Horsemen from all walks of life, disciplines and dispositions, seem to favor (still) the idea of establishing rank between themselves and the horses with which they interact. Countless, unwanted behaviors are apparently solved as soon as the horse knows who is boss. Fair-enough, for those easily convinced by supercharged preaching. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the different approaches to horsemanship, as most have helped someone or their horse, or even both, to a better relationship, and that is a good thing.

However, it is a shame that such good trainers don’t take the time to understand what it is they are actually talking about, but instead blurt out gospel to the unweary. I am not about to argue, whether “Alphas” actually exist or not, as circumstances and environments vary greatly enough to produce the so called alpha position in groups, sometimes clearly seen in a domestic (restricted) setting. Alpha animals are usually despots (dictators), and I am certain that most, but not all, involved in horses don’t actually intend gaining this label.

When is fact separated from fiction, and whose responsibility is it to ensure that the information one provides to others, is at least realistic, or even just contrasted to the body of knowledge accumulated over the years?

Few biologists, ethologists, or behavioral ecologists have actually studied horses in free living conditions, whatever that may mean. One of the reasons behind this lack of interest is likely due to horses having gone extinct in the habitats in which they have evolved, coupled with the difficulty of working in the field. Few populations of this ultimate prey animal are actually predated on, and this on its own poses many questions in need of answers, especially in regard to social dynamics, and how predators influence group cohesion.

Horses are social for many reasons, but the main justification of sociality is that the benefits of being social outweigh those of being solitary. Cooperation in horses has been largely overlooked, and focus has been placed on a byproduct of cooperating groups: intragroup aggression and dominance hierarchies.

Following any definition that may be outlined, it is clear that to attain such a position in any given group a series of environmental variables, including interactions with conspecifics, would have to hold true. For instance, competition over resources, in which the alpha or “top dog” has exclusive rights over all others in a group, is limited by environmental constraints. Horses, in free living conditions are not known to compete over grass which grows everywhere; it would be a waste of time and energy. In fact in one of the most comprehensive studies on horses at the Granite Range by Berger and coworkers (1986) had this to say about the importance of dominance hierarchies:

“Classically it has been thought that through aggressiveness individuals may achieve high rank and access to limited food resources (reviewed by Wittenberger, 1981). This did not seem to be the case among Granite Range females.”

“(…) even in early spring when food was most limited and new vegetative growth had not yet begun, few feeding displacements occurred.”

“If dominance confers reproductive benefits upon female horses, some effects of dominance should be discernible. Over the study period NO CLEAR CORRELATES BETWEEN REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND DOMINANCE EMERGED” (Berger, 1986: emphasis mine)

“(…) more than 98% of a stallion’s annual time budget was spent in nonaggressive activities.”

Berger (1986), who was responsible for this 5 year study of horses in the Granite Range, speaks clearly enough for those who even bother to read his book; Wild Horses of the Great Basin: Social Competition and Population Size, in this age of cut and paste. (I recommend his book to all!)

In a less “naturalistic” setting, such in paddocks or corrals, we do however see horses attempting, sometimes incessantly, to control focal resources such as feed buckets, piles of hay,  water troughs, salt licks and so on.

“Under natural conditions, it is rare to see overt aggression or a single individual controlling a limited resource. Surely under natural conditions, horses rarely have the equivalent of an alpha individual within a band or an alpha band within a herd. Rather there is usually a more complex, less linear order, with division of leadership and defense roles played by a number of individuals and sometimes alliances that swing into action depending on the situation.” (Sue McDonnell, 2003 – The Equid Ethogram pp. 21-22)

I agree wholeheartedly with the above statement from Dr. McDonnell and findings of Berger (1986), further up. I also agree that under free-living conditions the beauty of social order, or disorder for that matter, reeks with variable life strategies which are usually limited by a domestic setting.

It seems in my mind that many observers extrapolate their knowledge and experience from a domestic setting, to a “wilder” one in free ranging or feral conditions, and this is in my opinion never expressed better than by Stephen Budiansky (1977):

“Horses have been enveloped in human dreams, myths, ambitions, and sentiment for so long that the story we have come to think of as theirs is often but a distorted reflection of our own desires, and then not always our most noble desires.”

“The myths that man has attached to the horse, and the motives we impute to it, continue to form a set of unconscious and often unexamined assumptions about equine nature”

Enough of the alpha horse for a while, let us look at another perplexing matter for some, including myself, which can be found in what is frequently termed submission in horses. Continuing in our creation of “just so” stories that would make Rudyard Kipling proud, we stumble upon another term which is often used but never explained.

