Tolerance

Tolerance
1.
“a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, differ from one’s own.” online dictionary definition.

Whilst my understanding of how animals learn gets deeper I find it really difficult to be tolerant with some aspects of horse training.

People who don’t understand the reasons for how a horse learns have some excuse for using techniques that may cause the horse distress. However there are people who understand operant and classical conditioning but still deliberately train horses using aversive stimuli.

Some say horses can’t be trained any other way – but why is that? All other animals on the planet can be trained using appetitives rather than aversive stimuli.

Take trailer loading – I hear people say make the outside of the trailer more uncomfortable than the inside. Why not turn it round and make the inside of the trailer more appetitive than the outside?

We can alter how the horse feels about anything using systematic desensitisation and counter conditioning.

This is not to say we must all be “fluffy bunny huggers” and let the horse do exactly what he wants without due regard for our and his safety.

We can train safety using positive reinforcement just as well, if not better, than if we use negative reinforcement.

Given a choice what would your horse choose – the relief from something he doesn’t like or a reward of something he likes.

It is the horse who decides what is aversive and what is appetitive.

Anytime you train and trigger a flight response (fear response) then you have used an aversive stimulus. I hear people say we don’t train with fear but how do you get a horse to do something he finds innately frightening, if you don’t use positive reinforcement? You add a more aversive stimulus than the stimulus of the frightening thing. How can that be good for the horses emotional wellbeing?

If you know please tell me!

The next module in Jo Hughes’ course is on affective neuroscience – how animals express emotions.

I am also going to a lecture by Jaak Panksepp in April – really looking forward to learning more.

Jack Panksepp has done a lot to help people understand emotions, and many have come to accept animals as sentient beings.

P.S I still use some negative reinforcement, as I ride other peoples horses, but it does not feel right to me to tap a horse with a whip or to use spurs.
Conventional aids can be taught using postive reinforcement.
The world is changing, as we know more about how animals feel and learn.