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How to reduce stress when horses are first ridden | Scientists have for the first time examined the stress suffered by young horses when they are trained to be ridden. Horses are frequently subjected to situations that would be extremely stressful for genuinely wild animals, such as training of racehorses,
performance in equestrian competitions, examinations by vets and transport by
road. Indeed, all of these are known to be associated with stress reactions in
horses. Even being ridden could represent a source of stress but there have to
date been very few studies on this aspect. Recent work by Alice Schmidt in the
group of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna sheds
light on this area. Schmidt measures stress by examining the horses' heartbeats
and the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva. In looking at heartbeats
she considers not only their frequency but also the short-term fluctuations in
intervals between the beats, which have previously been shown to be a good indicator
for stress. Training of sports horses usually starts when the animals are three
years old, so for her recent work Schmidt examined horses of this age at the start
of their initial training regimes. Perhaps not surprisingly, she found that the
start of training was a stressful period. The initial work on the lunge caused
only a moderate amount of stress but the stress level rose markedly when the rider
first mounted. This was revealed by an immediate increase in heartbeat and in
the fluctuations in intervals between individual beats, as well as by the release
of cortisol into the saliva. It seems likely that the horse interprets the first
mounting of a rider as a potentially lethal attack by a predator, from which it
is unable to escape. In addition, the rider is outside the horse's field of vision,
which presumably exacerbates the problem. Perhaps surprisingly, when the horse
and rider walk or trot forwards, the level of stress decreases somewhat. It thus
seems as though the horse adapts rapidly to the idea of being ridden and that
- as is the case for humans - exercise may help relieve stress. Furthermore, the
extent of stress caused by mounting was found to decrease gradually as the horse
is trained, providing that this is done correctly. Aurich cautions that a lack
of care or an incorrect regime in early training could cause long-term damage
to the relationship between a horse and its rider and thus prevent a sports horse
from reaching its full potential as well as causing the animal unnecessary anxiety.
Although her results make clear for the first time that the initial training of
a sports horse does stress it, Schmidt has some reassuring words for trainers
and jockeys. "The stress caused by being ridden for the first time is nowhere
near as much as that caused by being transported by road. And if you are gentle
and careful when you start to train a young horse, it will soon get used to you,"
Schmidt said. The study has been published in the September issue of the journal
Hormones and Behavior.
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