Legging up again...

I did stick to the plan and get out out with JB for our first real "condition" ride of the season. A friend came over to join me with her horse , also her first ride of the season. JB was being pretty well behaved considering. He got a little ramped when Rena, the friends mare, starting jigging. Both horses were feeding off each other's energy and it would not have taken much and they would have been at a full run. Note to self, first few rides out, go it alone maybe....

It took some time but he did settle back into a walk, a fast walk, but a walk nonetheless. It wasn't the warmest day but I had bundled up well enough , only my feet got a bit cold. We ended up turning back at 2.5 miles up the road, since we started running into ice. Besides, 5 miles for the first time out was probably sufficient. I was pleased with JB , he felt quite strong after being off for a solid 3 months. He could have gone another couple miles with out any trouble but we'll take our time legging up and getting back into condition. I didn't get to use my heart rate monitor because I was so excited about just getting out to ride, I completely forgot. Next time though. It will be a busy week and I likely won't be doing much riding until next weekend again...

darn it.....

Heart Break

Sad news this evening. JB's only filly, Mazie, passed away suddenly as a result of an Aortic Rupture. It happened quickly and there was nothing that could have been done. She was only 3 and a half, much too young.

Mazie was a real doll and will be missed dearly by her owner, who adored her.

Aortic ruptures are a rare thing and are usually fatal in horses. In some cases if the rupture is within the heart, sometimes the horse can survive but it usually only a matter of weeks. Since they are so rare, there has been very little research done on it. They aren't able to link to much of anything like age, breed, genetics , etc. There is some that believe it might be related to a type of strongyle infestation that ruptures the wall of the vessel but it hasn't been studied to be proven.

Its just not fair.

Test Drive

You met Maggie last June. I did this post when she arrived ( previously known as April) arrived at Acer Farm. She was here strictly for one reason; , that was to be bred toJB. The breeding never occurred because an unexpected offer lay on the table ; April's owner at the time, due to health issues, said he would like me to have her, but if I couldn't take her, she was headed to Oregon, with what sounded like a questionable future. And so, over dinner, we made the deal and the Doe eyed Diva stayed put. I had no idea , really , at the time if she would really do much in the way of endurance but something about her peaked my curiousity..... The first order of business however, was to get her dry lotted. She was terribly overweight and on the verge of founder. She was herd bound with her damn, who she arrived with. She was all attitude... and I liked it....

Over the next several months, we got to know each other during round pen or arena sessions, working on the basics. We made leaps and bounds in the bonding process because she hated being confined to her pen and seemed to looked forward to the distraction of our sessions.

So, 8 months later I am seeing a slimmer, more mannerly version of the same horse out in the pasture and we have started some very initial spring training. In the last week or so I have pulled her out of the pasture, done a cursory brushing, slapped on JB’s older Epics and took her along with me and my dog for a walk. May as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

Normally, my preferred choice of getting a colt out and about is to pony them, but I am a total chicken about the footing right now. It’s still slick in many areas along the roads I use for conditioning. No sense putting me and two horses at risk. So we walk and sometimes we stop, we look, we carry on..

Hand walking certainly has it’s benefits. It's like a test drive, get a feel for things and play it on the safe side. Since I only got the chance to take her out on the trail once last summer and she had a buddy along, I wasn't sure how she would handle leaving the herd, deal with passing vehicles, any of the other distractions we might happen upon. I wanted to set things up so Maggie could begin to look to me for confidence. Hand walking seems to be a great way to do that.

It also gives me opportunity to work with her on leading, manners on the lead and getting her to respond to voice cues. We pass the miles , when we are n't stopping to gawk at something, working on whoa, walk, walk up, trot. It's a good thing she doesn't have to chew gum and walk at the same time because she doesn't seem to be able to multi task yet!

