Who's Leading Whom?

"Leadership" is one of those horse training words that is tossed around all too casually, in my opinion, without really thinking about that that means. It has become a buzz word used commonly in context of how we (humans) need to be good leaders in order to train a horse. This idea of successful training depends upon building the horse's trust and confidence in our leadership abilities. And most problems are attributed to a horse's lack of "respect" or our inability to be a strong "leader" that can inspire the horse's "respect". These two concepts are intricately tied in most conversations about training.

Millions of dollars have been spent on clinics, lessons, DVDs & books which claim they can open the secret door to this idea of creating "respect". One of the most common example of how to get respect is by moving the horse around a round pen. The idea being that who moves whom indicates to the horse which creature is the leader and which is the follower. Ultimately, the "mover" is "The Leader", the being moved, by default, makes one "The Follower".

Pondering this idea of respect and leadership, I've decided this concept (that humans need to be strong leaders in order for the horse to respect us) is pretty much backassward.

In order to build the horse's trust and confidence, AND in order for them to learn to respect us, horses need humans to be good followers and keen observers. The horse needs someone who makes requests, but doesn't insist, and allows the horse to lead, by indicating if he is comfortable and confident enough to do as asked. That partnership, built on a conversation that respects & honors the horse's opinion, is one that will evolve into "respect".

Respect doesn't develop out of fear, respect develops from trust and admiration. Fear simply produces more of the same: fear. And generally, when there is fear, there is also tension & anxiety. After all, who wants to be partners with the local bully?

When we insist, (decreeing ourselves to be the leader rather than earning that position), we assume the horse is ready physically and/or emotionally for . A true partner will follow the horse's lead, letting the horse dictate when he's ready for the next step in the training progression. After all, it's his body, his mind, and who would know better than him if he's ready to carry a human on his back, jump that 3-foot fence or spin on a dime?

In my world, that makes me the follower, not the leader. I can request, but the horse must decide how he answers that request. I can't make that decision for him. If I do, I'm just asking for tension and angst. And even if it's not obvious to the casual observer, the tension and angst will bubble to the surface, it's just a matter of time.

How many times have I heard some say "he did it just fine last week, he just doesn't WANT to ".

Some days I get up in the morning with a sore back or an aching joint and doing certain tasks could cause physical damange if I did them anyway. Nothing in life is static, neither our physical or emotional states, nor those of our horses. Some days I don't want to either. But it's normally not without a reason. Can't the horse have one of those days too?

Ah, I can hear you thinking "but if I wake up in the morning and don't feel like going to work, school... (again, fill in the blank), I DO IT ANYWAY". That idea implies if humans push themselves to do things they are not physically or mentally comfortable doing, the horse should live by the same rules. Only horses aren't humans, and human rules don't apply. Force a horse to live by human rules and the human is asking for a wreck, because at some point, the horse will feel over faced, and try to avoid his discomfort and the task. According to Horse Rules, when your uncomfortable, FLEE! And generally fleeing doesn't include behaving in a way humans typically covet.

It also implies that the human is the authority on the physical, mental, and emotional boundaries & limitations of the horse. Tell that to the race horses that break down on the track each year, they don't run for their own health, but at the direction & discretion of a human.

Another common opinion is that if a person "lets a horse get away with " then the horse will always try to "get away with" not doing that task when asked in the future.

OK... being a realist here, that's dipping one's toe in the paranoid pond, isn't it? Horses just aren't really that conniving. Humans are conniving, horses are much more black and white in their thought process, they do what they are comfortable doing, they do what they enjoy, they do what comes naturally to them, they generally try to do as they are asked, IF they understand what that is, but they often don't understand. And lack of understanding isn't due to their poor communication skills, but rather the humans lack of skill conveying what they want. Horses speak "horse" just fine. If we want them to understand us, we have to present our concepts in a way that is clear to them.

So, back to the idea of leader vs follower: If I am a good follower, I suggest "can we try this?" He answers yes or no, if he answers no, he's telling me I need to back up a step or three to something less demanding. If he answers yes, he's leading me forward to the next step. If in the "next step", he tells me he's not ready after all, he's leading me to either break things down into more fundamental steps or he's telling me that he was mistaken and wasn't ready to move on after all and we need to go back to a prior step. Again, he's leading me, I'm not leading him.

