Most of us have heard about, or experienced, a horse misbehaving when being ridden. Up until recently we didn’t know how frequent these problems in riding horses are—nor how often riders use special tack and equipment to help control them.
Jo S. Hockenhull, PhD, of the School of Veterinary Science at the University of Bristol, England decided to find out and set up a study to do just that.
She found as many as 91% of leisure riding horses in the United Kingdom exhibit some sort of behaviour problem under saddle on a regular basis.
1. At this rate, out of 500 horses, how many horses would you predict would exhibit some sort of behaviour problem when ridden?
Hockenhull explained that behaviour problems in riding horses could result in these horse not being enjoyable to ride and possibly lead to riders selling mounts that behave poorly under saddle.
To better understand the prevalence of behaviour problems, Hockenhull created an online survey about behaviour under saddle that owners of 1,326 horses completed over the course of one year. The survey asked respondents to only think back to the previous week when answering the questions on a scale of 1 to 5 (“never” to “frequently”). The vast majority (91%) reported some sort of problem behaviour.
2. What percentage of horses exhibited no behaviour problems?
3. How many of the 1,326 horses had no behaviour problems?
Of the 1,326 horses, 78% were ridden with artificial aids—such as martingales, whips, or flash nosebands—to control their behaviour.
4. How many of the horses were ridden with artificial aids?
According to Hockenhull, this could be reason for concern.
“Poor riding may lead to the development of behavioural problems or learned helplessness in ridden horses, and these problems may be exacerbated as the owner attempts to address the problem by increasing the intensity of the aids or the complexity of the tack used to control the horse,” she said. Horses with ongoing or increasing ridden behaviour problems are at greater risk of changing hands or euthanasia, she added.
Even so, most of the ridden behaviour problems in the study revealed minor issues that were more likely to be “irritating to a rider rather than dangerous,” Hockenhull said. Bucking was rare (only 17% of the horses), and rearing and bolting were very rare (7% and 3%, respectively).
5. How many horses in the survey bucked?
6. How many horses reared?
7. How many horses bolted (ran away)?
The most common problems were shying (50%)—which can be dangerous if it’s violent, she added—along with walking off before the rider has finished getting in the saddle (46%) and pulling or leaning on the bit (45%).
8. What fraction of the horses shied?
9. How many horses walked off before the rider was finished getting in the saddle?
10. How many horses did not exhibit the behaviour of leaning on the bit?
The good news, however, is that overall, leisure riders—at least in the U.K., seem quite good at caring for their horses’ health and maintenance. A full 97% of the horses received annual dental exams, and more than a third received semiannual exams. Furthermore, 88% of the riders had had their horse’s saddle professionally checked for fit, and 61% had them professionally rechecked as often as once a year.
1. At this rate, out of 500 horses, how many horses would you predict would exhibit some sort of behaviour problem when ridden?
Answer: 500 x .91= 455. I would predict 455 horse to exhibit some sort of behaviour problem when ridden.
2. What percentage of horses exhibited no behaviour problems?
Answer: 100 – 91 = 9. 9% of the horses had no behaviour problems.
3. How many of the 1,326 horses had no behaviour problems?
Answer: 1326 x .09 = 119.34. 119 horses had no behaviour problems.
4. How many of the horses were ridden with artificial aids?
Answer: 1326 x .78 = 1034.28. 1034 horses were ridden with artificial aids.
5. How many horses in the survey bucked?
Answer: 1326 x .17 = 225.42. 225 horses bucked.
6. How many horses reared?
Answer: 1326 x .07 = 92.82. 93 horses reared.
7. How many horses bolted (ran away)?
Answer: 1326 x .03 = 39.78. 40 horses bolted.
8. What fraction of the horses shied?
Answer: 50/100 = 1/2. One half of the horses shied.
9. How many horses walked off before the rider was finished getting in the saddle?
Answer: 1326 x .46 = 609.96. 610 horses walked off before the rider was finished getting in the saddle.
10. How many horses did not exhibit the behaviour of leaning on the bit?
Answer: Step 1. 100 – 45 = 55. 55% of the horses did not exhibit this behaviour.
Step 2. 1326 x .55 = 729.3. 729 of the horses in the survey did not lean on the bit.
Photos:
‘Mac knows how to buck‘ by lostinfog; CC BY-SA 2.0
‘Dealing with a rearing jumper‘ by carterse; CC BY-SA 2.0