Vices or Stereotypies in Horses

So last week I wrote a blog 'Do horses get bored?' where I mentioned 'vices', 'bad habits' and 'stereotypies' .  These behaviours seem to be more about the horse being stressed - although we (the horse community) have historically said these develop because a horse is bored!

So what is a vice?
Whatever you like to call them, they are annoying or damaging habits/behaviours that horses develop, often when they are stabled for long periods, isolated from their friends or even given an inappropriate diet.  

Weaving
The horse swings his head and neck (and sometimes body) from side to side.  

  Difficult to see in a picture - but have a look on You Tube!

Weaving can cause stress or strain to a horse's legs and joints.
There are weaving bars available which prevent a horse from being able to do this whilst their head is over the door (some will just do it inside instead).

It is better to get the horse out of the stressful situation, turn out as much as possible, regular exercise and ad-lib hay if in the stable.

Crib-biting/Wind-sucking
These are similar.  In wind-sucking the horse arches his neck and swallows air making a loud grunting noise.  Whilst in crib-biting the horse does the same but grabs hold of something with his teeth eg: stable door, fence post etc.

This behaviour can cause the upper teeth to become unnaturally worn, can cause indigestion and can make it difficult to keep the weight on a horse. Also, it can exacerbate gastric ulcers.

There are special collars available which are supposed to prevent horses from wind-sucking and/or crib-biting.  Basil is a crib-biter and the collar made no difference!  As I mentioned last week I believe this developed when he was a racehorse and was stabled much of the time with limited hay or food.  

The best treatment is to keep them turned out somewhere with no available places to grab hold of (use temporary electric fence to keep them away from posts!)  Creosote woodwork, regular exercise and ad-lib hay when in the stable so that they are trickle feeding as in nature.

Box walking
As the name suggest the horse walks around the stable, he may be distressed too.  This can put strain and stress on a horses limbs as they are continually going around in circles.

Placing  grills between the stables so that horses can see each other can help.  If this is not possible then mirrors can have the same effect.   Turnout as much as possible, regular exercise and trying to keep the horse occupied with hay or toys!

Rug-tearing
Again - it is in the name - the horse tears his rugs by biting and tearing at them with his teeth.  Although, the horse will probably do little damage to himself the cost of replacing rugs can be huge!

Bibs are available to ensure the horse can't actually get his teeth close to the rug, these still allow the horse to eat.  However, allowing the horse to trickle feed with plenty of hay or preferably turnout is a better solution.

 Door/wall kicking or pawing
This often develops around feed time!  The horses start pawing as they would in the field and when this is followed by food they quickly learn that when they paw or kick the door food follows - so they continue to do it! 

The horse can cause injury to the legs or joints (especially knees) which can be difficult to treat.  Some horses seem to enjoy the noise so lining the doors and/or walls with rubber can reduce the problem.  Otherwise turnout and ad lib hay again!

Flanking
This is when a horse bites its own chest, flanks or legs and is more often seen in stallions.  Obviously the horse can do considerable damage to themselves.  Reducing confinement by increasing turnout and exercise.

Wood chewing

Horses chew at wood surfaces, breaking off pieces of wood.  This may not be a 'vice' as it may be satisfying a horses need to supplement their diet but it may be a learned behaviour from a mother or friend.

It can cause excessive tooth wear and occasionally splinters in the gums!  Turnout with access to different types of roughage, creosote wood surfaces or use electric fencing instead.

You will notice that all of the treatments I have mentioned above involve getting the horse back to nature.  You need to satisfy their natural instincts to eat little and often, socialise and roam.  If you can't feed ad lib hay eg: because they may get fat, then try using a haylage net which has smaller holes or putting one haynet inside another.  You could also use one of the trickle feeding toys available to keep the horse occupied for longer.

 

Some horses seem to develop a vice in certain situations and others don't - each horse is an individual and it has been suggested that genetics probably play a part.  Some horses are predisposed to develop vices if triggered.  This trigger would usually be stress.  Keeping a horse in an unnatural environment where they are unable to exhibit their natural behaviours is likely to trigger a 'bad habit'.  Have a look back at my  Horse Psychology and Horse Ancestry blogs to find out more about a horses natural environment!

Have you seen last weeks vlog 'What's In My First Aid Kit' ?  Look out on Wednesday for my next 'How to...'   
Horse Life and Love. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for updates on Chesney, Basil, Fidget and Daisy.

Until next time!

Jo

All about .... Boots for horses.

