A good first question to ask when a horse is misbehaving is, 'Is this a training problem or a behaviour problem ..read more

Earlier this year, I started a podcast with my colleague and friend, Matthias Lenz. Our goal on the Not Another Dog and Pony Show is to ..read more

Do you have a hard to medicate horse or pony? Check out the video below, showing how I can help. I've been helping out with a pony who couldn't be given oral medications. This is problematic, as it makes it difficult for him to receive routine medications like dewormers. To further complicate matters, he is also afraid of injections, so he must receive oral sedatives before any injections are given. I've worked with the pony in a handful of short sessions, using water in a syringe to replicate oral medications that would be squirted in his mouth. Today, he needed some routine veterinary care ..read more

Negative reinforcement is a commonly used technique in horse training. Known more informally as ‘pressure and release’ training, those using it apply it with varying degrees of subtlety and finesse: some trainers use it in ways that appear to cause horses visible distress, while others do so in ways that appear to not cause horses distress at all. Despite the latter use of negative reinforcement during horse training, some people feel that negative reinforcement is always unpleasant for horses and thus its use should be avoided as much as possible. Why do they believe this? While it could be ..read more

https://youtu.be/7ihePkEsciI There is much confusion about punishment in the horse training world. For example, some say punishment is always abuse and it’s better to use corrections. But the term punishment has a very specific definition as it relates to how animals learn: when the consequences that are associated with performing a behaviour reduce the strength or frequency of that behaviour, the behaviour has been punished. When people 'correct' their horse's behaviour, in an effort to stop the behaviour, they're punishing the behaviour. Correct, guide, make the wrong thing hard, be a better ..read more

Knowing how horses might react to stimuli can help us understand why they may behave in certain ways, while also improving their welfare. There are many reasons why horses may display unwanted behaviours. While a full understanding of how horses learn and why behaviour problems can develop requires in-depth study, arming yourself with a basic understanding of key learning processes can help you better understand horse behaviour. Non-associative learning, one of those key pieces, is this topic of today's post. It goes without saying, horses are incredibly intelligent animals, with the ability ..read more

I recently wrote an article for the Winter 2022 edition of West Coast Veterinarian Magazine on a common issue faced in equine veterinary medicine: determining why unwanted behaviour may be occurring in horses. The editors have kindly allowed me to share the PDF, and you can find it below ..read more

'Behaviour change is a process, not an event.' I've long held the belief that my work's main focus is one of harm reduction: I aim to lessen the negative impacts that certain management and training practices may have on horse welfare. Sometimes this means working with clients who engage in equestrian activities which I personally choose to abstain from or avoid. I work with these clients because I, like you, care deeply about the welfare of horses. In the spirit of harm reduction, I strive to meet people where they're at in terms of their current attitudes and beliefs about horse behaviour a ..read more

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/16ffed_541771def8b84421913670384a742e21/720p/mp4/file.mp4 One of the reasons I think we love horses, is the ability to 'love on' our horses. I know that if at the end of the day I have dirt under my nails because I got to scratch my horses all over, I'm a happy woman. But horses have their own feelings about receiving physical attention from people. Sometimes horses don't want to receive this attention. Giving animals a sense of choice and control over things like receiving attention has many positive benefits - for the individual animal and the relationship t ..read more

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/16ffed_cfef19a94fee47c5a799486179b93d91/720p/mp4/file.mp4 When horses experience stress they often behave in ways easily identified: they become difficult to handle or ride, and try to flee or ‘fight’ to escape what they perceive to be a stressful situation. These 'large' behaviours are obvious to most horse people, but less well known are other ways horses respond to stress, such as by fidgeting or as can be seen in the above video by becoming still, or ‘freezing’. However, stillness doesn’t equal calmness. While still horses experiencing fear, anxiety or str ..read more