Ross Dhu Equestrian Centre Scotland

I would like you to picture this scenario for a moment: Your first day at work in your dream job. You have studied hard, qualified and have left school or college to begin your career in the only industry you have ever been interested in. The interview was hard but the managers were friendly and now you are keen to show everyone how hard you can work and how good an employee you are.

You appear at work on time and at first everything seems ok. The managers seem quite cold and strict with their instructions but you think nothing of it. The work is hard and fast and you struggle to keep up to speed, trying your best to do everything that is required. Suddenly, one of the managers turns on you and begins to shout and scream because you forgot to do some small insignificant task. You want to cry, because you have done so many things that day really well and no one seemed to have noticed or praised you in any way.

Finally it is the end of the day, the time when you had been told you were to leave, you gather your things and finish up then you hear “Boy/Girl!” shouted at you in front of clients and other staff, “Where do you think you are going, you will finish when I say you can finish!” You are humiliated and ashamed but really afraid not to do as you are told because you want this job so much.

As the days progress you begin to accept the way the managers shout at you, how they deliberately make you feel small and humiliate you in front of others. Perhaps one of the other staff members pushes you around or strikes you. When you complain you are sent back out to work and given into trouble for making up stories. Nothing you do well or correctly is ever praised and the slightest mistake will result in a screaming fit by the manager who calls you “useless, lazy, stupid and worthless.” Eventually you begin to dread going into work, you feel ill and don’t want to eat. You can’t talk about anything to your friends or parents because you really want this job but suddenly your dream career does not seem as attractive as you once thought.

You have been taught at college or during you studies how to do your job correctly but you see violence and improper practise every day. When you question why things are not done according to the book you are laughed at and told to “stop being such a soft touch and stupid”. Finally you snap and shout back, you are dragged into the office and disciplined. You complain about your treatment and they just laugh at you saying, “That is how things are done around here. I don’t want to see any of your bad attitude, get used to it or get out.” You are devastated, all you dreams are shattered and you have a simple choice. Stay and continue to be bullied and humiliated or go and everyone will think you a failure.

How many readers are outraged, what if this person was your son or daughter? There is no question that such treatment is clearly abuse, both physical and psychological. There is no place for this type of treatment in any industry and most professional institutions have rules and guidelines in place to protect their employees from this sort of behaviour. However, how many readers recall exactly the same treatment from their employers when they first started out in the equestrian industry?

Most of the older generation of professional horsemen or women will have been subject to such treatment at some point as they progressed through their lives. Most however, would never dream of treating anyone else in such a way as they know how it feels to be on the receiving end. They know how de-motivating it is to be treated in such a way and that you will never get the best from anyone if you do not give them respect.

It may well shock you however to hear that this sort of treatment of staff still goes on in many areas of the equestrian industry and quite frankly there is simply no excuse for it. Many of the worst offenders will say “that is how I was treated and it didn’t do me any harm!” and my response is simply this, it made you into what you once hated, a weak minded bully with no real courage and who preys on the young and naive.

There are many, many good quality establishments out there who have happy and motivated staff where everyone works as a team and the staff turnover is very low as no one wants to leave. On the flip side there seems to be more yards where staff are unhappy, of poor quality, are poorly treated and poorly motivated. Turnover is high as most employees cannot stand it for long. They are abused mentally and physically and become depressed or angry and when this happens the ones that really suffer are the horses. An angry, exhausted disillusioned staff member will lose their temper with their charges, despite their best efforts they will find themselves becoming irrationally emotional at the slightest mis-demeanour and will retaliate. At the end of the day, workplace bullying creates a bad atmosphere where ultimately it is the horses that are the losers.

The excuse of “I had to go through it” is a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned if this was the case then we would still be shoving small children up chimneys! This is the 21st century, deal with it! We must no longer tolerate such treatment of young and perhaps talented staff. How many potentially really good young people became sickened of the industry and left before they could show how good they really were? We all “tut” and make noises of disapproval at the “idiots” who ruin perfectly good young horses and either cripple them in their ignorance or turn them into “problem” horses, yet no one seems to notice or care about the “idiots” who ruin perfectly good young people, driving them away from the industry or turning them into parodies of themselves and their bitterness.

Our mission statement must then be “Zero Tolerance”, it is up to us as employers and employees to make a stand and stamp out this type of treatment and abuse. If you find yourself in a situation like this then please seek help before it is too late. I advise you to contact “Citizens Advice” who can give you impartial advice on such matters. If you really need the job then look for another, there are good places out there who are only too willing to take on well motivated staff. It will soon become known who are “good” employers and who are “bad”, the reputation of the establishments will be tarnished and they will find it harder and harder to keep staff and will eventually close. For those of you reading this who regularly treat staff in this unacceptable manner, watch out, your days are numbered.

EQUIDO – MENTAL ILLNESS?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

With the best will in the world it is virtually impossible to broach this subject without prompting strong emotions and opinions. Your point of view will depend entirely on whether or not you feel that horses are intelligent and to what level this intelligence is developed.

As discussed in previous articles, the question of intelligence is highly controversial and I personally keep a very open mind when assessing an individual horse and will always approach the animal with the utmost respect for who and what the horse has evolved to be. However, in my many years of training and re-schooling horses I have had the opportunity to occasionally come across such bizarre behaviour patterns that if one were to relate them to a human being then the person would probably have a mental illness or condition.

Not wishing to sound too controversial (so not like me!!!) and not wishing to offend anyone, I would like you to consider that in our own evolutionary past there must have been occasions when an individual was born either with a mental handicap, or suffered an injury or illness that resulted in some form of mental disorder. The harsh reality of nature is such that if this was the case then there was an extreme probability if not certainty that these individuals would have died. It should even be considered that genetic aberrations in mental capacities is part and parcel of natural selection with those mental alterations that are beneficial for the individual and species being successful and those that are not being unsuccessful. As our society has developed and our ability to understand, treat and care for those sufferers of such conditions has improved then those unfortunate to be affected by such can lead normal and happy lives.

There are breakthroughs happening all the time in our ability to understand the complex nature of conditions such as autism one of which is the realisation that most autistic people tend to think in pictures rather than words. There have been startling discoveries amongst the scientific community that most if not all animals also think in pictures and this may explain why autistic people benefit so much from close contact with animals, especially horses.

If such mental conditions can affect humans could it be possible then that animals can also have mental conditions? Of course I must stress that this would only be within the individual animal’s reasoning ability and normal mental processes that this could occur. In other words I am not suggesting that a guinea pig can be a paranoid schizophrenic but what I am suggesting is that a guinea pig can show abnormal mental processes which manifest themselves as behavioural problems. Again, in the wild a guinea pig who is not behaving normally would probably have a very short life span and be targeted by a predator pretty quickly. On this note let us re-examine some of the bizarre cases I have witnessed.

99.99% of all behavioural problems are caused by a physiological problems, physical problem or pain. The real talent is in finding where the pain is and hopefully curing it. I was asked to advise on three separate horses who were showing abnormal behaviour and had been referred to me.

1. The first case was a mare who was a confirmed blind bolter. This meant that she would gallop without any regard to her safety or the riders. She could be turned but could not be stopped unless the rider was thrown or jumped off, then she would stop dead and stand trembling and bemused. The horse had been checked for neck, back, shoulder and pelvis issues, her legs and joints had been checked as had her teeth. Nothing could be found to explain her behaviour. What at first struck me about her was her superb temperament. She was such a nice natured horse to work with from the ground. However, once mounted you had a time limit of 30mins before she bolted. This was the only trigger we could isolate, time. You could walk for 30 mins then she would bolt or jump a course of 5ft fences for 25 mins and she would be fine as long as you got off before her 30 min were up. It was as if she had a timer inside her that would go off and trigger the bolting. The other interesting factor was she was a mare who did not hold weight well and was always thin and rangy.

2. The second case was a horse who was extremely aggressive with other horses, to the point where he could only be turned out alone. This was what the owners felt, but on questioning it became apparent that this aggression was triggered by fear and he was attacking the other horses because he was afraid of them. It was possible to ride him out with only one horse who he seemed to like and tolerate but no one else. He then began to stop mid-stride in the arena and rear in panic. This would happen in any pace and was becoming very dangerous. No trigger at first could be found but again on questioning it became clear that the arena was next to the field and he only behaved like this if he was heading towards another horse even if they were grazing some distance away in the field. This confirmed that he was afraid of horses. I received a phone call one day to say that he had suddenly and without provocation attacked and kicked his “friend” horse whilst they had been out hacking and had injured the rider of the other horse. This was not a good sign.

3. The third case was a horse who had been a safe and secure riding school horse who had been on a hack with his buddies and the rider had been galloping. They all stopped and turned around to head back along the track for another run. For no reason the horse bolted violently to the left, carrying the rider through trees at speed and nearly careering over a cliff. The rider managed to stop him with difficulty and dismounted and led him home. Over a very short period of time the owner noticed his behaviour in the stable was changing. One minute he would be aggressive and narky the next his usual sweet self. He was also beginning to lose weight at an alarming rate and the owner contacted her vet to carry out various tests to try to isolate the problem.

