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Show 16 FARM, RANCH & GARDEN Edition April, 1979 Horse ego needs attention by Larry M. Slade, Ph. D. Dept, of Animal, Dairy & Veterinary Science Utah State University Training or behavioral modification of horses is often difficult to accomplish because of lack of understanding of the personality of the horse. The horse is generally very good natured and friendly towards man, and much more sensitive than is usually assumed. He is receptive to attention and possesses a marvellous memory. He very quickly acquires habits and sticks to them. He is also quite timid and can easily be frightened by rough handling or punishment. Unfortunately this is still true today. Although horses are gentle by nature they are also easily frightened and confused. Fear or fright cause quite a number of sudden and undesirable actions, such as stopping short, shying, jumping sideways, bolting and rearing. Such difficulties should seldom be attributed to disobedience, but the explanation should be looked for in some other underlying cause. Many experienced horsemen use fear as an important motivating tool. One such use is the natural fear by the horse of anything that inflicts pain It often strikes me, or discomfort. The horse is when I am watching a taught to develop a strong horse being schooled, how desire to escape the pain, very little intelligence the which is used as punishtrainer is displaying and ment. He learns that if he how very good natured is does what is expected he the animal he is trying to will not be punished and there will be no pain or teach, said M.F. many years ago. discomfort. For example. rt when a young foal is being trained to lead with a rump rope, the feel of the rope around his hindquarters inflicts discomfort. To escape the unpleasant feeling of the rope, he moves ahead and soon is leading. The same is true of leg pressure on a horses ribs. The horse does not like the feeling of being touched in the ribs and learns to avoid this mild form of discomfort by moving away from the leg. some There are situations where something more than mild discomfort must be used to get the horses attention and to motivate him to learn. Whips or spurs are commonly used for this purpose. After a horse has learned that these devices can cause considerable discomfort to his thin and sensitive skin, they can be used mostly as threats and little or no pain need be inflicted. Horses can be taught to regard the voice as a mild form of punishment or at least a warning. A sharply spoken word to an alert, responsive horse may be all that is needed to punish him for doing something wrong. There is one very important point to remember about inflicting pain or discomfort when disciplining or punishing a horse and that is if it is going to be effective and meaningful, it must be used immediately after a disobedience or mistake. With even a slight delay, the horse may not connect the punishment with his error and thus it will only confuse and frighten and serve no useful purpose. Punishment inflicted when a horse is fearful brings about an association which only heightens the fear. When a frightened horse is abused, he usually learns nothing about proper discipline. His fears are associated with the trauma, and usually a lot of bad habits are associated with avoiding the object of his fears. If any device or piece of equipment should harm him, it will be very difficult to accept later on in his training. A horse is likely to be afraid of any object if he first sees it while he is tied or being ridden. Possibly he feels helpless because he is not in command of his own fate. When the horse is confronted with something fearful, he often is temporarily out of control and everything but his overwhelming fear is blocked out of his mind. Horses often associate certain objects with fearful situations. For example, if he should be frightened by a piece of paper in an arena, he may later react fearfully to that location (or similar locations) in which the experience took place. Some riders will themselves cause a fearful reaction in their mount as they telegraph their nervousness about an aversive object to the sensitive horse through their weight, leg and hand aids. At present we can only guess at how the horse perceives world the through his senses. Eye problems, as well as eye can affect confromation, his perception and sense of security. Almost all horses are belived to have some astigmatism. Ben Green talks of various defects called gotcheyes, where the position of one eye does not set in exact focus with the other and is drawn to improper positions. One of the gotched positions makes the horse unable to focus on an object until he is very near to it, which causes him to become suddenly aware and shy. With normal vision, the horse still sees things at a distance rather fuzzily until he nears them when they suddenly become larger and sharper to view. It is no wonder horses shy at small things more readily than at big ones. Since die eyes cannot focus rapidly, an object which looms up a little way ahead may be mistaken for something dangerous. Because the horses eyes are set laterally on his head, he primarily has monocular two vision, viewing spearate images at the same time. When he wants to clearly see an object to his side, he will turn to face the object and use both eyes in binocular manner. Only when the two eyes converge in a single field, such as . looking straight ahead (forming one image), does the horse have depth Individuals perception. with broad foreheads have greater distance between their eyes, and a lesser degree of visual frontality, relying more on monocular vision without depth perception. When a horse of any breed is paying close attention to the lateral view the objects on either side he cannot of the body simulatenously obtain a very useful view in front of the body. The horse is, in fact, incapable of seeing directly in front of himself. It is highly important to his vision that his neck be flexible and capable of great degrees of angle and variation. Disease damages pet dogs Many dogs annually fall victim to canine heartworm disease. If undetected, the disease can lead to heart and lung damage and even death, warn Veterinary Association American the Utah Medical and the Heartworm Society. For years the disease was found primarily along the eastern Seaboard and Gulf State regions. The Society reports that today the Our prices on Bibs, Overalls, Pants & disease is found in every state east of the Rocky Mountains and even in some Pacific Coastal areas. The disease is present in almost all mosquito infested areas. 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