EFTBA Veterinary Newsletter 11 February 2014 Conventional . Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of versus evolution (Dobzhansky) sympathetic . Prey- and gregarious ani- training mals are accustomed to learn both with positive and negati- ve reinforcement . The education and training of young horses ought always to be conducted with the aid of the ablest and patient assi- J. Stanhope stants Welcome to EFTBA’s veterinary newsletter It has always struck me that if I was of different training methods on per- part of a herd being pursued by formances, and the need to ensure some famished feline my best that those methods are sympathetic, “Many thanks to Mrs. chance of survival would be some- is an important part of improving tho- Eva-Maria Bucher- where in the middle, on the basis roughbred performances. Haefner, Moyglare that those on the outside were like- Hanspeter's examination of the issues ly to cop it first ! And it seems to me is not only fascinating but also demon- Stud Farm, for her that most horses are happiest lob- strates how little we still know despite valued sponsorship bing along with their pals around the 300 or so years we've spent trying them. to teach the noble beast to run faster. of this newsletter.” If I'm right then it's the "nature" of And as usual it is succinct and erudite. the horse not to be in front, and it is Another "must read". only through "nurture" that we can Rhydian Morgan-Jones, OBE, FCA. instil in him the will to win. That's of c ourse where training comes in. The need to understand the effects Rhydian Morgan-Jones Chairman, EFTBA Editorial In Newsletter 10, we spoke of psy- son with sympathetic methods as for chological aspects of educating instance “natural horsemanship”. These aspects actually were plan- and training young horses and ned to be included in the last news- were disappointed with the state of the research in this field. However, letter, but it soon was obvious that it we are in good company, as Derk- would have been far too much sen and Clayton (2007) also poin- material - a fact which occurs with ted out that valid and reliable just about any subject in these days Profound Beauty (Danehill) owned measureme nts to assess the horse‟s (see also comments on genetics and bred by Moyglare Stud. psychological state still must be and Herpesvirus). identified. It is therefore also difficult Therefore, here now a summary of to justify our traditional methods, studies both of comparing different which we consider valid, empirical- training methods and of some neu- ly. But especially in regard to wel- rophysiological aspects of learning. fare, conventional methods are of- It is again quite a bit of theory, but 1 ten critizised, above all in compari- the familiarity with these subjects seems to be favorable, as we are confronted with (P < 0.001), „high head carriage‟ (P < 0.001), „lip them not only for the basic education but also for movements‟ (P = 0.008) and „teeth grinding‟ (P = the retraining of „second chance horses‟ - also a 0.03). Principal component analysis demonstrated big issue in our industry, by the way. that horses showed consistent differences in a ran- ge of behavioral and heart rate parameters bet- Dr Hanspeter Meier ween groups. Behavioral parameters and technical performance EFTBA veterinary advisor & Newsletter editor during the standardised final riding test did not dif- fer significantly between groups, but mean heart rate was higher for CT horses (P < 0.001). The results Introduction suggest that applying a sympathetic training me- thod when starting young horses did not compro- As already mentioned in the last issue, the proper mise technical performance, but seemed to reduce education and training is beneficial in any aspect stress during training compared to a conventional of the well-being of a racehorse (physical and men- training method. tal health, wastage, durability) and the safety for animal and man. Beside our traditional methods, Kędzierski et al. (2011) followed with “A comparison there exist also other ideas of how to educate the of heart rate response to natural and conventional horse, with so-called sympathetic methods among training methods in Purebred Arabian colts and them, e.g. “whispering”. Such alternatives did be- fillies” (n = 32 two-year olds). As reason for perfor- come quite popular in our times, especially as they ming this study, the authors mentioned that the quite often are also labeled “natural”. However, emotional status is important not only in the view of only scant scientific research has been done with animal welfare but also of training efficiency. To these training methods and only few comparative assess the horses‟ emotional response to training studies (conventional vs. sympathetic/natural me- process, the heart rate (HR) was measured tele- thods) were undertaken. Only some of them are metrically. Upon reviewing the study results, the mentioned here because the results of most of the team found that the horses' heart rates differed trials