Catherine Gallas
When training horses many people think about which styles of training would
work best. Many people thinking that “breaking” horses is the best way by making horses
work against their own will to make the trainers happy; to make matters worse many
horses are negatively affected by harsh training and later in their life they remember what
was done ;and bringing out the bad behavior that nobody wants in their horse. Trainers
and Riders themselves often think that one way is better then others; many trainers
through the years will stick to one method and won’t change because the trainers figure
that their training method is the best way to go about training in general. The best thing to
do for horses is it always understands that they always are willing to learn and love to
please. Horse training can benefit best from positive and negative reinforcement through
clicker training.
Clicker training has been very useful in the horse world because it brings out the
best in horses and the trainers through positive reinforcement. It also cements the
personal bond with the horse and trainer. In addition, it can be very funny and interesting.
Training at times can become very difficult and stressful in Sarah Blanchard’s book The
Power of Positive Horse Training Saying Yes to Your Horse; “Positive reinforcement
isn’t just a reward for correct behavior; it’s a specific pattern of learning that occurs when
a particular behavior receives a reward.” (8) for example if the horse is scared of the
wash stall and he slowly begins to walk into the wash stall the clicker represents “yes this
is good” and when given a treat the horse knows that the wash stall wont hurt him; and
he’s getting a reward for willing over coming a fear and he now sees the wash stall as a
positive place vs. a negative place that he used to see it as before, the trainer started using
clicker training. Positive reinforcement works well with horses because it teaches them
that every task that the trainer asks of them; they get a reward out of trying their hardest
to please the trainer working with them. Also with positive reinforcement the
relationships of the horse has benefits more because the horse learns to trust the person
they are working with. “Positive reinforcement used in training is clicker training; which
teaches an animal to obey commands by associating a food reward with the mechanical
clicker.” Blanchard (8) Also clicker training is a positive way of training because it
completely gets the horse to think for himself and it makes more of a learning process for
the horse while being taught and it can be interesting at the same time. The learning
process for horses is very important about how you address what needs to be done in the
training session you have spend with your horse Sarah Blanchard says “ would you use
punishment or extinction in this training scenario? Almost never if your is reluctant to
walk over the bridge but does not seem truly fearful, you’ll repeat the command to walk
forward and be a little more forceful, after all a good leader gives clear, firm, directions.”
(10) this being said when training a horse you shouldn’t punish the horse because he gets
scared or confused; try again and keep asking for the correct response would be; if the
horse understand what is trying to be asked then reward him; this shows that it comes
from positive reinforcement because its rewarding the horse for not being scared of
what’s being done to him; or his surroundings.
Positive reinforcement is important because it makes the training session more
enjoyable for the horse and trainer; and it gives and interesting twist on what is
happening when working with horses there are three things that should be kept in mind
while working with them; or three things that you would want for yourself too as the
trainer 1) trust, respect and confidence these are important because without them the
training experience would not be positive at all. “The training process is really about
building trust and respect. When you to develop these two qualities in a horse you need to
introduce a new task, situations and problems in a logical, step by step program and show
your horse that he can trust you to him solve these problems.”(10) This is interesting
because many people think that animals don’t have the right to have respect from
trainers; but if the trainer does not respect the horse then it’s just not going to work out in
a positive away at all.
Another thing to think about is when training a horse it isn’t always going to be
“its okay Sammy; your right, I’m wrong” at times negative reinforcement is a good thing
to remember if the horse is simply refusing to what you have asked of him nicely. Sarah
Blanchard also says that “negative reinforcement is NOT punishment. Negative
reinforcement stresses a particular behavior when the horse takes action to avoid
something uncomfortable.”(9) This shows that negative reinforcement doesn’t mean its
okay to beat the horse if they don’t understand something right away; it also shows how
important it is to clearly address what you want done in the training session and how you
want the horse to take what you are trying to teach him. Trainers have often said “ Make
him go over the jump, beat him with the crop, kick him hard, tell him you’re the boss “
this just makes the horse more angry that your being unclear about what it is that’s being
taught; if the rider cant make up what the task itself is trying to accomplish then why
would you take your frustration out on the horse because its not doing something the
right way and its just making the horse feel more uncomfortable and its just going to
make the training session end up badly.