There are so many different types of boots available for horses now that I find it all quite confusing.  Horse boots are designed for support and/or protection and have, in a lot of situations, replaced bandages.  Next week I will blog about bandages!

I am not a big horse boot user.  I use boots for travelling, lunging and sometimes for jumping.  Having said that Basil does not work hard and doesn't seem to need boots as he moves fairly straight.  My previous horse, Josephine did not have very good hind leg conformation and so tended to catch her leg with the opposite foot (and shoe) often so she always wore back brushing boots for protection!  

I like brushing boots for lunging because the horse is working on a circle and so their legs may move closer together at times and because Basil has 'loopy' moments and I don't want him to cut his legs.  At this time of year it can be quite a challenge to have clean and dry enough legs for boots.  When I get him in from the field he generally has some wet mud on his legs!  This is a key point .... if you put boots on to muddy legs they WILL rub.  It is very important to ensure a horse's legs are clean and dry before putting on boots.
 
As I said at the beginning of today's blog there are lots of different boots available now but the main types are listed below.

Types of boots:

• Brushing boots - these fit around the cannon bone with an extended bit to cover the inside of the fetlock.  The number of straps will vary depending on the size of the boot.  Straps should be fastened front to back and the boots should be tight enough to prevent slipping but not too tight to interfere with the blood supply.

 

To fit these boots you should place them around the leg, slightly higher than required and fasten one of the middle straps.  Then go back and fasten the top strap and work down.  Finally, gently push the boot into place (to cover fetlock fully) and test that you can put your finger snugly between the boot and cannon bone.  If the boots have double Velcro then the inner part will be fastened front to back and the other back to front.

• Tendon boots - these are designed to protect the tendons and are open fronted boots.  This means that the horse will feel a knock to the front of his leg and are popular with show-jumpers so that the horses learn not to touch a fence.  Fit these in the same way as brushing boots.

 

• Over-reach boots - these protect the heels and coronet from damage if the toe of the hind foot treads on the back of the front foot.  There are 2 types:  the first type is a 'pull on' boot and the second has some type of fastening.  The pull on ones are obviously much cheaper which is an advantage if your horse often damages them (once bits are missing they need replacing).  However, I find these really difficult to put on.  The best way is to put them in a bowl of really hot water for a few minutes and they will then be more pliable.  You turn them inside out and basically pull them on!  
   
  
  
  
  
  

• Fetlock boots - do as the name suggests and just cover the fetlock.  These are useful if the horse tends to catch his fetlock with the opposite foot. They generally have one fastening above the fetlock.  As with the other boots put them on a little higher than you require before fastening and gently pushing into place.

• Travelling boots - these are big, padded boots just for travelling.  They are designed to protect the horses lower leg from knocks and injuries when travelling.  Although, they are not always that easy for the horse to walk in! They tend to attach with Velcro for ease and cover all the way from the hock or knee to cover the heels and coronet.  Again straps should go front to back and the boots should be put on in the same way as brushing boots.

I know a lot of people use boots everytime they ride.  I only really use them if the horse needs them or the occasion or activity calls for them!

Have you seen this weeks vlog ' What's In My First Aid Kit' ? 
Horse Life and Love. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for updates on Chesney, Basil, Fidget and Daisy.

Until next time!

Jo

February Review

February has been a successful month when it comes to most of my goals!  I'm loving the sense of achievement I am getting from actually writing them down and then writing down what I am actually doing to work towards them!

My February aims for Basil were:

1. Calmness - this is definitely getting better in walk and trot but needs work in canter. 
2. Rhythm - again we can achieve pretty rhythmic trot but canter is variable. 
3. Suppleness - right rein is generally fantastic at all paces, left rein is not consistent in canter. 
4. Consistency of bend on left rein - see above, still needs work! 
5. Halt transitions - improving.  Good from walk, more practise needed from trot. 
6. Trotting poles - definitely getting used to these now, picks feet up well. 
7. Continue to canter single poles - yes, but we have moved on to JUMPING. 
8. Turn on the forehand - oops forgot this - March aim now. 
9. Lunge in bridle - haven't done this yet. 
10. Pilates - tried walking over raised poles and backing up - need to introduce more.

 This is what February looked like:-

2nd - School, arena was slightly icy so we stayed in walk and trot.  Really good, practised walk to halt transitions which are improving and tried a few trot to halt transitions.  We are getting between 3 and 6 walk strides before we manage to halt from trot though - needs more work!  However, Basil worked in an outline and was really soft.

3rd  - Hack, really pleased as we managed to walk home instead of jogging which we have been doing lately.

