Separation Anxiety with Dr. Andrew McLean

Story from Horse Deals July 2019 magazine.

Separation Anxiety with Dr. Andrew McLean Ph.D. (Equine Cognition and Learning) BSc Zoology, Dip Ed.

“It is not a bad horse, it is a sad horse.”

We have all experienced it; take two horses to a show on the float and one becomes extremely distressed when the other is taken away for its class, or the horse in the adjoining paddock to ours becomes distressed when its neighbour is removed. We get it, it is missing its pal, they are herd animals etc, etc. But not all horses behave this way. Some are content to say see you later. We again turned to Dr McLean to give us the good oil on why horses do what they do and what we can do about it.

“The more sensitive or insecure the animal, the stronger the Separation Anxiety becomes,” says Dr McLean.

“Separation Anxiety is one of the characteristics of Attachment Theory and applies to all social animals.^ In non-social animals like tigers, foxes, and hares, this attachment only occurs in young animals, then it gradually dissipates. Most grazing herbivores are social animals. There is no real research yet with regard to Attachment Theory between horses and humans as there is between dogs and humans. Dogs show the same oxytocin * spike when they are reunited with people, as is shown with people when they are reunited with their dogs. With horses, it is not quite as clear, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that horses see some humans as a safe haven and a secure base. Some horses want to be with humans, and if they are taken to a strange place and left in a yard alone they become distressed. This has more to do with bonding than just seeing the human as a source of food. Again there is evidence that horses become attached to all kinds of animals, like sheep that have accompanied horses as reassuring companions and the sheep don’t feed them. Food is a big thing that makes us think there is more of a bond than actually exists. But the more time you spend with an animal, the more you become part of its world and it misses you when you are gone.

“A social animal really needs company. It is something in its nature; no horse in its right mind is going to venture off on its own. In humans, isolation is the single most significant variable that is associated with the largest number of mental disorders. One thing to recognise about Separation Anxiety is that it is basically an insecurity, a mental insecurity and this is where the Five Domains of animal welfare science come into it.
- Nutrition
- Environment
- Health
- Behaviour
- Mental State

These are a way of assessing an animal’s welfare and see it (welfare) as different from care. With care, the physiological things are attended to, like a prisoner has care. He has food and a roof over his head etc, but that is not good welfare. Welfare involves the things that make life worthwhile. A horse’s life is better if he gets access to roughage (hay/grass) for 13 hours a day. His life is better if he gets exercise and his life is better if he gets access to social companions and is free from injury or illness. A good mental state involves the horse being interested and confident, not fearful. Of course, we cannot eliminate fear and pain totally from a horse’s life, as we cannot from a human’s, but if we are mindful of its welfare we can create a more secure horse and a more secure horse will be less likely to suffer from acute Separation Anxiety. But like people, some horses are more susceptible to insecurity than others and the more we mess up in our interactions with horses and cause confusion, without a doubt leads to greater anxiety.

“When man domesticated horses, we did not improve their learning ability. What we did change was habituation. Domestic horses are very good at becoming used to things. They can take fright at hot air balloons flying overhead, but in a short time when they suffer no ill effects, they do not raise their heads from the grass. They cope in new environments and with new things and are not continually trigger happy with their flight response. The flight response is also a variable in the modern horse. When we bred horses for farm work, they were, as a general rule a well habituated, pretty calm animal and could plough with them all week and then stick the family on them to go to church on Sunday. When they started racing horses in the UK about 200 years ago, in order to make the horses faster they introduced more flight response in the form of the horses from the Middle East; the Byerley Turk and the Darley Arabian and others like them. That meant now that flight response was random and the horses generally swifter. That was the origin of the Thoroughbred and the Thoroughbred has influenced so many other breeds. There is so much more genetic variation in the modern horse than there was in the wild horse of which there are none left. There are no wild horses anymore, there are feral horses. But these feral horses become as typically flighty as wild horses because if you are not, you are eaten.”

We understand why some horses suffer Separation Anxiety. What can we do about it?

“Things like pull back collars and hobbles only mask the problem and what we must understand is the importance of clear training. Doing very clear groundwork and really recognising in that groundwork if there are any confusions. For instance, leading a horse. Most horses being led actually follow the leader’s feet. Many people train that and it is a really big mistake, because when you tie the horse up and walk away, you are asking the horse to make an exception to the signal and it is difficult for animals without high mental abilities to do that. What happens with continued confusion, the horse shows one or more of three coping mechanisms.

1-He becomes dull, switches off and tunes out.
2-Becomes flighty and tries to run away and becomes tense.
3-He becomes aggressive.

So when they are stuck on their own tied to the float, they will resort to those mechanisms. You need to practice very clear groundwork where the horse is always looking at you and knowing where you are, which is one of the features that the horse has a secure mental state. They are securely attached. They notice where you are and it is not a big problem, as you are clear in all your signals.

The more secure the horse is, the less concerned it is going to be about both you and its travelling companion disappearing. It feels secure that you will return. If we stick to very clear training principles that acts as a very positive proof against Separation Anxiety. Even though it is normal in the young horse to experience Separation Anxiety, as the horse gets older and starts to become used to being taken away from home and then separated and you are clear in all your signals, it will gradually become OK on its own. The ones we see that aren’t good on their own are typically the ones with significant training confusions, where the trainer is ineffective or ambiguous. What we must also consider as effects on the horse’s behaviour are the welfare domains of access to forage, exercise and social companions. They make a difference to its mental security and the ability to cope on its own. Your training must be effective and with that training, your horse will get better. Train it that it is OK tied to the float when you ride off with its pal; that it knows you will come back. Don’t take a young horse to its first show and hope for the best.

“I do believe in selective breeding for domestication we have probably given ourselves a greater potential to have them working on their own than the wild horse. I think we have triggered that without even meaning to. Separation Anxiety is normal behaviour in a social animal. It is not bad behaviour, it is sad behaviour. We have to make it happier by consistent training and tending to its basic needs as much as possible. Horses are adaptive animals, for instance mares tend to leave their natal band and go to another band. They never stay, as genetically it would be crazy to have your dad sire your children and the young males are kicked out of the band, so they have to be adaptable to a new social group.

“Separation Anxiety is an insecurity and we need to see it as that and we should think what else is contributing to that insecurity. It is not simply losing its mates. There must be other aspects of life that contribute to that insecurity as well. That’s the best way to see it.”

^ The most important tenet of Attachment Theory in humans is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for the child’s successful social and emotional development.
* Oxytocin is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide. Oxytocin is normally produced in the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary. It plays a role in social bonding, sexual reproduction, childbirth and the period after childbirth.

Article by Anna Sharpley.

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