Dissertation survey on character traits in different breeds of horse.

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Martymoo

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Hello,
I am currently studing to become a McTimoney -Corley practitioner and as part of my graduation I have to complete a dissertation. Mine is going to be a reserch piece to see if there are any character triats specificate to certain horse breeds. Could you please fill in this quick and easy survey to help with my research.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/charactertraits

Thank you so much in advance
Martina :D:)
 
Just a quickie, I was always taught that questionnaires like this should be annonymous, so I can't fill it in as you are asking for my horse's registered name and I am not really happy to do that. Perception of character is a funny thing to quantify, hope you get the answers you want.
 
Ive filled it in for several horses, but Ive put 'not relevant' in the registered name bit as I too am not happy to fill that in :)
Also, small point, for sex you have mare/gelding/stallion, and I have a 10 month old COLT... I hope you dont mind me saying but I think mare/gelding/entire would be more fitting :)
 
For the record where you ask why you've chosen this routine for your horse. I selected other and explained ... but it wasn't happy to submit this. I had to tick a different box (personal choice) and then explain my other.

I hope you get the results you need but this is a VERY subjective and qualative study. I'm suprised it's been allowed as a dissertation questionnaire.
 
Agree with others re:reg name.

I used his stable name, and was non-specific about reasons why.

Although when you critically reflect on your survey, at least you will have good "What I would change" :)
 
I have done it and never thought about the reg. name thing. I wish I had, although Cappy's reg. name is different because his was Dutch and unpronounceable. Still maybe you should change that question.
FDC
 
Thank you every one for filling in. I have put on there either stable name or registered name, it is I agree not relevant I just wanted to see if any horses where from the same studs as some studs have their name in the horses name.
Thanks again
 
Laafet said:
Just a quickie, I was always taught that questionnaires like this should be annonymous, so I can't fill it in as you are asking for my horse's registered name and I am not really happy to do that. Perception of character is a funny thing to quantify, hope you get the answers you want.
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it said registered or stable name, my horses stable name is different to his registration name so i just his stable name. + his registered name is awful lol
 
I'm sorry but this is really badly set up.

You don't ask for any indicators of experience or confidence level of the handler, which will seriously affect your subjective character analysis. How long you've owned a specific horse isn't, in my opinion enough of an indicator for this (new acquisition vs long owned horse, rarely handled by owner?). Your subjective character analysis is flawed by this since one man's "evil" is another man's "spirited" - an owner who spent their youth training racehorses will have a different definition of "spirited" to the stereotypical middle-aged-woman-who-came-to-riding-later-in-life, despite the fact that both might own a cob today. If you asked for evidence to back up each descriptor, or an explanation of why the owner thought this term was applicable to their animal you might be able to get around this issue, but you don't...

The amount of turnout is not the only relevant management issue here - issues like lone vs small group vs herd turnout will affect behaviour, as will the size of the turnout available, not to mention how much exercise the horse gets (ridden / lunged etc).

Worst of all, your list of vices has no options for "none" or "other" meaning that you have no way of knowing whether the X% who did not reply to this question show no vices or whether they show other vices, completely invalidating this line of inquiry. I presume you can go through individual forms to identify the number who didn't reply, but it would have been easier (even without the confounding lack of "other" option) to list "none" as an option to give a % of animals without vices on the raw results shown on the website.

Ultimately, research like this is not only pointless and misleading pseudoscience, it devalues the results of well thought out studies...
 
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JFTD said:
I'm sorry but this is really badly set up.

You don't ask for any indicators of experience or confidence level of the handler, which will seriously affect your subjective character analysis. How long you've owned a specific horse isn't, in my opinion enough of an indicator for this (new acquisition vs long owned horse, rarely handled by owner?). Your subjective character analysis is flawed by this since one man's "evil" is another man's "spirited" - an owner who spent their youth training racehorses will have a different definition of "spirited" to the stereotypical middle-aged-woman-who-came-to-riding-later-in-life, despite the fact that both might own a cob today. If you asked for evidence to back up each descriptor, or an explanation of why the owner thought this term was applicable to their animal you might be able to get around this issue, but you don't...

The amount of turnout is not the only relevant management issue here - issues like lone vs small group vs herd turnout will affect behaviour, as will the size of the turnout available, not to mention how much exercise the horse gets (ridden / lunged etc).

Worst of all, your list of vices has no options for "none" or "other" meaning that you have no way of knowing whether the X% who did not reply to this question show no vices or whether they show other vices, completely invalidating this line of inquiry. I presume you can go through individual forms to identify the number who didn't reply, but it would have been easier (even without the confounding lack of "other" option) to list "none" as an option to give a % of animals without vices on the raw results shown on the website.

Ultimately, research like this is not only pointless and misleading pseudoscience, it devalues the results of well thought out studies...
Click to expand...

Now don't you hold back for fear of upsetting the OP will you? :mad:

Ripping someone's work apart is not helpful The OP's supervisor will give him/her the help needed to improve it.