The first case study did not end well. Despite our best efforts it was decided to have the horse destroyed for safety reasons. A post mortem examination revealed a brain tumour. The strange pattern of behaviour demonstrated by this horse never left my mind and when I was referred the second case study I was immediately suspicious. I discussed at length with the owner that I felt her horse was almost “hallucinating” and did not perceive other horses to be horses. We were working along the lines that perhaps he had been frightened by another horse and we were hoping to try to overcome his fears using his only friend. However, I began to suspect there may be more to things as his behaviour deteriorated and he began to spook at absolutely nothing, even when being led. The final straw was when he attacked his companion horse injuring the rider and the decision was made to have the horse put down. Unfortunately there was no post mortem carried out so we will never know for sure if there was a pathology in his brain. By the time the third case was referred to me I had compiled a fair bit of knowledge and he was falling into almost exactly the same pattern of behaviour demonstrated by the previous two. He was bolting for no reason, was unaware of his surroundings, spooked at nothing, was aggressive then passive from one moment to the next, he seemed to be afraid of other horses and was losing weight. I was upfront with the owner about what I suspected and she had booked him in for an in depth investigation at her veterinary hospital. I suggested that they took samples of spinal fluid to see if there were any indicators of chemical imbalances in the brain. However, before they could take the spinal fluid (all the other tests were negative) he took an aggression fit and attacked one of the staff. The decision was made to put the horse down. A post mortem CT scan showed that he had lesions on his brain stem.

These poor horses had been affected by disease and this was triggering their abnormal behaviour. However, I did meet fairly recently a horse who was a whole other ball game. I will not go into detail about her behaviour, suffice to say that she would not willingly move away from a guide line. For example, you could ride her all day in the arena as long as you worked against the rail, all hell would break loose if you tried to turn her across the school and take her away from the fence she was following. The same applied on a hack, she was fine as long as she was following the kerb or pavement, just don’t try to turn across the road. She was not motivated by following another horse and was disinterested in socialising with other horses. The frightening thing about this mare was her eyes. The best way of describing them would be to compare them to the eyes of a shark, very black, very cold and very dead. We had her eyesight checked out thinking perhaps she was partially sighted or blind, but she was given the all clear and did not show any other signs of possible blindness. Her behaviour was purely linked with being worked. I remember I was working her in the school on the long lines and the session was being watched by a human psychologist. We were trying to work the mare off the rails on a circle and it was some job I can tell you. She tried everything she could to get back to the side of the arena, she even managed to pull the line from my hand at one point. We eventually ended the session with the mare completing one quiet circle in trot in both directions. As we were leaving the psychologist asked if I had noticed anything odd about the horse’s behaviour. I thought for a moment then said that I felt the mare was very clever in her methods of trying to get her own way and was constantly trying to outthink me. What the psychologist said next sent a chill through me. She said that at no time had the horse’s pulse rate got up, she had been calm, calculating and detached through the whole performance, she said that if she had been human she would probably have been a clinical psychopath.

This is of course a very controversial statement and the psychologist was looking at the horse’s behaviour in direct comparison to a human being. Horses do not think like human beings so you cannot say for certain that she was a psychopath. However, her behaviour was very calculating and very dangerous at times and the intelligent way she would manipulate a situation to suit herself did leave me very worried. This incident really made me think, was it possible for horses to have similar mental illnesses or conditions just like humans? If so then why does it seem to be happening more and more and why were there no historical cases to back up this theory?

The reasons were simple and brutal. The horse is a working animal and as such any behaviour or traits that were not acceptable were eliminated by destruction. Even if the animal was not destroyed he or she would more than likely have been rejected or abandoned by the mare as a foal. There are known medical conditions caused by oxygen depravation to the brain during birth. The common names for this condition are “Dummies, Barkers and Wanderers”. These names are very old and were an indication of behaviour shown by the foal. The foal with brain damage would lie quiet like a dummy and make no attempt to interact with the mare or even try to rise. The mares would often strike at the foal trying to make him or her rise to such an extent that they could accidentally kill or seriously injure their offspring. If the foal survived the dummy stage he or she would start to make a strange barking sound, again this often triggered aggressive behaviour in the mare which often resulted in either total rejection or an attack on the foal. Again, if the foal survived the barking stage he or she would eventually rise and begin to wander aimlessly around, the urge to suckle overriding but the ability to coordinate and focus on the task either absent or extremely limited. At this point mares would often walk away and leave their foals to die or refuse to let them suckle. Those foals that finally got it together and did begin to suckle would have some limited levels of brain damage which may or may not have impacted in their ability to socialise and their trainability.

In today’s world the costs of breeding are very high with the foal being a very valuable commodity. Medical science has developed to such a high degree that very often human intervention will enable seriously ill foals to survive to adult hood. Even those foals who have been rejected by the mare can be successfully adopted by another animal or hand reared. The controversial question I am going to ask is how many of those foals, who in the wild would have died at birth or been rejected, grow up with abnormal behaviour traits? I must stress that I suspect a very small percentage would fall into this category and that many of the foals saved will grow up into normal and happy horses with a very productive working life. But is it possible that due to the intervention of humans, some horses who may have some levels of brain damage which causes them to have abnormal behaviour patterns are surviving? Is this why we seem to be finding more and more horses with behavioural problems that have no physical explanations, have not been caused by trauma or abuse but simply put are showing some types of psychosis?

I do not know the answer for sure, but what I do know is that nature has provided the horse with exceptional perception and keen senses and just as some dogs seem able to “smell” medical conditions in humans and can be trained to do so, is it possible that the mare can “sense” something that is just not right with her foal that may, in the wild, jeopardise the safety of the herd? Who are we then to question her judgement, after all the only people who really know horses are horses themselves. I am not condoning leaving foals to die when lives could be saved, but it would be very interesting to map the progress of such foals and see if any patterns are formed. What is very interesting to note is that the “clinical psychopath” mare had been rejected as a foal and was hand reared by professionals who did not make any of the “mistakes” associated with hand reared horses. It was also interesting that the mare had never been accepted by other horses into their “herd” and had always been driven out from the group. Perhaps they knew something we didn’t?

So, if we do have horses that suffer from mental illness what can be done? The simple answer is very little or nothing. Medical conditions can be treated but abnormal mental processes, very unlikely. The reason being is we are only now beginning to understand how animals think and reason and as yet we are still unsure at to what is normal for a species and what is abnormal. Just because a horse shows a behaviour trait that is unsuitable for humans and makes them difficult to work, those traits may be perfectly normal for a horse and in fact may be a throwback to more primitive times before domestication. An example would be the horse that will not have anything to do with people and will only stay with and associate with other horses. This is normal for a horse, we were there predators and before domestication no self respecting horse would associate with a human. What I would say is, it is worth considering the implications and impact of human intervention and we should examine our motives for doing so very carefully. You cannot blame the horse for their actions, if we have created the situation then quite simply we will have to deal with it.

EQUIDO – HORSES ARE STUPID ANIMALS!
ARE THEY NOW?

This is a very, very tricky and controversial area for anyone to venture into and we all have our own opinions regarding the matter. The real difficulty is that we as human beings cannot even define intelligence accurately. We can measure and “score” intelligence in the form of tests which are designed to give an IQ rating for members of our own species. This is great, and, not being an expert on the matter, as far as I am aware, is pretty accurate. (I know that many of you out there are now thinking of all the “intelligent” people with academic knowledge but who lack the most important intelligence tool for survival – commonsense!).

Any horseperson who has worked with many horses over many years will most definitely have their own opinions on equine intelligence, this may or may not agree with the recognised scientific thoughts on the matter. It is a very difficult subject for any scientist to broach and no matter what they say, someone will disagree. All science can do is base their research on facts, proven, documented and unquestionable records of tests and material evidence. This approach is the only option for any scientist to use as quite simply they must have evidence to back up any statement and this evidence must be supported by physical research and documented proof.

As a person with a scientific background I totally understand the predicament that this can put people in. You may suspect deep down through your own experiences that what the “books” say about equine intelligence does not add up, but you have no way to prove this other than stories or feelings or other anecdotal evidence that quite simply will not stand up to scientific scrutiny. Here my friends is the crux of the problem. Most scientist would love to say that horses are intelligent, but there is no way of proving this is so with today’s current understanding of psychology and the function of the brain.

So here we are, are horses stupid animals that react only to pre-programmed instinct and have absolutely no reasoning powers? I know what I think, but that does not make me right and everyone else who disagrees wrong. One of the main pieces of evidence regarding equine intelligence relates to the size of the equine brain in relation to their body. It is about the size of a grapefruit. Not particularly big for the size of the animal and this is usually used as an example that not much brain would be left over for “thinking” after all of the functions of the body are allocated their own areas of control. I am no expert on the subject so I cannot argue one way or another, I know that studies of the human brain show specific areas for memory, emotion, social skills, motor skills, reasoning and creative thinking. These areas, when compared to the equine brain, show quite clearly that the areas required for reasoning, creative thinking and logic are not nearly as developed as in the human brain. This again can show that the horse has limited reasoning. What is interesting to note is that the area of the equine brain given over to emotions is as developed and almost equal in size to that in a human brain.

