Rebuilding a Horse
My Significant Learning in Psych 1010 about the Process of
Learning as Applied to Equine Science and Training Abused
Horses
04/15/11
Salt Lake Community College
Katie Bresnahan
Katie Bresnahan
Psych 1010
Signature Assignment
Introduction
As a horse trainer I have had special experience seeing how learning occurs in horses of many
different back grounds, ages and breeds. I saw patterns in how they would think and react but I never
truly understood what it all meant until in my Psychology 1010 class I
learned about the
psychological process of learning and how it is virtually the same for
all living
creatures, horses, people, even bugs. This was learned as the course
covered
chapters 5-7 of Experiencing Psychology by Laura A. King in which I
have learned about classical conditioning. How it happens and that it can
result in positive outcomes as well as negative ones. I have learned also
about operant conditioning, how it is different from classical
conditioning, and how it is used to shape behavior and teach incredibly
complex ideas and tasks. I have learned better ways of reinforcing behavior
and how to punish unacceptable behavior with more effect.
In learning all of this I have continuously been applying it to my
experiences training horses. I have been able to look back on my work with some specific horses and
see incredibly revealing things about what was really happening at a cognitive basis for myself and the
horses as I trained them. I have learned significant things about how learning works in the mind, what
sort of things effect it and how we can optimize our brain power and the power of those we may be
teaching to learn in the greatest depth and precision. This is important to me because it has made me
aware of just what is going on when I am training a horse. It has made me realize that my training style
worked well because I was following, unaware, the processes of classical/operant conditioning and
reinforcement/punishment and other psychological learning methods discussed in the class. I have been
able to look back and, using my acquired knowledge about learning, see why some things I did with the
horses worked and why some things didn’t.
I feel that, for myself, this course has addressed Salt Lake Community Colleges Learning
Outcomes numbers 1 and 4. This course has helped me to gain helpful knowledge about learning,
memory and how to not only improve my own but how to apply this to others especially the
horses I train. It has helped me see where I can improve my training skills and helped me realize
I was actually doing many things just right, which was why I have had such success with most of
the horses I have worked with. This course has also helped me to reason more effectively about
my past experiences and use the available knowledge from this course to build on my skills,
allowing me to change and improve. I have been able to better see how to solve problems
encountered when working with a difficult horse, and have use the knowledge from the course to
think more creatively and apply new strategies to my training.
Synopsis
In this signature assignment I will reflect on some past experiences training abused horses and
apply my knowledge about the processes of learning and demonstrate specific example of when I used
such methods as shaping, reinforcement/punishment, conditioning and observational learning. This
paper specifically deals with abused horses I have worked with and how their learning abilities and
levels differed from non-abused horses. These differences are pointed out and used to show why I had
to do what I did. Characteristics of abused horses are discussed and an example is given to allow the
reader to understand how conditioning aided in the result of abused horse behavior and how that same
conditioning is used to overcome that behavior. Curtain techniques are described such and bomb
proofing and constructive aggression and how these all have their roots in the psychological process of
learning, revolving around a current behavior of the horse and the desired behavior. The paper
concludes with the before and after behaviors of the horse to help the reader see how the use of this
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Psych 1010
Signature Assignment
style of teaching and reinforcement worked. Emphasis is given on how learning about learning has
helped me become a better trainer and understand my line of work better.
About Horses
During the year 2009-2010 I worked with a 5
year old Arabian broodmare named Rose who
had been abused by all of her previous owners.
She was now pregnant and her current owners
wanted to gain her trust and make her more
manageable to work around so she would be
safer when she foaled. Thus they called on my
services.
Training abused horses is fundamentally
different from training non-abused horses. All
horses are prey animals with a natural fear of
the unknown. This fear and
suspicion helps to protect them
in the wild but can be a
nuisance and become a very
dangerous trait in
domesticated horses.
Even non-abused horses
have fears of things we
know to be harmless such as
plastic bags, balloons, flags, and
sudden loud noises. This must be
taken into account when working around any
horse.
A horse, just as a person, can be abused
physically or mentally or both and different
symptoms are shown in each case though there
are general characteristics that tend to be
common from horse to horse. Abused horses
usually have a lack of trust directed to specific,
if not all, human handlers. This can be show in
fearful behavior or aggression; in either case it
causes a dangerous situation to the horse and
handler. These horses are often touch sensitive
to curtain areas of the body especially the head,
some wont even allow other horses to touch
them. Abused horses are usually
overtly flighty, meaning they are
easily frightened and some go
into fits of terror when
encountering stimuli they
have been conditioned to associate
with their abusers.
Horses, like humans all learn
at their own pace and an abused
horse is generally guaranteed to learn
much slower than even a very
young untrained horse. This is all
because of past 'training' that occurs in
their abusive situations. Re-teaching
these horses is like putting them through
therapy. It means changing their attitude,
‘all people will hurt me’, developing
trust, and then starting with the basics of
ground manners like standing, leading,
haltering, tying, etc. and going from there. A
horse that has never been abused doesn't need
to go through the same process because they
have not been conditioned to see humans as
predators that will hurt them.
