This time last year was a very stressful time with my donkey Seymour and I wanted to write about it, as it relates to a subject that continues to be debated on social media about Positive Reinforcement training and using food for training and Counter Conditioning.
Seymour was a donkey that people couldn’t do anything with in the past, most of my equines came to me like that actually. If you’re not familiar with Seymour’s story, I’ve written a few blogs about our training journey. This is the first one, to give you an idea where I started with Seymour.
https://www.whisperinghorse.com.au/this-is-seymour/
I think I need to do another update soon, as I’ve got him to the stage where he comes when called, self halters, leads light as a feather, stands at liberty and offers his hooves for trimming and also soaking, poulticing, x-rays, bandaging, treatments and booting. He's so much better with injections, after we found out he was very needle (and vet) phobic. He’ll walk onto a crush, allow people to restrain him and he’s recently learnt to wear a rug because the other donkeys kick him out of their shelter.
This time last year Seymour hurt his eye, it was my worst nightmare. But I did loads of training before the vet arrived to get him ready and when the vet came out, they could sedate him, do a bunch of stuff to him and I’ve had to put multiple medications in his eye. He had to wear a fly mask, something he was terrified of and because it was to save his eye, he had no choice, I couldn’t train and condition it. But I did take the time and use food to make him as comfortable as possible with the fly mask. The medications in the eye were fairly easy, we’ve practiced that many times before, but for some reason the mask terrified him and I had to move it or remove and replace it 3-4 times a day to treat his eye. Even though he had no choice, I took it as slow as I could and used a lot of high value food, which I don’t ordinarily use at any
A lot of the thinking surrounding non ridden horses is complicated.
This is because there is more than one way to train a horse or any animal. But most horse people think there is only one way and when that way fails, it ends there.
That's when the horse becomes unrideable, also known as non ridden. But the same thinking I'm going to explain, can relate to any behaviour we ask our horse to do.
Let's just set aside the many horses who suffer pain through injury, disease or malformation and are therefore unrideable due to the fact that to do so would cause them enormous pain. I'm not talking about those horses.
I'm talking about horses that can't be caught, can't be haltered, can't be brushed, can't be led, can't be saddled, can't be bridled, can't be mounted and can't be ridden, despite being fit and able. Or they are dangerous if we try to do any of those things.
These horses express in their behavior and body language, that they don't want to engage, be touched or participate in any way.
But how have they been trained? What is their history? What was their first introduction to a saddle? a halter or bridle? a weight on their back? Being made to move forward? Being made to stop? What was their life like in general?
What we are really talking about is horses who have been trained in a way that frightened them, confused them or caused them pain and they really didn't like it.
Their behaviour is communication.
This doesn't necessarily mean they don't like being ridden or don't like people, this means they don't like the way they were treated, trained and handled by people - big difference!!
If we were to offer all these 'unridden horses' (and their humans) a different deal, a better deal, a deal where they get things they like when they do something and they don't need to feel discomfort or pressure or fear if they don't want to or aren't sure. If they get offered choices and control to say, "slow down please, I need more time or I need that done
Mercedes lungeing herself
Here's another clicker training video where Grace looks pretty comfortable, alert, attentive, feels safe and is enjoying the food and the training session. She's learning the basic Foundation Lesson I teach all equines and I’m creating a positive emotional valence with me and the training at the same time.
This horse is NOT frustrated, nudging, sniffing, pushing, trying to get to the food pouch, pawing or doing any other overt emotional behaviour that indicates it's not fun and is very frustrating guesswork, you’re not seeing that at all. You’re also NOT seeing the person withholding the food for behaviour the horse doesn't yet understand or worse, is afraid to offer.
It's also important to remember that horses were born not only to graze, but also forage. They will sniff, nudge, shake or even bite things to access food, whether that's fruit from a tree, seeds or tender leaves from a hay net or bark from a tree.
When they do those foraging behaviours, they get positively reinforced for them when they access the yummy food. There's a positive reinforcement history with foraging, with sniffing nudging, shaking and biting things to access food.
Therefore, if a human is standing there with food in a food pouch and they are not allowing the horse access to the food and the horse doesn't know what else to do, they will start doing what they've been positively reinforced for doing in the past. They'll push, and nudge, sniff and nibble to get the food. When the human continues to withhold the food because they don't like the horse's behaviour, or have some strange idea that this is ok to put the horse through this, the horse tries even harder. We call this extinction and when the horse tries harder, they are riding the extinction wave, where behaviour that worked for them before, is no longer working, so they will try harder before eventually giving up altogether.