I had to go along with the scientific view based on the evidence but inside I just felt that things were not as simple as brain size and areas of allocated control. This feeling went hand in hand with my practical experience of working with horses. Granted, I have met a few horses who quite frankly were in the “Tim nice but dim” category whilst others demonstrated a highly developed ability to manipulate people and situations to their advantage, one could almost say highly intelligent. I maintained this conflict in opinions for many years until I watched a television programme regarding extraordinary people. This highlighted the case of a woman who quite simply put, had no brain. Apparently she had a medical condition that had caused her brain to develop in such a way that what should have been two small fluid filled spaces in the centre of her brain took up most of her skull space and had limited the actual working area of brain cells to a small layer lining the inside of her skull and sandwiched between the bone and the fluid. What was most remarkable about this condition was the fact that the woman was perfectly normal and of above average intelligence. Again, not being an expert I cannot be accurate in saying that if you rolled the entire working area of brain into a ball you would be lucky if you had something the size of a walnut, but I’m sure I would not be far away. This really made me think (I almost used 2 brain cells!). If this woman could function normally with such a small working area of brain then this really challenged our concepts of how we and probably other animals actually use our brain. The programme also demonstrated that intelligence did not relate to size of brain, in fact, it proved that intelligence seemed to have very little to do with surface area or working area at all, in fact it now seems that we simply just do not know what makes someone intelligent.

I then began to think about equines. What if they used their brains more efficiently than we do, what if in fact they used all of their grapefruit sized ball of cells to function, would that, in light of recent understanding, not give them more than enough to raise them in the intelligence stakes? I began to find myself moving towards more unconventional thinking regarding our equine partners. We do in fact have more in common with horses than we think. We are both mammals, we live in organised social groups that are designed to ensure the best chance of survival for our offspring. We have both evolved over millions of years to be able to adapt to our environment, we both have evolved efficient means of communicating our emotions and personal needs to others in our social group. We both form lasting friendships or enmity with others of our species and/or with other species. We are both capable of a full and expressive range of emotions. We both have the ability to learn and understand the language of other species!

The biggest difference between us is the fact that we act and think like a predator and they act and think like a prey animal. This means that the basic values and reasoning of horses is almost diametrically opposite to our basic values and reasoning. What makes sense to one species makes absolutely no sense to the other and I truly believe that it is this fundamental difference that has led the horse to be labelled stupid. The commonality between our species should mean that it is not really the place of people like you or I to prove to science that horses are intelligent and capable of understanding far more than we give them credit, no, it is more the responsibility of science to prove beyond reasonable doubt that horses are not intelligent and capable of understanding.

I found that by approaching the training of horses with the assumption that this was an intelligent, sensitive being that simply experienced the world differently from me and whose senses were more honed to their environment giving them a high level of sensory input, things became much, much easier. Instead of thinking that this was an animal that was only capable of reacting through instinct and that needed to be repetitively conditioned to respond to cues I tried instead to “explain” what I wanted, not in language terms of course, but through actions. I approached the training with the attitude that I was trying to communicate with and work with a creature who was capable of understanding much more but who viewed life with different eyes. The results have been, quite frankly, astounding.

There is a great fear among scientist to anthropomorphise other animals, in other words, to give animals human feelings or emotions or to interpret an animals actions through human terms. (Ooops! Please see the illustrations to show this fault!!!) This fear I think has held back many people from looking at animals in a different way. In light of the above it is not unreasonable to assign an emotion to a horse’s reactions and if we free our method of describing an event by explaining it in human terms then we just might free up our minds in our understanding of equines and other species.

What must be remembered at all times is the simple fact that a horse is a horse and should be treated as such, they deserve no less. They are not human, they do not see the world like we do and they do not think as we do. We must accept however, that this simple fact does not make them stupid or unintelligent. The more that you learn about the equine the more you see that in their world, with their values, they are in fact intelligent, sensitive beings. Perhaps one day we will know for sure either way.

What I can say however is that we as human beings are capable of changing our views and concepts, more so than the horse who’s view of their world and ours continues to be measured and analysed in terms of their evolutionary development and understanding. This does not make them more or less intelligent than us, it just puts their interpretation of this world in a slightly different place than ours. What should give you all food for thought is, when our journey to understand the nature of the universe and all it contains becomes complete and we can experience all that it has to offer with an open and receptive mind, what other beings that share our world will we find at this journey’s end, who have had this understanding for millennia and who have been patiently waiting for us to finally just get with the programme!!!

EQUIDO – Drunk in Charge of….?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

Picture the scene, your out on the town, your having a good time, yes you have driven to meet your friends and you will be driving home. Your friends buy you a drink, you know that you will be close to the limit but you go ahead anyway, it is only one drink, you can handle it. Maybe you partake of a “recreational drug” it’s only one, what harm can it do. Now it is time to go home, you are feeling very relaxed and happy, not drunk but “merry”, you get into your car and drive as carefully as you can. Through no fault of your own, another “reveller” staggers out in front of your car, by the time your “relaxed” brain registers the man in front of you and reacts it is too late and you hit him. The Police are called and you are tested for drink and drugs and found to be over the limit and driving under the influence. You are charged, fined, imprisoned and lose your licence, how relaxed do you feel now, how well can you handle this?

Most people reading this will think “good riddance, you got what you deserved, you know the law, you took the risk and someone lost their life because of it”. I hope that 99% of readers would not take the risk of drinking or driving under the influence of drugs but what I want you to do now is read the story again:-

You are at the stables, it is a really nice summer’s day. You and your friends have been relaxing, having a glass of wine or two, chatting. You are nowhere near the limit and besides you can walk home so you have yet another glass. You all decide to go for a hack. You catch up your horse who seems more on edge than usual; you giggle and laugh at how he seems to be jumping around looking nice and lively. You all set out, the horses are on edge, sharp and alert it seems such good fun. A car approaches, slows down and moves over to let you pass, your normally “bombproof” horse seems to be reluctant and is glancing nervously into the hedgerow, suddenly, for no apparent reason you horse spooks, runs forwards straight into the path of the car. By the time your “relaxed” brain registers what has happened you hit the car, tumble across the roof as your horse slides up the bonnet and through the windscreen crushing the driver and killing himself. The Police are called and you are tested for drink and found to be under the influence. You are charged with being drunk in charge of a horse, fined, and possibly imprisoned, you have killed your horse and an innocent driver, how relaxed do you feel now?

How many of you reading this have ridden your horse after a few drinks? How many of you have taken a little “Dutch courage” before a show? How many of you would drink and drive? I hope the answer is none of you would dream of drinking and driving but it may not have occurred to you that it is even more dangerous to drink and ride a horse. A horse is classed as a vehicle and as such you can be charged by the Police if found to be drunk in charge of a horse (you can also be charged with being drunk in charge of a bicycle!). It is perhaps even more dangerous to ride a horse whilst a little tipsy, a horse is not a machine and will react independently of his rider. If your senses are slower and your reactions not as quick then a simple situation can spiral out of control very, very quickly and the end results could be tragic.

Alcohol affects the balance centre of the brain, coordination and inhibitions. Your balance on the horse is instantly affected and depending on how much alcohol you have taken this can have a dramatic affect on your horse. The horse is sensitive to your balance and a well schooled horse will react to the slightest movement from their rider, if that rider is “all over the place” then the horse will become confused and anxious, their movements will also be erratic causing the rider to become even more unbalanced, the end result could be you parting company out the side door. This is bad enough, but what if you part company whilst going over a bridge and end up over the side! Your coordination may also be affected, making you just a little slower to react and communicate your wishes to your horse, again, a well trained horse will wait for specific commands from their rider and when these commands are not being given the horse will become very anxious and may decide to take matters into their own hands (or hooves) and make the decision for you. Not too bad you may think, but what if the horse decides to go around a fence instead of over it at a competition, you may end up head first in the fence wondering what has happened and blaming the horse but who is really to blame? When you inhibitions are affected by alcohol you tend to become just a little “louder” both in you body language and your speech. Horses like quiet calm handling with no sudden or big movements from their rider. A human is a predator in the horse’s eyes and when a predator starts making loud threatening movements and noises then a prey animal will just simply want to leave the area.

Horses are instinctively wary of the smell of alcohol, some are even terrified of it. This may be linked directly to level of ethanol in an alcoholic beverage, the higher the levels of ethanol the more wary or repelled the horse becomes, so low ethanol beverages such as beers and stouts may not illicit as dramatic a response as say vodka, gin or whisky. Not all horses will show their repulsion in a dramatic way, some seem to hardly react at all but just seem a little reluctant to be near the human who smells this way and given a choice will not stay with them. This repulsion may be linked to the ability of the horse to smell or “sense” toxins within a plant such as alkaloids and there may be a link between this and the smell of alcohol, so your horse may not be wary of the vet because of the things they do, but of the smell of antiseptic or alcohol from them.

So the next time you think about “having a drink” before working or attending to your horse, think for a moment please about the affect you may have on him and the knock on affect to others around you.

EQUIDO – CAN HORSES SPEAK?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

This is a controversial and difficult subject to approach as you will find yourself in one of two opposing sides, either you believe that horses can and do speak to each other and humans or you believe that they simply communicate with pre-programmed responses to visual cues developed and enhanced through evolution.

