HELPING THE ANXIOUS HORSE
HELPING THE ANXIOUS HORSE
I thought I would share some interesting snap shots I have taken of horse behaviour to demonstrate important behaviour and training outcomes. This is a lovely riding pony I had in for training a while ago and he had had a traumatic travelling experience and over a period of time this fear and anxiety of floating gradually became generalised in all aspects of his life and he became difficult to work and handle.
The first footage in this video shows the first time I ever tied him up and it is really interesting as it shows his hyper-reactivity, inability to focus and how this heightened state of reactive arousal hampers his ability to learn and how he "forgets" he is tied up!
The next footage shows him a week later, after I have done the following:
1) I stopped stabling him, changed his dietary intake to be in better balance with his workload and provided him access to 24/7 forage in small hole feeder hay nets, plus he got to touch and talk to my horses over the fence. So I took into consideration his horse needs in terms of diet and socialisation and not confining him.
2) Training - I trained him to lead behind me. round penned and ground work trained him and focused on asking him simple questions (upward transitions, inward turns and stop/rest). I also spent a fair bit of time just rubbing on him and finding his favourite scratchy places.
Both these aspects helped switch off the fear centers in his brain from being in a constant state of "switched on". This horse is an example of a "chronically" stressed horse. A horse with a nervous system that is responding as if the horse is in constant danger or potential danger. The nervous system is releasing stress chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol. Needless to say the horse is in a constant reactive state. This makes him scattered and reactive in his thoughts and responses. His mind is triggered to perceive the world as full of potential threats. High levels of cortisol also predispose horses to gastric ulcers, which cause pain which perpetuates the levels of discomfort the horse is feeling.
These actions I took helped for the following reasons. Changing his living and feeding conditions respected the fact that horses are designed to need 24/7 access to roughage in their guts, they are trickle feeders and designed to eat a little often. They are highly social creatures and crave the contact of other horses. Stabling them restricts their movement and this can also play against the nature of horses. Therefore, just the way you keep a horse and ensuring that it is more aligned with how horses have evolved to thrive can have a massive impact on the degree of stress they experience. I have had client's horses demonstrate a complete behavioural change purely by changing agistment centres! The way we keep horses is the equivalent of taking a human and locking them in a tiny room by themselves, feeding them only once a week (but its a rich banquet) and keeping them in solitary confinement with little interaction with another person (which we know is a form of punishment!). Therefore, meeting the horses species specific needs can do powerful things to their behaviour!
The training activities also had a massive impact on this horse for a number of reasons. Firstly, exercise and movement helps utilise the excess stress chemicals that the nervous system is triggering to be released into the system. Studies into anxiety in humans rank exercise as the most effective "treatment" for anxiety states. It helps switch the fear centers in the brain off which has a massive impact in reducing reactive behaviour. The round penning and groundwork helped to focus his thoughts which were scattered all over the place. By focusing his thoughts and presenting him with consistent cues and pressure he was able to LEARN. When he worked out I was predictable and got some clarity over what I was asking him to do he was able to get a sense of control over what was happening to him.
As a result of both actions this horse's anxiety started to drop, he become less reactive, started to perceive the world as less potentially threatening. As a result you see a less reactive and much more calm horse tied at my tie up rail!
