Behavior Modification to Create the User-Friendly Horse

Clinical experience in a veterinary horse behavior setting indicates that among the most widespread horse behavior complaints of owners are the typical day-to-day handling and management challenges. Difficulties with catching at pasture or in the stall, leading and tying, loading and unloading for transport, or compliance with clipping, feet manipulation, fly spraying, or veterinary treatments represent frustrating issues for many horse owners. Most of these are essentially unnecessary problems. They almost always can be avoided or overcome with application of simple behavior modification procedures.

Behavior modification includes basic positive reinforcement-based systematic desensitization, classical and operant conditioning, and counter-conditioning. These techniques are actually very simple to do, similar to what is taught in introductory animal behavior and psychology courses, just adapted for use with the horse. They are the same techniques used in dog or circus animal training. Among species, horses are actually very quick at the type of learning necessary to avoid or correct the common behavior problems. In fact many of the "bad habits" horses learn result from this same "intelligence" at this type of associative learning. So the process of teaching compliance or rehabilitation of a problem individual is amazingly efficient once you start. The result is a user-friendly horse--user-friendly especially for you, but also for any future owners. In addition to the benefits to owners, it is likely that the user-friendly horse will have a better quality of life with humans--knowing what it is supposed to do, doing it, and being rewarded for it.

Just Start Where You are and Make a List

Although it is never too late for most horses to comply and learn to enjoy any non-painful procedure, we now recommend starting as early as possible with foals or young horses to introduce and maintain compliance with a list of compliance problems that you would like to fix and any other procedures that you would like your horse to be comfortable with, even enjoy, life long. We recommend that you customize the list to all the usual procedures you could anticipate that your horse may ever need for your type of performance.

The Simple Principles and General Procedures

The behavior modification can be a fun activity in itself. Perhaps the biggest job will be for the people working with the horse to modify their behavior to provide the appropriate cues and rewards for the horse. The horse will then just be responding to the appropriate cues of the people. It teaches both the horse and handler new skills. After a few skills have been learned in this manner, most horses undergo a phenomenon known in animal psychology as "learning to learn." This means they begin to anticipate the training routine and stand ready for a new skill and the reward it will bring. The horse also learns a pattern of trust with you and your behavior, and many owners find that their horse begins to want to "do anything for you," as long as you keep up your half of the bargain most of the time.

The technical term for much of the behavior modification you will be doing is called gaining and maintaining compliance with a non-painful procedure. It is important to appreciate that horses are born "neutral" to many of these procedures, and their response at any time is simply the result of their experience. If we make the experience more positive than negative, the horse will learn to tolerate and even to "enjoy" just about any normal non-painful management or veterinary procedure. For gaining compliance with any procedure or manipulation, there are three basic concepts for the horse to grasp:

     1. The procedure doesn't really hurt (that much).
     2. Tolerance of the manipulation can actually lead to a reward.
     3. No ordinary resistance or reaction will stop the procedure.

For this to work, you need to ensure that the procedure is in fact as painless as possible, at least at first. For injection shyness, for example, use a small gauge needle, a quick but gentle stick, and be sure that the restraint of the animal itself is not causing genuine discomfort or fear. Ensure that the people working with the horse are not tense and fearful. They may convey this anxiety to the horse. Then the procedure (or successive tolerable approximations of the procedure) is patiently repeated under as completely calm and positive conditions as can be creatively designed. Initially each increment in compliance is rewarded with a primary reinforcer (such as a few grains of sweet feed) paired with a secondary reinforcer such as "Good Boy". Any decrements are not punished. (Strong voice tones, over-restraint, or explosive wrecks can represent inadvertent punishment sending the message that this really is a nasty procedure and that the person doing it is to be avoided and feared.) Consider working in an large enclosure where the horse can move without crashing into anything if it should move during the procedure. If the horse moves away, calmly stay with the horse as much as possible, "riding it out." This will teach the horse that simple movement doesn't avoid the procedure. If the technician flinches or jumps back each time the horse flinches, some horses appear to read your reaction as confirmation that this is a scary procedure. Others seem to learn a game of directing your behavior. They flinch, you jump, they flinch, you jump. Beyond avoiding the veterinary procedure, they have a fun new game of "make the person jump!"

Should You Use a Twitch For Mildly Painful Procedures?

A twitch applies pressure to the sensitive nerve endings in the nose. This inflicts pain, which initially distracts the horse from either noticing or responding to an unpleasant procedure. It usually particularly inhibits movement and kicking. That's why it is used often used to restrain mares for breeding. The pain causes a release of natural analgesic chemicals in the brain, known as endogenous opiates or endorphins, which then likely mask both the pain at the nose and any discomfort elsewhere. You will see that after a few minutes the horse may get a droopy lip and drowsy, glazed looking eyes. This drowsiness corresponds to high levels of endorphins in the blood. After about 10-15 minutes on the twitch, most horses become agitated. Some seem to explode or "blow the twitch." This behavior corresponds to lowering blood levels of endorphins, perhaps because the brain has temporarily depleted its supply.

Some horses seem to get to dislike the twitch, while others don't. This may be related to how the twitch is applied and whether or not the twitch was removed during the relaxed drowsy (positive) state or whether they reached the obviously unpleasant point of "blowing the twitch."

So for mildly painful, brief procedures, a twitch will give some added security. Just as for any other procedure, you may want to accustom the horse to the twitch in practice sessions. These sessions will allow you to more effectively learn how to apply the twitch smoothly, as well as to learn the horse's typical behavioral response and the duration of twitch tolerance. Practice sessions will allow the twitch operator and horse to remain calm and unhurried, which will maximize the possibility that it becomes a tolerable emergency procedure.

A recently popularized horse training program that incorporates these classic animal behavior modification techniques is the On Target Training method (956 Globe Road, Earleville, MD 21919). The developer of this commercial package adapted the techniques to horses from her experience training marine mammals for performance. The program employs the same methods in a very structured simple way. The secondary reinforcer they provide is a Clicker, and some people know these methods as the Clicker method. The suggested exercises and guiding book and video are helpful and fun for many horse owners.

For current tips and published scientific papers of horse behavior, and other horse behavior news and links, check our laboratory website.

Dr. Sue McDonnell - Dr. McDonnell is Head of the Equine Behavior Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine. She has published 80 articles on equine behaviour. Her primary interest is the study and treatment of abnormal stallion behaviour. Her consulting involves behaviour modification in all classes of horses.

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