Tag: horse training

“They can just walk away if they want to.”

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.

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:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5575572/?fbclid=IwAR3Bxq2OJ_JK5u0wcsBwwHAb8YS39zke5fslDSASBUW6PfDXTyG5Y9bhAIs

You can find the link to the pdf here:

https://app.box.com/s/88rakysmtmseh4eha21fx4jdy6ps47fp?fbclid=IwAR3GfcCuZnc0yNigwHKKWw2jhE_MENuZDN1n-xvIk02Lw4F4lSDAFndYcrQ

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 :-

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.

I saw a video today that had me very concerned.

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.

There is always a lot of discussion that regularly does the rounds on social media surrounding the question, is Positive Reinforcement “good” and Negative Reinforcement “bad”? First of all, I would ask, for who? The trainer or the horse/animal?

You are then assured that positive simply means adding and negative simply means removing, that’s all, phew! But that’s not the full story, that’s only half the facts. If you see someone suggesting that Negative Reinforcement is ok or fine or benign, because it’s not bad, it’s just removing something, RED FLAG!

I’ve said this many times in the past, always question and verify information and not take things at face value on social media. We are all learning and at different points in our learning journey and that includes me, so this is not a criticism. This is me trying to help people understand and disseminate information about training and behaviour change. We can all have opinions, but there are also facts and sometimes the absence of certain facts, can change the very nature of the message.

There’s an important difference between Negative and Positive Reinforcement, ie. one involves an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus and one involves an appetitive (pleasant) stimulus. Think about that for a moment, one stimulus feels uncomfortable enough for the horse, physically, mentally or emotionally, to elicit some kind of behaviour change, that we can then reinforce by the removal of it. We might like to think about it as “mild pressure” but it was still strong enough to get some kind of response from the horse to attempt to escape or avoid it. Negative Reinforcement is also called Escape and Avoidance Learning! If it were that “mild and gentle” it would be neutral and the horse wouldn’t change their behaviour in order to escape it.

I also need to emphasise that there is more than the “4 quadrants” involved in learning. This is important to know, because we need to consider not only how horses learn, but also what is being paired (associated) AND how they feel while they are learning.

There is Operant Conditioning and there is also Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning and there are also other ways we learn. Classical Conditioning means that along with the stimulus there is a response, there is an association being made and that can be a feeling, an unpleasant, a neutral or a pleasant feeling or any feeling in between. Via Pavlovian learning, we become associated with these feelings. If you train mainly with Positive Reinforcement, you’ll have a horse who mainly likes you and the training, except in certain contexts. The exception will be in the contexts where you use Negative Reinforcement. If done well and enough of it is done, the Positive Reinforcement can bleed into other interactions, if you are lucky. Horses can be very specific about aversives because they can be very specific about context, they have excellent memories and they have scales in their brain weighing everything up.

We can get a seemingly calm and willing horse, because control may be a primary reinforcer, whether that’s control of the addition of an appetitive or understanding what to do to remove an aversive stimulus. It doesn’t mean they’re having fun, it simply means they understand how to avoid the aversive stimulus. But remember that they had to first feel the discomfort of the aversive stimulus and they also then made the connection with who applied it in the first place, YOU, before they figured out how to remove it. A negative emotional valence does have an impact and can impede learning processes. A perceived threat can disconnect horses from learning (and the trainer) and negative emotions can also lead to low motivation. Makes sense right?!

To sum up, an easy way to remember all this is that we have Skinner (Operant Conditioning) on one shoulder and Pavlov (Classical Conditioning) on the other when we are training.

This subject is about another big, huge, challenging mind shift we go through when we move across from traditional (aversive/ forceful) adversarial style of horse training, handling and interactions. When we change over to a different, more positive, empathetic and co-operative way of being with and training our horses via force free approaches such as Positive Reinforcement training.

When we start giving our horse choices and a voice, we need to start listening to their voice and that is not an easy thing to do. Especially when your whole life, you learnt to ignore and punish that voice and when everyone around you says that it’s dangerous, it’s rude, it’s disrespectful and it’s stupid to listen to what your horse is telling you.

Your horse needs to listen and obey you, right? or maybe?

They are not our slaves, our minions, they are not sentient beings we keep in our back paddock, at our beck and call.

If they need to listen, pay attention and respect what we say, I think that should go both ways, don’t you?

But here is the dilemma.

If my mare bares her teeth, or my gelding swishes his tail and stomps his foot when he doesn’t like something I’ve done, what do I do? What happens now?

There’s a saying in the dog training world “never punish the growl”.

This is the moment where we decide, are we listening or are we only ordering and telling?

This is also the moment where we decide, do we get hurt because we are the boss and we ignore their communication and cause them to escalate? Or do we listen and change our behaviour, and eventually our horses tune down their communication because they are listened to and therefore value and trust us and most importantly, they are safe to be around?

If you choose obedience over a cooperative reciprocal relationship, how does “trust”, or a “bond” or a “relationship” or “consent” develop? It doesn’t, how can it?

Really, what kind of relationship or interaction is not listening, but just ordering? When it all goes the human’s way and the horse has no voice and no choice, they do what the human wants because …… why? They have to? It seems to me that it’s not a healthy or mutual or reciprocal relationship. It seems like we are more like a master, or a dictator, than a friend or partner.

The problem I see when we dictate and don’t listen, demand but don’t empathise, is that we create a lopsided relationship and also, an UNSAFE relationship.

If someone you don’t like or respect, someone who treats you disrespectfully and cruelly, who you didn’t like or caused you to feel unsafe, if they for example, fell down. Would you either step over them because you didn’t want to harm them, or not worry if you stomped on them or gave them the boot?

All behaviour is communication, what do we do with that communication?

What is Shaping in Positive Reinforcement (clicker) training?

“Shaping consists of taking a very small tendency in the right direction and shifting it, one small step at a time, toward an ultimate goal. The laboratory jargon for the process is “successive approximation”.”

(Karen Pryor, Don’t Shoot the Dog)

Karen Pryor developed 10 tips/guidelines for shaping, called The Ten Laws of Shaping. The original ‘laws’ are explained in her book, Don’t Shoot the Dog and she later revised and altered these guidelines to reflect a more up to date understanding of the science and principles of Shaping, including removing varying reinforcement.

Shaping is a a complex skill and takes a great deal of practice, good timing, mechanical skills, excellent observation skills and GENEROSITY, which I’ve mentioned before. The more generous you are are marking and reinforcing the smallest approximation or behaviour the horse offers, the faster the learning and movement towards the goal behaviour. Hold out for bigger and better behaviour and the horse will get confused and frustrated and stop trying or will try other things that they have been reinforced for in the past (reinforcement history)

Following is the 10 principles, paraphrased by Ken Ramirez:-

PRYOR’S MODERN PRINCIPLES OF SHAPING

1. Be prepared before you start

2. Raise criteria in small increments

3. Train one criteria at a time

4. Keep training sessions continuous

5. If it doesn’t work, change the plan

6. Relax old criteria when introducing new criteria

7. Plan ahead

8. Don’t stop a session gratuitously

9. Regress when behaviour deteriorates

10. End on a positive note

Karen Pryor’s updated Modern Principles of Shaping:-

https://clickertraining.com/files/the-modern-principles-of-shaping-SF-edits.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2ZEkKf-rlw1we57nmddDA_xBkOfdW-A6Nx9qfwNwAkksJXEfnE7mWy8Is

If you’re not sure what Shaping looks like, this is a video example of Shaping featuring myself and Grace, this was her first time interacting with a ball:-