As there is allegedly expected to be a “top dog” in all horse groups, at least for those that wish it to be so, there must then also be the opposite: the “underdog”, the runt of the litter or submissive individual.

A host of horsemen sell methods in which they teach one to gain the position a dominant horse would have within its family band. Gestures, eye contact, waving plastic bags, body position all used to communicate our intentions of being “Alpha” in our herd of two. Most of these procedures rely on something that usually does not materialize, as hard as we may try, and this lies in waiting for a submissive gesture from the horse.

A quick look through scientific literature on horse behavior, leaves one perplexed as to what these gestures actually are, or even if they exist at all….oh but they must. However as Sue McDonnell points out, in the scientific academia discussions on this topic reveal that “(…) submission in an open plain species such as the horse means withdrawal or escape.” (McDonnell, 1993).

Instead of expecting withdrawal from aggressive or threatening encounters, a host of gestures and head postures are meant to call our attention to the readiness of the horse in accepting our self-proclaimed leadership, alpha or superman status. Head lowering, lip smacking and a host of other gestures have been portrayed as indicative of submission, but are they really?

We have two considerations in respect to submission worthy of contemplation, one of which is submissive retreat (McDonnell, 1993), also known as facing away (Feist, 1971) or fleeing (Houpt & Wolski, 1982). This so called submissive retreat is catalogued in the Equid Ethogram as: “(…) movement that maintains or increases an individual’s distance from an approaching or following herd mate.”( McDonnell, 1993)

A quick look at the description of this behavior as depicted in the Ethogram, a wonderful work by the way, points out a specific position in which the retreating horse has its head held low, with ears turned back, in any gait but typically in trot.

Quite different to what some horsemen expect, horse facing you lowering head or moving jaws as if saying: I give in, I want to negotiate or even: Hello there Mr. Alpha. Dogs bow and tumble on their back, so then horses must do something similar….people cower in fear and show reverence to deities and authority, but is this what we expect from horses?

On the other hand we have what is supposed to be “THE” horse submissive posture that most of us have actually seen, in the way of an immature horse opening and closing its jaw with head lowered and extended, with bending in the knees or not….usually to mature horse. Most of us call this submission, but again, is it really?

The German Zoologist, Zeeb (1959), called this behavior Unterlegenheitsgebarde, while we nowadays call it snapping, champing, tooth clapping or jawing. Because this behavior was normally exhibited by young foals to mature horses, especially the stallion, we were quick to label it as submissive. It was actually Boyd, who first questioned this as being actual submission, as it did not inhibit aggression by others, and that defeats the function of a submissive behavior. Although it is reported that this behavior may have an appeasement value to that who engages in it, which is to say that the behavior calms the alleged submissive individual, little is yet known on what is going on.

Further studies, this time from Crowell Davis and colleagues (1985), suggested that snapping as described by Tyler (1972), may actually be a “displacement activity developed from nursing” (Crowell et al, 1985).

Much is still to be learned about the human-horse dyad, and what I myself have written may have to be revised in accordance with the progress of understanding, but let us not keep fueling “JUST SO STORIES” as these will only cause detrimental false beliefs, and we have enough of those in the horse world.

Just for thought, the submissive posture of a trained horse is equated to LEARNED HELPLESSNESS!

“Learned Helplessness/Submissive Posture

Standing quietly with head lowered, unresponsive to normal social and environmental stimuli, and moving away only on release command or directive of the handler. Consideed basic training in certain Western show and working disciplines.

Comments: Achieved using flooding and desensitization during inmobilization” (From the Equid Ethogram, Page 314, by Sue McDonnell)

The social life of feral horses

Oostvaarderplassen 2012

Horses – Galicia 2012

Hans the wonderhorse

You would surely agree that the most obvious characteristic of zebras are their striking striped patterns. The striped patterns of the zebra must have reminded the Romans of tigers, as they named the zebras Hippotigris, to describe these horses with tiger-like patterns.

Much like human fingerprints, zebra stripes are personal, and no two zebras have been found to bear the same markings.

The stripes run vertically on the head, neck, forequarters and the main body, while running horizontally in the rear and legs. How can such conspicuous markings be favorable in any way, if the stripes on zebras are as striking as a “turd in a punchbowl”?

