Meet the Boys...

...Alfie and Roux. My lifelong dream came true when they arrived on 8th August this year. We've already come a long way in three months and I'm going to start writing about them regularly on here, partly because it makes a nice record for me and hopefully so others can benefit from what I've learned through them.

They are both 6-year-old New Forest Pony geldings who used to roam free on the New Forest, before being taken off by their owner. They were treated quite roughly and Roux is still affected to this day, a particularly sensitive horse by nature. They were rescued from being sold for meat by a lady who then passed them on to me a year a bit later so that I could eventually use them for equine assisted learning, as I am currently training to become a facilitator.

I will keep this post short and sweet, but do expect many more insightful ones to follow. ~

Equine Assisted Learning and Therapy

Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is an experience-based learning process, the purpose of which is to improve cognitive function (including social and emotional development) via interaction with horses with the aim that principles learned in the session will carry-over and be applied in everyday living. Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) is often similar to EAL but with a focus on an ultimately therapeutic value instead of a learning one, although often these values emerge hand-in-hand. EAL/EAP often involves setting up ground activities involving horses which will require the individual or group to apply certain skills. Non-verbal communication, assertiveness, creative thinking and problem-solving, leadership, empathy, taking responsibility, teamwork, relationships and confidence are several examples of traits that are developed through these sessions. EAL/EAP is becoming an increasingly popular choice for children or adolescent youth with additional needs  due to its capacity for restorative social-emotional practice and development of healthier, more mature psycho-social skills. Over time, this restorative practice literally allows the brain to remodel neural pathways of arousal, emotion and meaning, broadening the learner's perception of the world around them and their window of tolerance for emotion and capacity to form healthy relationships. 

Acceptance ~ Attention ~ Empathy ~ Emotional Bonding ~ Mutual Trust ~ Nonverbal Communication Skills ~ Patience ~ Respect ~ Self-awareness ~ Self-control ~ Self-esteem ~ Speech-language Skills ~ Well-being 

http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/07/02/what-is-equine-therapy-exploring-benefits-of-human-horse-relationships/

Horses can help a huge variety of people. EAL/EAP has been known to help people with conditions such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), a variety of learning disabilities including ASD (autism spectrum disorder), sufferers of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance misuse. EAL is also becoming a popular method of corporate team development because of its effectiveness at improving self- and social-awareness and communication skills. 

Role of the Facilitator / Therapist 
The equine assisted learning facilitator/therapist is there to do just that: facilitate learning and/or provide therapy. They will tailor sessions for each individual and set up safe scenarios from which they believe the learner will benefit from the most. They will give the learner as much support and input as they need to work alongside the horses without taking away from what the horses themselves give the learner through non-biased, authentic feedback. The facilitator/therapist will help the learner reflect on various scenarios from the session and turn it into constructive feedback that they can apply to aspects of day to day life. They are there to enable the learner. 

What Happens in the Brain? 
To understand how horses help change us from the inside out, it's helpful to know a little about what goes on in the brain. The brain is an incredible organism which has the ability to change its own structure in order to enhance its function – a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. The restructuring of emotional response is most affected by experiences because neurons are designed to change in response to activity. These experiences engage the limbic (emotional) region of the brain. The neurons in the limbic region develop new connections with each other and the more the person undergoes the same experience, the stronger those connections become. 

Take trauma for example; how does it cause a disorder in the first place? 'Our brain and nervous system were designed to ensure survival by functioning as a 'RESPONSE/MEMORY/PREDICTION' system, but trauma can set this complex and adaptive system on a semi-permanent false alarm... a brain that exists in a perpetual state of fear. In a child victim of abuse, for instance, these trauma-induced alterations have made their stress response oversensitive, overreactive and dysfunctional due to over-utilisation of primitive reactions such as dissociation and hypervigilance. These primitive reactions become entrenched over time and maladaptive preconscious memories function as a general template for that child's feelings, thoughts and actions.' (Bruce Perry, 2008) Chaotic experiences during the sensitive stage of child development create in turn chaotic, dysfunctional neural organisation that persists into adulthood. The good news is that, thanks to neuroplasticity, therapeutic activities such as EAL/EAP can put a positive spin on neural pathways meaning this need not be a permanent condition. 

