It’s time to change the discussion on welfare. Science is showing us the sentience and emotional capacity of animals is far in excess of what we believed, for example, in the 1960s when I was a child.
As the eminent American animal behaviourist Temple Grandin says, “animals are not things”. We understand that animals feel pain, perhaps not much differently from us. We know that animals have emotions and that mammals may experience the same primary emotions as us — joy, sadness, anger, fear, trust, distrust, surprise and anticipation (Plutchik Model of Emotions). We recognise that mammals form relationships and that these are important to them.
This knowledge has been part of what has driven a great deal of thought and study about welfare. Equestrian activity must address, and be seen to address, the welfare of our horses in order that we can continue to have social licence to continue. Now, this might seem a bit of a dry topic, but I encourage you to read further as I think all should understand what welfare really is, as we are each responsible for the welfare of the horses who are our partners in sport.
So far, the welfare issues that seem to have drawn attention include Rollkur, nosebands, bits including double bridles, and racehorse welfare – especially life after racing. In general, I think the equestrian world has made an ad hoc, fragmented and reactionary response to the need to be seen to address welfare. Reactionary in that an issue is raised such as noseband tightness and we react to the issue with a range of opinions, a rule change, and a slow change in expectations. A bit like putting a finger in the dike to stop the water flowing.
I think it is time we started to argue that sport has a positive welfare value for horses, not just that we are doing our best to minimise harm by making rules about bits, for example. We know that generally our horses are very well cared for with excellent attention to nutrition and veterinary care. Often we love them, but good welfare is more than food, love and veterinary care. We must start to see welfare through the horses’ eyes, what horses experience. I think it’s time that we started to understand how welfare is thought about by the people who are studying these things.
Training and welfare are in fact of course linked. In this article I would like to consider how the academic world has seen welfare and start to link it to training.
THE FIVE FREEDOMS
In the 1960s and 1970s, the welfare of farm animals was considered and the Five Freedoms Model, focusing on avoiding negative experiences, was developed. This outlined that animals should have:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
2. Freedom from discomfort
3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour
5. Freedom from fear and distress
By 1994 the model was changed to have more of a focus on what good welfare was, in a positive sense, rather than what it wasn’t. The Five Domains Model outlined the four physical domains that could be evaluated for positive and negative aspects, being:
Nutrition
Environment
Physical health
Behaviour
These four domains contributed to the fifth domain, the Mental domain. All domains could be evaluated for positive and negative values, leading to overall welfare status.
By the 2000s, researchers were more interested in positive welfare values, the idea of a life worth living, which is not just freedom from suffering. In 2020, the fourth domain of Behaviour was renamed Behavioural Interactions and explicitly included Human-Animal Interactions. Andrew McLean and Paul McGreevy, Australians well known in equestrian circles, were among the authors of the paper.
Meanwhile, other scientists were studying learning theory, from Skinner’s early studies on operant conditioning (1930s), through to the focus on positive reinforcement. As scientists developed concepts of good welfare, these ideas influenced what good training is. Good training should not just be effective, but should be ethical and have good welfare value.
The LIMA (Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive) model was proposed in 2005 (Lindsay). Although it perhaps wasn’t its initial intention, the LIMA model was ultimately used to inform rewards-based, aspirationally force-free training. This became the standard to research ethical training. Aversive methods in which animal experience pain were minimised.
THE ‘LIFE’ MODEL
Last year the LIFE model was proposed (Fernandez, 2023), and this Least Inhibitive, Functionally Effective training model emphasises the benefits of increasing the animal’s choice in training, as well as understanding the behaviour that we are wanting to train (either training more or less of the behaviour). In addition, Fernandez proposes that successful training is not only effective, but should be ethical and should contribute positively to welfare. This is what he means by “functionally effective”. Welfare in this context includes the human-animal relationship.
Now, you will recognise that all of this science has, at this time, had little impact on the way we train and care for sport horses. While over the last 80 years animal training has moved overwhelmingly to using positive reinforcement (rewards-based training) preferentially, equestrians generally hold to the classical methods of the 1700s, with significant modifications. We train with negative reinforcement, primarily. Of course, not all pressure release (negative reinforcement) is aversive, but often it is.
So, about here it gets pretty complex. How can I use this approach to solve my current training problem, which is a horse who becomes tense in the ring only when we go to canter? How do I understand the meaning of the behaviour? How does the context change the behaviour? How can I use minimally aversive strategies to fix this problem with good welfare outcomes and high ethical value? Actually, you will have to leave that with me while I figure it out. But these are the kinds of questions that I think we need to be asking ourselves and finding the answers if we are to maximise our social licence to function in this era.
Next time I want to consider the question ‘Is training good for animals?’ As this is the question that could really change the way we approach the welfare conversation.
I am very grateful for the help of Eduardo Fernandez from the University of Adelaide in the preparation of this article. EQ
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