(21 August 2012)

It continues Italian Horse Protection’s activity to spread knowledge about the horses’ ethologic characteristics and the correct ways to relate with them, always keeping in mind their wellbeing and their needs.

Knowing the horses’ language and their learning mechanisms is all important to treat them well not just with words. However, paradoxically, oftentimes the people approaching these animals prefer to trust the advice of so-called experts or “horsemen” without adequate knowledge, ending up doing serious mistakes in perfect good faith.

As always, IHP’s courses don’t offer a method. We don’t wish to give a “mechanical” vision of the horse (“I do this and he must do that”); our aim is for the participants to learn how the mind of these wonderful animal works.

According to the principles of our association, the courses are organized to spread knowledge, thus they will have very affordable costs, even if our teachers are highly qualified.

Paolo Baragli, deals with cognitive ethology and horse physiology at the Equine Behaviour Lab (Department of Physiologic Sciences, University Of Pisa). He has conducted experiments on the spatial abilities, on the concept of permanence of an object and on the possible ways of interaction between horses and human beings with the use of cognitive biases. His aim is to improve the conditions of psycho-physic wellbeing of the equine through the practical application of the result obtained. He regularly publish on international magazines and has participated as invited speaker to international conventions.

Dott.ssa Paola Lovrovich, she got her University of Trieste’s degree in 2007 with a dissertation titled: “Behaviour of a population of Tarpans living wild in Carnia.” In 2011 she obtained the 2nd level University Master in “Etologhy of the animals of affection” with an experimental dissertation titled: "The human-given cues and behavioural plasticity of horses during a delayed three choice task", presented at the second International Equine Science Meeting (Regensburg, 2012). She has been around horses since she was nine, and has deep knowledge of the show jumping and dressage worlds. She has a horse named Jody, who has been bearing with her for the past 11 years. Her website is: www.etologiadelcavallo.it


These are IHP’s courses, with the links to their in-depth descriptions (courses will be organized only in Italian):

Learn to communicate with the horse: you don’t need to whisper, just act ethologically
How do horses learn? What is their physiological motivation that allow us to start a relationship? More to the point, how can we communicate with them respecting their being horses? To build a relationship based on the knowledge of the horse’s mind, alternating theoretical and practical session.
Download the course schedule and general info (only in Italian)

The horse’s cognitive abilities: a journey in the depth of the equine mind
A brief journey in the cognitive psychology of the horse, social and individual. The individual acknowledgement, the post-conflict reconciliation, the development of attention and exploration behaviours…and other topics to better understand the complexity of our friends’ minds.
Download the course schedule and general info (only in Italian)

Management of the horse in the stable
In nature, the horses’ life is deeply different from the one we created for them in the stable. This difference has consequences – often time unpleasant- for them, which can lead to the development of physical or behavioural problems, sometimes very serious too. We will analyze the perceptive world of the horse in nature, comparing it with the life in a stable, focusing on the possible management deficits.
We will see how to improve the daily care and the environment where the horse lives, to be as close as possible to the ethologic needs typical of its species.
Download the course schedule and general info (only in Italian)



Calendar of courses

• 29-30 September 2012 - Learn to communicate with the horse: you don’t need to whisper, just act ethologically

• 13-14 October 2012 - Learn to communicate with the horse: you don’t need to whisper, just act ethologically

• 20 October 2012 - Horse’s cognitive abilities

• 17 November 2012 - Management of the horse in the stable


Read the courses schedules to learn more details about timing, number of participants, meals and overnight stay.

Visit our site or access this page to know the dates we will add along the way.

For more information, contact our secretariat: send an email to ihp@horseprotection.it or call the number 327 9041393.