THE NATURAL STALLION: HIS BEHAVIOUR, MANAGEMENT AND
TRAINING by Lesley Skipper. Published by Black Tent Publications, Stocktonon-Tees, 2010, paperback. 304 pages. ISBN 978-1-907212-03-1. Illustrated in colour
and black and white. £25.00
The first thing I’m going to say about this excellent new book is ignore the title and
buy it anyway. It is not just about stallions. There is something here for anyone who
owns, rides or manages horses. As the author, EBF member Lesley Skipper, says,
stallions are horses first and stallions second. If you do right by them as horses, you
will have gone a long way to eliminating the problems that may arise from the
‘extras’ that come with stallions.
As the author points out at the beginning of the book, many horse owners have
nothing to do with stallions and, like other little-understood creatures, entire male
horses have acquired a mythology that bears little relation to their actual nature and
behaviour. On top of that, the traditional methods of management, keeping stallions
confined and alone and allowed to mate only under strict human supervision,
commonly result in behavioural problems that do not occur in nature.
Much of our handling and training of horses, whether traditional, New Age or
somewhere in between, is based on ideas and beliefs which simply do not hold up to
scientific scrutiny. In the early chapters, Lesley assembles an impressive body of
evidence, based on studies of free-living or feral horses in many parts of the world, to
suggest that in natural equine societies the concepts of dominance hierarchies,
leadership and aggression have very little place. They are certainly not accurate
models of normal equine interactions, which are based far more on social facilitation,
or doing as others in your group do; and cohesion, or actions which keep the group
together. Anyone who thinks you have to dominate your horse in all circumstances,
or set yourself up as the unquestioned leader, or establish complete respect and
submission, before you can train him successfully, should really have a look at this
material.
These chapters include comprehensive and scholarly accounts of how stallions
behave in natural situations – how they interact with mares, how they court and
mate with them, and how they are involved with the rearing of their foals. This
includes a study of the bachelor groups formed by colts and stallions who haven’t
been able to acquire a herd of mares. There is some fascinating information here for
all owners of male horses, not just those with stallions. Lesley shows that it is normal
and common for all geldings to display at least some elements of typical stallion
behaviour, and that these behaviours do not indicate that the gelding has been
improperly castrated – nor that there is anything else wrong with him. It is simply
that the act of castration does not reliably and absolutely switch off all the
characteristic male equine behaviours. I can endorse this – I can’t think of a gelding I
have known well who has not shown at least one ‘stallion’ behaviour, ranging from
herding other horses or defecating on other horses’ dung piles to full courtship and
mating.
Having explained natural equine society in great detail, Lesley goes on to describe
how this information can be used to develop a better relationship with a stallion –
and indeed with any horse. If we can let go of feeling the need to dominate the
horse, and can stop believing that the horse spends every moment trying to get one
up on us, we are less likely to end up with a horse who appears to behave well
because he is in a state of ‘learned helplessness’ with all his natural responses
suppressed. We then become able to think about what we are actually teaching our
horses and how the learning process works.
The chapter on training principles is a very clear, detailed explanation of the various
types of learning: those who have been put off in the past by a seemingly abstruse
terminology and difficult concepts should read this, because the principles of
classical and operant conditioning, habituation, negative and positive reinforcement,
reward and punishment are all explained in a very clear and straightforward way,
with plenty of examples. Like all good trainers, Lesley stresses the importance of
being absolutely consistent with your signals to the horse, and immaculate in your
timing. However, rather than presenting these as the mysterious attributes of the
truly talented, she demonstrates that they are skills that anyone can learn to use.
The chapters on training good behaviour, though necessarily focussed on stallions,
are relevant for mares and geldings too. Teaching young horses to accept tack, and
dealing with biting, kicking, barging, head rubbing, loading problems and so on are
not specific to stallions, and anybody reading these sections will soon become aware
of general principles that can be used to train any desired responses. Another
responsible section covers behavioural issues where training is not the answer –
where the solution lies in dealing with pain, fear or stress in the horse’s life. There is
plenty of advice on how to give a stallion the most natural life, including teaching
him to live out with his mares if that is safe and appropriate. It’s also often possible,
though some people seem to be horrified at the thought – to keep stallions out at
pasture with other stallions or geldings – after all, the bachelor bands of stallions
without a herd are a natural part of the equine social system.
I have to say, though, that what I appreciated most about this book is the way the
author has addressed the failures of human thought that underlie so many of our
problems with horses. As a species we are hard-wired to see patterns in the world
around us. We are very ready to assume a cause-effect relationship between two
events that happen close together, or that could plausibly be connected. People with
similar ideas and attitudes tend to associate with each other; continuously
reinforcing these ideas in their minds. We have a tendency to use these ideas to
strengthen the bonds between members of the group, and to exclude those not in the
group. Hence the development of equestrian cliques. We also have a tendency to
believe perceived authority figures whether they are behavioural scientists, trainers
or well-known equestrian writers simply because of their authority or personal
appeal. People often choose to follow a certain school of thought for reasons that
have less to do with actual evidence of effectiveness than with how the authority
figure involved fits in to their particular view of the world.
Once somebody has a set of beliefs; a way of thinking about and interpreting the
world, these thoughts get bound up with their feelings of personal and social
identity. It then becomes hard to change those beliefs. So people tend to notice
things that support their beliefs and ignore those that don’t. If we are challenged
with facts that contradict our beliefs we feel uncomfortable. To deal with this
discomfort we can either change our beliefs and behaviour in line with the facts or,
as is far more common, we can rearrange the facts in our heads until they fit our
beliefs.
These tendencies –which are nothing to do with being stupid and everything to do
with being human – make us prone to see patterns where none exist, to infer cause
and effect from mere coincidences, and to commit ourselves to ineffective methods
and styles of training simply because they are used by people we like and admire.
The end result is that unfounded beliefs end up being regarded as facts – the source
of so many equestrian myths and inappropriate methods. It’s excellent to have these
matters described, discussed and addressed in a book about managing and training
horses, because it is the horses who suffer most from the mistakes we make.
The book is lavishly illustrated, including many charming photographs of Lesley’s
own horses, and it has a comprehensive reference list and a good index. There is
even a very welcome promotion of the Equine Behaviour Forum.
I would recommend this book to all horse owners.
Alison Averis