Tourism and Horse Welfare

It's an age old question - should horses be used for the pleasure of tourists? Many people think not. The welfare of all horses is important, but for those involved in the tourism industry, the evidence is out there in the public eye. One group of people trying to address the issues within their own area is the Havasupai tribe, of Supai in the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is somewhere I've never visited, but it's a place very close to my husband Simon's heart since his trip there a few years ago raising money for the Have a Heart charity. He was lucky enough to visit Supai, and he witnessed first hand these horses hard at work. The horses are owned by tribe members, and hired out to independent companies to transport tourists and their luggage into and out of the Canyon. There is clear evidence of poor welfare, and a prosecution has been made. New rules have been put in place by the tribe, so that horses have to meet a certain body condition score in order to be worked, and there are weight limits on the amount of luggage they can carry (http://m.azdailysun.com/news/local/havasupai-set-new-care-rules-for-pack-horses/article_d2ac1bd9-2326-5a0f-81ba-2ec496679e87.html?utm_content=buffer6e290&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=LEEDCC).

In this case, a number of complaints has led to the new rules offering improved protection for the horses, although of course time will tell how effective the protection is. My guess is that many outsiders would prefer the horses not to be used in the name of tourism, although personally I think it's a very complicated situation, with the money from the horses providing food and shelter for people. On this note, a group is campaigning for horse carriages to be banned in New York City (https://www.facebook.com/stophorseabuse/). 

Yet when I visited the Isle of Mann last year, one of my tourist stops was to the horse drawn tramway in Douglas. This is the last remaining horse drawn passenger tramway in the world, and was discontinued by Douglas Borough Council for financial reasons before being rescued by the government (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-36835201). Contrary to the group campaigning to stop horse carriages in NYC, the Douglas tramway has over 4000 signatures on a petition to save it (https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-for-the-retention-of-the-douglas-bay-horse-tramway.html). 

So where do you stand? What are your thoughts? All credit to those who strive to improve the lives of working horses throughout the world - including the Havasupai tribe.

Sue

Hacking…a double-edged sword…

We are all aware of the benefits of hacking both for our horses’ well-being and our own. Top class competition horses are regularly hacked out to allow them unwind time and to many of us, our weekend hack is our reward for the strains of our working week. Hacking alone, in particular, conjures up images of freedom, escaping the humdrum of life and unifies everything that is so unique about horses. However...everything comes at a price.

In our modern world, we have grown used to the speed with which the world moves. Everything is quicker. Your phone, your job, your internet, your car…and every other car that travels on the roads. The press is full of horrific tales of car and horse collisions on narrow lanes. If you were to read them all you would never set one foot in your stirrup. So what do we do?

Firstly – be sensible. All riding is risky, you are taking a considered risk every time you ride. For example, do you ride your just backed 4 year old on a windy cold evening by yourself? No, wait till someone is there and it’s not blowing a gale. Do you hack your unschooled, spooky horse down a lane by yourself? No, make sure your horse will move away from your leg, a few simple steps of leg yield will be enough to move your horse across to the hedge should a car be approaching. Also a well-schooled horse is more likely to stay tuned in to you rather than the approaching car. If possible try and find someone to ride out with, place the quiet horse between the spooky one and the cars. Failing this, ask someone to walk with you.

Secondly – stay alert. Listen to the approaching traffic, don’t ride along on a long rein with your feet out of the stirrups. Don’t use your mobile phone.

Thirdly – be courteous. If someone slows down for you make the effort to thank them. If you annoy that car driver they will be less inclined to slow down for the next horse that they see.

There are some brilliant apps available for road safety now. The Horse Rider SOS which you turn on when you set out and if you stop moving it sends a message to your pre-designated buddy, full details here http://www.horseridersos.com/ Also the Ride and Seek which tells car drivers of walkers/cyclists/horse riders/runners who have this app turned on, more details here https://rideandseek.co.uk/index.html

Hacking is brilliant fun and should be enjoyed without the worry of cars, however a few simple precautions can make all the difference.

How tooth wear varies between captive and free-ranging equids.

As more species are becoming threatened with extinction as the world changes, we are taking more animals into conservation. In order to help replicate the habitat of the wild and in order to minimise damage caused to animals that are being help in captive surrounding, studies are being carried out to compare the relative effects of captive and free-ranging living. These studies will help us to create the best possible environment for captive species to inhabit.

This study was carried out to assess the different tooth wear seen between captive and free-ranging equids. These include zebras, wild horses and donkeys. The study used dental casts of 228 museum specimens, where 122 were from free-ranging and 106 from captive individuals and were compared using the extended Mesowear method, among other indicators the presence of hooks was recorded.

As one would expect the captive equids showed less abrasion dominated tooth wear than their free-ranging compatriots. However the interesting finding in relation to the domestic horse and how we look after their dental health is the presence of hooks in the captive equids. The conclusion from this seems to be that the feeding position is causing this due to the angle of the mandible. Where captive equids are fed from troughs, nets or racks this problem seems to occur, if this correlation is true then the recommendation would be that all captive equids should be fed from the floor to prevent hooks.

In the domestic horse we can intervene and indeed all good horse owners should regularly get their horse checked by a a vet or equine dental technician to counteract the effect of their domestic life. However as much as possible we should try to mimic the horse’s natural patterns thereby optimising their health and minimising our intervention and the cost that this brings with it.

We should also pay attention to the food and forage that we feed our horses, as this study shows equids are evolved to graze throughout the day, their teeth are designed to be constantly grazing. Where possible make sure your horses get turned out and allowed to graze naturally. When they are stabled, if possible ensure that all feed and forage is fed from the floor to as closely mimic the grazing patterns of wild horses. This will help your horses’ dental health, and their overall health and well-being.

Taylor, L., Müller, D., Schwitzer, C., Kaiser, T., Castell, J., Clauss, M. and Schulz-Kornas, E. (2015). Comparative analyses of tooth wear in free-ranging and captive wild equids. Equine Vet J, 48(2), pp.240-245.

Save your life - wear a riding hat.

Riding hats prevent head injuries – simple. Or so you would think…but really it was not that many years ago when it was considered normal for dressage riders never to wear hats at home. Indeed at competitions and out hunting and hacking people are still wearing hats without harnesses.

Fortunately there has been a huge movement against this. With the brilliant social media campaign launched by the BHS #hathairdontcare encouraging people to take selfies of their “hat hair” showing younger riders that fashion is not everything. Topped off by the British Dressage team at the Rio Olympics all wearing hats with harnesses, well if it is good enough for Charlotte Dujardin it’s certainly good enough for everyone else! To top it off September 17^th is International Helmet Awareness Day. Please support these ventures and encourage everyone to wear a proper fitted, up to modern safety standards helmet.

The effects of head injuries are devastating, not only for the individual but for their family and friends. My cousin had a fall out hunting on 21^st December 2014, he was wearing a hat without a harness, it had fallen off by the time the horse kicked him in the head. I spent Christmas Eve sat in the intensive care unit at Stoke hospital holding my cousin’s hand while he lay in an induced coma. My cousin who had survived three tours of Afghanistan spent two weeks in an induced coma while the swelling on his brain subsided. He regained consciousness in January 2015. We are eternally grateful to Stoke hospital and the brilliant doctors and nurses there who saved his life. But he is not the same person who he was, head injuries while they may not kill a person, can still destroy them.

It is simply not worth the risk. Wear a hat, a proper hat with a harness and save your life.

Written by Lizzie Hopkinson, marketing consultant.

Living Legend Autumn Tour

This is your chance to see Monty Roberts and Kelly Marks in action! This unmissable tour kicks off on the 15^th October, early bird tickets are still available, but selling quickly, to book yours follow the link https://www.intelligenthorsemanshipshop.co.uk/collections/demonstration-tickets

If you are interested in building a partnership-based relationship with your horse, this is a brilliant place to start. Monty and Kelly demonstrate how to train horses with respect but never with violence. These tours sell out really quickly, so make sure you get your tickets today!

Monty Roberts is the best-selling author of “The Man Who Listens to Horses” and is renowned throughout the world for his training methods. Kelly Marks is the founder of Intelligent Horsemanship and the UK’s most popular horse whisperer. She met Monty Roberts at a chance encounter at a French petrol station, and this one moment has led to this incredible relationship.

For anyone who is interested in horses, at any level, this tour should certainly be on your bucket list! We hope you enjoy it as much as we have over the years. Sue was the on-tour physio for many years, and only stopped when she had her son.

To book, follow the link:

http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/

Does pain related behaviour become habit in horses?

In answer to a question so many ask me... Does a pain related behaviour become a habit? My answer is "No. Once the pain has gone, the behaviour will change - for example napping, going disunited in canter, biting when you do the girth up. However, if the pain behaviour is linked to a human action that caused pain, for example the horse was whipped every time he went along a certain path because that's where he would nap, or he was smacked every time he tried to bite when he was girthed up, then some form of problem behaviour is likely to remain. The longer the pain went on for, the more likely it is that a linked problem behaviour will return." 

I'm currently proof reading my new book 'Understanding Horse Performance: Brain, Pain or Training?', and came to this sentence by guest contributor, scientist and author David Marlin, who I think answers the question much more clearly: "Domesticated horses clearly exhibit many behaviours during their management that suggest that they are experiencing pain, or that they have previously experienced pain associated with a particular situation and are anticipating the onset of pain." He also says "...what one person or horse experiences as not being painful may be moderately painful or even severely painful or unbearable to another. The emotional component of pain also indicates that the response to a painful stimulus can be influenced by previous experience. If a horse has experienced repeated pain in response to say being mounted, his perception of pain may be significantly greater than that of a horse who has not previously experienced pain during mounting."

