Appreciating Horses; Equine Behavior and Applied Horsemanship

Appreciating Horses    

Equine Behavior is the basis for Horsemanship
Sid Gustafson DVM

In consideration of the horse’s nature and behavior, horsewomen and horsemen are obligated to provide horses an appropriate environment, unconstrained neonatal development, formation and fulfillment of the mare-foal bond, adequate nutrition, sufficient sociobehavioral circumstances, as well as training and horsemanship modalities based on the horse's innate perspectives and sensitivities.
By nature the horse is a precocious grazer of the plains, a social and herd animal, and flighty. Horsemanship and training are best accomplished through behavioral appreciation of the horse and facilitation of the horse’s nature, rather than by force or coercion. Horses are best trained in a relaxed, calm state. Training that puts the horse into the flight or sympathetic state generated by fear and punishment while restricted by rigs or round pens is discouraged, and not in accordance with acceptable standards of animal training. Horsetraining and horse teaching methods are best based on scientific studies regarding the nature of the horse. Horses learn preferentially in a relaxed state from a calm experienced handler with adept communication skills.
Social behavior in natural feral settings is the 'natural' behavior that 'natural' horsemanship utilizes to appreciate the nature of the horse.
As to dominance, the science reveals that free-ranging horses form social hierarchies that are complex and rarely linear. Under natural open range conditions with adequate resources, horses seldom have the equivalent of an alpha individual because the roles of leadership and defense are more critical than domination. Dominance theory as a training modality is not only discouraged, but appears inappropriate. The formation of order in horse groups sustains collective welfare and enhances group survival, and reflects leadership rather than domination.[1] It is important veterinarians and students of equine behavior appreciate this science.
There is no alpha. Leadership is shared and alternated and variable and context dependent in established harems in natural settings. Dominance is rare, and certainly not prevalent. When present at all, it facilitates group protection and stability. Horses share leadership. Survival is herd based, rather than individual based. The lead mare leads the horses to water and grazing and resting places. She drinks first to make sure the water is safe, rather than because she dominantes the others. Students of equine behaviour appreciate shared leadership and herd stability. Horses seek competent leadership and are willing to accept competent leadership from humans.
The horse is special in retaining the ability to thrive in feral conditions independent of man. This allows us to study their true nature versus their stable nature and to apply that knowledge to their welfare as it pertains to training.
Horse retains the ability to survive without us, and survive well.
It behooves humankind to take care with horses. Sensitive horsefolk respect the 60 million year development of the horse’s social behavior and development. They appreciate equine intelligence in regard to both training and husbandry, and what the future might hold.
Stabling is unnatural. Horses graze and walk together 60-70% of the time under natural circumstances, eating and moving from spot to spot independently but within a few meters of the next horse. Stable managers and horse owners should make every effort to accommodate or recreate these long-evolved herd grazing and life-in-motion preferences for proper physiological function and mental health.

Horses require other horses for proper health and prosperity. Horses prefer the constant companionship of other horses. A horse should seldom be kept alone. Horses being mixed with other horses and expected to share resources should be properly acclimated socially, and be given the required space to adjust to new herds without injury or undue stress. Every effort should be made to provide horses with the social benefit of appropriate companion horses through times of stress and illness.
Horsewomen and men need to appreciate the sensual nature of the horse, and understand the physiological needs of the horse. Horses prefer the open view. If they cannot be in physical contact with other horses, they need to see and smell other horses for proper behavioral functioning and responsiveness.
Water is the most important nutrient, and must be provided in consideration of equine behavioral preferences. Salt is the most important mineral, and should be provided daily in some fashion.
Grazing is the preferred and predominant equine activity. Horses did not evolve to metabolize grains and non-structured carbohydrates, or to remain stationary for even short periods of time. Serious metabolic issues develop when horses become sedentary grain eaters, and this lifestyle should not be imposed on horses.
Play and sleep are naturally occurring preferences that require accommodation however horses are housed or stabled, as deprivation results in behavioral deterioration.
Horses are physiologically dependent on shared social grooming and sensual contact companionship. If stabling precludes these preferences from fulfillment, then every effort need be applied to replace or recreate these needs on a daily basis.
These behavioral considerations apply to horses in transport, and for those horses too, however unwanted, man is obligated to provide the proper environment, social functioning, nutrition, medical care, and exercise to sufficiently assure health and comfort.
As to performance, every care and precaution need be taken to avoid exceeding the adaptability of the horse. All of the horse's normal natural sensation should remain fully intact and functional without undue pharmaceutical influence. The horse's metabolic, physical, medical, and behavioral limitations are best be monitored by equine veterinary professionals on an intense comprehensive basis.
Professional veterinary societies and organizations are encouraged to provide education regarding equine behavior.

