Basic Horse Care - Equine Psychology

Overview

Many people are still learning about horse upkeep and care as we discover more about horses and equine psychology. Do you have any concerns about your horse's mental health? This course is designed to provide you with the basic knowledge required to take care of horses and understand their behaviour. We introduce you to equine psychology's basic behavioural patterns and the effects of evolution and domestication. Humans are a verbal species and have become heavily dependent on listening and relatively poor at observing body language. It is all about physical expressions for animals, supplemented with auditory inputs. This course will introduce you to a series of behaviour by which horses attempt to communicate, such as the whinny, nicker, groan and more. In addition, you will learn about the reproductive behaviours of stallions and mares and their respective parental behaviours.  

Equine behavioural development hugely depends on the care given at the early stage of their lives. Recognising the signs of newborn foals' behaviour helps determine and control many aspects of foal development. This course provides you with the information needed to recognise those actions. Understand foal behaviours at birth, foal activity norms and more. Horse training can be fun and challenging at the same time. This course will teach you how to train horses by guiding you with skills and techniques such as operant conditioning, classical conditioning, reinforcement and punishment. Explore the methods used to assist a horse in overcoming phobias. Horses are unique animals. They are grand, powerful and capable of expressing a wide range of emotions. Humans and horses have a long history of interaction. Discover the different aspects of the human-horse relation and how it affects humans. Learn about the history of horses and humans and how the domestication of horses came about. 

Understanding how equines relate to their environment and communicate is critical to their training and management. They evolved as a social species, living in herds of several animals. Early domestication did not change that relationship much, but the more people controlled the husbandry of their animals, the smaller and more artificial the groups became. The next part of this course discusses how equines manage their social environment. Investigate the roles of stallions, mares and juveniles in natal groups and the social hierarchy, the effect of rank on conduct and more. A variety of behaviour problems occur in horses. The most common are aggression, fear, sexual behavioural problems, performance problems, abnormal eating habits and undesirable stall conduct. This course covers these behavioural problems, their reasons, and precautions and treatments. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, there are over 50 million horses globally and horse care can present tremendous opportunities. This course is suitable for horse owners and anyone who wants to learn more about caring for horses, personally or professionally. So why wait? Enrol now.