OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010 THE RIDER /29
Knowledge of Horse Psychology “saves time, trouble and trauma.”
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Lindsay teaches at the OEF Conference
Knowledge of Horse Psychology “saves time, trouble and trauma.”
logic.
So says Lindsay Grice in commenting on the Equine Behaviour course she’ll be teaching this year. The course is part of the University of Guelph’s year-long Performance Horse Handler Certificate taking place at the new REACH Huron facility. “Every horse person can benefit from knowing the science of equine behaviour, says Lindsay. Anthropomorphization is a fancy word for attributing human thought processes to horses and it can get us into trouble. We can fall into the trap of assuming the horse has motives, logic and emo- tions just like we do. You know ‘My horse did that just to spite me’, She’s pre- tending she’s lame to get out of work’, ‘My horse likes to show off in compe- tition’ ‘He gives me uncon- ditional love’”
She says that she incorporates this science behind the skills in all her teaching.
Students will learn to draw conclusions from evidence based research rather than anecdote.
“We have a lot of tradition in the horse world” she says, “and myths die hard. We need to think critically about the methods and treatments we use. I’m a question asker – I’ve learned to meet every claim with ‘Is that REALLY
true?’ before I buy it!”’ The course begins in September and students will learn the principles in lectures, having the chance to test what they’ve learned in labs. Later, they’ll have work placements in differ- ent industry sectors.
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“ I love to teach the whys behind the hows. We can save time in every training session by under- standing how a horse is wired and teaching system- atically in a way he under- stands. We can get into trouble by punishing a horse, thinking he knows the difference between right and wrong or had a motive behind a certain action when, in reality, he didn’t have a clue. We can save ourselves some trauma by not triggering the instinc- tive fright/flight mechanism when we discipline a horse for being afraid”.
Among the many principles covered, she will be teaching the students that horses are herd animals and expect direction from the Alpha leader. They are prey and never predators, tending to flee from the unknown rather than inves- tigate. Lindsay will cover how the equine senses of smell, touch, hearing and sight affect their perception of the world and the impli- cations for the training pro- cess. She’ll compare the horse and human brain and how horses are designed to learn through repetition vs.
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