The trotting in hand sessions have been kind of entertaining. She has a nice little jog that I can easily keep up with for some time on my own two legs, a job that I can picture riding along to for miles on end; but she tends to get caught up in the moment and shifts down a gear , or two , and gets into her big Morgan road trot(that thankfully isn’t totally developed). I have to stop her because I can’t keep up. Obvioulsy Stupidly, I have tried, atleast given it my best shot but the short legs don't stand a chance. She just kicks it down again and goes faster... (I think she likes to race!) Not sure where her final gear might be, but I suspect as she gets in better shape, she might find a few more... good for later, bad for now...

On our last walkabout, during one of these trotting sessions, it hit me like wall. I suddenly realized what it was.... the thing that I saw in her early on.. but couldn't quite put my finger on...her power. It resonates off of her, travels down the lead line and hits me like a bolt of lightening. This I think , will make a fine endurance mount.

As for JB, no I haven't forgotten him. His turn will be this weekend.. He's healthy, strong and has been vibrating for weeks. It's time to rechannel that energy into something productive. If he comes out of spring at all like he did last year, I might need to find my Hi Ho Silver Costume first.

Deviance

Something’s happening... there is something in the air; the horses are acting out all over the place.

Maybe they sense the teetering of spring about to show it’s welcome face, maybe it’s the pull of the moon or maybe it’s just that their as bored and tired of the weather as I am. For the last several weeks, the snow, melt, snow pattern has created layer after layer of ice and frankly, it’s wearing on all our nerves. The horses tip toe around trying to walk on the mounds of snow where it has drifted to avoid the large patches of ice. I can’t blame them if they are going a little stir crazy. Winter in the Flathead is a tough season. Unless you get to the top of Whitefish Mountain to get above the inversion and clouds, we don’t see the sun for months. S.A.D. is real phenomenon here.

So , while I am ready to crawl into a tanning bed and order up a Prozac smoothie, the horses have different ideas about things and giving me their own dose of anti-Seasonal Affective Disorder.
They have recently seen fit to make a gate a new pasture toy. This gate allows access between pasture, water and barns for three of the horses, Rebel, JB and Brego, aka, the Renegades.

Every morning, the gate is closed, and someone is locked out from access to water and shelter. I am not shutting the gate. Not only is the gate closed, it’s latched, which is not an easy thing to do, given the configuration of the gate. This little bit of playfulness was comical in the beginning, but honestly, it’s beginning to grow old when I no sooner go out to re open it and an hour later, it's shut again. At first it seemed like Rebel and JB were always locking themselves in and leaving Brego out, with no access to water or shelter. But I was wrong. It’s been Brego all along. I caught him in the act. He probably does it to be left alone, since he is the low man in the group. Of course, I wonder if he realizes he can’t access the good stuff when he shuts the gate?? Oh well, I guess he’s willing to sacrifice for a few hours of peace. The gate also happens to be a homemade wooden gate, and a nice one at that, at least it was….. Wood doesn’t hold up to horses teeth real well, so the top of the gate is chewed up. Looks like a bunch of beavers got a hold of it. Very LARGE beavers.. This past weekend, I finally had had enough of the antics and got out a drill, drilled a hole in the side of the barn, and tied the gate off, using baling twine of course!! It was all I had handy at that moment… We’ll see how long it takes Rebel now to untie it….

But that’s not all that has been going on. It seems they have also found a new game that they find most amusing; it’s something akin to a treasure hunt for JB’s feed pan. They hide it, I go hunting for it... Repeat....

and it’s rarely ever in the same place.

Every evening, I separate JB into the small corral so he can get his ¼ can of oats with his Farriers formula. Then later at night, I go back out and open the gate (different gate then mentioned above) so he can go back out to join Rebel and Brego in the pasture. Sometimes, I forget to grab the feed pan and put it back in the feed room while I am out there. (it's usually after 10:00 p.m. and I am tired and not thinking by then!!) The next evening's chore, it’s usually a 10 minute hunt for the feed pan.

I swear I can hear the three of them snickering at me as I wander around mumbling to myself, trying to find the feed pan.

