Animal Behavior: Training & Welfare - Essay Example

At it is with people, each horse is a unique individual with its own sets of likes, dislikes, personal characteristics and temperament. Training a horse is challenging in that the trainer must understand the horse’s behaviour, mentality and perception and refrain from using human terms and standards. Horses are prey animals; their successful evolution and longevity is attributed to their ability to adapt and also to escape danger. Running is the horse’s primary protection, thus the legs and feet of the horse are of utmost importance. Kicking and biting also serve as defense mechanisms but are used only as a last resort. To flee is the first instinct of a horse when it perceives danger. In the wild, horses will collect in herds, usually in a group of females with one stallion. The stallion’s responsibility is to lead the herd top food, water and shelter and to protect the harem from intruders or danger. Horses are extremely social animals and, prior to domestication, ran free in herds with a specific order of hierarchy and its own system of rules that are taught to the youngsters of the herd by the alpha female. This essay will examine the training and care of the thoroughbred horse in the light of how this breed can be of benefit to people when properly trained and nurtured. First and foremost, let us examine the training of the young horse. It is essential to train a young horse to be cooperative and obedient, without the use of force or dominance. When training a foal, the first introduction to humans must be positive; the first step in training a foal is acceptance of a head collar. This will teach the foal that resistance is punishment in and of itself, based upon the foal’s action, not on the part of the human (Klimke, 1985, p. 13 – 14). The handler must be quick and decisive in order to gain the foal’s trust and encourage its cooperation. When introducing the foal to the head collar, it is important to observe the foal’s temperament. A very lively foal will be better handled when it is tired, relaxed or just after feeding. This lessens the chances of great resistance and raises the chances of the foal being cooperative. Use of the head collar and its acceptance by the foal should be a steady and consistent practice; successfully executed, this practice will make for a cooperative horse in the future that will accept the head collar without resistance or violence, thereby producing a safe horse to handle. The next step is teaching the foal to be led and tied. In order to do this it must be taken into account that the foal is very attached to its dam, and vice-versa. Having the mare accompany her foal is recommended in order to reduce the impact of trauma on either mare or foal at being separated. This encourages even more trust and cooperation from both animals with the human handler. When tying the foal for the first time, it is critical that the head collar is well fitted and that the lead line is strong. The foal will, upon discovering that it is tied, resist and try to escape (Klimke, p. 15). Attaching an inner tube to the tie-down and tying the lead rope to the inner tube will make the resistance less harsh for the foal. The foal will learn that resistance is an unsuccessful way to be rewarded and will learn to stand quietly. This will prepare the foal for grooming, bathing, tacking up and hoof care in the future. The foal will grow into a safe horse to handle if these steps are followed faithfully and carried out throughout the foal’s growth. It must be stressed that until any horse is full grown, everything is training. This goes for displays of affection or reward. Horses are highly intelligent animals and being habitual, a bad habit learned early on is more difficult to break than the effort to discourage the bad habit in the first place. When the young thoroughbred is ready to receive more complex training (about age two), the trainer engages operant conditioning in order to receive the full benefit of mutual cooperation. The system of reward and punishment with a horse is different than that of other animals because the domesticated horse must learn the rules of the human and set its equine behavior aside to a point. An example would be biting behaviour. When a foal nips, it is exploring its environment out of natural curiosity. Should it nip the trainer, immediate punishment in the form of abruptly pushing its head away is encouraged to discourage the habituation of biting behaviour. The biting can be reserved for natural play in the field with pasture mates, but must not be allowed with humans. When the horse is sufficiently developed to be trained independently of its dam, it can be taken into the yard and initiated into learning cooperation on the lead line. This is a critical stage in the young horse’s training as it is now free to move and is likely to protest, argue, attempt to play, etc. in ways that can be dangerous to the human. From the beginning of contact with the foal and throughout the thoroughbred’s training, operant conditioning must be used effectively to optimize cooperation and harmony between horse and human. This is based upon a mutual respect and successful communication. Operant conditioning must be unwaveringly consistent so as to produce a mentally sound horse that has confidence in itself and its trainer. When leading the young horse to the yard or training area, there is likely to be nervous behaviour. The trainer must remain quiet and confident, having already established trust of the foal. Still, the transition from one training area to another can be unsettling to the young horse. If the foal has adequately learned the commands to halt and walk, the trainer is likely to have full cooperation from the young horse. It is to be expected that calling aback and forth between foal and dam will occur, which may contribute to resistance from the foal. After the foal is weaned and separated