Understanding Your Horse

• Why does he do that?• Evolution of the horse• Horse dates back around 65 million

years• Humans around 4 million years.

• The starting point!• A dog sized animal 4-11kg• 4 toes• Eyes forward faced • Unspecialised molars; probably a

fruitivore• Lived in forest and swamp habitat

• Survival of the fittest• This refers to the survival of individuals best

adapted to their environment or best adapted to the environment that they live in.

• Selection pressure – the driving force behind evolution through natural selection.

• The decrease in forest and swamps due to climate change i.e. increase in global temperature – drying out; resulted in more grazing land

• They had to move to the open plain where they would be in full view of predators, where fruit and fleshy leaves were rare.

• Horse was in view of predators all the time and therefore has evolved to deal with predators to survive

• Fast moving to survive

• The horse still thinks this way

Behaviour and natural selection

• Differences in behaviour• Spooky• Dopey

• The more alert horse –• better mother• longer life• more offspring

• Dopey - less chance of survival.

• Behaviour is adaptive.• Natural behaviour that you see,

helps survival and reproduction• The horse has evolved for an

environment that he cannot hide ie the open plains, constantly looking for danger and very aware of other animals.

Equine Adaptions

• If the horse cannot flee it fights • Fight or flight• Social animal living in a group• Relies on herdmates for survival –

lookouts.• They do not like being alone• Communication is a requirement for

living in a group and so is predictability.

The Domestication of the Horse

• Thought to have been domesticated about 4000BC through evidence of a bit on the lower jaw.

• One of the last animal to be domesticated

• We breed the horse for what we want –

• Size• Speed• Behaviour

Has the Horse’s Behaviour Changed?

• We tend to breed for appearance and performance rather than behaviour and the ability to cope with the human made environment.

• The psychology of today’s horse is similar to that of the first horse.

Behaviour problems and Abnormal Behaviour

• Definition of Behaviour Problem• “A behaviour pattern that gives

the horse manager a problem”

• Behaviour problem is a very loose term depending on the people involved.

• Definition of Abnormality• “ A behaviour that causes harm to

the animal or other animals”

• Abnormality is only shown by a few animals; 10-20% in the population.

• Self mutilation or self harm• Human perception – a behaviour

that is not normal is bad.eg withdrawal, self-mutilation, stereotipy.

• Damage to other individual• Aggression is not an abnormality,

protecting the foal.• Sometimes what we think may be

abnormal is, in fact, normal

Consequences of Abormality

• Surgery to prevent crib biting and wind sucking

• Recent research is identifying that crib biting stimulates saliva production to combat acid in the stomach.

• Stallion ring – causes pain to the animal, not used as much today as the stallion will not be interested in breeding.

Definition of Normal

• Decide what is normal and what is not.

• If you do not see a behaviour it does not mean it is not there. Eg. A horse in a loose box cannot graze.

• Put the horse in an environment where you can observe the behaviour.

“Vices”

• Used to describe many behaviour problems

• Vice – a bad habit• This implies that horses have a

bad habit therefore it is the horse’s fault

• Not an appropriate term

Sterotypies

• A repeated, relatively invariant sequence of actions that have no obvious benefit to the horse.

• Never been recorded in wild horses

• Individuals may also develop their own unique stereotipies

• Can be over or under stimulated• When you see the sterotippy

developing, you have a problem, therefore you need to change the environment.

Treatment of stereotypies

• Crib collars and various operations – cause pain

• Stop the problem temporarily, starts again when collar taken off.

• Could it be that we are stopping them from coping with their environment?

• Stopping the stereotypy can cause another reaction that could cause more harm.

• The only way to get rid of the stereotypy is to change the environment.

Self mutilation

• Stallions that are more isolated.• In the worse cases – sedation is

required

Aggression

• Different types of aggression• Mobile aggression – the horse

rushes to get you• As a result of thwarting of

motivation• Frustration causes aggression• “dominance hierarchy”

• Horse hierarchy is complicated and always changing

• Current (human) thinking – to teach the horse who is boss

• A situation were they will challenge you because the hierarchy is changing – causes a lot of aggression.

• Dominance notion may be responsible for a lot of unnecessary human aggression towards horses.

Wood chewing

• Not uncommon in the wild – minerals?

• Can be dangerous – splinters• Lack of roughage in the diet –

boredom• Horses do eat living wood in the wild

as a food source for them• New Forest ponies eat branches.

Eating bedding

• Straw is a food source• Horse cannot categorise between

food (hay) and bed (straw)• If there is not enough forage (hay)

they will eat their bed

• Our behaviour affects their behaviour

• The only problem horses have is humans!