Equine Behavior Q&A Leaping Fences

Question: My horse jumps the pasture fence. Even with a good pasture mate she goes for \"Walk-abouts\". She can clear 7\' w/out a rider. She bores easily & also gets into other trouble - taking gates off pin hinges, unhooking hotwire handles with the fence on, unclipping the carabineer from her stall door to open it, etc. I can\'t ride every day & she does this on days I can\'t ride. Any suggestions? She has gone into town before (3 miles) & eaten grapes at the vineyard next door. She won\'t play with Jolly Balls & putting jumps in her pasture didn\'t help either. Fence is currently at 6 feet & hot.

Well, this is easy. Horses form strong pair bonds. If you notice, most horses in groups are paired up if given a choice. Domestication was facilitated by the fact that horses form strong pair bonds, so strong that they will even allow a human to slip in to bond a bit. At the end of the day, unlike dog, a horse needs another horse. Your horse is looking for another horse to pair bond with. Find your horse a suitable pair-bonded other horse, and enjoy her choice to stay home with him. Even though you believe her pasture mate may be the one, she is seeking that special other. Your job is to find her a soul mate, it seems, a truly bonded other, please. Some horses have meaning in their actions, and it is apparent that she likes abundant activity and exercise as well as nourishing green grass. The more of that you offer at home, the more likely she may be to hang tight.

Also, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it seems.

As well, the Olympic tryouts are coming up, so go with the leaping and enter up, please.

Cheers,

Sid Gustafson DVM
Equine Behavior Educator

(406) 995-2266

Question: I recently found a new home for a 14 y.o. OTTB gelding I had for 7+ years. He was bred, owned and trained by my sister - she was a race horse trainer. I bought him at age 6 when he was retired from racing.

I told the new owner when she came to look at him before adoption that he challenges fences - showed her that I have 1 electric wire all the way around my pasture. He is very smart/clever/mischevious and will challenge you (not mean he is very kind). I also told her this and also not to ever let him win.

He has been at his new location since the end of March. The existing horses are a mare and pony mare. The new owner emailed me two weeks ago to inform me that he has been breaking fences and his stall to get to the mare. He hollers for her when they are separated. If they are not in the same field he runs the fence line until his is lathered. He has popped a splint and may have other lameness from the constant pounding. He does not stop to graze or eat hay and has lost weight. He is acting like a stallion with all the behaviors including mounting - the mare is a willing participant in this behavior.

He was a ridgeling and was gelded at age two - this required a operation to remove them from his body cavity - neither was descended. He has never shown any stallion type behavior but he has always been turned out with geldings.

The new owner says she has done everything she knows how to do - different turn out arrangements and a lot of prayer and at this point needs to place him elsewhere - did I want him back. I cannot because of health issues, which is why I had him up for adoption in the first place but I feel responsible for the horse, he has been part of our family his whole life. I talked to a equine behaviorist/trainer and told her what was going on. She said it sounded to her like a management problem. I tend to agree but in order to be fair to the horse and the new owner should he be tested for hormones to see if he somehow was \"cut proud\"? Why is he acting like this after all these years. Is there any way to manage this via training or medication or is finding a new home for him the only option at this point? The behavior has been going on unmanaged for about 5 months now.

Let the horses live together, please. I am not sure why letting the gelding and mares live together has not already been accommodated, as the gelding has successfully communicated his wishes clearly that the best pasture for him is the one with that certain mare. Horses form strong pair bonds with other horses, and their social nature is not going away. For behavioral health and prosperity, each horse requires a strong pair bond with another horse of their preference. It appears that it will best serve the horses (and humans) to let the OTTB gelding stay with the mares, please. He has been separated from mares long enough, and the memory of that idyllic life with his dam will not be forgotten. He knows all about mares. His mother taught him so. He needs them for security and companionship.

Even numbered groupings are best, but horses can make do with trios and quints, mixed sexes, as well. Horses are made to live together, so they often find a way when resources are plentiful. Solo horses do not thrive, as a pair-bonded other horse is essential for behavioral fulfillment, and behavioral fulfillment is essential for overall health.