In my world, this is a dance, based on communication. The bottom line is: How can we demand respect from our horse when we don't respect his opinions and concerns? A good leader needs to be able to listen, swap roles and become the follower when needed. Life is about balance. Training animals is about balance as well. Pushing an animal too far out of it's comfort zone is an accident waiting to happen. AND it's never really necessary, after all, if a whale can be taught to jump into the air and perform flips for an audience without being forced, why can't we apply the same training concepts to our horses? Of course we can...

If we face resistance in our horses, we need to look at the root cause. Where did we fail to communicate clearly? Where in our partnership together did we stop listening effectively or responding appropriately to the horse's hesitation?

Preceptions of pressure

I was watching someone try to load a horse the other day and I commented that the mare didn't like the pressure they were applying. The person responded with a confused expression and responded that she didn't feel they were applying much pressure. As if her perception was more inportant than the horse's view on the topic.

This brought me to speculate, how could their be such a different interpretation of "pressure"?

Webster's says:
Pressure
1 a: the burden of physical or mental distress
2: the application of force to something by something else in direct contact with it

So, back to this horse, they had run a lunge line behind her to try to push her into the trailer, which looked to me like force "by something in direct contact" with her (definition #2) and as the mare reared to spin away from the trailer, it seemed clear to me that was an example of "mental distress" (definition #1).

This all ended with the mare not getting into the trailer and with multiple lacerations on her face from her nylon halter and possibly anything she hit on the way down as she reared and flip over backwards when she was lashed to the inside of the trailer.

I'm at a loss as to why humans have a different idea of "pressure" for themselves and their horses. If a human was forced into a room (or a box) with ropes, I have no doubt that they would feel they were "pressured". If they were pushed to the extent that they were fighting against restraints, I have no doubt this would be perceived as "pressure" as well. I think the very thought of rope restraints would give all but the most kinky of us humans some level of "mental distress". (-;

Horses can feel a fly on their coat, so surely it's not appropriate to assume they are insensitive to the point of requiring more pressure than we humans feel comfortable experiencing.

Is the human perception that force isn't significant pressure because horses are so large in comparision to our own physical size? Whale trainers know they can't pressure a whale into performing, and they are certainly larger than a horse, so size alone can't logically be the reason. Or is it because whales won't tolerate pressure and horses will? Horses will forgive us if we pressure them and whales just leave and ignore humans that try to apply force. Or worse, and hurt the trainer.

If the reason is because horses tolerate us, then it's a horse's good nature that allows humans to behave in a way that is potentially harmful to the horse. If the horse was a human child, forced, drugged, and finally pushed to the panic point of hurting herself in her struggle to get free, the local Children's Protection Agency would have stepped in and taken control. But it was only a horse.

At the rist of being labeld a tree hugger (which I probably really AM) I think we should all look at what force is truely necessary and consider how we can become more compasionate in our interaction with the animals that share our planet. After all, just because horses tolerate force, pressure and abuse, doesn't make it right.

On Being in a Hurry

The other day I was loading a new pony into my trailer and of course, I was in a hurry, and had been told he loads fine... but he wasn't jumping on like I hoped. I could feel my anxiety going up a bit, I hate being late and here I was with this pony, acting quite stubborn and we had someplace to be!

To make a long story short, I did get him loaded but his contentment to stand in the hot sun rather than get on that trailer gave me some food for thought....

How many times have I heard people talk about how stubborn their horse can be when they are in a hurry? Suffice to say, I've heard that often, and why would that be?

Horses are certainly intuitive enough to know that we want them to hurry up. And I can see why humans would see resistance to that idea as being "stubborn". But is it really?

From the horse's point of view, they "hurry up" if it's not safe to stay where they are. Being flight animals, that's the best reason for moving fast. The second best reason may be play time, but when we're talking loading in a trailer or crossing a creek on a trail ride, play is not part of this conversation.

Seems to me that they horse is justified in thinking if the message we project is "hurry up" then the message they get is "something is amiss, it's not safe!". The question left for the horse to answer is: "What is not safe and how do I get to safety?"

"OH!" Thinks the horse, "You want me to walk inside that little box, but you told me it's not safe!" OR, "You want me to cross that creek, but you TOLD me it's not safe!"

Logically, I think if the horse trusted the human, at that moment, it would just do as asked. And maybe it would, but life isn't all black and white, there are shades of grey.

