Shaping Horse Behaviour and Using Subtle Signals

Finally, some dry weather! The field that the boys live in has been quite a muddy scene for the past few months thanks to our overly-generous English skies, but the ground is starting to become a little more manageable now. I did some filming recently of some work I was doing with Roux. My aim throughout was to be able to consistently move into a walk on the same foot (eg I leave on my right foot, he leaves on his front right) without any contact. It was one of the tasks called for in the coursework I am currently working on and although it now seems simple, it was quite a challenge for me at first. 

At first, my starting point was moving my right or left foot over to the side and then moving straight into a walk and hoping he would copy my movement. This proved very confusing for us both and you can watch the footage in the video below (sorry about the quality, the 'result' videos are much easier to watch). I think watching Roux's expressions in this video is so interesting because you can see how very confused he is as I am giving all the wrong signals at all the wrong times.  

'Confused'

After my first few attempts I began to become frustrated because the stepping-in-sync didn’t seem to be working, at least not consistently. Then something happened… In my reflective log I described it like this: ‘Roux gave me something today. I shifted my weight onto the other foot and he did too. He was that in-tune with me. It was only very slight and will need working on, but now I understand it because I felt it’. For me, this was a eureka moment. I had never simply stood still and shifted my weight and had a horse copy me before (or at least not that I had noticed) and before I felt it happen, I didn't really believe that it would. I caught it on camera and if you watch carefully you'll see it here:

'Eureka'

As I looked back over the footage I had taken I realised I hadn't been subtle enough or even given Roux a chance to respond to my balance shifts. Another part in my reflective log says, ‘The times when we are most successful is when he has a chance to start off on the same foot as me. He can only do this if I allow him enough time to see what foot I am going to start off on instead of just pushing him this way or that way.’ I then wrote to myself to slow it all down and just practice. I decided to break it down and use my own weight shift as a cue for which foot we were going to leave on. It took a lot of mistakes and a while to get used to this. I started to use the following sequence of cues. I would work through each step until Roux responded and then keep retrying until he responded to just the first one. The sequence went like this: 

1. Shift my own weight to one side
2. Gently encourage him to shift his weight (either by tugging on the leadrope slightly or by waving the stick at him/pushing into him gently)
3.  Lift my foot and use my stick to direct energy behind as a clear signal to move forwards into a walk. (I think moving straight into a walk at first helps clarify the balance shift in the horse’s mind.) (I had to learn to apply this signal at the appropriate time. If I applied it when Roux was leaning on the wrong side, for instance, he would end up leaving on the wrong foot and I would be reinforcing an undesired behaviour).

Using this pattern helped me develop more consistency. At first we would move into a walk as soon as Roux shifted his balance as this helped to ‘complete’ the movement as it were. However, by the end of the session shown in the next video, Roux was responding to my first cue at a standstill.

Along the way I also learned that Roux needed to be in a square halt next to me if I was to accurately record him responding to my signal. I also had to time my releases correctly. My method of releasing pressure was by stopping altogether and giving him time to think (negative reinforcement). 

Another point I noted in my diary was that, although generally a useful method of positive reinforcement, my use of treats was actually having a negative effect overall. This was firstly because Roux was becoming too intent on eating and it was becoming a major distraction and also because he would constantly lean over to my ‘treat pocket’ which wasn’t proving helpful when I wanted him to lean on the opposite foot! Since then, he has had more focus during our sessions and the ‘release’ has been enough of a reward to help him learn.

The following video demonstrates the process I used to shape Roux’s behaviour. In the video, I've marked the moments where I am applying a signal and marked the signal as step 1, 2, or 3 respective to the sequence above. I have also marked the moments where I am releasing the pressure to reward the response with an ‘R’.

‘Using Reinforcement by Release to Shape a Desired Behaviour’

In hindsight, I can see places where I went wrong and there is definitely still room for improvement. Sometimes I think I put more pressure on when he was already going to change his balance and all I needed to do was wait another second, and sometimes I think I skip to the third phase of the sequence too fast, when he might have shifted his weight just from step 2. At one point, I also stopped him too soon so that he wasn’t standing square next to me, and then I started forward again without correcting that which wasn’t really ‘setting him up for success’, (but he still left on the same foot as me which was very obliging of him).

After I had trained Roux to prepare for walk by responding to my balance shifts, we were able to leave on a specified foot much more consistently, as can be seen in the following video… (Excuse the part where he’s having a scratch, it was far too cute to edit out!). 

‘Affecting the Horse’s Balance, Moving Specified Feet at the Right Time’

I think we could progress by making the signal more subtle, so instead of ‘hip popping’, (as one of my friend’s described it!) I could try to shift my weight more and more slightly and see how small a cue he can respond to... But all in all, I am so happy with our progress here and have learned another valuable lesson in how sensitive and responsive horses really can be to us when we give them the chance to be.