Please appreciate that most all horses require a significant pair-bonded other horse. You cannot expect the social horse to live without a pair-bonded other.  American Pharaoh has Dusty, you know. In Germany and other European countries, it is illegal to keep a horse alone. Solitary confinement of horses is considered a welfare issue, and horses and veterinary behaviorists do not like seeing horses isolated without abundant measures to provide equid companionship, along with abundant daily locomotion and constant forage availability. When horses are stabled apart from one another, they have be able to smell, see, hear, communicate with, and hopefully touch other horses on a regular if not constant basis to maintain their health. 

Horses treasure grazing and foraging along with other horses. It is their most preferred activity. Humans are obligated to fulfill this requirement. Humans who know how to please horses have horses who are happy to please humans, you know, such is the nature of our domestic relationship with Equus caballus.

You are obligated to find the gelding a pair bonded other, and the good news is that it appears your search is over. Get him over with those mares, and everyone will be content. If you want the gelding to sometimes separate from his mare-friend, you have to make his being with you a better deal than being with the other horse. This is accomplished by grooming, riding, hand grazing the best grass, and other creative measures to enrich the gelding’s lifestyle while he is temporarily separated. This can be accomplished with time and finesse when applied with an appreciation of the nature of the horse. 

Geldings and mares can live together harmoniously if the resources of forage, space, and socialization are abundantly provided and the process is properly orchestrated in a sequential, horse-sensitive fashion. There is no need to separate geldings from mares  in properly managed stable situations. This requires 24/7 appropriate forage availability and the space to forage without interference while connected with the other horses visually. If the horses are heavy, they need more activity, space, and exercise rather than extended periods of forage deprivation. Deprivations of socialization, forage, and locomotion lead to stereotypies such as weaving and cribbing. Most all horses, especially stabled horses, require miles of daily walking, and the horse’s preference is miles of casual grazing while connected with others. You don’t want that, so let the horses be hoses together, please. Most all horses, especially stabled horses, require miles of daily walking, and the horse’s preference is miles of casual grazing while connected with others.  In natural settings, all horses of all sexes and ages live together with the exception of transient bachelor bands. Separating gelding and mares is not necessary in properly managed stables and pastures. It is an amateur tradition. 

Most all horses, especially stabled horses, require miles of daily walking. Other horses help with that. The horse’s preference is miles of casual grazing while connected with others. Try to re-create the natural situation as best you can, and you will have happy, quiet, content, and healthy horses. Physical health is dependent upon behavioral health, and behavioral health is dependent upon abundant socialization with other horses.

Sid Gustafson DVM
Equine Behavior Educator

Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.

Equine Behavior Q&A; forage deprivation

Question: I have a 28 or so year old Palomino gelding. He is kicking my barn to pieces. He makes a weird \"roaring\" neigh and then kicks with his hind legs and has shattered boards and bent bars. He is barefoot behind. He does this behavior even though he is not confined to his stall and, in fact, has open access 24/7 to his paddock and the pasture. He can see the other two horses in the barn and frequently has a buddy turned out with him. We have checked him for just about everything. Treated him with Gastrogard even though the scope indicated only a tiny ulcer. We have put him through a course of antibiotics for possible tick infections. We have tried calming supplements and currently have him on an immune system supplement. He does seem to do this behavior to get attention or at feeding time. I have tried Quit Kick and he destroyed the receivers. I don\'t understand how he doesn\'t make himself lame, but he seems fine other than getting a scrape on his hock now and then. He had been diagnosed with cataracts which is why we retired him a couple summers ago. I hate the thought of putting kick chains on him. Do you have any suggestions? Could he just be senile and cranky in his old age? He does stop the behavior and will move away if I catch him in the act and yell at him.


