Equiosity

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Episode 292 Assessing Your Horse's Physical Comfort And A Goat Story Aug 23, 2024

Show notes

For this conversation Dominique and I both wanted to follow up on our previous conversation with Michaela Hempen. We were talking about horse welfare. Dominique shared some useful resources that you can use to assess your horse’s physical welfare. These included Anja Beran’s Train Your Eye DVD, the horse grimace scale, and the equine discomfort ethogram. It can be uncomfortable to stand up for our animals. In the second half of the episode I share a goat story in which I had to do exactly that. In the podcast with Michaela, we talked about being good guardians for animals. Days after we recorded the podcast, I got to practice putting those words into action.

Episode 291 Michaela Hempen Pt 2 Horse Welfare - The Role We Play Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

This conversation was prompted by an event that occurred just before the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics. One of the top dressage riders had to withdraw because of a video that showed her whipping a horse during a training session. The video came out just as Dominique and I were planning our next podcast recording. Dominique said her social media feed was filled with posts discussing the video. Should we talk about it. Generally we shy away from talking directly about training that disturbs us. But horse welfare is an important topic and one we need to be talking about. So I invited Michaela Hempen to join us. We’ve just finished the conversation with Michaela on the connection between riding and the Feldenkrais work. Normally we wouldn’t have a guest do back to back conversations, but Michaela was the perfect person to ask to join us. In her day job with the European Food Safety Authority she is currently involved in providing scientific assessments that inform the European Commission and other EU member states to formulate legislation to protect animals. This has primarily meant animals produced for food, but the mandate has broadened out to include equine welfare in general. In Part 1 Michaela described what they will be considering under these new mandates. In Part 2 we consider the role each of us can play in moving the horse community as a whole forward towards more horse-friendly training.

Episode 290 Michaela Hempen Pt 1 Horse Welfare And Olympic Sparks Aug 09, 2024

Show notes

This conversation was prompted by an event that occurred just before the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics. One of the top dressage riders had to withdraw because of a video that showed her whipping a horse during a training session. The video came out just as Dominique and I were planning our next podcast recording. Dominique said her social media feed was filled with posts discussing the video. Should we talk about it. Generally we shy away from talking directly about training that disturbs us. But horse welfare is an important topic and one we need to be talking about. So I invited Michaela Hempen to join us. We’ve just finished the conversation with Michaela on the connection between riding and the Feldenkrais work. Normally we wouldn’t have a guest do back to back conversations, but Michaela was the perfect person to ask to join us. In her day job with the European Food Safety Authority she is currently involved in providing scientific assessments that inform the European Commission and other EU member states to formulate legislation to protect animals. This has primarily meant animals produced for food, but the mandate has broadened out to include equine welfare in general. We begin with Michaela describing what they will be considering under these new mandates. Some of the practices that are currently done to horses are horrific. I was not aware, for example, of the blood farms. But this conversation is not intended to shock or depress you. Even when we move on to consider the video that sparked this conversation we are focusing on solutions and the role each of us can play in moving the horse community as a whole forward towards more horse-friendly training.

Episode 289 Michaela Hempen And Anita Schnee Feldenkrais Work Pt 3: Visualization Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

Episode 289 Michaela Hempen and Anita Schnee Feldenkrais Work Pt 3: The Role of Visualization in Riding Instruction For the past ten years Michaela has been studying with a Feldenkrais Practitioner, Nathalie Van Cauwenberghe. In the previous episodes Michaela described some of the riding challenges which the Feldenkrais work has helped her to solve. Nathalie does not speak English well enough to participate in the podcast, so I invited Anita Schnee to join us. Anita is also a Feldenkrais Practitioner so we will be drawing on her expertise as we continue with this conversation. In this episode we begin with a discussion of visualizations and the use of metaphors. Riding and the Feldenkrais™ work are both kinesthetic experiences. Translating what you feel into words can be a struggle, especially when you want those words to function as instructions. The use of visualizations helps to create translations.

Episode 288 Michaela Hempen & Anita Schnee Pt 2 The Link Between Feldenkrais Work And Riding Well Jul 23, 2024

Show notes

This week we’re continuing our conversation with Anita Schnee and Michaela Hempen. Michaela has been our guest on this podcast many times. She’s talked to us about the research project she did on cribbing, about single subject design, and more recently about how animal welfare is assessed. When it comes to horses Michaela and I share a love of beautiful movement, so she also joined us when we talked with Anja Beran, the classical rider whose work inspires both of us. For the past ten years Michaela has been studying with a Feldenkrais™ Practitioner, Nathalie Van Cauwenberghe. In last week’s episode Michaela described the riding challenge Anja’s work poses. Anja has told her that in order to ride well you need to stabilize your torso while remaining loose in the rest of your body. With Nathalie’s help, Michaela has been figuring out how to turn these words into a meaningful reality. Nathalie does not speak English well enough to participate in the podcast, so I invited Anita Schnee to join us. Anita is also a Feldenkrais™ Practitioner so we will be drawing on her expertise as we continue with this conversation. The goal is to ride well. Last week I ended with a description of the changes I see in horse handler teams when the handler learns to lift through their sternum. I left you with that image to enjoy. We’ll pick up again at that point in the conversation.

