Musings of a horse behaviourist

Connecting with horses

2012-01-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

When people talk about having a connection with their horse, where the communication between horse and person is invisible or once you know what they’re doing, nearly invisible I’m reminded of the Clever Hans story.

For those who don’t know Clever Hans could count and do maths, and counted out the answer by pawing the ground. But actually he couldn’t. His skills were scrutinised and it was found that if his owner didn’t know the answer, he didn’t either. What he could do well was read his person! He would watch his owner, Herr von Osten, and paw the ground when he saw a very, very slight downward movement of von Osten’s head, and then stop when von Osten very, very slightly raised it again when the ‘right answer’ was reached. Initially von Osten denied helping his horse in these puzzles, and quite possibly he was not aware that he was helping his horse. It took a very observant student to notice what was actually happening. Horses are amazing observers and I think that is part of the ‘pure connection’ that people talk about – horses are ready to receive information.

I think that connection is based on three things: attraction, empathy (at least from the human) and communication. We are intrinsically attracted to our horses, for one reason or another. We are ready to communicate with them, but there has to be a ‘how to’. That ‘how to’ is empathy – to feel for – and communication, and what we communicate to the horse will affect how attracted he or she is to us.

With attraction and empathy our channels of communication with the horse are set to ‘ready to receive’. I think all people who are very good with horses are ‘ready to receive’. And once ready to receive, we can then be ‘ready to respond accordingly’. That’s where timing our communication signals comes in – sending the message when the recipient is ready to receive. I think that in good horsemanship it’s working both ways, if we send messages when the horse indicates through his or her behaviour that he or she is ready to receive, then the horse learns when and how to open lines of communication with us.

I also think that communication is learned, that we co-create a language with our horse. I do get a bit behaviouristic about this. Having my communications received and responded to in the manner that I wanted is reinforcing – if I signal ‘please do this’ to my horse, and she does so in response, then I’ve got what I wanted and am more likely to do it again in future. I may also learn to make this request when my mare is attentive to me, so she learns how to communicate to me to cue her to do something that invariable ends up in reinforcement for her and so we both become more sensitive or ‘connected’ to each other.

Scientific definition
Reinforcement: A consequence of behaviour that makes the individual more likely to perform that specific behaviour under the same circumstances in future.

In my experience horses tend to ask for opportunities to get positive reinforcement more often than they do negative reinforcement unless they are stuck in a pickle as it were. Positive reinforcement is more pleasing to the horse, and a pleased horse is more pleasing to me. I don’t like my horse to get in pickle, so mostly she’ll be getting positive reinforcement – for her those things are food when she’s in the mood (that’s a lot!), scratches when she’s in the mood (“but there’s only so much scratching I like Jen”), and a canter up the common when she’s in the mood (quite often these days as she’s leaner and meaner). This all means that I don’t think food, when used most deliberately, gets in the way of greater sensitivity or connection to each other, but it will if there is no understanding about how it is given – from either party, horse or person!

Scientific definition
Positive reinforcement: To ADD a rewarding stimulus to the individual as a consequence of behaviour increasing the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in future.
Negative reinforcement: To REMOVE an aversive stimulus from the individual as a consequence of behaviour also increasing the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in future.

If a person wishes to become a horseperson who has a connection with his or her horses, that person needs to love horses, needs to understand what their horse’s behaviour means to their horse, and needs to learn how the laws of learning work and are applied (not necessarily in academic language, it’s practical application that’s at stake). Then they may become a horseperson and realise that the state of being for a horseperson is lifelong personal development. So yes, like Ghandi they may be different today as the result of what they learned yesterday – I know I am.

Giving up

2011-06-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

Learned helplessness is a debilitated state where the horse has learned that it has no control over the outcomes of its behaviour. It is related to the use of aversive stimulation such as inescapeable restraint coupled with painful or otherwise adverse treatment and is a welfare concern(1). Horses that have no prior experience of successful escape or avoidance in other adverse conditions are more likley to be susceptible(2) .

Scientists called Seligman and Maier (3) took three groups of domestic dogs raised in a lab and tested their ability to escape after receiving one of three treatments. Two groups were put in a harness from which they could not escape - the first group experienced electric shock but learned they could stop it by pushing a panel with their nose. The second group received the shock but could not turn it off. The third group of dogs had no such treatments and were used as controls. When tested on their ability to escape electric shock by jumping a hurdle, the dogs in the first and third groups succeeded but the second group who were subjected to inescapable shock did not succeed. The conclusion was that the dogs that failed to escape had become learned helpless (3).

A possible way of causing learned helplessness in horses is to use the somewhat controversial Imprint Training. This comprises restraining a foal on the ground and exposing it to a variety of aversive stimuli, such as human fingers inserted up the nostrils and other orifices until it no longer struggles against the restraint. It was developed to make foals more tractable to veterinary treatment and husbandry (4).

