Cooperative Care

Cooperative care is a way of training horses for care routines like farrier or vet visits, deworming, or putting on fly spray. It's one of my passion projects and the focus of my master's thesis. Learn more about it in the blog posts below, and check back here for updates as I continue adding resources on cooperative care!

Kaitlyn giving hay pellets to a young stallion during positive reinforcement training

Cooperative Care: A Resource Guide

If you're interested in cooperative care and looking for some more resources, this list is for you!

Kaitlyn Maclin

What is cooperative care?

Cooperative care is training animals to willingly be a part of their own care. It can look like training a horse to voluntarily participate in deworming, injections, putting on a halter, and much more. The possibilities are limited only by the trainer's creativity. It's also the current focus of my research. Why does it matter? Cooperative care and horses' voluntary participation matter for a few reasons: human and animal safety, the welfare of the horse, and ease of care. An

Kaitlyn Maclin