Who has heard this statement? I have, many times and it always gives me pause.
I find with equines, that they don’t usually leave to enjoy their alternative food, which I always recommend having nearby when training. There’s a funny saying we use for clicker trained horses, we call them “velcro horses” and there’s lots of reasons for this!
Often if they’ve had any kind of traditional/aversive training or handling, they can be afraid to leave. A horse or pony or donkey walking away from a human would be prevented or punished for a variety of reasons. Swinging their butt to a human as they depart is often labelled “disrespect” and a threat to the human. Or it could simply be a matter of Negative Punishment, they don’t want to leave the immediate and closest food that is on offer. They need to learn they have choices and can look for reinforcers elsewhere, it’s often something they don’t know and it has been drummed into them that they must never walk away from a human.
They may not want to leave if they’ve commenced Positive Reinforcement training and the first thing we do is some basic static training such as teaching “manners” around food. This means we are highly reinforcing the horse’s behaviour of staying with us. Also, when we start each session, we often start with some simple behaviours and all of these are usually with the horse right beside us. Standing next to us becomes the “hot” behaviour, ie. the most recently reinforced behaviour is what the horse is most likely going to offer us.
They also stay because often what we are offering is higher value than their boring hay in a net that they get every day.
There’s also the possibility of contrafreeloading making the food we are offering more valuable, even if we think it is of equal value to the alternative food nearby.
I find that horses stay, but give a lot of hints with their behaviour (latency) and/or body language that signals their displeasure, rather than just walking away. You might see pinned ears, tense face/lips, flared nostrils, whites of the eyes, they might circle you, push on you, take the food roughly from your hand or do a double bite down when they take the food from your hand or the bucket. There are many behaviours and indications of their discomfort that they are shouting at us. In my experience, only super fearful equines tend to walk away and that’s usually if we’ve tipped into R- and they’re trying to remove the aversive stimulus, which could possibly be us!
I find that more experienced R+ trained equines can learn it’s ok to leave, but it is a learnt skill. It’s not really something I want to see the horse resorting to when I’m training, it means I’ve made a pretty big boo boo If I’m teaching people in person and my horse leaves the student and comes to me, it’s a good sign that the criteria is too high and/or RoR is too low, so my horse goes elsewhere to find reinforcement. I love that about them, it’s a pretty clear message with their behaviour. But it is something they need to learn and feel safe to do.
At the end of the day, Positive Reinforcement training should be fun. If we set the bar so low as to think that if we train poorly or muck up, the horse will just walk away, then we really need to train better. If the horse we are training tells us in their behaviour and body language that the training is not fun, it’s best we listen and endeavour to be better trainers.
One of the most popular questions on clicker training groups is – what treats do you use?
What ensues is a barrage of helpful advice about things people feed their horses, which range from Cheerios, peppermints and sugar cubes, to grapes, carrot coins and chamomile flowers, eek!
One thing I always like to highlight to people new to Clicker (Positive Reinforcement) Training, is that we are not treating or rewarding the horse, we are reinforcing behaviour.
“I resist saying the word reward, the word reinforcement means something different than reward, reinforcers strengthen the behaviour they follow.”
(Susan G Friedman Ph.D.)
Something I learnt early and has been reinforced by my own training and by numerous trainers since, is that low value, low sugar/starch foods are best for training horses. Use their regular feed or carrier for their minerals, something with good chew, something species specific like chopped hay or grass pellets and most importantly, be generous!
Due to their prior history, many horses suffer from issues around food; not having enough food causing resource guarding and/or pain from ulcers are just a couple of examples. Therefore, being generous during training is vital, as is offering alternative food of similar value during training, as is training in Protected Contact (behind a barrier) and training in short sessions of only a minute or two when first starting out.
Having low value, low sugar/starch food with good chew, has a number of benefits. We need to feed what is appropriate for them as a species, if we want to have our horse enjoy optimum health and sugar is the enemy of good hooves. Many horses also struggle with weight and metabolic issues and have restrictions on what they can eat, so their regular (safe) feed is always the best option. Good chew means the horse enjoys lots of great mouth frothing pleasure. Chewing is relaxing and pleasurable in itself as well and these type of things contribute to a great training experience for the horse. If you want to offer variety and enrichment through food, take your horse foraging or forage for them and find (safe) weeds, herbs, branches, bark and leaves for them to enjoy instead.