This case is too specific and serious to address without a hands-on personal assessment of the horse and the stabling situation by a veterinarian. As you suggest, there may be some dementia. He needs a professional neurological evaluation, please. The horse cannot be coerced, nor should rigs or inhumane devices be applied. On a general note, the horses should never run out of forage, as is the case in natural settings. To allow grouped horses to run out of forage on a daily basis is to create unwelcome behaviors. Horses do not handle schedules or empty stomachs very well. Makes some crazy. Horses evolved to have forage in front of them 24/7, forage and the space to graze a ways away from others. When horses cannot chew all day long in their sacred personal space, some kick.

Question: My Molly Mule has a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde personality. One day she will come to me in the pasture put her head down and let me put her halter on without a problem. A different day I can\'t get near her. What is going on with her besides the fact that she is a mule?

A mule is like a horse only more so, you know. That’s because the mare raised the hybrid. The mare taught the mule to be a horse, she tried, but that donkey lingers deep down in there, a very perceptive sort, a mule. So, the mule apparently does not approve of something you are wearing, how you smell, or perhaps she is not happy with that chip you carry on your shoulder on certain days. 

She can tell by your walk if she wants to associate with you on any given day, your walk, talk, smell, etc. 

On the other hand, being a mule, it may have nothing to do with you. 

In my experience they like to see you each and every day, and if you miss too many days, they really have better things to do next time you decide to show up, like graze.

When you learn to see as the mule sees, let me know.

Cheers and best wishes with Molly. Can you spot her in the photo here?

Sid Gustafson DVM
Equine Behavior Educator

(406) 995-2266

Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.

Equine Behavior Question and Answer, Pawing

Question: How can I train my horse to quit pawing?

Pawing to be fed: Pawing is a natural behavior observed frequently in wild horses. Horses paw through snow to reach forage. When pawing becomes an unwelcome behavior associated with stabling, usually humans have rewarded, reinforced, and taught the unwelcome pawing behavior. The most common example is feeding hungry stabled horses. Stabled horses should seldom be without forage to chew and graze, nor should they become hungry or empty-stomached for over a few hours at most. In general, horses should never be without a bite of appropriate forage, mind you all. If your horses are too heavy, they need more appropriate locomotion and more appropriate, less carbohydrate-rich forage—not deprivations of both locomotion and forage, please, as multiple deprivations lead to stereotypies such as cribbing and weaving. Horses require abundant friends, forge, and locomotion to maintain behavior health and trainability.

First, let’s review how the horses can become enamored with pawing. 

How to teach forage-deprived horses to paw for hay:  The guardian arrives to feed forage-deprived horses, who have long ago run out of appropriate forage to chew and digest. The hungry horses instinctively paw in anticipation of being fed. Pawing is an “I-am-hungry” behavior, as well as a behavior that arises from extended periods of deprived locomotion. When horses are not allowed to move most all of the time, they develop methods to move which suffice their need to move, but which are unwelcome, such as pawing and weaving. 

The guardian rewards the pawing by feeding the hungry pawing horses, thus teaching the horses a specific behavior to achieve a specific result. They have been taught to paw to be fed. In fact, the horses have trained the human to feed them on cue. The horses paw, the human feeds them. Repeatedly rewarding the pawing entrenches the pawing behavior in the horse. The solution: The horses should never have run out of appropriate forage and become unreasonably hungry in the first place. Feeding times should not be preceded by long periods of having run out of feed. Foraging should not be deprived for more that a few hours at a time, as is the situation in natural settings. Horses are not inclined to schedules. During their evolution, schedules resulted in predation. 

The solution is to avoid unwelcome pawing in the stable is to seldom, if ever, allow the horses to run out of appropriate forage, which is to say not to let the horses become unreasonably hungry, ever. A horse’s stomach is meant to always have a small amount of forage. Horses are trickle feeders. Deprivations of appropriate 24/7 forging create a variety of unwelcome behaviors, cribbing and gastric ulceration foremost among them. 