4th - Lunged, managed walk to halt on right rein but on left rein he ignores me and then when finally halts turns in - he is confused when I correct this. Worked well otherwise.  Led over 3 raised poles at end of session and practised backing up but he still raises his head - I need to work on my technique!

6th - School, windy and there were pigeons in the hedge!  Jumpy to begin with but settled as I managed to remain calm and positive.  Worked in walk, trot and canter with good bend on both reins (left can be a bit tricky).  We walked and then trotted over the trotting poles.

7th - Hack, Basil was really good and I was really pleased as we met another horse when we were on our way back. He did come back in a fast walk/jog but there wasn't any napping or silliness.  I kept calm too!

8th - School, EXCELLENT. Canter circles with change of rein in trot before cantering a circle on the other rein - Basil came back to trot well which is great.  Did some great walk to halt transitions too.  Then BIG NEWS  we jumped a cross pole out of trot.  The first 2 or 3 times were more like cat jumps but then we had some nice pops before trying on the other rein which again were nice pops.  I kept my leg on and kept positive!  SO SO PLEASED! TICK OFF GOAL FOR 2015.

10th - Hack, pretty good we had to negotiate some road works which can be a challenge but I was pleased with him today.  Chesney had 'tweaked' a muscle in his fetlock/pastern on our return (because he trots up and down in the mud) - limiting hacking for a few days!

11th - School, trotting poles and we jumped a slightly bigger cross pole out of trot.  Basil landed in canter which I just went with - no over-reaction which was great.  We then did some canter work and he got quite strong, we need to work on this and I think really I just need to relax and let go more - mmmm...  challenge!

14th - Lunged, very good.  I kept it simple because we had the hunt very close by on 12th and the horses have been wound up since.  No roller today and I expected Basil to be loopy - as usual horses prove you wrong - he was brilliant.

15th - School, today we tried a new exercise of alternating walk and trot at where each school letter would be (I don't have any).  I had to abandon this as our trot to walk transitions are not very immediate so we tried trotting the long sides and walking the short sides.  Eventually, we were managing this but to start with it took me half of the short stride to come back to walk - must start asking for walk earlier!  We also did some walk leg yield which is generally pretty good as long as I keep my outside leg on so that he does not rush over.  Good canters too, trying to relax and let go more!

18th - Lunged, with the roller today.  Very good session with a good rhythmic left canter (this can be a bit speedy and unbalanced).

19th  - Schooled, just one thing to say about this session . WE JUMPED OUT OF CANTER. OMG!

20th - Lunged,  pretty good, mostly calm, just a couple of bucks in left canter.

21st - Schooled, I was not really feeling it and Basil knew it.  It was a bit windy but he was extra spooky because I was not really riding my best!  We did achieve leg yield in walk and trot on both reins and the canter transitions were better.

24th - Lunged, it was really windy and Basil agreed, he spent the first 5 minutes cantering and bucking around on the left rein.  He was very good on the right rein though - typical!

25th - Hack, short hack today to check Chesney's leg is OK.  Basil was very good, calm, fun, chilled ride.

26th - Schooled, started well with the sun out.  Warmed up with walk and trot and put stirrups up to jump.  Then the wind picked up ALOT but Basil seemed fine.  Popped a straight fence (maybe 2') out of trot a couple of times before coming out of canter.  Excellent, lovely jumps, no over-reaction, good rhythm and managed to ignore the wind.  Really, really pleased but cut session short as it was getting too windy.

27th - Lunged, with roller.  Very good halts on right rein but again halts on left rein need practise as he still turns in.

28th - Hack, slightly longer hack.  Was a bit windy but Basil was fine with it.  We had quite a fast walk back but was a fun ride.

So in view of these I can tick off a horse riding 2015 Aim

• Ride Basil over a jump - TICK!

I have also achieved another 2 of my 2015 Aims

• Join Instagram - TICK!  horselifeandlove 
• Finish BHS Stage 1 blogs and start BHS Stage - TICK!

My March Aims for Basil are:

1. Calmness, rhythm and suppleness in all paces. 
2. Consistency of bend on left rein. 
3. Halt transitions from trot. 
4. Leg yield away from track. 
5. Trot to walk to trot exercise. 
6. Trotting poles. 
7. Jumping, single fence, increase height and work on canter rhythm up to and after. 
8. Turn on the forehand. 
9. Lunge in bridle. 
10. Pilates.

I would love to hear your aims and goals!