Even if the horse trusts the human in most cases, once we have tapped into that part of the horse brain that says "it's not safe", then we're fighting a battle we can't win because WE are telling the horse it's not safe. WE are offering the contradiction to them, and they have to figure out what to do about it, because we are sending mixed messages.

The contradiction is:

• The horse trusts me to give him good guidance and take care of him
• I'm telling him it's not safe because I'm telling him to hurry
• Where is safe? It's at home, but you want me to leave home?
• I'm getting upset, I increase the pressure and now he KNOWS it's not safe, I've just confirmed his resolve to put safety as his top priority.

So, in fact, by not loading or crossing the bridge, creek, or ravine, the horse IS following our lead. The problem is, what we projected to him isn't what we meant to project, and the message we gave isn't the directive we THINK he should be following.

Clear communication is the biggest conundrum in our relationship with animals. Did they understand the message we thought we projected? Or are they acting on the message we actually sent? (-;

Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar

Some of you may remember that at the end of 2007 I took on a rescue Curly gelding that was headed to an auction (and from there, you can only imagine). He had issues about most things, (from loading in a trailer, handling his feet, taking a bit in his mouth, most interaction with humans). I sorted this out with a combination of clicker training, effectively directed energy and clarification about boundaries and my space (vs his space).

The short version is that he was one unhappy guy, but basically a nice horse underneath all of his bluff and bluster. I’ve been accused of anthropomorphism in the past and I’m happy to say that doesn’t bother me in the least, because I believe that animals have a much greater capacity for emotion than most humans credit them. They may not express it in a way that’s obvious to us, but I don’t believe humans have cornered the market on feeling.

Back to Cal: I always learn from every horse and the bigger the challenge, the more I learn. One of the things that I got out of this experience was an awareness of an aspect of the inner workings of the human mind.

Once I felt he was ready to be rehomed, I took a series of videos of Cal: Cal being tacked up; Cal under saddle; Cal seeing a giant umbrella for the first time; & Cal walking over and wearing a tarp). One of the more valuable lessons I learned from the videos is that in MY MIND he still made aggressive overtures and my memory held visions of him at his worst. I had to see the videos to realize how far he had really come. When working with him I would see a flash of ears back out of the corner of my eye and my mind would fill in with the worst behavior I remembered. Not so… the flashes of ears back were few and far between, and only a couple in all the videos I did of him. Once again, I proved that my own sensors don’t always give an accurate read.

There is a name for this phenomenon: Fundamental Attribution Error. When humans interpret the behavior of others, we often make a particularly human mistake. We tend to attribute too much to character and disposition and too little to situation and context.

So, how does this fit into a training blog? Simple. How many times have we all heard remarks such as “My puppy chewed the leg of the couch out of SPITE!”. Or “My dog peed on the floor to get back at me for leaving him home alone! “ Or “My horse won’t stand still when I mount when we’re away from home, just to make me look foolish.” Or “My horse won’t load in the trailer at the end of a show day just to make me crazy!”

In fact, in many cases, the animal does what it does without any personal affront intended. The puppy is bored, and there was that nice couch leg tempting him to see if it was tasty. The dog pees on the floor because… well, it has to pee and no one is there to let it outside. The horse won’t stand still for mounting away from home because it’s nervous or anxious or just needs more training or help relaxing (or both). The horse won’t load because he’s tired and just doesn’t want to exert the energy to maintain his balance in that long trailer ride home. None of these are personal afronts, but humans often take things personally, seeing what we want to see or seeing what we normally see instead of the reality of what is actually happening.

Back to Cal’s story… During Cal’s rehab, I did struggle with feeling his ugly faces and aggressive posturing were personal. After all, I had never done anything to inspire all that, had I? Lesson One for me: I had to see him for what he was, which was a product of his past, he was conditioned to react to humans by keeping them at a distance with his expressions and posturing. It had nothing to do with me personally.

Lesson Two (for me): Considering Cal’s past and defenses, I expected to see a “glass half empty” attitude, so that’s what I saw. Once he began to profit from our rehab work and show a more “glass half full” attitude, I had to not only see how he was changing but also stop focusing so much on the flickers of negativity and see the big picture of how he was blossoming into a new horse.