Newborns have had limited time in which to solve any problems at all, and the procedure involves exposure to adverse stimuli until they stop trying to escape. There is some possible evidence of a learned helpless effect. Compared to controls, imprint trained foals were more easily handled (5,6,7) suggesting that either they had learned they couldn't escape from human handling or had habituated to human intervention. But as the foals got older and had no further imprint training, the differences reduced with imprint trained foals becoming harder to handle (5) with the effects of imprint training disappearing by six-months-of-age (6).

If imprint training did produce learned helplessness effects they clearly did not last. Maier and Seligman (2) also discuss more temporary effects such as mongrel dogs that were not lab reared and only subjects to one session of inescapable shock that were still able to successfully escape over the hurdle when tested.

The take home message. It's not advisable to subject animals to any situation in which they will be frightened and unable to escape!

1. Hall, C. Goodwin, D. Heleski, C. Randle, H. and Waren, N. 2008 Is there evidence of learned helplessness in horses? Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 11(3): 246-266
2. Maier, S. and Seligman, M. 1976 Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 105(1): 3-46
3. Seligman, M. and Maier, S. 1967 cited in (2).
4. Miller, R. and Close, P. 1991 Imprint training of the newborn foal. Western horseman, Colorado Springs
5. Williams, J. Friend, T. Collins, M. Toscano, M. Sisto-Burt, A. Nevill, C. 2002 The effects of early training sessions on the reactions of foals at 1, 2 and 3 months of age. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 77: 105-114
6. Williams, J. Friend, T. Collins, M. Toscano, M. Sisto-Burt, A. Nevill, C. 2003 Effects of imprint training procedure at birth on the reactions of foals at age six-months. Equine Veterinary Journal 35(2): 127-132
7. Simpson, B. 2004 Neonatal foal handling. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 78: 303-317

Emergency positive reinforcement

2010-12-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm very soft regarding my own horses, the slightest hint of ailment or injury and I'm worried!
This morning was no exception when I arrived in Penny and Khatani's cattle court to pick out feet, feed, turnout and muck out.

Got to Khatani's left hind and it was swollen and sore with what looked like a gash down the front of his hock! My partner mentioned something about him lifting that leg higher than normal when he did his weekly antibac hoof soak last night. Rang the vet and while I was waiting for them to call back with a visit time, I set about working with Khatani to keep still enough for me, and potentially the vet, to examine it without risk of any human injury (Khatani becomes very emotional if he thinks something will hurt!). At this point I should probably make a note to self that it's good to clean up the horrific looking would before calling the vet - it clearly wasn't fresh as all blood was dry...

So how to keep an emotional TB still while I examine and clean a wound? Positive reinforcement for the 'incompatible with kicking human behaviour aka keeping still'. Positive reinforcement for this job was to be horse and pony cubes, nice enough to keep still for, not as thrilling as carrots which can create self control problems in Khatani when he's very upset. Decided to mark positive reinforcement with a clicker as it, unlike my voice, can't convey my own emotion (arrgh my poor horse is hurt bad!!!!).

Clicked and treated K for keeping still while I first stroked his left rump, secondly ran my hand down his thigh, thirdly ran gamgee down his thigh, fourthly ran saline dripping gamgee down thigh, fifthly ran saline dripping gamgee over what actually happened to be a graze!. Sixthly, while I palpated the hock and surrounding limb to find softer and less painful swelling than I'd thought!

Not bad for an impromptu training session and hopefully a positive first aid experience for the emotional TB. Now just to keep an eye on that leg!

Ethical equitation?

2010-12-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

This is a subject that is frequently on my mind. Ethics are not something that can be forced onto others, they are a personal matter derived from what you know, think and feel about a matter. Despite this, many people promote more 'ethical' ways of doing things in many aspects of life, not just horsemanship. I play quite a substantial part in promoting more ethical ways of keeping and interacting with horses so I'm as guilty of the implied charges as anyone. Realising this brings me to thinking about what ethics are, and where they stand in relation to what we do with our horses.

We who care about horses are likely to consider the effects of our behaviour on them. And what we understand of our impact on them shapes our future behaviour towards them. This is so for many people who interact with horses, yet on any given day, at any given location where there are horses, we can observe a variety of human behaviour towards horses with varying impacts on them. We might not think that all of these impacts are good for horses, despite good human intentions.

