Hair by Benson (mutual grooming)

Benson giving my hair that special extra today - but amazing how gentle he is, especially when he touches my face. Of course you need to be careful about rubbing noses with a horse, but such a shame when bonding behaviours like this are discouraged or misread as the horse being pushy, aggressive etc.

Sticking to the rules in dressage

Amongst many horse lovers, dressage is getting an increasingly bad name. When I go out to clients I am often struck by their willingness to get help from a riding instructor, but their immediate rejection of an instructor who specialises in dressage - 'I don't like dressage', 'the horses always look so forced', 'I don't want anyone doing that to my horse'. And these views are entirely understandable. 

It is sad that a common view now is that dressage aims to produce horses who move in a spectacular way, whilst looking somewhat tormented. It is not, in my opinion, the rules (and aims) of dressage that are causing the problems, it is lack of adherence to the rules - sorry, but a lot of the problem is down to the judges. 

The first 2 points in article 401 of the FEI rules illustrate this well:

Article 401 OBJECT AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF DRESSAGE

1. The object of Dressage is the development of the Horse into a happy Athlete through harmonious education. As a result, it makes the Horse calm, supple, loose and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with the Athlete.

These qualities are demonstrated by:

• The freedom and regularity of the paces.

• The harmony, lightness and ease of the movements.

• The lightness of the forehand and the engagement of the hindquarters, originating from a lively impulsion.

• The acceptance of the bit, with submissiveness/throughness (Durchlassigkeit) without any tension or resistance.

2. The horse thus gives the impression of doing, of its own accord, what is required. Confident and attentive, submitting generously to the control of the Athlete, remaining absolutely straight in any movement on a straight line and bending accordingly when moving on curved lines.

Some would argue, quite fairly, that judgement of these points are subjective, and will always be open to disagreements and interpretation. But really, could anyone say that the above horse is 'giving the impression of doing, of its own accord, what is required'? Or that there is harmony, lightness and ease?  

The FEI rules also state that 

'Abuse of a horse using natural riding aids or artificial aids will not be tolerated'

another one where the judges seem to be somewhat out of sync with the general horsey public. That the horse and rider pictured above should come 4th in the WEG dressage Grand Prix Special is, in my opinion, deeply concerning. People will justify the scoring, saying that pictures like the one above represent 'just a moment in time', but how many of these moments are tolerated, and how uncomfortable does the horse have to be, for how long, before it is reflected in the scores? 

It's a strange world where humble 'happy hackers' would not actually allow a good number of the world's most successful competitive riders within a mile of their horses, but seeing pictures such as the one above, this would certainly be my view.  

How to put horsey people off science?

A few days ago, I was given a newspaper cutting – in fact I received 3 copies of it as a few people had seen it and thought I might be interested. The headline was

‘Not straight from the horse’s mouth – only its eyes and ears.’

Below that, the catchy line

‘Scientists have discovered the secrets of equine communication’.

Having just last week finished preparing a weekend’s worth of teaching material on equine body language, of course I was interested.

My first thought was it seemed a bit of an odd headline, implying that horses only communicate with their eyes and ears. Horses communicate in many ways – through scent, vocalisation, through body language involving their entire outline, their tails, ears, lips, head position and so on. If scientists had just proved that they only communicate with eyes and ears, what had I been writing about, finding pictures and videos of for the last month? 

And, to be picky, at most the scientists could have discovered a secret of equine communication – equine communication is rich and sometimes very subtle, and there is much we still don't know. 

Turns out, a title along the lines of  ‘Scientists have confirmed one aspect of equine communication’ might be more accurate.

This is not a criticism of the research, but of how it is presented by the press. There is a worrying divide between those researching equine behaviour and those working in the equine industry. The research in this case, understandably, does not live up to the headline and then many of those with experience with horses read on for a bit and think 'I knew that already' or 'that's totally obvious' and go on to dismiss the scientists and their results (yes, I’ve had several emails and messages already scorning this research), and both sides lose out. 

And horses lose out. Because a lot of great research is going on in many areas of equine behaviour, health and welfare that equine industries, and therefore horses, would really benefit from. Anything that turns the general equine industry off science, and discourages them from reading what the researchers have to say is a bad thing, in my opinion. 

Some special mutual grooming

Yet more horse watching today. 2 mares, lets call them Bree and Sapphire (not shown in the photo below, as they weren't my horses). Sapphire has a sore back, although I don't know the details about this.

 Bree and Sapphire are mutual grooming. Bree digs her teeth vigorously into Sapphires mane and works along her neck, Sapphire responding with equal enthusiasm. 

