Humans at play : a pony's perspective?

Today I was grooming Paddy's tail (it looks as pictured below about once every 5 years I should add - this was just a 'brush out the worst of the mud' deal). Elvis (the exmoor pony) came over to investigate. He often does this - he watches both the groom and the groomee(?) with great attention and will sometimes join in, grabbing bits of tail. 

I could be wrong, but seems to me that he views this as play behaviour on the part of the human. If he were to pick up a bit of Paddy's tail and do stuff with it he'd definitely be initiating play. Interesting to think how often horses may interpret our actions in a totally differently way to us. 

Stuck in the mud (Tigger the wonder horse??)

Today, I decided to venture out through the mud bath that we laughingly call a path, to put hay out in the field for the horses. Having successfully deposited 8KG of hay, the horses followed me out and tucked in. 

Then it went a bit wrong. Our field has some serious boggy bits in it. The horses are on the whole smart enough to avoid these, the humans (or this human anyway) aren't that smart. So, I went the wrong way, and ended up knee deep in mud, with one lost welly. And I'm on my own - nearest human maybe 3 miles away. Not relishing the prospect of landing face first in some seriously deep mud!

But... not on my own, I have horses! After spending about 2 seconds pondering the sense of calling over a horse when my foot is bare and well and truly stuck in the mud (please, please don't let Elvis decide to come and play with me!), I called Tigger. Despite having just started his hay, he came over. He stopped exactly where I asked him to, and stood while I leaned on him and retrieved welly, unstuck foot, removed sock etc. Then I took a knee-deep tentative step, and he moved with me. So we slowly made our way, me leaning a hand on his back, 'til we reached the only ankle-deep mud. I took one good big step, and he turned and went back to his hay. 

Make of it what you will - one thing is for sure, a horse who is in the habit of moving at your pace is very handy at times :-)

Safety in Numbers?

The place where I keep my horses is isolated to say the least. Until recently, a farmer used the adjacent fields for cattle and sheep, and kept dogs in a shed nearby. He's just retired, and at the end of January, the dogs, cows and sheep were finally all gone.

I'm now very aware when I'm up there that there isn't another human for a good couple of miles (and I quite like it!). Foolishly, I hadn't thought too much about how it might affect the horses. There are 5 of them, and they watch out for each other, so I hadn't really considered what they felt about the other surrounding animals.

Since the other animals left, the horses are noticeably more alert and 'spooky'. Flynn has been leaving his hay frequently to gaze over the field where the cows used to be. How much did they depend on very visible signs from the cattle when possible dangers arose, and the audible signals from the dogs? Interesting...

Stereotypic Behaviour in Horses (Video)

If you've been around horses for a while, you'll probably have seen a stereotypic behaviour or two (traditionally known, awfully, as stable vices). You may, for example, have seen wind-sucking, crib-biting or weaving.

Many horses show less obvious and less easily identified stereotypic behaviours. I often see small stereotypic behaviours in client’s horses, which the client has either not really noticed, or just taken to be random meaningless behaviour. I have seen several horses being punished for these behaviours, one under the guidance of a riding instructor at a clinic.

So, in brief:

·         Any repetitive, relatively invariant and apparently functionless action is probably a stereotypy.

·         This includes crib-biting, wind-sucking and weaving, but there are many others

·         These behaviours are triggered by arousal, for example frustration, excitement, acute or chronic stress or pain

·         These behaviours can sometimes be physically supressed, which will generally be very stressful for the horse.

·         Performing the behaviour is a reward in itself, so they cannot be corrected by punishment.

Stereotypies such as the one shown in the video are usually harmless. Flynn, the horse in the video, behaves as shown for a minute or two when he is anticipating his breakfast! He will also do this if he is worried. In his case, it doesn’t take much arousal to trigger this behaviour; as you can see in the video, he doesn’t look wildly excited by the prospect of breakfast but he’s still excited enough to trigger the behaviour.

With clients I’ve often found these behaviours to be useful (when they are infrequent and not harmful)   – for example:

·         A reported increase in performance of the stereotypy is a warning there may be a physical problem before it is otherwise obvious.

·         It’s an early warning sign during training that the horse is becoming a bit stressed, again often before any other physical signs are easily seen

·         If a change in management leads to an increase in this behaviour, you know your horse isn’t too thrilled with the changes! Your horse can give you very clear and early feedback about his welfare.

·         In general, it gives you information about how your horse is feeling, before they have to tell you in less subtle ways, which is always a good thing.

Trigger Stacking and horses (is your horse really 'fine' or just 'manageable'?)