do correspond well. significantly depending on the training group they were in. The horses that were trained sympatheti- cally had the lowest heart rates, which is generally Recent Research accepted as indicating less excitement. Particularly colts reacted positively to the sympathetic method. The authors concluded that the advantage (lesser In these days, in equitation quite some literature on emotional response) of their “natural” training me- foundation training is available. However, there, the thod, compared to a conventional method, was education of horses normally doesn‟t start as early proved. as in our sport. But they nevertheless may give us some hints for optimal possibilities and flaws to be Overney-Tännler S. und Favre B. (2010): Investiga- avoided. tion of the influence of different factors on the edu- cation of three year-old Freiberger-horses (Untersu- Visser et al. (2009) made “A comparison of sympa- chung verschiedener Einflussfaktoren auf die Aus- thetic and conventional training methods on re- bildung 3-jähriger Freibergerpferde. Bachelorar- sponses to initial horse training”. During a 5-week beit). starting period the effect of a sympathetic (ST) Reasons for performing the study and objectives: versus a conventional (CT) training method was Analysis of different factors on the learning beha- studied using 28 young Warmblood horses (3.5 vior of young horses years ± 2 months of age). Behavioral observations Material and Methods: two temperamentally homo- during the starting period as well as during a stan- geneous groups of three year-old Freiberger-horses dardised final riding test were performed by trained (light draught-breed) were tested, one the control observers. group, the other one with horses which had been Results: A human-approach test showed that ST prepared with “ethological” exercises (sympathetic horses snorted significantly less compared to CT method) before they were introduced to a short horses after the training period (P = 0.006). Further- training-course for riding and driving. more, CT horses showed more fear and stress-rela- Results: The “ethological” preparation had a signifi- ted behaviors during training such as „body tension‟ cant negative effect on the marks of some exami- 2 nations and showed a dependence on the person thods. What may be the reason for this scarcity ? Is responsible for the education. there not much interest ? Do the advocates of Discussion: This study was done with very few horses “natural horsemanship” not want to prove sup- (n = 9) only and therefore the results have to be jud- posed advantages ? Is everybody happy with its ged critically. own method ? Are the achieved results disap- pointing ? A lot of assumptions may be made, but Zollinger A. et Gindrat - von Allmen Y. (2012): Deter- most probably and very simply, the main reason mination of the emotional state in horses while lear- may be that the ratio of cost and benefit of such ning a task with positive or negative reinforcement an investigation just hasn‟t been considered favo- (Détermination de l„état émotionnel dans lequel se rable enough yet, though certainly every horse- trouve un cheval après avoir appris une tâche man/woman has got sympathy for the search for avec du renforcement positif ou négatif. Travail de potentially better methods. Once more there is the Bachelor). fact that horses are expensive „guinea pigs‟ and Reasons for performing the study and objectives: that the set-up for getting reliable results is pretty The processing of informations may be influenced demanding. Very many environmental factors may by emotion in man. A person with a negative attitu- influence such a study and complicate the inter- de may judge an information pessimistic while a pretation of the results. Most probably, these factors positive approach may result in an optimistic judg- are also responsible for the modest quality of the ment (judgment bias). This phenomenon has been publications as above. Moreover, their results are observed in several animals as well, but not in hor- not really in favor of sympathetic methods, sorry to ses yet. However, such an investigation might help say; therefore there might not have been much to improve their well-being. appeal yet to carry on with such research. Material and Methods: The evaluation of the emo- In regard to these shortcomings, the discussion of tional state occurred by means of the reactions to the articles has to be critical. First of all and gene- an ambiguous situation shown by the animals which rally speaking, very simple things in regard to writing had been trained with two different training me- and publishing must be taken into account. Most thods. 12 fillies and mares (9 to 20 years of age) important is the planning of studies, of course, and if were divided into two homogeneous groups which one is trying to compare different methods, the had to discriminate spatially between two and number of probationers must be much bigger than three buckets, respectively, with and without food.