Horses are trying to talk to us. They are trying to tell us that they are in discomfort when they do things when we're riding them that you think generally reflects the horse being naughty or grumpy or it's a behavioural problem or I'm not riding it correctly. Often it's the horse trying to tell us that it's in pain and we must recognise that early on and act accordingly.
Hi my name is Caroline founder of Equitopia. The science of behavior offers us some really great tools and being able to recognize the existence of anxiety or discomfort in our horses. In this the third of four videos we take a look at how the ability to recognize facial expressions in our horses can be used as a preventative tool in helping to identify the early existence of underlying pain or subtle lameness. We've demonstrated by studies of both normal ridden horses and horses with underlying pain-related lameness or back problems, that horses which are in pain alter their facial expressions when they're ridden. From a veterinary behavior specialty standpoint, we're always looking at motivation.
And obviously, a head-bobbing horse is obviously lame to everybody. But we came from the background that horses that refuse to perform behaviors are not bad. They are not stubborn. They have an underlining problem.
And about 30% of the horses that are presented to me in behavior clinic have a medical condition that leads to this behavior problem. Dr. Dyson and Dr. Berger not only saw day after day horses in pain being blamed for not performing well, but they also observed that a horse's facial expression might possibly reveal that the horse was in discomfort, even before more overt signs like a head bob or a dropped hip. If so, they hypothesized, People might be able to learn to read a horse's face and catch the lameness while it was early enough to not cause more damage to the horse. Studying facial expression is not a new thing. We know that from other species like rats.
We even know that from humans, such as babies or people that can't verbalize their pain. Dr. Berger and Dr. Dyson studied hundreds of horses over several different research projects. But first, they developed what is known in the animal behavior community As an ethogram. An ethogram is a behavior catalog.
And more importantly, it describes individual behaviors so that they can be measured objectively. In our study, we wanted to look at very subtle changes, early changes, such as facial expressions. So we categorized subtle changes in the face and in the head anatomy.
And we clearly described all positions that are possible and made a catalog. that we later use to objectively describe the behaviors. So by studying hundreds of horses that were diagnosed with a lameness by an equine orthopedic specialist and comparing them to sound horses, we looked at the difference in their facial expression. And by looking at hundreds and hundreds of horses, we were able to find a correlation that horses in pain show a difference in facial expressions. So for example they may have their ears pinned backwards all the time or episodically.
The expression of their eyes may change. They may have this staring intense expression which looks rather blank with abnormal tension behind the eye or they may blink more often than not and they may actually hold their eye physically shut for short periods of time. You will see alterations in the mouth.
The mouth may become open, open to expose just the teeth or open to expose both the teeth and the gums and the tongue. The tongue may come out. They may have their nostrils flared more than normal with a wrinkle between the two nostrils. The horse may tip its head to one side or occasionally will tip its head and neck to one side. Dr. Dyson also sees horses that become overbent or behind the bit in an effort to express or relieve pain.
It's important to note that a single abnormal facial expression is unlikely to denote discomfort. It's the presence of several expressions which indicate underlying pain. Not only did Dr. Dyson and Dr. Berger study the facial expressions of lame horses versus non lame horses, they also compared the facial expressions of lame horses before and after diagnostic analgesia. They found that when the pain was abolished the horse's facial expression Facial expression scores improved when nothing else changed. The riders, the tack, and the environment all stayed the same, providing good evidence that it was the pain that caused the facial expressions to change.
Some people claim that it's the rider that causes a tense look on the horse's face. And while an off-balance or pulling rider can cause a distressed look, Dr. Dyson has investigated very closely that scenario. She found that when a poor rider is on a lame horse, and then is substituted by a professional rider, the horse is still in pain, and the pain still shows on the horse's face.
Once the pain is resolved with nerve blocks, no matter who's riding the horse, the facial scores improve. One could also argue that a horse's face, when it's in pain, looks the same as a horse's face when it's experiencing fear. That's because, as Dr. Berger explains, pain and fear are both triggers to a threat. Muscle tension is a physiological response to avoid a trigger or to get away from something that causes an unpleasant experience. That could be fear or that could be pain.
They're both unpleasant experiences that have evolved to protect the body. Fear is a survival response that comes from the body needs to move away from a threatening stimulation or trigger. Pain being an internal trigger. The body needs to know that there's tissue damage so it can avoid further damaging to the tissue.
Pain and fear are even more deeply connected. The problem with pain is that it can often lead to fear. It can create an association with either a location, a person, or a certain tool which then leads to severe fear and anxiety problems that we then have to address secondarily to the pain.
That's why it's so important that if a horse is in pain, we detect it early and we stop doing what we have been doing. To one, decrease the further damage, but also stop a potential emotional side effect such as fear and anxiety. Any changes in behavior need to be brought into context to determine the motivation.
One of the clear signs is if a horse has been performing a behavior reliably and consistently, based on a cue and all by a sudden that behavior changes. All by a sudden this horse does not perform the behavior that it has performed in the past. Sometimes escalating pain can cause escalating behaviors.
You might see escalating lameness where initially it's just a change in the facial expression and eventually it's head bobbing lame. But that might also then cause the other behaviors to avoid that painful trigger. such as stopping, refusing to go forward, bucking or anything that we as riders don't want.
I have some clients who tell me that they have to work in their horse for half an hour before a dressage test because it's so tense. Tension is not normal. Tension again is usually a reflection of underlying pain.
If you take away that pain the horse goes, thank you and relaxes and moves so differently. In general, When you're seeing a change in behavior, you should know how your horse looks like when it's happy, when it's relaxed. If you want to study a happy face, just look at a horse that's grazing. So it's relaxed, its eyes are soft, the ears are forward, they might be twitching a little bit, but they're looking forward to a positive experience and they're eating the grass. So a relaxed horse is a loose horse is a horse that is just fun to look at.
The beauty about this study is that it really improves the welfare of horses in two ways. The physiological impact is that lamenesses can be detected early on and don't lead to further damaging of the tissue which then leads to possibly selling the horse or not being able to use the horse for its purpose. Secondarily, it's psychological.
By knowing that there is actually a pain that causes this change in behavior, makes us stop and look at diagnosing the pain first and not using labels and not using punitive methods or tools to get the horse to do what we want the horse to do. If you find our videos helpful on your path to compassionate horsemanship, we invite you to join our community. For more videos and information, please visit our website at EquitopiaCenter.com