Trust Instead of Dominance E-Book

Marlitt Wendt

• Herausgeber: Cadmos Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 142

Beschreibung

Does the rider really always have to be "dominant" over the horse? Do we need dominance training? In this book, behavioural biologist Marlitt Wendt debunks the widely-held and incorrect belief in the dominance theory and presents the scientifically well-founded friendship concept as a horse-friendly alternative.

Leseprobe

Marlitt Wendt

Trust Instead of Dominance

Working towards a new form of ethical horsemanship

Copyright © 2011 by Cadmos Publishing Ltd,

Richmond Upon Thames, UK

Copyright of original edition © 2010 Cadmos Verlag GmbH,

Schwarzenbek, Germany

Translation: Claire Williams

Design print edition: Ravenstein + Partner, Verden

Setting print edition: Das Agenturhaus, Munich

Cover photograph: Christiane Slawik

Content photos: Christiane Slawik

Editorial of original edition: Anneke Bosse

Editorial of this edition: Sarah Binns

E-Book: Satzweiss.com Print Web Software GmbH

All rights reserved: No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-85788-001-7

eISBN 978-0-85788-604-0

Inhalt

So tell me, riders, how do you feel about domination?

Horses – more than a herd animal

Where does the horse come from and where is it going?

The origins of today’s breeds

The horse as an individual

Animal of flight, of the steppes and of the herd: an incomplete model

One horse is not the same as another

A patchwork family

Different ways of living together

Pairs – the strongest link in an equine family

Boys alone – bachelor groups

Stallions united

Step by step into adulthood

A journey into the world of behavioural science

The game of life

Kin selection

Contact with other horses and herds

Is blood thicker than water?

Name and rank

Complex hierarchical relationships

The effect of stress and domestication on hierarchy

Situational and contextual dependence

Up and down

The concept of friendship

A state of flux

Understanding communication

Horses among themselves

Macho stallion?

Greeting rituals between horses

The reasons stallions mark their territory

Signs of appeasement

Mutually grooming their waytowards friendship

Horse and human in conversation

Resource management

Peaceful coexistence

The myth of dominance

Humankind – a worthy alpha animal?

Dominance training vs learning theory

Habituation

Sensitisation

Imprinting and socialisation

Imitation or social stimulation

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

Carrot and more stick?

Learning by reward

The change from dominance training to learning by reward

Risks and side-effects

Imprint training

Round pen training

Natural horsemanship

What does learnedhelplessness mean?

Without force – or perhaps not?

As we would like to be treated ourselves ...

Clever terminology

Dominance training

Everything is ‘natural’

Body language

At play

Horse friendly

Let a horse be a horse

Horse-friendly training

Horse and rider as a team

Creative time off

Learning by reward

Diagnosis: A problem with dominance?

The dominant human as an environmental factor

Common problems and possible solutions

Aggressive behaviour

Disobedience

Fear

Friendship instead of Domination

A friend for life

An invisible bond

Appendix

Further reading

Contacting the author

Index

So tell me, riders, how do you feel about domination?

So tell me, riders, how do you feel about domination?

In recent years dominance seems to have become one of the key focuses of discussion and debate. Terms such as domination, control, dominance problems, hierarchy and dominance training seem to be on the lips of so many riders and trainers. Entire training methods rely on these terms and the models used to explain them. But do we really always have to dominate our horses? Are dominance and hierarchy really as significant in a horse’s day to day life as we are led to believe? And in many cases doesn’t a training system based on dominance do more harm than good?

Much of the terminology used by dominance-based trainers when explaining their systems comes originally from equine behavioural science. In spite of the advances within this branch of science some of the earlier ideas have been integrated into training methods, often without a full understanding of them. The typical behaviour of a herd, which has its own social structure and hierarchy, isn’t as obvious and one-dimensional as has been taught for decades. Meanwhile the scientific world is also seriously questioning the existence of a purely dominance-based hierarchy, both within a herd and in relation to humans. The stallions and mares of legend that take over leadership of their herds, and about whom much has been written, exist only in fairy tales. In addition, the question has to be asked whether training methods that rely for their basis on the principles of so-called ‘Dominance-based training’ really work in the way you are led to believe, or whether in fact the learning process behind them has nothing at all to do with establishing a new pecking order. The alleged absence of force in so many of these methods has to be strongly questioned.

