Equine Behavior Quiz: Trivia Facts!

Horses, like people, can learn at any age, as long as they are physically comfortable doing what you ask of them.

This browband is too tight and too high, and will pinch around the base of his ears. This is a very sensitive area and a browband that is too tight may cause headshaking and ridden evasions, including rearing. Ensure that you can fit 2 fingers under the browband, that it is supple and soft, and that there is good clearance around the ears.

This could be due to DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) – where the muscles are damaged but it takes a couple of days before the injury is actually painful. If this is the case, the horse may seem fine for a day or two after the injury. While it is quite likely the events are related, this is not the only possible reason for this behaviour; more detailed information would be needed to give a firm diagnosis.

This is mutual grooming, a friendly activity. Note that if your horse is coming in from his field with a chewed mane or tail, or tears in his rug along the topline, it is more likely that he is being vigorously ‘groomed’ by one of his companions than being bullied.

The horse on the right has his full attention on the photographer, and is not concerned about what the horse on the left is doing. The horse on the left has an ear on his companion, paying attention to him, which would indicate that he is ready to act if the horse on the right asks him too. A horse who is ‘in charge’ is generally not too concerned about what the other thinks of his actions and may ignore him. The ‘underdog’ had better be ready to move if asked to, or risk punishment, maybe a nip or a kick.

In the picture on the left, the horse’s head is low, his chin is loose with lower lip slightly protruding, his lip line is curled down where the lips meet and the edges of his nostrils look soft, all signs of relaxation. In the picture on the right, his head is up, muzzle out, his chin is tucked (lower lip further back than upper), his nostril edges look thinner and his lip line is straighter where the lips meet – all signs of tension. Note that it is very useful to recognize the early signs of tension, such as the lip line straightening and the chin becoming ‘tucked’, so that you can, if possible, calm him before he is throwing his head up in the air and trying to escape!

One experience is sufficient for a horse to learn from, it the consequence of his behaviour is big enough. To take an obvious example, if he investigates an electric fence and gets a shock, his action of touching the fence has an immediate and very bad consequence, and he will learn not to do this again. Likewise if he gets a big reward for some behaviour (such as investigating the contents of a covered bucket and finding lots of hard feed) he will learn to do this again. Usually when we are training a horse the consequences of his behaviour are not so big (we don’t want to punish him with electric shocks when he gets it wrong, or give him a full bucket of feed when he is right!), so many more repetitions are needed before the behaviour is learned.

Horses will actually learn most efficiently (with the fewest repetitions of the task to be learned) if training takes place approximately every three days; this gives new information time to get into their long term memory (time for it to ‘sink in’). While there are other advantages to training every day, if the training is done effectively so that what the horse has learned is stored in his long term memory, then training once a week will work.

You may ‘get away’ with feeding your horse treats anytime, but it is quite likely he will learn that it is worth harassing you for them and this may cause problems. If you give him a treat at the end of a good ride he will either regard this as a ‘random’ treat as in the first case, or associate the reward with whatever he did just before you gave it – he will certainly not understand that it was given because the whole ride was good. However, if you give your horse a treat immediately when he does something that you want him to do, this is a very effective way of getting him to do that thing again, and so can be a very good way of training your horse if done properly.

This is play. True aggression is rare, and consists of trying to break the forelegs or damage tendons below the knee. Horses will be close together, and fairly still. In play horses plunge, spin, toss their heads high, paw with their forelegs, and nip at each other’s faces and necks. This is common, and is normal, natural horse behaviour.

Horses learn something from just about everything we do. Punishing your horse several seconds after he has done something you didn't want is bound to be counter-productive. He won't associate the smack with running out, but he will associate being near you with bad things happening, so it certainly won't help your relationship.

The pony on the left has all his attention on what is in front of him (ears pricked forwards); the horse on the right has an ear back, listening to his rider.

More detail would be needed to precisely determine the cause of this behaviour. However, if your horse has always jumped well previously, and is still being well behaved otherwise, it is likely that she is experiencing some pain when jumping.

The whinny would give a strong clue that this is social behaviour – at the moment when she whinnied she was focussed on someone other than you, probably the horses she is leaving. Her lack of attention to you at this point (and at the point where she ran you over!) would certainly need to be addressed. However, it is possible that other factors are involved too – for example, she may have whinnied to another horse, then seconds later had a genuine fright, barged over you and headed back to her equine companions for security, so more detail would be needed for full diagnosis.

Max, Tango and Missy are all displaying threatening behaviour. Elvis is not, however he is dozing and you may startle him when you approach. Red is awake, relaxed and knows you are there as his ear is on you, so he should be safest to approach.

This is most likely to be a learned behaviour, although more detail on the development of the problem, the body language, the horse’s behaviour in other areas and so on would be needed to know for sure. As anyone who has spent time watching horses will know, they have a wide repertoire of bucks, and the pattern, severity, purpose and causes of bucking vary widely. In this case, the confident body language (head down and in), the lack of movement, and the fact that it stops as soon as he gets his reward (no rider!) would all indicate that this is something that the horse has learned to do.

This saddle is too wide. There is a little over 2 fingers clearance at the front, the cantle sits higher than the pommel and the deepest part of the seat is slightly forward of central. This is not strictly a behaviour question, but is very relevant to equine behaviour as many problems are caused by poor saddle fit and this should always be a prime suspect in ridden problems. Note that while it is possible for an ‘amateur’ to state that a saddle looks as if it does NOT fit, judging that a saddle DOES fit takes considerable training, and only a qualified saddle fitter (in Britain, a Society of Master Saddlers Qualified Saddle Fitter) is properly qualified to make this judgement.

There are several possible causes of this behaviour, and factors such as the development of the problem, her body language and her behaviour in other areas (both on the ground and ridden) would need to be looked at. However, it is extremely likely that she is finding being ridden unpleasant, and pain, possibly caused by poor saddle fit, is one likely cause in this case. In the interests of her welfare, the best thing to do would be to thoroughly investigate this possibility. Riding technique should also be looked at in case the rider's actions are causing discomfort (mental or physical!).

It is commonly thought that stereotypic behaviours (traditionally known as stable vices) are caused by boredom. This is not the case; they are in fact caused by arousal – frustration, pain, excitement, stress and so on. Physically preventing the performance of a stereotypy such as crib-biting raises serious welfare issues, as the underlying stress is not being dealt with. The crib-biting is calming to the horse so preventing him from doing this will just make him feel worse and he will look for other outlets. However, many changes in management can make your horse more relaxed and therefore crib-bite less often. A few of these changes are given in the answer. In addition to these, it can also be beneficial to increase exercise, avoid feed stuffs such as oats, and try to vary your routine to reduce arousal caused by anticipation of feed or turnout. There are many other practical changes that can also be tried. Note that as every horse is different, what will generally be good for most horses may not be appropriate for your horse – for example, if your horse is one of the rare individuals who is consistently bullied by all other horses, giving him more time out in the field with his tormentors probably won’t be very relaxing for him!