I hope you get the info you need, OP and that any issues get ironed out. :)
FDC
 
JFTD said:
I'm sorry but this is really badly set up.

You don't ask for any indicators of experience or confidence level of the handler, which will seriously affect your subjective character analysis. How long you've owned a specific horse isn't, in my opinion enough of an indicator for this (new acquisition vs long owned horse, rarely handled by owner?). Your subjective character analysis is flawed by this since one man's "evil" is another man's "spirited" - an owner who spent their youth training racehorses will have a different definition of "spirited" to the stereotypical middle-aged-woman-who-came-to-riding-later-in-life, despite the fact that both might own a cob today. If you asked for evidence to back up each descriptor, or an explanation of why the owner thought this term was applicable to their animal you might be able to get around this issue, but you don't...

The amount of turnout is not the only relevant management issue here - issues like lone vs small group vs herd turnout will affect behaviour, as will the size of the turnout available, not to mention how much exercise the horse gets (ridden / lunged etc).

Worst of all, your list of vices has no options for "none" or "other" meaning that you have no way of knowing whether the X% who did not reply to this question show no vices or whether they show other vices, completely invalidating this line of inquiry. I presume you can go through individual forms to identify the number who didn't reply, but it would have been easier (even without the confounding lack of "other" option) to list "none" as an option to give a % of animals without vices on the raw results shown on the website.

Ultimately, research like this is not only pointless and misleading pseudoscience, it devalues the results of well thought out studies...
Click to expand...

Ummm yes dont hold back!! I have never done anything like this before so yes I have got some things wrong and that I will change.
There are many factors that could effect the charactor of a horse and yes I totaly agree it is very subjective. If I asked questions on every thing that could alter a horses charactor no one would fill it in. This is only a very small part of my research for my dissertation.
With regards to not knowing who has anwsered a question or not this is all worked out for me with the survey website!
 
Done - 2 horses on the one form but separated answers in the comments section- hope this is ok. I think I have a potentially evil horse (seems to be dominant from growing up in a herd with stallions) but I didn't tick evil - could do it, don't think its that bad yet ha ha. Good luck with your dissertation. These surveys are always hard as like you say no one would fill them in if they were too long. Ignore some and keep on taking the good feedback on board and changing/adding parts to your survey. I didn't even notice registered name, just opted for stable names - show names for mine are bit cringe worthy!!
 
Fany Du Champ said:
Now don't you hold back for fear of upsetting the OP will you? :mad:

Ripping someone's work apart is not helpful The OP's supervisor will give him/her the help needed to improve it.

I hope you get the info you need, OP and that any issues get ironed out. :)
FDC
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But ripping into dissertation work IS helpful. It isn't down to the supervisor to correct or grade everything before doing it, merely give guidance. If the OP presents these results to their supervisor in a few weeks (dissertation meetings are only a few times a term, they aren't frequent) then the OP will end up getting the same criticism as has been given here, and have to redo their results and findings. This isn't productive for them, is a waste of theirs and their supervisors time.
It's all very well and holding back "for fear of upsetting the OP" but for my dissertation I'd prefer people helped and told me now, s0d the feelings ... think how the OP will feel if they failed their dissertation when a simple bit of help could have prevented that??


Martymoo said:
Ummm yes dont hold back!! I have never done anything like this before so yes I have got some things wrong and that I will change.
There are many factors that could effect the charactor of a horse and yes I totaly agree it is very subjective. If I asked questions on every thing that could alter a horses charactor no one would fill it in. This is only a very small part of my research for my dissertation.
Click to expand...

OP may I ask what university you're at? I'm in my 2nd year now, and we're being taught about questionairres, leading questions and qualitative data now - so that we get it right when we do our dissertations next year. As it is, it is all information I knew from 6th form. I just find it hard to believe that you may need to do a questionairre for your dissertation but your university have provided you with no resources on how to create a decent and scientific survey??
 
OP may I ask what university you're at? I'm in my 2nd year now, and we're being taught about questionairres, leading questions and qualitative data now - so that we get it right when we do our dissertations next year. As it is, it is all information I knew from 6th form. I just find it hard to believe that you may need to do a questionairre for your dissertation but your university have provided you with no resources on how to create a decent and scientific survey??[/QUOTE]

As a 4th year science student I can assure you that its a bit more technical than high school! lol

I am currently doing my dissertation and have never undertaken one lesson on carrying out questionnaires. If the OPs course is anything like mine, you are allowed to use any line of enquiry to carry out your research so its likely the OP has elected to carry it out using this technique. The main part of carrying out research is not only the answers that you get from participants but is how you go about it. In my experience at university you are not spoon fed this kind of stuff but you have to work it out yourself. OP- i found test piloting my questionnaire with a university class to obtain feedback before re-draughting it to use the most concise and accurate questions for your project. Also have a read of some questionnaire construction books from your uni library, that way you will be able to ask the most beneficial questions, best of luck
 
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