08/09/2024
This makes a lot of sense.
Ground Tying
Many disciplines in the horse world have ground tying as a component. At least they have some aspect where a horse is expected to stay “right here”. Let’s talk a little about the unique way the horse understands that concept and how we humans tend to make it a lot harder for the horse to be successful.
In Maddy Butcher’s book, “Horse Head: Brain Science and Other Insights”, she references American neuroscientist Dr. John O’Keefe who, 50+ years ago started our understanding that the horse has pretty cool ways of understanding locations. Their perception of where they are is more precise than our own. O’Keefe discovered place cells in the hippocampus. To quote “Horse Head”, place cells are “individual neurons that fire when an animal is in a specific location. The rate at which certain neurons fire depends on the animal’s location.” Place cells are like that blinking dot on your map app that tells you that you are “here”. That could be a particular cell firing when a wild stallion is at the northwestern most manure pile marking his territory’s corner. That cell will fire again only when the horse is at that particular spot.
It’s noteworthy that these cells seem to be mostly, but not exclusively, tied to visual cues than other senses like smell. So, they are engaging that specific place cell when they see the same tree, or mountain top, or ditch in the same orientation. Meaning, “this spot” may be familiar if the horse is traveling north looking at the river ahead, but unfamiliar if the horse is traveling south, looking at a field with a mountain range ahead, as the picture they have associated with “this spot” has changed.
Butcher also references Norwegian neuroscientists and couple, Drs. Edvard and May-Britt Moser. In 2005 they “discovered another component of the brain’s positioning system: grid cells. These cells exist downstream from the hippocampus in the entorhinal cortex of the temporal lobe. There, individual cells fire consistently in an equilateral triangular pattern of place, not just in one singular location. When other grid cells fire in different location but with that same triangular pattern, a virtual, overlapping grid map develops.” That mechanism would be how they’ve mapped the 800 acre ranch comprised of separate pastures, the arena and paddock, that national park you often trail ride in, or all of the above.
These grid cells seem to be more tied to movement and travel, so when engaging the grid cells, a horse would be more likely to exactly follow a path that they have traveled before to maintain their understanding of where they are, regardless of visual cues. This is also why changes along a trail that a horse is familiar with may upset them. The map they are relying on has been changed.
Put all of this together and you realize that they really do have a map in their head of familiar places, paths, and specific way points of exact spots on that map. They also have dedicated parts of their brain specialized in updating and using these maps and way points in real time.
Why am I talking about all of this in regards to ground tying? When you ask a horse to stop, or to ground tie, or stand still in the barn aisle while being saddled, you need to know that you begin by setting him in a far more specific spot than you are probably aware. If we don’t understand how precisely they are mapping “HERE”, then we can drastically overcorrect mistakes, confusing the horse.
It’s incredibly common for me to see a rider or person doing groundwork whose horse took 2 steps beyond “the place” to over correct that horse by backing them up 15 steps. They could also mess up by circling the horse around and vaguely taking them to a spot that’s 8 feet from the original spot. You need to know that “the spot” is very precise to the horse. 20 feet back of where you originally asked them to stay is not “the spot”. 5 feet from that spot is not “The spot”. In both cases, as far as the horse is concerned, you’ve placed them in a new spot.
In the dog world, there's an old saying, "Labs are born half trained and spaniels die half trained." As someone who's been called Daniel the Spaniel most of his childhood, I identify with that statement. Place boards are regularly used to train spaniels and other animals that aren't as bright as they might be.
Place boards are also common in the trick training side of the horse world, like for Clydesdales selling beer in a commercial. A "place board" can be accomplished using multiple things besides an actual board on the ground, but all of them ultimately accomplish visually marking exactly “here”. On top of this object, is “the spot”. I’ve found that using something like a cone in the arena can be just as helpful to give the trainer a visual marker of exactly where “the spot” is. I say the trainer because the horse has a far better understanding of “The spot” than you do and you’re really the one who needs it defined so you don’t inadvertently identify 5 different spots in 2 minutes.
So, if your horse moves from a ground tie, or when you’re trying to saddle them outside the tack room, or when they move a little while being trimmed by the farrier, make sure that you put them exactly back where they were, pointing in the same direction that they were. If you handle it in some other manner, you’re not being clear to the horse about what you’re expecting and they’ll predictably be confused and frustrated by you changing the rules around.
This also ties into groundwork and the misunderstanding of many that disengaging of the hindquarters leads to a meaningful “whoa”. In order for a horse to understand that you want them to stop right here and stay right here, they must "whoa" and remain pointing in the same direction they were traveling. Remember the dominant stimulus for place cells being the specific visual picture. To stop and turn 90 degrees is to misdirect their understanding of where “The spot” is. If they were traveling north, they need to stop pointing north, and stay pointing north. Maintain that, and they will come to understand that I want you to stop and stay right “here”. They’ll quickly recognize the set up and begin looking for where “here” is as you’ve designated it.
You can have a partner working with you in understanding of a goal, if you understand how your partner perceives what you’ve asked. That’s horsemanship. Backing a horse 20 feet because they took 2 steps too far is a display of not understanding the horse.
What you are really trying to accomplish when you say “whoa” or ask a horse to ground tie is to let them know that this is “a spot” and you want them to stay on “this spot”. If you can keep that sentence in mind when working on this aspect of training, you’re going to be a lot more successful in a lot less time.