This came to light when I was watching videos I had created for a potential new home for Cal. I had wanted anyone that might be interested in sharing their life with him to get the full picture, so I created a series of long dull, uncut videos that would show the extent of his ugly faces and how the expressions would come and go. In reality, when I watched the videos, there were only a few flickers of attitude and long stretches of engaged, cheerful, cooperative Cal. Yet during the actual making of the videos, my mind focused on the few moments of attitude and basically not the prolonged periods of pleasant interaction.

The bottom line is that I saw what I expected to see, which was attitude and it felt much more frequent than it really was. My expectations didn’t allow me to notice how infrequently the “attitude” surfaced. I saw what I expected to see.

Sometimes it’s hard not to see what we expect to see, whether that means seeing something better than it is or worse than it is. Reality can be a hard pill to swallow at times, and at other times, it’s a welcome bit of good news!

I did rehome Cal and I’m happy to say that not only did I learn a lot about rehabbing difficult cases from him, he learned a lot about giving humans another chance from me.

The best news is that Cal is not only in a great home but here’s an excerpt the latest email I got from his new human:

“Cal is simply wonderful. You were right when you saw something under all that bluster. He's still funny old Cal with those ears but he's SO willing and he SO wants to do the right thing. In fact, the only mistakes being made in this relationship are mine. I absolutely love him to bits!!!
I've learned to be much much lighter with my hands and ride with a loose rein most of the time. He's a lot of fun to ride. Last week it even warmed up enough for us to leave the arena and ride up the road and through the trainer's bush and fields - the snow was up to their bellies and Cal just plowed through it. Such a good boy! Have I mentioned that I love him?”

I’m not sure it gets much better than that. Life is a series of lessons and teachers that join us on our path to wherever we are headed. I feel fortunate that Cal and I could share what we had to teach each other during our time together and most of all, that he’s finally found a home where he is loved and happy!

May all horses in need be so lucky!

Asking the right questions…

Across the internet I see horse trainers that have hung out their personal shingle with the answers to your “horse problems”. Some are selling books, some have DVD sets, videos, special halters, lead ropes in various lengths, tie rings, special harnesses, bridles, bits, saddles, bareback pads, sticks, wands and whips, and some market training packages containing "all" you need to answer your questions and solve your problems. It’s all about what you might add to your tack box of solutions. We are a culture of people looking for quick fixes and instant answers. Answers… that’s what we search for. Would a different saddle fix the problem? A new bit? Or maybe NO bit?

Some of these trainers have developed an almost cultish following, and some have created a marketing machine that has literally swept North America (possibly the world!) with its ability to tap into what horse people seem to want most often, and offer it for sale. What is it that horse people seem to want the most? Pure and simple, it is a formula to solve problems, a rote pattern to follow in order to find that illusive bit of indefinable attitude that we seem to have labeled “respect. In short, these marketing geniuses are selling Respect-In-A-Box that can be delivered to your door or mailbox.

“Respect” has taken on an almost mystical meaning. Like some unattainable, un-measurable aspect of our relationship with our animals. It’s what always seems to be missing when horse does something that displeases a human. What’s wrong with that horse? It doesn’t have enough RESPECT. But what is that really? Do we want the horse to just stay out of our space? Do what we ask? And what does “do what we ask” really mean? Comply without question? Not express any opinions? Never resist or evade?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being critical of those that market their goods and services. What I’m suggesting is that before looking for an answer, perhaps the move valuable place to start is by asking the right questions.

Animals have been depersonalized by science and by the food industry. Unfortunately, that depersonalization seems to have carried over into other aspects of our lives with animals. At the risk of being accused of relentless sentimentality, I’ll say that animals have personalities, feelings, emotions, preferences, and reasons for doing what they do. Of course, many scientists argue that animals don’t live in a world complete with emotions, but they have also been unable to prove that animals are devoid of emotions. Certainly anyone that has spent any time with horses knows that they form emotional attachments with offspring and also unrelated horses and even other species at times.

At any rate, before buying that next quick fix or subscribing to a trainer with “answers”, I think it would be useful to ask a few questions first.

Culture Clash

If I were to discover that I have a long lost second cousin from a distant land who I was going to have the chance to meet, I would certainly try to find out about my cousin’s culture and what would make him comfortable in my home. I’m not suggesting that if I found out he loves to eat goat’s eyes as a bedtime snack that I would run out looking for a goat’s eye’s supplier and learn how to prepare them, but I wouldn’t disrespect that preference, but I would politely explain it’s not readily available in US grocery stores!

