It was a few years back now when I first heard about Dr Michaela Hempen’s Masters Research on Crib-biting, which, for those uninitiated, is a stereotypic behaviour that horses can develop. I heard about the research and then had the good fortune to see some of the timeline film of the project thanks to Alexandra Kurland.
There is not much now, after so long in the horse world that really captures my attention strongly, but wow, Michaela’s research blew my mind – it still does. I was captivated watching the footage, absolutely glued to the screen to see it all in as much detail as I could take in.
I think the findings from Michaela’s work are absolutely game-changing in terms of how we view, understand and then manage crib-biting in horses. I am so moved by Michaela and the broader teams work in this space and the implications it has for the welfare of cribbing horses. I look forward to further research happening on crib-biting & other equine stereotypies.
Since I heard about this research, anyone mentions crib-biting and I vomit excitement about Michaela’s research all over them… so I was itching to have Michaela come and speak with me to share this with you, our An Equine Conversation listeners so I could point people to this conversation instead of trying to explain the research and findings myself.
There is so much to talk about & this is a long episode… but we still ran out of time & need to talk again.
Dr Michaela Hempen:
Dr Michaela Hempen has graduated in Veterinary Medicine with a PhD in Veterinary Public Health. She works at the European Food Safety Authority as a Scientific Officer in the area of biological hazards (bacteria, viruses, parasites) and animal welfare.
She also has a Masters's degree in Equine Science. Her thesis was supervised by Dr Jesus Rosales Ruiz from North Texas University, that we’ll be discussing today.
Michaela has been addicted to horses since early childhood. Her first horse Asfaloth is still with her and has since been joined by Graya and Blondie. Michaela’s training with horses has been most strongly influenced by:
Horse trainer, author and podcaster Alexandra Kurland of The Clicker Centre,
Anja Beran, head of the internationally renowned ‘Gut Rosenhof’ training centre in Germany who uses classical dressage as physiotherapy for horses, and
the Feldenkrais method which has been integral to the improvement of Michaela’s riding and interaction with horses.
These 3 things have been to a lesser extent, all part of my journey too, so I resonate with Michaela’s journey.
Michaela has been involved in organising, hosting and presenting at various clinics and workshops for and with Alexandra Kurland & also involving Dr Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, and Mary Hunter. In 2021 Michaela co-presented with Alexandra at Clicker Expo Live, and the year after, both Michaela and Alexandra hosted an online workshop that combined dressage and clicker training with Anja Beran as a special guest.
Also, in 2022, Michaela taught students of a German certification programme for horse-assisted interventions.
Michaela offers personalised online coaching for horse owners, which is based on learning from Alexandra Kurland & Anja Beran. You can find more information on Michaela’s Clicker Training Pferde website, Facebook page, YouTube and Instagram – links we will share with you in the show notes together with her science-related profiles for those interested.
In this episode we discuss:
1:30 - episode introduction
3:20 - introducing Dr Michaela Hempen
6:39 - Michaela’s early horsie life
9:12 - enter ‘Asfaloth’
10:00 - starting with classical dressage & a turning point in Michaela’s journey leading to clicker training & Alexandra Kurland
11:57 - continuing with classical dressage & Anja Beran: discovering her work & just how beneficial it is for horses: ‘riding horses back to health’
12:49 - the connection between Alexandra & Anja’s training
13:28 - enter ‘Graya’
14:15 - enter ‘Blondie’
15:02 - Anja’s influence as part of my journey
16:43 - Alexandra & Feldenkrais also part of my journey
17:53 - What prompted Michaela’s Masters in Equine Science & research study in Crib-biting
20:17 - What is crib-biting
22:14 - What do we know about why crib-biting happens
27:03 - a key piece to understand about crib-biting
27:23 - what do we understand the physical effect to be on the horse & how do humans feel about it
31:15 - what made Michaela passionate about crib-biting & why research
32:54 - how do crib-biting ‘collars’ work
36:37 - a further management intervention humans take
38:28 - another impact that people dislike
39:21 - why a single-subject study design
47:13 - how did the research experiment begin: surveillance & data and what that revealed.
51:37 - the living situation of the study horse(s)
55:07 - narrowing in on Blondie - testing hypothesis of link to feeding & making an important discovery
58:35 - further testing to narrow down what is the main influence
1:02:04 - deciding on interventions & the main takeaway points from what’s been learnt already
1:03:27 - a constructional approach, how this differs from a Veterinary approach & what Blondie needs to learn
1:07:20 - changing the context & routine to create a training condition
1:09:14 - the context/environmental change
1:10:25 - being mindful of the human influence in the training condition & building the behaviour
1:14:03 - describing what it looked like
1:14:41 - teaching the focus on consumption & the importance of having experienced animal trainers involved in scientific experiments involving animals
1:19:32 - how the training progresses over time - shifting to the 2nd part of the study, the routine described & maintaining the behaviour with environmental changes
1:25:39 - the big spanner in the broder study works
1:29:16 - further discoveries when broadening the experiment due to a changed condition
1:30:38 - building a relationship beyond the cribbing project, the impact of Covid & prioritising welfare
1:34:29 - a drastic change of environment & the impact on the cribbing behaviour
1:40:45 - the desire for further research but the pressing need to write-up what’s been done already
1:44:05 - the challenge of bringing two sciences together
1:46:46 - Michaela’s top tips for those with a cribbing horse
1:48:41 - cribbing during training with positive reinforcement (R+)/clicker training
1:52:27 - podcast wrap-up & what’s on next week
Links from Michaela:
Our links mentioned this episode:
Thank you to Matthew Bliss for podcast production & consultation. You can find out more about podcast support on offer via: Blissery.FM or email info@blissery.fm