Secondly to really understand what negative reinforcement Sarah Blanchard says
“from the human point of view training a horse through negative reinforcement (or
combination of negative/positive reinforcement) is often more effective than just positive
reinforcement alone because negative reinforcement involves request that are initiated by
the trainer rather than the horse.”(9) While training a horse you must keep in mind that
command that is asked of the horse isn’t going to happen right away and that horse’s
process things differently then human’s do this being said don’t think over and hour that
horse is automatically going to understand what you are asking of him. Many horses will
give you many wrong responses way before hitting the correct one, so do not punish the
horse for making simple mistakes that can be corrected before the final product is finally
shown.
One thing that should be really careful thought about while using negative
reinforcement is punishment. Punishment -suffering, pain, or loss that serves as
retribution; this is something that would not want to be done while working with horses
because they have long term memories and they can remember things that happened to
them ten years ago in their lives. Sarah Blanchard says “punishment” (also know as
correction) teach the horse that an incorrect behavior will result in a comfortable or
undesirable consequence.”(10) Showing that horses need to understand that they can not
always get away the bad behaviors because at the time they don’t like what is being asked
during the training session. It’s important to make clear while training horses that you the
trainer are the leader in the team; because if not then horse will always be able to take
advantage of what is being asked of him and or he would not care what you are trying to
get across during the training session.
While training horses the rider or trainer needs to keep in mind never to punish a
horse for fearful or timid behavior or simply because the rider / trainer is impatient or
angry. (10) This is important because from personal experience there have been times
where I wanted to punish or use negative reinforcement because myself as the rider was
getting upset that my horse wasn’t acting the way I wanted him to; or he was getting
scared of something that I could not understand at the time. One thing that should be
avoided at all means while working with horses is extinction the fourth pattern of
learning , weakens a behavior by providing no feed back what so ever. (10) this shows
that while working with horses this one thought that’s would negatively affect the horse
in along run because you simply shutting down and it makes the horse more confused
than it would yourself and it gives the horse no explanation for what was just done to her
and next time you go to try to reintroduce the same thing the horse is going to think that
your just not going to give a clear explanation of what you want the horse to complete
and most likely will act out in a bad way; and that will have to result into negative
reinforcement because the rider was lazy to tell the horse what really he wanted done in
the first place.
Another thinking that trainer could try to work in to their training program would
be clicker training it can bring out both positive and negative reinforcement at the same
time. Clicker training should be a training method that is introduced to every horse in
some point in its life. Clicker Training is a very important way to bring up to a horse that
hasn’t respond to any other training styles positively. Clicker Training makes it easy for
horses to understand what it is being asked of them at the time. While clicker training a
horse keep in mind that at all times the trainer should be firm in giving directions and
shouldn’t have mixed signals when trying to train the horse to do a certain task because
all that is going to do is make the horse and the trainer more frustrated at the same time.
In Shawna and Vinton Karrassch You Can Train Your Horse To Do Anything! On Target
Training: Clicker Training and Beyond
“Target Training we stand right in front of the
horse with the target, making it easy for him to touch it with his nose.” (25) this shows
that horses try to make it easy for them to understand what’s going on with the training
and it makes them engage on what’s being taught them at all times.
Another thing to keep in mind while training horses is that they are willing to try
to please the trainer they are with at while working together. Although training a horse
with on “target training” to break in the training times into sessions and to slowly back
away from the horse to see if the horse really understood everything. Training sessions
can be ten minutes before riding session and then ten minutes after done riding. It’s
important to have a constant training routine at all times because horse work well if they
have a constant training with very clear directions.
With on target training from training marine animals and it works with horses as
well because there’s a three minute pause between each task asked so the horse can
understand what is being asked of him each time. Also with target training many horses’s
get a better understand what is being asked of them at all times and it becomes less
stressful for both the horse and trainer.
In conclusion while training horses there should be positive and negative reinforcement
through clicker training because it shows how many horses can learn clearly, calmly and
exciting at the same time…. To be continued.