IAABC Horse Blog

Your horse - Shave and a haircut ...should you?

Lauren Fraser — 2012-05-08T11:14:44+00:00

Do you prefer your horse clean shaven, and tackle every stray hair with scissors, pulling comb, or clippers? Or are you in the “wild and wooly” camp, whose members sport shaggy beards, hairy fetlocks and whiskery chins? Whichever grooming club you belong to, you may want to reconsider trimming a certain part of your horse’s body the next time the urge to tidy things up overcomes you.

The horse is a highly perceptive prey animal, that relies on the information he receives from all of his senses to survive. Even though the majority of us are working with horses that have been domesticated, they still retain all of the instincts of their feral and wild cousins, and understanding how they perceive their world gives us valuable information to interpret their behavior. In addition to their other senses, horses rely heavily on their sense of touch to survive as a species. As many horse owners can attest, horses make quick decisions (and sometimes have fast reactions) when something unexpected touches them. The sensitivity along their sides is even greater than that of our own fingertips. Nature tends to not create superfluous items on animals, so seemingly everything on the horse probably serves a purpose. To many people, those wiry, long hairs that protrude from around the horse’s eyelids and muzzles are considered an eyesore or a nuisance. Some over-zealous owners attack them regularly with clippers or scissors, without a second thought. But perhaps you should, as their function matters to the horse. Those long “hairs” are technically what’s called vibrissae -sensors with their own nerve and blood supply, and corresponding region in the brain devoted just to interpreting the information that these feelers pick up. Much as cats use their whiskers as sensory organs, the horse uses them in a variety of ways: He investigates novel objects by touching them with the vibrissae to gather more information. They act as a pre-warning device when the horse’s face or muzzle is getting close to touching an object he may want to avoid. They assist him with depth perception in the blind spot under his muzzle; even if the horse can’t see what’s literally right under his nose, he can still feel it, and make decisions based on the information he receives from touching it. Newborn foals also use them to help find the dam’s teats shortly after birth.

The horse doesn’t react when the vibrissae are trimmed, because the nerves they contain aren’t attached to pain receptors. If they did hurt, we would probably be less likely to have started trimming them in the first place. Trimming of vibrissae is outlawed in Germany, where it is understood that they play the role of sensory organ, and aren’t just merely an untidy disruption on a clean profile. Horses that have them trimmed are more likely to suffer eye, ear, and facial injuries or lacerations, due to the lack of pre-warning they would receive when their head was too near an object. Picture a freshly clipped horse in a trailer, who needs those whiskers to tell him when the wall of the rocking trailer is too close to his face as he bounces down the highway on the way to a show.

I encourage my students and clients to be “junior scientists”, and to observe what happens as their horse interacts with them and his world. Before your next clipping or trimming session, spend some time observing horses with intact vibrissae. Watch, as they approach novel objects and use their whiskers to investigate its qualities. Observe how they use them as feelers to gauge the distance between their faces and muzzles and items they might need to avoid. And save those clippers for the more purely cosmetic horse grooming jobs. Lauren Fraser is an Associate Certified Horse Behavior Consultant with the IAABC, and operates Good Horsemanship in Squamish, BC, Canada.

From The Archives: Animal Behavior Consulting: Theory and Practice Fall 2004

Eric Goebelbecker — 2011-06-22T13:00:47+00:00

It’s summer, and the podcast will be winding down for a couple of months. In the meantime, I want to highlight some of the outstanding archive material we have made available on scribd.

Embedded below is the IAABC Journal: Animal Behavior Consulting: Theory and Practice, from Fall 2004.

Here is the Table of Contents:

Principles of Animal Behavior Consulting: An Ethological Approach  - Myrna Milani, DVM, CABC
The Behaviorist’s Road Less Traveled - Pam Johnson-Bennett, CABC
Reach for a Diversity of Animal Behavior Knowledge -  Joanne Olivia-Purdy, PhD, CABC
CASE STUDY: Don’t Leave Me! - Tom Van Winkle, MBA, CABC
CASE STUDY: A Case of Apparently Unprovoked Aggression in a Dog -
Debbie Winkler, CPDT, CABC
GOOD DOG: A Program to Help Dog Owners Address Aggression Problems in Dogs - Sue Alexander, CPDT, CDBC
REVIEW: Fight! A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-Dog Aggression - Dani Weinberg, PhD, CDBC
Triangles in Family Assessment - Lynn Hoover, LSW, CDBC

Animal Behavior Consulting: Theory and Practice: Fall 2004

The Throwaway

Karen Murdock — 2010-08-04T11:52:26+00:00

An astonishing fact: My horse Lukas receives over 100 e-mails a day! How can that be you might ask, what could anyone possibly write to a horse about? Let me give you a few examples - “Thank you, Karen and Lukas, for changing people’s perception of horses - I own a horse rescue and I have been getting more calls than ever from prospective adopters. Lukas is helping to bring greater understanding and vast improvement into the lives of horses world-wide”. “Lukas makes my autistic son smile, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” “Lukas is like a beacon to the world - showing how truly remarkable and wonderful our equine friends are. I always knew they had intelligence and emotions, now I can prove it to the skeptics I know.” And one of my favorites, “I just had to tell you how much I love Lukas - since losing my horse 2 years ago, I’ve been so depressed I haven’t wanted to ride. I saw Lukas’ videos on you-tube and realized how much I miss being around horses after seeing the bond that you two share. Now, I’m going to half lease a friend’s mare. I’m so excited, thank you, Lukas!”