Lastly, whenever there are problems around training, always rule out pain first. After that, look to the 3 basic principles of training; Rate of Reinforcement, Criteria and Timing. These are the things that guide us towards better training and problem solve when there are issues. Horses walking away from training is not an issue with food, it’s an issue with the training, they are finding walking away is their reinforcer of choice, not what we are offering.
“Animals don’t make mistakes, what did we do?”
(Ken Ramirez)
Finally, checking the value of reinforcers is important too. Every animal is an individual, has different tastes and preferences, it is always a “study of one” (Friedman). Try setting up some fun sessions where you offer a variety of horse appropriate feeds and see which your horse prefers, sometimes they can surprise us and may choose lettuce over celery, or hay over pelleted commercial feeds.
I’ll leave you with the image of Milo the cat, who clearly thinks he is a horse, because he loves carrots too!!
Some of you may have heard of the 3 Fs or the Five Freedoms, maybe even some of you have heard of the Five Domains, if you’ve followed my page for a while. The problem with the Five Freedoms is that it focuses on the absence of negative states ie. hunger, thirst, cold, etc. It doesn’t really address whether all the animal’s needs are being met and how they feel about their life. Not just the physical, but mental and emotional as well, more than just covering their basic survival.
I think the Five Domains is a really excellent model to gauge the welfare status of our animals; to assess as best as we are able, if they’re “happy”.
Professor David Mellor: “Keeping social animals with congenial others in spacious, stimulus-rich and safe environments provides them with opportunities to engage in behaviours they may find rewarding, in other words, it provides opportunities for them to experience “positive affective engagement”. In general terms, the associated positive affects are considered likely to include various forms of comfort, pleasure, interest, confidence and a sense of being in control, and, more specifically, may include the following feelings: being energised, engaged, affectionately sociable; rewarded maternally, paternally or as a group when caring for young; and being nurtured, secure or protected, excitedly joyful, and/or sexually gratified.”
If you’d like to read more about Professor Mellor’s Five Domains, you can follow the link here:
I took on the care of 2 neglected donkeys Dorothy and Seymour, in January 2020. It’s now October, 2020.
They both had a number of serious health issues that needed tending, some have been resolved in the short term and some are long term projects. They both seem to have learnt not to trust people and Seymour in particular appears very frightened by people. They were difficult to catch, halter, lead etc and particularly difficult to trim; Seymour had not been trimmed in a very long time.
When I first got them, my approach was influenced by what I’ve learnt from amazing trainers/mentors like Ken Ramirez and Susan Friedman, from what I’ve read and studied and my understanding of the science of behaviour change.
I started out my relationship with them by being someone quietly predictable, consistent and that brought good things like nice grass hay. If they were scared and stood back that was fine, they still got nice hay, if they got a fright and ran away because of something I did by accident, that’s ok, they still got nice hay. Just for fun, I also paired my arrival every time, with a jolly shout out “hello!”. It didn’t take long for them to walk up when I arrived, then trot up and eventually be waiting at the gate for my arrival. When they started jostling each other to be the closest and I had trouble getting in the gate, then I knew real change was happening. That’s also when I went into Protected Contact for both our safety.
This is simply Classical Conditioning at work. There would have been an Operant component as well, as indicated by their change in behaviour, ie. they acted on their environment. But I focused on what I was doing and allowed them to just do what they felt most comfortable doing. I paired myself with things the donkeys liked, with no strings attached whatsoever (contingency). It doesn’t matter what they did, they didn’t have to do anything and even if they were scared and ran away, it didn’t matter. I did the same thing every day, often twice a day and my patience and consistency paid off with them learning to trust that I am reliable and to eventually learn to trust me.
They are both very different donkeys. My heart aches sometimes when I look at Seymour and understand what a super sensitive soul he is. But he is doing great! I am always focusing on our relationship, by being aware of Classical Conditioning and what I am pairing myself with and the emotional response that goes along with that. His training process is very much about a few steps forward and a step back now and again.
Seymour is making great progress with his hoof lifting training. He has started reliably lifting his right hoof and I’m shaping towards doing some rasping of it as well. Best of all, he lifts it so gently and as light as a feather – you can see the air between my hand and his hoof.
I took some hand held video, so you can see up close that I’m barely touching him, I’m waiting for his start button, cueing the hoof, not pulling or squeezing – he wouldn’t tolerate that at all and would kick out.