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance, as well as preclude the need for drugs. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses that win willingly and consistently. DrSid provides equine behavior consultations to help re-create the needs and preferences of horses in training and competition. 406-995-2266, DrSid@mac.com

Racehorse Advocacy, The End of Raceday Medications

Racehorse Advocacy

The End of Raceday Medications 

Sid Gustafson DVM

Equine veterinary behaviorist representing the health and welfare of horses

Thanks to a wide and diverse variety of racehorse advocacy efforts, a review of racehorse raceday medication practices by a variety of racing jurisdictions and organizations is making advancements to support the drug-free welfare and humane care of racehorses. Raceday medications are in the process of being rescinded, as are the indiscriminate and abusive use of drugs in racehorses in general. It has become clear to many that current racehorse medication practices in the United States and Canada exceed the adaptability of the racehorse, resulting in unnecessary breakdowns and injuries and death to both horses and jockeys. Rather than drugs, it is the humane care of racehorses that supports soundness of wind and limb.

A variety of groups have responded to the call by the HSVMA and HSUS to better care for racehorses. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission invited the HSUS to testify at its raceday medication hearing, and I provided a version of the racehorse advocacy that follows. The Interstate Horse Racing Improvement Act is making its way through the United States Congress, and is supported by several congressional representatives. Make sure your representative supports this important Act. Governor Cuomo has called for an investigation of the New York Racing Association breakdowns. The New York Times is running a series of articles exposing the medication charade that has endangered horses and riders for decades in America. The Breeder’s Cup committee has banned raceday Lasix for two-year-olds racing in this year’s Breeder’ Cup.

Drug-free racing will improve stabling, conditioning, and husbandry practices for racehorses. Medication has long been a crutch that facilitates the improper care of stabled horses. Rather than alleviate medical conditions, recent data clearly demonstrates that racing medications allow people to exceed racehorse adaptability.  Drug use perpetuates fragility in racehorses.[1] Fragility is dangerous for both horses and riders. To appreciate the principles of equine behavior is to understand what is required to maintain pulmonary health in horses confined to stalls being conditioned to race, and it is not drugs. The solution to managing Exercise-Induced-Pulmonary-Hemorrhage and preventing breakdowns is appropriate breeding, development, horsemanship, training, and husbandry rather than drugs. The care that establishes and enhances pulmonary health and endurance in horses is the same care that enriches stabled horses’ lives. It is the same care that keeps racehorses’ musculoskeletal systems sound. It is humane care that keeps horses on their feet during races.

Horses with healthy lungs and sound limbs are content and fulfilled horses whose lives their caretakers adequately and extensively enrich. Lung health is supported by limb health. Appropriate husbandry and training maintains and establishes soundness of both wind and limb. 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. Limb soundness and pulmonary soundness are physiologically entwined.

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 EIPH while racing. They are more apt to stay sound of limb. Humane care of the horse prevents bleeding, my friends. Humane care of the horse prevents breakdowns. 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. Drugs and raceday medications perpetuate substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result (bleeding and breakdowns) of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred. Drugs are no longer the solution. Humane care of the horse based on evolved behavioral needs is the solution to safe horseracing.

The solution to manage bleeding and prevent breakdowns in racehorses is to breed, develop, teach, train, and care for horses in a horse-sensitive fashion. Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, group survivalists moving and grazing together much of the time. Horses require near-constant forage, friends, and locomotion to maintain health of wind and limb, even if they are stabled. Racehorses are no exception. The last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall, alone, with a limited view and uncirculated air. Training and husbandry need to be a good deal for horses in order for horses to maintain healthy partnerships with people. Pulmonary health is reflective of overall health and soundness in horses. Pulmonary health is reflective of limb soundness.

In order to maintain pulmonary health, natural conditions need to be re-created in the stable. The solution to managing racehorse health is proper horsemanship and husbandry, which is sadly lacking at today’s racetracks. Horses prefer to graze together and move nearly constantly in natural settings, and to race without drugs, natural has to be re-created in the stable. The equine requirement for near-constant grazing and moving is essential for joint and bone health, hoof health, metabolic health, and pulmonary health. In order for lungs to stay healthy, horses need more movement than they are currently provided. Abundant on track and off-track locomotion is necessary to condition a horse’s lungs. Lungs deteriorate when movement is restricted by excessive confinement in a stall. Horses breath all day long, and trainers need to appreciate abundant movement is required through much of the day to maintain pulmonary strength and health.