To tackle the second of the two points of view, that horses have evolved an efficient visual communication system honed to a subtleness that is almost invisible to us then I must definitely agree that this is the case. Being large animals they are very spatially aware and communicate very effectively with visual signals through body posture, positioning of the ears, eyes, nose, tail and mouth. The whole array of signals is astounding and their varying combinations can allow the horse to express a full range of feelings and emotions to their companions with astonishing subtleness. However, this communication is strictly visual (there may also be other senses included such as smell and hearing) and in no way supports the possibilities of telepathy etc. The renowned author Michael Schafer has gone into great details and study of this language and his ground breaking book “The Language of the Horse” shows just how effective this postural and visual language is with its complex rules of etiquette and ritual. To give you some idea of just how subtle this posturing is look at the picture below

Horse A on the left is more dominant than horse B on the right to underline this fact horse A has deliberately moved into horse B’s personal space. A has inclined his head slightly towards B and is pushing with his body and eye contact against B (indicated by red arrow). This has caused B to move away from him with a submissive lowering of the head, licking and chewing and neutral ears. This has avoided any unpleasantness and the social order has been confirmed. To many people watching they simply would have seen two horses walking around a field and completely missed the quick and rapid exchange of visual cues. This complex language is not totally inherent and many of the subtleties involved do have to be learned over a period of time (as can be seen by the lack of understanding of equine language demonstrated by some orphaned or hand reared foals). This does not mean that horses are holding conversations with each other and discussing the merits of the latest fashion in turnout rugs! This simply shows that horses can and do respond very effectively to visual cues and respond accordingly in order to maintain harmony in the herd and thus an easy life.

This ability to respond to visual cues can also be used when dealing with other animals such as humans. We too have a very subtle body language of which we are for the most part totally unaware but which the horse can pick up on with ease. The most prominent case of this was the renowned horse “Clever Hans” who appeared to be able to count and carry out a range of mathematical equations by tapping out the correct numeric answer with his front leg. They even hid the handler from view in an attempt to avoid any unconscious cues given by him and Hans still appeared to get it right. What Hans was doing however was watching the body language of his handler or those around him and as he neared the correct answer the slight tension and excitement of the crowd told him when to stop. This was only discovered when Hans was separated completely from the audience and could not “read” any body language then he simply continued to tap until he was told to stop. Does this not prove then that horses can only communicate through body language and can only respond to pre-programmed cues which relate to their instincts. I would have to agree that for the most part most horses are not required to have an understanding of mathematics as it has no relation whatsoever to their survival, however, with regards to the fact that horses cannot speak, well there is another side to this story.

During the late sixties and early seventies a gentleman called Henry Blake set out to prove, as scientifically as possible his belief that horses were capable of empathy or simple telepathy and could communicate with their fellows a range of concepts and abstract ideas. His earth shattering book “Talking with Horses” sent scientists into a frenzy as they replicated his experiments with very surprising outcomes. Henry Blake discovered that horses tended to form what he called “empathic bonds” this could be with one or more horses but they always seemed to be very close to one or at the most two others.

We have all experienced this bond with our own horses who seem to team up and buddy around with specific individuals (sometimes not the sort of individual we approve of!). What made Henry’s experiments so exciting was that he found that horses in an empathic pair could “talk” to each other and express abstract concepts to their partners. One of his experiments was to separate one of the pair bond and remove the horse to a distance of about ½ - 1 mile away from his partner. There was absolutely no way that the horses could see or hear each other. At a specified time the stabled partner was “excited” usually by the expectation of feed and the resulting response of the removed partner was noted. Almost 90% of the time the horse removed from the experiment would become excited as though they too were expecting to be fed, this excitement continued until the stabled partner had been fed and his excitement subsided, at this point the removed partner returned to grazing. It became obvious to Henry that there was some form of communication other than the obvious visual cues going on and subsequent experiments carried out both by himself and other scientists have confirmed that in many cases there is a form of empathy (the communication of feelings) between very close partners.

Yes, it could be argued that perhaps the horses could “hear” the excitement caused by the other horse although not all of the horses being fed were vocal. Perhaps the removed horse was reading the body language of the observer or handler present, but the handler was not told when the stabled horse was being fed, they were simply asked to record the time and duration of any unusual behaviour shown by the horse.

Again, this does not imply that horses are capable of abstract ideas or concepts, but what it does prove is that we cannot ignore the possibilities that just maybe our horses are able to communicate on a much higher level than we have previously thought. Remember, the equine species has been around far longer than we humans and so on an evolutionary scale they have had a several million year head start on developing their senses. What many of you will already feel is that your horse can and does show levels of intelligence that often make you take a step back and look at them incredulously and there is that fleeting moment when you truly feel that they are quietly laughing at you and your stupidity.

What are my thoughts on the matter? Well to be honest I am a scientist at heart and always crave evidence or proof that things exist. I have learned however that in nature not all things are clearly explained or can be categorised and labelled and not all things are straightforward. You cannot work with or own horses for any length of time without knowing that special bond, that feeling of mutual respect and trust that cannot be explained by simple body language or pre-programmed responses. I have personally experienced emotions and feelings that go beyond explanation, have witnessed things that cannot be scientifically proven, have met horses who are spiritually far more developed than most humans and this is the way it should be. There must be mystery in this world for us to discover as individuals as and when we are ready, not all things should be explained by science and those of us who have chosen to be with horses have the opportunity to begin a journey of revelation.

EQUIDO – YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER….
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

Case Study One
There are disappointments in the life of a trainer, especially when it comes to working with remedial horses. However, surprisingly enough it is rarely the horse that disappoints you. I was asked to go out and help catch a 4yr old mare that had not been caught in 2yrs. She was in a 2 acre field on her own and was happy enough to come over to a bucket but don’t even think about touching her let alone putting a headcollar on her or she would disappear in a cloud of dust.

Working in a 2 acre field is not ideal but as I had no other choice I worked the little horse carefully using advance and retreat methods. She began to respond so I gave the owner some exercises to do to allow the mare to tolerate being touched. I left the owner working on these exercises for a week. My next visit seemed to show that the owner had been doing exactly what I had asked her to do and the horse would now tolerate being gently touched on the neck whilst eating a feed. I worked with the horse using a bit of a sneaky technique of placing the noseband of the headcollar over the top of the bucket so she basically put the headcollar on as she ate. After a few attempts I managed to slip the headcollar on and she was caught!

Surprisingly enough she was biddable and calm once the headcollar was on and I realised that this was the object of her fear. So I advised the owner to leave the headcollar on (not ideal in a field but essential in this case) and work with the horse every day. A week later I got a call again, disaster, the mare had apparently escaped into another field which was much larger and had got the headcollar off. Back to square one I thought! When I went out the little horse came right up to me without hesitation and after around 1/2hr I managed to put the headcollar back on (we had no food bribe) not a mean feat in a 8 acre field with a bad to catch horse. The horse’s behaviour and the owner’s story were not really tying up. It was then that the owner said she wanted her backed to sell her. I advised the owner to bring the horse over to the livery yard I was working from and I would back her there.

She duly arrived (she had been led to the yard as she would not load or travel) and we began our work. Within a very short time the little horse accepted saddle and bridle and was able to long line. I found her easy to work with and eager to learn. She accepted her first rider without fear or incident and was working along happily in walk, trot and canter. Her fear of headcollars remained though and you had to be very careful how you put one on, but she was improving. The owner watched everything we did and we taught her how to work with her horse. By the time our training was complete the little horse could be turned out in a herd in a 15 acre field with no head collar on and be caught with no difficulty. She would walk, trot, canter and hack out alone or in company and at this point I gave her back to the owner. Much to my surprise the owner did not take her back to her original field or sell her, but kept her on the yard as another livery. This gave me the chance to see just how easy it is to undo all of the hard work put into a horse.

Despite the owner witnessing herself what had worked best for this horse she very quickly went back to her usually way of handling and working with her. Everything we told the owner she should not do with this horse she did and all the advice we gave her for working with the little horse was not carried out. As a result, within a very short time (a matter of weeks) the horse was becoming bad to catch again. It was a difficult lesson to learn as I had to walk past this little horse every day who would whinny at me almost pleading for the help and understanding that she thought she had found with us. As it was not my yard and the owner was not my client I could do nothing. I did however not hold my tongue when I walked in one day to find the owner beating her horse up in the stable with the headcollar (I now understood the reason for the horse’s fear). The crowning glory to the disaster came when my husband was out cycling past the field the horse’s were in and saw a group of four or five people (the owner and her friends) herding all 10 horses (my own included) into a corner of the field with lunge whips and schooling sticks. The herd was frightened and the little horse was terrified. She had been turned out with catching straps (ropes/straps around her neck to grab hold of) and they still could not get near her. When my husband politely inquired if they would like him to bring the other horse’s in to make things easier they were mortified, some were pathetically trying to hide the whips behind their backs, they had not recognised my husband because of the cycling gear he was wearing.

The owner moved the horse not long after the incident and I remember being at a show one day and spotted the little horse being ridden by someone at the other end of the field. The horse was excited and she accidentally unseated the rider. The owner tried to grab her as did some other people but she would not be caught. I shouted her name and she saw me on my horse and came running straight over and stood with me. I quietly dismounted and gave her a nice stroke for being good then led her back to the owner. I will never forget the look of betrayal on that little horse’s face when I handed her back. I have since heard that the owner has been told by several instructors that the horse is not the problem, she is and she should sell the horse.

Why did the owner behave as she did? The only reason I could think of is that some people are so afraid of change or what they deem to be failure that they will continue to use their way (even if it is obviously not working) because they don’t want the horse to beat them. These people just don’t understand that the horse does not think this way and only wants to be understood.

Case Study Two
A lady asked if she could bring her horse over for schooling as he was being naughty and she would like him “sorted out”. When she arrived I sat down and took a lot of notes about their partnership. It became obvious that this lady seemed to take her pony to be “sorted” every few months or so to trainers and the previous two trainers she had been to I knew very well and highly respect.

Within a day or so of working with the partnership and after lengthy conversations with the owner it became very obvious that this was simply a mismatch of personalities. What had happened was that the owner’s remit had changed. She had originally sought a horse for simple hacking once or twice a week, but now, as her riding improved, she wanted to do more, to school, maybe even do a little show. As her retirement approached she had visions of the two of them spending lots of time together and being the best of friends.

However, when she first looked for a horse she needed a tough little laid back character that was happy to fend for himself living out in all weathers in a field and only being attended to and asked to work three times a week at the most. This required a very independent character that was not reliant on humans or craved human company. The pony needed to be tough and laid back to the point of being lazy so that if the owner could not ride for a couple of weeks (which often happened) he would be neither up nor down about it the next time she got on him. He was quite simply, a happy hacker. The pony she had bought was perfect for the job and had been fantastic for the first few months of ownership. However, the lady had a difficult job full of responsibility and decision making and as such when she rode she simply did not want to have to think too much and was happy to let the pony make much of the decisions and “take care” of her.

I know from experience that if you go down this route then you better be willing to accept that the horse just might go on making the decisions even down to when it is time to go home and you simply cannot blame them for doing so.

It was when the lady realised she wanted more from the relationship and was pouring affection onto the pony (human affection, kisses, cuddles etc) that she noticed the change. Human affection does not make sense to a horse, they are horses not humans and not all of them tolerate such behaviour. This little horse was one of them, he tried to tell her as plainly as he could by nipping her, barging her out of the way, shoving her away with his head, or simply refusing to be caught. But she just didn’t get it. Then she started to ask him to school! That was the final straw he must have thought! He began to be nappy, to buck, to make it clear to her that he did not want to be a school horse, it wasn’t what he wanted to do.

When I explained this to the lady she was very upset. She had this romantic picture in her head of a “black beauty” scenario and I explained that there were plenty of horse’s out there willing to fill that role but not this little guy, he was more of a “Jimmy Cagney” character more likely to punch your nose than give you a cuddle! She couldn’t understand why she had been advised to buy such a pony, but as I pointed out he was exactly what she was looking for at the time, it wasn’t his fault that she had changed the goal posts. He was a great little trekking pony and would be ideal in that situation where he didn’t care who rode him as long as was hacking out with his equine buddies. He didn’t crave human company and was a real equine survivor, why should it be his responsibility to change?

The lady went home and pondered her predicament. I heard through the grapevine that she took her “problem” horse to another trainer who surprisingly enough has advised her exactly the same thing. So she has spent a lot of money to get the same answer. I hope for her pony’s sake that she will now take the advice and sell him to a home that is more suited to him. He is an extremely safe pony who would work all day on a hack if asked to, is surefooted and keen and who will ensure his rider gets home safely. What more can you ask of a pony? (Just don’t try to kiss him!)

Case Study Three
It is hard being a trainer and either watching your work undone or having to advise someone that they should part with their horse, but there are many more cases where everything just goes perfectly.

I had been asked to help this lady with her horse who had just bucked her off and fractured her ribs. She had taken the horse to several “top” instructors who had simply advised her that she needed the buck beaten out of her. I was the horse’s last hope for if I could not fix her she would be put down (no pressure then!).

I was expecting to see a bad tempered, belligerent, single minded, obnoxious horse who simply did not want to work but what I found was the sweetest, gentlest, most willing and biddable mare I had encountered for a long time. Again, two and two were not making four! I carefully examined her on the ground and handled her and she was polite and willing to carry out my every request. As I watched her walk away from me I was shocked at how uneven her quarters were, I asked the owner to stand behind her and see how crooked her pelvis was. As I ran my hand over her back she almost sat down when I reached her loins. At this point I advised the owner she needed to consult a specialist veterinary surgeon as I felt there may be a problem in her hindquarters that was causing her to buck. She advised me that several vets had examined the horse and nothing had been found. I showed the owner again the horse’s reaction when I put pressure on her loins just in front of the pelvis and this time the mare politely (but pointedly) lifted her hind leg and waved it at me in a warning. The owner was mortified as the mare never kicked out at anyone, I explained that the horse was justified in what she had done as I was obviously hurting her quite badly.

The owner took my advice and in the meantime gave me a video to watch of a lesson she had received from a top instructor not so long ago. I was horrified by what I saw. The instructor had got on the horse “to sort her out” as she was bucking every time she went into canter. He was beating the horse continuously with a schooling stick (used like a jumping stick) and she was obviously very lame in the back legs, a point that he was missing completely. The owner was crying and begging him to please stop hitting her horse and it was so appauling that I wanted to send the tape to the proper authorities.

I received a call from the owner a week later thanking me so much for my advice. A different vet had examined the horse and found she had very bad bone spavins in both hocks. The pain, he said must have been unbearable, especially when asked to canter with the pain shooting up her back into her pelvis. She had been trying to compensate by holding her pelvis crooked and as a result had caused herself even more pain. He was not surprised she bucked in canter and was amazed she would even carry a rider in walk or trot, what an honest little horse.

Six months later I received a call from the lady to say her horse had completed her treatment and had been given the all clear. She understood that the horse would still be afraid of the remembered pain and asked if I would take her in to re-start her in her training and help her overcome her fear. This we did and she trusted us completely and tried her hardest. She was perfect in her behaviour and never offered to buck once. The owner came with her for lessons and rode her according to our instructions and carried out our every request to the letter. About a year later I received a call from the same lady to say how grateful she was for saving her horse’s life and to say that she was now a very successful dressage horse and they were both having a wonderful life together.

Thankfully there are more positive stories than negative simply because there are many more positive owners who actively listen to advice and are willing to make the changes needed to ensure their horse’s success. It is up to the owner to work with the horse and to listen to their needs. As the old saying goes “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”, so would you be willing to take a drink if it was offered?

EQUIDO – When we must say goodbye
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

The hardest things for any horse, or pet owner, to do is know when it is time to let their animal die with dignity. We don’t always have a choice. Even so, it can be very difficult to know when enough is enough. When we take on the responsibility of looking after an animal we must also take on the responsibility for allowing them to leave this world with as little suffering as possible.

On Monday 30 March 1998, I rode Bruja for the last time. I took the day off work and came up to the yard in the early afternoon. I brought her in and spent time grooming her and fussing over her. I brought out my Western tack and she nosed it sighing. I had noticed recently when she came in she would search the door for the saddle. If there was no saddle, she brightened up knowing she would have no work. I tacked her up and planned my route. I was running out of light so I chose a shorter route that took 30 min and gave us the opportunity to sneak into a field for a quick gallop.

We walked down the hill towards the field. I felt her jog on as she approached the gate, willing to take me in and go for a run. A voice in my head said “Don’t do it!”. I gently pulled her up and turned her around.

“It’s OK. We’ll gallop another day.”

As we went back to the yard I put her on a grass verge and let her canter. I let her choose her pace and felt her try to run, but no power was in those great muscles. Her strong sure legs were failing her. I pulled her up and walked her home.

On the Tuesday it was her day off and a friend looked after her, bringing her in and feeding her. On the Wednesday a young girl who was learning to ride on her came up for her usual lesson. I brought Bruja in from the field and took off her rugs. I gasped in shock at what I saw. The young girl, who hadn’t seen Bruja for a month exclaimed in surprise. This powerful friend was fading. The strong muscles of her quarters were wasting away. I ran my hand over her ribs and felt the flesh thin, barely disguising the bones. I called my friend over.

“Look at this.” I said. her expression said it all. She was as experienced as me and could recognise as I could that this was serious. Bruja was fading fast. We put her into her bed and again she wouldn’t eat her feed. I took the young girl home and only when she left the car did I break down in tears. I knew this chapter in my life was racing to a close.

On Thursday I put Bruja out in a small lush paddock. I hoped against hope if I could only get her to eat, she would recover her strength. I left her extra hay and feeding as I walked away.

That night I brought her in and I couldn’t see any difference in her weight. On Friday, I put her out in the paddock again. I was up a little later than expected that night and my friend had already brought her in, rugged and fed her. She looked so contented munching her hay, I didn’t have the heart to disturb her.

On Saturday 4 April 1998 I went up early to make sure she was OK. I mucked her out and took off her rugs to put on her outdoor New Zealand. As the rugs came off I dropped them to the floor, my poor beautiful Bruja was fading to a skeleton. Her body weight must have halved in these few short days. I had already checked her feed manger and noted that her evening feed had not been touched. She hadn’t drunk any water and her hay was barely disturbed. Her tail was clean of shavings so she hadn’t laid down that night at all. Her legs were swollen from standing all night.

“It’s OK my baby girl, it’s OK” I patted her neck and she watched me with dull, sad eyes. I put her stable rug back on and went home knowing that now I had to be strong for her, for my friend.

As soon as I called the vet we went back up to the yard to wait. As we all stood in her stable waiting for the vet it was the hardest thing in the world for me to do to keep calm. I didn’t want to cry, I didn’t want to upset Bruja. She mustn’t suspect anything. I was stupid to think Bruja didn’t know what was going on.

The vet arrived, she examined Bruja carefully and thoroughly. She suspected as I did that Bruja had liver failure, a common complaint in old horses. She knew as I did that by the time any blood tests came back from the lab the horse would be dead.