To think big burly farriers couldn’t rope him and get to his hooves and I’ve taught him to do it himself! AND most important of all, he feels emotionally safe and comfortable. I’m building the positive reinforcement history and the relationship and what is helping us make progress is ensuring I listen to him.
The concept of training in Protected Contact (PC) is unique to Positive Reinforcement (R+) Training. PC means training with a barrier between the trainer and the animal and originated in zoos and wildlife parks, where a keeper’s safety was paramount.
It’s essential for beginner horses and humans, but also for more experienced trainers with nervous or fearful horses. Never underestimate the psychological power of a barrier between human and animal. There is a subtle difference that allows the trainer and horse to relax and feel relatively safe. I’ve talked previously about horses transitioning to R+ and PC is an important first step. Horses are very environment and context specific, so PC is the best way to say to them, “we are starting fresh and new”!! PC is the best way for them to come to the training open and with fewer prior unhappy associations and because we all know how horses can be curious and different in a new environment or context. If we weren’t in PC, old memories and associations are going to be at the forefront of the equines’ mind, such as not being able to walk away, not being able to behave in a way that gives us information about our training. This is because horses, ponies and donkeys are often punished for ‘speaking’ and being honest with us. Look away and they are corrected, pin their ears and they get told off, try to walk away and that is the ultimate act of “disrespect” and punishment will follow swiftly.
One of the wonderful things about R+ training is putting our ego aside, because traditional training is often very much about getting up close and hands on with our horses. Muscle memory and survival instincts are powerful and human or horse can often react defensively without thought when not in PC. So it can feel a bit strange and for many it can be hard to step back and give the animal space. But recognising when we need to use PC, whether for our own or our horse’s benefit, is very important.
When we accept that our training is not about controlling, micro managing or intimidating our animal, OR showing what an amazing uber trainer we are, we can see the power of the learning that is happening from a distance. We can see the animal (hopefully) enjoying pleasurable consequences from their own behaviour. The trainer has the time and space to observe their animal, think, re-organise and if needed, step back.
Equally important is having an alternative food source right there, while the horse is in PC, so they can have something to munch in the breaks and more importantly, have some level of choice and don’t feel coerced to stay for the only available food source. This is not a guarantee though and I will be writing on this in the future. Never assume the animal KNOWS they can walk away, because often they don’t know and will not, based on their prior history with humans.
Watch all the ways we can train in Protected Contact here :-
I’ve been tossing this subject around in my head for quite a while now. It’s a delicate subject, as there’s a fine line between a couple of different factors. One, is trying to avoid blame and shame, because I really don’t find that helpful or productive and we simply don’t know what we don’t know, I was there once myself. Two, is trying not to sound superior or ‘holier than thou’ (been accused of that a few times) or nasty, if I suggest that people who loved their animals were actually mistreating them from the animal’s perspective and from my own force free ethos. I don’t think that way, to be nasty, because what has happened in the past can’t be changed, I’m thinking about it from the equine’s point of view. Thirdly, not adequately describing and representing both sides of this story and of course, people are going to think what they think, I can’t control that. Worse, they will feel attacked, which is not my aim. I want to expose people to a different perspective, the other ‘side of the coin’, as it were and let them sit with it and really think about it, because I know most people really love their animals and want the best for them.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot more recently, as I’ve had quite a few instances where I’ve been asked questions about my horses and particularly my donkeys. Just recently I had another similar question about my newest mini donkey. Vets, visitors and people on fb, want to know if they are rescued and/or have been mistreated. Although seemingly simple questions, the answer is really complex and depends mostly on your perspective.
I feel the answer depends on how you view and train your equines. What ‘side of the coin’ training wise, you reside on.
In the ‘traditional’ horse and donkey world, Negative Reinforcement (R-) (pressure/release), restraint, flooding and Punishment is commonly used. More often than not, unwanted or problematic behaviour is blamed on the equine, that’s the culture, that’s what ‘everyone’ will assure you. Conveniently, it also lets the human off the hook as to the cause of unwanted behaviour, but it also makes it hard to find solutions. Worse, many people don’t understand how to use R- effectively and there can be some hit and miss approaches to handling and training. Miraculously the equines seem to figure it out some of the time. Sadly, there are also equines who are unfortunate enough to end up in homes where there is little knowledge, skill, resources or time to do much or any handling or training of their animals.