So Why Horses? 

EAL/EAP is mostly based on experiential learning involving working with a highly emotionally-receptive creature, which is why it is such an effective method of personal development. 

Such sophisticated emotional work requires a trusting relationship in which the learner can sense their partner's feelings too, but in the case of people who have a deep-rooted distrust of other people, this can present a barrier. That's where horses come in. 

Horses are social animals for whom attuning to each other's emotional states is key to survival. They can attune to a human's emotional state almost immediately and far more accurately than humans can. 

Working with these incredibly emotionally-intelligent creatures, who make no presuppositions, gives the learner authentic and unbiased feedback about themselves. By learning to understand and acknowledge the horse's sensitive reactions to their own signals, the learner allows changes take place in their limbic (emotional) region, increasing their self-awareness and setting patterns for healthier emotional regulation in the future. 

Horses come with different personalities like people. One aspect of social awareness is attuning to different personalities. Working with different horses sharpens this awareness. For example, horse #1 is shy and you must be particularly gentle in the way you communicate with him, but horse #2 is confident and you have to set clear boundaries and exert more pressure in what you're asking for... even though you might be asking both horses to do the exact same thing. Overly confident people might struggle with horse #1 and nervous people may struggle with horse #2, but that's all part of the learning process. The learner can discover how to 'read the horse' and relate to him accordingly and then take those principles and apply them to relating to people. 

There have also been many cases of people with depression or anxiety benefiting hugely from working with horses, experiencing emotional regulation (just being around horses can raise levels of oxytocin - the 'bonding' hormone - in the bloodstream) within a real, working partnership. The process of developing this bond with the horse and the feeling of acceptance which accompanies it not only boost confidence and self-esteem, but also helps the learner to develop the tools for self-regulation that they can then apply to normal day-to-day life. 

The concepts of EAL/EAP are becoming more and more widely accepted although there are still some mixed views. One down-side is that it is inevitably expensive, and another is that many people struggle to see the science behind why it is so effective and so, understandably, are not prepared to invest precious time, money and energy into it. But the good news is, its extremely positive results are now beginning to become more widely-recognised and it is growing in popularity. 

I personally love the concept of equine-assisted learning as a form of therapy because I adore horses, but it's so much more than that too... stepping outdoors, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the natural surroundings, living in every single moment, taking responsibility for a half-tonne animal, connecting emotionally with that animal and working with it to achieve goals you never thought you could achieve, realising that you can do so much more than you thought and having fun in the process. It's being accepted for who you are and coming away feeling empowered, inspired and enabled. 

References: 

• Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential - and Endangered, Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz 
• The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment, Babette Rothschild 
• Perry, Bruce and Hambrick, Erin (2008) The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, Reclaiming Children and Youth, Volume 17, No 3. http://www.childtrauma.org/index.php/articles/cta-neurosequential-model 
• The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, Bruce Perry and Erin Hambrick 
• The Listening Heart, Leigh Shambo 
• www.eagala.org/Information/What_Is_EAP_EAL
• http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/07/02/what-is-equine-therapy-exploring-benefits-of-human-horse-relationships/
• http://www.robinrisso.org/ (image) 

Licking and Chewing; What Does It Really Mean?

I was on a horse forum recently and somebody had asked about the licking-and-chewing motion that horses often display after they learn something or when they are relaxed.  There were lots of opinions, some thinking it was a sign that the was horse 'reassuring himself' while others called it the sign of information processing. I love looking at the science behind a thing, so I did some research. Some of the following is still theoretical, but here is a summary of the most logical scientific explanation I could find. 

