Locomotion is Equine Behaviour

Hello pacers,

The horse and dog and horsefolk evolved to depend and rely and thrive on locomotion for vigor and survival. If there is anything more detrimental than the roughage deficiencies and social deprivations we impose on horses, it is the locomotor restrictions we place upon our stabled steeds. For some reason, many people believe horses evolved to live in a stall. They did not. When horses are forced to live in a stall, their natural preferences and behavioral needs are required to be re-created. Lots of friends, forage, and locomotion, miles and miles of daily walking, please, for your stalled horses, por favor.

It appears confinement is what created the need for shoes, so important constant locomotion is to the development and maintenance of strong and durable hooves. Stabled hooves deteriorate due to lack of the stimulation locomotion provides. Genghis Khan conquered the world with horses without shoes or stirrups, you know. His horses always had abundant friends, forage, and locomotion.

Shoeing born from stabling. 

Imagine that, no locomotion; no development of strong feet. And now the movement to restore locomotion to acclimate hooves to go shoeless! How welcome. My daughter, Nina, just achieved her 3rd level bronze rider in dressage on her shoeless raised and trained horses, the only horse in the show without shoes. Here is her willing partner's bronze performance. Please note the difference between being a horse who is a willing partner and say, a horse who is a reliable slave. Which horse ends up in the winner's circle, please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG96smuolxw

She walked her horse 10 miles a day while travelling and at the show, and as you can see the horse showed up to perform on an even metabolic and behavioral keel. 

Those horses who do best shoeless are seldom stalled for much of the day. Pastured and free-roaming horses are those that acclimate best to performing shoeless, as the constant movement strengthens the hooves, you know.

The leading cause of laminitis is lack of locomotion. It is stalls bedded in straw that keeps stalled horses grazing and moving. The leading cause of metabolic disease is deprived locomotion

And now, as learned students of equine behaviour, we all know more about how behavioural-locomotory-need turns into stereotypies when horses are deprived of friends and constant-roughage-availability. If we don't allow horses to adequately locomote, they find their ways, now don't they? Lipping, pawing, weaving, cribbing, tonguing, bucking, bolting... and what else?

The long-evolved fascinating characteristic of locomotion is integral to understanding horses. Early in the course we set the stage for behaviour by talking about the four gaits. Some of you continue to believe there are more gaits than four, but there are only four gaits, nearly all horses of all breeds have all four gaits, the walk, trot, and canter are nearly always expressed, and the pace is often limited to swimming or to alleviate pain when trotting.

Gaited horses have versions of the four gaits. The Icelandic tolt is an accelerated, accentuated walk, one hoof always on the ground despite high speeds, 20mph. Now that is some walk! The walk has no suspension phase, esta correcto?

The lateral gaited horses also have a pace, as the pace is the lateral gait, es verdad estudiantes?

Our Goals:

1. Understand the normal behaviours between the foal and mare which are necessary for normal development of locomotion and sensory awareness and assessment of their environs.

2. Relate the interdependence of locomotion with survival instincts, ingestive, communication and courtship behaviours. Locomotion is connected to grazing, which is digestion, so locomotion and digestion are integral to each other. The movement of locomotion also moves the guts, and propels the roughage ingesta through the massive, tortuous, yet compact system that allows 45 MPH flight in seconds.

When either forage or locomotion is restricted enough, colic kills the horse. Salt deprivation is the most common cause of colic on the road, my friends. Salt is cost effective nutrition, and don't forget to appropriately supplement your growing horses with calcium and phosphorous, the macrominerals that create integrity to bone, joint, tooth, tendon, and ligament. The microminerals are important as well.

Most all colic is related to forage deprivation,l ack of salt, grain feeding, and restricted locomotion, as well as restriction to express sociobehavioral interaction (friends). Worms and bloodworms are happy to help twist a gut, as well.

3. Understand human influences on equine locomotion and their consequences. Rigs, bad seats, bad banging boots, hanging on the head. Broken ribs affect locomotion, making movement quite painful. Bruised ribs hurt as well. Make sure you palpate all your horses ribs in their entirety during your massage sessions, please. Girthiness is no mystery to me. Ultrasound them ribs if you don't believe in the touch of a palpating diagnostician.