On several occasions I have given up and just grabbed another feed pan, knowing the next day I will have a 50/50 shot of finding at least one of them. I will give them credit, they are very creative with their game. I have found the pan in some very strange places, like on the roof of the small run-in shed, (guess their working on their spiral throw or something) in the neighbor’s yard (going for distance there or trying to kill their Shepard possibly) in our ditch, buried in a corner of the barn under a pile of manure, and their most favorite..... at the bottom of the water tank…. Nothing I like to do better than go fishing in 40 degree water…

During one of the more recent sub zero days, I came home to find that they did some “remodeling” of things.... again… There is a wire gate that blocks the aisle way of the corrals from the north pasture. It’s not the best set up but its electrified wire and the fencer is working... They don’t ever touch it. Well, I have a feeling they were romping around, and judging from the hoof skid marks, bumped into it, and popped the whole thing apart. They have done this before. They have 3 acres to run, but they have to rush up to the gate …Luckily since its smooth wire and not a heavy gauge, it broke easily and there were no injuries. I was happy to see that. Of course, it is an aisle way, which means a long narrow passage. It’s about 10 feet wide, enough to get a skid steer through; but pile three rambunctious horses into that?? I am sure you can imagine. In all the commotion, someone must have gotten crowded a bit and managed to kick one of the lower rails and make it look like matchsticks. Fine job they did. No fixing that easily… So with frozen fingers, in the dark (just out of where the barn light shines of course) I set to work with my fencing bucket to reattach the wire gate…( note to self: First Spring project, get a new tall metal gate to put in place of the wire gate). Do you know how well wire bends in 10 below weather?? In my efforts to repair it to a somewhat workable condition, the new wire snapped 3 times trying to get it around the insulator, before I finally got something patched together enough. It would have to wait for a better job of it for a warmer day. I was thankful for the aisle way that day, because it has yet another gate, which is a metal gate that kept them from getting loose and running through the neighborhood.

Just noticed the daylight poking through the back of the large loafing pen as I pulled in the drive yesterday afternoon, in the shape of a perfect little hoof….

(deep sigh) Add it to the list of repairs…..Hope there’s something left standing of this place by the time spring does actually roll around…

Horse Sense: Does Learning ability correlate with certain Personality Traits?

So it's time. Tiime to put this series to bed. I'll finish with one last hurrah on the subject of horse behavior. While the series didn't necessarily answer the original question posted here that prompted me to write this review, I do hope it sparked some ideas or encouraged you to ask more questions, and then go looking for answers. Knowledge is power afterall..Or maybe, it answered some questions that you have had for a long time about your own observations of your own horses.

In Budiansky's book, it seems there is no proof in any studies to show that dominance in a herd indicates a higher level on intelligence. The same is true of age, body condiition or size. "There is some evidence that indicates that some horses that are less emotional and calmer are faster learners". "This suggests that learning has more to do with temperment than with intelligence." ...hmmm, interesting....a highly emotional horse is harder to deal with??? Nah.....couldn't possibly be...Maggie doesn't fit that description at all (mumbling to self under breath)

Ofcourse there are those horses that are very difficult to train that also show high levels of intelligence. These are where the horse has figured out how to train the trainer… discovering the behavior that gets the lesson or work to stop short…

Rebel happens to fit in this category. While he is the one horse on our place that has an uncanny ability get out of most gates, untie even a bowline, lock other horses out when there is food to be had (they say a horse can't rationalize but I wonder about this one) so he can have the lion's share, pull fly masks off, you name it, he has never been the easy horse on the place to train. Not even close.

What about Breed to Breed Intelligence?

(because here at Acer farm, we certainly have uh, well, diversity you could say with Barbs, Morgans, Morgan/Barb crosses, and Rebel, Mr Heinz 57...)