As glowing as all this sounds, it wasn’t always this way. Lukas (race name Just Ask Mike) left the track as a two year old with two bowed tendons after three unmemorable race finishes, changed hands several times and ended up emaciated and neglected in a back yard. He was rescued by a neighbor, who took pity on the then 8 year old chestnut gelding - “You could see every rib and his tail was a solid bat of dried mud.” The neighbor, Sue Smith, a local trainer had hoped to eventually include him in her amateur jumping program. After two years though, he still wasn’t fitting in, according to Smith, and I purchased him from her after seeing his picture ad in the local Horsetrader.

Working full-time as a psychiatric nurse, I had our (then) barn trainer begin some basic lessons on him with the plan to take over myself and show him at lower level dressage shows. In a very short time Lukas became sullen and resistant to the point of being extremely dangerous - bucking, bolting and spooking (even in his own stall!). “He’s a throwaway, Karen, what do you expect? Quit wasting your time on him,” I was told by more than a few well meaning observers. After 30 years of training horses, I had just about met my match with Lukas.

Before giving up, I decided to fall back on my many years of behavioral training experience (these types of dangerous behaviors are best dealt with by professionals) and also try to find out what he would enjoy doing. My approach uses a very broad base of shaping (successive approximation) techniques, a specialized version of clicker training and lots of positive reinforcement. So, I set about UN-training by replacing unwanted behaviors with desirable responses. The particular responses that I chose to substitute happened to be tricks - fun and play being at the core of my system. I’ve always used the trick training games as a way to create a connection and build confidence, willingness, focus and trust. I also ascribe to strictly liberty (free/loose and without any equipment - I don’t even own a whip) work to show the true significance and effectiveness of my style It must also be said that I employ patience and kindness, affection and appreciation - without which none of this would have been possible.

“Something that he would enjoy doing,” as I said - well, that was certainly the case! We started with the smile and we’re still going strong. To date, Lukas’ liberty repertoire includes: posing, nodding yes and shaking his head no, a dry and wet kiss, fetching, being “blindfolded”, catching, yawning, waving, pedestal work, Spanish Walk (forward and backward), the stay and come, jambette (3 legged pivot), reverence, passage, bow, crossing his front legs, laying down while I sit on him, feet together (front and back), hide and seek (with his beloved green towel), acting lame, pushing a cart, and the rear. Most of his acclaim, however, comes from his abilities to spell, count, identify shapes and discriminate colors. In addition, he’s also grasped the concepts of proportion, spatial relationships, same/different and absentness. These talents along with our bond have attracted global attention.

This once-upon-a -time “throwaway” - now a “million hit” horse - has been on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, HLN, Inside Edition, World Entertainment News Network, Equisearch, EquineVIP, Equestrian Examiner, Discover Horses, Pet Life Radio, Pet Talk Live Radio, RFD-Radio and many more. The Associated Press and America On Line released feature stories on him. And his journey - which has really become a message of hope and kindness - has been in countless magazines, newsletters, blogs and newspapers world-wide. Lukas is ranked on Yahoo, Google and the World Records Academy as “The World’s Smartest Horse” and Guinness is reviewing a record attempt by him: “Most numbers identified by a horse in one minute.” All to show the happy results of gentle training and how wonderful and intelligent animals are. Children especially are part of Lukas’ mission - his appearances are geared toward including families with an emphasis on responsible pet ownership. He is also the official Spokeshorse for TROTT (Training Racehorses Off The Track) and a poster -boy for the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association. Horse rescues across the country have claimed him as their shining example and he’s even been invited to Washington to lobby for legislation. Many equine assisted groups have befriended him - his Facebook fans exceed seven thousand. Lukas is also associated with HEAL (Human-Equine Alliances for Learning) - an equine assisted therapy group helping trauma victims (Lukas’ services are donated to help others). In addition, he was nominated for the 2010 Equine Vision Award sponsored by Pfizer and American Horse Publications. A documentary of his life is currently being filmed with a release scheduled for this summer (2010). Lukas’ new book is available on Lulu (http://www.lulu.com) as an e-book or print version: “Playing With Lukas.” Now, if only I could teach him to answer his own mail!

Lukas’ Home Page