Have you seen yesterday's vlog 'What's In My First Aid Kit' ? 
Horse Life and Love. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for updates on Chesney, Basil, Fidget and Daisy.

Until next time!

Jo

Dressage Evening

On Saturday evening I wrapped up warm and headed to a Dressage Evening at the Riding School where I have been having lessons for the last 18 months.  In some ways the evening was similar to the one I attended back in August but it was still fascinating.

The demonstration was by local dressage rider Henry Boswell and he had brought along several horses that he is training or rides himself.  In a similar way to last time he went through the stages of training from 5 year olds and up to a horse competing in Grand Prix.  It is always interesting to see how they approach the training of each movement and how it is really about putting the horse in the position that they figure it out themselves!

So starting with the basic walk, trot and canter with the 5 year olds.

...... and moving on to leg yield.

Then introducing Shoulder- fore and Shoulder- in.

  This picture is not of Shoulder-in!

Travers follows this as all future movements are based on the horse moving in this 'banana' shape!!!!  

Shoulder-in

Introducing my favourite - flying changes and medium trot and perhaps some collection. 

 Medium trot.

Half pass, full on extension and Pirouettes!

It was a fascinating evening and just wonderful to watch the horses, so beautifully presented, really enjoying themselves.  Next month there is supposed to be a demonstration about training the young horse which I am hoping to attend!

Have you seen last weeks vlog 'One Day in February' ?
Horse Life and Love  Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for updates on Chesney, Basil, Fidget and Daisy.

Until next time!

Jo

Do horses get bored?

I think we often get stress and boredom confused when we talk about horses.  As people stress is something a lot of people suffer from to different degrees, each person's stress tolerance level is different!  Stress in people is not always a bad thing, some levels of stress can motivate and create positive feelings.  However, negative stress can cause health problems.  Surely horses are no different, they are all individuals too!

We say that horses that weave, crib bite, wind suck, box walk etc are bored.  Surely they look more stressed?  Our horses still hold on to many of their wild behaviours, see my Horse Psychology and Horse Ancestry blogs.  So, surely stabling them for long periods they will become stressed and develop ways of coping!  Basil is a crib biter - this I believe he developed when stabled constantly as a racehorse -  it is now an ingrained habit that we minimise as much as possible with turnout and ad lib hay.

To go back to the title of this vlog then, it isn't intended to be about 'vices', 'bad habits' or 'stereotypies' but about whether horses get bored.  Do they get bored with riding in the same places?  

When I was writing last weeks blog about whether schooling has to be boring it got me thinking about Basil.  Until last summer we did not have access to an arena or anywhere to school because the field is ridge and furrow, there is no level place to ride.  This meant that for the last 5 years I have just hacked out, we have a few different places to ride but the first and last 20 minutes are always down the same stretch of road.  To be honest I never really thought that he would be getting bored of it, although, I was.

Some people become bored doing the same job day in and day out, some don't - everyone is different.  I know that some horses that  spend every day in the school get bored eg: riding school horses, they become lazy and difficult to motivate and get going.  Then when these horses are taken out for a hack they brighten up, walk a bit faster, are interested in their surroundings and seem to enjoy themselves more!  They are more stimulated, and maybe a tiny bit stressed which makes them motivated and creates positive feelings.

This seems to hold true for privately owned horses that are also only ever ridden in the school, with the same exercises day in day out!  Taking the horses out to a show or a different environment stimulates them and they can become stronger and excited.   I thought, though, that hacking out is more interesting, even if it is the same route. 

However, since having access to an arena again we are able to alternate schooling, lunging and hacking out and I think Basil has changed.  He seems really keen to get into the arena (as I have said in other blogs) he is strong in canter and is enjoying the challenge of learning and doing different exercises.  

Why do I think he is enjoying himself?  Obviously, he can't tell me but his ears are pricked his head is alert, he walks to the arena with purpose and generally seems happier on a day to day basis.  He definitely has more of a spring in his step (let's hope it doesn't get too springy in the next few weeks) and is actually spooking less on our hacks.  It makes me think that he was actually trying to add a bit of excitement to our hacks.  Having said that I do also think that my increased confidence has helped this too so it could be a bit of both!

It definitely seems that Basil likes variety and craves a bit of a challenge.  However, they are all different ... Fidget seems perfectly content to do very little!  So maybe, like people, some horses get bored with the same thing every day and some don't.

Have you seen last weeks vlog 'One Day in February' ?
Horse Life and Love. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for updates on Chesney, Basil, Fidget and Daisy.

Until next time!

Jo