Ironwood Animal Therapy Blog

An interesting article I came across at www.news.discovery.com about the human/equine relationship

Human friends may come and go, but a horse could be one of your most loyal, long-term buddies if you treat it right, suggests a new study.

Horses also understand words better than expected, according to the research, and possess “excellent memories,” allowing horses to not only recall their human friends after periods of separation, but also to remember complex, problem-solving strategies for ten years or more.

The bond with humans likely is an extension of horse behavior in the wild, since horses value their own horse relatives and friends, and are also open to new, non-threatening acquaintances.

“Horses maintain long-term bonds with several members of their family group, but they also interact temporarily with members of other groups when forming herds,” explained Carol Sankey, who led the research, and her team.

“Equid social relationships are long-lasting and, in some cases, lifelong,” added the scientists, whose paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior.

Ethologist Sankey of the University of Rennes and her colleagues studied 20 Anglo-Arabian and three French Saddlebred horses stabled in Chamberet, France. The scientists tested how well the horses remembered a female trainer and her instructions after she and the horses had been separated up to eight months.

The training program for the horses consisted of 41 steps associated with basic grooming and medical care. For example, the horses had to remain immobile in response to the verbal command “reste!” which is French for “stay.” The horses also had to lift their feet, tolerate a thermometer inserted into the rectum and more. When a horse did as it was instructed, the trainer rewarded it with food pellets.

With tasty rewards, the horses “displayed more ‘positive’ behaviors toward the experimenter, such as sniffing and licking,” the researchers wrote. Horses do this as a sign of affiliation with each other, so they weren’t necessarily just seeking more food.

The scientists added, “Horses trained without reinforcement expressed four to six times more ‘negative’ behaviors, such as biting, kicking and ‘falling down’ on the experimenter.”

Nevertheless, after the eight months of separation, the horses trained with food rewards gravitated towards the same experimenter. The horses also seemed to accept new people more readily, indicating they had developed a “positive memory of humans” in general.

“From our results, it appears that horses are no different than humans (in terms of positive reinforcement teachings),” according to the researchers. “They behave, learn and memorize better when learning is associated with a positive situation.”

While people often train dogs in this way, also using verbal commands, Sankey and her team point out that “the majority of horse-riding training is based on tactile sensations — pressure from bits, movements of riders’ legs, weight change in the saddle.”

Since “horses are able to learn and memorize human words” and can hear the human voice better than even dogs can, due to their particular range of hearing, the scientists predict trainers could have success if they incorporate more vocal commands into their horse training programs.

Jill Starr is president and founder of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a non-profit that provides refuge, training and adoption placement for otherwise slaughter-bound wild mustangs and domestic horses.

Starr told Discovery News that she’s observed horses responding well to verbal commands, such as “trot,” but she still feels “horses and people get along better if the person doesn’t chatter, since this causes the individual to have greater awareness of body language that is more familiar to horses.”

She, however, agrees that horses are loyal, intelligent and have very long-lasting memories — of both good and bad experiences.

Starr said, “Horses can be very forgiving, but they never forget.”

With the blink of an eye, summer has come and gone!  We are heading quickly into fall – the most beautiful season in Maine, I think.  Each day as I sit in the outdoor riding ring teaching, I see the leaves changing colors.  There isn’t a time of year that we aren’t fortunate enough to take in the gorgeous view from the top of the hill at the Farmhouse.

The animals around the farm are beginning to prepare for the cooler weather – the horses and mini’s are starting to grow in their winter coats.  You can tell the horses that have lived in New England most of their lives – they have thick coats already, and those that originated from the southern states have slick coats and don’t know what they are in for! Brisk mornings make for frisky horses at turnout – all stand statuesquely to be turned out, but as soon as they are loose, generally all do a lap around the pasture kicking up their heels – happy for fly season to be over! A fun site for us to see.
Hoping for a long fall, and a short winter!

Over the past few years, there has been an influx of horses being sent to auction.  There is one auction in particular, in New Jersey,  that happens each Wednesday evening.  Generally between 40-50 horses are brought to the auction to be sold.  Their prices range from $125-$800 generally, and anything from a mini horse to a well trained adult horse to everything in between can end up there.  There is a wonderful group on facebook that posts pictures of these horses each week along with descriptions, in an effort to save them from the possible fate of slaughter.  While horse slaughter is illegal in the United States, it is not in Canada and Mexico, and at this particular auction, if there are a handful or more horses left, they can be shipped to Canada or Mexico.  Because of 20,000 plus followers on facebook that this auction group has, horses have not been sent to slaughter from this NJ auction since late 2009.
I had been looking for a mini donkey to keep an injured horse who is on stall rest company.  I came across the facebook site for the auction – and they had just what I was looking for – a mini donkey.  #928 – a sweet faced spotted donkey.  As I read her description I learned that this little donkey was about 5 years old, and in foal.  Like a buy one get one free! I called the auction house to see if she was still available, and lucky for us, she was! I arranged transportation from NJ to ME and before the donkey was shipped, I came across #993….an older draft horse mare who most likely had only been a pulling horse for most of her life.   And so began a new life in Maine for #928 and #993, now lovingly known as Penelope and Stella.

We also adopted Bergmann, an older registered Trekener gelding.  Bergmann, whose barn name is Ben, was adopted from The Animal Rescue League of Boston.  He is a very sweet boy who has been a great addition to the program.

