Attachment parenting in the equine world

At the recent International Society of Equitation Science conference, Andrew McLean and Paul McGreevy discussed the potential links between 'attachment parenting' and horse training.  As a mother with a young baby (not so young now - he's 11 months old!), I am of course interested in attachment parenting and follow many of the principles that I am aware of in a very natural way (as opposed to doing it because a book has told me to).

For those who are 'out of the loop' on this (I certainly was before I had Philip!), Wikipedia describes attachment parenting as:

Attachment parenting, a phrase coined by paediatrician William Sears is a parenting philosophy based on the principles of attachment theory in developmental psychology. According to attachment theory, the child forms a strong emotional bond with caregivers during childhood with lifelong consequences. Sensitive and emotionally available parenting helps the child to form a secure attachment style which fosters a child's socio-emotional development and well-being. In extreme and rare conditions, the child may not form an attachment at all and may suffer from reactive attachment disorder. Principles of attachment parenting aim to increase development of a child's secure attachment and decrease insecure attachment.

When parents are taught to increase their sensitivity to an infant's needs and signals, this increases the development of the child's attachment security.^[2]

AP is most accessibly summarized by the 7 Baby B's:

• 1. Birth Bonding
• 2. Breastfeeding
• 3. Babywearing
• 4. Bedding close to baby
• 5. Belief in the language value of your baby's cry
• 6. Beware of baby trainers
• 7. Balance

An article on the presentation by McLean and McGreevy comments:

And that’s where attachment comes in. There’s been a lot of hype in recent years about “attachment parenting.” So guess what? “Attachment horse handling” might just become the new rage. McLean said horses that feel a closer “attachment” to their trainers will have a stronger sense of security compared to those that feel less attachment. As a prey animal, an insecure horse is a fearful horse, and a fearful horse is a looking-around-and-not-paying-attention-to-his-trainer horse. So a lot of what might seem like “horse whispering” as well as all sorts of touch therapies might really be “horse attachment.” If your horse is attached to you, he’s going to be more likely to have a lower state of arousal—meaning, he’ll be calmer and more focused on his learning session—and hence, he’ll be more likely to learn: "Tactile contact is an antidote for insecurity," McLean said.

Particularly of interest to me in this article is the paragraph:

Paying greater attention to our horses’ fundamental affective need for touch, then, might help facilitate a stronger attachment between horse and human. One way to achieve this, McLean said, is to replace patting with stroking when we want to reward the horse for a job well done. “Patting … tends to cause vigilant behavior and high levels of arousal,” he said. “But stroking causes more affiliative (bond-forming) behavior.”

Could this be partly why owners who massage their horse before working them so often report to me that they get the best work from their horses on those sessions?!

To read the full article at www.thehorse.com click on this link: http://www.thehorse.com/articles/32311/excitement-feeling-and-attachments-impact-on-training?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=health-news&utm_campaign=08-13-2013