She finally spoke: “She has a very bad heart murmur, her circulation is bad and her lungs are filling with fluid, that’s why she won’t lie down. It is not treatable and will not get better.”

She looked me straight in the eye as she said this - it was my decision. It surprised me how easy it was to say those fateful words: “Do it now”.

This was my friend and she was in pain and suffering. Every time Bruja had been in pain in her life she knew it would be me who would take the pain away. She knew I would help her.

We led her quietly round to the indoor school and closed the door. Bruja stood quietly as we took off the headcollar and I held her with a rope round her neck. As the injection went in I talked to her all the time. I didn’t cry, I didn’t sound upset, I wouldn’t do it, I wanted my voice telling her how good she was to be the last thing she heard. As the injection took effect she staggered.

“Let her go said the Vet”. I let the rope slip away from her neck as she went down, a mild look of surprise on her face. Usually when they go down a horse will struggle in panic. As soon as she hit the ground I ran to her side,

“Be careful…” the vet started to say, expecting Bruja to struggle. But I wouldn’t let my friend panic, I wouldn’t let her last moments be filled with fear and confusion. As soon as my hand touched her neck she looked at me with blurry eyes.

“It’s OK my baby girl, it’s OK. Lie still hen, good girly.” I felt her relax, I felt the fight leave her as she gratefully gave in to the anaesthetic. I watched my friend die. I talked to her constantly till I saw the spirit of fire that was her leave her eyes. I waited till she was gone before I expressed my grief.

I heard the vet say “That’s her gone,” before I let go. I remember standing up and turning away, I dropped the rope and sobbed as I felt her leave this world.

I hoped it would be a long long time before I would ever have to do anything like that again or make any such huge decisions but it was not to be. Seven years later, I took on another horse and became a two-horse owner. I took in a Warmblood mare who had ongoing problems and issues stemming from a leg fracture that should have healed perfectly well, but through one thing or another it required a plate to go in which became infected. Armani had been struggling with this problem for two years until her owners were advised to refer her to me.

Armani came to me for rehabilitation and she was initially very lame. After 8 months of intensive aftercare treatment she not only became sound, but when her leg was X-rayed again the wound showed very little or no infection. Armani went from strength to strength, regaining her muscle structure and starting serious work. Her owners who sold her to me as she was, seemed happy with her here, but they knew she would never be strong enough to jump again.

Everything was looking great for her and she regained her full bloom, starting canter work and moving well. We even competed in a showing class coming fourth. Not bad for a horse who was crippled just a few short months ago. She overcame her fear of being out in a field and not only had horse friends, but also took on the responsibility of second-in-command from the lead mare and made sure she disciplined the babies of the herd and kept them in check. It was a great success story and it all seemed to be going so well.

However, a year after coming sound things began to go wrong. She had a constant open wound on her leg to allow the infection from the plate to drain and it was through this that she took in another major infection. We struggled for 8 weeks with various types of antibiotics, even looking at removing the plate with a local anaesthetic (she had nearly died under a general anaesthetic for the first operation). She struggled gamely on, sometimes having good days when she could be ridden out in walk and sometimes having bad days where she would wander around the field making sure everyone was behaving themselves.

In April of this year I stood in her stable and talked to her, I made it clear that she must decide what to do, she must either fight this infection off and survive or make it clear to me that it was time to go. A few days later I was lecturing SSPCA students and looked out of the window to see Armani lie down in the field directly in my eye line.

She went down very heavily and I was concerned. We went out to introduce the horses to the students and as we walked towards her she groaned and lay flat out, obviously in discomfort. We tried to raise her and she made an effort but she just didn’t have any power in her hindquarters. We tried to roll her over onto her good leg to see if that would help her get up but she just lay flat out and limp. It was clear to me that she had given up.

I called the vet from the field and said that we would have to put her down immediately, probably where she was lying. As soon as I hung up Armani gave one last effort and got to her feet, walking away from us virtually sound. It was as though she had been satisfied that I had made the right decision.

We caught her and stood with her waiting for the vet and he confirmed that enough was enough. We led her on her last walk up to a secluded part of the winter field out of the eyesight of the stabled horses and gave her a last feed. She stood quietly munching and listening to us tell her how good and brave she was. The vet gave her the injection as she finished her last mouthful and she very quickly fell to her knees and lay down.

She lay as Bruja had done without a struggle, glad at last to be free of pain. We sat with her talking and gently stroking her beautiful brave neck as she slipped away peacefully in the home she loved. I had only owned Armani for a year but I like to think she was happy and content. It didn’t make it any easier to make the decision, but having been through it all before with Bruja did make it easier for me to cope with Armani’s death, in the knowledge that once again I had done the right thing.

In both these instances I had not much time to plan but had to decide on the spot what to do. One of my clients however, had the hardest decision of all, to plan the day and time she would put her old mare to sleep.

Tyler had come to us for her last few months. She suffered from arthritis, lymphangitis and moon blindness and her owner wanted her to spend her last few months in this world out in a field living a natural life. The old mare surprised us all by making an incredible recovery and with careful management over her moon blindness she stuck it out for an incredible two years. She looked a picture of health (due mainly to the massive amounts of feeding she was receiving to keep the weight on her) and was very happy. Her owner knew how tough the old girl found the winters, suffering with arthritis, and was in a real moral dilemma.

Tyler had been on Bute for many years and was very, very stiff in the hind legs. She had built up a resistance to the Bute and we had gradually upped the dosage (on vet instructions) to four sachets a day. This was keeping her sound and pain free. Her owner knew she could not let her see another winter and so did the bravest thing I have ever witnessed, by booking the date for her horse to leave this world.

It was a beautiful autumn day, the sky clear blue, the sun unusually warm and a feeling of late summer in the air. Tyler had spent the night out in the field with her friends and came in with the herd as the vet arrived. She stood quietly in her stable and then was led to the quiet corner of the winter field for her last feed.

We had fed her special treats at this spot for over a week and she was happy and keen to get to the place where the yummy food was waiting. Her owner held her close as she shoved her nose into the delicious apples and carrots and once she was finished (and before the impatient old bat shoved us all out of the way and headed for the foot long grass!) The vet gave the injection.

She lay down slowly, gently rolling flat and quietly went to sleep. She lay with her ears forward and with such a look of utter contentment on her face I will never forget it. Her owner made the bravest decision of all. It is easy enough when your horse is dying or in pain to let them go, but to let your oldest friend go when they looked a picture of health must have been incredibly difficult.

Tyler’s owner knew her horse looked so well simply due to the drugs and feeding leaving it any longer would mean her horse would suffer. Despite Tyler’s appearance it was still time to let her go and her owner could do this at the best time. Tyler was out all summer with her friends, warm, content, happy and with no pain, with the last words of comfort from her human companion in her ears as her spirit left this world.

For those of you reading this article who are struggling with a difficult decision, I hope what I have shared helps. For those who are finding it difficult to make the decision, I will say this - you must take yourself out of the equation. This is about the animal, not you. You must put your emotions to one side and think only of the animal. They are your friends. They trust you to protect them, to heal them and to love them. You must do all of this, even to the point of letting them go.

EQUIDO – KNOCK ON AFFECT…..?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

I talked about stress and the affects on yard staff in previous articles but recently an incident happened which highlighted most profoundly the knock on affects such stress can have.

It was shown how the best natured of grooms, when put under unreasonable pressure to perform their daily tasks either through understaffing, inadequate equipment, long hours and poor facilities (although even the best of facilities can still put extreme pressure on people), can start to show mood swings and short tempers which often results in physical punishment for the horses in their charge.

It is all too easy for a stressed member of staff to hit out with whatever is in their hands when pushed by a horse (who is often only being a horse). They may be sweeping up the yard, just one of a million things they have to do before they can have a lunch break, and a horse is continuously kicking the door. This can wear on their already frayed nerves and as they pass the door they might swing the brush up and chase the horse off the door and into the back of the stable. Initially this may only be done as a threat but over time it becomes habit and the swing becomes a tap or dunt with the shaft of the brush, fork, shovel etc. Then it starts in the stable, the horse is dancing about as they are trying to muck out, kicking through piles of dung making it even harder for the groom to do his or her job, they smack the horse with whatever tool they have in their hands in total frustration, and so it may continue, till it is almost second nature to hit a horse soundly with brush shafts, fork handles or shovels, even grooming brushes can be used to hit a horse (especially a metal curry comb).

I witnessed just such an incident where a groom had got into a habit of jabbing horses on the quarters with a four pronged bulldog fork, albeit on their rugs, to move them around the stable. I warned her on numerous occasions that she would make a mistake one day and do this to a horse with no rugs, but as she was yard manager and I was a lowly groom at the time my warning fell on deaf ears. Then the inevitable happened. She was stressed out one day and not feeling well and one of her horses (who was supposed to stand on the concrete and not on the nicely banked straw) knocked down the banked straw as she tried to stand on the softer surface. The girl’s temper broke and she struck out in anger, stabbing the horse twice on the quarters with the fork. The horse had no rug on for protection and suffered two sets of four puncture wounds to her quarters the wounds were deep and infected and required extensive medical treatment. The girl was sacked on the day and charged for animal cruelty.

