Tacking up – being a pain or in pain?

Hear from internationally renowned equine vet, Sue Dyson, and World Horse Welfare Centre Manager, rider, and coach, Adam Cummins, about what we can learn from horses’ behaviour when they are tacked up and mounted. 

We have all met horses that don’t stand quietly during tacking up and mounting. But is this normal? Sue Dyson has carried out research on this subject and the results are important for all who ride horses. So, if your horse fidgets, moves, or changes his facial expression when you tack up or mount, this webinar is for you. 

We would probably all recognise that if a horse kicks or bites when being tacked up, it is unhappy about the situation. But many horses show more passive behaviours that some of us might not notice, or that we may think are normal. But what if that isn’t the case? Are these horses actually anticipating pain? As Sue will show us, some behaviours are more common in horses that are lame, have an ill-fitting saddle or a sore back, or where the rider sits too far back in the saddle. 

Sue’s expertise and research findings are backed up by Adam Cummins’ years of experience. Having trained horses up to Prix St-Georges level and coached riders from grassroots to Advanced level dressage, Adam has a vast bank of experience to draw on when assessing problems associated with tacking up. 

With a presentation of recently published research and lots of time for a live ‘Q & A’ session with two experienced speakers, this webinar provides lots of food for thought. 

More Information

Sue Dyson’s paper Development of an ethogram for a pain scoring system in ridden horses and its application to determine the presence of musculoskeletal pain is available here – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1558787817301727

Application of a Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram and Its Relationship with Gait in a Convenience Sample of 60 Riding Horses – https://doaj.org/article/847ce46dd03d4f33848950558dc1f0e6