4. Know the gaits and footfall patterns and sequences of the various gaits. This is the secret to knowing which gait a horse is travelling in, the footfall pattern is the thing hardwired into the CNS. It will not change, but the tempo, action, and all that will vary, giving usother named gaits.

5. It is said accomplished horsefolk know when and where each hoof travels through the air and meets the ground as they ridein each gait. Much of this is known subconsciously. It is our goal to become this accomplished, and to cue the horse in rhythm with her gait.

6. When we speak of locomotion in the horse we are speaking of rhythm. Horsefolk aspire to connect into the rhythm of their horses. Horses, willing partners they are, aspire to their riders riding in rhythm with them.

7. Appreciate horses need to move much of the time, most all of the time, both their legs and jaws and tongue. Respiration, digestion, hoof health, muscle metabolism, and behaviour are all dependent on adequate (near-constant, my friends) locomotion.

Timing is so important in training horses. To know and appreciate timing is to develop trust. Trust is accurate, concise timing with your horse. Your horse trusts you because she trusts your timing because your timing is concise, be it the timing of the cue, the release, or the reward, or pray tell, the punishment. 

For your punishers out there, appreciate punishment must be executed within a second of the alleged crime. This getting bucked off and catching up the horse and punishing him only trains your horseto buck you off and not get caught. When caught and punished, he believes he isbeing punished for joining up with you.

Students of the horse must understand and appreciate locomotion in all its splendor, simplicity, and complexity to succeed in their equine pursuits and aspirations. Last time one of the students complained I harped on locomotion all class long, and it was then I knew I had persevered in fulfilling my passion of teaching this fundamental aspect of equine beahviour, along with friends and forage, of course. Horses need to move as much as behaviour teachers cry about their need for forage, friends, andlocomotion

So, let's get in rhythm with our horses by doing what we can to appreciate the locomotion of Equus caballus.

Learn your locomotion, because locomotion runs all over the final exam, and hopefully your growing horses are running all over the farm.

To know horses you must know how they move, so as to move with them rather than against them.

See you in the winners circle.

Cheers, 

SleipnirSid 

  

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.

Horse Human Bond

Horses form strong pair bonds and this is one of the domestication sugars that allows humans to bond with horses. Zebras are not this way, nor are Przwalskis, and therefor, despite repeated attempts, neither species fit the domestication construct of merging their social structures with humans to be trainable and confineable.

To train your horse, pair bond with her, as that is her nature. Pair bonding requires time and establishment of familiarity. To establish familiarity, spend time with your horse. If you spend all day for days on end with your horse, you will get to know one another deeply, and a true unity can develop. Time is required for pair bonding, time and brushing and rubbing and riding. Time caring. Show your horse you care for her, and she is likely to readily pair bond.

For a horse to pair bond with a human, she must first learn to pair bond with her mother. That is why we support the undisturbed development of the mare-foal pair bonding in the critical development phase after birth. After pair bonding with the mother, the foal learns to pair bond with cohorts. Horses that are taught to pair bond by the herd are the horses who subsequently readily pair bond with their human partners and guardians. It is important to facilitate and nurture the mare/foal bond in the the early hours and days. This is not the time to interfere, as this is the imprint phase where the foal learns to be a horse as taught by the mare, the most qualified to teach at this critical development stage. Imprint training is to be avoided, as invasive interference is inappropriate and unethical during the early hours and days of life. The pair bond between mare and foal is held sacred, as it is the development of this bond that allows humans to later bond with the horse.
Pair bonding is predicated on familiarity and predictability with the other. The horse and human can bond together only after each becomes reliable and predictable to the other. Some jockeys I know can bond with their horse in an instant, Calvin Borel, say, a new father these days, bonding with humans now!

Dr Voith mentioned that because of the strong pair bonds that horses develop and prefer, that sometimes even a pastured horse with a herd can be socially deprived if not paired with a suitable partner in the grooup. As well, horses will bond with humans, and thus we have domestication, a shared sociality.

Depending on the bonding issue, she sometimes suggests adding a compatible horse, or adding a suitable mare in the herd to resolve the social pasture issues, which can include stereotypies, narcolepsy, unthriftiness, untrainability, and other issues.