The first question I’m proposing is that we try to understand the other “culture” and what makes the other individual comfortable. I venture to say that being treated roughly is not the answer to what makes a horse comfortable. And what might WE be doing that brings out poor behavior in our horses? Do we use aggressive body language (we are predators, after all) that pushes them away when we want them to come closer? Do we get in front of their movement on the ground forcing them to face us instead of move forward on the lunge or round pen and then wonder why they are being so obstinant?

Who's the Boss?

This brings me back to the age old question of dominance and treating a horse the way other horses would treat him. This is the justification that so many people use and perhaps the polite way of saying they intend to use “punishment” in training horses).

I don’t want a horse to treat ME like I’m a another horse, and seems like we’d be pretty silly to think they can’t tell the difference between a human and another horse OR to assume that they can’t develop the emotional control to refrain from hurting us. That whole idea is ridiculous to me – it comes from humans who think they are “thinking like a horse” while putting limitations on the horse’s ability to comprehend… I don’t believe the answer is to “think like a horse”, but to understand how they learn and try to understand a bit more about their emotional lives. That insight is what will help us communicate with horses more effectively, not assuming the horse has limitations.

The hierarchy in a herd can shift and the hierarchy isn’t consistent across the board. What I mean is that a horse that is #4 in the pecking order in one situation might be #2 or even #1 in a subset of that herd. And certain personalities are challengers, looking for their chance to move up the ranks. It’s not like #1 is always #1 in all cases for the lifetime of the herd, horses can move up and down the ranks. Nothing in the horse world (or dare I say in any “world”) is so static, the nature of life is a non-static environment. Expectation that life is static is bound to result in disappointment. Some horses with more dominant personalities are going to see a dominating (with violence) human as one that horse might defer to *today*. But only the battle was lost, not the war. I don’t want my relationship with my horses to be a *war*. Logically, I don’t want any horse seeing me as a potential higher ranking mare that could be displaced in the ranks with a good opportunistic bite or kick!

Learned Helplessness

Now, if a human is diligent enough with beatings, they can create a creature that adopts an emotional state that psychologists have labeled “Learned Helplessness”. This is a condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even when it has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance. Battered women who refuse to leave their husbands are often considered in this state of clinical depression. In a twisted way, I think this is what the cowboys were after that coined the term “breaking” a horse. They wanted to “break” the horse’s ability to fight back and convince the horse it had no choice. Again, this doesn’t fit with my idea of a relationship, but it does come closer to guaranteeing a subservient attitude, if that is what a person values more than creating a partnership with her horse.

Asking Questions

I think much of the answer to most human/horse conflicts is not around what are the answers, but rather, did the human ask the right questions?

So, what are those questions? Beyond understanding the horse, his culture, and his emotional life, I think we need to look at our horses and ask what WE want and need from them. It’s not about if these things are possible, these questions are purely about what drives us as a human to want to have a horse in our lives. It’s not about the horse we may already have, just pure and simple, what do WE want?

Do we want a friend? A partner? A slave? A creature that behaves as consistently as a machine? Or do we enjoy the interaction? The unpredictable nature of horses? Do we want to commune with nature? Do we like the surprise of what they might teach us or of uncovering how they look at the world? Do we want a horse that will make us shine in the show ring? Do we want one that can be competitive in some particular area? And of these things we want from our horse, how are those things prioritized? Is the show ring success more important than all else? Or is the partnership top priority and any show successes just icing on the cake?

Once those questions have been asked, the next set are about if the horse in our lives is capable of offering what we want. If a person really wants a horse so consistent that it behaves like a machine, then few horses really will fit this “role". After all, horses are not machines. Certainly anything inexperienced and young is less likely to meet that expectation. Also any personality with much of an opinion isn’t a good fit.

Why does this matter? Because there isn’t really such a thing as a quick fix in the horse world, there are gimmicks and lots of things to buy, lots of ways to spend money that may or may not help, but no real quick fix. Sometimes we just have to figure out if what we want is reasonable to expect, or if we need to rethink what we want or rethink if the horse we have is able to meet our expectations. We need to understand we can't squish a squre peg into a round hold, nor should we want to. At a minimum, by asking a few questions first, we might know what we’re trying to fix, or if it’s even possible to fix it. After all, odds are the “problem” horse probably doesn’t think he’s the problem, he probably feels the human is the problem. Odds are, I would agree.