To enhance pulmonary health is to enhance the horse’s entire life and outlook. Not only do properly stabled and trained horses’ lungs hold bleeding in abeyance, they hold sway and win. Pulmonary health and bleeding prevention are dependent on smooth running and biomechanically sound locomotion.

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 inadequate in providing healthy air horse require. Appropriate barn design and stabling practices maintain pulmonary health. Bedding is critical. Clean straw provides stall 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. This is not enough. For healthy lungs, horses need to get out of their stalls for hours each afternoon. Horses need near-constant 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 support, and maintain lung and limb health without drugs is to enhance the overall health and soundness of the horse.

Sid Gustafson DVM

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/goodbye-lasix-and-good-riddance/

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?pagewanted=all

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. 

Kentucky Horse Racing Commission RaceDay Medication Transcript

Dr Gustafson's testimony begins on Page 169, Arthur Hancock's testimony begins on page 220, Bill Casner's begins on 137.

http://khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. DrSid provides equine behavior consultations to help recreate the needs and preferences of horses in training and competition. He advises owners and trainers how to manage bleeding without drugs.

MR. FARMER: Dr. Gustafson with the Humane Society of the United States.

DR. GUSTAFSON: Thank you commissioners for having this hearing to address this important issue.

My name is Sid Gustafson. A brief biography for those of you who would like to know. In the '60s, I started catching urine in Montana. I was catching urine in 1968 when Dancer's Image number was taken down. And so I put a lot of thought into raceday medication through the years.

I represent the Humane Society of the United States today as well as the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association. I teach veterinary behavior at the University of Guelph and, in addition, I am a regulatory veterinarian in 4 states; California, New York, Montana, and Washington.

So I have been around as both an attending and regulatory veterinarian.

We do not oppose horse racing. But we do oppose race day medication. Hearing the information that exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage is present in nearly 100 percent of the horses, some people would conclude that that is somewhat of a normal occurrence rather than an abnormal pathology.

However, certain degrees of it can be quite problematic. And I feel that part of this is due to exceeding the adaptability of the racehorse. So in my talk, I am going to present some solutions other than medication to exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

Apparently all of these other jurisdictions in Hong Kong and Europe and places they don't use race day medication went through this process. And I assume the process they went to -- the collusions they came to will somewhat reflect what happens here. But I guess that remains to be seen.

To appreciate the nature of the thoroughbred, I would like to briefly review the evolution of the horse and the domestication process. Of all of the human equine pursuits, horse racing is perhaps the most natural equine pursuit of all. More natural, for example, than polo or stadium jumping or cutting. Horses have evolved for 60 million years to run at speed in close company. Running at speed in close company is the horse's long evolved group survival mechanism.

This is the nature which is nurtured in thoroughbred lines and thoroughbred development and training.

Racing comes natural to a horse.

To appreciate how horses develop the athletic endurance to run at speed together and connected in close company, veterinary behaviorists observe horses in natural settings to assess how horses naturally prepare themselves to race. We study horses prepare younger horses to develop strong limbs and strong lungs and musculoskeletal systems to achieve success evading prey.

Knowledge of the horse's nature is abundantly applied here in Kentucky. Farm after farm I drove through coming here had large pastures where bands of mares and foals and later bands of cohorts run and play and learn to travel closely together at speed. They learn to communicate together, change leads together and move in a safe and synchronous organized fashion while running in large circles around the pasture.

It is this essential experience with other horses in a heard that a growing thoroughbred gains the confident to run by and through horses later in life in a race. The herd conditions growing horses. Running with the herd facilitates the physical development of the lungs and musculoskeletal system.

The reproduction and recreation of these natural behaviors are essential for the healthy, mental, and physical development of the thoroughbred as is evident everywhere here in the Bluegrass. In order to later prevail in a horse race, growing thoroughbreds need to be conditioned to develop the ability, coordination, stamina, pulmonary capacity, and strength, confidence and experience needed to endure training and racing.

It is this knowledge that elucidates how race day Lasix impoverishes the welfare of horses. To

appreciate the principles of equine behavior is to understand what is required to maintain pulmonary health in horses confined to stalls being conditioned to race.

The solution to managing exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage is appropriate breeding development, horsemanship, training, and husbandry. The care that establishes and enhances pulmonary health and endurance in horses is the same care that enriches stabled horse's lives. It is the same care that keeps racehorses' musculoskeletal systems sound. It is the care that keeps horses on their feet during races.

One point is clear about all of this data. The data from non-Lasix, non-race day medication jurisdictions indicates to me, at least, that clean running horses suffer significantly fewer breakdowns than horses running on Lasix in America.