When an equine has little to no handling, training or education, it’s a recipe for disaster, they have not been set up to succeed in their life. Unfortunately this happens a lot. To multiply the complexity of the problem, if they have been frightened or hurt or both, through poor or unskilled handling, it makes matters even worse. There are many many equines out there that cannot be caught, handled and their basic health care ends up being neglected. You may be surprised how many of them are out there, because of course, no one wants to talk about these animals.
Often there are equines that’ve either never been trained properly or at all, or been really frightened or hurt by people, by accident or deliberately. Oftentimes they haven’t been trained to feel ok about what we ask them to do, just forced. If they have experienced what I would describe as routine distress by ‘traditional’ handling, training and lifestyle, what some may call “well handled” or “well broke”, the question is, have they been mistreated and need rescuing? Is it still mistreatment, if a person doesn’t know or understand the effect their treatment has on the equine? This is what I see happening with a lot of traditional horse and donkey people. They don’t know what they don’t know and some may care, and some may not and some may become very defensive. I’ve posted about Cognitive Dissonance before, as it is a common reaction.
I’m not saying all equines are traumatised by traditional training, scarred for their life and need rehabilitation. It is going to depend on the unique individual. It is not black and white and there will be degrees of discomfort, worry, fear, anxiety, shutting down, etc that the equine experiences. Some will just naturally be easier going, for want of a better word, than others, they are more optimistic. Some will experience some skilled R- training that will make things clearer for them, not fun, but clearer. It’s always going to be a “study of one”, based on each unique individual and their experiences.
But for those equines that fare less well with their treatment, but subsequently end up with a trainer such as myself, how we look at whether they’ve been “mistreated” and subsequently “rescued”, depends on your beliefs regarding handling and training, as I’ve said. If you’re happy with a compliant obedient animal and if they baulk, you are happy to follow up with some “encouragement” in the form of “pressure”, force, coercion, or punishment, you’re going to look at things differently than I do. Also, people think it’s the equine’s job or their responsibility to do as we ask, uncomplainingly, that they are here to please us.
This is the crux of the problem.
What also happens, and I’ve written about this before, is that even a seemingly compliant and willing equine in the traditional sense, goes through a physical and emotional transition, when we start listening and giving them choices and most importantly, stop forcing them. When we listen to their voice, their behaviour, we open a flood gate of emotion and behaviour. If the force free training is good, horses tend to pass through this phase fairly quickly, but for donkeys, it can be quite drawn out, as they are less trusting and what I like to call “deep thinkers”, because they are much more emotional than horses. Everything takes so much longer with a donkey.
What we start to see in their behaviour is how they truly feel and think about things. It’s a huge wake up call!!
Standing still for fly repellent in the “traditional world, is actually them shutting down and withdrawing. But when given choice, at true liberty, we see how truly frightened they are and given the opportunity, they will run away. This is because they may not have been trained to feel ok about these things, they were simply restrained while things were done to them, so they withdrew into their heads and blocked off their emotions.
Most likely a traditional horse or donkey person may not be able to differentiate between super fearful behaviour or shut down/frozen behaviour. Or worse, due to their conditioning and the general culture in the equestrian and donkey community, they laugh it off. The anger and arguments over the body language posters I’ve shared in the past, are testament to this! It may simply look like acceptance or compliance to them. I’m sure there are many people who have not even thought about their equines in this way and their behaviour. They don’t know what they don’t know.
So many people are not familiar with these concepts, so they can be quite alien and confronting. No one wants to admit they may have done things to their horse or donkey that caused long term issues for them. No one wants to admit that they may have mistreated their animal purely because they didn’t know what they didn’t know and that’s what everyone did.
We can’t blame people for not knowing what they didn’t know.
There are so many horses and donkeys out there, submitting, compliant, uncomplaining, dissociated with their faraway look or low head and “sleepy” expression.
Therefore, if they are given the opportunity of a new life, with fun, with food, with choices and control, with a voice and with joy in it, have they been rescued from mistreatment?
Have you ever made a definitive statement about your horse?
“My horse is not food motivated”
“My horse doesn’t like being hosed down”
“I have a spooky/aggressive/dominant/submissive horse”
I’ve talked previously about how labelling our animals is not helpful in our training or how to solve problems.
But any one of us can fall into this trap, because it seems to be so ingrained in equestrianism and society as a whole. I’ve caught myself doing it with my horses and donkeys. The important thing is that I caught myself and I changed my thinking and my behaviour and then the animal’s behaviour changed as well.
Environment drives behaviour!
A couple of examples.
