06/11/2022
All of these behaviors are important tools to learn, teach and utilize with our horses. Putting the relationship first instead of our egos. Maybe it’s not so much about “respect”, but more about communication and understanding.
*HOW TO BUILD BOUNDARIES WITH POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT AND WHY HORSES DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF "RESPECT"*
The idea of RESPECT is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused concepts in horsemanship. "My horse doesn't respect me. I need to teach him respect. I need to show him who the boss is"
Let's start with what actually respect is :
respect
/rɪˈspɛkt/
noun
a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
Just reading the definition of what respect is tells us clearly that it has nothing to do with what we expect from horses. So even if we go by the definition we know that horses will never feel a deep admiration for us because they don't have the cognitive capabilities to understand this concept.
When people say they want their horse to respect them they usually mean obey or at least keep in the boundaries set up by the human. And there is nothing wrong with setting clear boundaries - they're actually crucial to our safety.
What's wrong with using the word "respect" is that the word is used to cover up how these boundaries are set up - and that's often through inflicting a fear response. Respect sounds better than saying "the horse needs to fear me so I can feel safe".
Pushing a horse away, flicking a string of the stick, using a whip - all aim at teaching a horse to move out of our space through punishment /negative reinforcement and create avoidance or escape behaviours. The horse doesn't learn to "respect" us, the horse remembers that stepping into a human will mean negative consequences.
This strategy can teach our horse what not to do but it will not teach our horses what to do. And this is where this way often fails - despite punishing / using negative reinforcement your horse will still push into your space now and then - simply for one reason - he doesn't know what behaviour is right. He will also often habituate to the pressure that is being used which in turn "forces" the human to escalate the pressure/punishment even to an extend of hitting the horse either with the whip or slapping /pinching until the horse moves away. Sciencific evidence tells us that such approach can compromise human-animal relationship and often leads to more unwanted and agressive behaviours due to the aversive learning that occours.
And here is where Positive Reinforcement can come to help - by using food as a Reinforcemet we actually teach our horses what behaviours we would like to see and at the same time strengthen the positive human-animal relationship.
The way we teach boundaries with Positive Reinforcemet has a pretty simple concept behind it - we reinforce the distance we want our horses to stay at by marking (with a clicker or another bridge signal) and offering a reinforcer (mainly food). To eliminate unwanted behaviours such as pushing into our space we set up the environment and create training plans that reinforcers desired behaviours . This can be done through few ways :
* Protective Contact (PC)- PC is a physical barrier such a fence line or door /gate that separates the horse from the human. This barrier allows for safe interactions until the distance and default behaviour is established. The horse cannot physically get close to the human and therefore allows for safe teaching. Most behaviours can be taught behind the protective contact which can be weaned off as soon as the behaviours are strong and reliable
* Stationing - stationing is a behaviour of standing still and often chosen as a default behaviour by Positive Reinforcemet trainers. The horse learns that standing still in a neutral position is what results in things he wants - such as food. He learns that the food comes to him and not the other way round. Stationing can be trained with the use of targets such as cones or mats which are slowly weaned off as the horse progresses .
*Hand held targets (HHT) - HHT are long objects such as pool noodles that your horse has learned to touch /follow. They can be used for maintaining a safe distance and redirecting behaviours - for example if the horse is learning to maintain a safe distance in walk and suddenly steps closer to a human the target can be extended out to the side to redirect the horse - the horse will follow the target because it has been positively conditioned , he knows that following the target will result in click + treat.
* "Back up" cue - the back up cue is often one of the first behaviours trained with Positive Reinforcemet and can work wonderfully for asking for some space. The behaviour is trained with the application of Positive Reinforcemet either with the use of a target, capturing or using a feeding position ( offering food close to horse's chest so he needs to step back to get to it which is marked and reinforced).
Personally I utilise all these approaches to keep safe depending on circumstances and what we are working on. I have never felt safer around the horses
