PLAYTIME – WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO PLAY WITH YOUR HORSE

Text: Skye Littlefield

As humans, we make important distinctions for ourselves between work and play, taking the time to step away and recharge when we feel it’s necessary. Oftentimes our form of rest involves seeing our horses; whether we’re perfecting our trot or going for a hack. Working with horses provides us with a different form of both mental and physical stimulation, and for me is a welcome escape from daily obligations. If our horses provide us with this getaway, then we owe it to our horses to help them love their jobs.

Why rest?

Without rest our brains cannot function properly, and our ability to concentrate is greatly reduced. Not only that, rest also ensures improved mental health and allows the body to heal itself. But, have you considered that your horse also needs mental and physical rest?

If we observe how horses behave in their natural environments, we see them partaking in a wide variety of activities, both alone and with fellow herd members. The standard behaviours that we expect to see at any given time are eating, eliminating, investigating, and resting. And, when kept in a herd environment, we see a fair amount of play, as well as care-giving (epimeletic) and care-seeking (et-epimeletic) behaviour. Perhaps the easiest way for us to recognise epimeletic behaviour in horses is to pay attention to how a mare and her foal interact; the mare will spend the first year of her foal’s life providing the care and attention needed, from feeding to grooming. Similarly, et-epimeletic behaviour in horses can be seen in foals nickering for their mom’s attention, or in horses calling out to each other for engagement. Both epimeletic and et-epimeletic behaviours fall under a larger category called contactual behaviour, which relates to the benefits of contact with other animals and humans, hence the name. Each behaviour that horses partake in is essential to their health and well-being, physically and mentally.

Of course, we understand that modern-day horses are kept very differently from their ancestors, either paddocked separately throughout the day to prevent injuries, or stabled early in the day to minimise insect bites. In these instances you need to consider that you are your horse’s herd member; you are the mare or gelding who needs to provide protection, care, and entertainment. As much as you feel lonely when you don’t interact with people or frustrated that you’ve been stuck inside all day, so does your horse. Horses who are not given the opportunity to partake in these or similar activities can fall into something called ‘behavioural despair,’ which leaves them depressed and unresponsive to their environment. This condition can be aggravated by isolation and confinement, training without ample rest, and boredom, and is something often seen in school ponies.

All work and no play leaves you bored and boring, so the next time you’re at the yard consider trying something different with your horse.

Encourage self-play

If your horse spends a lot of time stabled or in a single paddock, you can easily encourage self-play, providing your horse with the tools to keep him or herself entertained. One of the best ways to do this is by providing a horse ball or a treat dispensing toy; both of these options provide gratification, and give your horse the option to only play when they feel like it.

Practice groundwork

Groundwork is often overlooked by riders aiming to be competitive, but it is a fantastic way to develop a strong bond with your horse and establish safe boundaries.

To start with, teach your horse how to safely lead from both the lead and partner positions. The lead position involves you leading your horse from directly in front, which allows you to clearly define your personal space and set the speed of the walk. The partner position involves you walking at your horse’s shoulder, giving you more control over your horse’s physical position, and the ability to ask for quicker changes such as picking up a trot or backing up.

Remember that the intention is to provide your horse with a break by offering the opportunity to partake in different exercises, so start with a 5 minute session and work your way up from there. Depending on what your horse responds to, you can reward with release, affection, or treats.

Work in liberty

Liberty training is so rewarding, and offers a look into how strong your communication with your horse really is. There are a multitude of exercises to teach your horse, and yielding the hindquarters is a great place to start. This exercise builds the foundation for ‘control’ in liberty work, so it’s important to develop the communication through body language that transfers through to the rest of your liberty training.

If you’re just starting out with liberty, you can use a halter while you’re trying to find your feet.

Figure out obstacles together

If you’ve dabbled in groundwork and liberty training, obstacles are a fantastic way to strengthen the bond and provide more physical stimulation for your horse.

I like to incorporate a few ‘scary’ obstacles into this training to help teach my horse to be a bit braver, with logs, water, and pool noodles all being great options.

If you have jumping poles available to you, lay them out on the floor in a messy fashion and prop a few of them up unevenly. Walk your horse through this pole pile and allow them to decide the ‘best’ way through; this technique challenges your horse’s proprioception and problem-solving skills. As always, reward with release, affection, or treats.

Teach useful tricks

Trick training is probably far from the minds of modern dressage riders and jumpers, but teaches work for reward, patience, and problem solving.

Touch: Using a large object to start with (such as a traffic cone), encourage your horse to investigate it; as soon as he or she does, reward with affection or a treat. Do this a few times, and once your horse has picked up the game, you can move the cone further away. This trick can also be used to get your horse used to scary things if you introduce a non-familiar target.

Back up: To me this is more of a necessity than a trick, as a 500kg animal is tough to physically move when necessary. I like to use body language to ask for the back up at the partner position on the shoulder, but your horse may need a bit more of an obvious cue if they haven’t learned this yet. Using a halter and lead rope, apply gentle pressure to the rope until your horse gives; as soon as this happens release and reward. When you start teaching back up one small movement from your horse is enough. After a few sessions you’ll notice that your horse is faster off the cue and needs much less explanation of what you need, and eventually your body language will evolve to the point of you getting what you need with a thought only.

Stay: This trick is exceptionally useful if your horse struggles to stand for the farrier or vet. If you’ve taught your horse the ‘touch’ training mentioned above, training ‘stay’ will be a quick process. Start by using a touch target for your horse a few feet away from you. Once your horse has touched, take one step back and say your trigger- ‘stay’ in this instance. In the beginning, keep your ‘stay’ at a second or two long, then immediately walk back towards your horse and reward the behaviour. You can increase the distance and length of stay as you both practice more.

Final thoughts

The amount of rest and play your horse needs will depend on their physical exertion and personality. Some horses are happy to play with their treat balls, and other horses are happy to run gauntlets with you; and, who doesn’t want a happy horse?