For many years it was clear to most that the zebra had evolved stripes as a predator defense mechanism, and many explanations have supported this. The stripes of several individuals together will confuse the predator as the pattern merges to form a large optic illusion where individuals disappear in the stripes of the crowd, thus making it difficult for predators to focus on a solitary individual.

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Just for the fun of it, you can step away from the screen while looking at the above image, and you will appreciate how one of the zebras slowly blends into the surroundings depending on the distance from which it is seen, or the eyes that see it.

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Of course, if one considers that lions (Panthera leo) are the zebra’s main predator, and these felines are allegedly color blind, it makes more sense that zebras blend into a background that is not black and white. It is also thought that lions have difficulty in seeing zebras that are inmobile in tall grass. If  truly colorblind,  the picture above is likely to give a small “lion’s” glimpse of the optical ilusion created between the striped horses and the backdrop.

For most, when predators are mentioned in relation to zebras, one almost immediately thinks of lions, hyenas, Lycaon and suchlike, but two recent experiments support stripes as an effective means of confusing the visual system of predators through disruptive coloration; however the predators studied are the much smaller and possibly more persistent blood-sucking tsetse fly and horse flies. Both these flies are  Tabanidae, or tabanids as they are more commonly known. After all,  the notoriety of ungulates as targets for flies of all varieties is common knowledge, and pests like these are likely to pose potential feeding difficulties, blood loss, and transmission of disease.

The “fly” hypothesis was tested in a farm near Budapest plagued with horseflies, wherein the experimenters painted horse-shaped surfaces with black and white stripes of varying widths and angles, these striped surfaces were then covered in glue to see which pattern attracted (by number of flies stuck to the glue) the most flies. The results revealed that flies were drawn less to narrower stripes. They later painted all black, all white and striped surfaces just to check other variables, finding that flies were least likely to be attracted to striped surfaces. These findings are in line with earlier studies of the tsetse flies that showed these flies had a preference for large dark moving objects.

In fact, if stripe formation was linked to pest avoidance it would make sense in the light of inter-specific grazing, as between zebra and wildebeast or zebra and antelope. As flies are attracted to the darker colors of the other grazing ungulates, zebras would undoubtedly suffer less bites per capita that the darker species grazing alongside the zebra.

As mentioned earlier, no two zebra marking are the same, and this has led to another hypothesis whereby stripes are likely to play an important role in individual recognition, important for most social mammals.

Another hypothesis favors the role of stripes in thermo-regulation, the striped pattern helping to dissipate the heat of the African plains. A curious observation is that as you go further south on the African plains, the farther apart is the patterning, from narrower  to wider stripes.

Three species of zebra remain, plains zebra (Equus quagga), Grevyi’s zebra (Equus grevyi) and mountain zebra (Equus zebra), of these the seriously endangered Grevyi’s zebra has the narrowest stripes.

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While searching the web for information regarding zebras, I came across a curious African Bush tale of how Zebras got their stripes.

Long ago, when animals were still new on earth, the weather was very hot, and what little water there was remained in pools and pans. One of these was guarded by a boisterous baboon, who claimed that he was the ‘lord of the water’ and forbade anyone from drinking at his pool. When a zebra and his son came down to have a drink, the baboon, who was sitting by his fire, jumped up.

‘Go away, intruders,’ he barked. ‘This is my pool and I am the lord of the water.’

‘The water is for everyone, not just for you, monkey-face,’ shouted back the zebra’s son.

‘If you want it, you must fight for it,’ returned the baboon in a fine fury, and in a moment the two were locked in combat. Back and forth they went, until with a mighty kick, the zebra sent the baboon flying high up among the rocks of the krantz behind them.

The baboon landed with a smack on his seat, and to this day he carries the bare patch where he landed.

The zebra staggered back through the baboon’s fire, which scorched him, leaving stripes across his white fur. The shock sent the zebra galloping away to the plains, where he has stayed ever since.

The baboon and his family, however, remain high up among the rocks where they bark defiance at all strangers, and hold up their tails to ease the smarting of their bald patches.

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Read more on zebras:

Equus Evolution: The Security of Stripes in the Zebra Population

Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre

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Biblioraphy

Bard, J. B. L. 1977. A unity underlying the different zebra striping patterns. J. Zool. (London) 183: 527-539.

Bard, J. B. L. 1981. A model for generating aspects of zebra and other mammalian coat patterns. J. Theoret. Biol. 19: 363-385.