Over the last 2 years, if I am reading the data from Encompass correctly, we watched 2 horses break down for every 1,000 starts. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which has been discussed here quite a bit, has set an example of clean and racing without race day medication. And their data indicates that they have less than 1 breakdown for every 2000 starts.

So on that basis, we find the use of Lasix and race day medication to be a welfare issue. 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. Appropriate husbandry and training maintains and establishes the soundness of both wind and limb.

Breeding and running are biologically intertwined on the racetrack, a breath per stride. To stride correctly is to breathe correctly. To breathe correctly is to breathe soundly and to 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 equine induced pulmonary hemorrhage -- exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage while racing. They are more apt to stay sound.

Humane my friends. appropriate

care of the horse prevents bleeding, Pulmonary health is reflective of

husbandry, breeding, training, nutrition, and the abundant provisions of forage, friends, and perhaps most importantly locomotion.

Lasix perpetuates substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result, which is bleeding, to impair performance of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred.

Performance medication on race day leads to fragility. Rather than alleviate medical conditions, the data from several jurisdictions and studies indicates that racing medications administered on race day exceed racehorse adaptability and perpetuate fragility in race horses. Fragility is dangerous for both horses and riders.

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.

Lasix manages a wide variety of unsoundnesses, as do the cortisone and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Running sore can cause horses to bleed. Anti-inflammatory drugs aggravate coagulation processes.

Please appropriate that horses running on pharmaceutical scrims are 4 times more likely to

break down than horses running free of race day medication.

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 husbandry are the keys to racehorse soundness, stamina, and durability.

Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, group survivalists moving and grazing together much of the time. Horses require near constant forage, friends, and locomotion to maintain health of wind and limb. Racehorses are no exception. The last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall alone. The solution to manage bleeding in racehorses is to develop, teach, train, and care for horses in a horse-sensitive fashion.

Training and husbandry need to be a good deal for horses in order for horses to maintain healthy partnerships with people. Pulmonary health is

reflective of overall health and soundness in horses.

order to maintain pulmonary health, natural conditions need to be recreated in the stable. 

Horses prefer to graze together and move nearly constantly. This constant grazing and moving are essential for joint and bone health, hoof health, metabolic health, and pulmonary health. In order for lungs to stay healthy, horses need movement, often more movement than trainers provide.

Walking enhances and maintains horse health. Stabled horses need a lot more walking than most are currently afforded. Abundant on track and on track locomotion is necessary to condition a horse's lungs. Lungs deteriorate when movement is restricted. Horse breath all day long and walking is part of the way that assists their health.

Walking and movement enhance breathing and lung health. Development and conditioning of pulmonary health throughout growth and while training are the answers to prevent and manage bleeding as they have always been.

To enhance pulmonary health is to enhance the horse's entire life and outlook. Not only do

properly stabled and trained horses' lungs hold bleeding in abeyance, they hold sway and win.

Pulmonary health and bleeding prevention are dependent on smooth running and biomechanically sound locomotions.

Horse evolved in the open spaces of the northern hemisphere and require the cleanest, purest air to thrive and develop health 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 must be addressed to maintain pulmonary health. Bedding is critical. Clear straw provides the moves

movement by simulating Horses stalled on about with their heads

grazing. straw are noted to move down nibbling and exploring

for hours, recreating natural, keeping their lungs healthy with movement.

Their respiratory tracts drained by all the head-down nibbling and grazing. Horses need near constant 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 horse.

Racing has proven to be safer in Lasix-free and race day medication free jurisdictions where the drug crutch is not allowed.

Drugs are not allowed to replace appropriate care and training in Hong Kong and Europe. And race day drugs should not be allowed in America.

The stabled race horses has to be carefully and humanely cared for and nourished, both physically and behaviorally to win and stay healthy. Lasix has weekend the breed, and weakened the American horse racing game considerably as the numbers across the board reveal.

The horse has brought us all here today. If racing is to flourish as a sport in Kentucky and subsequently in the rest of the world, horse racing must come clean of drugs and replace its race day medication attitudes with appropriate horse sensitive breeding, development, horsemanship, behavior, training, and husbandry programs.

To honorably share this great Commonwealth with our friend the horse, we must learn to use the resources of the land and people to nurture Kentucky horses and rid the heart of the sport of its dependence on race day drugs.

Respectfully submitted. MR. FARMER: Thank you very much, doctor. Any questions from the panel? Commissioners?

Thank you very much. DR. GUSTAFSON: Thank you.

Healing in Horses

Restorative healing in Equus caballus.

Restoration strategies that recreate the horse's social grazing preferences facilitate and potentiate horse healing. Appropriate healing of many equine maladies is encouraged when the veterinarian provides appropriate initial treatment and subsequently carefully facilitates a scenario to provide the horse with abundant forage, friendship, and locomotion. 