Learning Under Pressure

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?

Extending the Olive Branch

Being a bit of wordsmith wannabe, several online dictionaries send me daily definitions. Call me odd, I’m ok with that, but I enjoy reading the definitions and pondering thoughts they inspire.

So, the word “aggression” came to me via email a week or so ago and I started pondering aggression and well that definition really applies to different species.

From Websters:
Aggression
1: a forceful action or procedure (as an unprovoked attack) especially when intended to dominate or master
2: the practice of making attacks or encroachments; especially : unprovoked violation by one country of the territorial integrity of another
3: hostile, injurious, or destructive behavior or outlook especially when caused by frustration

Definition 1 only makes sense when applied to predators. I can apply it to humans and to other predators that dominate in order to supply themselves with food. Definition 2 is apparently the world view of aggression as it relates to territory (also probably applies to religion, but that’s another blog). Again, doesn’t seem to apply to prey animals. Definition 3 appears to have the closest application to animal aggression, but it doesn’t fit entirely because there seems to be a missing component: FEAR.

I Googled “fear aggression” and found a plethora of information on fear aggression in dogs but nothing very useful about horses, which of course is where I was going with this blog. I googled aggression in horses and didn’t find much of use, well, unless you consider using a stun gun on a horse as useful, which I do not.

Fear aggression in dogs is defined as “Aggression produced as a result of fear.” Ok, that is simple & obvious enough. So, why do some animals react to fear with aggression and some do not? It is clearly an opposite reaction, one is to flee and the other is to stand and fight back, both based on the same emotion, but with opposite reactions.

In search of why some dogs become aggressive lead me to this comment from Dr. Nicholas B. Carter in an article on a Border Collie Rescue site: “What produces fear aggression is a mixture of things - socialization, temperament, abuse, genetics, training, or just rotten luck. Like all behaviors, this is not a nature vs. nurture issue - it's a nature AND nurture issue. What is inevitably true however is that untreated, fear aggression only gets worse.”

Ok, I’m confident that statement can also apply to horses who experience fear aggression.

Horses are prey animals and although they may at times be aggressive with each other they not normally aggressive with predators (humans) Here is Webester’s definition that applies to horses: Prey: an animal taken by a predator as food.

In this big world we are either predator or prey, basically. The horse is prey and it's standard reaction in the face of a predator is to flee in order to avoid becoming someone’s lunch. But in the end, prey animals will fight back when they feel they have no other choice.

Continuing to poke around on the internet, I found this on www.paw-rescue.org/

Helping A Fear-Aggressive Dog:

* Use positive reinforcement to train the dog. Reward appropriate behavior with treats, praise and petting. Earn and build the dog's trust.

* Don't punish a dog for bad behavior. Instead, use humane, properly executed corrections.

* Don't reward a dog for aggressive behavior (this includes cooing, cuddling and petting in an attempt to soothe).

* Avoid reinforcing dog's fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful dogs don't like surprises. Establish rules and order to help the dog adjust, and make sure everyone in the house follows the rules.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the pack.

Dr. Nicholas B. Carter’s opinion is that “more dogs are put down by their owners in this country for fear aggression than old age.” So, why do some humans find these things so hard to do in order to deal with the problem?

Ok, time for MY opinion (after all, this is my blog!) it’s hard for us because humans are not good at controlling our emotions. We think we are but we aren’t. We think putting on a happy face tells the world we are happy even if we are seething inside. The problem is that the only creatures that fall for that ploy are other humans. Dogs and horses KNOW what is going on inside of us. They know when we are sad, hurt, angry, happy, irritable, and they react to how we are really feeling, not how we pretend to feel.

Simple as that. Frightened humans tend to lash out. When humans expect the target of their aggression (the horse) to be submissive and it doesn’t behave as expected, that increases the human level of anxiety and fear, hence, the human tends to become more aggressive. Suddenly the bad vibes bouncing back and forth between horse and human are like the spin cycle on a washing machine going around and around and around. Only the spin cycle never stops, and the easy answer is to never handle the horse, or get “rid” of it. Often the latter seems to be the answer.

If I were going to write an instruction manual for horses about how to handle aggressive humans, here are the guidelines I would offer:

Helping A Fear-Aggressive Human

* Use positive reinforcement to train the human. Reward appropriate behavior with polite behavior, soft eyes and affection. Earn and build the human’s trust.

