Over the years, there has been a lot of discussion about different learning styles and modalities of children. It’s common knowledge (I think!) for parents and teachers to consider the style that is most comfortable for their child to learn and also the modality in which that child learns best. It appears that the different learning styles might parallel personality traits and the modalities are the ways that information is transmitted to and processed in the brain.
Now, take that with a grain of salt because I’m not a child educator and don’t even have children, I’m just looking at this from an analytical perspective…
I look at this information and it makes perfect sense to me. Next, I wonder why so many horse trainers tend to treat all horses as if they are the same, as if they have one learning style and one modality? Seems limiting at best. Yes, different trainers talk a great deal about personalities, but not about how that personality processes information, which is what matters when it comes to training, after all.
As an effort NOT to limit them, I think it’s worth looking at these same learning styles & modalities and seeing how they apply to horse training.
The modalities fit into this scenario when we look at how horses “process” information. The most common modalities are visual, kinesthetic and auditory. In my experience, horses can and do use all three of these, how much depends upon how much encouragement they get to utilize all of their ability to process the information that comes into their world.
Visual in the context of human children normally means reading, pictures, graphs, some sort of visual presentation. Clearly my horses don’t read nor do they have much opportunity to process pictures and graphs, BUT they can process what they see other horses do. Foals have this ability from the day they are born, they see their mom eating solid food and they try grass, hay, grain. They see their mom pin her ears at a lower ranking horse or move away from a higher ranking horse, and they follow suit. It’s more than just mimicking, they are learning what behaviors work as communication techniques. Horses are remarkably visual, taking clues from body language, both horse and human. Some are more sensitive to the visual clues of humans than others as some horses tend to tune out human “body language” and ignore a great deal of what doesn’t fit with their understanding of correct Horsetiquette
Kinesthetic is receiving information via touch. In children that normally means hands on activities such as projects and experiments. With horses this probably seems like a no brainer, because they are physical creatures, but it’s also something they learn early on, their mom bumps them out of the way, or she may shove the foal toward the milk bar on that first exploration trip looking for food. Horses use their prehensile lips to investigate new things, being curious by nature, they use touch to investigate and often determine if something is worth being wary about This is the modality being used when horses are asked to touch something that scares them and face their fears.
Auditory may be less obvious and less prevalent, as it is often less common in children as well. But horses are surprisingly aware of sounds and can make the connection quite rapidly between sound and what that sound means. For example, how many horses have you seen that stop moving on a lunge line when the handler says “good boy!” or “good girl!”. As a prey animal they need to be very aware of sound, what many rider’s don’t consider is how many different words they can assimilate into their vocabulary. Clicker training is a great example of auditory learning, as horses quickly understand that the bridge signal has significant meaning.
It only make sense that if understanding your child’s learning style helps make education easier and time spent more effective, wouldn’t the same apply to horses?
I’ve tweaked the 4 basic learning styles so that they fit the limitations of horses (for example, mine don’t read!)… and I’ve given them names for ease of discussion. I will caution that learning styles are not fixed attributes and a horse can move from one style to another at times, so they should not be used to pigeon hole the horse into a narrow scope, but one style may be preferred most of the time. Some horses will bounce back and forth between styles based on the task at hand or in adaptation to a human’s training style.
Doer: This learning style may be most prevalent in horses that tends to be higher energy and more inclined to movement (right or wrong) rather than pondering a choice before making it. This horse just goes into action and depends upon the trainer to help it know if the “action” was right or not. They tend to be more of a reactor than a thinker.
Thinker: This personality also often hesitates before offering a potential solution. This learning style appreciates structure in tasks, with clear steps leading from one point to another. The Thinker considers options before tossing out a potential option. The Thinker also often doesn’t like being wrong, so he doesn’t want just toss out a possible option, he wants to consider it and try to get the RIGHT one. Routine and consistency of requests works best for this learning type.
Problem Solver: This learning style likes to sort out the point and works best in a free shaping environment where it is allowed to figure out the point based on feedback from the trainer. Horses are natural problem solvers and learners in a free shaping environment, starting from the day they are born when they must find the “milk bar” which is the ultimate reward for their search and discovery mission. This learning style is often not encouraged by “traditional” horse trainers but is commonly rediscovered by clicker trainers using a bridge signal to let the horse know they are closing in on a desired behavior.
