1.Horses not properly socialized as youngsters, who have poor, sometimes aggressive, social skills with other horses
2.Horses not being fed as they should (free-choice), showing aggression to humans delivering food
3.Horses in management situations where herds are constantly in a state of flux
Relationships based on aggression or force, or those that require another party to submit are not the relationships we should be building with the horse, and frankly they are not even necessary. For as large and powerful as they are, horses can be trained without aggression or force. As I mentioned earlier, part of who they are is an animal that spends more of his time deferring than fighting.
Unfortunately, some horse training ‘methods’ (TM) are built upon this misguided understanding of dominance and horse behavior, and advocate being the dominant herd leader. These methods fall under the other definition of dominance: the act of controlling, ruling or governing, often in an arbitrary manner.
If we analyzed training methods promoted to deal with ‘dominance’, we’d often find out that what’s being promoted is known in terms of learning theory as positive punishment. Positive punishment is the addition (hence the positive) of something aversive enough, at the time of an unwanted behavior, that it decreases the chances the behavior will be repeated in the future. Research has shown that animals trained with positive punishment are at risk for inhibited learning, their problem-solving skills are reduced, their fear-related and aggressive behaviors often increase, and there is an increased chance of injury to both trainer and animal. Another problem with using positive punishment is that people tend to use it incorrectly, as almost a knee-jerk reaction to what behavior they don’t want, rather than really thinking about what’s motivating the horse to behave the way he’s behaving, and instead reinforcing what they do want.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Let’s face it: for most people’s purposes, if horse and human are going to have a good relationship, the human needs to be ‘in charge’. It’s just a safety thing. How we attain that position can happen in a few different ways: 1. We can be a dictator, assume those under us are constantly trying to overthrow us, and rule by using aggression and force. 2. We can be a leader, giving of and worthy of respect, and teach the horse what behavior we expect of him. So how do we train horses to respect us, and see us as the leader, without entering into a relationship built on domination? By first respecting them. A few commandments of establishing that respect might be as follows:
1.Understand who they are, how they operate, and what are their species-specific needs, from research that has been proven and accepted as fact – not just trainer X’s subjective opinion on horses and their behavior
2.Boundaries -all good relationships have them, and relationships between horse and human need them too.
3.Learn how horses communicate, how to read their behavior, and what is normal behavior for them
4.Learn training methods that are appropriate, and fair, for a variety of situations. Learn which methods say Yes to the horse, and which say No, and endeavor to say Yes as much as possible.
5.Understand that training requires consistency in application and consistency in rules Leaders are consistent, and predictable in their responses, and they set things up so that the learner can succeed and find the ‘right’ answer, rather than just punishing errors.
Happy horsemanship!
References:
Fureix, C., Bourjade, M., Henry, S., Sankey, C., Hausberger, M. Exploring aggression regulation in managed groups of horses Equus caballus Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 138, Issue 3 , Pages 216-228, May 2012
McGreevy, P., Oddie, C., Burton, F.L., McLean, A.N., The horse-human dyad: can we align horse training and handling activities with the equid social ethogram? Vet J. 2009 Jul;181(1):12-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.03.005. Epub 2009 Apr 17.
McGreevy, P. Equine Behavior, Saunders, 2012
http://equilibregaia.com/equus-caballus/the-social-life-of-feral-horses-part-1/http://avsabonline.org
Warboel