from its dam, and has been successfully introduced to grooming, hoof picking/trimming, and standing quietly while tied, it is ready to begin training and exercise for good muscle development. At this stage, the yearling can be introduced to in-hand training. Let us now assume that one has acquired a yearling that knows nothing. The first step to train this yearling is to put it in a box next to an older, trained horse. The yearling will be understandably upset about having been removed from all that was familiar to him; he misses his friends and now trusts no human. Before any active conditioning can begin, the yearling must have the time and space to begin to observe what his new neighbors are doing in relation to humans. Placing him in a box next to an experienced horse and leaving him along except for food and water will be the beginning of conditioning (Kulesza, 1966, p. 144 – 45). His instinctive behaviour is to be fearful, and if he is boxed and a person enters the box before the yearling is ready to cooperate, it can be dangerous. As the trainer grooms and feeds the older horse next door, the yearling will begin to take an interest in what is going on. As days pass and the yearling begins to allow the trainer to approach and exhibits friendly behaviour, the trainer can then begin to touch and interact with the yearling, finally entering the box with minimal danger. When first in a training area such as a round pen or school, the young horse will want to bolt and run, buck and jump. This is natural and is allowed as long as the youngster is not attempting to charge the trainer. With time and maturity, the horse will go quietly to the training area. Initially, assuming that the young horse knows how to be lead quietly at the walk and trot and knows how to halt, further training with the use of a longe line can be undertaken. This is where operant conditioning takes another critical role, as the horse is not born knowing how to cooperate with a human and its instincts will override its training under new conditions until habituation occurs. The longe line is at least fifteen feet long and will be used to teach the horse to go in a circle around the trainer at the walk, trot and canter. This training can be difficult, as the horse needs to be immediately rewarded or punished in its responses. In this case, the punishment is pressure; if the horse does not stop on command, pressure on the head collar is given via the longe line until the horse comes to a stop. The reward for stopping is immediate release of pressure (Price, 2000, p. 103). With successful leading and longeing, the young thoroughbred will learn how to walk, trot, canter and halt by voice command only. Longeing is used for both exercise and training, and when used in an enclosed training area, the horse will learn to change gaits on command without the use of the line. When in an open area, the longe line is useful for bringing the horse’s mind from rest/play to work, allowing it to make that transition with minimal argument. In any sort of horse training, an experienced trainer with good horse skills will understand that it is essential to reinforce cooperation in the horse. At an average of 1,200 pounds to 1,300 pounds, a horse can be a dangerous animal if not properly handled and trained; using force and domination will only contribute to a horse that is potentially explosive or seeking an opportunity to escape any time it can, including under saddle and this is dangerous for both horse and rider. Horses can be neophobic animals, even the best trained horse can become suddenly fearful and violently resistant to a radically different environment; for example, a perfectly trained thoroughbred as a racing horse exposed to large crowds and all the noise of the track for the first time can become a dangerous creature if not desensitized to sudden noises, movements, waving flags, etc. What humans take for granted, horses must be introduced to gradually so as not to be completely overwhelmed with fear. Horses do not like change of routine. Once they learn their job, their preference is repetition and familiarity. It must be remembered that the horse is, and will always be, an independent spirit from a human. Whilst cooperation and a good working relationship between horse and human can be achieved, the horse, being neophobic, can and will execute a routine flawlessly a hundred times, then suddenly bolt and run and balk on the hundred and first time, for no apparent reason. The emotions and expectations that the human being puts upon a horse can be either completely practical, resulting in a good horse that achieves good results or fanciful and too “loving,” resulting in a spoiled horse that lacks respect for any human and can be dangerous. Sudden changes of behavour that would be considered abnormal to a human are likely very natural responses from the horse to an environment ill suited to the horse’s temperament or training; the stereotype of the horse as being loyal and brave may be true to a point, but a horse is also “naughty, funny, wicked and spiteful” (Cassidy 2002, p.129). A trainer/handler can only ask an individual horse to do what is within its character, conformation, ability, talent and intelligence to do, just like with people. The mindset of a horse is very different to that of a human, but with keen observation, patience and decisive action, training a thoroughbred can be a positive and profitable experience in several disciplines of equestrian sport. Works Cited Cassidy, R. 2002. The Sport of Kings: Kinship, Class, and Thoroughbred Breeding in Newmarket. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Klimke, R. 1985. Basic Training of the Young Horse. United Kingdom: J.A. Allen & Company. Kulesza, S. R. 1966. Modern Riding. South Brunswick, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes & Co. Price, S. D. 2000. The Horseman’s Illustrated Dictionary. New York: Lyons Press. Read More