© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenIllustrations © Barbara HinchcliffeSlide2

Horses have been domesticated for 6000 years. However, d

espite our long association with them the situation isn’t always perfect for the horse. Wastage rates are too high as are issues like

stereotypies and gastric ulcers. Part of the problem is Anthropomorphism. The best way to avoid anthropomorphism is to be objective.Equitation Science aims to make life better for horses by using evidence based methods to objectively study the best ways of training and managing them.No-one owns Equitation Science. It is not a “method” or a theory. It is an understanding that the best way forward for the horse is through objective science.Equitation Science is like a super hero for horses!

© Portland Jones and Sophie Warren

What is Equitation Science?Slide3

Good science is like a pair of goggles that only lets us see the truth. We should put our scientific goggles on when we work with horses because they help us avoid anthropomorphism.

The horse has been around for over 55 million years and has been domesticated for about 6000 years. This is about the equivalent of

three days in a 75 year lifespan. So, he’s much better at being a horse than he is at being a dressage horse or a show jumper…Horses fail the mirror test.Horses don’t demonstrate object permanence.Horses can’t learn by observation.Horses aren’t great at complex thought, logic and reasoning. But they are great at forming habits, fast reactions, maintaining social bonds and running away from danger.Sometimes we think of the horse a bit like a slightly silly, furry human. But he’s not. He’s unique and perfectly adapted for his life as a social herbivore.

© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

About the HorseSlide4

Horses have two kinds of vision: Monocular and Binocular.

When your horse uses his

monocular vision he can see almost all around him. This is good for catching predators trying to sneak up!Binocular vision is used when the horse wants to focus on something. When your horse uses his BV he will often lift his head up. His pupils are long and narrow, unlike ours which are round.Put one hand across your forehead and one across your nose leaving only a 1.5cm gap to look through. That’s what the horse’s BV is like.© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

Your horse’s eyesight

Horses can’t see below their nose. That’s why they have so many whiskers – which are also known as

vibrissae. These help them “see” what they are eating and also to navigate at night or in tight spaces.

The horse is not

colour

blind but he is a

dichromate

(two kinds of light sensitive cells) while we are

trichromates

(three kinds). The horse’s world is less

colourful

than ours –

a bit like looking through an olive green filter.Slide5

One of the biggest differences between the horse and humans is that he doesn’t have a big pre-frontal cortex like we do.

The prefrontal cortex is the part of our brain responsible for emotions and planning.

When you are hungry or thirsty at school it is your prefrontal cortex that stops you eating your eraser or walking out of the class room and stealing food from the canteen. It inhibits inappropriate actions. Your horse doesn’t have this…Your horse’s sense of hearing is a lot better than yours – he probably finds loud noises far more aversive than you do.His ears are mobile, like furry satellite dishes, able to catch sounds from all around him.The horse’s sense of smell is about 1000 times better than ours. Horses can’t vomit so it helps him to avoid spoiled food and toxins.© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

Your horse’s brain, his sense of smell and his hearing

Flehmen

allows the horse to trap scent molecules inside his nose so that he can work out what he is smelling.Slide6

The flight response!

The flight response tells the horse to run away from danger.

The amygdala is the part of the brain that sorts out what is scary from what is not. Horses have the largest amygdalas of all the large domesticated mammals.The more the horse practices the flight response the better he gets at it.

The flight response is responsible for

bolting, bucking, shying, leaping, quickening, rushing jumps, tension, taking off, launching and spinning.

What do all those

behaviours

have in common? The horse’s legs move quickly.

The best way to prevent the flight response is to have control over the horse’s legs by training really good

responses

both in hand and under saddle.

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenSlide7

Horses are great at forming and maintaining social bonds.

Herd structure is not a straight line with one “alpha” animal at the top and the rest below like the ranks in an army.