Whenever we find that we might be lacking in information, there is a growing body of scientifically verified information availible on the effects of human behaviour towards horses that we can draw on. I'm not saying that science knows all and that it should be followed to the letter. What I am saying is that many aspects of human behaviour towards horses has been examined via rigorous, objective scientific method. As such, such information has a solid foundation in fact, sometimes confirming what tradition has always told us, sometimes blowing tradition out of the water. Being open to scientifically verified information can be most humbling as well as most enlightening and empowering. I find it most useful when acknowledged, and where appropriate, drawn into daily practise. Take 'equitation science' as an example. Some scientists have identified what many already know regarding the education of the riding horse. This knowledge has been distilled down into key points that some have pointed out to me as being highly mechanical, removing the 'feel' from horsemanship. I think that they can be treated as highly mechanical and appear to remove the sensitivity with which a trainer might bring to thier interaction with a horse. But I also think that the converse is true, correct training, applied with empathy for the horse will also have those key points of training held inherently within. Science's downfall is often the manner in which information is relayed, highly distilled in order to convey facts, losing feel for its subject, the horse. I think that most often this is only something lost in translation, not absent from the beginning, feel for the horse is what motivates equitation scientists in the first place.

So scientific information can tell us about how well our interactions and interventions with horses facilitate the horse's ability to be at his best. And in turn, this information can help us to decide what is ethical.

Perhaps a 'welfarist' approach might be taken. Pragmatically coming to the conclusion that you do indeed use your horse to your own end, but make a conscious decision to cause as little negative impact on your horse's welfare in the process. This, startling as it may be, does not preclude causing a little harm necesary for you to reach your own end e.g. riding using a bit when there is the alternative not to (there is a little documented evidence to suggest that bits are not good for horses and that they are happier ridden without one).

At the other end of the scale you might take more of a 'rightsist' approach, because you love to interact with the horse, but must only do so in a manner that actively enhances your horse's experience of life. After all, your horse not only has the right to be free from negative welfare, he also has the right to enjoy life. Providing your horse with all his needs, all of the time, and only engaging in interactions that bring mutual enjoyment such scratching an itch.

Perhaps instead you find yourself on a 'middle road'. An approach somewhere between the two.

No matter which of the above stances the 'ethical horseman' takes, all will consider themselves 'ethical', even though ideals and behaviour towards horses will vary greatly. Perhaps the most heated debates I've either been in, or have encountered are between people who behave differently towards horses, but who all believe they hold the moral high ground and cannot accept that the other might. Different people have different high ground!

Talk about ethics is often talk about welfare, and talk about welfare is often talk about ethics! Science might add to information that affects one's ethical stance, but it does not define the moral high ground. It is for each of you to be as informed about what horses need and like as you can be, and then find your own high ground.

Offering behaviour

2010-06-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

Using the clicker as a training tool is something I've really enjoyed doing for quite a number of years now, and sometimes it's hard for me to understand why anyone wouldn't want to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oy7eBOFaE4

There are differences between using the clicker to train horses and using more traditional or natural horsemanship methods. With the latter we tend to stimulate the horse to perform some behaviour via means of our own actions. We prefer the horse not to do behaviour unless prompted by us. Unwanted behaviour is normally corrected, or more accurately termed, 'punished' by a swift verbal or tactile reprimand.

With the clicker things are different. We, as the trainer, are more passive and instead look for the horse to offer behaviour that we can capture. By 'capture', I mean signal to the horse in the instant that the specific behaviour is being performed that their behaviour has earned them a reward, usually a food titbit. The signal is usually the clicker noise, but it could be another easily perceptible signal, that has previously been associated with the titbit. The horse learns that that click announces food, and any behaviour that the horse can do that makes that happen is normally repeated fairly frequently!

When unwanted behaviour occurs during clicker training it does not normally meet any sort of interuption - unless lives really are at risk! Instead the unwanted behaviour fails to get any sort of reinforcement. Behaviour that fails to earn clicks and treats normally dissappears from the repertoire, but if the worst comes to the worst, incompatible behaviour can be trained to take the place of unwanted behaviour.

My latest example is pawing with the forelimb. This behaviour is normally rooted in frustration at not getting food when the horse expects that it should - after all, horses paw snow covered ground to get the grass beneath, it's a natural instinctive response to frustration. It may also occur when the horse is frustrated in other ways and can't solve the problem in the manner it would like. In this case pawing isn't really appropriate because it won't work to solve the problem. But nevertheless, it is an instinctive, unconscious response to feeling highly frustrated and relatively helpless - but not helpless enough to become shut down and inhibited. In this context, such inappropriate behaviour is referred to as 'displacement' behaviour.

One of my customer's horse's expressed pawing behaviour during training with a more traditional trainer. The behaviour was reprimanded either by a verbal correction, or by jolting the lead rope attached to the horse. The behaviour didn't decrease in frequency until the horse was performing other, incompatible behaviour under direction of the trainer, and therefore was not effectively punished as these reprimands failed to completely inhibit pawing.

This session compared to a more recent session with clicker training was interesting. The session with the traditional trainer had seemed to set a precedent for increased pawing behaviour, something we'd not been seeing recently in our sessions, but it by the most recent session it had made quite the comeback! So, as we were clicker trianing we ignored it - while taking care not to stand in front of the offending forelimbs! Instead we shaped standing still behaviour, in order to set up for new tasks inspired by our traditional trainer. Pawing no longer got any pay off, not even attention - it must be remembered that looking at and speaking to horses when reprimanding them does constitue attention, even if it's not exactly the quality the horse might want. Standing still did get a pay off, and so the horse became confident in performing this behaviour and able to offer further behaviour for us to capture.

