 5-7 seconds and repeat. You are then effectively feeding for position and in doing this, the signs of frustration or lack of motivation that can often be seen with these exercises, diminish.

11/02/2021

“We don’t use Punishment here”.
I say this a great deal at my barn (I often phrase it nicer depending on the circumstances). But it’s one of the first things I tell anyone coming to my farm. The intentional use of punishment isn’t allowed at my farm (stuff happens, sometimes we unintentionally punish or we make a mistake or have a habit reaction) but we aspire to punishment-free. The most common response is “You let them get away with Everything?!” (even if they don’t say that outloud). They think this means you allow your animals to walk all over you, to demand food, to be spoiled or to “dominate” you!! (Buzz word – I know!) But fact of the matter is, when we train well we don’t need punishment. Period. “Positive does not mean Permissive”.

First of all why should we avoid punishment?
Here’s the simple list, we can go into this further later – but the goal of this post isn’t to explain why punishment is bad, but rather why it’s unnecessary.

1) Violence begets Violence (I hit you, you hit me, the cycle repeats until someone is afraid enough to stop)

2) If you are adding a physical aversive you can physically hurt your learner

3) This doesn’t promote an active and happy learning environment, it results in a lack of try, the learner gives up – why would they try and risk being punished? As R+ trainers we need them to try and to offer behaviors – so this damages our future ability to train.

4) This can poison your cues AND your relationship!

5) Timing, consistency and appropriate intensity are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to master

6) The behavior can return when the punishment stops, you can only punish what is happening – not what happened 2 minutes ago or what will happen tomorrow

7) The behavior may only stop when *you* are there to punish it, so what was really punished, the behavior or being with you?

8) It encourages the learner to find ways around you – sneakiness, do the behavior without being caught, or do the behavior but get away before you react! (My Belgian still leaps away when he thinks he’ll be punished, he doesn’t avoid the behavior he thinks will be punished but rather does it then leaps away to avoid the punishment).

9) Punishment is reinforcing to the punishER this is why we do it.

(When your dog is barking at you non-stop because they want to go out, and we loose it and yell at them, they may stop barking for a moment, hide in fear for a few minutes – we were Negatively Reinforced (relief from the barking) even if just for a moment. The punisher was reinforced for the punishment – the behavior was temporarily stopped, but not effectively removed as the problem still persists, the dog needs to go out.)

Ok that’s a lumped, quick and dirty summary of why we don’t use Punishment, all the side-effects of punishment. But like I said, we want to discuss why we don’t NEED it and how we can avoid it.
Let’s think about our ABC’s again (Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence). We put a great deal of focus on the B-C of our training, what behavior did our animal do and what consequence do we offer to adapt that behavior the way we like. But there is a great big “A”-hole we need to fill! Antecedent arrangement is the number 1 way we can avoid the need for punishment. You don’t need to punish a behavior that doesn’t happen!

Find out what triggers the unwanted behavior and change it. Is the dog barking because they need to go out? Let them out at the first signs, before they start barking. Does your horse buck when you ride because the saddle doesn’t fit? Get a saddle that fits. Fix the problem so the unwanted behavior doesn’t happen.

Don’t forget about protected contact!! PC is not just for you but for your learner as well. Especially animals who have experienced a great deal of those pitfalls of punishment we just listed. They may be afraid to try, react emotionally and impulsively to defend themselves when things go wrong. This isn’t their fault or their problem. Working in PC can help encourage their try without fear and give them the learning room they need. This also prevents us from needing to use punishment to defend ourselves. “Remember, best block, no be there”- Mr. Miyagi. Change the way the horse feels and behaves before moving into full contact, allowing them and you to be comfortable in your contact – so neither of you need to become defensive.

What if we can’t? If we’ve adapted all the antecedents we can control, but life isn’t perfect we still have a few options. We can train the absence, for example if they always bite the lead when we’re leading them, reward when they’re not biting the lead. Wait for a good moment when they’re walking with you nicely and reward – this turns us towards teaching an incompatible behavior. If they’re biting the lead while we try to walk with them – but you can’t get rid of the lead and can’t get rid of the emotional triggers that cause this behavior (which should be our first steps!) we can train them to walk as calmly as possible, facing forward, with their nose beside us. The use of a target can be helpful for getting understanding and success in the early stages, just capturing those good moments can also be helpful.

If we arrange “A” as best as possible, then set all the R+ Consequences to counteract the unwanted behavior, we should end up with no unwanted behavior! It’s really as easy as that. We own our horses. They live in our world. We control every aspect of their life, whether we or they like it or not.
*No behavior they offer is their fault*.
If they are performing an unwanted behavior it’s not because they are naughty or fresh (and definitely not because they’re “Dominant”), but rather because that has been reinforced in the past (even if it’s self reinforcing – biting the lead can be a self soothing behavior or let out some frustration).

So change your A’s and focus your C’s to what is constructive and preventative and your horses’ B’s will always be what you want.

01/11/2020

Equine behaviour consultant and trainer Trudi Dempsey presents an introduction to training horses with food. In this course Trudi discusses the pros and cons of training using food rewards, as well as giving you tips on how to improve your training skills and troubleshoot any problems you may be hav...

12/10/2020

I'm having the same issue with Gracie, she can be mollified with treats, but it's important to check the subtle hints that there may be a problem still

Honey is feeling a bit ouchy at the moment and is lame in two legs (a diagonal pair), so today she had a visit from Mr Vet. Over the years Honey has had lots of visits from various vets, and at one point she had quite a reputation for trying to kill them when they were trying to examine her legs, so tonight we made sure we were ready; we had a clicker, a big bag of chaff mixed with plain chopped straw, and she even had her headcollar on!

Well, she allowed herself to be examined (helped by a slow and steady trickle of feed) and was very polite in her pain reactions, so Mr Vet said she is a very well behaved cob.