Conditioning and Modifying Horse Behavior

An equine behaviorist offers tips on how to change your horse’s behavior.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Equine behaviorist Malan du Toit, from Cape Town, South Africa, wasn't always a horse guru. His interest in equine behavior and learning was sparked 23 years ago after he acquired his first horse—a potential endurance mount with serious behavior issues. As a newcomer to horse ownership, du Toit wondered why his horse didn't understand what he wanted him to do. So he embarked on a journey to study as much as he possibly could about equine behavior.

Du Toit presented some of his and others' research into how horses' minds function during the 2014 Cape Breeders Association seminar, held Jan. 27-28 in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

He first described the phenomenon of anthropomorphism, or the attribution of human personality to animals. "We have this romantic notion that the horse understands us," du Toit said. "That's why we use words like loyal, mutual trust, determined, lazy, etc., (when describing horses), and we use this to justify punishment because we think the horse 'knows' what it means."

However, he continued, horses can't reason like humans can. There's also no scientific evidence of their capacity for observational learning (e.g., replicating or imitating observed behaviors) or forming concepts, he said. Rather, humans must condition horses to respond in the desired way

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Alexandra Beckstett, a native of Houston, Texas, is a lifelong horse owner who has shown successfully on the national hunter/jumper circuit and dabbled in hunter breeding. After graduating from Duke University, she joined Blood-Horse Publications as assistant editor of its book division, Eclipse Press, before joining The Horse. She was the managing editor of The Horse for nearly 14 years and is now editorial director of EquiManagement and My New Horse, sister publications of The Horse.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
300 votes · 300 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!