Social Butterfly: This type thrives on personal interaction and the interaction is of more interest to this type than the tasks at hand. This is a very people oriented horse and can be very sensitive to aversive training techniques because the more aversive the technique, the larger the rift placed between the social butterfly and the person they are with.
There you have it, four basic learning styles that mirror human learning styles (yes I keep saying horses aren’t so different from humans as we often think!).
Of the different learning styles, there is often some overlap and some horses can be as much one type as another. For example, many horses are “Social Butterflys” as well as another learning type simultaneously. Often nature and nurture during the formative months/years have a lot to do with if a horse fits into this learning style.
Doers and Thinkers are often on two different ends of the same spectrum, but that’s not to say that a Doer is never a Thinker or vice versa. But most horses tend to either act first or think first, how your horse fits into this is most easily determined by his initial reaction to a request.
Problem Solvers are often the exception rather than the rule and problem solving often is born of boredom. For example, that horse that learns to unlatch his stall door or paddock gate. This may not be something he chooses to apply to most normal training situations, but it CAN be encouraged and developed with a technique like operant conditioning where he is encouraged to figure out what’s being asked of him with a bridge signal to let him know when he’s on the right track.
So, lets look at these learning styles and modalities and how that horse reacts to a standard training technique. Go to just about any “traditional” horse trainer and they will tell you if a horse doesn’t respond, increase the pressure. This means if you ask the horse for a behavior and he doesn’t respond, you increase the force behind the cue. Some use a 5 second rule or a 3 second rule, where the horse has a set time to react properly before the “trainer” uses more pressure to force a point.
The Doer is more reactive by nature and is probably off “doing” before pressure can escalate if the cue was to inspire movement. But this learning type is one that is in motion first and finds slowing down or being still more of a challenge. This is the type of horse that novices often decide a stronger bit is in order when the horse doesn’t seem to hear their request for it to slow down. But in fact, the learning style of this horse says “go” first, think about the request later, and any escalation of cues tends to inspire more flight instincts and less thinking, which is just the opposite of what the rider wants when thinking of slowing the horse down. After all, increase the pressure means increase the energy level to this particular horse, he/she is a Doer after all.
The Thinker may appear dim to some trainers at the point of escalating cues for non responsiveness. But the truth is, this type just doesn’t jump to a conclusion and toss any old thing out there in the face of a request. By escalating pressure and asking HARDER, it actually distracts the thinker from choosing an option. Some may become visibly irritated by in increase in pressure. It’s akin to taking to someone who doesn’t speak your language and yelling when they don’t respond. It’s just down right RUDE! What works best with The Thinker is to give him/her a chance to make a choice and pick a potential solution. The key to knowing if the Thinker understood your request is what action he/she took. The only flaw to that idea is if the horse is standing still, and does nothing, it could be because the horse didn’t understand. The key to think type is asking again is fine, but escalation of pressure is akin to screaming, sometimes asking more softly helps or asking a different way, because a change may help clarify if the original request wasn’t clear. Clarity is everything to The Thinker.
The Problem Solver is an interactive learner. This horse enjoys experimenting to figure out the answer. Some horses don’t relish making a choice, particularly if it might be a wrong choice, so although they all experiment, this type really likes the process. So, being wrong isn’t such a big deal to this type, it’s part of the process of learning and trying different things. BUT this type doesn’t need more pressure if they pick the wrong answer, he just needs a sign that he’s heading down the right road. One note on this type, punishment tends to decrease the horse’s desire to problem solve, which is why these horses may not seem so brilliant when they are being trained by a human, but left to their own devices, they can get out of fences and into feed rooms. Also, gimmicks that restrict movement tend to inhibit a problem solver because it restricts his options. This type needs to be given the liberty to try different options and be encouraged when he’s made a right choice. Positive reinforcement and a bridge signal to pin point when the horse is right really gets the problem solver engaged and working with the human toward a specific solution.
The Social Butterfly loves the interaction of training and relishes the partnership. Punishment can be particularly daunting to this personality type because it is the ultimate sign of criticism and displeasure. Punishment often confuses a Social Butterfly because they enjoy training because of the relationship with their person, not because they love to learn. They do best with a positive reinforcement training technique that supports the positive relationship building that this type craves.
What does this do for you? Hopefully give you some food for thought on the topic if what escalation does to your horse based on his learning style and help you answer the question, does escalation help or hurt a horse’s ability to learn?