Just because we believe we have adequately socially enriched our herd does not necessarily mean we have succeeded, at times, it seems, the good doctor points out.

There is talk that horses are a matriarchal society, and that mares are important and necessary to facilitate normal expressions of social behaviour. 

From the behaviourist's perpsective, a herd of geldings is somewhat socially deprived, especially if it is an odd-numbered herd.

A mare stabilizes the herd.

This goes back to precociousness. 

It is the mare that teaches foals to be horses, and much of the teaching takes place in the first days. Most all horses seek the guidance of mares through life, it seems, imprinted to mares as most all horses and mules are.

A mule is like a horse, only more so, thanks to the teachings of the mare. What is that creature called who is sired by a horse and raised by a donkey and why are they not so popular? 

When not pair bonded with your horse you may get bucked off. Rather than buck, Zebras get people off their back by running and rolling, and that was not the domestication sugar African humans were looking for.

Cats may have merged with humans in northern Africa and Mesopotamia, but many of the other domestication mergers occured in Asia.

Why weren't any wild animals, save the kitty cat, successfully domesticated in southern Africa where man and zebra and canids galore co-existed for millions and millions of years?

What was it about Asia that facilitated domestication of the wolf and tarpan, the merging of dog and horse and man? 

When did the stirrup emerge?

The metal bit?

How did domestic dogs help facilitate the merging of horses and humans, please, anyone?

Regards,

DrSid  

  

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.

Narcolepsy: Horses that Faint

Our horse faints:
We have a horse in training that seems to have a neurological disorder. When we go to saddle we have to do it slower than usual (slower than more horses get saddled), otherwise he will faint. We did some research and asked our local vet and discovered that might be the Vegas nerve that is triggered when saddling normally or too fast. Furthermore, while riding him he will seem fine in most cases, but once in a while he has his \"moments\". This is where he freezes up and has a glazed look, basically checking out. When we first got him we tried encouraging him to go forward and eventually he would come back, but a bit hyper. Now, anytime he locks up and we squeeze him to go forward it is almost as if he comes back scared and takes off bucking and bolting. The little girl that rides him tends to get in his face a lot and seemed to aggravate him a lot. I hopped on him and he seemed like he was just hyper at first, but after a while he just didn\'t want to work anymore, so I kept him working, but he would freeze up and take off on me when I would encourage him to go. It was scary, but I thought he was just being a bully and kept working him. Now, I believe he has a neurological disorder that he can\'t help. Anyways, I had the little girl ride one of our other horses in lessons while I had her horse in training, since he gets so frustrated from her. After, working alone with him just conditioning he seems very relaxed, but once in a while seems to get a glazed look. He does get excited going on trail rides and stubborn in some cases, but we work through it. That part seems like a typical new barrel horse in training, a hyper horse. I believe this little girl needs to get another horse, due him being dangerous for her. We tried tracing his past to figure this out, but it is hard without his papers, although we did find out he did have a very abusive past. He was starved and beaten when he would have his \"moments\", checking out. He is a good boy 90% of the time, but it\'s just when he is at a show, working consistent tiny circles around a barrel or frustrated in general that he does this. If we could please have your help in finding out this poor animal\'s problem, the symptoms, if there is a cure and how to cure it, that would be most appreciated,

Thanks! 

The diagnosis is most likely narcolepsy. 

Having children or strangers ride this horse is out, please, as the child you describe is giving many mixed messages to the horse, which are too overwhelming for him to handle. The saddling has become a prelude to trouble for him, signaling pain and conflict to come. The saddle fit may be part of the problem, and a professional custom fit is in order, along with a comprehensive veterinary examination. What has followed saddling in the past has not been a good deal whatsoever for the horse as you have described, but rather a very frightening and stressful experience, and the horse has learned how to predict the future quite well. He chooses unconsciousness to what has happened in the past.

This horse’s other life needs spruced up immensely, as well. He needs abundant friends, socialization, 24/7 forage, hand-grazing and frequent turnout, and certainly cannot be expected to be healthy stalled most of the day if that is what is going on. 

