The Horse

MAR 2018

The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.

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58 TheHorse.com THE HORSE March 2018 BEHAVIOR SUE MCDONNELL, PHD, CERT. AAB TheHorse.com/Behavior Q What considerations would you suggest keeping in mind when working with mules as opposed to horses? Cindy South Dakota A Mules certainly are different from horses. Many of the difficulties folks have when working with mules stem from the fact that, compared to horses, they are extremely quick learn- ers and attend to very fine details in their environment. One of my all-time favorite scientific papers is one by Dr. Leanne Proops and her colleagues ("Mule Cogni- tion, A Case of Hybrid Vigour?" Animal Cognition, 2009) in which they compared mules, donkeys, and ponies' learning effi- ciency in a simple two-choice discrimina- tion task. They found that mules learned significantly faster than either parent spe- cies. This extraordinary ability to quickly make and remember associations means that as a mule trainer or handler, you need to be very consistent and careful not to make timing mistakes that inadvertent- ly result in punishing a desired behavior or rewarding an undesirable behavior. Also, compared to horses, and even to donkeys, a mule's outward signs of fear, discomfort, or confusion are extremely muted. So just as with zebras, it's easy for impending explosive escape or aggressive response to go unnoticed or to be misread as "stubbornness." One thing is for sure: If you grew up with mules and with good role model handlers who understand and enjoy working with mules, you will find horses and donkeys much easier to read and train. Sudden Attack Q An acquaintance of mine was returning her 14-year-old stallion to his stall after a trail ride, when he bit into her bicep and literally dragged her out of the stall into the aisle. All told, the attack exposed the muscle in the bicep, broke several of her fingers, and did enough other damage to warrant several stitches. After the episode the animal backed off and became docile. Any idea what caused this seemingly unprovoked attack? She now intends to geld (and keep) him. Pat Colorado A It is difficult to say much about what brought on a sudden attack of this type in a 14-year-old stal- lion, assuming he has not shown similar aggressive tendencies in the past. An attack of this type can have both physical/ medical as well as social and handling causes. In rare instances, something as simple as a sudden startle can evoke fear sufficient to provoke a sudden severe outburst, but the owner likely would have recognized a tendency for that type of reaction before this age. A Reminder About Mules Researchers have found that mules learn significantly faster than horses and donkeys. ISTOCK.COM

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