When they move on past the withers though, it changes. Sapphire continues to groom 'normally' with her teeth, but Bree shuts her mouth and makes a gentle circular motion with her nose until she is almost level with Sapphire's hip. She then resumes vigorous grooming with the teeth. Wish I could have shared it on video here, quite special. 

Trust between horses

These horses and ponies have been together for about 5 weeks now, and are obviously pretty relaxed in each others company!

Some of their play could look fairly aggressive to the human eye, but it is wonderful (and educational) to see how they chase, rear, nip and push each other, then settle down for a nap with no fear of or distrust towards each other. Sound asleep right behind 2 horses, where humans are advised to not even walk let alone lie down and sleep! A worthwhile goal - to spend time being active with our horses and come away with this level of comfort around each other?

In case it isn't clear, I am no more suggesting we should copy natural horse behaviour here than engage in a bout of play fighting with a horse! Leave that for the horses. But the relationship part is worth aiming for.

What's in a name?

Currently reading an interesting article by Dr. Karen Overall about the need for precision in terminology relating to behavioural problems in animals. A couple of good quotes:

"The vast majority of clients and veterinarians, wittingly or not, engage in a terminology and thought process rooted in an adversarial relationship with the animals who share their lives. Physical pain is deemed as 'real', afflicting innocent patients; behavioural pain is often thought to be someone's fault or the result of a deeply flawed character"

"If what we call something affects the way we think about it, then what we call it is essential; yet we in behaviour have been incredibly careless and in so being, have done harm"

In the horse world, there are the obvious labels that are very unhelpful - the term 'stable vice' is still used and places the blame squarely on the horse. Describing a horse as 'dominant' likewise implies to most of us that the horse is at fault.

Even the common use of 'evasion' in riding. One dictionary definition of evasion reads 'trickery, cunning, or deception used to dodge a question, duty, etc' - no doubt where the blame lies when your horse 'evades'then!

Even the more subtle language like 'my horse is making me do all the work' - a comment made by a very tired rider who was working very hard while her horse trotted very, very slowly. Understandable, but is the situation really all the fault and responsibility of the horse? Did he phone her first thing and beg to be taken out and trotted round in circles for an hour? Is he actively encouraging her to keep kicking him at every stride, thereby wickedly tiring her out? Hmm...

Is there any practical use to these ramblings? Maybe... notice the way you think and talk about your horse, especially when things aren't going quite as you would wish. You may spot one or two wee words or phrases that place blame or imply a deeply flawed character! I still catch myself doing it at times. Then change the words, and it may well change your attitude, which might just change your relationship with your horse, and can certainly make you better at resolving problems. 

Tigger meeting the resident stallion at his new home. Inconvenient behaviour when you want to ride him, but no point in blaming anyone - he's just being a horse :-)

Mixing 2 herds of horses

Last week, my horses left Severie - their quiet mountain retreat where they have been for about 9 years. The last time most of them had travelled was 9 years ago, moving to Severie.

They have moved to a busy riding school - beautiful location again, with wonderful turn out, but totally different environment in many ways - full of people, horses, lots going on.

On Friday, the journey began. We walked them together about 3/4 mile from Severie, to a spot that a horse lorry could actually get to. Despite not having travelled for years, 4 of them walked straight on to the lorry - leaders were calm, they were still together as a herd, and so were not worried. Tigger loaded hesitantly, then promptly decided it was a bad idea and came back off the lorry. Then loaded again... sadly, we were too busy with the horses to take any video.

They spent their first night together in a small paddock, fairly exhausted I think, but seeming calm.

All good so far... next move, to introduce them to their 10 new field mates and their new field. I've introduced single horses to a group before, but never an established herd so was interested to see how it would go. As three of the horses (Benson, Flynn and Paddy) are 24, 25, and nearly 30, and maybe less up to a lot of excitement, we decided to introduce the 2 younger ones (aged 9 and 14) first. I videoed all of the first few minutes of both introductions, and have only cut out bits where I got distracted and filmed my boots or a bit of mud instead! Quite long, but didn't want to skip bits for those really watching the sequence.

Far too much interesting stuff in here to comment on it all. A couple of points:

* the lack of huge drama! The existing Drumbrae herd, although young, are well socialised and calm. There was ample space for the horses to interact or avoid each other, and no competition for limited resources. There was friendly investigation, some chasing/foreleg strikes and so on, but all very civilised.
* When Tigger and Elvis went into the field, they spent their time meeting their new field mates and didn't investigate the field. When the older 3 horses joined them, they paid little attention to the other horses, and moved around the field instead. The older 3 came in about 3/4 hour after the first two; Tigger already seemed sufficiently settled that he didn't join them in much of their exploration.

They have now been at Drumbrae for 3 days, and not a scratch or mark on any of them - could not have gone better!