There may be an organic neurological cause as you suggest from your internet research, but if so, it is aggravated by the current unhealthy schooling and stabling scenario the horse has been made victim to. 

The management and prevention for this narcolepsy is a vast improvement in the husbandry, stabling, riding, and training. All aspects of each always have to be a very good and pleasurable deal for this stress-vulnerable horse. The horse so wants to please people, but when given mixed signals, he checks out altogether, it seems, a protective mechanism related to freezing up. If he is stabled in a stall he needs miles and miles of daily hand-walking and hand grazing, please. After an hour or two of hand walking and grazing he needs a full body massage before saddling if riding is expected to be non-incidental. The rider has to be an experienced equestrian who seldom gives mixed signals to the horse and whose cues are impeccably timed, consistent and refined.  No harsh equipment or bridles, please. The rider must be pair-bonded with the horse, thus the daily extensive hand-walking, grooming, and massage by the rider. These are very simple straightforward measures that you can easily do that will greatly improve the horse’s welfare and fragile outlook on life at the hands of humans. I hope you are not tying the horse’s mouth shut with a noseband when he is being ridden, and using a bit with shanks. It is essential that riding must be a pleasurable and rewarding experience for this horse.

I do not want anyone getting in this horse’s face, please, and I would rather the adults not allow the girl to get in any horse’s face, por favor. The horse always has the word, you know, and this oversight would be for the girls safety along with the horses she rides welfare. These problems are not the horse’s or girl’s fault, but the adults overseeing this scenario.

Make sure you have your favorite veterinarian do a complete physical, lameness, neurological, and dental exam, with an extensive blood work up, as well.

People who know how to make stress-prone horses happy and healthy, have horses that become confident and reliable for them, you know. 

When posed with troubling things horses either flee, fight or freeze, depending on what is available to them. In this case your horse faints, which is an extension of the freeze. 

Sid Gustafson DVM
Equine Behavior Veterinarian

(406) 995-2266
www.sidgustafson.com

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.

Conditioning and Winning without Raceday Medication

Conditioning and Winning without Raceday Medication
By SID GUSTAFSON






Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, group survivalists moving and grazing together most all of the time. During their 60-million-year evolution, horses came to require near-constant forage, friends and locomotion to maintain health and vigor of wind and limb.


Despite domestication and selective breeding, today’s racehorses are no exception. Although horses are extremely adaptable, the last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall, alone, with limited space to move and forage about with others. The solution to manage bleeding in racehorses is to breed, develop, teach, train and care for horses in a horse-sensitive fashion that provides abundant lifetime locomotion and socialization. Pulmonary health is reflective of overall health and soundness in horses.


In order to maintain pulmonary health, natural conditions need to be re-created in the stable. Horses prefer to graze together and move nearly constantly. Constant foraging, grazing, socializing and moving are essential for joint and bone health, hoof health, metabolic health and pulmonary health, and, of course, mental health. In order for lungs to stay healthy, horses need movement, more movement than American trainers currently provide the population of stabled. Horses communicate with movement and sustain physiologic and metabolic health via near-constant locomotion. Movement is what is most often missing in a racehorse’s stabled life.


Walking throughout the day enhances and maintains lung health. Stabled horses need hours of walking each day, more walking than most are currently afforded. Veterinarians who manage racehorse health need to ensure that their patients are provided with adequate daily locomotion. The movement of training and track conditioning are not adequate to condition healthy lungs throughout the rest of the day, as lung health requires 24/7 movement. For a horse, moving is breathing. Abundant on-track and off-track locomotion is necessary to condition a horse’s lungs and to provide the necessary resilience to withstand the rigors of racing.


Lungs deteriorate when movement is restricted. Horses breath all day long, and near-constant movement is required much of the day to assist their breathing to maintain pulmonary flexibility and vigor. Plentiful walking enhances breathing and lung health. Swimming and doing lunges are also appropriate lung-conditioning activities. Grazing while casually walking clears the airways. Hand grazing may be the best lung-healthy activity of all. Racetracks need to provide abundant hand-grazing opportunities for all of the stabled horses, and the green grass needs to be appropriate grazing grass. Kentucky limestone grass is always best, it seems.