So what's the moral of this story? To get into clicker training it may be necesary to let go of ideas about inhibiting behaviour, and to accept that horses can offer behaviour and that we can increase the likliehood of certain offered behaviour by clicking and treating it, and lose behaviour we don't want by ignoring it, and training incompatible behaviour in its place.

Want to know more about clicker training? Why not see my website for a presentation near you?
www.jenninellist.co.uk

Beware the sharp, pointy, long and yellow teeth!

2010-03-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

Aggression is a symtom of fear. Just think about what it takes for you to behave aggressively, such as to feel road rage or snap at a loved one. Aggression involves a lot of emotional energy, normally accompanied by a 'bad hair day'. Behaving aggressively on a regular basis is hard work and emotionally draining. The same is true for our horses and other animals, yet often we counter aggression with more aggression - the horse threatens to bite or kick, and we yell at or hit it! This is fairly natural. We got scared by the horse, and behaved aggressively back. It's true, aggression really is a symptom of fear!

But while I think we can all be forgiven for retaliating in the heat of the moment, we must be careful not to get locked into a downwards spiral of aggressive behaviour. Just think about what you learned last time you were frightened by a horse, and at very least, were tempted to retaliate with further aggression. It's possible that you were scared, and now you are aware of the potential for dangerous, aggressive behaviour from your horse in future. You might have found that this affected your behaviour towards your horse in similar circumstances - maybe you tied your horse up shorter, or were ready to deliver a reprimand in order to prevent being bitten, something we're often taught to do. You are simply more aware of the potential danger, and prepared to defend yourself.

Now think about it from the horse's perspective. The horse bit or kicked because he was scared. Scared of what might be unclear, but it is most probable that he was scared. He then recieved what he considered to be aggresive behaviour in return. This taught him he was right to be afraid, and this has an impact on his future behaviour. If a horse anticipates he may be frightened, then he is already priming himself to use defensive behaviour, including aggression. If he does behave aggressively again, and get the same result, retaliation from a scared human, then future aggression from both parties becomes more likely, unless there is intervention.

It's important to realise just what it is that is setting the horse up for aggression. One way to set horses up for aggression is to put them in situations where there is competition between horses for vital resources such as food, water, dry places to stand, shelter from the elements, and so on. This is one way to ensure a horse experiences mutiple 'bad hair days'. When such resources are in short supply, horses feel more agitated. And when they have repeated aggressive encounters with their herd mates, they feel worse. Feeling uncomfortable like this makes small niggles, such as accidentally jerking the grith when tightening it, into major discomforts that may trigger aggression. Horses may also become more aggressive towards people around their feed bowls, fearing that their people have now taken a liking to horse food and wish to take it from them. Fear of loss is as bad as fear of pain; both are highly averisve to horses.

It is fear of loss that may teach a horse to bite over food. It's a bit of a no-brainer, but hungry horses find being fed a highly pleasurable, and indeed, exciting event. But it's also an unpredictable situation from the horses's perspective. Humans can walk off without notice, taking the food with them, they often do when carrying food past a horse, whether the food is in a bucket or in a pocket. Horses can see this as totally devastating, and they are provoked to solve the 'moving food puzzle'. Horses have little natural preparation for moving food; only when they are a foal does their food actually have legs! Foals resolve the moving food problem by cutting in front of mum, forcing her to 'stand and deliver'. When people walk off with food, horses repeat the same action they used on mum. They catch up, over take, and park themselves in front of us. And if they are very tense, they can take this one step further. When faced with sudden and unexpected removal of something valued so highly, they are triggered to intense fear and frustration, and more extreme aggression is the result.

So what's the solution? Well, it does depend on the horse and the exact situation. But, aggressive horses need to be managed so that they have a happier lifestyle. This way they'll have fewer bad hair days and be less sensitive to aversive situations. But it is also important to remove the source of fear, by identifying it, and then taking action to either avoid it or desensitise and counter condition the horse to it. The aim of desensitisation is to help the horse learn that the perceived threat is nothing to be feared. Counter conditioning teaches the horse to actually enjoy the previously frightening event. In the meantime, it is our responsibility to handle an aggressive horse as calmly as we can possibly muster.

Human benefit horse benefit

2009-12-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

I love it when both humans and their horses get to benefit from 'behaviour modification'. Fixing a problem so that both the owner and the horse feel rewarded is one of the most positive feelings I can ever get from my work.

