Girthiness is the behavior seen when horses express their irritability or unhappiness with getting saddled or tacked up, or from brushing, blanketing, or specifically to having the girth or
kt
Angry about Girth
Horse uncomfortable with girthing.
cinch tightened.
These behaviors can be disconcerting and even dangerous to equestrians. Horses can exhibit these behaviors repeatedly, and without intervention, they can get worse over time. Many believe that horses develop these behaviors due to pain, poor saddle fit, “cold back” irritability with being ridden, and more.
These behaviors may include:
- nodding head
- turning and looking
- biting at the person tacking up
- biting at objects like a doorframe, cross ties or stall door
- swishing of tail
- pinning ears backward
- sucking in air
- kicking out
Physiotherapist Leslie Goff has researched the etiology of this nuisance behavior1 , finding that some afflicted horses present with tissue changes in the girth area, specifically including small nodules in the pectoral muscles (placed on the lower chest wall ribs attaching to the forelimb). These trigger points can be painful to touch and, upon pressure, cause pain throughout the surrounding area. Other research indicated fascial (connective tissue) restrictions, causing pain and tissue restriction in this area.
Girthiness has a secondary problem, which is the learned behavior the horse exhibits. Learned behaviors are repetitive in nature, having a cause-and-effect relationship and are hard to “unlearn.” Think about how you brush your teeth every day. You probably have a “pattern” that you have adapted. Things we have done repeatedly become a habit of movement patterns, referred to as engrams in the brain. If you were to break your dominant hand or arm, you would have to learn how to brush your teeth with your opposite hand. It would feel awkward learning a new behavior and movement pattern.
Two sets of motor patterns occur when we tack up our horse. The first one is the predictable pattern in which we start the process. Most of us start with placing the horse on cross ties to begin grooming, brushing, or hoof picking. Then we place saddle pad, adjust it, then saddle and adjust that, then tighten the girth. This becomes a known, predictable pattern that your horse learns too. Think of the hundreds of times you have repeated this process with your horses. They learn what is coming next. If there is any saddle malfitting, girth irritation, or riding discomfort, they will know that pain or associated discomfort comes with this process.
The second motor pattern is the responses the horse exhibits upon our pattern of tacking up. The horse as a passive participant is usually asked to stand still and is captive on cross ties. It has minimal ways of communicating that something is bothersome other than the list of aforementioned actions. The horse has learned its groom’s behaviors and anticipates discomfort, so it starts the second engram, exhibiting its anxiety through those negative behaviors.
Many times, in self-defense or in an attempt to train the horse, riders resort to negative reinforcements such as yelling at the horse, slapping, or hitting. I’ve witnessed owners “kneeing” the horse’s chest wall or striking it with a crop. These actions only further reinforce the horse’s aversion to this process and to the owner or groom.
Breaking the Pattern
I have spent two years studying and observing girthy horses and their owners’ behaviors. I suggest that first, we need to change our behaviors in order for the horse to change. Rather than repeating the pattern described, change your pattern of grooming and tacking up!
Steps for Change
The first step is to place your horse in the stall and allow it to eat hay. This is also ideal for horses struggling with ulcers or in the prevention of ulcers. Food in their bellies during ridden (stressful) work offsets acids sloshing around an empty stomach lining. If your girthy horse tries to bite, tether via halter and loose lead rope to control the head swing and to prevent it from making contact with you. Neither you nor the horse should experience pain or damage during this process.
Next, change your grooming habits by brushing the saddle and girth areas first. Gently put the saddle pad on, but do not adjust it. Let it lie there, then go back to brushing the other parts of the horse’s legs and tail. Take a break, then quickly adjust the saddle pad and walk away. Return with the saddle, but try approaching your horse from the right side to don the saddle—you too will need to learn a new motor pattern; it does feel a bit awkward to use one’s right arm to place the saddle from the right side of the horse. Once the saddle is placed, resist the urge to fiddle with it, but rather walk away and ignore your horse’s negative behaviors. Go back to other tasks you may still need to address such as picking out hooves, but change that pattern too. Stop after the second hoof cleaning, to put one billet into buckle and only put minimal pressure on girth. Return to other tasks not yet taken care of by continuing brushing, hoof picking, putting on leg wraps and bell boots, and brushing tail and mane.
I have found that by putting the bridle on before cinching up is another way to have some control of your horse’s head and mouth before doing the girth. Taking the horse out into the arena in the bridle and lose saddle, to girth up, is helpful for the distraction of the dreaded girth procedure.
Additional Steps
Second, make this a more pleasant experience for the horse by incorporating a reward system, rather than negative reinforcement. We want to re-circuit their experience by first changing our patterns (as noted) but also by giving them pleasure and positive reinforcements during the process. This is based on operant conditioning behaviors founded by BF Skinner2. Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. An association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.
Studies show that positive behavior training is more effective with both animals and humans than negative reinforcements. Horses trained with positive reinforcement learn more quickly, retain the learned tasks longer, experience less stress, react to humans more positively, and are able to generalize this training across trainers, novel tasks, and over long periods of time (e.g., Sankey, 2010)3 Have plenty of healthy treats (or peppermints, if you insist). Every time you approach your horse with a task you think he may have a negative reaction to, slip him a treat first. Give the brain something positive to focus on, just prior to each step in the process. As you practice this, you will start to see ears prick up, positive facial expressions, and eagerness.
Stop fiddling
Horses that are “girthy” have developed a skin hyper-sensitivity, so try not to “feed into” this irritability. Placing the pad or saddle on is enough stimulus to set off their reactivity. It’s best to just “let it be” for a minute or so. Walk away or give a treat, but resist your urge to fiddle. Let the horse adjust to the weight or pressure of the tack. Walking away after delivery also takes the “pressure” off the horse, and allows them to reset their anxiety level. You can always re-adjust later when going back to grooming.
Reverse Psychology
Obviously, each horse is different, and there may be those that become so treat-fixated that this method could become problematic, but I encourage you to try this approach and see if you make progress. By changing our behaviors first and surprising our horses with some positive reinforcement we may help relieve them of their tack anxiety.
Lastly, Seek Professional Help
Get your horse vetted for ulcers, lamenesses, and get him a back evaluation. Have your saddle checked by a saddle fitter. Hire a physical therapist or massage therapist to assess and treat fascial restrictions and or trigger points with manual therapies.
Jennifer Brooks PT, MEd., is a licensed physical therapist and founder of Horse ’N Hound Physical Therapy. She is certified in both Equine and Canine Rehabilitation through the University of Tennessee. She has been a PT and educator for over 30 years, focusing on musculoskeletal and neurological recovery of humans, horses, and small animals. She speaks nationally at conferences at the American Physical Therapy Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
References
1. Investigation of Myofascial Trigger Points in Equine Pectoral Muscles and Girth-Aversion BehaviorAnnette GwynethBowena Lesley MargaretGoffb Catherine MarieMcGowana https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2016.04.095
2. What Is Operant Conditioning and How Does It Work? How Reinforcement and Punishment Modify Behavior. By Kendra Cherry |October 02, 2018, verywellmind.com
3. Animal Behaviour, Volume 79, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages 869-875Positive interactions lead to lasting positive memories in horses, Equus caballus, Sankey et al., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.12.037