Ethical Horse Training On Purpose
Horse Welfare Summit in Sweden 13 & 14th September 2024 bought together over 1000 delegates from 11 different countries over two days.
I was invited to present Ethical Horse Training on Purpose, consisting of me explaining how our beliefs, attitudes and values determine how we investigate horse training and epistimology ie how we know what we know. I then invited delegates to know their values; re self, community and universe by visiting www.clearerthinking.org to find out what we value.
No surprise to learn, on testing, I value learning and truth.
With the remaining time, I explained 5 of the First Principles (International Society for Equitaiton Science)
No. 2 Regard for the nature of the horse
No. 4 Regard for the emotional state of the horse
No. 5 Correct use of habituation/desensitising processes
No. 6 Correct use of operant conditioning
and
No. 10 Regard for Self-carriage
Not because they are more important than principles; 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9 but because time was premium and I simply did not have the time to help delegates navigate all 10 before watching two days of practical demonstrations of horse training.
Think dots provided (by the First Principles Check List) for delegates who were attending the practical sessions, to join the dots (from knowledge of First Principles to the application) or absence, in the demonstrations.
The Summit was brimming with discussions around improving the lived experiences of horses, includng co-hosting with Associate Professor Elke Hartman a round table discussion on:
Shared insights: defining and observing horse behaviour with objectivity and curiosity
The tables were buzzing with cognitive diversity and exploration of soloutions to our horse welfare challenges.
Just like the energy from discussions, the Horse Welfare Summit organisers sparked openness, rethinking and creativity, offering equestrians a space of agency, learning and change, so desipite being my first inperson horse welfare summit (first of its kind!) it will definitely not be my last.
Now we all need to just convince the organisers to host again in 2025!!
Lisa x


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