Apparently there hasn’t been much done to compare the intelligence between different breeds. I was surprised by this. The little bit of research that Budiansky makes note of showed that Quarter Horses chose a correct door for a food reward 80% of the time more quickly than a TB, indicating the QH was a better learner. So are Quarter horses more driven by food or positive reinforcements ??? Or are they just quicker studies? Well, I will say, an awful lot of trainers do prefer to train a Quarter Horse over, let's say a mustang for example. There's a good reason for this but I'll leave my opinions out of this discussion on the reasons why that might be...

Intelligence is funny thing with horses I think. I don't think it can be clearly defined to be honest. I am told JB, my Barb, is supposed to be more intelligent than other breeds. I would say that might be true, in the area of self preservation but some of the things he does??? Well, most times it has me scratching my head wondering if maybe something got lost in the genetics.

Reviewing Budiansky's book, The Nature of Horses, has been a good gap filler for the pause between the holiday season and when I can begin focusing on spring conditioning. It won't be long now when the neverending cold, dark dreary winter days of the Flathead begin to lose their grip to smells of green things breaking through the cold, the sound of dripping water as trees begin to thaw and the days begin to lengthen more and more. Yes, I am ready to shift focus once again. I am ready to climb back in that saddle.

Horse Sense:Can a Horse Problem Solve?

Stephen Budiansky's book The Nature of Horses delves into many areas of horse behavior and learning. In the previous post, Is Your Horse as Smart as a Guinea Pig, I touched on the horses ability of "learning to learn". We learned that consistency is crucial for horses mental well being and the reasons why.

Using the maze again to study how well a horse could actually problem solve , the studies that Budiansky writes about discovered one thing that most people have already known for years; Horses have excellent memories once something is learned, good or bad. In terms of real problem solving, surprisingly, they did not rank too well. Some of the species that did rank high in some of the tests that were done were dogs, raccoons, money and most carnivores (not sure what the correlation might be here but maybe part of the survival instincts necessary to catch elusive prey?)
Instead, what was confirmed was that horses are exceptionally good at making associations. I guess that makes sense;

I open the creaky door to the feed room shed, ears are perked up. I open the creaky door to the tack shed.. no response.

Our horses even know the sound of our truck coming back with the trailer from a day of riding, as opposed to the thousand other diesel trucks that go by… I guess Pavlov knew what he was talking about after all.

The book states that ability to make associations with actions or events relates to one thing; survival. Learning to move away from the dominant horse when his ears are laid back might be the difference between being able to continue to be able bodied or get injured…a kick is an unpleasant consequence.

So this begs the question of whether ability to learn coincides with the ability to be trained. The bottom line as Budiansky notes was simply this: "that much can be accomplished in training by ignoring incorrect responses". "A response to a stimulus that in neither rewarded not punished tends to disappear of it own accord".

This makes sense but I can't help but feel he missed something important. Budainsky discusses the scenario of when a trainer or rider is working with a horse who is shying at some imaginary object or , one corner of the arena, for example... The best way to deal with this , he says is to ignore it. Attempting to correct it through punishment may turn it into a bigger issue and sometimes even reward it. I would agree with that in most cases. As endurance riders teaching our horses to approach objects that look scary, cross water, go over bridges, etc is part of the job and we spend alot of time working our horses through these things so that in time they can approach things with confidence. What he doesn't mention though is what is the rider is doing with their own body; breath, seat, hands, legs, to reinforce the horse reacting. Often times, if a horse is spooking at the same place and the rider is anticipating this, the rider is subconsciously telling the horse with tension in the riders body, that there is something coming up that is going to be scary....9 times out of 10, the horse is going to be scared and respond in an unfavorable way. Most times, we may not even be conscious of what our bodies are doing but our horse is sensing it.. after all, they do feel flies...


So what do you think? Is it simple associations or do horse reason and problem solve? I have to admit, my gelding Rebel puts wide gaping holes in the research with his antics that Budiansky writes of. Share some of your experiences with your horses.



Next and Last Post in Horse Sense : Does Learning ability Correlate with Certain Personality Traits?

Horse Sense; Is Your Horse as Smart as a Guinea Pig?