Egri, A. et al. Polarotactic tabanids find striped patterns with brightness and/or polarization modulation least attractive: an advantage of zebra stripes. Journal of Experimental Biology 215, 736-745 (2012).

Horváth, G. et al. An unexpected advantage of whiteness in horses: the most horsefly proof horse has a depolarizing white coat. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277, 1643-1650 (2010)

Marler, P. and Hamilton, W. J. 1968. Mechanisms of Animal Behavior. Wiley, New York.

Ruxton, G. D. 2002. The possible fitness benefits of striped coat coloration for zebra. Mammal Review 32:237-244.

Vale, G. A. 1974. The response of tsetse flies (Diptera, Glossinidae) to mobile and stationary baits. Bull. Entom. Res. 64: 545 – 588.

Waage, J. K. 1981. How the zebra got its stripes: biting flies as selective agents in the evolution of zebra coloration. J. Entom. Soc. South Afric. 44: 351 – 358.

]]> http://equilibregaia.com/2013/02/05/zebra-affairs-flies-and-stripes/feed/ 0 Equilibre Marler, P. and Hamilton, W. J. 1968. Mechanisms of Animal Behavior. Wiley, New York. http://equilibregaia.com/2013/02/03/what-do-guinea-pigs-have-to-do-with-horses/ http://equilibregaia.com/2013/02/03/what-do-guinea-pigs-have-to-do-with-horses/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:16:50 +0000 Victor Ros http://equilibregaia.com/?p=3641 ]]> Guinea Pigs, Cavia porcellus, are best known as cuddly rodents, and despite the fact that many children have at some point in their lives enjoyed their company as pets, little is known about what Guinea Pigs really are. These “pigs” are social prey animals, which mean that they are generally nervous of new sights, sounds and smells and have acute senses for detecting possible threats.

Sounds quite familiar, actually quite horsey, but let’s go on and find more similarities between them just for fun.

In free living conditions, breeding units are formed; these family groups are usually comprised of a male and 3-4 females together with their offspring. These family units or harem type formations, live close to other breeding units and temporary assemblages forming colonies (herds).

As expected in a social species, bonds are formed amongst individuals and communication is by way of vocalizations such as the “wheek” usually heard when visually separated from companions, or “purring” for seeking or experiencing social contact. Urine and glandular secretions are also used to mark territories of up to 1500 m2 and one another.

Most prey species are cautious to approach novel stimuli, including conspecifics. They stretch out and contact the novel item or individual with their whiskers, a posture that allows them to flee if need be. Unlike horses however, a perceived threat is immediately responded with a freeze of up to 30 minutes. Following the freeze they may simmer down or flee into the safety of a burrow.

Guinea Pigs are not known to dig their own burrows, but seem to depend on burrows abandoned by other animals or natural shelters which they provision with vegetation as bedding. This makes sense if we consider how little agile they are for these types of tasks, in comparison to other close relatives.

Like horses, they need a high fiber diet based on grasses and hays, the abrasiveness of which help in wearing down their constantly growing teeth. Guinea Pigs, not horses, undergo a digestive process called caecotrophy, wherein special droppings, called caecotrophs are passed through the gut and are re-ingested to optimize foraging. They remember learned pathways to food sources and such like, which confirm an interesting degree of spatial memory.

A quick look at the time budget of Guinea pigs in free living conditions, confirms that they usually spend up to 20 hours in a day active, and sleep only for short periods.

So as you can see, with the inherent differences one is bound to expect when you put a horse and a guinea pig side by side, there are quite a few similarities too. After all, guinea pigs have not always been so small, nor horses so large.

An artist’s reconstruction of Phoberomys pattersoni, a 7-foot-tall rodent that lived 8 million years ago.
‘Science,’ Carin L. Cain

Phoberomys pattersoni, literally translated from latin to English as; Terrible mouse was a a huge rodent that lived in Northern Venezuela 8 million years ago. Marcelo Sanchez of the University of Tübingen in Germany, comments in the study that if we would want to imagine how this rodent looked like:  ”picture a guinea pig the size of a horse.” More about this huge rodent here:

‘A Guinea Pig the Size of a Horse’

Reblogged from Roger Abrantes:

Reblogged from Roger Abrantes:

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The dog trainers’ dispute about training methods blazes on unabated, with the erroneous and emotive use of terms such as dominance, punishment and leadership only adding fuel to the fire. There is no rational argumentation between the two main factions, one of which advocates a “naturalistic” approach and the other a “moralistic” stance. The term ‘dominance’ generates particular controversy and is often misinterpreted.