It’s much more complicated than that.Horses communicate with their tails, four legs, long mobile ears, large moveable nostrils, long flexible necks and big eyes on the sides of their heads.Humans have none of those things. In fact we generally can’t see the subtle ways that horses communicate unless they are recorded and played back in slow motion. Horses don’t see humans as part of their herd – although they can form attachments to us.When people try to train horses using herd dynamics they generally focus on things like chasing. It’s a bit like trying to communicate in another language only using swear words.

© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

The equine herdSlide8

The horse trainer’s tool kit

Everything that a horse does under saddle and in hand is the result of just a few

Foundation Responses. These are:Stopping (includes shortening and slowing)Going forwards (includes lengthening and quickening)Turning shoulders right (direct and indirect turn)Turning shoulders left (direct and indirect turn)Turning hindquarters right (yield)Turning hindquarters left (yield)

These are trained using operant conditioning.

There are other tools in the horse trainer’s tool kit and these include shaping, habituation and classical conditioning.

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenSlide9

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenSlide10

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenOperant conditioning: Positive reinforcement

Adding something that the horse wants immediately after a

behaviour increases the probability that the behaviour will happen again.That is, giving the horse a treat or a scratch on the wither when he stands quietly makes him more likely to stand quietly again.To be effective reinforcement must be meaningful. Yelling “GOOD BOY!” loudly and slapping the horse on the neck is unlikely to be reinforcing in any way at all.

Reinforcement must also be instant. You cannot reinforce jump seven by scratching at the end of the round.Slide11

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenOperant conditioning

:

Negative reinforcementRemoving a mildly aversive pressure after a behaviour makes the behaviour more likely in the future.That is, taking away a mildly annoying pressure (like the pressure of your leg) when the horse goes forward makes it more likely that he will go forward again.Negative reinforcement is in three phases:The light signal - this is like saying, “Please”The stronger signal. This is applied if the light signal does not produce the desired results - this is like saying, “Do it!”

The release of the signal - this is like saying, “Thank you”There is no gap

between the light signal and the heavier signal.The release of the pressure is the most important part of the signal as it is not the pressure that trains the horse it is the

removal of the pressure that trains him.Slide12

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenOperant

conditioning

: Positive punishmentAdding something the horse doesn’t like after a behaviour decreases the probability that the behaviour will happen again.In theory… smacking the horse for biting makes it less likely he will bite in the future.In reality punishment is less effective

than is often believed.Punishment can create very powerful associations between the punisher and the punished. It can decrease the rate of future learning. It can cause unpleasant physical changes such as

increased heart rate and blood pressure.Punishment doesn’t tell the horse what you want him to do. Instead of biting he might rear.

Punishment expects the horse to change his future behaviour to avoid future consequences.

If used, punishment must occur as the incorrect

behaviour

does. It’s no use smacking the horse for biting 30 seconds after he has bitten you – it’s too late.

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenSlide13

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenOperant

conditioning

: Negative punishmentRemoving something that the horse likes when he does the wrong thing makes him less likely to do the wrong thing in the future.If you are scratching your horse and he tries to bite you, walk away.Negative punishment is hard to use with horse training but parents use it a lot. Have you ever done something wrong and had your mobile phone taken away? That’s negative punishment!Slide14

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenHabituation

This is just a fancy way of saying – getting used to

Some things are hard to habituate to. Things that are too close, too loud, appear suddenly or move erratically are hard to get used to.There are three ways to help your horse habituate to things like the clippers:Gradual and at liberty… Turn the clippers on while the horse is in the stable.Counter conditioning... Turn the clippers on and then give a treat. The horse will quickly associate the clippers with treats.Overshadowing

... This is the most effective way. See next slide.The important thing to remember about habituation is that it must be done gradually and progressively

. When it is done all at once it is called flooding and can make the horse even more scared of the object than before.Slide15

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenOvershadowing

When

two pressures are presented at the same time only the “strongest” one will get a response. Horses can’t multi-task, so to make habituation occur more rapidly it is possible to use trained responses like forward and backward steps to overshadow something frightening like a needle or clippers. This need to be done very gradually to avoid flooding.Slide16

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenShaping

This is the process of

gradually changing behaviours over time. Michelangelo the sculptor was once asked how he managed to sculpt such amazing pieces. He replied that it was easy – he took a hammer, a chisel and a big bit of marble and he took off all the excess marble and underneath was a beautiful sculpture.This is a bit like horse training – we take away all the behaviours we don’t want, like bucking, shying and refusing to jump and eventually we have a beautifully trained horse. It’s important to try and shape carefully and not try to make too many changes too quickly. It’s much easier to train than it is to retrain!Slide17

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenClassical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian Scientist. He did experiments with dogs.

