In my last post, I mentioned the importance of understanding learning theories when training horses. There are all sorts of different techniques and training methods out there, but to train the horse correctly we must understand how those techniques work and how they all stem back to the basics of classical or operant conditioning. If you don't know what those are, here are diagrams and links to help explain...
{ www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html }
{ www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html }
So essentially, all learned behaviour (anything that is not instinctive) in horses is learned either through simple association or through this process: stimulus > response > reinforcement. In my experience, punishment as a form of reinforcement is not a constructive way to train a horse anything apart from, perhaps, teaching him not to do something (e.g. tapping his muzzle if he nips), because horses are creatures that are easily scared. When they are pushed too far out of their comfort zone, and further toward their 'fight/flight' zone (natural instinct as a prey animal), their concentration on learning a new concept is overrun by an alarm bell instilled in them literally for the sake of their own survival... so we can hardly blame them when they struggle to listen to us because they are scared by some other external factor. I try to not ever instill any kind of punishment when training a horse to do something as this 1) is pushing him further out of his comfort zone, 2) possibly marring his trust in me as his handler, 3) can easily be misconstrued if the timing is wrong and 4) is making him associate the whole situation with fear. That's a lot of reasons not to use punishment. Training horses in ways that encourage them to remain in a relaxed state (positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement) I have found to be the most constructive. Of course, it is not always possible for the horse to remain entirely relaxed and there is a place for the method of 'flooding', but generally I try to use a combination of positive and negative reinforcement, as do many people. If I were asking a horse to move his hind quarters over, I might apply a slight pressure to them with my fingertips. As soon as he moves them, the 'uncomfortable pressure' from my fingertips is released (negative reinforcement) and I feed him a treat for performing the correct movement (positive reinforcement). The correct timing of reinforcement is key to successful training.
When Roux first came to me, he wouldn't allow me to catch him in the field. I keep him and Alfie at grass 24/7, so this was far from ideal. Sure, I could slip the rope onto his head collar when he approached me for his feed bucket, but this was also, in my mind, far from ideal. Instead, I used negative reinforcement through a technique where I would increase pressure when he gave an undesired response (when he walked away, I walked toward him) so that I could decrease/release that pressure when he gave the desired response (when he looked/walked in my direction, I would look/walk away). Of course, there are all sorts of methods out there to catch horses, but they all boil down to conditioning and reinforcement and how you are going about using these principles. And the better you understand these principles (along with the horse's natural instincts), the better you can understand, choose and justify the training techniques you come across to use.
I went on to train Roux to accept being caught through negative reinforcement (his reward was essentially me giving him time and space). His next issue was picking his feet up and having them picked out and for that, I used both negative and positive reinforcement, depending on the stage we were at (and it was a long process!). I've learned so much through all of this, but I just think it's so important to understand how these simple principles of conditioning and reinforcement form the backbone of all horse training and to remember them throughout.