Some of you may be shocked by this but there may also be some of you feeling a little bit shamefaced and guilty. I do not condone the girls actions one bit, but I know how easy it is to hit out in anger when you are pushed to the very limits of endurance. I have personally witnessed (in my younger years as a groom) a horse beaten with wooden pitchfork handle till he lay down in terror, unable to think of anything else to do. He was then punched and kicked till he got up. This was considered acceptable “discipline” behind closed doors, and may I add that both of these horses were full livery clients and the owners had entrusted the facilities with their care and welfare.

I know for a fact that this still goes on, even though it is illegal, and those responsible should know better. I can usually tell when a horse has been beaten, in my line of work I try to fix the trauma such treatment causes. Often a horse will be openly defensive and aggressive or nervous and afraid, but sometimes even I miss the small give-away signs that a deeply traumatised animal will show.

Often the affects of such treatment do not surface for many years and often it is the innocent bystander or kind owner who suffers the consequences. There are some types of horses, usually genuine characters who wish only to get along with people who suffer such abuse and, not wishing to harm anyone, will shut down and withdraw into themselves, trying to be as stoic as possible and hoping that if they just remain frozen then everything will go away. We met just such a character recently.

A client of mine was on the lookout for a schoolmaster for easy light schooling and hacking only. We saw a potentially perfect candidate advertised and duly went out to see him. My client had spoken at great length with the owner and was open and honest about her riding ability and the fact that she had a hip replacement and required a really steady and reliable character who would be quite happy plodding around.

We went to see the horse and he was a really nice guy. He was an older horse quiet and well mannered and although he had badly scarred legs he came forward with a genuine politeness and trying nature. There were little things that I did not pick up on at the time, such as he was not put into a stable but cross tied in a wash bay to be groomed. Granted there are some yards where this is standard practise and I assumed this was one. I was horrified at the tack that was put on him and the saddle was such a bad fit that I asked for another to be brought out. The girl was obliging and we found one that fitted a little better but still not well. I rode the horse and he was perfect, a real tryer, despite the fact that the tack obviously did not fit and must have been hurting him he did his best for me in all three paces without any resistance. My client rode him and was equally delighted. We decided to take him.

On arrival we noticed straight away his “shut” down stance in the stable. He would not even eat his hard feed or hay if anyone was in the box with him. It took him several days to be confident enough to nibble his hay as he was groomed and tacked up. The real indication that he was a troubled horse came when the maintenance manager was sweeping the yard past his stable and he became very frightened and ran back into the stable snorting. We knew then that he had suffered abuse. Over the course of the next few weeks the little signs were beginning to point quite clearly to the fact that at one time or another he had been beaten with yard tools. This also manifested in ridden work. Despite been assured that the horse was “fantastic at the beach” when the owner took him down to the river the horse was so afraid that he panicked and unseated the rider and ran back to the stables (bearing in mind that this rider is a lady with a hip replacement who was looking for a schoolmaster!) Full marks to the owner for persevering with the horse and in his defence he was a gentleman in the school and on hacks (unless you took him near water!).

The grand finale came when he took a panic attack in the stable (this is where we figured out he had been beaten specifically around the head and front legs). I went in to skip him out with a fork and skip bucket, the same way I had been doing for weeks, and this time he was standing in such a way that the only way I could get in and past him was to duck under his head. He had been wary of the tools but had coped up until now if you moved quietly and carefully and kept passive and stayed around his quarters when working and he would move willingly out of your way. He moved away from me in fear, making it impossible to duck under his head, so I took the opportunity to do a little advance and retreat to help him understand he did not need to be afraid. I followed him around until he stopped moving then I stopped and just as I was about to back away and take the pressure off he panicked and swung towards me, trying to get his head to the other side of me. Unfortunately for me (and him) he didn’t lift his head high enough and clunked me quite severely on my head (didn’t knock any sense into me of course). I simply remained quiet and shrugged my shoulders, brushing it off as just one of those things as the horse stood at the far end of the stable shaking with fear and waiting for the inevitable beating. I simply started to muck out then noticed something odd, I looked at the blood pouring onto the shavings in total confusion for a moment before I realised that it was me that was bleeding. The horse had been in such a panic that he had split my head open in his desperation to get away from the fork, purely bad luck. So, eight stitches later (and none the wiser!) we discussed with the owner the best course of action.

It was a genuine mistake on the horse’s part and he is such a great guy that we both agreed that although he is clearly a remedial horse with a lot of hang ups that need to be addressed and not the quiet schoolmaster that he was advertised as, he is worth the effort in trying to help.

I explained to the owner the type of abuse he clearly must have suffered and explained that often abused horses (like humans) go through different stages of recovery. It is clear now that he had been shut down and had withdrawn from the world due to his handling and his fear of the punishment that was regularly meted out to him. This type of horse, when handled with sensitivity and care, can react in several ways. They can begin to try to ask for help by showing what they are afraid of (like this horse) but sometimes they almost try to goad or provoke a reaction from the handler in order to illicit the abuse they have been used to. This is almost like a “victim” syndrome. They may be so conditioned to abuse that they cannot cope with or deal with being handled in any other way and will behave in a manner that would normally cause them to be physically punished. Sometimes this type of horse will eventually come round and begin to respond to kind handling and begin to regain their confidence and trust in people again, however, sometimes they cannot and in this instance it is kinder for the horse to be put to sleep.

It is a huge responsibility for the new owner to decide the best course of action. Fortunately for the horse and his new owner, they are stabled on my yard and I feel that this horse is such a genuine character that he can come through this successfully. The owner knows that the journey may be a long one and that it may get worse before it gets better but we are all willing to give the horse the chance to be himself again, with no fear and not shut down, only time will tell.

So, the knock on affect of that simple break of temper by a groom or owner, that simple action can start a chain reaction that may go on for years, building in the horse until it is finally released, often with devastating affects. Like a stone thrown into the pond, our actions create ripples that fan out over time. Positive actions create positive ripples that strengthen the bond between human and horse. Negative actions create negative ripples that serve only to destroy such bonds and drive our species apart. What ripples do your actions send?

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED…..?

Horses do the funniest things (I know you’re now all smiling to yourselves about your own darling little pudding in the field) but do they have a sense of humour? At this point some of you will scoff and move on to a more interesting article but many of you will be thinking I remember the time that……

It really hit home to me that horses were capable of understanding so much more than we thought and that they were the masters of manipulation, often using very subtle manoeuvres to gently guide people into doing exactly what they wanted, sometimes purely for what seems to be their own amusement. For example, the horse who is standing at the far end of a very muddy field in a howling gale and driving rain. You shout and shout and shake a bucket to no avail, their backside is firmly jammed into the hedge and it would take a stick of dynamite to move them. You gamely trudge through the deep mud, concerned that your precious baby might catch cold (despite the 5 layers of extra thick waterproof rugs and hood combined!). Just as you are approaching the horse looks up to the gate (usually pretending they have seen someone there) or “gets a fright” from something behind them and lollops past you towards the gate, showering you in mud from head to foot. As you struggle back down cursing under your breath you are met with the sweetest expression and an “Oh there you are! I’ve been waiting for ages!” look in the eye.

It is the little things that I have begun to notice, like the way my horse always seems to manage to just do as he is told and stands still and patient while I groom him but just accidentally always has his quarters just under his likit which I inevitably bang with my head as I groom him and if I ask him to step over he just simply can’t avoid the mini roundabout he has just deposited a few minutes earlier and tramples the dung through the bed with a “well you said move over” expression. He also appears to be followed around by a poltergeist as items such as brushes, tubs of ointment or anything small seem to mysteriously fall over by themselves when he is about. As I turn round he is looking at me in utter amazement and innocence with a “did you see that move all by itself!” expression. It is these little things that make you grind your teeth and mumble all sorts of profanities as you rationalise that it couldn’t possibly have been premeditated in any way, after all they are only horses!

I am not suggesting for a moment that a horse will ever be a stand up comic but there are some natural “jokers” out there who seem to delight in either making their owners laugh or amusing themselves at our expense. A friend of my was nearly brained by her Anglo Arab who timed things to perfection and waited till she had bent down to put the water buckets in the corner before nudging her smartly on the backside and sending her head first into the wall. We have all experienced the bizarre sensation of falling in slow motion whilst plaiting. The horse never seems to actually move but we are so intense in our task that we don’t notice the subtle lean away or towards us till we fall of the front or back of the bucket we are standing on! Then there is the round the stable shuffle as we continually get off and shift the bucket, do a plait, get off shift the bucket, do a plait. If we filmed this in time lapse photography we would be seen to be positively whirling round the box.

Then there are the jokers who simply like to watch us work harder. I remember we had a new horse in quarantine who was turned out in his isolation paddock. I checked his water buckets to find them completely drained. I filed them and mucked out a stable. I was walking past the paddock and I noticed that both buckets were drained again. I filed them again and was beginning to worry that the horse may have some kidney disorder and was seriously considering calling the vet. I went back to check once more and again both buckets were empty and sitting in their original position. The horse I may add was no where near the buckets on any of these occasions. This time I filled the buckets and hide in a nearby stable to watch. The horse waited a few moments grazing nonchalantly over to the buckets. He then picked one up nice as you like and gently tipped the water out onto the grass and replaced the bucket in its original position, he then repeated the exercise with the other bucket! His game was spoiled when we tied the buckets to the fence so he could not pick them up!

