If you are a Black Beauty fan, you will recall the scene where Beauty is being led from a burning barn and he’s scared. James puts the blindfold on to instantly calm him down, and then he’s able to be rescued. Written in 1877 by Anna Sewell, the novel was based on how horse handling looked back then. Thanks to scientific research, we know a lot more about horse behaviour and equine welfare now.
Horse rescued during an emergency.
The research team carried out two experiments involving 33 riding lesson horses to assess the impact of blindfolds on the horses’ behavior and stress levels during handling.
© 2017 by Watershed Post
Caleigh Copelin, now a PhD candidate at the University of Guelph, assisted with Bryn Hayman’s master’s thesis which investigated the validity of this belief. For years, it was thought that blindfolding horses can make them more compliant during high-stress situations, such as evacuating from a burning barn. This latest research revealed blindfolding increases leading time and resistant behaviours which make handling more difficult. It is therefore not recommended for time-sensitive emergency situations.
The research team, Caleigh Copelin, Bryn Hayman and Dr. Katrina Merkies from the Department of Animal Bioscience, carried out two experiments involving 33 riding lesson horses. These experiments were designed to assess the impact of blindfolds on the horses’ behavior and stress levels during handling. They quickly started to unravel the lore of blindfolds being a calming tool and revealed them as a hindrance cloaked in good intentions.
In the first part of the study, researchers tested how long it took to lead a horse from their stall out into a barn aisle with and without a blindfold. “When the blindfolds first went on the horses, we saw a lot of them freeze,” Caleigh recounts. 60 seconds was the time allotted for the assignment and many of the horses were not up to the task; refusing to step forward at all. For those who did comply, it took more than twice as long (on average, 35 seconds instead of 10) to extricate them from the stall when blindfolded.
“We saw a lot of our blindfolded horses lifting, tossing, or turning their heads away,” explained Copelin. “They would try to avoid walking forward or they were walking backwards and spinning sideways to evade the ask to walk forward. In general, the blindfolded horses needed about five times more pressure on the lead rope just to get them to walk forward.”
The second part of the experiment, required the horses to navigate an obstacle course that included weaving through cones, backing up through a chute, walking across a tarp, and passing through a visually intimidating ‘gate’ made of pool noodles. After the introduction of walking out of the stall with the blindfold on, the horses seemed a bit more at ease in an indoor arena environment. It still took the blindfolded horses nine seconds longer to navigate cones and 18 seconds longer to back up through poles than unblindfolded horses.
“Interestingly, when we got to the tarp, we didn’t see a huge difference between our blindfolded and unblindfolded group,” said Copelin. “We assumed that to mean that some horses were more bothered by the sound that the tarp made under their feet when they couldn’t see it, and others were more bothered by the sight of the tarp on the ground.”
In a surprising twist, blindfolded horses were quicker than their unblindfolded counterparts at the ‘gate’ obstacle. They were about 11 seconds faster moving through the gate of pool noodles. Copelin says, “The unblindfolded horses did seem to find the gate pretty visually frightening, and they didn’t really want to go near it.” These findings may suggest that while blindfolding may assist horses in coping with frightening visual stimuli when there’s no rush, it is likely to be counterproductive in emergency scenarios. In such cases, blindfolding could increase the time and difficulty of handling, potentially endangering both human and animal lives.
When blindfolded, horses generally took longer to lead, required more pressure on the lead rope, and displayed higher frequencies of avoidant and active refusal behaviours. In time-sensitive emergency situations, blindfolding is not recommended as it can make handling more difficult.
It is recommended to invite emergency personnel, such as your local fire department, out for horse handling training. They are generally open to these invitations and while they gain some hands-on horses experience, they share their expertise to help you optimize your emergency preparedness plan and identify potential fire risks and hazards in your barn.
Conducting regular fire drills to habituate horses to evacuation procedures could significantly improve the chances of a successful rescue.
Clear sight and preparation reign supreme in this University of Guelph study. Just as Black Beauty captured the hearts of audiences, Copelin’s work sheds light for horse owner’s seeking evidence-based, welfare practices for their horses.
Press release by University of Guelph - The Horse Portal