09/02/2026
The best zoos and aquariums have been leaders in animal training and keeping for many years now. Drawing on behavior science, practices established in these settings have been adopted by leaders in horse and dog training. Change takes time and requires leaving behind traditions and mythologies that have been reinforcing to their followers. It requires learning new information and practicing new skills, building a new reinforcement history to counter and replace the old.
Folks do the best they can with the knowledge and skill they have. And there are a lot of good things happening out there as people leave behind the old ways. I see many people wanting better “relationship” and “connection” with their animals, including horses. Everyone needs to keep learning and building new skills. Just do it with kindness, without force, coercion or fear as much as is humanly possible. And zoo practices have taught us that a lot is possible.
Join us to learn more on best animal keeping practices from Rick Hester of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Behavior Works at our Animal Trainers’ Retreat: Training With Love + Science later this month. And presentations on a variety of training topics from Kiki Yablon, Morgan Katz, and other experts in the animal training field.
Link in the comments.
How far behind modern zoos is the horse world?
Modern zoological institutions increasingly utilise the science of animal behaviour and learning to inform how they care for and train the animals under their responsibility.
Rather than relying primarily on the outdated concepts such as dominance hierarchies, "being the leader" or escalating aversive pressure until an animal complies, contemporary animal training programmes increasingly focus on understanding how behaviour is learned, how the environment affects behaviour and, importantly, how training impacts the animal's welfare and emotional state.
Positive Reinforcement, enrichment, systematic desensitisation and counterconditioning are commonly used to create positive learning experiences and help animals develop more positive emotional responses to potentially challenging situations.
Animals are also trained for cooperative and voluntary husbandry and veterinary care. Rather than simply restraining an animal whenever a procedure needs to be performed, trainers can teach behaviours that allow the animal to actively participate in blood draws, injections, hoof care, weighing, medical examinations and many other necessary procedures.
Of course, this doesn't mean that modern zoos are perfect, or that every zoo and every trainer follows the same protocols. Zoos remain controversial for many reasons.
But this is the question I find fascinating:
Knowing how controversial zoos already are simply because of their existence, how long do you think they would survive in the modern world if their animals were routinely trained and handled in the same way that the majority of horses still are?
And perhaps the more important question is:
Why are we willing to apply modern behavioural science to elephants, big cats and other zoo animals… but so often resist applying the same principles when it comes to horses? 🤔
