An ethogram for Equitation Science First Principles of Horse Training

This ethogram is based on Equitation Science’s ‘First Principles of Horse Training’. This is related to: North, S. 2016. Software Program: IPTEK (ISES Principles Training Evaluation Kit). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.54821. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.54821 North, S., Hemingway, A., McLean, A. N., Laurie, H. & Ellis-Hill, C. 2016. How does Parelli measure up? (poster). In Proceedings of the 12th International Society for Equitation Science Conference (ISES2016) (ifce - institut français du cheval et de l’équitation, Saumur, France. June 23-25 2016). International Society for Equitation Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3055.0644 North, S., Hemingway, A., McLean, A. N., Laurie, H. & Ellis-Hill, C. 2016. Evaluating a natural horsemanship program in relation to the ISES first principles of horse training. In Proceedings of the 12th International Society for Equitation Science Conference (ISES2016) (ifce - institut français du cheval et de l’équitation, Saumur, France. June 23-25 2016). International Society for Equitation Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.54733 North, S., Hemingway, A., McLean, A. N., Laurie, H. & Ellis-Hill, C. 2016. Evaluating a natural horsemanship program in relation to the ISES first principles of horse training. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 15, September–October, p.87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2016.08.040. ISSN: 1558-7878 The ethogram for Equitation Science First Principles of Horse Training is intended to evaluate a method of horse training, ideally, from video recordings. It should be noted that each behavior in the ethogram is followed by its inverse: “INCORRECTLY describing or demonstrating…”. This allows logged observations to include examples that contradict the ISES ‘First Principles’ (should any be present). This is important because, whereas the absence of a specific principle might simply be a matter of differing emphasis, contradiction might indicate a more serious discongruity. The proposed ethogram is of human behaviour during horse training. It does not consider the horse-human dyad, during training interactions. Of course the horse’s response to human training is very informative. This ethogram maps directly to equitation science’s ‘first principles’, which only describe the human aspects of an idealised horse / horsemanship training program. Therefore, horse behaviours do not feature in the ethogram