Well, that seems like a simple enough answer , doesn't it?? Of course! A horse must be smarter than that? Right?... Right?

While horses brains aren't exactly big, they apparently do use much of that grey matter just to keep their feet in the right place. Imagine, so much brain power used to do what is seemingly a simple, subconscious thought. I guess Harry Whitney, Ray Hunt and some of the other masters of natural horsemanship out there really do have a point when they talk about the relationship between a horses feet and a horses thought!

" Agility , speed, and the variety of gaits create a huge demand for hard wired control in the central nervous system", according to the book. Apparently, getting motion and controlling four limbs in an organized way isn't as easy as one would think. Now, add to that those four limbs now traveling at high speeds over uneven ground, turning , maneuvering around and over obstacles.

"A four-legged creature on the move is not a wind up toy that just goes, maintaining balance is a matter of continual feedback and adjustment". The added burden of rider, who may not be so coordinated themselves adds another level of difficulty for the horse.. and yet, look at how they so often take care of their passengers? It really is quite amazing when it's coined in those terms, the horses ability to just move, in a coordinated and balanced fashion suddenly becomes not so simple of a task. How many of us have ever thought about it that way?

It's more common place , as humans, to define intelligence in an animal by it's ability to learn the tasks we ask of it, is it not?

In some of the tests that Budiansky mentions, horses were able to discriminate between a feed box and a feed box covered in a black cloth. They were taught to go to one of the other. This was a pretty simple task, especially if there was a reward involved. More interesting, the book points out that they "learned to learn". They were able to identify when a pattern reversed. So , they are able to make appropriate distinctions that something has changed and then adapt to it. That's probably a pretty well known fact among horse people. If the routine changes, the horse picks up on this and learns that feeding time is no longer at 5:00 but now at 6:00... eventually they stop getting anxious at 5:00 and hold off until a bit later... However, the studies went on to show that the horses ability to be a quick study was lacking, about equal to an aquarium fish, guinea pig or octopus... So maybe our horse are a bit more complex in their abilities to learn but I guess they aren't any quicker than a guinea pig.... I might have to get used to that idea....

Maze studies were also done to test how a horse makes a choice. 20% of the horses tested to take a left turn upon entering the maze still turned the wrong way. The more interesting, although a bit disturbing, occur ed when the scientists tested what would happen if the horse received a negative consequence for choosing the wrong turn in the maze. The horses were greeted with a blast of carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher. Physically harmless but a bit traumatic in my opinion. The results showed that while horses made fewer mistakes with fewer lessons, they ended up spending quite a bit more time deciding about which way to turn. The study revealed that while they may have learned faster, they were more worried about getting the right answer.

That sounds alot like the horses I have seen come out of the "60 days to a fully trained horse" programs out there...

...but I digress.....

"Discrimination experiments have shown how a lack of clear choices results in hesitation and confusion.. When ponies were taught to tell a black feed box from a white one, they became confused to the point of neurosis as the color of both boxes was gradually shifted to an intermediate gray; they would hover between the two boxes unable to decide", essentially trying to figure out what happened to the black and white colored boxes.

The point??? Consistency , consistency, consistency; It is of utmost importance as a training principle. Unfortunately, it also is one of the most overlooked principles because it requires " self discipline to give commands in a consistent fashion and to insist on an obedience every time"

We can all think of times when we let our horse get away with pulling their head down to graze because we were distracted with something else, and then we can't figure out why we can't get our horse to stop doing that when the horse is dragging us around trying to graze every time a blade of grass crosses his path. Yep, you guessed it right, you taught him that....

The book goes on into much greater detail about experiments done and what was found but the part that really resonates with me is that these experiments show the importance of " making sure that the horse has an opportunity to pick the right answer and that the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable responses is clear" and consistency is crucial to keeping our horses from becoming worried or worse.. crazy!!

Set things up for your horse so he/she can be successful and you have a happy, willing friend who is at least as smart as a Guinea Pig!!