How often do we hear people say they use aversive stimuli (pressure/release) because horses use it between themselves? Well yes they do but it is a threat behaviour – they give fair warning too – ears back, a slight shift in weight before a kick. Horses know these signals and can get out of the way. We don’t have ears that move or tails that swish but we can use our larger brains to find a way to communicate that doesn’t involve threats and escalating pressure. It isn’t easy which is why many don’t even try or go back to using aversive stimuli even when they have learned how the horse perceives these aversives.
If we use negative reinforcement and most of us do in some form then we need to be mindful of the fact and make sure we release effectively.
Personally I don’t like to hit my horse with the clip on the end of the rope – which is advocated by some genres of horsemanship, but I do ride traditionally trained horses and so use conventional aids – negative reinforcement, leg on – leg off etc.
It is the understanding of how classical and operant conditioning works that is useful for us, to enable us to choose wisely and ethically.
What I learned at the recent Thinking Horsemans weekend was that we have a duty of care and only we can decide what we are happy to do with our horses, but it is important to be able to read the horses body language – and their emotional state before any training can begin and assess it as we progress.
It was interesting that one speaker suggested that round penning was punishment based – yes horses send other horses away but that is as a punishment, so why do we then think it good to send horses away on a circle so they can be persuaded to follow us?
I love that most reward based training starts with the horse at liberty – giving the horse a choice. I missed the second day but there was a talk about autonomy – with a scale where reinforcement and punishment was at one end of the scale and autonomy at the other end. If a horse is on line it has no choice but to stay (unless like Benny they learn to use their size to leave). Leaving tells us a lot about our relationship.
The 5 Freedoms of welfare can be used to assess whether our training is ethical.
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst. Don’t train when the animal is hungry or thirsty, they will not concentrate and may mug you if you are using positive reinforcement with food rewards.
2. Freedom from discomfort. Check that the horse has all their needs met – environmental (is it a safe area to train in) as well as physical e.g back, teeth,feet and tack are comfortable.
3. Freedom from pain – don’t add aversive stimuli if this will cause pain to the animal – e.g hitting the horse with a whip or line to insist on a behaviour. Don’t use positive punishment unless in an absolute emergency where the horse is inadequately trained.
4. Freedom to behave normally, don’t insist on a horse looking straight ahead if there are distractions – it is normal behaviour to orient towards any possible scary stimulus in the environment.
5. Freedom from fear and distress, are you sure your training doesn’t cause a fear response? Sending a horse out in a round pen uses the fear response and is punishment. Using aversive stimuli to drive the horse forward initiates the flight response, e.g traditional lunging, and natural horsemanship circling.
I am sure you can all think of other examples.
Positive Horsemanship. 