Read more… 4,989 more words

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One of the most important events in the Olympics are the equestrian events. This not only because of our interest in horses, but because these events are the only ones in the Olympics where humans should work together harmoniously with another sentient being. The bicyclists have a machine they work with which must be of the right kind and well maintained, but they do not have to think about their machine’s desires and needs and how to motivate the machine to do the required movement well which is vital if working with a team horse/ human or human/human team. The Equestrian events are therefore the only multi-species team events in the Olympics. They are therefore very important in order to demonstrate to the majority of humans who today often have little contact with other living beings, and demonstrate that such beings exist and can be central partners in our sports, adding a different dimension to the Olympics and our sports.

But, nevertheless, there are problems concerning animal welfare that threaten such participation. This has resulted in hard positions taken on both sides with the competitors repeating how important the welfare of the horse is to them, and yet the rules allowing for questionable practices even in the Olympic dressage arena, and the animal welfare lobbyists often trying to stop any participation by animals on the grounds that this inevitably causes suffering. How can and should we begin to sort this out before equestrian sports in the Olympics become a thing of the past?

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One organization active against the Rolkur has put some video on the internet of the dressage horses warming up in one of the training arenas. (Epona.tv).However, it is not clear that the horses are fitted with Rolkurs although they may well have been used in training as the horses are seriously over bent, that is their heads are behind the vertical. Although the use of such restrictive equipment should not be used particularly at an event, nevertheless, this is not the most important welfare concern for these horses.

One of the most important welfare concerns is how these animals live in their home stables. Most of the dressage horses, particularly approaching a competition are never allowed out of their stables except for when being ridden, and never allowed unrestricted contact with other horses. Thus their physical and social needs are not being fulfilled in these and other ways. The Swiss have lead the way on legislation, and in Switzerland, it is now illegal to keep a horse in a single stable for 24 hours at a time.

There are problems which cause considerable welfare concern with all aspects of horses keeping, training and using: how the horses are kept, trained, fed, shod, ridden. Bred, in fact all aspects of their lives. We now know enough about what the subjective needs of horses are to be able to improve all of these if we wish to, it does not mean that we should not ride or use them in any way unless it is inevitable that by so doing they will suffer. This should NOT be the case in the keeping or training of the Olympic horses, but sadly it often is.

How they live in their stables is the most important welfare concern. The next most important concern is probably how they are handled and taught which is in the grip of traditional practices, some of which are fine some not. However, at competitions, where the public can see what is happening, if equestrian sports are going to develop and grow it is vital that the welfare of the horse is seen to be of prime importance and any questionable restrictive gadgets, bitting and spurring are not allowed. The public should be accurately and properly informed at shows and competitions concerning the horses welfare ( just stating is it of great importance is not exactly news!) and they should then see that this is the case at least at the competitions.

Once more and better laws and rules are introduced to ensure this, which will only come from the public’s concern, then the professionals and competitors will change their behaviour and their training, but until they are, they will not. Judgments made by vets on whether or not there is physical injury to the horse after an event are the first stage, but the welfare of another and in particular their harmonious cooperation is more than this.

The dressage competitions in which ‘harmony’ is marked and cooperation between horse and rider is supposed to be demonstrated are the first place where it would be possible to, in truth, demonstrate this cooperation. Alas, this is not done today, however much it is stated. How can a horse be considered to be working ‘cooperatively’ if he has no options: his head is restricted by a double bridle, his rider is using spurs, his movement is restricted by a bit , his chin with a chain which hurts when the bit is pulled, and his mouth by a tight nose band? This irrational stand in dressage which is supposed to demonstrate the ‘harmony’ of horse and rider, ( even if these gadgets are used subtly and cause little pain in the competition) demonstrates that the horse has learnt to do these movements to avoid pain, but it does not demonstrate ‘harmony’ between horse and rider; the horse has little choice. As a dressage rider ( I have bred, trained and ridden horses up to Intemediare dressage level) it is true that using such gadgets makes it easier, but particularly in dressage, we are not testing how easy it is to restrict and restrain a horse to win Olympic gold medals, or are we??

