We're taking a few weeks break, and we'll be back before you know it with some great guests and great new content. Before that we thought we'd share with you some of the highlights of Season 2 - now is your opportunity to catch up on listening to some really interesting guests discussing all things horse sport and equine welfare. Thanks for sharing our journey - and be sure to share with your friends how much you are enjoying Changing Rein!

Dr Jo Hockenhull is Head of Research at The Donkey Sanctuary. Jo has had a wide-ranging and varied career in animal welfare science – her particular interests include horse behaviour and welfare, human-animal interactions and the possibilities inherent in the science of Human Behaviour Change to improve the welfare of animals.

Jo’s research output can be found at this link:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo-Hockenhull/research

Dr Jo Hockenhull is Head of Research at The Donkey Sanctuary.

Jo has had a wide-ranging and varied career in animal welfare science – her particular interests include horse behaviour and welfare, human-animal interactions and the possibilities inherent in the science of Human Behaviour Change to improve the welfare of animals.

Jo’s research output can be found at this link:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo-Hockenhull/research

Background - about Meredith

Meredith Chapman was appointed as Equestrian Australia's (EA) first National Health and Safety Manager. This role was actioned following the tragic deaths of two young eventing horse riders in 2016. Meredith’s primary role was to lead the implementation of all 31 coronial recommendations following a coronial inquest. Meredith worked extensively with all Australian State, Territory, and disciplines specific committee representatives, including the Olympic High-Performance executive team reviewing, developing, and implementing improved Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) management systems, whilst maintaining sport operations. Her role required extensive consultation, evidence-based research for best-practice standards, cultural and industry change management, widespread member and stakeholder engagement and training.

Meredith developed EAs first National HSW policies, a Minimal Medical Response Framework, post incident response and crisis management plans, concussion in sport protocols and she navigated EA through the COVID pandemic. Meredith represented EA at 3 annual international FEI conferences,l and various stakeholder meetings. Meredith also developed and hosted EA first on-line National HSW conferences (2021 & 2023).

Meredith’s business management experience and academic achievements have enabled her to maintain regulatory (Australian Sports Commission), EA Board and HSW committee communications on all matters pertaining to equestrianism HSW as required. Following Voluntary Administration, she was influential in re-establishing EAs stakeholder funding and resuming sport operations. Meredith participated EA recruitment, management and training of new team members, was accountable for HSW reports, budgets, identification of training needs, insurance and legal liaison, the development and delivery of safety compliance management processes and more. Meredith has provided expert HSW leadership to assist EA in achieving a nationally aligned strategy during structural reform.

You'll find Meredith's academic publications on Researchgate

Upskilling instead of conditioning - coaching expert Marianne Davies shares her dynamic approach to coaching and training that has coaches, riders AND horses wanting more

Marianne Davies is an expert in coaching riders and developing equestrian coaches. She is a senior coaching developer for UK Coaching and runs her own coaching business, Dynamics Coaching and in her spare time she is completing a PhD and leading ground breaking research in coaching science.

This week she shares her dynamic approach to coaching that sees both the horse and rider as active participants in the learning process, which is quite different from behaviourist approaches, such as those used in equitation science.

Marianne explains the science behind her approach, and in the second half of the episode she gives some really practical advice for riders and explains how to set up training situations to help your horse learn.

It’s a great conversation, we hope you enjoy it!

Terminology

Affordance - opportunity to do something that a horse or person perceives - when coaching and training our horses, we can change the environment to make it easier for the horse (or the rider) to recognise an opportunity so they can attempt a desirable movement or posture.

Constraints-led approach to learning - introductory article

https://adaptivemovement.net/blog/brief-introduction-to-the-constraints-led-approach/

Blog posts by Marianne

• Behaviourism and Ecological Psychology

• Do humans and animals need different theories of learning?

Recommended reading

de Waal (2016) Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?

Papers mentioned in the podcast

Wulf & Lethwaite (2016) Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26833314/

Scott Kelso (1995) Dynamical system theory and human movement and learning.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-VlkX4YAAAAJ

To say Vicky Leonard is brave is probably an understatement. Back in 2017 she published a series of blogs where she outlined the threat poor horse welfare poses to the racing industry. It caused quite a stir.

Since then she has been advocating for change in the industry because as she sees it, horse welfare is the one issue that could bring racing down.

In the seven years since that post, she has led hard conversations all over the world to help the industry grasp the risk to their reputation, their bottom line...their future.

Like most horse people, Vicky is an optimist and a doer. She not only sees the dangers, but also the opportunities to make things better, and the many positive changes that are already happening.

Vicky gives us a glimpse into the world of racing and her insights are valuable for everyone interested in the future of horses in sport.

While Prof Madeleine Campbell was in our virtual studio we took the opportunity to record a second episode with her - this one is about the ethical aspects of horse breeding (her previous episode, Ethical Equestrianism, is definitely worth a listen).

Without breeding, horse sport would not exist, but ethical consideration has been lacking. Are we breeding the right horses, at the right time, in the right way?

Prof Campbell is a registered specialist in equine reproduction and also a veterinary ethicist (she is Professor of Veterinary Ethics at the University of Nottingham) so she is uniquely qualified to discuss this sometimes controversial topic. We discuss natural cover, whether applying a limit to the number of mares bred to a stallion should be considered, and potential ethical and welfare issues involved in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) in horses.

Some of Maddy's publications in this area include:

Campbell M. (2014) Does the current regulation of assisted reproductive techniques in the UK safeguard animal welfare? Animal Welfare. 23(1):109-118. doi:10.7120/09627286.23.1.109

Campbell, M. L. H., & Sandøe, P. (2015). Welfare in horse breeding. Veterinary Record, 176(17), 436-440.

Campbell, M. L. (2021). Ethics: use and misuse of assisted reproductive techniques across species. Reproduction and Fertility, 2(3), C23-C28.

Control or communication?

It's an interesting question and how we answer it tells us a lot about how we see the world and our relationship with our horse.

This week we talk to Hungarian dressage rider Krisztina Szucs, founder of My Way to Dressage.

Krisztina started her dressage career as many people do, as a junior, and achieved gold medal success at the national level as a young rider. After a break from horses and riding she found she still wanted to compete, but something had changed. She found herself concerned about some of the common dressage practices and their effect on horse welfare.

This concern inspired Krisztina to investigate bit free riding. She is now an ambassador for World Bitless Association, and a campaigner for rule changes to allow bit free riding in dressage competition at all levels.

We hope you, like us, find Krisztina's gentle but determined approach to promoting positive change inspiring.

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much” (H.Keller)

Dr Camie Heleski has worked in horse management and welfare research for over 25 years. She recently served on the FEI Ethics & Wellbeing Commission and she is an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science.

Additional information

D. Wayne Lucas - famous US racehorse trainer inducted into both Racing and QH Hall of Fame - Camie mentions him in her journey.

Heleski, C. (2023) Social License to Operate–Why Public Perception Matters for Horse Sport–Some Personal Reflections, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 124, May 2023, 104266, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080623000576

Heleski, C. & Anthony, R. (2012) Science alone is not always enough: The importance of ethical assessment for a more comprehensive view of equine welfare, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2011.08.003

Luke et al (2022) New insights into ridden horse behaviour, horse welfare and horse-related safety. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 105539, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105539

Mellor et al (2020) Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare, Animals, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/10/1870

A peek into the animal welfare competition developed by Camie Heleski

https://www.avma.org/events/animal-welfare-assessment-contest