Grazing pasture in an open setting with other horses, when appropriately orchestrated, has the potential to provide the most profound and often the most cost-effective healing of musculoskeletal infirmities and injuries. For conditions allowed to progress to lameness, time is required, often months. When musculoskeletal conditions are detected early, before lameness ensues, short term rest and restorative strategies encourage solid healing (days to weeks). Both long and short term healing are enhanced when the horse is content with the forage, friendship, and locomotion resources. Avoid unnecessary restrictions to locomotion whenever feasible.

The earlier inflammation is detected, the shorter the time period is required to heal. Healing in a social-grazing setting is a long-evolved trait of the horse. Horses acclimated to herd and pasture settings during their development respond best to restorative healing. 

Horsefolk need to take special care not to exceed the horse's adaptability regarding stabling and healing. 

Horses require a sense of comfort and security for physical and mental restoration (and maintenance). An adequate social grazing environment, or appropriate facsimile thereof, often provides the most comfort to the most horses. Horses provided with adequate socialization throughout their upbringing are most responsive to these strategies. For horses, comfort and security come from friendship, forage, and, most-critically, a near-constant casual locomotion. Young horses and newborns learn to be horses from the dam and herd, and foals are best served to develop with horses in an appropriate grazing environment, as well. Horses learn to socialize, communicate, graze, locomote, run at speed in close company, play, smell, balance, move, and compete from their mother along with the herd members.

Corral or stall rest is counterproductive to healing, as it deprives horses of all three healing essentials. Horses heal efficiently in a social grazing setting, not one of isolation and deprivation. To a horse, restoration, from the word rest, ideally implies grazing open country in a herd setting with abundant environmental resources; appropriate grasslands to graze and walk, salt, and appropriately placed clean water. The properly managed social grazing setting with the open view is the environment in which horses evolved to thrive and heal.

Healthy physical and mental development are best actualized in a social grazing environment. Neonates rely on their dam for critical early learning processes, including sensual development, locomotion, and early mobility.  The development of agility, coordination and athleticism in early life is critical to subsequent mental health and soundness. Abundant social contact, grooming, sleep, play, athletic development, and social bonding occurs during early herd life. Horses rely on constant contact and frequent interactions with other horses for healthy mental and physical development. 

Opportunities for the abundant expression of normal equine behavior and motion promotes healing. 

Unfortunately, healing opportunities of this sort are not available everywhere, especially in the more urban equestrian settings. Space and grazing limitations restrict healing opportunities. In these scenarios, the horse's preferences have to recreated with carefully designed and implemented ENRICHMENT strategies that provide some fashion of near constant forage ingestion that allow oral and physical and movement and motion. Stabling scenarios often restrict social expression and sensual contact. Horses are sensitive to these deprivations which results in stress, which complicates and delays healing. 

LOCOMOTION is essential for both horse health and healing. 

Husbandry, healing, and rehabilitation nearly always benefit from appropriately managed and free choice locomotion strategies that are constantly tailored to the horse's healing process. Locomotion is required not only for normal healing, but for normal digestion, respiration, hoof health, circulation, and all other physiologic functions of the horse. Stall rest is at the expense of many systems, especially the hoof and metabolic systems. Digestion and respiration are compromised by confinement and restriction of movement. Metabolic, digestive, circulatory, hoof health, musculoskeletal, and nervous, systems, as well as the all other systems and functions of the horse, are dependent upon adequate and appropriate locomotion for normal functioning and/or healing. 

For horses that are hospitalized, paddocked, stabled, and corralled; active implementation and re-creation of the social pasture setting is necessary to maintain health and promote healing. The absence of abundant forage, friends, and locomotion is detrimental to a stabled or hospitalized horse's health, if not welfare. Medical conditions are apt to deteriorate in the face of the deprivations created by stabling and hospitalization. 

Stalled horses heal poorly. In addition to appropriate medical treatment, veterinarians and stable managers must creatively provide horses with abundant socialization, forage, and locomotion to maintain health and facilitate healing. 

Horses also heal horsefolk, and those horsefolk that implement these healing strategies often experience a sense of healing themselves, it seems. The human/horse bond runs deep. Domestication of the horse is a co-evolving evolutionary process. The human perspective is being shaped by the horse's perspective these days. Appreciation of the science of equine behavior and equitation is a welcome change for the horse after centuries of considerable subjugation.

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. He helps refine horse and dog training methods to accommodate the inherent nature and behavior of horses and dogs. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses. DrSid provides equine behavior consultations to help recreate the needs and preferences of horses in training and competition.