We really need to demonstration harmony in the dressage arena by showing how the horse and rider perform all the movements even when the horse has a choice and is not restricted by physical restraints. It is possible to start working towards this by having points added for fewer gadgets, so those who wish may continue to use them but they will not gain as many points as those who do not. (points off for double bridles, spurs, tight nosebands etc), as well as not allowing other inappropriate training methods at the events. The type of development that could be suggested for national competitions to start with is for example:-

1) No double bridle, just a snaffle ( which wins extra points).
2) No tight or dropped nosebands, or other restrictive gear on the head or any where,
3) No spurs, no whips,
4) No bit ( bitless bridles perhaps which have tightening nosebands, but no bit).
5) Only a noseband bridle with a loose noseband.
6) Contact with the hands by only a rope around the neck,
7) Finally the whole test ridden with the arms folded. and getting at least a 50% score.

The most difficult to achieve without using serious restrictive and painful training, is to retain the correct outline through the test, not just for some movements. This may be rarely achieved, but it could be aimed for if dressage really demonstrates the engagement of the quarters for a correct outline.

If within the arena there are safety issues, then either the horse & rider team are not allowed in or, horses are permitted to wear a snaffle bit or bitless bridle for safety, but the rider uses the reins at the level of 1-6 when he is doing the test, depending on the level of the horses and the rider.

Then those with the top marks and the gold medals will demonstrate their and the horses genuinely harmonious cooperative riding where the horse has a choice: the real Art of Riding and Communicating with the horse, rather than the horses total submission to a dominant partner in order to avoid pain (we saw some serious use of the spurs in and outside the arena even in the Grand Prix from medal winners). Now that would be worth seeing.

Up to number 8 above is possible but difficult, particularly for the Grand Prix tests, and perhaps 8 would be something to aim for, and achieved without causing distress in training. Sometimes he does not respond as fast as one would like, so, like educating a child, one must think of a non restrictive way of motivating him to respond quicker.. Now if I could see Carl Hester or Charlotte Dujardin doing this, completing the test, even at medium or advanced level with over 50% marks, then I think we could say that there is harmony and fun for all. This a challenge to any competitive rider who would like to try and perhaps we can arrange video competitions with official judges.

Such would benefit the art of riding, the sport of riding, the welfare of the horse and the public’s appreciation of working together with a living sentient non human being, entirely within the Olympic ethic.

The same applies to jumping, or any other equine sport, including polo. If, as is often stated, if the horses knows the game, then let them play it, help him to learn it, rather than fixing his head with straps and pulling it around so it hurts, so all he can do is try and avoid the agony and prey to the stars!

Comments or interest from all for discussion are welcome, either, on Facebook , Linked- in or directly marthekw@gmail.com . Particularly from any one who has taken part in the Olympic equestrian games or trained horse or rider.

Dr Marthe Kiley-Worthington
Director Centre d’eco-etho-recherche et education
La Combe, Bezauduan sur Bine, 26460 Drome. France.
internet: eco-etho recherche.com

This first part of the series “The social life of horses” is a recompilation of data readily available on several of the feral or free-ranging horse populations extensively studied around the world.  This new Page will be regularly updated as information is added or modified in consonance with the growing body of knowledge. Through these series of articles our Page will be filled with current scientific information, and may hopefully be used as an internet resource for the Equidae. At the same time, may this Page also serve as  an acknowledgement for the contributions of many of the scientists, who have helped us to better understand the nature of horses.

Equilibre is happy to promote the Seminar of Dr. Brian Hampson, to be held in Tarragona, Spain, on the 15th of September. We thank our team at Barefoot Solutions, S.L. for their continued effort to enlighten the public with wonderful speakers and quality information.

Brian, will be sharing his wealth of experience on the following topics:

Feral and Domestic Horse Ecology
The environmental effect on feral horse hoofs
Pathologies of the foot in feral horses
How to apply some of the lessons learned to our domestic horses

Hope to see you there!

Hans, der Kluge Hans, or clever Hans as he is more commonly known, was owned by a Mathematics teacher from Berlin, Wilhelm von Osten. During four years of careful and deliberate instruction, von Osten went to great lengths to educate his equine pupil and understand the horse’s expressions:  (…)  “his chief mode of expression was tapping with his right forefoot. Hans also expressed himself by means of movements of the head; thus “yes” was expressed by a nod, “no” by a deliberate movement from side to side; and “upward,” “upper,” “downward,” “right,” “left,” were indicated by turning the head in each particular direction” (Pfungst, 1911).

Read more…