Sue McDonnell, PhD, Certified AAB

Sue M. McDonnell, PhD, is a certified applied animal behaviorist and the founding head of the equine behavior program at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She is also the author of numerous books and articles about horse behavior and management.

Articles by: Sue McDonnell, PhD, Certified AAB

Unsettled Slumber

My horse might have sleeping problems. I have seen him almost fall over trying to sleep. Is this normal?

Read More

Positive Reinforcement

Can you explain the concept of positive reinforcement training? What exactly does it mean? I was recently in New Zealand, where I was with a group that seems “converted” to what they call “all-positive training.” It sounds like good old-fashioned

Read More

A Late Start

I have a 5-month-old colt that was never halter broken. According to the breeder, it appeared that at one point a halter had been put on him, and the experience was traumatic for him.

Since he came home with me, I have been spending time with

Read More

Let Nature Work it Out (Shy Stud Colt)

I desperately need some advice about my new colt. He is a 2?-year-old Gypsy Cob named Geordie. He was raised in a herd, then separated as a yearling colt, and ran with a colt herd until I imported him to Australia. He is naturally gentle and not

Read More

Herd Instincts: Sparring

My horse was seen biting another horse in the throat. They were up on their hind legs supposedly playing when all of a sudden my horse made a very unusual move, according to the witness, and bit the other horse in the throat. The other horse ran an

Read More

Keeping Stallions Focused

I’m a veterinary student from the United Kingdom and have been riding with a stud farm veterinarian in America going from place to place. I am trying to figure out the art of handling stallions for breeding. Can you please enlighten me on the

Read More

Orphans and Families

I wanted to share with you a horse behavior experience that I had after I lost my best broodmare. “Janet” died overnight on May 30, 2006, at age 22. She looked remarkably great for her age, so we were breeding her back to our stallion. She was

Read More

Stallion-like Behaviors

I castrated my gelding at 17 months (November 2005). A veterinarian with 35 years of experience showed me the epididymides. My mare had her first heat cycle in March (2006). He mounted and bred her as if he was a stallion. Every time she is in heat

Read More

Gelding Herding Mares

Is it possible to change a horse’s aggressive behavior? Specifically, I am wondering if there is any information relating to reinforcement contingencies and transfer of learning from a “human-handled” situation to a free-running setting?

The

Read More

Rearing and Flipping

We have a Quarter Horse mare whose mother was a bad flipper in the starting gate. She has two half-brothers that were also bad in the gate. All of these offspring were trained by different individuals. This spring, she had a filly that tried to fli

Read More

No Vertical Vision?

Why is it that dogs and cats follow objects that go up, but horses (or maybe it’s just my horse) do not?

Read More

Trashing the Place

Why do some defecate onto the walls of the stall, pasting manure onto their tails, hindquarters, and all over

Read More

Daily Hoof Washing?

In the horses you have observed in the wild, do they wet their feet every day? If so, please explain how they do it.

Read More

Savage Stallions

Q: I have worked with many different breeding stallions, including Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods back east, then mostly Arabians and Quarter Horses in Texas. We now have a halter stallion that does something I’ve never seen

Read More

More From The Horse

Down Horse _ 3
Collecting Colostrum, colostrum, foal care, mare care
foal nursing
horse nose snout nostril detail close animal equine pont

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Has your horse started shedding his winter coat?
273 votes · 273 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

The Horse
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.