MAY 2018 THE RIDER /43 ^Between The Ears^ - Fear to Focus


Fear, anxiety and stress puts the brain in an emo- tional state that inhibits the brain from constructive learning. You may ask yourself ‘well why did my horse even develop the crazy thought that that cor- ner was scary?’. The an- swer is simple - your horse is a prey animal. That in- stinct is what keeps them alive. What makes a horse a good survivor can make them a challenge to be- come confident with their environment.


In your


By Ellie Ross We have all either observed or ex-


perienced that horse that is afraid of that corner in the arena or that rock on the trail. Why does this happen? Why does this occur in so many horses? Why does it suddenly reoccur after we believed we had dealt with it and had a period of time where it appeared to have been resolved ? Before we can ef- fectively solve these problems, we must first understand how do horses learn and how to influence behavior? Historically, most horse training has been on the basis of negative reinforce- ment meaning, pressure is applied ei- ther physically or mentally and its removed once the horse offers the de- sired result. Since all horses are differ- ent, some being more sensitive than others, this can result in a few different results. 1) A horse may just succumb to the pressure and repeat the behavior that relieved him of that pressure. 2) A horse’s anxiety and/or fear may esca- late in which case, the door to learning becomes closed and the horse only fo- cuses on fleeing. This also holds some added consequences to the trainer whereas trust is lacking and the horse has associated bad things happen in the presence of whatever it is he is faced with. 3) A horse learns that it cannot escape and learns to be become help- less, which is a very sad mental state of mind. The trainer gets results and so they keep on doing things the way they’ve always done it. Equine cognition is over over-


looked from a scientific perspective. Would you prefer your horse responds as desired because he trusts you and is motivated to respond as you request or out of an aversion of fear and/or phys- ical pressure? The way in which a horse re-


sponds to its environment is shaped by environmental


consequences or


through association, be it good or bad, intentional or inadvertent. The unwanted behaviour usually


started out as a thought that you were unaware of. The thought of being afraid of something often results in be- havior that you eventually do become aware of. This is called overt behavior.


horse’s mind, there is something threatening in


that corner. Any behaviour that gets re- warded, gets repeated, so what are you doing that is adding to the unwanted behaviour? The list can be long but its often that the horse has self rewarded his own behaviour by escaping, bolt- ing, refusing to move forward and so on. What could the rider be doing to add to the behaviour? Most common would be voluntary avoidance of the corner, physical force, rider fear result- ing in anxiety and relaying to the horse. Using aversives like whipping and spurring often leads riders to believe in its effectiveness because they believe they have ‘won the battle’. But have they actually won? If we limit our measure of success solely to the horse riding through the corner without bolt- ing, bucking etc., then I suppose one could claim victory. However, there is far more here to be measured and con- sidered. The horse’s unwanted behav- iour appears to be fixed but it’s achieved out of an aversion of the physical punishment endured. The whipping, spurs etc., stopped once the horse went past the corner. The rider often is misled by their perceived re- sults and is unaware of what the horse has actually learned from the experi- ence. The horse learned bad things hap- pen when they are near the scary corner. The horse also learned that you added to his fear and that you will physically hurt him if he exhibits his fear in that scenario again. Is adding to the fear of the corner by making them afraid of your whip success? Is learned helplessness and/or aversion of physi- cal pain success or is success a horse that proceeds with confidence and even joy? How is adding fear of being whipped in a scenario where fear is the root of the unwanted behavior a good idea? Some trainers suggest allowing the horse time to look at the corner but this often amounts to them just waiting for the boogie many to jump out. Oth- ers recommend work the horse hard at the opposite end and soft at the scary corner. Well what if your horse won’t work or even go near the scary corner? Learning occurs through operant


and/or classical conditioning, which is divided into four quadrants. Two


Send In All Your


Coming Events for our Next Issue! Let our readers know what you are planning!


strengthen behaviour, the other two are to weaken behaviour. Op- erant conditioning is based on voluntary be- haviours. A voluntary behaviour that occurs of the horse’s own choice that gets rewarded, will get repeated, which is what you desire. Clas- sical conditioning is when you give a cue such as ‘head down’ and you force or somehow set it up to happen (it is not voluntary) and then you reward to reinforce it. Through repetition the association is made - handler says ‘head down’, horse lowers head and gets a reward. Use of the word


positive can be confus- ing when discussing be- havior and learning theory. Positive does not imply good and neg- ative does not imply bad. The following can be combined.


+P +R -P -R


Symbol Meaning + -


Positive- meaning to add


Add something to Reward/Reinforcement Give horse a treat Take away something to punish Take away something to reinforce


Negative – meaning to take away Add something to Punish


Give horse something, good or bad. Take away something, good or bad Hit with whip


Example Take away the treat Stop spurring once horse does as expected


horse only learns that the rider doesn’t like when they do X. This does nothing to educate the horse as to what is right until they get it right and that in itself can lead to an increase in anxiety. So chances are high that X is going to be replaced with Y but Y isn’t what you want. So another wrong choice is made. Horse only learns X and Y are bad choices but still doesn’t know what the right choice is. Wouldn’t it be faster, kinder and more effective to communicate to the horse what you do like vs what you don’t like? Why is it so easy for us to act on what we don’t like vs. what we do like? More on that next edition! How to teach the horse to make good choices, trust you and over- come their fear.


Author Bio: Ellie Ross is a professional animal trainer that specializes in behaviour. She has 30 years experience including being a wrangler in the film and television industry. Ellie resided in Los Angeles and was in charge of International Large Animal Air Transport. Ellie was the Pet Expert for CTV, Reader’s Digest, Local,Satellite Radio and Rogers Television. Formerly an Eventer/Dres- sage/Endurance rider, she is now active in Extreme Cowboy, Western Dressage and Cowboy Mounted Shooting.


Advertise your Business in The Rider for as little as $299 per year! When we train on the basis of communicating what we don’t like, all that occurs is that the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70