Two of my three horses love having a hose down on hot days at liberty in the paddock. My third horse Grace would scurry away and always stood back while the other two horses jostled for the best position. I always assumed that Grace just didn’t like to be hosed. She was older, maybe the cold water was hard on her? But one day I separated the horses and thought I’d offer Grace a hose. The other horses were well away from her and behind a barrier and she very willingly came up and enjoyed a thorough hosing. I felt so bad that all those times she stood back, she wanted to be hosed, but just didn’t feel safe! I know it seems obvious now, but at the time, I was sure she just didn’t like being hosed.
I have a donkey and he came from a ‘traditional’ home (they all did!) and has not been hand fed or bucket fed. As a result, he showed very little interest in me or in food in general when he arrived, apart from his hay. He would back up to me or sidle across for scratches, that’s obviously a learned (positively reinforced) behaviour, but he didn’t seem particularly overjoyed with my scratches. I have a routine and give all my equines a hard feed with their minerals and salt at the end of the day, but the new donkey had been quite uninterested in his dinner and often walked away from it and I have to rescue it before my other mini hoovers it up.
One day I decided to separate the two mini donkeys for their hard feed and guess what happened? As you can see in the picture, the new little mini chomped down on his dinner! He didn’t quite finish it all, but came very close. Clearly, like Grace, he felt more comfortable without competition for that resource.
It also made me think about his training and how I can change things and help him feel safer and perhaps I’ll get a better response from him and more participation. It’s easy to think that I’m a good enough trainer that I don’t need to train in Protected Contact (behind a barrier), but perhaps for this little guy, I need to do it FOR HIM to feel safe, not because I think I can do without it.
Not getting the behaviour you desire? Change something in the environment and see what happens.
Next time you are stuck in your training or make a definitive statement about your horse or give them a label, pause for a moment and think, how you can get creative and change something and see if you get a different result.
As we all know, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.
Now that Natural Horsemanship/ pressure & release/ Negative Reinforcement trainers understand about the different nervous systems, the Flight/Fight and Rest/Digest states and the accompanying body language, they like to talk about it a lot, particularly the ‘lick and chew’.
What I find perplexing and I don’t seem to find answers in their explanations, is why?
Why the heck scare the bejesus out of a horse, so they are scared enough that their saliva dries in their mouth, their heart and lungs are pumping full steam ready to run and then celebrate when you see the physical manifestations of their body coming down from this horrible state of fear. Why celebrate the runny nose from tears, the neck shake, the sigh, the flared nostrils and triangular eye becoming normal again and the yawning and yes, the lick and chew. The holy grail of Natural Horsemanship it seems nowadays, is the lick and chew, apparently because it means they’re *now* relaxed.
Why oh why do we need to scare horses first so they can then be “relaxed”.
I would think that anyone who had such a fright, that they were dry mouthed and heart pumping in their throat, probably doesn’t feel relaxed afterwards. Shaky, relieved, in shock maybe, but not relaxed.
Imagine if we suggested that a classroom of children needed to be scared so hard that their mouths went dry, their eyes were wide and their hearts were pounding in their chest and then we let them calm down and suggested they were “relaxed” and could learn now.
Imagine that?
Yet that is what is being suggested for horses.
Worse, people believe it and do it to their horses.
Stop scaring your horses, there’s no need.
Horses know how to be relaxed.
If you want zen with your horses, give them a horse friend and a hay net and then watch.
I read a great article a while back about dog owners requesting that people ignore their dog. This can equally apply to our equines.
The article went on to say that dogs are sentient beings and they have likes and dislikes and we shouldn’t expect them to be ok with being physically accosted by strangers. The same goes for equines.
People love to pat horses and donkeys. The first thing most people do is to reach out a hand and stroke their face. Imagine if a stranger walked up to you and stroked your face? Imagine even someone you know, doing it without asking?
Next time you want to pat a horse or donkey, even if it’s your own, stop and think for a moment.
Can you find out where they really like to be touched? Can you respect the fact that they may not like being touched, just now, or not at all?
Could you train them to like being touched somewhere less invasive, such as their neck, shoulder or wither?
Could you find their favourite itchy spots, so both of you get something enjoyable out of it?
If I’m teaching people in person and my horse leaves the student and comes to me, it’s a good sign that the criteria is too high and/or RoR is too low, so my horse goes elsewhere to find reinforcement. I love that about them, it’s a pretty clear message with their behaviour. But it is something they need to learn and feel safe to do.