The licking-and-chewing response in horses is closely linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, controlled by the hypothalamus. This is the part of the autonomic nervous system which deals with automatic body functions during a relaxed state, as opposed to the sympathetic nervous system which triggers functions seen in the 'fight or flight' state (as seen below). For example: You shouldn't exercise your horse just after he has eaten because the body cannot efficiently supply nutrients to the muscles for exercising at the same time as fuelling the digestive system, HOWEVER, when the horse's SNS kicks in, it inhibits digestive activity so that his body WILL be able to fuel the muscles (enabling him to flee from danger if necessary). 

http://medicalterms.info/anatomy/Autonomic-Nervous-System/

So both the SNS and the PNS inhibit and stimulate different organ processes to either relax or excite them respectively. When the horse is in sympathetic state, salivation is inhibited, but during the transition back to parasympathetic state, salivation is re-stimulated, resulting in the licking and chewing response. This is not to say that the horse constantly licks and chews when he is relaxed, but when he is coming 'down off adrenaline' or out of sympathetic state, the stimulation of salivation is more acute. 

The reason that licking and chewing is often thought to be a response of thought processing during learning (which is not entirely untrue) may be that the learning process has a particular relationship to licking and chewing. Here is an example of a learning process in which the pressure-and-release technique is used: 

1. Pressure is applied to the horse until he responds correctly 
2. The horse undergoes 'concentration tension' 
3. Horse responds to pressure in a certain way 
4. The pressure is released; he has found the solution! 
5. What he has just learned is processed in the hippocampus 
6. 'Stimulation of the hippocampus promotes the release of endorphins' - (www.community.equisearch.com/blogs/floridahorseman/default.aspx)
7. The endorphins stimulate parasympathetic state; he can relax! 
8. PNS then induces salivation 
9. Salivation stimulates licking and chewing response 

So does it mean a horse has learned something new when he displays the licking and chewing response? Not necessarily. He may have learned something new, that being the reason for his relaxing, which is then the reason for his licking and chewing, but ultimately it is a sign of relaxation. 

Horses don't just relax when they have learned something, they also learn faster when they are in parasympathetic state. So as a horse trainer it is important to make sure your horse is as relaxed as possible when trying to teach him something new. This should also discourage the use of force when training horses, as forceful methods are likely to cause stress and so inhibit the learning process rather than promote it. 

The following excerpt explains more about the connection between brain and mouth and how stimulating salivation can work conversely, helping in turn to create the parasympathetic state: 

The mouth is linked to the limbic system (including the hippocampus), the area of the brain that is considered to be the control centre for the emotions and the gateway to learning (Daniel Goleman, 1997). This apparent connection is consistent with observations made by Linda Tellington-Jones in her training system. Many horses improved in their behaviour and the ability to operate in a calm and focused mode once tension in the mouth was reduced. Working around the mouth, both inside and out, stimulates the salivary glands, which, in turn, triggers the PNS and quietens the SNS. (Dental imbalances can cause horses to be more dry mouthed and therefore less relaxed and less able to learn.) 

                                                                                                                  - www.lindatellingtonjones.com 

FAQ: Equine Vision

This post is called 'FAQ...' not because these are frequently asked questions, but because they should be. If you are someone who works with or around horses, I have written this for you because I believe understanding a horse's sight also helps us to understand why horses behave the way they do.

How wide is the horse's visual field? 
- The shape and location of the eyes means the horse can see almost 360 degrees around him although some places are barred from the horse's vision, including the area directly in front and behind him and anything above eye level. As a general rule, predators (including us humans) have binocular vision, or eyes situated on the front of our head. Prey animals have monocular vision, or eyes located on either side of their head. This monocular vision is essentially a safety mechanism enabling them to watch out for danger while they eat. The horse cannot use binocular and monocular vision at the same time. While he makes the switch between the two, objects may appear to 'jump' into view and distort until he focuses once again. 

Think: What might a horse think when an object suddenly appears from his blind spot? How does the horse's visual range affect your horse's vision when you ride and what incidents might it explain? 