Unwelcome pawing while being tacked, or tied up. Most of these horses are locomotion-deprived stable horses. Horses in natural settings move up to 80% of the time. This movement is essential to their digestion and metabolism. When horses are not allowed to freely move all the time their body calls for movement and they develop ways to move within their restricted circumstances. They paw, they weave, they stall walk, and some stall-run. Stabled horses require miles of daily walking. If they do not get it, some pay unwelcomely, as their legs need to move. Always make sure your stabled horse is allowed to walk, run, and play for a while after coming out of the stall before you tie him up to tack or ride, please. If he does not get his long awaited exercise at liberty, he will take the exercise in the form of pawing while being restrained (or sometimes will get the fill of his needed locomotion by bucking while being ridden). When horses come out of stall after long periods of deprived locomotion, the first thing they need is abundant movement. Walk your stalled horse abundantly before anything else is attempted after a long period of being stalled if it is a willing, pleasant partnership you seek with your horses. This strategy often eliminates unwelcome pawing. When horses are pawing excessively, the message is often that they have not been getting enough daily movement.

Unwelcome pawing before or while being ridden: Riding has to be a good and comfortable deal for the horse. If riding is not a good deal for the horse, or riding or saddling becomes confusing or uncomfortable, horses will paw in anticipation of future discomfort before being ridden. The solution is to make riding (and stabling) a good and fulfilling endeavor for the horse.

Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.

Equine Behavior Q&A , Difficult Leading

Question: My horse is very difficult to lead. He tries to grab grass and he will not walk behind me. He is constantly pulling me. How can I change this situation?

By now—for those of you following my Q and A—you can see I that I attempt to see the world from the horse’s perspective, rather than from the human perspective, which is the perspective from which most of the questions are asked in this forum, which is fine and human. I want my horse to do this, or stop doing this, you ask. Well, okay, that is simple enough to resolve. First, however, you must do this for your horse, because the message is clear something essential is missing from your horse’s life. So with me as the equine behaviour educator; the questions are human, the answers are horse. I was raised by horses, you know. The horses (and Blackfeet Indians) taught me to see as the horse sees. And then there was vetschool!

In this case of your horse insisting to graze the grass upon which he is walked: It is clear that you have failed to fulfill your horse’s ancient constant behavioral and physical need to abundantly if not all day long graze grass before you attempt to lead him around. Horses require 24/7 access to suitable forage. If they are restricted in this regard, they will graze when and how they can, as grazing is essential to living for horses. Grazing is their most treasured and essential physical need. If your horse is stabled, he should never be without a bite of appropriate forage, please. Your horse is attempting to convey this long-evolved constant need to forage behavioral trait to you, if only you will listen, please. Horses utilize a gesture language to communicate, and your horse’s grazing gesture conveys to me that he is not getting enough. This is not about training, this is about providing your horse with the simple proper constant forage nutrition he requires before attempting to handle or train him. Horses in natural settings graze 80-90% of the time, you know, and your horse expects no less than his wild relatives. If your horse is unable to forage any less than those wild mustangs, his brethren, expect this behavior to continue when he is led over nice green grazing grass. Your horse should never be without a bite of suitable forage, so it sounds as if he is forage-deprived before you attempt to lead him over the grass he loves. He cannot help himself but graze until you fill his daily need to forage near-constantly. If the grass is green, and he has been offered mostly hay, I tell you he knows what is good for his digestive health. Let him graze the green grass, please. Once you sate your horse’s daily need to walk and graze abundantly, you can expect him to happily and willingly lead at your beck and call, of course. I recommend an hour or two of daily hand grazing before attempting to lead him over surfaces that are barren of forage and grass. Set yourself up to succeed with him in this fashion, please.

Horses who have guardians who know how to fulfill and enrich their horse’s need to graze and forage abundantly nearly all the time, have horses who happily lead when asked, you know. 

For more information on how and why horses are born to graze, read this article on the AAEP website.

http://www.aaep.org/info/horse-health?publication=2539&osCsid=fv2ui1r5j5vao6q15o7c7n3vt6

Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.