* Don't punish a human for bad behavior. Instead, use kind but clear (dare I say humane?) corrections.

* Don't reward a human for aggressive behavior

* Avoid reinforcing human’s fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful humans don't like surprises.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the pack.

I’m seeing a pattern here… (-;

The flaw I see in how most humans deal with equine aggression is to meet aggression with aggression. They respond with that idea that the challenge has to be met “head on” and defeated, as if this is a battle of wills. The problem is this: the lesson the horse learns is humans can’t be trusted and can’t be bothered to listen to the horse’s side of the issue.

Back to the rules I listed above, although I was writing somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there is a lot of truth to those words. The problem is that the horse isn’t going to read my “instruction manual for how to deal with an aggressive human” and they need the human to extend the olive branch to them, so they know they have no reason to continue the fight. And with some horses, those that have been fighting with humans on some level for a prolonged period, it may take a while to actually build their trust and belief that the rules of engagement have changed. Remember, the rules as this aggressive horse understands them, are that humans are aggressive and the only tactic to get the human to leave the horse alone is to match aggression with aggression.

Some theorize that it’s all about dominance, but the problem with that theory is that we aren’t horses so herd dynamics don’t really apply to human interaction. Also, I’ve seen during the process of rehabbing these horses that they are much more relaxed when they aren’t on the defensive. Who wants to be seething and churning emotionally inside? Not humans, not horses either.

So, back to how humans can change their behavior in order to help the horse change HIS behavior:

Helping A Fear-Agressive Horse

* Use positive reinforcement to train the horse. Reward appropriate behavior with treats, praise and petting. Earn and build the horse’s trust that you will behave rationally and fairly.

* Don't punish a horse for bad behavior. Instead, use humane, properly executed corrections. It is more effective to reward desirable behavior than punish undesirable behavior.

* Don't reward or reinforce aggressive behavior (this includes fighting back which communicates he was in fact threatened and his aggression was necessary to protect himself).

* Avoid reinforcing horse’s fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful horses don't like surprises or confusion. Establish rules and order to help the horse adjust, and make sure everyone in the barn follows the rules.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the herd. This means being a good leader that is fair & consistent.

I would add one more:

* Make your expectations clear. Clear communication is the key to consistent behavior from a horse. Frustration gives birth to anxiety which for some horses is only a step or two away from aggression.

These rules sound all too simple, but they aren’t. They are difficult for humans for two reasons: One is that as much as we humans want the animals around us to control their emotions, we have a hard time controlling our own. We need to get a grip on our own anxiety so that we don’t let our own fear drive us to aggression. We also need to avoid feeding the horse’s anxiety with our own. That can be a tall order.

Punishment is the most common human reaction to aggression in horses, without significant thought or planning. The problem is that brings out the worst in an aggressive horse and validates his need to fight back.

In theory, the rest of the guidelines aren’t all that hard to follow, except the human has to go through a paradigm shift away from a couple of generally accepted training tactics:

1. If the horse doesn’t react appropriately or promptly enough, up the pressure.
2. If the horse behaves badly, punishment it.

These two standard operating procedures in horse training tend to bring out the worst in a horse with aggressive tendencies. I imagine that this statement leaves some folks wondering what a person is to do if they shouldn’t increase pressure or punish aggression. The answer is to change the human’s behavior and the horse’s behavior will follow suit. I know that’s not the message most folks want to hear, but it’s the truth. And it isn't an immediate fix, in our culture of instant gratification, it's probalby bad news for some people. But it takes time for a horse to conclude that the rules have changed. Learning to deal with an aggressive horse can be a life changing experience that impacts every aspect of a human’s life, it requires a lot of soul searching to get a grip on the human emotions that lead us to lash out first and ask questions later.

Horses are not aggressive without provocation. Only it’s not always obvious to humans why the horse felt provoked. We have to put ourselves in the horse’s skin for a while to see that. That’s my suggestion, borrow that horse suit and ponder how it feels to be trained with punishment and given unclear instructions with increased pressure every time you guess wrong. Consider having no control over your environment. Consider feeling helpless and afraid in the presence of the very predator you depend upon for food and water. Consider what it would be like to be hit with a stun gun for expressing your opinion. EEEK!