How has modern science changed the care, breeding, and training of horses?

[Meggie Beth]

and what technology has been involved?

[Fawn H]

I would suggest you go to http://www.equisearch.com and check out their information under health care/ breeding

[Jennifer O]

Modern science has influenced the horse world like any other aspect of our lives. Horses now have better nutrition and medicine. Breeding has been changed by the ability to do genetic testing for diseases and color pattern (paints). Training has been influence by our ability to better understand the anatomy and psychology of horses as well as the availability of training advice on TV, DVD etc. These are just a few examples.

[Double S]

I have found the biggest difference is in breeding. It is much safer now that you can do artificial insemination and invetro fertilization. The stallion can get his jollies off on a phantom without the risk of being kicked and the mare has much less stress. Mares that are worth too much to risk foaling can be inseminated and the embryo can be flushed and put into another mare.

The underwater treadmill has also had a huge impact in the training of performance horses. There is less stress on the joints so horses can keep performing into their later years. Also lubricating injections for and advances in farrier's techniques (padded shoes, clips, bars etc) have extended the horse's working years.

[just me]

Well, thanks to research, worn out race horses get experimented on a lot more.

[Buffy]

What a great question - are you a horse person or just curious?

I'm not so sure the technology has changed as much as the public's knowledge of the science behind many things - for example:

Care: With the advent of the internet and www, there's more information readily accessible to more poeple - this site is proof positive of how easy it is to share information. We're learned more and more of what a select few knew before regarding the care of the horse

Breeding: I would say in the last 50 years the advent of overnight shipping and artificial insemination has brought GREAT changes, both good and bad to the horse world. for example - it's easier than ever for a novice or ignorant person to have a horse bred. More and more low-quality horses are being bred now than ever. Additionally, saddles and tack could be made locally that fit a majority of horses because there was a limited number of breeding stallions in a geographic area - horses had generally the same body types - now that it's easier for me to breed my mare to a stallion hundreds or thousands of miles away via AI and shipped semen, the body types of horses in a geographic area have a wide array - making saddle and other tack fitting a challenge.

Training I think has had the biggest impact - when the Dorrance brothers, prominent western horsemen lit upon true understanding or the horse's nature, his view of his surroundings, how he saw things and heard them through physically understanding how they function and understood their way of communication to each other and their social structure, training took a 180 degree turn. No longer did people have to buck a horse until it gave in to our demands and was "broke". Tom and Bill Dorrance are considered the fathers of modern "natural" horsemanship. They didn't really "preach" these ideas, but other horsemen started to recongnize their success and began to learn about their ideas - this was also about the time people started finding it easier due to planes and trains to move about the country and share knowledge with others. The next wave of prominent horsemen to fully embrace this new idea like Monty Roberts, Pat Parelli, Buck Brannaman and Ray Hunt were able to see it in action, understand it and put it into practice when training horses. THEN they learned that not only do they who are training the horses need to understand this new way of interacting with them, the people who owned and rode them needed to know it to ensure the soundly trained horse remained sound in attitude and behaviour. They began to conduct educational clinics and now there are many clinicians who will teach these theories, there are millions of books and videos sold to further educate the masses on this "newly found" way of interacting with them to a more sound result with quicker results too.

Through people beginnign to learn how to see like through another species eyes and understand even further how their bodies and minds worked, we've been able to produce tools of communication to augment the methods we've learned. They Myler brothers have created, in my estimation, a revolutionary bit system with full knowledge of the horse and how the bit feels in his mouth AND they've created a way to make the backyard horse owner understand what they've learned and put in onto a DVD that'll make ya go "wow! I can't believe I didn't understand all this long ago".

So this knowledge of the natural horse has furthered our knowledge of proper feeding and care, how to house them most naturally for optimum health.

Unfortunately we still have problem with low-quality breeders turning out horses without full understanding of how to properly raise and train them for their success and ours - but I think due to the market being as low as it is now, and the high media attention brought about by instances like the euthanization of Eight belles at the derby might just give poor breeders the kick in the pants they need to wake them up.

This knowledge as even begun to affect other species - look at the "dog whisperer" now that's helping us become a more effective member of our dog's pack - just as we're learning to be an effective member of our horse's herd.

There is another unfortunate interim event that's taking place - there are so many choices now in terms of supplements, feeding knowledge, saddle fitting and tacking - people truly don't yet know this stuff simply - they make many poor decisions because the only way to learn it is by experimentation quite often. So many people give horses supplements they don't need or get knee deep into saddle fit thinking they're getting a good fit and they aren't because they don't really know and haven't gotten the knowledge - or they THINK they know but their theories are backwards.

Hope this helps.

[Barefoottrimmer]

In the purest definition of care and training, I don't think modern science has had any effect.

Breeding is an entirely different matter. With artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and surrogate mares, etc., we can now produce several foals from one mare in one breeding season. Unfortunately, it is just another way that humans have devised to "make money" without any regard for the cruelty to the horses. It is so devastating to a mare to become pregnant, have the embryo flushed (then implanted in a surrogate mare) 3-4 times a year but nobody cares. Can you imagine your body being pregnant, all the changes in hormone levels, etc., and then, a procedure occurs and the pregnancy is over, the body has to readjust, the mare cycles, and it happens again. This has gotten so out of control. In the beginning, it was about keeping the horses able to compete or work and still get a baby, but then, as usual, it became about "more and more money", with no regard for the negative effects on the mares. Some suffer reproductive breakdown because of the abuse. It is just another "scientific" horror humans have inflicted on the helpless. Nothing is normal anymore because it is not as profitable.