Life as experienced in a herd, and the relationships that horses have with each other and with the people around them, leave a mark on other natural laws of behaviour. In this book I would like to try to dispel some of this confusion and give you an insight into a horse’s social life from a behavioural science perspective. In addition I will analyse horses’ natural associations and the tangle of their herd relationships as well as observing their relationship to humankind and our training methods. In doing this we will be able to paint a new picture of a horse’s social life and investigate an alternative method of training, which involves a more ethical type of interaction between horse and human.

This book should help you to assess different types of training methods for their understanding of equine behaviour and their freedom from force. I also hope to be able to give my readers the ability to differentiate between positive and negative training methods – whether at shows, competitions, or when choosing a trainer for your own horse. In being able to do this we are also contributing towards a more peaceful coexistence between humankind and the horse.

Marlitt Wendt, August 2010

Horses – more than a herd animal

Horses – more than a herd animal

An introduction to the world of the horse

A

ll horses are not the same. Although any casual observer can see clear and marked differences between individual representatives of the species with the melodic sounding scientific name Equus ferus caballus, most books on horses and riders speak with one voice about ‘the horse’. However, there is as much a typical horse as there is a typical human. There are clear differences to be found, both behaviourally and physically, between Arabs and Exmoor ponies, Belgian Draught horses and Mongolian horses, or between Hanoverians and Quarter Horses. In addition, representatives from within individual breeds can also differ greatly in their behaviour and characteristics. It is precisely this individuality that characterises horses and which provides so many of the challenges that we find when dealing with them. No one horse is exactly like any other, so we are faced continuously with new surprises when involved with them. In what follows, I will cover where our leisure partners of today come from and highlight some of their evolutionary qualities, so that we are prepared for our later discussion of some of their characteristic features.

Where does the horse come from and where is it going?

In the course of the millions of years that form its developmental history, the horse has learned to adapt to different living conditions and circumstances. In the course of its evolution, and as a result of certain inherited traits being passed down from generation to generation, the species we now know as the horse underwent significant anatomical and physical changes. What started as an antelope-like forest-dwelling animal became a plains-living animal that could gallop – the horse. Distinguishing characteristics of an individual are coded in the form of genes, which are copied and passed on to the following generations. Many species don’t exist in just a single form, but have a number of different variations. The hereditary differences among individuals, in other words the genetic variability, are created by these different forms and the recombination or reordering of their genes.

Today’s breeds are a colourful mix, originating from very different types. They unite a wide range of behavioural characteristics inherited from their ancestors.

Even in the case of the ancestors of our domesticated horses, there has always been a wide variety of subspecies or types that have adapted to the climatic and ecological conditions of different regions around the world. Today, in order to trace the ancestry of horses and their domestication, researchers make use of the genetic information contained within the so-called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed on exclusively from mother to daughter. Normally the order of the genes changes in every generation owing to the merging of the female and male elements at conception; however, when considering mtDNA, you are dealing with a recognisable component of the genes that remains consistent over many generations, and through which it is possible to follow the maternal line and the degree of relationship between different species of equines. The origins of the maternal line of the modern domesticated horse, and thus the ancestress of all of the various different types of horse, can be traced back between 320,000 and 630,000 years. Using mitochondrial DNA, the domestication of the horse by humankind can be traced back to the period between 9400 and 2000 BC. For a long period, researchers hypothesised that the horse of today originated from a single ancestor, a theory that is now strongly doubted. They imagined that the domestication of the horse was a single and relatively simple process, which caused the domesticated horse we ride today to be created from the interbreeding and natural selection of only a few individuals, which were then spread around the world by humankind. Modern research now assumes that the domestication of the horse took place in a number of different locations around the world, and at varying times. Each group of people took the horses that were living in their region at that time and in effect created their own ‘ancestral’ horse through breeding. This theory is supported by the fact that, when examining the current range of horses that exist today, we can find 17 different types with varying maternal lines.

The origins of today’s breeds

The different subspecies mentioned above are the ancestors of today’s domesticated horses and thus the foundation for the modern breeds of today. Their initial development occurred without the influence of humankind, and was a result only of exposure to the environment in which they lived in different parts of the world. They therefore developed great differences not only in their physical characteristics but also in their behaviour. Probably the oldest domesticated type of horse, with a maternal line that stretches back 47,000 to 166,000 years, originated on the steppes of Asia and was characterised by a short-backed, slight body, a short head with wide nostrils and a tendency to move fast in its dry, warm habitat. These horses formed very close family groups and found it easier than the other types of horses to become used to humans.