One of the requirements for this is empathy towards the owner and horse from my part, and empathy towards the horse from his or her owner. Horses are at our mercy, and to help them our empathy must be as accurate as possible. That includes ditching human-centred values so the process can be pretty tough as simply recognising one is being human and not horse-centred can be hard enough! Knowing this warns me that I must not judge others before I've had a chance to walk in their shoes.

With empathy for horseness in mind, there are pretty much two ways of getting a horse to stop behaving in a way that hinders its human in trying to attain their specific goals with it. Either punish the horse for the 'misbehaviour'. Or alternately teach the horse that another, incompatible behaviour is more rewarding. The specific example I have in mind is in the retraining or behaviour modification of the horse that hates to be clipped.

For that horse, clipping is aversive, why else would the horse try to evade it? Clipping it successfully, i.e. the horse stands still enough for the duration, can be achieved by teaching the horse that moving away results in application of a pressure halter to stop it. This technique seems to be pretty popular according to the magazines. Responses to the pressure halter need to be trained in advance of using the clippers for maximum effect. Essentially the horse learns that it cannot escape the clippers because of the way the pressure halter prevents it from doing so. The horse may then either start to get used to the clippers. This is more likely if they are introduced in incremental stages and do not hurt, and the horse given respite for standing still for short periods. Or the horse may simply become even more fearful of them. This is exacerbated by the fact that the horse cannot use the option of 'flight' to reduce its fear, and this is especially likely if the horse was very scared of clippers rather just than slightly bothered, and if the increments in which the clippers are introduced were too large for that horse. This is the risk whenever response prevention techniques, i.e. trapping the horse, are used.

There is of course an alternative means of helping a horse get over its fear of clippers and increasing the calmer, still behaviour required to get the job done. Teaching the horse to associate the clippers with rewards such as food titbits can make it more likely to see clippers as something positive rather than something that has to be tolerated, or worse - endured because the horse is helpless to do otherwise. A horse might be set up to learn that if he sniffs at the switched off clippers, food treats will suddenly be made available, and then the task can be made gradually more difficult by turning the clippers on. Alternatively the noise of them played quietly in the background could become a signal for a bucket feed. He could also learn that when stroked with the hand, and then with the clippers (turned off of course to begin with) that food is then presented. Standing still to wait for the reward will then come more naturally and willingly. All this can be achieved without having to actually restrain the horse at all.

When the horse learns to stand to be clipped in the first manner, he has no choice, and probably won't perceive any reward in being clipped, just that if he keeps still the clippers will stop eventually. The human may however be quite satisfied. But when the horse is trained via the latter reward-based method, he gets rewarded as well as his human, so now who benefits?

Patience and Confidence

2009-11-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

These are two qualities that most horse people would argue are important in a horse trainer, but where do they come from?

I think they are partly due to the expectations the trainer has of the horse's response to his or her methods.

Knowing my expectations will be met makes me more patient. Keeping that patient attitude when working with a horse makes me more likely to stay calm - but only as long as I have strategically planned my training efforts. As long as I do this I don't become frustrated by lack of progress and get all impatient. When a plan is good my horse is able to meet each goal I create, then I feel successful! Repeated experience of getting it right helps me to be patient more easily, because I know the rewarding sensation of success is just around the corner! I hate that experience of irritation and frustration when a plan doesn't come together! But these experiences prompt me to plan better next time :-)

In my case confidence also comes from the experience of success. If I've succeeded I've also stayed in control! The behaviour change I predicted in the horse actually happened, therefore I stayed in control. The more this happens the more I expect it to happen and the more confident I am of success. This affects how I conduct myself around the horse, and some of that is bound to rub off. Confident, patient people are predicable people who don't look tense or randomly lose the plot. That's got to be reassuring for the horse who also needs that sense of predictability about the world to feel in control.

These two things are the making of great horse trainers, in that sense, great training makes great horse trainers.

What method?

2009-06-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

Horse people are always asking me: what method do I use, what methods do I approve of, what I think of a certain method? Now I have one answer:

I think that there are many roads to Rome and any individual may take the path of their choosing. I think a truly ethical horseperson will make an effort to understand the horse's nature (his ethology if you like), the ways in which horses learn (learning theory derived from the field of psychology), and the means by which horses may suffer, emotionally, mentally and physically.

They will take lessons from the horses they meet, and endeavour to know and understand their horse as an individual. They will then make informed choices as to how to train their horse today. That may differ from how they trained the previous horse yesterday. Tomorrow they may change their approach based on what they learned today.

I personally choose to use positive reinforcement wherever I can. I also teach horses to yield to pressure so that less knowledgeable or ethical horsepersons aren't led to unduly stress them. Sometimes I can only work on the horse's emotional level, sometimes the horse is mentally and physically in a place where I can put higher, competitive goals into the syllabus.

May each of us find our route to Rome, without breaking too many horses on the way

Who's leading who?

2009-02-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

Taking a dog for a walk by its lead and leading a horse more or less require the same things: that the animal in question accepts restraint without fear or frustration; and that they go where their human handler goes.