A client recently took her horse to the vets for investigation into a long-term issue, part of which was that the horse goes disunited in canter. This has been going on for several years, and has been investigated in the past, with no real conclusions. However this time, the vet nerve blocked, found the right spot, and this is the message that my client sent to me: "She took a while before she realised it didn't hurt... this has been going on for so long, she has always disunited so it was huge to see her canter 2 full circles without disuniting!" So many people have said that the behaviour is just a habit, and yet here is the proof that even after several years, that is not the case.

One of my bugbears is hearing people say 'It's just him, it's how he's always been'. Recently I visited a horse whose owner used just those words, and was convinced she was right because she's known the horse since he was 12 months old. Looking closely, there was a scar on his right fore pastern, and the owner had no knowledge of how it had happened. I'm as confident as I can be that this horse had an accident as a foal involving his front leg that caused muscle spasm and therefore restriction of movement through the base of the neck, leading to long term fascial restriction and therefore long term stiffness affecting the whole horse. Had this been recognised and treated at the time, the restrictions would not have set in, especially since a young horse heals so quickly. As it is, I believe that between us, the owner and I can significantly improve this horses way of going (he's 11yrs old now), improving comfort and performance and reducing the risk of injury, and after just one tre warned his neck range of movement is already significantly improved. There's a long way to go, when restrictions have been in place that long they cannot release too quickly or further damage would occur. But the point is that the stiffness and reduced range of movement has not become a 'habit' for this horse, and as the physical restrictions ease, the horse will respond appropriately.

Think about the behaviours your horse offers, and whether they are 'just him', or whether they're caused by past trauma, current discomfort, or by lack of understanding on either your part or his. The Brain, Pain or Training book, available on pre order from www.thehorsephysio.co.uk, has been written to help you decide this, and then to help you know where to go from there to make the changes you'd like to see.

To keep in touch, sign up at www.thehorsephysio.co.uk for regular free e-newsletters with top tips, or follow us on Facebook (The Horse Physio) or Twitter (@thehorsephysio).

I'd love to hear your thoughts, and any stories you have to share with others that might help them in their quest to make the most of their time with their horse, so if you've got a moment, please leave a comment below.

Until next time,

Sue

Is Monty Roberts the original 'horse whisperer'?

You may have seen the movie 'The Horse Whisperer', or read the book, and I often get asked whether Monty was involved with that, or whether the book was inspired by him and his work. So I was pleased when he answered the question recently in one of his free weekly emails (click here to sign up for yourself), and wanted to share his answer with you.

Question

There are probably many trainers who claim to be the true or original horse whisperer. The Horse Whisperer movie is said to be not the movie about Monty Roberts´ life but that of another person. That person is said to be Buck Brannaman. Can you please give us an clear answer about that?

Answer 

Please let me address this first question by telling you what actually transpired after I met Queen Elizabeth II in April 1989. Her Majesty requested that I visit 21 separate UK cities. The Queen herself set up the people to host demonstrations in these locations. During my meeting with the Queen that April, she strongly requested that a book be written about my work. I began to write The Man Who Listens to Horses.

During my 21 city tour, a man came to me from the audience, at Duchy College in Cornwall, England. He introduced himself as Nicholas Evans. He said that he was impressed with the demonstration and was motivated to write a book about this experience. I did not take him seriously on that evening. About two weeks later, I received a telephone call while in California. Once more, I was visiting with Nicholas Evans.

In the next few days I was in contact with the Queen, who adamantly asked me not to get involved with a novel. She wanted a book from me, that was truthful, and accurate. I informed Mr. Evans that I was not available for endorsing or advising on a book about my work. He was clearly not happy with me and said that he would contact a man that I knew very well. This man was an American called Tom Dorrance.

Mr. Dorrance communicated with me that he had read the manuscript and was not interested in assisting in the writing of the book nor the production of the movie. He told me at that time, that he was recommending one of his students, called Buck Brannaman, to help with this effort. Later I was to learn that Mr. Brannaman was chosen and did assist in the setting up of the scenes for the movie called The Horse Whisperer.

Later I was contacted by the Disney Corporation who had purchased the rights to the movie. They asked me to attach my name to the book and the movie, as an endorser of the contents. The Queen very strongly advised me against doing that, and so it didn't happen. You should note that I do not whisper to horses anyway, and the man responsible for the term, John Solomon Rarey (1827-1866), worked for the Queen's grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Sincerely,

Monty

The Man Who Listens to Horses

To see Monty Roberts and Kelly Marks on the "Living Legend" Tour - click here for tickets!