The Rural Voice, 2019-02, Page 30psychology and she explained that to
understand how horses learn, the
terminology is very simple: negative
and positive. When it comes to
horses, positive means adding
something. Negative means taking
something away.
Ellie had a lot information to
unpack as she encouraged horse
owners not to rely on negative
consequences to bad behaviour to
teach their horses. Rather, creating a
positive environment using treats and
vocals cues can encourage good
behaviour.
The reason is that horses make
instant associations that tend to stick
in their heads for years. Ellie showed
a picture of a horse owner tugging
her horse, trying to get it into a pond
with her. The horse was clearly
agitated ... his lips were pursed, ears
back, muscles tight. “She was being
all optimistic and thought she would
nicely pull him in.” That didn’t
happen. Feeling the pressure, he just
backed up, pulled her out of the
pond, into the mud and the whole
exercise was a total fail. What did the
horse learn? “He would have learned
that around water, mom gets really
mad. If she had used treats, it might
have worked. Clearly, observational
learning in this case did not work.”
Observational learning requires a
relationship. The success of any
horse training is hinged to
relationship, said Ellie. “That is the
defining factor.”
In another photo, she showed
three men aggressively dragging a
terrified horse into water. Ellie
explained the horse might associate
many things with fear: men, men
wearing caps, water or red shirts. It’s
often hard to pinpoint the link but
guaranteed, the horse will associate it
with something, she said.
Owners also need to be careful
that they are directing the learning
and not the other way around. If a
horse follows a command, you can
give it a treat within three seconds as
positive reinforcement, If the horse
nudges your pocket and you give it a
treat, the horse is directing the
behaviour.
Conceptual learning in horses is
the fascinating process of higher-
order cognitive understanding where
horses can point to specific objects,
learn to bow, understand words and
communicate what it wants. She
showed a slide of a horse discerning
shapes while another could point to a
sign indicated when it wanted its
cover off or on. “Horses’ conceptual
learning is so much higher than we
can imagine and they can learn some
very complicated tasks,” said Ellie.
In terms of training, Ellie
described the difference between
“operant” and “classical”
conditioning.
Operant conditioning is the
method of learning that occurs
through rewards and punishments for
behaviour. “When you see a
behaviour you like, reward it and it
will be repeated. Reward makes the
behaviour stronger.” One of the
lessons Ellie teachers her horses is to
pick up a tarp and hand it to her. At
first, the horse gets rewarded just for
touching the tarp. Then she ups the
criteria and the horse has to touch
and pick up the tarp before he gets a
carrot. Next level is picking up the
tarp and bringing it to her hand
before he earns the reward. She was
able to get a horse that would
literally jump in the air when it was
spooked to this final level. “I really
think all horses should be
desensitized to tarps,” she added.
Ellie had a horse named Frosty
that had a very destructive pawing
habit. For this horse, she employed
classical conditioning, a learning
process that occurs when two stimuli
are repeatedly paired; a response that
is at first elicited by the second
stimulus is eventually elicited by the
first stimulus alone.
For instance, Frosty used to paw
so much he would dig a trench beside
the trailer where he was tied. Ellie
taught him that when he pawed four
times, he would get a treat. A horse
owner in the audience asked why she
didn’t try and replace the behaviour.
Ellie said the pawing was so
entrenched, that in “order to turn it
off, I had to turn it on.” She had to
teach it as a positive behaviour she
could control in order to replace the
uncontrollable bad behaviour.
Ultimately, said Ellie, we need
to give our horses a choice.
“We need to let them learn
what is a good choice and what is a
bad choice. If we cut off the bad
choices, we do not give them an
opportunity to learn from their bad
choice.” If Frosty would paw past
four, he was making a bad choice and
didn’t earn any reward. When he
paws four times, he has something to
gain (praise and a treat) from making
a good choice.
To further drive home the
concept, Ellie said owners can
compare their horse to a bank
account with credits and debits.
“Avoid the overdraft. Do as much as
you can to use positive
reinforcement.”
In a reversal of terms but still
promoting good behaviour, Ellie
discussed positive and negative
reinforcement. Most people train
their horses using negative
reinforcement. An aversive stimulus
is given and then retracted once the
desired behaviour is achieved. Using
reins to whoa a horse is like that. The
horse feels pressure from the bit and
the pressure disappears when the
horse stops. Pairing rein pressure
with the verbal command “whoa”
teaches the horse it can respond
simply to the sound and no rein
pressure is required. “If your training
is right and consistent, the time will
come when you don’t need the
reins.”
Other advice and pointers Ellie
offered included:
Ellie Ross
26 The Rural Voice