But why would either dog or horse want to do that? The easiest way to frustrate a dog is put it on a lead and deprive it of its liberty to sniff stuff and interact with other dogs. Horses lose thier liberty too, and often the freedom to flee from fear. And that lead (rope) is not only an infringement of liberty, it's an intrument of pain if it's not used with respect - which all to often it isn't.

Fear, frustration and the potential for pain can be very much reduced if the animal is informed about what to do before the lead is even attached. The animal can learn that sticking close and going where the human goes earns food titbits (or ball games for the dog) that can't be got any other way. If they leave the human's side they get nothing. When the animal gets really good at this the lead can be attached. The potential for large and painful pressures is reduced because the animal already knows what to do. Then it is possible to teach the animal that following, instead of fighting, lead preassures is another way to earn positive reinforcement - as well as the pressure release that would obviously entail.

Dogs and horses can be taught to walk nicely on a loose lead, without fear or frustration, and with no resentment.

Training equine emotions

2009-02-14T04:42:00.000-08:00

Do horses really enjoy training? Or do we just like to think they do because we enjoy it?

Horses are always having learning experiences, from every single interaction we have with them. Some of those interactions are really pleasurable for the horse, like feeding for example. Some of those interactions may not be so desirable even if they are for the horses own good, like veterinary interventions!

From an ethical and philosophical stand point I think that horses should be able to enjoy training, after all we are simply usuing them for our own gains. It is only fair that if we do that then we should make it possible for horses to volunteer to be used by us rather than be conscripts into our plans!

It's possible to do that. All the interactions we have with our horses are learning opportunities for the horse, and horses are affected by such conditioning at all levels - not just in their behavioural expression. When horses actively seek or are surprised by rewards (the pleasurable stuff they want ot gain, not just the relief from rein or leg pressure we use to motivate them), they get a release of dopamine. This conditions their brain to seek such rewarding experiences again, and aids their expereince and memory of pleasure. Using rewards in training not only changes their behaviour so that they do more of the stuff we rewarded, it also creates a pleasurable association with the learning environment - including us! This means that not only does the horse perform trained behaviours more willingly, he also seeks us out for more rewarding oppportunities. In other words, he starts to become a volunteer.

I see this phenomenon in real life. Every day I see my own horses it is they who approach me, not the other way around. And when I visit others I've helped I see the same thing happening. Horses have started to catch people!

The same thing has been happening in zoos and laboratories where animals are kept and used for various purposes. Animals that have been trainined to approach and cooperate for positive reinforcement actually volunteer for even potentially painful experiences like blood sampling!

If we're going to enjoy using horses then at least let the horses enjoy it too :-)

Dominance - or is it?

2009-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

Are horses as political as we think or is it just another red herring? I've lost count of how many times people have told me that they just wish they could show their horse who's boss, or how their horse is dominant and so they have to be firm with him, or that because horses try to find the weakest link they must learn to speak horse so thay can manage horses naturally.

I think it's time for a rethink on the dominance issue. First and foremost, what is dominant behaviour for? Is every incident witnessed an attempt by the horse to assert dominance? Is there a simpler explanation?

When a horse is said to be the dominant of a pair of horses it is because in contests over some important resource such as food or water, it has always displaced the other horse and 'won' access to that resource. When resources are short horses do need to compete over them, and after a series of competitions the frequent losers will start to give way more easily to the frequent winners.

But are the contests about dominance rank, or the resource in question? I think that they are about the resource, because when resources are plenty horses fight less. I think when horses compete for a resource they are frightened about losing that resource, because after all, it is important for survival. The horse who is desperate enough, and confident enough in his competitive ability will be more likely to compete, and if the opponent is weaker, he'll win. But ultimately that horse got into the competition because he felt threatened, not because he was into politics for politics sake.

All the above means that 'dominance' behaviour is for competing for stuff when one feels threatened. This means then, that when horses direct pushy, aggressive behaviour towards us they feel threatened or confused and they're not trying to be 'dominant' - unless of course we are making advances on their food bowl!

When a horse feels threatened by our behaviour he has four options: get away from us, behave aggressively, try to change the subject through fidgety behaviour, or plain freeze. Aggressive behaviour in its various degrees is quite effective at making us get out of their way or stop what we are doing to them. It's self defence, not the horse's ambition to be dominant over us.

I think that this means that when horses try to push us, bite us and kick us they are confused about what we are trying to make them do, or we are plain scaring them. This means we have to intelligently find away of training the horse to understand what we want without fear so that we can communicate more clearly. It's just not fair to assume that the horse is trying to get one over on us when more simply, he's just trying to communicate discomfort.

