Emotions

This topic as been covered before but it is always worth revisiting.

According to Jaak Panksepp there are 7 basic emotional systems all mammals share.
What do we need to engage in training our horses?
SEEKING/desire system, PLAY/social engagement system and CARE/maternal system.
What do we need to avoid triggering?
FEAR/anxiety system, RAGE/anger system, GRIEF/separation anxiety system
Seems so simple but it is so easy to induce frustration in training, the horse will SEEK a reward by performing a behaviour and if we are late in rewarding a desired behaviour or the behaviour is one we don’t want and we ignore that behaviour, the horse may become frustrated. This is often the point people give up trying to use positive reinforcement.
Of course we can use negative reinforcement e.g pressure/release, and even positive punishment, in our training and insist our horses do as we ask.  We can use pressure without it being aversive/uncomfortable for the horse but we need to be careful to monitor their emotional state. Each horse is different and we need to adjust our training to suit the horse.
Recently I saw a post where the person said that sometimes if we pick up a stick or whip it doesn’t have to be the object that is a threat but that the persons body language may change (e.g if the stick gives them more confidence). Interesting thoughts on very a controversial subject, are tools an extension of ones arm with no threat potential, just like a guiding hand? Or is it a threat – do this or there will be a negative consequence? Only the horse can say for sure, but we can look at their emotional response to our training methods and allow them to say “no” if they feel uncomfortable with our request.
My one problem is this – as horses have emotions just as we do, is it fair and ethical to force them to do things we want that may not be what they want? How do we know what they prefer, do we give them a choice? I know horses who line up at the mounting block and seem to enjoy going out to explore – activating the SEEKING system.
A very difficult question to ponder and to answer.
Also keep in mind the emotions elicited by the use of negative reinforcement. These are the negative emotions of FEAR and RAGE. An aversive stimulus is something the horse would rather not experience, so the discomfort of a pull on the halter, a whip to “encourage” them forwards. These work by the horse wanting to avoid them, so they comply with our very slight requests – what people call light or subtle aids.
As I have said before fear does not have to be the full blown flight response – the other signs of the FEAR system are freeze, fight and fidgeting.
The fidgeting can be divided in to appeasement behaviours and displacement behaviours. So the horse who can’t keep his feet still, the horse who snatches at grass in an abnormal way, the horse who can’t give us 2 eyes, the horse who lowers his head in an attempt to say “look I am not a threat”.
All these are worth thinking about especially as the International Society of Equitation Science have a huge influence over training and welfare, but also advocate the use of negative reinforcement in the initial training of horses. Although I do find their statements confusing as they have this after the paragraph explaining operant conditioning:
”WELFARE IMPLICATIONS: The use of pressure/discomfort has the potential for serious welfare implications that range from escape, aggression and apathy to learned helplessness.”

Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind: evolutionary perspectives and implications…
Cross-species affective neuroscience studies confirm that primary-process emotional feelings are organized within primitive subcortical regions of the brain…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

PS I work with a wonderful set of people doing equine assisted learning, the horses always have a choice, if they start looking at all uncomfortable or stressed they are removed from sessions and given a break. Horses do pick up on our emotions and we do need to know our own horses very well and watch for signs of distress and fear/anxiety.