Texas Equine Clickers

Great weekend with Shawna Karrasch. Hope to plan more of these R+ Clinics in the future

~10 year old Arabian cross mare, 14.2 hands. Green under saddle – currently walk/trot. Has solid ground work, cues to, and stands, at mounting block. Good with bitted bridling but currently training in a bitless bridle. This is mare is clicker trained (a positive reinforcement trained mare) and has been worked safely and patiently to preserve and physical and mental wellbeing. Looking for a home that will continue this philosophy. Not spooky and with more training will make a very good trail horse as she is smart, outgoing, and curious. Would also be fine in a single horse home as does not have any separation anxiety with other horses. Being green, she needs an intermediate to experienced rider/owner. Asking $1200 including her saddle.
For more information contact: Zandra Baldwin 832-875-5661 or Lore Haug 979-412-3274.

Licking and chewing – submission or stress?

Horses sometimes lick and chew during training and this has often been interpreted as a sign that the horse is learning or showing ‘submission’ to the trainer. However, a new study suggests that this non-nutritive licking and chewing behaviour is a natural behaviour that is shown after a stressful situation.

To gain insight into the function of licking and non-nutritive chewing behaviour in horses, a team of equine scientists from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences observed the social behaviour of feral horses under natural conditions.

M.Sc. Margrete Lie and Prof. Ruth Newberry spent 80 hours observing feral horse herds in Ecuador and collected data on 202 sequences of behaviour when licking and chewing behaviour occurred. Margrete Lie presented her findings at the 14th International Society of Equitation Science (ISES) conference in Rome last week.

The team wanted to investigate whether non-nutritive chewing was performed to signal submission to another horse and also to study whether horses performed the behaviour in between stressed and calm situations.

To find out whether non-nutritive chewing was performed to signal submission the researchers tested the idea that when one horse (the aggressor) approached another horse (the recipient) in a threatening manner, the recipient but not the aggressor would perform the behaviour. The team observed and recorded different behavioural sequences that involved aggressive interactions (for example if one horse herded or threatened another) and recorded whether the chewing behaviour was performed by either horse.

The results were fascinating: the team found that the chewing behaviour was performed by both the approaching and the recipient horses. Non-nutritive chewing was actually performed more often by the aggressor than the recipient, refuting the assumption this behaviour is a submissive signal.
The researchers also investigated whether non-nutritive chewing occurred between tense and relaxed situations. When observing the horses’ behavioural sequences, they found that the majority of the behaviours before chewing were tense and the majority of behaviours after chewing were relaxed. The chewing behaviour occurred when the horses transitioned from a tense to a relaxed state.

The researchers concluded that chewing could be associated with a switch from a dry mouth caused by stress (sympathetic arousal) to salivation associated with relaxation (parasympathetic activity).

The results of this study suggest that non-nutritive chewing was not used as a submissive signal by horses in the contexts observed, but it occurred after a tense situation, likely as a response to a dry mouth.

The research team acknowledge that further research is required to measure the stress responses associated with non-nutritive chewing. However, this study does highlight that licking and chewing likely occurs after a stressful situation and may be used as a behavioural indicator that the previous situation was perceived as stressful by the horse.

To view the ISES position statement on the use/misuse of leadership and dominance concepts in horse training please visit:

https://equitationscience.com/equitation/position-statement-on-the-use-misuse-of-leadership-and-dominance-concepts-in-horse-training).

From study presenter, Margrete Lie:

“We looked at feral horses living with as little human interference as possible to see how they behaved in their natural habitat. It was important to look at completely natural behaviour and therefore we wanted to see horses living without restriction. These horses were living in a 334 km2 national park, and in the area we observed there were a little under 200 horses. No stallions had been removed from the population as is so common in domestic horses.”

“It was interesting to see how often the horses performed the chewing behaviour and also how clear it was that all individuals did chew – not only ‘submissive’ individuals.”

“The study showed that the horses were chewing between calm and relaxed situations, but it does not say if chewing comes as a response to relaxing or if chewing helps them relax. To able to look at this more closely I believe a more controlled study with stress measurements is needed.”

Save the date!

The 2019 ISES Conference will be held in Guelph, Ontarion on August 19-21. The theme of "Bringing science to the stable" will explore our relationship with horses through the past, present and future. Check the ISES website for conference updates https://equitationscience.com/conferences/.

The IAABC Animal Behavior Conferences The IAABC Animal Behavior Conferences feature eminent speakers on dog, cat, parrot and horse behavior.

The curse of perfectionism, and the power of "pretty good."

All over the world, every day, riders are schooling horses.

Horses do not "want" to be schooled. If you think that, you are a dreamer, still thinking like an eight year old, which is OK if you are 8, not so productive as you become more mature.

And good trainers know that training is "hard" on horses, just as soccer practice or track practice or basketball practice or any sport that requires running and high energy expenditure is "hard" on human athletes.

It is called athletically induced discomfort, and any human who is any kind of athlete will remember (or currently be experiencing) the pain of tired muscles, racing heart, panting breath, the feeling that running hard down that lacrosse field "one more time" near the end of a game is taking her/him out toward the end of her/his strength and endurance.

But human athletes have goals, like earning a varsity letter, or having the esteem of the other kids, or winning a State Championship, and to attain those goals, they are willing to push through the pain.

Horses have "goals", too, to eat grass, and hang in pastures with other horses. These goals have zero to do with "pleasing my darling owner who loves me."

And when our horses are "being resistant", it is almost always because of either not understanding the aids being applied, or understanding them, but being tired and starting to get to that point, like the lacrosse player at the end of the game, where "one more time" is about the last straw.

But perfectionist humans tend to be all over "one more time", because that last attempt wasn't good enough. And neither is this one, so do it again. And again. And again-----

Learn to accept "pretty good" as good, and quit after a couple of "pretty goods."

Don't keep drilling and drilling and grinding for perfection, because that will make the horse hate and dread the work. Get a little, quit for the day. Loose reins, a nice little pat, go for a walk.

Lots of days of "pretty good" can turn into very good indeed, in ways that an insistence on "perfect" never can.

Every time I hear that "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect", in relationship to horse training, it makes me cringe.

If you are one of those people with a visceral "need" to be perfect, take it out on some inanimate object like a musical instrument or a baseball bat, not on some living creature.

Researchers urge rethink of 'Monty Roberts' horse training method (Phys.org) -- Aspects of a horse training method made famous by Monty Roberts, author of the The Man Who Listens to Horses, have been called into question by research at the University of Sydney.

Fixing Treatment Aversion in Horses An equine behaviorist offers tips on managing potentially stressful situations to which horses might react adversely.