Episode 287 Michaela Hempen And Anita Schnee Pt 1 Feldenkrais Work And Riding Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

Michaela Hempen has been a frequent guest on this podcast. She has talked about her cribbing research, single subject design, and more recently about how animal welfare is assessed. When it comes to horses Michaela and I share a love of beautiful movement, so she has also joined us when we talked with Anja Beran, the classical rider whose work inspires both of us. For the past ten years Michaela has been studying with a Feldenkrais™ practitioner, Nathalie Van Cauwenbergghe. In this episode Michaela is talks about the challenges riding presents and recent breakthroughs she has made. We are also joined by Anita Schnee, a Feldenkrais™ practitioner. Anita helps us to understand the patterns Michaela has been exploring.

Episode 286 Susan Friedmana & Rick Hester Pt 3 - Least Intrusive Principle Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

This week we’re continuing our conversation with Dr Susan Friedman and Rick Hester. In this episode we begin with a question to Susan: Is the teaching standard known as Lima the same as the hierarchy of behavior change procedures that Susan has written about? Susan provides an historical perspective for the LIMA acronym, and for many of the other labels people have attached to training.

Episode 285 Dr Susan Friedman And Rick Hester Pt 2 Building Bridges Jun 25, 2024

Show notes

This week we’re continuing our conversation with Dr Susan Friedman and Rick Hester. Dr Friedman has been a frequent guest on this podcast. She is a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University. She is pioneer in the use of Applied Behavior Analysis in the handling of captive and companion animals. Her interest in developing scientifically sound, ethical standards for animal care and training prompted our this current conversation. We are also joined by Rick Hester. Rick is the curator of behavioral Husbandry for the Cheyenne Mountain zoo. Rick overseas the zoo’s training program for husbandry, medical and public show behaviors. In this episode we consider many important questions, including what does it mean to be a positive reinforcement trainer? How do we operationalize that? How do we evaluate new ideas? We don’t want to move too quickly but nor do we want to get stuck in old ideas. Why does novelty have such a draw for us? We also consider why Susan has chosen to keep punishment in the hierarchy of behavior change strategies. This opens the door to a discussion of negative reinforcement as well as punishment. Do we need new words to describe the procedures we use?

Episode 284 Dr Susan Friedman & Rick Hester Pt 1 Why Ethical Guidelines Matter Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

This is Part 1 of a three part conversation with Dr. Susan Friedman and Rick Hester. Dr. Friedman has been a frequent guest on this podcast. Most of you I’m sure already know Susan. But just as a reminder, Susan is a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University. She is a pioneer in the use of Applied Behavior Analysis in the handling of captive and companion animals. Her interest in developing scientifically sound, ethical standards for animal care and training prompted our this current conversation. We are also joined by Rick Hester. Rick is the curator of behavioral Husbandry for the Cheyenne Mountain zoo. Rick overseas the zoo’s training program for husbandry, medical and public show behaviors. I value the perspective he brings to training. When you work with horses it all too easy to think you have to rely on force-based methods for some medical and husbandry behaviors - and then you see what’s being done in zoos. We begin by talking about why it matters to have ethical standards guiding the training choices we make. We are talking about training goals and strategies that provide our learners with choice and a lifestyle of control.

Episode 283 Dr Claire St Peter And Abbie Cooper Pt 3 Why Do We Choose Aversive Procedures? Jun 04, 2024

Show notes

This is part 3 of our conversation with Dr. Claire St Peter from the University of West Virginia and one of her graduate students, Abbie Cooper. Abbie has been comparing behaviors that were trained with either positive or negative reinforcement when they are placed under conditions of extinction. What happens to behavior when training goes sideways and the individual is no longer getting reinforced for actions that had been producing consistent, desired results? In Part 1 she described her study and the results she has been getting, In Part 2 we considered the emotional fallout that was observed and we connected it to real world experiences both in animal training and the classroom. In Part 3 Claire raises the question why do people adopt the teaching procedures that use negative reinforcement and punishment based approaches. Why are these approaches so prevalent, not just in animal training, but in the classroom as well? Why don’t people gravitate towards using alternative reinforcement strategies that are based more in a positive reinforcement framing? This is the launching point for this week’s conversation in which we explore connections. We consider how the results of Abbie’s study relate to what people experience both with horses and in the classroom. What can be learned? What role does microshaping play in creating teaching strategies that do not rely on aversive control to get results?

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