Training over hills and dales, as well as walking up and down inclines helps develop and sustain pulmonary vigor. When horses are locked in a stall a large percentage of the time, their lungs deteriorate. Stabling that does not afford abundant movement and head-down grazing and foraging impairs lung health, making horses vulnerable to bleed when exerted in a race. The cause of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage is insensitive and deficient stabling and husbandry practices and includes diagnostic failures to detect bleeding during training.


The care that establishes and enhances pulmonary health and endurance in horses is the same care that enriches stabled horses’ lives. Pulmonary care is providing the same near-constant movement that keeps racehorses’ musculoskeletal systems sound. It is the care that keeps horses on their feet during races. Horses must remain sound of limb to ensure lung soundness, and they must remain sound of lung to achieve and maintain limb soundness. Afternoon and evening hand walking and hand grazing are essential to develop and sustain lungs and limbs fit to race.


Horses with healthy lungs are content and fulfilled horses whose lives their caretakers adequately, if not extensively, enrich. Lung health is supported by limb health. Breathing and running are biologically intertwined on the track, a breath per stride. To stride correctly is to breathe correctly. To breathe correctly is to breathe soundly, and race sound.


Horses who are bred, socialized, and developed properly from birth, and who train while living enriched stable lives are seldom likely to experience performance-impairing E.I.P.H. while racing. They are more apt to stay sound. Humane care of the horse prevents bleeding. Pulmonary health is reflective of appropriate husbandry, breeding, training, nutrition, and the abundant provisions of forage, friends, and perhaps most importantly, locomotion. Bleeding in a race is reflective of inadequate care and preparation, of miscalculations and untoward medication practices. Lasix perpetuates substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result (bleeding) of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred.


Genetics play a role in pulmonary health and physical durability. Lasix perpetuates genetic weakness by allowing ailing horses to prevail and sow their seeds of pharmaceutical dependence. Running sore causes lungs to bleed. Lasix manages a wide variety of unsoundness, as do the cortisones and NSAIDs (bute and similar drugs). These anti-inflammatory drugs aggravate coagulation processes. Rather than drugs, pulmonary health is dependent on appropriate breeding and proper development for the vigor, durability and endurance thoroughbred racing demands. Drugs are not the solution. Competent horsemanship is the solution. Genetic dosage, behavioral and physical development, socialization, training, and locomotion husbandry are the keys to racehorse soundness, lung health, stamina, and durability. The causes of E.I.P.H. are no mystery to seasoned race folk. Horses prone to bleed are those horses that are mistakenly bred, inadequately developed and inappropriately stabled and trained.


Horses evolved in the open spaces of the northern hemisphere and require the cleanest, purest air to thrive and develop healthy lungs and hearts. Stable air needs to be constantly refreshed to maintain pulmonary health. Ventilation is essential, and enclosed structures are often inappropriate. Barn design needs to provide both clean air and abundant locomotion. Bedding is critical. Clean straw provides the most movement by simulating grazing. Horses stalled on straw are noted to move about with their heads down nibbling and exploring for hours, recreating nature to some degree, keeping their lungs healthy with movement, their respiratory tracts drained by all the head-down nibbling and grazing. Horses need near-constant head-down movement to maintain optimum lung health. Long-standing horses’ lungs deteriorate quickly. Not only does near-constant movement maintain and enhance pulmonary health, abundant locomotion maintains metabolic health, joint and bone health, hoof health and digestive health.


To enhance lung health is to enhance the overall health and soundness of the racehorse. Racing appears much safer in Lasix-free jurisdictions, where the drug crutch is not allowed, because the drug crutch allows horses to be cared for in a substandard fashion. (A link to the transcript from the Kentucky Raceday Medication Committee hearing is here.) Drugs are not allowed to replace appropriate care and training in Asia and Europe, and raceday drugs should be barred in America as they are in the rest of the civilized world. The stabled racehorse has to be carefully and humanely cared for and nourished in a holistic fashion, both physically and behaviorally, to win and stay healthy to win again.

Science link. Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage in Horses: American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Consensus Statement



Supporting Science link, ACVIM EIPH 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.12593/full




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.