More updates on the baby donkey as the become available!

It was a long winter here in Maine; we saw a lot of snow and bitterly cold weather. Milder temperatures have been a welcome change for both the residents and animals here at Ironwood. Dogs are often found wading in the trout pond; horses come in from turnout covered in mud…sure signs of spring! Residents have been spending extra time brushing all of our four legged friends, getting out the last bits of winter hair showing off beautiful summer coats.

In February, Ironwood dog Breeze had a litter of six puppies. She has returned back to Ironwood as a Frye dog and was very happy to see everyone again. One of her daughters, Sadie, has been visiting and it has been a lot of fun for the residents to have a puppy around. Nothing can turn your day around like a puppy can!

Sadly, over the winter our beloved pig Sunshine had to be put down. Her comfort was our number one concern, and she had gotten to the point where she just was not able to move around freely and without pain and we knew that wasn’t fair to her. Currently Bugs is living the bunny life having the run of the pig stall and turnout area.

Riding is in full swing at the Farmhouse and we have been taking advantage of the nice weather by doing as much riding outside as possible – everyone, including the horses were tired of spending so much time in the indoor ring over winter!
In the coming weeks, as the grass dries out, we will be putting a small course of jumps in the old alpaca field – we are looking forward to riding there over the summer months. Residents have begun preparation of riding routines for parent weekend coming up in a few weeks. They are looking forward to showing off what they have been practicing during their weekly lessons.

Fall is in full swing here in Maine.  The leaves have come and gone, leaving bare trees ready for winter snow.  All the horses have grown in their winter coat, preparing for the colder weather that is coming.  A few have even had to have haircuts, shaving them down, because their coats were so thick that they would sweat when worked.  These horses are bundled up with blankets and kept toasty warm.

A few weeks ago we were given a horse on free lease through the winter.  His name is Quattro, or Q for short.  Q is an older Belgium warmblood that was imported as a young horse, and who competed in the high level jumper divisions prior to being purchased by his current owner, who showed him locally in lower level classes.  Q enjoys trail rides through the woods, jumping around a course of small jumps, and his favorite activity of all is eating carrots and peppermints  He settled right into Ironwood life, getting turned out with all the other horses, and has been fun for the students to ride.  He has a lofty warmblood trot that is a bit hard to ride at first, but helps students gain better balance once they get the hang of it.  We look forward to having fun with him!

There has been a new addition to the Ironwood riding program this week – a new horse named Duncan. Duncan is a 15 year old Irish Sport Horse who was imported from Ireland when he was five years old – he even has his own passport! Duncan is our largest horse – he stands 17 hands tall (each hand is 4 inches, making him approximately 68 inches tall at his wither, the tallest point of his back). Duncan’s show name is Coolcaum Boy – which is very fitting to his personality!
He has adjusted well to his new surroundings and students have been enjoying riding him both in the ring and in the open fields. He is a wonderful addition to the program and he will be a patient and kind teacher to all that ride him.

Troubled teens nationwide are reaping the psychological and emotional benefits of “equine therapy,” namely, the use of horses to help treat a variety of physical and psychological problems. Equine therapy programs are now widely used in residential treatment settings, as a component of outpatient therapy, or in gang-intervention programs and a growing body of evidence shows that horses have a lot to offer humans.

Equine therapy is practiced in most countries in the world. Originally used to help people recover from traumatic injuries, it became widely used as a therapeutic tool for the physically handicapped. Most recently, equine therapy has become accepted as a useful tool in treating a wide variety of psychological and mental disorders.

There are many physiological and psychological benefits documented in people during interactions with animals. These include lowered blood pressure and heart rate, increased beta-endorphin levels, decreased stress levels, reduced feelings of anger, hostility, tension and anxiety, improved social functioning, and increased feelings of empowerment, trust, patience and self-esteem.

Therapists say that young people who ordinarily shun physical and emotional closeness with other people can often accept it from a horse. The child-horse bond can develop mutual trust, respect, affection, empathy, unconditional acceptance, confidence, responsibility, assertiveness, communication skills and self-control. Effective communication with a horse involves patience, understanding, attention, forgiveness and consistency – abilities that any young person will find useful throughout their life.

Taking care of 10 horses and 4 alpacas is no easy task. There are no days off when it comes to caring for animals – they always need to be tended to regardless of what else we have going on.
On a daily basis, one of the senior residents will be in the barn by about 6 in the morning to feed all the horses. By about 8 the barn crews, which usually consists of about 5 students are out in the barn preparing the horses for turnout. Depending on the weather, the horses need to be blanketed or armed with a fly mask and fly spray to fend off the flies. Once all the horses are haltered and ready for turnout, we bring them out in small groups. If students are as much as 10 minutes late in the morning getting out to let horses out – the horses let them know! They bang their stall doors and nicker to be let out – their internal clock doesn’t miss a minute!
Once all the horses are turned out, we begin mucking out their stalls, dumping and refilling water buckets, and giving the horses hay for later. When all the stalls are ready for the night, we go through and sweep the barn aisle. Sounds easy enough, but to properly and throughly clean the barn it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Evening chores are much quicker – we bring in horses and feed them grain, hand out good night treats and say goodnight until tomorrow … When it happens all again.