Pavlov rang a bell and then gave his dogs some meat. After several repetitions he rang the bell and the dogs salivated without the meat.Classical conditioning explains why the rider’s seat, voice and weight signals work. It is because they are associated with already conditioned responses.The rider’s seat won’t fix a failure of stop or go. It has to be corrected with negative reinforcement.

Classical conditioning explains why your horse neighs when he sees you and gets excited when you open the feed shed.

You must understand classical conditioning but you shouldn’t rely on it.Slide18

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenThe ten

p

rinciples of trainingThe horse's brain is very different from ours. His memory, senses and way of learning are very different too. Understand these differences and always remember them when training. For example horses can't pretend or tell lies and they never do things just to annoy you – even if sometimes you might think that they are doing all three. Know how training works. Understand the most important scientific principles, in particular – operant conditioning, habituation, classical conditioning and shaping. Every signal (also known as an aid or cue) that you use in training should be different and distinct so that there is no confusion for the horse. For example, the signal you use for turn should be easily distinguished from the signal for go and the signal for stop

.Don't have unrealistic expectations when you are first training responses. Reward small improvements and understand that the shaping process takes time. Remember what Da Vinci said about sculpting and take very small chips from the block of marble every day.

Horses

can't multi-task so you should only ever give one cue at a time. For example, don't ask for stop and go at the same time because this is impossible for the horse and causes stress.Slide19

© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

E

ach signal should produce only one response. For example, pressure on both reins should only ever cause the horse to slow his legs, it shouldn't also be used to make the horse to lower his head. Be consistent with your horse at all times, both on the ground and under saddle. Be clear about what it is that you want him to do so that he develops consistent habits. The rules should never change!Make self carriage a priority every day and at every stage of training. This means that you should train your horse to maintain the speed you want while he is being lead and ridden. That is, that he doesn't need to constantly be asked to go forwards or to slow down. Aim to control your horse with light pressure cue. 

Learn what the flight response looks like. Understand that it is a problem and learn how to control it during training.

Having a calm and obedient horse should be your ultimate goal at

all times. Slide20

© Portland Jones & Sophie WarrenWhat are horse surprise parties and how do we avoid them?

The

horse's brain is very different to ours. We have a big prefrontal cortex and we can cope with a little bit of unpredictability. Lots of people love surprise parties because they're exciting and different. Your horse would hate surprise parties for exactly that reason – he has spent pretty much all of his evolution (that's 55 million years), running away from things that are exciting and different. Without a prefrontal cortex for reasoning and complex emotions, surprises are scary. When you use the science of learning correctly you become predictable – and that's a very good thing for your horse.Today we've looked at the ways horses learn. If you think about it, almost all forms of learning make the horse's life more predictable. But there's one big exception... can you think what it is? If you said punishment, you're absolutely right. Punishment doesn't allow the horse to change his behaviour to avoid pressure, it just happens. The horse doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, so to him, punishment is unpredictable and very unpleasant. You should think very carefully before using punishment when training your horse because it's a surprise party of the very worst kind.

 The really important thing to remember about the horse is

that he didn’t ask to be trained. It is our job to make sure his training keeps him as happy as is possible. Slide21

© Portland Jones & Sophie Warren

If you would like to learn more about Equitation Science visit:

www.sustainableequitation.com.auYou can purchase Horses Hate Surprise Parties from the Sustainable Equitation website, from Saddle Plus (Byford) or from the PCAWA office.