Abuse, Conditioning a Horse to be Afraid
An example of this comes from my work with Rose. Whenever she saw a person who was
holding a rope nearby or approaching her, she would begin to run recklessly about until she literally
collapsed from shear exhaustion. She was non-aggressive, but would run anything over in her haste to
get away. In humans this could almost be called a phobia, an irrational fear of a person, place, thing, or
idea. At the time I only knew the equine science behind training horses but now I also understand the
psychology of it. Rose had probably been conditioned to fear people with halters and ropes in her
past.
The process of classical conditioning could have happened in an incident that occurred before I
met her. She had once gotten loose in a farmers crop and the farmer, unable to contact her owner at
that time, got a bunch of his farm hands together to try to halter her and lead her back to where she
belonged. They were unable to catch her. Instead she was chased while carrying ropes. She ran in
complete terror from them for most of the day becoming dehydrated and exhausted. The farmers
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Signature Assignment
never caught her but eventually herded her back through the fence she had broken through. She was
then no longer chased so was 'safe' in her mind, thus producing a negative reinforce, the removal of
the threat, to her behavior of running.
Before incident
UCS(being chased)
UCR(running away + fear)
During incident
Neutral Stimulus(people with
UCR(running away + fear)
ropes)+UCS(being chased)
After incident
CS(people with ropes)
CR(Running away + fear)
This
experience taught Rose that not only did people with ropes want to 'hunt' and hurt her but that she
could run away, and that being away was much better than being near people. So now, the neutral
stimulus of a person with a rope has taught her the conditioned response of 'run away as fast and as
long as you can!' to get the reinforcer of safety. This is only one example of how abuse or negligence
can condition a horse to fear, avoid and even become aggressive towards people. In Roses story this
was not done on purpose but it still resulted in potentially harmful behavior and a horse most people
would never want to own. This was not Roses only problem so it is likely she received other abuse
after this incident.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment
It can be very difficult to train an abused horse because they are far more willing to be afraid
than to trust a handler. In their mind it is easier to simply run away. What handlers use to punish
behavior or even reinforce it may be interpreted by the horse as a threat or a direct attack. Therefore
bad behavior, like biting or kicking, is very difficult to discipline. In disciplining a non-abused horse I
use what is called constructive aggression. This is a reflection of how a horses herd functions.
Horses function in a herd as either submissive or dominant and in a health relationship view
their handler as dominant and themselves as submissive. Therefore behavior like biting is dealt with
harshly but not with anger or hate. You merely use your own body language (using angry eyes,
shoving, jerking on the halter etc.) and tone of voice (authoritative and loud) as a way to communicate
to them your displeasure. An abused horse often sees such behavior as an attack rather than mere
dominance assertion from the handler. So until trust is established some behaviors like not listening,
outright disobedience and refusal to respect space, have to simply be ignored unless they are directly
threatening the safety of the handler. It all depends on the specific horses’ case.
My work with Rose is another very good example of this. Rose was one of the few horses I
have met that was body shy, meaning that she feared and did not allow a handler and other
horses to touch her body. This presented a problem for me as her trainer because physical touch
is used with horses for behavior reinforcement, such as rubbing the neck or withers for good
behavior. And for behavior punishment, such as pinching and shoving for unacceptable behavior.
I had to teach her that physical contact such as grooming was an expression of affection and not
an attempt to hurt her.
So to use reinforcers she was comfortable with I would always work with her head first. She
always felt safe when her handler did not have a rope, she was in her stall, and the handler was standing
directly in front of her. I would reinforce good behavior by putting her in that safe environment. I
would make her uncomfortable by doing something she may perceive as threatening; when she reacted
calmly to it I would reward her by removing the threat and rubbing her head. This form of
reinforcement helped to communicate to her that she was safe with her handler, even if something scary
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Psych 1010
Signature Assignment
happened. To punish unacceptable behavior such as bolting away, I would simply not leave. Rose’s
reinforcement for running away had been the removal of the thing she didn’t like. I would not ignore
her behavior but simply present different outcomes to her, forcing her to learn the point, ‘people are not
bad, they do not chase you but they don’t go away if you bolt’.
Dealing with Extinction and Recovery
For most abused horses the memory of pain and fear caused by a handler is generalized to
'all people are bad' or 'all women wearing perfume will hurt me' or 'all men in hats like to chase
me'. Even when abused horse had been worked with and 'in therapy' for years they will still have
the memory of pain and so that must still be constantly proven wrong and one bad day can undo
a years worth of progress. Extinction is what happens when, without the conditioned stimulus
present, the horse ‘forgets’ about how they were taught to respond. This often occurs rapidly in
abused horses because their instincts and the conditioning of fear is so much stronger, especially
when training has just begun.
