Solving Equine Behaviour Problems

Rose Scofield entered the academic life late, having spent her formative years in customer service. Having always been involved with horses she eventually decided to start a degree in the subject of Equine Behaviour and Training. While studying, she worked at a veterinary surgery, as a welfare officer with a cat charity and, once qualified, ran a hobby business as a behaviour consultant. She saw some very interesting cases, which she found could be solved using the new discipline of equitation science now emerging from the twin fields of ethology and learning theory. During this time, Rose found a desire for discovering why horses act the way they do, and also how we as humans could intervene to improve their welfare in their relationships with us. Her career in research stemmed from this, and subsequently she has presented her research around the world. Her first foray into research looked at performance, but soon deviated into the world of equitation science, exploring the relationship between horse and rider/handler. Rose has completed three pieces of research into bitless bridles, and four in issues concerning the safety of horses and riders on our roads. She now intends to combine aspects of behaviour and road safety, and is beginning to explore how our knowledge of the behaviours of horses on our roads can add to the profile of keeping them (and us) as safe as possible.

• Chapter 1: A Guide to Equitation Science Chapter 2: Handling the Horse Chapter 3: Groundwork and Foundation Training Chapter 4: Ridden Work