Is the horse long-sighted or short-sighted? 
- Due to the nature by which horses must bring objects into focus, they cannot easily focus on anything closer than 1 metre, making the horse a long-sighted animal. In the wild, horses would not to see things up close as the main function of their eyes was to look out for approaching predators. 
How do horses bring objects into focus?  
- When looking at an image, light passes through the pupil and lands on the lens. The lens then focuses the image onto the retina. The human lens can be altered by powerful ciliary muscles, through the process of 'accommodation', to help bring objects at varying distances into focus. This also takes place in the horse's eye, just not as accurately. (It was originally thought that the horse's lens could not alter in shape because of a 'ramped retina', which would have given reason for the horse's moving his head to bring objects into focus, but the reason has now been found to be the 'visual streak'.) 
Horses have a 'visual streak' or linear-shaped area within the retina which has a high concentration of ganglion cells (up to 6,100 cells/mm² in the visual streak compared to 150 and 200 cells/mm² in the peripheral area). Horses have much better acuity when the image of the object they are looking at falls into this region and they often raise, lower or tilt their head or move closer or farther away, until it does.

How accurate is the horse's vision? 
- It is generally thought that horses have a visual acuity of about 20/33 as opposed to the ideal human 20/20 vision. This means that while a horse may see something clearly from twenty feet away a person would see it as clearly from thirty-five feet away. 
How well can horses sense motion? 
- It is also thought that horses can generally sense motion more acutely than humans. In the wild, motion is a common predator alert. Such motion is detected in their periphery, where there is little visual accuracy, and they must raise or lower their head to bring the respective object into clear focus (into the 'visual streak'). 

Think: How does the horse's instinct to run from danger tie in with his visual acuity? Could this explain why horses raise their heads in alarm or sometimes just run before bringing anything into focus? Could a trusting relationship help to override instinctive, fearful reactions? 

Can horses see colour? - The retina contains light-sensitive cells called cones and rods which produce various nervous impulses stimulated by rays of light. They both recognize light and dark images and the cones interpret colour. Horse have two types of cones (aka dichromatic vision): one that is optimal at 428 nm (nanometres) - pastel bluish-grey - and one that is optimal at 539 nm - yellowish. This is why horses can distinguish blues well and greens and yellows somewhat, but that they are not very responsive to reds. (This even makes sense when put into perspective of a horse's natural lifestyle, being most active at dawn and dusk.) 
What is eyesight's part in having to train horses the same thing from both sides?  
- All good horse people know that when you teach the horse anything, you must teach him 'from both sides'. For instance, you may train him to lead perfectly from the left, but when you then try to lead him from the right, act confused and walk wonky like you hadn't taught him a thing. What a horse sees in his right eye is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain and vice versa. The information gathered through one eye is not processed efficiently by both sides of the brain. This is because, unlike humans, the horse does not have an efficient corpus callosum, which is the connective tissue that transfers information between the two hemispheres of the brain. 
Can horses see in the dark? 
- While horses don't see colour as well as humans, they have more rod cells than we do. Rod cells are light sensitive and the more the eye has, the higher the accuracy in distinguishinging light and dark differences. Horses also have a tapetum lucidum which reflects visible light back onto the retina, allowing for greater light absorption in dark conditions. These factors result in much better night vision in horses than people. 
How well do horses adjust to changes in the light? 
The amount of light the eye allows in is affected by the pupil which contracts and dilates appropriately and the corpora nigra, or black, cloud-like protrusions located near the pupil. Because of the extent to which horse's eyes can adjust to darkness and pick up images due to their light sensitivity, they can also take a longer period of time to adjust back to a different light, especially a sudden or acute change. It is important to understand that horses' eyes take longer than ours to adjust to light changes and also that something that looks somewhat shaded to us (e.g. inside of a trailer) may look pitch-black to horses (who also happen to be claustrophobic by nature). 

Think: How long do you give you horse to adjust his eyesight? How might illuminating the inside of a trailer help when loading? 


DID YOU KNOW? 
Horses have a third eyelid (nictating membrane) situated in the corner of the eye. It is often unseen because it is usually the same colour as the iris, but in some horses it is white and much more obvious. In fact, some people do not buy horses that have white nictating membrane because they believe the horse to be temperamental. Similarly, some horses' eyes are 'too small for their sockets', making the surrounding white sclera visible and this can also look like the horse is frightened because he is showing 'the whites of his eyes'. 

