All in favour say haaaay
Feb. 21st, 2009 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephbgIt's not all 40's musical comedies, psychopaths and serial killers on the box here at sector 7. Sometimes I watch horsies. I used to know a thing or two, but it's all a bit rusty now.
This week's Catalyst features a horse behaviour story that broke the news that in cognitive terms, a horse is about as bright as a goldfish.
*pause for squeals of protest*
Think about it in terms of evolutionary pressure. Sure, as herd animals horses have reasonable social intelligence, and as prey animals they're sensitive to predatory behaviour. As territorial beasties they've got to have a certain memory for landscape and to remember the basics like the location of water and recognise environmental hazards. And so on.
However, for the classics of memory, discrimination, recognition and problem solving horse brains are ill-equipped and it comes down to one little idea: grass doesn't hide.
I love that line. Grass doesn't hide.
As a grazer, feeding is hard work, but it's not smart work, and thus not good for sharpening mental abilities. Food does not naturally represent a behavioural reward for doing something innovative. Grass is just there. Look, right there, under your feet! Sure, you *can* use it as a training reward, but the actual reward you're offering is the attention. The food part is more likely to teach a horse that parts of humans are edible.
I went to a natural horsemanship demonstration a few years ago and you should have heard the ripple of protest amongst the horsey set when food rewards were denounced as absolute no-nos in favour of social and emotional rewards.
The other interesting note from the Catalyst story was that patting a horse on the shoulder is not nearly as pleasant for the horse as many people seem to think, and is almost indistinguishable from punishment. I prefer to scritch along the base of the neck under the mane just above the withers, mainly because that's where horse friends seem to nibble each other. And now I'm told that rubbing there makes horse blood pressure drop, so score one for me.
And then there's scritching down the middle of the face, although that's more like supplying an opportunity (scratchy fingers are in front of you now, backed up by a sturdytree human) and letting the horse do the rubbing if it wants. If they're shedding for summer, they will want! A bit like switching on cat smearing/marking behaviour by offering an irrisistably pointed finger at the right height.
Then there's ear-relaxing through massage, stroking and gentle tugging (if my ears are floppy I must feel good). And the final but undoubtedly messy trick, chin and lower lip tickling. If that works and the lower lip relaxes you might get covered in green drool, but it probably means you have a happy horse on your hands. And your shirt, and your boots.
Damn, I miss horses. There's so much more that I know I've forgotten about lines of sight, angles of approach, ticklish elbows...
One of my goals for this year was to make sure I get in some horse time. It's got nothing to do with riding, but I would like the opportunity to watch and touch; to be still and quiet. To breathe.
This week's Catalyst features a horse behaviour story that broke the news that in cognitive terms, a horse is about as bright as a goldfish.
*pause for squeals of protest*
Think about it in terms of evolutionary pressure. Sure, as herd animals horses have reasonable social intelligence, and as prey animals they're sensitive to predatory behaviour. As territorial beasties they've got to have a certain memory for landscape and to remember the basics like the location of water and recognise environmental hazards. And so on.
However, for the classics of memory, discrimination, recognition and problem solving horse brains are ill-equipped and it comes down to one little idea: grass doesn't hide.
I love that line. Grass doesn't hide.
As a grazer, feeding is hard work, but it's not smart work, and thus not good for sharpening mental abilities. Food does not naturally represent a behavioural reward for doing something innovative. Grass is just there. Look, right there, under your feet! Sure, you *can* use it as a training reward, but the actual reward you're offering is the attention. The food part is more likely to teach a horse that parts of humans are edible.
I went to a natural horsemanship demonstration a few years ago and you should have heard the ripple of protest amongst the horsey set when food rewards were denounced as absolute no-nos in favour of social and emotional rewards.
The other interesting note from the Catalyst story was that patting a horse on the shoulder is not nearly as pleasant for the horse as many people seem to think, and is almost indistinguishable from punishment. I prefer to scritch along the base of the neck under the mane just above the withers, mainly because that's where horse friends seem to nibble each other. And now I'm told that rubbing there makes horse blood pressure drop, so score one for me.
And then there's scritching down the middle of the face, although that's more like supplying an opportunity (scratchy fingers are in front of you now, backed up by a sturdy
Then there's ear-relaxing through massage, stroking and gentle tugging (if my ears are floppy I must feel good). And the final but undoubtedly messy trick, chin and lower lip tickling. If that works and the lower lip relaxes you might get covered in green drool, but it probably means you have a happy horse on your hands. And your shirt, and your boots.
Damn, I miss horses. There's so much more that I know I've forgotten about lines of sight, angles of approach, ticklish elbows...
One of my goals for this year was to make sure I get in some horse time. It's got nothing to do with riding, but I would like the opportunity to watch and touch; to be still and quiet. To breathe.
