Healing Horse R+

When you think of anthropomorphizing animals, what are the first examples you think of? Would you say you anthropomorphize your own animals?

Most of the behavioral issues we accuse horses of: being stubborn, being dramatic, throwing temper tantrums, or purposeful manipulation are all examples of times we assign human characteristics or motivations onto animals. What this does is take away the accuracy of truly understanding the animal, and creating our interpretive lens as the end all be all explanation.

It might feel relatable, but the reality of this are animals that are misunderstood and that are forced to pay the price of what that means for them.

Recently, I've seen many interpret anthropomorphizing as anything that attributes emotions or kindness to our horses. That is false.

Anthropomorphism is NOT:
- Treating animals like social herd species
- Understanding that animals also feel pain and emotions such as fear, anxiety, and enjoyment
- Treating animals with empathy over punishment
- Acknowledging that all animals show decreased welfare when choice is taken away from them

But it IS blaming the horse. Anthropomorphizing our horses can look like:
- Blaming them for being disrespectful or stubborn
- Blaming them for knowing they did the wrong thing versus the right thing
- Holding them "accountable" for bad behavior
- Accusing them of faking emotions for a certain outcome

In most cases, assigning human traits to animals doesn't help anybody. They don't need to be humanized. Rather, they need us - their caretakers - to truly understand how to accurately help and communicate with them.

“Hand feeding teaches horses to bite” 🐴

This is a myth perpetuated by many that scares people away from exploring more ethical training methods. The only way hand feeding could teach a horse to bite is if we waited for the horse to bite us, then marked the behaviour and rewarded them for it.

If a horse gets nippy or pushy around food, then this is a symptom of a wider problem. The food itself didn't cause this problem, it was already present and the food just highlighted it. Horses who are stressed are quicker to become frustrated and perhaps nip at us. Stress could be from poor training, the environment, their living situation, pain or discomfort in the body, maybe hunger or being restricted from food, and so on and so on. Usually several of the above.

There is also a huge difference between horses being a bit nippy and horses lunging at you aggressively to bite. The latter are rare and this is a serious behavioural problem which needs to be addressed carefully and probably involves serious underlying pain, trauma or neurological issues. I have never ever seen nipping from frustration turn into horses aggressively attacking humans. And it's ridiculous to scare people out of doing something nice with their horse by pretending it's a slippery slope to extremely dangerous behaviour.

One of the biggest frustrations for any of us who advocate for training with food is when we're told, "I can't use food it will make my horse too pushy” or “it doesn't work”, when actually this is a skill issue, alongside the outside stress levels we already mentioned. If you're using high value treats and your horse is frustrated and confused about how to get them, then yes, they're highly likely to get pushy and nippy. That is normal frustration behaviour which has been caused by sloppy training, not by the presence of the food. However, anyone can learn to use food safely with their horse and actually train their horse to be calm around food.

With many horses this starts with delivering food rewards into a bucket and not from the hand. This is so we don't accidentally create the idea that the human is a walking enrichment puzzle to shake the food out of, which so often starts happening when we're trying to learn by ourselves. 🥲

Horses are extremely intelligent, many people are shocked at how easy it is to train their horse once we are meeting their needs and they aren't stressed about training.

Every horse is different, and this is why we need to learn about training with food as a skillset just like anything else. You wouldn't expect to canter and jump on your first ever riding lesson, yet there's this strange attitude towards training with food in that you can do it well and judge its usefulness with no previous experience or skill set. And I'm saying this as someone who used to heavily eye roll and judge people who trained with food.

In conclusion, if a horse is nippy around food, that is information that we have work to do around managing their stress levels and improving our own skillset to help our horse’s feel calm and safe around food. It is extremely easy to wind a horse up with food, there is so much to learn to do it well. It can be daunting as it feels so different from conventional training.

Please don't be put off from trying to train this way if those are you concerns. Drop me a message if you’d like some help. 😊

Pictured is me somehow not being eaten alive while hand feeding both of my horses and hosing them off at liberty on a very hot day last year. 😅🥵 They learned to park at their respective cones and wait patiently. ❤

INFLAMMATION – What We Can't See

Pictured below is a portion of the small intestine.
The light colouring is normal; the red, angry appearance is consistent with tissue irritation and inflammation.

We hear a lot about stomach ulcers in horses.
But what happens when the inflammation is further down the digestive tract?

What happens when the small intestine, caecum, or large colon become irritated, inflamed, or stressed?
Unlike the stomach, inflamed intestines are much harder to diagnose, and often near impossible to confirm accurately.

Yet they can have a significant impact on the horse's behaviour, performance, and overall wellbeing.
An inflamed digestive tract may contribute to:
▪ Poor nutrient absorption
▪ Loose manure or inconsistent droppings
▪ Weight loss or difficulty maintaining condition
▪ Increased sensitivity through the body
▪ Changes in behaviour or attitude
▪ Poor recovery after exercise
▪ Reduced immune function
▪ Low energy
▪︎ Aggression
▪ A very unhappy horse and a desperate owner

When that system becomes irritated, the effects can be felt far beyond the original issue itself.

I know I'm on repeat - but it's the repeat that needs repeating.
☆ Are we treating the symptom or the cause?
☆ Treat the horse as a whole.

The Equine Research and Learning Facility continually shows us how easily causes can be missed, and how limited diagnostics can sometimes be in providing the full picture.

Stress. Diet changes. Poor-quality forage. Toxins. Microbial imbalance. Parasitic burden. Environmental pressures. Workloads. Genetics.
All can contribute to a chronic inflammatory load.

Prescription medications and specific products may be required to provide relief from the immediate discomfort and begin the healing process.
However, long-term reliance on these alone may not address the underlying cause and create secondary issues.

Based on what we see at the facility, conversations with professionals in the nutrition field, and discussions with other equine specialists
MAIN Equine Researched Nutrition designed
MAIN Pro.
Designed to help support oxidative stress, inflammation (both joint and systemic), digestive health, and the microbiome by addressing the horse as a whole.

100% nature's best - proven ingredients.

For more information and prices
www.mainequineresearchednutrition.co.nz

Portion of the small intestine - Inflammation

Whats the purpose of a flash? To keep a horses mouth shut. Why is the horse opening its mouth? Most commonly, evasion of pressure.

Address the cause of the behaviour, not the behaviour itself because it really is counter productive and just causes even more discomfort that there is no escape from.

Why should you say no to a flash and a tight noseband? 👇 do you see that soft bone with no support? That's why. Now imagine a dropped noseband on that. 🫣

Pic screenshot from Henlea Equine Wellness