Quite often, clients come to me confused as to why their horse suddenly 'exploded' at something they usually seem to cope with. This short video (about dogs, but equally applicable to horses) gives a very clear explanation of one of the causes for unexpected behaviour.

Trigger Stacking & Stress Hormones Video

So certain events may arouse (for example excite or worry) your horse somewhat, but he doesn't react in an extreme way. If several things happen close together, it all gets to much - and he 'explodes'.

This may sound really obvious, and most of us are aware of examples of this - say you want to compete your young horse - you don't introduce him to travelling in a trailer, going to a strange new place, and competing all in the same morning! At least you probably don't do it twice ...

The smaller incidents can confuse people. To take a fairly recent example, we have a young cob called Freddy. Access to Freddy's yard is blocked one day, and the farrier is coming. His owner takes him down to a quiet farm track for the farrier to shoe him. He's a little fidgety, but 'fine'. The farrier arrives, and Freddy is a bit more 'difficult' than usual, but can still be handled. As the farrier is putting on his second shoe, a tractor comes into view. Freddy 'explodes' - neither his owner nor the farrier can hold him, and he takes off for home, half-shod. The owner is mystified - he's never behaved like that before.

On initial questioning, Freddy is reported to be 'fine' with the farrier usually, fine on his own, and good with traffic. With more detailed questioning, we find that Freddy is actually:

* a little worried when separated from other horses, a bit nappy hacking out alone but manageable
* a little uncomfortable with the farrier, but the farrier always manages to get him shod
* a little worried by tractors; he will 'scoot' past them on the road, then settle down.

So - it's trigger stacking.

Scary solutions to fear issues...

I’m repeating myself now, have said this before in many different ways, but worth another shot!

Let’s say your 5 year old daughter is scared of the dark. After a few unsuccessful home bred solutions, you decide to get her some help, and go to see a therapist who specialises in overcoming fear issues.

She says she can deal with this, no problem. How? ‘Oh, send your daughter in here, I’ll take her by surprise, we won’t tell her what is happening, I’ll just restrain her and leave her in the dark until she stops struggling. That works most of the time. She might hurt herself or get a lot more upset before she is fixed, but being scared of the dark is silly anyway she has to learn’

Hopefully, you wouldn’t be too impressed with this solution, and would seek advice elsewhere!

So why do we still do this kind of thing to animals all the time? Your horse is scared of plastic bags, a schooling whip, the saddle, getting her legs hosed – we’ll just give her no option but to face her fears, and call it a good job when she gives up struggling.

There are much more humane and effective alternatives – so please don’t  let a ‘trainer’ restrain your horse (or dog) while they ‘get used to’ something they are genuinely scared of.  

99.99% of Terminal Cancer Patients have 10 toes

How did you react to the title?

‘Poor Felicity, she’s finally lost it’?

Or just ‘that’s weird’.

Whatever your reaction, it probably wasn't fearful, and you’re probably not at this moment contemplating chopping off one of your toes to avoid the risk of dying of cancer!

We know the two things (having 10 toes and having cancer) occur together most of the time, but we also know they are not related - having 10 toes does not cause cancer. 

However, a similar title might get a very different reaction:

97% of Terminal Cancer Patients Previously Had This Dental Procedure…

It’s a clever title – it makes you want to click and read, to find out if you’ve had the ‘killer’ treatment (its root canal treatment).

I spotted this title on a facebook link the other day, and, even with my sceptical outlook on things, my immediate reaction to this was unease – not far off ‘I’ve had root canal treatment, therefore I'm much more at risk of terminal cancer’.

Most of us reading this will initially assume that there is a link between the dental treatment and the cancer. 

But, we’re not told (maybe no-one knows) what percentage of the population have had root canal treatment. In the US, apparently 25 million root canal procedures are done per year, so over 15 years that’s 375 million, an average of more than one root canal treatment per person!

So, maybe 97% of the population have had root canal treatment, and therefore this scary statistic is exactly what you would expect, and no more meaningful than having 10 toes…

‘Lies, damn lies, and statistics’ – great phrase. I’m susceptible (momentarily) to this kind of headline, most of us are. And occasionally these scare tactics are used by well meaning people who genuinely want to get a message across. But more commonly, they are after something, often your money, so don’t let them scare you :-)

Not directly relevant to a blog on equine behaviour, but horsey people are targeted for this stuff as much as any other group 

'your horse will get mud fever (and then probably die horribly...) if you don't use this lotion'

'your horse will misbehave and hurt you if you don't buy this head collar' 

and so on...