I am sure there are those of you who know that irritating sound of a dropping landing softly to the bed just after you have skipped out and put away all of the tools. Of course behaviourist will explain that this is a natural way of the horse re-establishing their territory after you have removed their droppings but I only know how infuriating it is and how the horse seems to make a point of doing it either as you muck out the next stable or walk past his door (just to rub it home no doubt!). Then there are the “oh look, your wheelbarrow full of muck has just fallen over.” Jokers who often wait till you are just about finished mucking out the paddock etc before accidentally knocking the thing over!

One such classic “accidental incident” came again from my old horse. We had been competing and we were watching the last of the jump offs and the girl who was grooming for me that day had just sat down with a much wanted and much deserved cup of tea. We had scrounged the last of our money together to buy this and she was just about to take a sip when my horse slowly and calmly leaned over her shoulder and snorted the biggest, greenest bogey you could imagine right into her cup!

My current horse is the master of subtlety. I often use him on courses to teach students how to work a horse in the round pen and he invariably manages to move the student around until he is standing in the middle of the pen with them running round the outside trying to get behind him! The student is usually lobster red and breathless whilst my horse is perfectly relaxed and rested!

There are so many little incidents that happen every day where you look twice at your horse and think “did you do that on purpose?” whilst they gaze at you with an innocent air. At the end of the day almost all of their jokes are in good humour and harmless and designed to keep us on our toes, so in answer to the original question…….yes horses do have a sense of humour, whether we believe it or like it we just have to accept it.

EQUIDO – Good Manners Cost Nothing…..?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

How many times have you watched someone being dragged about by their horse and thought to yourself how ill-mannered their charge was being and how your precious little darling would never behave in such a way. How often have you heard people say, “I want to buy a youngster who has not been wasted by stupid people” and agreed with them without realising that all the wasted horses of this world were once innocent youngsters who may well have been bought by someone with the very same notions.

At the end of the day we must all look to ourselves and our own horses first before criticising or commenting on others. People have an impossible range of what they deem as acceptable or unacceptable behaviour which varies from individual to individual and culture to culture. What I find truly amazing is that horses the world over have the same set of rules of behaviour between themselves irrespective of their country of origin, whether they are wild or domestic, live large groups or small families.

Perhaps we should take a leaf from their book, often the most ill-mannered of horses with people is the epitome of politeness and etiquette in the company of other horses and this speaks volumes with regards to human/horse relationships.

The biggest problem seems to stem from the fact that to a horse everything is very black and white, there are no grey areas. You are either allowed to do something or you are not. However, we complex humans can sometimes have ever changing goalposts which seem to vary from situation to situation or person to person. We have the ability to “lie” be it “white lies” or not we can bend the truth to suit our own ends or cause trouble where horses on the other hand never lie.

What we need to do is base our rules of behaviour or manners on what horses have agreed between themselves. The first rule is one of personal space. A horse will not invade the space of another without invitation or intent to dominate. If a horse is invited into personal space it may be to groom a friend or play with a friend, for whatever reason there are subtle exchanges of posture which amount to a conversation along the lines of, “Hi there, do you want to play with me?” the answer will either be yes or no. If the answer is no and from a subordinate the next comment might then be one of mild annoyance or aggression from the horse that wants to play in order to show his or her displeasure at being turned down. This will either cause the other horse to move away or give up and turn to play for a short while. If the answer is yes then serious horseplay will begin. When horses play (especially males) it can get pretty rough as it is basically stylised fighting, it will almost always finish with one of the horses backing down and submitting and ending the play session, so there is almost always a “winner”. If it is the subordinate who is asking for play and the superior says no then the subordinate will either walk away or stay quietly grazing or standing next to the superior just being a friend.

Horses don’t have to approach each other for a purpose they may simply want to hang out and be with their friend, but either way they will always ask politely to approach another. If a horse is not polite and barges through another’s space with a “get out of my way or I will hurt you” attitude they will either be met with a very aggressive response and be “put back into their place” or the others will move away showing deference and submission. They may well get a nip or bite by the dominant bully to underline his or her authority. What you will find is that most horses avoid the company of such a bully as it is just too much hassle and they are too unpredictable.

Let’s look at this scenario now when the other horse is substitued for a human. Most people are completely unaware of how horses encroach on their space and push them around, in short most horses are used to treating people in much the same way as the equine bully treats the herd. They may ask to approach your space but most of us are not clued into the subtle signs and miss them altogether. Some horses take this as an invitation and move in anyway, this can also lead them to think you are being submissive to them. Depending on what they want will depend on what happens next. The horse may ask to play, this may begin as gentle nuzzling or nibbling of clothing or hands, or “punching” with their nose or head into your face. You may push them away (this is part of the push me push you game) and they come right back at you with an increase of intensity. This shove game could go on for some time till the horse gives you a nip or bite and you lose your temper and either hit them or chase them away, you may even become frightened and move away from them. A horse will be confused by a playmate that has suddenly become violent and angry, especially after inviting play and may regard the human as an unpredictable bully. If the human moves away then the horse is the winner and they have established a higher ranking over the human.

Then you can get the other extreme where a human will come in with all guns blazing and push and shove the horse around, moving into their space without asking or being polite then punishing the horse if they don’t move quickly enough. This the action of a bully and although the horse’s may comply, they will avoid the company of a human bully as much as an equine bully showing very little trust or confidence in them.

If you watch a herd long enough you will see that there are some individuals who hardly ever “play” with others. They may still be well liked and will socialise with friends and may even be relatively high ranking, they simply don’t want to play and they make this clear in a subtle but definite way if a horse approaches them. Other horses respect this and will always be polite around these individuals often choosing to follow them and want to be with them. This seems to be because they are very consistent in their behaviour and steady and clear in their communication. These are the individuals that we should model ourselves on. We are not physically able to deal with horses on an equal basis and so must make it clear what is acceptable behaviour. Humans should not indulge in horseplay as seen between to male horses as we would be seriously injured or killed. As long as we make this clear to the horse then that is perfectly acceptable to them. The key to developing this relationship is to be consistent. Decide how you would like your horse to behave and be consistent with the rules, never change them, never say “oh it’s all right to barge into me today but not tomorrow.” It doesn’t matter what your set of manners are between you and your horse as long as you both stick by them. Remember that no one likes a horse that bites, kicks, barges, bolts or is dangerous in any way, these are the wasted horses that will eventually be thrown away.
So it is clear that one of the best ways of deciding what are good manners is by observing equine etiquette in a herd. We can model our own set of rules around these and ensure that our rules are in line with everyone else who is working with our horse. We must also be careful never to assume that other people have the same set of rules, for example, some people feed tit-bits some people don’t. Never give a strange horse a tit-bit without first checking with the owners if this is acceptable or not as this may be a direct infringement of their set of rules of good manners. What is important is that you keep in mind that “God forbid” you may have to sell or move your horse on should your circumstances change and it is therefore vital for the well being of your horse that they have universally acceptable good manners. For example they don’t bite, kick or barge in any way, this will give them a better chance of a good home and fair treatment.

It is very difficult for some humans to instil good manners in their horses as they are sadly lacking in good manners with other humans. For one reason or another some people are inconsistent in their behaviour with others, they may be rude, they may be nasty, they may be bitchy, they may be superficial, they may be erratic and irrational. Often their behaviour is mirrored by the behaviour of their horse as the lack of good manners they have in themselves makes it virtually impossible for them to impose good manners on their horses.

It is therefore important that you look closely at yourself and be honest with what you see. It may be necessary to change how you approach others, how you behave in society and how you interact with your own species before you can help your horse. If you are not sure about your own nature then I suggest you look at your horse, I was told by an old horseman, “If you want to know about a person, then look no further than their horse” and never a truer word was spoken. It is very difficult for people to admit their shortcomings but in order to grow and develop we must understand our weaknesses and work towards developing our strengths and creating balance.

Horses are honest and open and you should follow their lead in this respect. Try not to tell lies, try not to think badly of others. Be yourself, if you don’t like someone or something then simply avoid association and never say or do anything to cause trouble or create ill feeling. This is easier said than done and there are many people who simply don’t want to change their ways. This is perfectly acceptable, but don’t expect the horse to show good manners if you will not.

We have a very powerful ethos in the Equido system:-

Watch your thoughts
They become your words

Watch your words
They become your actions

Watch your actions
They will dictate your future

EQUIDO – A NEW BEGINING…..?
By Morag Higgins WESI MRPCH BHSAI HNCES

You may recall the article a couple of months ago where I talked about the knock on affect that “disciplining” a horse through violence may have. In the article I mentioned one horse in particular that we had recently taken on to the yard who had been beaten with brushes etc, this horse had given me 8 stitches to my head in his desperate attempt to show his fears and anxiety. I told you how we discussed long and hard with the new owner just how fraught with difficulty his rehabilitation might be and that he may only get worse not better and that he may need to be put down. Well this is his concluding chapter.

We continued to work with this troubled character over the next few months, carefully building his confidence in us and our ability to understand his anxieties. We did some loose work in the round pen and let him understand that some humans can actually speak horse and are willing to listen to what he has to say. It became clear very quickly that he was trying very hard to work with us and that he genuinely wanted to progress and get along with people.

A big factor to his rehabilitation was being out with a mixed herd of horses all day where he could learn to relax and socialise and eventually play with his peers. This big boy really loved to play with the other horses and would spend hours on end in equine “joy” with his friends in the field. Each of the horses would