Gastric ulcers are one of the first things many horse owners think of when a horse’s behaviour changes, but can all behavioural problems really be blamed on Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome?

In this episode, Barbara and Jen are joined by equine internal medicine specialists Dr Ben Sykes and Dr Amy Lovett to explore the complicated relationship between gastric disease, pain and behaviour in horses.

Ben has an extensive clinical and research background in equine gastroenterology and Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS), while Amy is a Senior Lecturer in Equine Medicine at Charles Sturt University in Australia and a board-certified specialist in large animal internal medicine.

Their paper, Can All Behavioral Problems Be Blamed on Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome?, challenges us to think beyond simple explanations when horses present with behavioural change.

We talk about what behaviours might and might not tell us about gastric disease; the importance of differential diagnosis; musculoskeletal pain, saddle fit and dental disease; rider and training effects; and the danger of finding an abnormality and automatically assuming we have found the cause of the behaviour.

We also explore one of the areas particularly relevant to behaviour practitioners: what happens after the pain has gone?

If a horse has repeatedly experienced pain when being girthed, ridden or handled, treating the underlying disease does not necessarily erase what that horse has learned. Ben and Amy discuss pain-related anticipatory behaviour, why behavioural responses can persist after successful medical treatment, and why recovery sometimes needs to involve much more than simply treating the pathology.

We also get into cognitive bias in owners and professionals, the enormous prominence gastric ulcers have acquired within the equestrian world, how vets and behaviour professionals can work together, and why asking the right question may be more useful than immediately looking for one particular diagnosis.

Ben and Amy have subsequently explored this subject further alongside veterinary behaviourist Dr Mary Klinck in their clinical commentary, Incorporating a Behavioral Medicine Approach in the Multi-Modal Management of Chronic Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS), looking specifically at integrating behavioural medicine into the management of chronic and recurrent gastric disease.

A fascinating conversation about ulcers but perhaps even more importantly, about pain, learning, behaviour and looking at the whole horse.

Papers discussed

Ben Sykes & Amy Lovett (2025) Can All Behavioral Problems Be Blamed on Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome? Animals, 15(3), 306 DOI: 10.3390/ani15030306

Mary Klinck, Amy Lovett & Ben Sykes (2025) Incorporating a Behavioral Medicine Approach in the Multi-Modal Management of Chronic Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS): A Clinical Commentary Animals, 15(20), 3019 DOI: 10.3390/ani15203019

Meet Your Hosts

Barbara Hardman (Bright Horse Equiation)
www.brighthorse.ie

📧barbara.j.hardman@brighthorse.ie ☎️+353 85 143 8688

Jen Nash (The Equine Method)
www.theequinemethod.co.uk

📧 Info@TheEquineMethod.co.uk ☎️+44 7902920923

We’re back with Ella Bradshaw-Wiley, Associate Lecturer in Equine Science at Charles Sturt University, for Part Two of our conversation around her paper, 'Combined reinforcement: Poisoned cue or a panacea for modern equine training? A narrative review.'

Ella's research focuses on equine behaviour, learning and welfare, with her current work exploring combined reinforcement and its potential influence on learning, behaviour, safety and the horse-human relationship.

In Part Two, we head straight into one of the ideas that originally led us to Ella's paper: the “poisoned cue”.

It's a wonderfully memorable phrase but what does it actually describe? Is a poisoned cue a distinct learning phenomenon, or are we giving a particularly catchy name to associative-learning processes we already understand? And importantly, should a cue that has become associated with punishment or correction be considered equivalent to an intentionally designed training sequence in which a horse experiences both the release of pressure and an appetitive reinforcer?

From there, we explore what combined reinforcement might actually offer horse training in practice. We talk about stimulus control, timing and predictability, whether the order of pressure release, a marker and positive reinforcement matters, and the research that is still missing in this area.

We also take the conversation into ridden work and SLO. If completely removing negative reinforcement from riding is extremely difficult, could we instead become much better at reducing it? Could auditory cues, very light tactile cues and positive reinforcement help us transfer behaviour onto increasingly subtle signals?

And, importantly, combined reinforcement cannot simply mean “pressure plus a biscuit”. We discuss where this approach may have value in clinical behaviour modification, what safeguards are needed, and why positive and negative reinforcement have somehow become ideological identities rather than descriptions of learning processes.

Finally, we ask Ella where she would take the research next if she had the horses, time and funding to answer the questions that remain.

Find Ella at Charles Sturt University:
https://science-health.csu.edu.au/schools/ag-environmental-vet/research/research-areas/profiles/equine-science/ella-bradshaw

Read the paper:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106718

#gapingblackhole

Meet Your Hosts

Barbara Hardman (Bright Horse Equiation)
www.brighthorse.ie

📧barbara.j.hardman@brighthorse.ie ☎️+353 85 143 8688

Jen Nash (The Equine Method)
www.theequinemethod.co.uk

📧 Info@TheEquineMethod.co.uk ☎️+44 7902920923

This week we are joined by Ella Bradshaw-Wiley, Associate Lecturer in Equine Science at Charles Sturt University in Australia, for the first of a two-part conversation inspired by her paper, 'Combined reinforcement: Poisoned cue or a panacea for modern equine training? A narrative review.'

Ella grew up around Thoroughbred breeding and is a passionate Thoroughbred retrainer, but her interest in understanding why horses behave and learn the way they do led her into equine science. Her work now focuses on horse behaviour and welfare, learning theory, affective state, the horse-human relationship, and how our training practices can influence both welfare and safety.

Her paper asks a deceptively simple question: are positive and negative reinforcement really as separate in practical horse training as we often make them out to be?

In Part One, we get stuck into the learning theory behind the paper. We talk about studies labelled as “positive reinforcement” that may actually contain elements of negative reinforcement, why real-life training rarely fits neatly into individual quadrants, and why positive reinforcement doesn't necessarily mean food or automatically mean that the horse is experiencing the interaction positively.

We also discuss what we actually mean when we call something aversive, who gets to decide whether a stimulus is aversive, negative punishment, food frustration, reinforcement schedules, reward prediction error, and the fascinating research around cognitive bias, stress, learning and resilience.

As always, the aim isn't to decide which “camp” is right. It's to look at what the horse is actually learning, what they may be experiencing, and whether our understanding of learning theory stands up when we take it out of the textbook and apply it to real horses.

Find Ella at Charles Sturt University:
https://science-health.csu.edu.au/schools/ag-environmental-vet/research/research-areas/profiles/equine-science/ella-bradshaw

Read the paper:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106718

#gapingblackhole

Meet Your Hosts

Barbara Hardman (Bright Horse Equiation)
www.brighthorse.ie

📧barbara.j.hardman@brighthorse.ie ☎️+353 85 143 8688

Jen Nash (The Equine Method)
www.theequinemethod.co.uk

📧 Info@TheEquineMethod.co.uk ☎️+44 7902920923