The Use Of Force

All too often there is a vicious circle of - some force >> negative behavioural response >> more force - in the equestrian world. 'Bad behaviour' is a common misconception, as the horse is not against you; he is merely for his own self-preservation. Many horse owners, who do not understand this concept, term their horses as naughty, stubborn or brat, when the horse does not oblige to their commands. Certainly some horses are more strong-willed or stubborn than others (at varying degrees, just like people), but more often than not, there is a reason for a horse saying no. A good horse handler will try to discover this reason (for instance, by going through the check-list below) and find a solution, but more commonly, people will simply amplify what they were asking in the first place by applying more pressure in some way. This seems the easier option to them, but is it really worth the risk of building up problems that may cause complications later as well as jeopardising your relationship with your horse? This is the reason many horse trainers have commented that they have had to fix the 'problem owner' and not so much the problem horse - to educate them on what they were, in fact, doing wrong which was causing the horse to act that way.  The following is a list of the most common reasons for behavioural problems in horses taken from 'The Ultimate Horse Behaviour and Training Book', Linda Tellington-Jones:

1. Poor Saddle Fit 
2. Shoeing and Hoof Issues 
3. Soreness 
4. Teeth and Dental Issues 
5. Dietary Considerations 
6. Conformational Clues 
7. Hormonal Havoc 
8. Training Techniques and Riding Style 
9. Rider Attitude 
10. The Stress Factor 
11. Neurological Dysfunction 
12. Exercise and Stabling Practices 
13. Environmental Impact 
14. Eyesight 

The persistent use of force leads to one of two things: defiance or compliance. Horse #1 is a strong-willed horse and would sooner act with defiance, but this causes him to be further clamped down upon until he loses that will and becomes like horse #2. Horse #2 will become compliant, but develop a 'numb personality' in an attempt to desensitise himself to more maltreatment (even though some people genuinely don't even realise it is maltreatment). These situations vary according to the degree and type of force used, but I have seen many cases in the extreme and they are common enough. Do we really want to confine our horses to these two bleak outcomes? 

So, assuming one of the factors listed above is the reason behind a horse's particular behavioural problem, it is important not to make the all-too-easy-to-make judgement of: bad horse. The heart-breaking reason that this judgement and the use of force are often so 'effective' with horses is that many of them are such passive creatures that they will carry on, through the discomfort and in spite of their unheeded petitions, out of fear. These people utilise force by raising the pressure until it is less desirable than what was causing the discomfort in the first place, so the horse is basically choosing the lesser of two evils. Their fear is of something worse, which is what they are offered in return for trying to explain the problem. Strong-willed horses are likely to take more persuasion (e.g. brute force) because they are the ones brave enough to 'stand up for themselves'. These are the horses who are often put down because they are 'too much trouble'. 

Just one example of the use of force in horses is 'rollkur' or 'hyperflexion', used as an extra degree of control to create the submissive ridden horse and sometimes to cure the annoying habits of rushing, head tossing or generally napping. This technique is often utilised by trainers so that their horses will appear to have a good outline (form or shape when ridden) which is a sign that they are submissive to the rider's aids. Often horses' bits will be changed to harsher ones until they will submit to the pressure (raising the pressure until it is less desirable than the original discomfort) and in extreme cases they may even be left for extended periods in positions such as the one pictured below. Proper outlines are reached through good balance, muscle tone and conformation as well as a relaxed and comfortable horse who is listening to his rider, but this takes much time and dedication. (Rollkur has now been banned by the FEI in competitions, but still occurs in warm-up rings and private riding yards.) 

Above left: Rollkur in the showring  

http://everyrider.typepad.com/everyrider/2007/03/the_rollkur_deb.html 

Above: Horse's head and neck trapped into rollkur position www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1852516

If horses are not against us, but for themselves, surely the most productive thing we can do is cause our goal to coincide with their sense of self-preservation or, at least, not oppose it. Considering their needs (mental or physical) and finding a way to meet them whilst working towards our own goals would be setting yourself up to win instead of putting the horse in the position where he must choose between disloyalty or discomfort. I believe in relationship first, performance second and that if you get the first one right the second will fall into place much more easily.