The maternal lines of the northern draught breeds (sometimes inaccurately referred to as cold-blooded horses) can be traced back 29,000 to 100,000 years. With their thickset and chunky bodies and powerful jaws adapted to chewing hardier grasses, they were perfectly suited to cold climates. This was a horse that went everywhere at a steady walk and formed loose groups. The maternal line of the more roman-nosed warmblood type, which is 6000 to 21,000 years old, was well suited to the vast, cold steppes of the northern hemisphere. They had a relatively long back and long limbs that were ideally suited for long journeys. They probably lived a solitary life, with herd life virtually unknown, with the exception of groups of older mares who lived with other female family members. It can be assumed from this that these horses would have tended towards showing more aggressive behaviour and would have had a well developed sense of personal space.

The particular way in which various breeds express themselves can easily lead to misunderstandings when strange horses meet for the first time.

The social life of the maternal line of the first ponies, 2000 to 8000 years old, probably took place in large herds, which fell into individual subgroups but joined together when danger threatened. With their medium size and their thick coats they were especially well suited to the mild, damp climate of the British Isles and Scandinavia.

In addition to these four basic types, there were other varieties of early horse from which our ancestors developed what would become today’s breeds. But, as can be seen, the beginnings of our domestic horses were, in terms of their social behaviour and environment, very different. There were horses that developed in very close family groups and others that lived a rather more solitary existence. As a result of this, the reality is that it is illogical to assume that there is a single and uniform herd and hierarchical structure that applies to the full range of horses that exist today. From domesticated horses with a variety of origins, humankind has bred and developed the current breeds over many centuries. Some of today’s breeds are still very close in type to their ancestors, others are a result of crossing several types, uniting some of their characteristics, both physical and behavioural.

Local dialects in the equine kingdom

The range of expressions covers a wide spectrum among the different breeds of horse. As a result of this, individuals from different breeds can sometimes find it hard to understand each other. What for one might be a friendly tussle could for another be a serious fight. The way certain elements of behaviour, body language and facial expressions are shown or expressed can also vary considerably. Whilst an Arabian horse will hold his tail upright at the slightest excitement in a way that is typical for this breed, this type of behaviour is likely to be seen much more rarely in a Belgian heavy horse, and then only in cases of extreme provocation. We can also clearly distinguish differences in threatening behaviour. Owing to its smaller muzzle, a Welsh pony’s more oval nostrils appear a lot less threatening than the nostrils of a French trotter, even when pulled into a much narrower slit, although both individuals may be making a threat with the same intensity. Many thoroughbred types tend towards a pattern of behaviour that is more extravagant, while heavy horses use only a minimal number of physical changes to show their mental state. These differences in the way horses express themselves are probably founded in the variety of subspecies from which horses originated. While thoroughbreds originally would have had to communicate with each other over larger distances, ponies, living as they did in closer proximity to each other, could rely on smaller gestures because their body language did not have to be read at great distances. Owing to the mixing of these different types over time in our modern breeds, many of the behavioural patterns from different types can be found within the same breed. This means that there is a much wider breadth of behavioural characteristics than would have been the case originally. Different types of horses don’t naturally know the habits and language of others, but instead have to learn them. The individual pattern of behaviour that they have learned in their own herd has been taught to them by their parents, siblings and other members of the herd. If the equine family, as is the case in most breeding establishments, consists of representatives of only one breed, a foal will not learn how to assess the often different social behaviour of other breeds. In some cases these ‘cultural’ differences in understanding can be so great that it may be better for horses to remain separated so that both sides can live in peace. It is therefore sensible to allow foals to get accustomed to different breeds and types so that they can cope more easily when they encounter them in later life.

Many ponies, many personalities.

The horse as an individual

Besides the differences in behaviour among the various types of horse, there are also well developed unique characteristic qualities that appear within individual breeds. Sometimes these differences among representatives of the same breed can be even greater than those among different breeds. Owing to its genetic make-up and its own experiences, each horse is a unique individual with a distinctive character and its own special personality. Accordingly, some characteristics may be developed to a greater or lesser degree in some horses compared with others.