Many people like to use the vending machine analogy for extinction. We put money in, we ge
I'm always focused on R+ training and improving our training for the horse. If someone tells a story about a horse, what's relevant is the behaviour we can observe in the horse, especially if their behaviour shows a lot of emotional angst, frustration and worry caused by the training.
I’m always advocating for better R+ training and for the horse not to have to go through lots of frustration and extinction.
Remember that someone can have decades of experience and be making the same mistakes over and over and over again AND teach the mistakes to others and worse, normalise them.
If I see lots of tension in a horse's face, jerky movements, double biting down on the hand that’s feeding them, no friend for company, no alternative food, etc, that’s not a great session or a happy learner.
I also want to confirm for people that horses CAN stand around all day and eat from our hand or a bucket. It's never boring or mundane to train in small approximations, they won't walk away unless you make it too frustrating and confusing and difficult because your criteria is too high, your RoR is too low and it’s just not fun. If that's what the horse needs, simple, basic, slow, small approximations, that’s good R+ training. It’s not flashy or fancy, it’s solid, good R+ training.
Never ignore the horse’s behaviour, they never lie.
Always remember the basic tenets of good R+ training ie. RoR, Criteria and Timing AND training in small successive approximations.
Here's some clicker training where the horse looks pretty comfortable, alert, attentive, feels safe and is enjoying the food and the training session. She's learning the basic Foundation Lesson I teach all equines and I’m creating a positive emotional valence with me and the training at the same time.
This horse is NOT frustrated, nudging, sniffing, pushing, trying to get to the food pouch, pawing or doing any other overt emotional behaviour that indicates it's not fun and is very frustrating guesswork, you’re not seeing that at all. You’re also NOT seeing the person withholding the food for behaviour the horse doesn't yet understand or worse, is afraid to offer.
I’m interested in the horse's experience and putting their feelings and welfare first.
Please note this video is about 8-9 years old, I was doing basic good quality clicker training when I started out. This is within the reach of everyone.
I also don't blame the horse for unwanted behaviour, I take responsibility when things go wrong or aren't as great as they could be for the horse.
Not much of a squeak about my bitless posts, which was interesting.
I’m not sure if the world is changing or whether people are better at scrolling on or whether horse people are a bit exhausted by it all. Compassion fatigue is a thing, I experience this.
I was thinking about this social media phenomenon the other day.
I’ve noticed there are pages that post a lot of “in your face” pictures and videos of cruelty to horses in their posts. I’m not talking about genuine advocacy pages, I’m talking about others, who seem to be people chasing likes and followers.
If there’s anything that will bump up your algorithms, it’s cruelty and controversy. I learnt that very early on. It’s human nature apparently!
But there does seem to be pages that are taking advantage of this human trait, of feeling outrage and justification and better about yourself, just to improve their reach and gain followers. I notice they often don’t share or give credit to content creators properly either.
It doesn’t matter how many times I’m accused of being a “guru” or that I must post what people want, my page is for me and my R+ training. It’s not about anyone else or selling anything (so far!)
You’re all lovely peeps who are along for the crazy R+ ride.
Haha! I love that! We ARE crazy, I embrace crazy!
Video I tried to take of “lumping” where Mercedes was just way too smart and ruined my plans.
Shaping behaviours through positively reinforcing very small successive approximations is what makes it fun for the horse. It means they always feel successful and it's simply a fun game of "try this and see if I get the click".
We can train anything this way AND we get a positive emotional association with the training and ourselves as well.
I'm free shaping movement around me, using some already established cues, some other techniques in my R+ training toolbox and of course the click as a precision instrument, to give information to Mercedes.
What's even more wonderful is the discretionary effort she offers, which means she gives me even more than I was expecting. Not only is she making the circle bigger and bigger (I am watching her footsteps in the sand), but she offers a faster walk as well, which she knows I like, based on her previous positive reinforcement history.
It's pretty wonderful to see an animal offer behaviour, offer to exercise and one who is constantly thinking and problem solving and nickering and doing it for a simple handful of chopped hay.
#clickertraininghorses
#positivereinforcementtrainingforhorses
Mmmm scratches, chomp chomp
When you start clicker training, take your time. Don’t be in a rush, enjoy the journey.
There’s so much to learn AND to enjoy and if you rush, you’ll miss that enjoyment and that learning.
