Benefits of Animal Exposure on Veterinary Students’ Understanding of Equine Behaviour and Self-Assessed Equine Handling Skills

Abstract

Simple SummaryFirst-year veterinary students often lack recognition of horse behavioural signals and exposure to animals. Based on self-assessments, we studied their level of knowledge of equine behaviour and their equine handling competency before starting the programme. A previous exposure to horses and/or companion animals (on their own property) seemed to confer an advantage in the interpretation of equine behaviour and self-reported equine handling competency.AbstractHorses are one of the most dangerous animals veterinarians have to work with. For many veterinary students, their first exposure to horses occurs during practical classes. To evaluate the level of knowledge students have of equine behaviour and their equine handling competency when entering the programme, 214 veterinary students (1st and 4th year) were recruited to participate in a questionnaire. Participants were asked to choose one out of 12 terms that best represented the affective state of a horse in a picture, and to self-assess their equine handling skills. Half (n = 56/115) of the first-year students correctly interpreted the horse’s behaviour. The majority had (1) a poor understanding of equine learning mechanisms and (2) poor self-rated equine handling skills. A history of pet ownership (p = 0.027) and the presence of horses on their family property (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with a correct understanding of equine behaviour. Fourth-year students were three times more likely to accurately interpret the horse’s behaviour (p = 0.01) and rated their handling skills higher than first-year students (p = 0.006). These results suggest that previous animal experience confers a considerable advantage to interpret equine behaviour and highlight the critical importance of practical training in the veterinary programme.

Horses Used for Educational Purposes in New Zealand: A Descriptive Analysis of Their Use for Teaching

“…Students' equine skills competency increased throughout the equine and veterinary science degree programmes. However, many students have very limited equine experience and low confidence in horse handling at enrolment, and some still show low self-assessed equine skills and confidence in 4th year [12]. Given the current low use reported for the teaching horses in this study, there could be an opportunity to increase student exposure to horses and horse handling.…”

“…For these cohorts of horses, given the nature of the teaching classes and the frequency of horse use, any behavioural stressors are likely to be limited to handling and interactions with inexperienced students. When they enter the veterinary programme, students have a poor understanding of equine behaviour and knowledge of the principles that constitute the way horses learn (i.e., learning theory) [12,22]. Associative learning (i.e., classical and operant conditioning) requires the use of at least one stimulus and aims to increase or decrease the frequency, duration, or intensity of future occurrences of desirable or undesirable behaviours [36].…”

“…Hands-on experiences with animals are therefore emphasised by most universities in their equine and veterinary science degree programmes [2] to complement theoretical teaching. The importance of practical classes in the curriculum has grown, as most students that now enter animal-based programmes come from an urban background with limited animal experience [9][10][11][12]. Equine practical teaching classes may well be the first occasion for some students to interact with a horse [13,14].…”

“…In the veterinary teaching environment, horses are used for a range of practical classes (e.g., animal handling, lameness investigation, rectal examination, dental examination and treatment) [1,11,13,[16][17][18][19][20][21] in which students show various levels of equine experience and confidence with horses [12,22]. Horses are selected for each type of practical teaching class based on their behavioural characteristics and their apparent ability to cope with their use [11,16,18,21].…”

“…Therefore, the type and number of interactions with equine and veterinary science students are likely to vary between animals. These student-horse interactions themselves might also be inconsistent because of variation in the equine behaviour knowledge and equine experience of students [12,22]. A failure of students to correctly identify horses' behavioural cues and to give an appropriate response at an appropriate time may lead to confusion for the horse [23][24][25].…”