Emotional horses

2009-01-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

All horses are capable of emotion. That might sound anthropomorhic, projecting human

attributes onto the horse, but I never said horses are capable of human emotion! Horses amaze me in their emotional capacity, it is precisely because they're not quite like us that fascinates me. The reason why they're not like us is because they are adapted to a different lifestyle and are motivated by different things. But they have some similarities, pretty much all mammals have the same basic emotional neurocircuitry, like that for fear & anxiety, frustration & rage, for seeking the good stuff in life, lust, joy and nurturance.

To help build a good relationship with horses, for the purpose of having fun or competing seriously, the emotional stuff is important. Horses that aren't emotionally fit find it hard to learn technical stuff, and their behaviour shows it, they can become shut down, or be going in every direction at once. Neither state is fun or going to give a competitive edge.

I find that horses can be affected by fear and frustration every day of their lives with us if we restrict their natural lifestyle excessively, confuse them through our efforts to school them and fail to provide some of the fun stuff in life.

Take horses that get stabled at night and go out in the day, especially at this time of year. Number one, they might be affected by reduced day length as neurochemical production is altered. That can be emotionally sensitising all on its own, but normally it may set the scene for stronger emotional states to have a negative effect.

That leads me on to number two: the horse gets wet, hungry and uncomfortable in the field, and by tea time is positively hanging over the gate to come in. That's because he expects that any minute he'll have relief from the wet ground and he'll get his short feed and some hay to munch. That drives his 'SEEKING' system (see Jaak Panksepp's book, Affective Neuroscience). In his anticipation he gets frustrated because he can't get to the dry stable with the lovely nourishing food because someone left a fence and a locked gate in the way! In his frustration he switches from SEEKING to RAGE and bites the pony next to him. That makes the groom mad so she yells or hits him making him fearful, and he didn't know what he did anyway he was just so wound up just then, and now the human is too. Now even more wound up and emotional he drags his owner up the yard and won't stand still to have his legs washed, even though he's done this 100, 000 times before. He gets shouted at for this and the lead rope gets yanked for good measure - not that it works but the human feels less frustrated, but will probably feel guilty in the car on her way home. Finally he gets into his box and digs into his food, now he feels better and settles for the night... But horses sleep for no more than 5 hours a day, so he has a couple of dreams and he's hungry again. But, the haynet's run out and it's still just one more hour before breakfast and release into the field where at least he can run around, have a nibble of grass and chew the fences for a bit until he gets too wet and hungry again...

See how it goes? We've probably all been there but there is another way. Maybe the horse has to live in the stable at night, limited grazing and all that. That's ok, no need to reach for the birch twigs here! The horse could be fed more hay and be fed some additional forages like carrots, swede, alfalfa, readigrass, a nutritional lick - horses love to pick through different flavours, that's what grazing is all about. The horse can get all his dietry needs from feeding this way so no need for a short, sweet feed for him to get psyched up about. The horse's turnout could have some hard standing put in and a hay feeder or two placed there, so that hay can be put out to prevent hunger setting in at 2pm. Then at coming in and going out time the owner can practise some new horsemanship skills to safely lead her horse, hose his legs and change his rug. Then he'll be a pleasure to have and the owner can have warm fuzzy thoughts as opposed to guilt on the way home :-)

The Art, Science and Common Sense of Horsemanship

2009-01-05T02:04:00.000-08:00

I am frequently queried about my approach to equine behavioural problems and training methods. Because I don’t adhere to one particular method or another it is not always easy to explain what I do actually do. Saying that I simply mix and match is only a part explanation, it would be more accurate to say that my intention when I work with any horse and owner is to look at the whole partnership. I determine what exactly motivates that horse and owner, tailor a training and management programme based on fundamental first principles, and then educate the owner in their use in their specific case. This is the combination of the art, science and common sense of horsemanship.

This approach is loosely similar to the means by which a work of art such as a painting is created. There are basic principles of how to make different colours, use of perspective and light, and set up an aesthetically appealing composition. And although that’s the case, how come one painting is never exactly the same as another, even if they’re by the same artist? That’s where art uses basic principles that can be understood through scientific analysis, but the art is in wittingly or unwittingly applying first principles to create something unique. I look at horsemanship in this way.

There are basic principles to do with the way in which horses function and respond to their environment. Understanding how the horse works is fundamental to understanding how ‘methods’ work. Most horsemanship instruction is precisely that, instruction on how to apply methods whether it’s on how to muck out a stable or teach a horse to lunge. Most instruction, especially at basic levels is not about why to or why not to. Obedience is often deemed important at this stage for health and safety reasons, but continuing an obedient mentality is likely to lead to thoughtlessness. One of my first lessons in horsemanship was the statement that I should never stop learning about horses. It was not indicated to me at this time that I should question established practise but to accept it as best practise and get on with it. A lesson I learned later on, from a somewhat maverick horsewoman who worked locally was that I should question how and why things are done the way they are. A year later, embarkation on an equine science degree provided me with ample opportunity to do just that, and I’ve been finding those opportunities ever since!