If you rush, you’ll also skip the opportunity to really refine what you are doing. R+ training is an art, as well as a science, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.
It isn’t manipulative or coercive, it’s organic and beautiful, if you allow it to be and allow yourself to see and feel it.
It isn’t slow and it doesn’t take longer. Behaviour can change in less than a second. If you rush you will miss it and miss the opportunity to recognise and change it, if you want.
R+ training is also an opportunity for personal growth, to become a better person, as well as a better trainer. With R+ training comes empathy and compassion, if you allow it.
You can also develop your focus, observation and learn how to be in the moment. That’s probably one of the most important lessons that I see a lot of people need to learn, how to be in the moment.
You cannot connect with another, if you are stuck in your head, in your shopping lists, arguments with your partner, "to do" lists, in your anxiety, in checking your phone, in your conversation with someone at the barn, in your pressure to perform.
Release yourself from it for a short period of time, give yourself that grace and your animal friend as well. Give them that respect, that courtesy and watch them respond in like. They will open up to you, if you are open to them.
If you are taking a lot of video of your training, reduce or stop that for a while. Don’t put that extra pressure on yourself, that extra pair of eyes on the delicate silken thread of communication and trust you are trying to build between you and your animal friend.
Let it be just between yourselves for a while, just the two of you, together as one, in heart and mind, just for a brief moment in time.
Try to avoid perfectionism. As in
An old video of some training with Mercedes came up in my memories. I was messing with adding yet another cue for her to walk forward.
It can seem like she already knows the cue, but thanks to my old cue, which is squaring my shoulders and looking forward, she walks.
She's also a very smart horse and if we've done a rep or two of this, she pretty much assumes that's what we are going to continue to do, unless I give her a different cue or different information.
Then there's something called behavioural momentum, which is where the repetition of doing the same things a few times and prior reinforcement history maintains the current behaviour.
Think about the Simon Says game. After a few repetitions of saying Simon Says, you can trip people up when they don't notice that you've omitted saying Simon Says, as the momentum is carrying them along.
It's where good R+ training means we need to take this into account if we've done a number of reps of the same behaviour, that we might need an obvious pause, such as a bucket feed, to break up that momentum, if we want to move on to something different.
It's not the horse making a mistake or not wanting to do the new behaviour, it's simply behavioural momentum.
As our Northern Hemisphere friends are heading into Spring, there are lots of questions about horses ignoring grass on social media.
There's no need to hunt for high value food or sugary treats or use more pressure when training horses to ignore grass! The only thing you need is good R+ training ..........
The approach I use and find most successful is implementing Premack's Principle. I also focus on small approximations and a high rate of reinforcement in order to build a strong positive reinforcement history in favour of the goal behaviour - ignoring grass!
When we train with Positive Reinforcement, our horses weigh up the value of reinforcers that we offer, but also what is on offer in their environment as well. They also weigh up their effort versus the value of reinforcers for different behaviours.
This means that I focus on giving my horse a higher rate of reinforcement than the grass could offer, but we also went to the arena and did more positive reinforcement training, which Mercedes loves to do. I offered double the reinforcement in order to out-compete the allure of the grass.
This is how a strong history of positive reinforcement keeps our goal behaviour strong, even if on the surface it can seem that the choice for the horse is obvious.
Grass versus training, exercise, arena?
There’s a scale in their brain weighing it all up!
#clickertraininghorses #positivereinforcementtrainingforhorses #whisperinghorse
My horse adores her bit, and I wholeheartedly believe in the ethical and humane approach of clicker training her to wear it. She willingly opens her mouth, providing implicit consent when she sees it coming. Let's dismiss any misconceptions about learning theory; a gentle hand on the reins speaks volumes.
I came across a fun little video from a few years ago.
Who can tell what my halt cue is?
I borrowed this cue from Peggy Hogan 😊
Positive Reinforcement training.
A horse offering to trot for dampened chaff, over and over and over again. 🧡
Horses trained with Positive Reinforcement always have a fantastic recall!!
All the way from the back end of their Paddock Paradise, she gives a big neigh to tell me she's heard me and she's coming!! 🧡
Mercedes says, omg can you hurry up, so I can learn some “useless tricks” in the arena for chopped hay!! 😂🧡
#clickertraininghorses
#positivereinforcementtraininghorses
Seymour gets very impatient and angry if he’s not let into his clicker training space to be “manipulated” and “coercively controlled” IMMEDIATELY!! 😂🧡🥰
