Horse Welfare, Laterality, Hair Whorls, Cognitive Bias A New Challenge for the Young Horse: Trailer Loading Part IV:

(Follow to read the next post on the Paradox of Double Whorls)

The first experience with trailer loading is a challenge for any horse, regardless of whether the horse is one with low fear (low hair whorl), or a high fear (high hair whorl) horse, and whether the horse is a left or right handed or ambidextrous as in the case of horses with double whorls. Another challenge is whether the horse has suffered from negative previous experiences and a conflict of emotions regarding their love/hate relationship towards the people who raised them. Suppose someone else raised your horse with forced methods. In that case, the love/hate relationship gets passed on to new owners, who often have high expectations for their new horse but are unaware of how damaged psychologically their new horse is from previous experience. When you purchase a horse from someone, it doesn’t come with a clean slate. Trailer-loading problems get handed down, too.

Many horse trainers and clinicians give several reasons horses refuse to load in trailers. Still, I never hear anyone suggest that “????? ??????????? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ?????????,” the Horse Behaviorist mantra. In old-school traditions, most young horses develop maladaptive behavior and learn to fear every form of handling before their first experience with trailer loading, amplifying the natural fear horses have towards novelty. More than that, stepping up into a trailer or onto a trailer ramp is something they refuse because it visually represents a hazard they naturally avoid. Horses don’t see the world as we do; their vision fundamentally differs from ours. Look at the picture of my horse’s pupil; you’ll see the pupil is not a circular pupil like ours but narrow and wide. Predator animals have round or slit pupils; prey animals have a horizontal shape. Long horizontal pupils found in prey animals like horses, cattle, and sheep differ from predators for one reason: it gives them a wide field of vision that extends almost 360 degrees so they can watch for predators all around with only a slight turn of their heads. The horizontal pupil also enhances the image quality of flat planes, and this improved view at ground level is also an advantage when running across uneven ground at speed to escape. However, a disadvantage is that horizontal pupils do not allow for good depth perception. It’s an evolutionary trade-off that helps grazing animals prey spot – and flee from an approaching hunter. Depth perception immediately in front of the horse is poor but is better at distances on the ground ahead as they flee from predators. For horses to judge depth accurately directly in front of them, they must put their head down. But here’s the problem: a nervous or frightened horse holds its head high. If you watch a young horse trained without force as it enters a trailer for the first time, it always puts its head down and looks closely at its floor. They look to be smelling the trailer, but they’re judging depth. A frightened horse, on the other hand, never feels safe enough to put their head down. When a horse is nervous or fearful, its first action is raising its head. This behavior is the first part of the instinctive “flight or fight” reaction.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, horses raised in the old school traditions with shifts in cognitive bias and a pessimistic opinion of humans, or conflicts of emotions and maladaptive behavior, resist trailer loading primarily for those reasons combined with poor depth perception. Those two factors are the most common causes of trailer loading problems. After early intensive handling as foals, forced handling during halter training, forced handling during earlier attempts to train the young horse for farrier work, and frightening veterinary procedures or emergency medical care, horses form specific fears from these forced handling incidents, which manifest into a ????????????? ???? of all the things humans present to them, including trailer loading.

If someone uses a whip to encourage or force a horse into a trailer, the whip elicits a greater fear than the trailer, and when the horse loads into the trailer, it does so because the whip presents a greater fear than the trailer. A fundamental cost-benefit analysis occurs: “Which is worse, the whip or jumping into the trailer?” But this approach does nothing to overcome the initial fear of the trailer, especially in a horse with a high hair whorl. This type of forced training adds to the generalalized fear, leading to the problems associated with training the horse to ride later in the young horse’s life.

As discussed earlier, maladaptive behavior prevents animals from making decisions in their best interest. Avoidance, withdrawal, and passive aggression are examples of maladaptive behaviors. Wouldn’t it be in a horse’s best interest to load in the trailer rather than put up such a fight? Wouldn’t that be in their best interest?

Using force on a low-fear, low-hair whorl horse is often effective because the generalized fear is lower than the high-fear high-hair whorl horse. Using force on the low-fear horse for trailer loading works because, through repetition, the fear response becomes attenuated (lessened in degree), and the horse learns it’s easier to cooperate and load in a trailer. It becomes a habit. On the other hand, once forced, a horse with a high whorl may retain its fear of loading in a trailer for a lifetime. The passive-aggressive response seen in many older horses every time they load is maladaptive behavior. The horse doesn’t show many outward signs of fear but appears stubborn and stands at the back of the trailer without going in. But, if you pick up a whip, the horse almost immediately jumps in the trailer without ever hitting it with a whip. The whip reminds it of the first experience, and the horse responds accordingly.

Another factor to consider when training a young horse to load in a trailer or re-training the maladapted resistant horse is which side the hair whorl is on (side preference). The left-side hair whorl horse loads best in the right side of a two-horse trailer. And the right hair-whorl horse loads best on the left side. The “???? ??? ??? ??????” eye is looking into the trailer. In the early work Temple and I did with dairy cows entering a two-sided milking parlor (a scary place for high-hair whorl cows), the left whorl cows chose the right side, and the right-hair-whorl cows chose the left side, and both lefties and righties rarely switched sides. The cows with two side-by-side whorls chose either side an equal number of times.

In my new school approach, the young horse grows up without fear of humans and is more adaptable to novel situations like trailer loading. In the first experience, I take them to the back of the trailer, allow them time to put their head down and judge depth, and then slowly coach them inside with a secondary reinforcement (carrot). I then allow a period of consolidation (a few days) for the neural connections to form and strengthen. The next time, I repeat the procedure the same way (predictability) and allow them to pick a side. This approach works on older divided two-horse trailers or the newer open two-horse trailers with side load dividers. It also works on stepping into trailers or those with ramps. To improve the horse’s ability to judge depth on ramps or step-up trailers and remove the contrast of ground surfaces, spread shavings on the ramp, inside the trailer, and outside on the ground to prevent the contrast from the black rubber ramp or floor of the trailer.

Depth perception problems are the same in cattle. In 2015, I was in Indonesia on a cattle welfare improvement project for a large cattle feed yard. They placed a grated metal plate (see picture) between the loading alley and the truck to close the gap between the truck and the loading dock. A contrast in floor surfaces and poor depth perception caused the cattle to refuse to cross the grating and go on the truck. You can see how frightened the cow is by the whites of her eyes. The fear caused a dangerous hazard for the cowboys when the cattle turned back in panic when forced from behind. The bedding in the picture is called Bagas, made from shredded sugar cane stalks. When they asked me how to fix the problem, I went in there and kicked some Bagas over the grate so the floor all looked the same. The next load of cattle went right on the truck without hesitation. The cowboys loading the trucks clasped their hands to their chests and bowed like I was a cow whisperer. In their mistaken beliefs, they thought the cattle refused to load in the truck because they knew they were going to the slaughter plant to die.

All it was was a contrast in floor surfaces and poor depth perception.