Equine Behaviour Distance Learning Course
Knowledge of equine behaviour can also assist in training. By knowing how a horse is likely to behave in a certain situation, it allows the rider to prepare for it and to either avoid or resolve that particular situation.
What is the Purpose of Animal Behaviour? Course Structure
There are 7 lessons in this course:
Introduction: Influences and motivation
Why study equine behaviour?
What motivates behaviour?
Reactive behaviour
Active behaviour
Cognitive behaviour
Species behavioural differences
Learned behaviour
Classical conditioning
Stimulous conditioning
Trace conditioning
Delayed conditioning
Operant conditioning
Terminology
Genetics and Behaviour
Understanding the basics
Heritability
Epigenesis
Innate behaviour
Selective pressures
Social Behaviour
Rank
Conflict
Equine Perception and Behaviour
Imprinting
Negative imprinting
Sensory reception
Mechanoreceptors
Thermoreceptors
Chemoreceptors
Photoreceptors
Stimulus filtering
Communication and Social Behaviour
Social Constraints
Herd Membership
Auditory signals
Chemical signals
Communication
Co-ordination
Cohesion
Sexual and Reproductive Behaviour
Sexual encounter
Isolating mechanisms
Birthing behaviour
Foal imprinting
Maternal behaviour
Abnormal behaviour
Learning and Training
Conditioning and learning
Shaping
Extinction
Habituation
Instrumental Learning
Thorndike’s Law of Effect (1913)
Operant and Respondent Behaviour
Pseudo-conditioning
Intero-ceptive Conditioning
Temporal Conditioning
Biological Aspects of Learning
Associative Learning
Obedience
Reinforcement
Punishment
Systematic desensitisation
Counter conditioning
Behavioural Problems
Types of Abnormal Behaviour in Horses
Diagnosing Behavioural Problems
Indicators of Pain
Indicators of Mild Fear
Indicators of Extreme Fear
Stress
Stereotypes
Stable Vices
Prevention
Ridden Vices
Handling Vices
Problems during loading
Duration 100 hours Aims
Identify factors affecting horse behaviour.
Describe the influence of genes on equine behaviour.
Explain how horses perceive and how they respond to various stimuli
Explain how horses communicate and the nature of their social organisation.
Explain the sexual and reproductive behaviour of the horse.
Describe the different ways that horses learn and how this can be applied to the training environment
Explain how and why behavioural problems occur and how they can be prevented
What qualification will I achieve for completing this course?
This is an individual module course. The individual module courses are 100 hour long usually and can be taken on their own or as part of a larger program of study.
If you wish to take an individual module course as a stand alone course, you can elect to sit an optional exam at the end of it.
If you successfully pass the exam and all assignments, you will receive a Statement of Attainment. You can take examinations at a time and location to suit you. If you enrol, you will be sent further information on how to arrange examinations at the end of the course.
If you do not wish to take the exam, you will receive a Course Completion letter when you have passed all assignments.
There is an assignment at the end of each lesson. So for example, if an individual module course contains ten lessons, you will need to complete ten assignments. Assignments can be sent to us via email, post or fax.
Other qualifications, such as certificates, diplomas etc may require examinations to be taken as part of the overall assessment process.
You can find further information on the examinations process by clicking on the “Enrolment” link above.
You can find further information on other courses by clicking on the “Courses” link above.
KINDS OF BEHAVIOUR
Three general categories of behaviour are reactive behaviours, active behaviours, and cognitive behaviours.
Reactive Behaviour
Reactive behaviour includes stereotypic behaviour which is largely automatic. These are the most primitive types of behaviours which have been fully established in the animal well before it is born. Animal tropisms (automatic orientation responses) such as balancing and positioning are reactive behaviours. Other tropisms include things such as breathing, avoiding heat or opening the eyes.
Active Behaviours
Active behaviours are developed from inherited potentials. The animal is born with a tendency to act a certain way, but a degree of learning must occur for that behaviour to develop. The process is a little like a computer which delivers pre-programmed responses on demand; the way to act might be built into the animal’s genetic make-up, but it requires a certain stimulus before the action happens. These behaviours in part occur through parental training (eg. running, walking, grooming). This is a more elaborate type of behaviour than reactive behaviour. It is believed to occur only in more advanced animals (ie. arthropods and vertebrates), though there is some evidence that lower order animals can also learn behaviour.
Cognitive Behaviour
Cognitive behaviours are the most advanced forms of behaviour. Genetics provides only a very general influence, and the actual behaviour is more influenced by the environment and experience. Cognitive behaviour is more or less “deliberate” activity. The animal doesn’t just respond to stimuli; it can also “invent” its own actions. Simple cognitive behaviours are encountered in many (but not all) arthropods, and all vertebrates.
Exploration is a simple cognitive behaviour which allows an animal to familiarize itself with new conditions in the environment. Objects are approached, inspected and then moved away from. This action is generally repeated, but with reduced frequency. The most complex environmental factors tend to stimulate the greatest exploratory activity. If mammals are prevented from exploration for long periods, their behaviour can become abnormal.
Play is a more advanced type of cognitive behaviour which occurs to some degree in most vertebrates; but more so in mammals. Play may involve more complex and diverse activity than exploration. Play and exploration together help animals adapt to both their physical and social environment. Lack of play in young animals can lead to social problems later in life (ie. they make poor parents or don’t react well with other animals). Another more complex cognitive behaviour seen in mammals is manipulative behaviour.
Species Behavioural Differences
The behaviour of horses has been affected by their evolutionary development.
Examples:
Horses have lied in open grasslands for over 25 million years. Feed in these situations is high in fibre, and low in energy, thus slow to digest. This has caused horses to develop a behaviour of slow continuous feeding while slowly moving for most of the day. Conformation and behaviour of equine animals is adapted to this life of continuous grazing; and for this reason, even modern domesticated horses require several hours of slow movement each day.
Horses evolved as herd animals, because they were vulnerable to attack by predators if they were alone in an open grassland environment. Being in a group increased the ability to detect and escape a threat. As a result, horses have evolved an inherent need to be near and interact with other horses. The need for social contact with other horses is essential.
Horses have developed a flight behaviour (running away) as a natural reaction to threat. Their physiology has even adapted to support this behaviour. A horses first reaction to any threat or fear will naturally be to run away, and that behaviour is fixed in it’s genetics.
Domesticated Horse Behaviour is Different
Domestication of horses has affected it’s genetics and inherent behaviours; but to a limited degree.
Domestic horses may differ from wild ancestors and relatives in the following ways not just because they are around humans from birth, but also because these characteristics have been bred into them over time:
Less Aggressive
Tamer (less timid)
Some sensory parts of the brain (sensory perception) have become less heightened (eg. The horse may not sense visual and other stimuli as sharply, because the need to do so has decreased. As a result, domestic horses are likely to be less stressed)
Greater variation in performance, behaviour and physical attributes.
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