Take our tradition of doing almost everything to a horse from its left side. As beginner horsemen we are instructed to halter, tack up, lead and mount horses from the left side. This becomes habitual for us in our future equestrian careers. A result of this is that horses become more used to us handling them from that side, and so we handle them even more from that side because it is where they and we are more comfortable. A cycle of behaviour is formed and we then come to extrapolate this habit to the introduction of new and potentially frightening stimuli to the horse. But why?

The tradition of doing things from the left most likely springs from the horse’s military history. Taking the military example as a suggestion, the sword is carried on the left side of the soldier so that it may be easily drawn from its scabbard and used in the right hand. In this case, handling and mounting from the right hand side of the horse would result in the sword getting in the way. It makes sense to get on from the left where the sword will be less likely to hit the horse’s rear as the rider swings his leg over its back, possibly causing the horse to move inconveniently. Another question that leads on from this is: is this the best course of action with my horse today?

In re-examining the tradition of mostly doing things from the left hand side of my horses, I am first of all aware that I am not a cavalryman and I am not carrying a sword. Therefore this liberates me to choose whichever side I want to lead or mount my horses from, or to introduce new stimuli to them. I could look to see if there is any science on the matter from which to further help me make an objective decision on how to introduce novel things into the life of a foal or inexperienced horse. In fact there is some science on this matter. Horses have an eye on each side of their head giving them a very wide field of view that is best adapted for spotting the kind of movements predators make when attacking horses. It has been suggested that what they see in their left eye is processed by the right, more emotional, brain hemisphere. Information from the right eye is processed by the more logical left brain hemisphere. When Australian scientists tested this idea they subjected horses to novel stimulus on their left and right sides. Horses responded more fearfully when the stimulus was first presented on the left side as the more emotional right brain hemisphere reacted with fear, communicating to the legs to move faster! So now which side am I going to introduce the hosepipe to my yearling for the first time?

This example is just the tip of the iceberg when considering the horse and our intentions for him. It’s the part of horsemanship I love best and is just as relevant to everyday training and management of a horse without ‘problems’ as it is to one with a ‘behaviour problem’. My goal in life is two-fold, to learn as much fact about horses and owners as I can, and secondly to integrate that knowledge into the best management and training practises for all who wish to seek some help from me.
So what method do I practise? Today it might be the loose schooling with food reinforcements signalled by a clicker for trotting with a lower head position for the injured Thoroughbred I’m rehabilitating, and the carefully timed release of rein pressure to inform the nice young cob about how good it is to slow, stop or turn as I progress through the process of breaking in (by the way I still use this term even though other, probably more accurate terms are available because most horse people still understand this term to mean early training of the horse to accept a rider). I will always assess, diagnose and tailor to fit individual horses and owners, so there will never be an explicit ‘Jenni Nellist’ method of horsemanship. I hope I will always continue to empower owners with knowledge so that they can work through their own logical thought processes and apply their own method as they become more skilled equestrians.

Rewards at Christmas

2008-12-21T01:39:00.000-08:00

This time of year always makes me think of treats. Things I'll treat myself to such as a lie in, excess chocolate, more time to go riding and simply just hang out with my horses. There's also the treats I give to others, gifts on Christmas day, the croissants and mince pies I picked up when doing an ordinary grocery shop to surprise and cheer up my partner. Then there's the treats I get for my animals, I couldn't resist the snowflake pattern fluffy squeaky bone toy for my collie the other day. And I know that I'll be sucked in by festive horse treats. May be you will too.

If we are to indulge our horses this festive season we might as well make it a gift that lasts all year. Learning how to use food treats in training is a great way of increasing our horse's motivation and enjoyment. I was so chuffed yesterday to find that for the very first time since I've had him, my ex-racer Khatani didn't have a nervous poo at anytime while preparing for and going on our ride yesterday. Partly this is because he is generally more relaxed with us now, but that didn't happen all by itself. Part of Khatani's new regime is reward based training. Food rewards for learning new tasks like Spanish Walk, dropping his nose on the lunge, starting lateral work and taking a bow make him actively seek out interactions with me. I've also used food rewards in his re-education, like teaching him to anticipate food when he's rugged or girthed up. The new expectation has brought a new attitude and a marked tendency not to bite any more :-)

At a time of year where giving is so important, why not give a lot more to your horse and just see what he gives back?

Merry Christmas xx

My first post!

2008-12-17T03:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog :-)

I work as a horse behaviourist and equestrian coach in South Wales and the purpose of my blog is to share my experiences of this with you.

I'm an advocate of using effective and humane techniques when we interact with our horses. And above all I want the horse and the human to enjoy the experience. I work with owners to help themselves and help their horses overcome all kinds of issues, and although I would never share my individuals clients experiences with the public, my work nevertheless provides me with things to muse about here.

I'll be sharing my musings in my future blog entries.