New equine documentary shines a spotlight on signs of pain in ridden horses

A feature-length programme uncovering some of the less comfortable truths surrounding the ridden equine has been launched in a bid to educate owners

A compelling documentary has been released based on world-renowned expert in equine orthopaedics Dr Sue Dyson’s ground-breaking work on signs of pain in the ridden horse. The 24 Behaviours of the Ridden Horse in Pain has been produced by US-based Padma Video in association with the Train With Trust Project. The 35-minute film features Sue and her research on how ‘bad’ horse behaviour can actually be an early indicator of pain.

Watch the full film for free here.

The film educates horse lovers on how to spot the early signs of pain while taking viewers on an emotional ride through the eyes of a young girl who loves her horse and will stop at nothing to try to figure out how to make her comfortable. It dares to challenge the way we look at horses’ behaviours and promotes the notion that lameness doesn’t start at the head bob.

“We are conditioned that many horse behaviours are normal, when they’re not.” Says Sue. “We need to appreciate that what we call ‘naughty horses’ are often a reflection of underlying musculoskeletal pain.”

Through a six-phase study, spanning three years, and over 400 horses, Sue and her colleagues developed the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE), a tool to reliably predict lameness before the condition worsens into limping and other obvious signs of injuries. The RHpE is a catalogue of 24 behaviours, which scientific studies have demonstrated can be associated with pain in the ridden horse. Most of these behaviours are at least ten times more likely to be seen in lame horses compared with non-lame horses.

The film follows Sue Dyson and Dr Jim Myers of Gold Coast Equine as they examine and diagnose showjumper Lauren McMahon’s beloved mare Galina. The mare wasn’t obviously lame yet seemed increasingly unhappy under saddle. Lauren had “tried everything” to figure out what was wrong, including ulcer treatments, multiple joint injections and specialised shoeing, but Galina only became more resistant while being ridden.

Galina’s story isn’t uncommon for horses who don’t present with an obvious head-bobbing lameness. Often these horses are labelled as ‘resistant’ or ‘lazy’, and for horses that buck or rear from pain, ‘explosive’. Trainers often tell riders to ‘push them through it’. The documentary clearly explains how wrong this approach usually is.

Olympic silver medallist and equestrian household name, Mary King, said: “After all that these wonderful animals do for us, the least we can do is to make sure they’re truly comfortable. Performance problems are so often blamed on the horse or rider, without consideration of the possibility of underlying discomfort. The horse’s behaviour may be telling us that even in the absence of overt lameness something may be wrong. Early recognition of this, appropriate investigation and treatment may improve the horse’s performance, welfare and enhance rideability.”

Dr Laurie Goodrich, Director of the Orthopaedic Research Centre at Colorado State University and an equine surgeon specialising in orthopaedic surgery and lameness said: “Finally, we’re getting somewhere interpreting horses’ signs of emotion to reflect pain. Careful and quality research performed by one of the most experienced and world-renowned clinicians and her team is getting at the heart of what horses have been trying to tell us for centuries.”

Watch the full film for free here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrZgtrqbMVI