Does Wright-ESCT work on behavioral problems?
We cannot ask our horses whether they are acting a certain way because of trauma/stress or because of personality, so we can only do two things to evaluate their behavior: (1) intuit why they behave as they do from our knowledge of horse behavior; (2) take a detailed client intake history from the owner/trainer about the horse’s life. Some reactions are natural “spooks” to environmental stimuli to which most horses are expected to respond with flight or fight. However, some actions may be due to the personality of the horse or inbreeding, especially in those horses coming from a long lineage of double breeding. If the behavior itself has brought stress into the training or work situation and created difficulty between horse and rider/trainer, then placing the horse back into that stressful situation and applying Wright-ESCT does work. The behavior may remain in other situations, however. An example would be biting and chewing at things in younger horses. In its stall, the horse may bit
