Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses

Recognition and Application

Rachaël Draaisma

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351967846
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Equine Veterinary Science

This practical book helps you interpret and connect the physical signals that horses display in response to their environment. These signals are evident in the everyday actions, gestures and attitudes that horses communicate to each other, but are often so subtle that they can go unnoticed by humans. This book aims to rectify that, offering horse lovers and equine professionals an opportunity to gain a unique insight into their 'horse's world'.

Key features:

• includes detailed description of language signs of domestic horses, with a special emphasis on calming signals
• includes 275 pictures to visualize various language signs, calming signals, behaviour sequences and facial features
• presents communication ladders to show how a horse responds to incentives in his environment, and what signals he uses at certain moments
• contains tips on the use of the communication ladders and calming signals to improve the socialisation, training and wellbeing of your horse
• considers equine psychological stress from an environmental perspective, providing a valuable alternative to the current common clinical perspective.

After reading this book you will be more astute in spotting calming signals, displacement activities, stress signals and distance-increasing signals, and better able to see which stimuli your horse can handle and which he cannot. This means you will know what to do to calm your horse before his stress rises to an unmanageable level. Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses is both fascinating and important reading for any equine veterinary practitioner, student or nurse, as well as horse owners and trainers.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

About the author

Acknowledgements

1 THE DISCOVERY OF A LANGUAGE

1.1 Communication Signal or Not?

1.2 It All Starts with a Stimulus and a Reaction

2 CALMING SIGNALS TO APPEASE AND CALM

2.1 What are Calming Signals?

2.2 Communication Ladder: Calming Signals

2.3 Body Posture

2.4 Facial Features and Tail Carriage

2.5 Blinking

2.6 Half Closing the Eyes

2.7 Looking Away

2.8 Chewing

2.9 Tongue Out Chewing

2.10 Yawning and Jaw Stretch

2.11 Head Turn

2.12 Neck Turn

2.13 Neck Shake

2.14 Body Shake

2.15 Lowering of the Head and Neck

2.16 Curving

2.17 Splitting

2.18 Showing the Hindquarters

2.19 Showing the Flanks

2.20 Eating

2.21 Immobility and Slowing Down

2.22 Summary: Calming Signals

2.23 Alternating Displacement Behaviour and Calming Signals

2.24 Communication Ladder: Displacement Behaviour

2.25 Faces and Behaviours

2.26 Displacement Activities

2.27 Rolling

2.28 Head Swing

2.29 Example of Calming Signals and Displacement Behaviour

2.30 Summary: Displacement Behaviour

2.31 References

3 TENSION SHIMMERS THROUGH CALMING SIGNALS

3.1 Tension Rises Due to Increasing Stimulus Intensity

3.2 COMMUNICATION LADDER: STRESS SIGNALS

3.3 Body Posture and Facial Features

3.4 Clenched Lips And Differently Shaped Lips and Nose

3.5 More Frequent Defecation and Urination

3.6 Rushing: Eating, Drinking, and Moving

3.7 Example of a Behaviour Sequence

3.8 Tension Leads to Creation of Distance

3.9 Communication Ladder: Distance Increasing Signals

3.10 Chasing Away

3.11 Bite Threat

3.12 Threatening to Kick

3.13 Bucking

3.14 The Arched Neck

3.15 POSTURING BEHAVIOUR

3.16 Flight Signals

3.17 Example of a Behaviour Sequence

3.18 Fight or Flight

3.19 Communication Ladder: Fight or Flight

3.20 Recovery After Mounting Tension and Shock

3.21 Communication Ladder: Recovery After Tension and Shock

3.22 Summary: Rising Tension and Recovery

3.23 References

4 NO COMMUNICATION

4.1 Just not that Interested

4.2 Communication Ladder: No Communication Signals

4.3 Withdrawal and Stereotyped Behaviour

4.4 Communication Ladder: Withdrawal

4.5 Summary: No Communication

4.6 References

5 APPLICATION OF CALMING SIGNALS: HOW DO WE HELP THE HORSE?

5.1 The Communication Ladder as an Assessment Tool

5.2 Planning and Management

5.3 Creating Relaxation Opportunities

5.4 Not Leaving your Horse Alone and Using a Hand Signal

5.5 Using Calming Signals Yourself

5.6 Splitting

5.7 Curving in an Arc

5.8 Showing the Flank or Back

5.9 Standing Still

5.10 Making your Horse More Independent: Empower your Horse

5.11 Summary: Tips

5.12 References

Appendices

A1 Eyes

A2 Ears

Bibliography (personal favourites)

Index

Foreword

Dear readers,

The moment you open this book and start reading it, you are taking part in an historic event. Twenty-five years ago, after years of study, I wrote the manuscript of my book about calming signals of dogs. I knew very well that all species share some of the same signals, and because I had worked with horses for a long time, I knew they also shared them. There was just never the time or the opportunity to undertake a study.

But I wished strongly that one day somebody would catch on to this idea and start studying horses and their language. One day I mentioned my dream to Rachaël, who was my dog trainer student at the time, and I glimpsed this fire light up her eyes - and I knew that this was the person to do it. And indeed she did! Studying, filming, photographing, recording more than I thought was possible, she ended up with an enormous amount of material to show people that horses do have calming signals, and that they do use them.

I am so happy to see this book become a reality; it is my dream come true as well as Rachaël’s. Congratulations, Rachaël, I am so proud of you and your work, the result of your studies, and how it is manifested in the shape of this book. I hope all horse lovers and professionals will read it. Every person having anything to do with horses should; the importance of this book is unmeasurable.

In admiration of a fabulous piece of work,

Turid Rugaas
President of Pet Dog Trainers of Europe
Founder of TR International Dog Trainer Education
Owner of Hagan Hundeskole
Horse and Dog Behaviour Consultant and Trainer
Speaker – Author
Geithus, Norway

Introduction

‘I don’t understand why no one charts the calming signals of horses,’ Turid Rugaas said during her International Dog Trainer Education course. I was her student, and her words stuck with me. By then I had already worked as a behavioural therapist for dogs for a number of years. Through the recognition and application of calming signals in dogs, my counselling of dogs and their owners had become highly specialised and refined. How incredible would it be, I thought, if this knowledge were also available to horse lovers. After all, like dogs, horses also face strict behavioural demands in our society. An additional tool would certainly be helpful here. Add to this my lifelong love of horses and the fact that I have owned a horse since the age of 14, and you can imagine that the idea of charting the calming signals of horses fascinated me. While setting up a resocialisation and man trailing programme for horses, I could not stop watching the signals they gave. It was not until a Sunday morning in 2013, however, that I decided to start this research and make a serious go of it. I was riding my horse in the woods and saw another rider approaching. The other horse wanted to have a look at my horse and so turned his head a little. He was immediately punished for this by his rider, who gave a forceful yank at the bit. A second attempt by the horse to turn his head slightly to look at us earned him a lash of the whip. The injustice of this moment made an impact on me. And although I might still not be able to prevent these kinds of situations in the future, I decided that I wanted to make a contribution to better communication between horses and people, in order to improve the welfare of horses. This has led to a major shift in my work. I had been working professionally with dogs and their owners since 2003. Now I rarely deal with dogs at all, and my week is filled with this research and working with horses.

GOAL OF THE RESEARCH

The goal of the research was to describe the calming signals of horses. These are the (relationship managing) signals that horses give in response to stimuli in their environment that they want to calm or appease in order to avert conflict and maintain social relationships - to be polite. Calming signals are also used when the horse wants to calm himself. However, to give a complete picture of the many ways in which a horse communicates and experiences the world, other commun...