Recovery is the opposite of Extinction, it is when the horse ‘remembers’ spontaneously
something they learned before. In abused horses this can go both ways. They can have an
extinction of their knowledge of being abused and then suddenly recover that knowledge and go
right back to being frightened. Or, they could recover the conditioning that occurred with their
handler and be gentle, calm and happy, as if they had never been abused before. This can happen
over the course of months or in a matter of hours while working with the horse. One moment they
will be fine, trusting and calm, the next they will be terrified and bolting away. However with
consistent work this cycle can be brought under control.
Extinction occurred quite often with Rose. At the time, it seemed as if she suffered from
some sort of short term memory loss. I would work with her all week long and when I would
come back from the weekend she would act as if she had never seen me before in her life. I
know now that this was extinction. This became very regular as she consistently ‘forgot’ me
each week for the year I worked with her. However she did improve, with each week she
experienced less and less extinction of what I taught her.
Conditioning Trust and Shaping Behavior
In training horses to loose fears of objects a classical conditioning technique is used called
Bomb proofing and this is what I did with Rose. Bomb Proofing exposes horses deliberately to fear or
flight inducing stimuli until the stimuli no longer elects a flight response. This is similar to the
technique known as Flooding used in behavior therapy. This involves presenting feared stimuli in
excess while not allowing the individual to avoid it. Eventually this results in an extinction of the fear.
This method is used to teach mature horses that certain things, like flags and balloon in a parade, the
family dog, water, and things that make loud sounds like guns or horns, are not things they need to fear.
The stimulus is presented at random times and always in a place where they feel safe. This is done over
and over until they are no longer afraid of the stimulus. Really you are teaching the horse what to
ignore and what to pay attention to.
When I presented new stimulus to Rose I would place her in
her stall (a smaller area, where there were fewer distractions, where
she felt naturally safe and secure) and expose her to the new
stimulus. For example, at some time in the course of working with
her I would show her a new object, like a rope. I always did this
randomly so she would not learn to predict when I would scare her,
and it was always followed by a stimulus she found to be pleasant.
The rope was the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response
she had learned from her abuse was ‘run away!’ I began carrying a rope around my shoulder whenever
I was around her, especially in her stall. The safe feeling of being in her stall was the unconditioned
response and the new stimulus was me with the rope. After having the safe feelings paired with the
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Katie Bresnahan
Psych 1010
Signature Assignment
presence of the rope over and over she became conditioned to me with a rope as meaning safety.
This is only one example of conditioning an abused horse. It takes a very long time because it
must be a strong enough conditioning to overcome the power of abusive conditioning that happened
with pain and fear. When working with any horse conditioning is happening simultaneously with other
forms of learning like shaping and mimicking. In working with Rose I used a combination of
conditioning and shaping to teach her to be haltered, lead, tied and groomed without being afraid. I
would also have her close by when I worked with other horses so she could see how they reacted to
what I did there by allowing her to learn by observation.
Conclusion
As I progressed with Rose in training she
improved in her behavior tremendously. When I first
started working with her the only time a human could
approach her was when she was in her stall. She
could not be haltered or lead. She could not be
groomed and her hooves could not be trimmed so she
suffered from skin disease and severely cracked
hooves. She was flighty and unsafe for her owners to
work. She was socially deprived
because her flighty behavior drove
other horses away. She suffered from
almost constant anxiety which
resulted in a ravenous appetite and a
fear of many strange things like wind
blowing, rain, and being alone. She
was markedly uninterested in the
world, lacking curiosity and energy
to function properly. She was not
happy and perky as a healthy horse
should be.
had done before. She was perkier and markedly more
active and happy socializing with other horses and
people. She was clearly happier and her anxiety had
been greatly reduced. Rose still had a long way to go
but she was doing much better and making progress
much faster. With more work she was well on her
way to living a much happier healthier life with out
the risk of being abandoned or abused further because
of her past behavior.
I did not clearly understand the depth of what
was going on at the time and how my
training styles were so
strongly affecting
the outcome of my
work. However, now that I
have taken the Psychology 1010 class I
can more easily understand the different
methods used to learn new material and
remember and retain old information. This
has been extremely helpful in allowing me to
After I had been working with her for about a year understand more fully the behavior of the horses I
Rose had improved greatly. I had taught her to trust
work with, how it could have resulted and how to
and enjoy the presence and attention of people. She
improve upon that behavior. Now that I have gained
could now be tied safely and groomed. She allowed
this understanding I will continue to use the
for physical touch over most of her body including
techniques of classical and operant conditioning as I
picking up her front feet to be cleaned and cared for. work with horses. I feel that I could not have learned
She no longer bolted away from her handler when she a more helpful and insightful thing through this class.
got spooked but would stay close by at watch them
I will now also be able to apply this knowledge to my
for reassurance. She was able to be lead safely around own learning thereby improving my life and
education.
obstacles without falling into a panic attack as she
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