{"id":17862,"date":"2014-12-03T09:12:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T22:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=17862"},"modified":"2023-05-06T09:54:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T23:54:24","slug":"the-principles-of-horsemanship-part-3-pavlovs-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2014\/12\/the-principles-of-horsemanship-part-3-pavlovs-principle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Principles of Horsemanship: Part 3 – Pavlov’s Principle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pavlovGraphic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

with\u00a0Andrew McLean<\/h3>\n

Relaxation and attentiveness can only occur if the horse responds to light signals. During training the horse learns to respond from light aids if they are offered just before and overlapping stronger motivating pressure. When training a new signal, the new signal should happen just before and during the light aid.
\nPavlov\u2019s principle is all about training the horse to operate from light aids, including seat, weight and positional cues. There is a definite science about training horses and other animals to operate from previously neutral signals, and Ivan Pavlov (1849 \u2013 1936) was the first to describe it.<\/p>\n

He was a Russian scientist and in fact wasn\u2019t searching for any behavioural principles when he discovered and revealed the process of acquiring signals. This process is now known as Classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Pavlov was doing some rather gory experiments on a dog with a glass plate sewn over a large hole cut right through its ribcage to its stomach so he could see the digestive process first hand. He gave the dog a meat extract so he could see what goes on in the animal\u2019s stomach during salivation and digestion. During the course of the experiments however, he soon noticed that the dog began to salivate earlier on in each session \u2013 the dog was beginning to \u2018anticipate\u2019 the food.<\/p>\n

Now most of us would be happy to explain the dog\u2019s anticipation as simply that, but Pavlov was determined to delve deeper. He wanted to know what \u2018anticipation\u2019 actually was – to uncover the mechanistic principle behind anticipation. In humans and perhaps in some animals as well it can involve some kind of mental visualisation of the anticipated event, but is this always the case? And does it need to be so? Pavlov found that there were some strict rules that govern the way an animal learns to associate a previously neutral stimulus with a particular response. He found that the timing of when the light signal appears in relation to the already known stimulus is critical.<\/p>\n

TIMING OF ASSOCIATIONS<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pavlov showed that new cues must be given just before or during an inborn or previously learned signal or aid. For example, if the rider wishes to train the voice aid \u201cwhoa\u201d, the word should occur just before and overlapping the application of the rein signal for \u2018stop\u2019. The further the word occurs after the rein aid, the less the horse learns the voice aid. The rider must also remember that as the horse does not actually understand what \u201cwhoa\u201d means, but rather learns it as a cue, it must always be delivered with the same tone and pitch. Shouting \u201cwhoa\u201d won\u2019t make the horse stop more quickly, it is only the learned version of the voice aid that is meaningful to the horse.<\/p>\n

In dressage voice aids are not used in competition. Instead, as the horse learns to respond from lighter rein and\/or leg aids, the horse becomes increasingly aware of the associations of seat and weight that naturally occur with rein and\/or leg aids if the rider\u2019s position is correct. These responses are learned through classical conditioning as the seat and weight aids occur just before and during the rein and \/or leg aids. Similarly during training the horse to lunge, the horse learns to respond to voice aids. However the fact that the trainer needs to keep the lunge whip in his hand is testimony to the fact that classical conditioning is but a thin veneer in training. Voice, seat, weight and position associations are easily forgotten and need reminding with the primary aids of rein and\/or leg and in the case of lunging, the whip.<\/p>\n

Pavlov\u2019s work suggested that Classical conditioning doesn\u2019t need any kind of visualisation or comprehension in the animal of an anticipated event in order to work – it simply needs the correct order of presentation. That\u2019s why Classical conditioning can be seen in worms and houseflies as well as horses and humans. If the sound of running water makes you want to go to the toilet, that\u2019s classical conditioning. As you respond to traffic lights and other road signals yet you aren\u2019t consciously aware of what you are doing, you just do it \u2013 that\u2019s Classical conditioning. The life of all animals is full of associations that have formed and will form between various signals and events. Acquiring signals that predict events makes life predictable and controllable for animals. It evolved to improve the efficiency of the animal\u2019s interaction with its environment. Any environmental event that coincides with a known signal will quickly become incorporated as a new cue. So, the sound of rustling bushes which precedes the appearance of a predator – and triggers the flight response in the horse – quickly becomes a cue for running away.<\/p>\n

PREDICTABILITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Horse training relates to this notion of predictability in a very definite way. The reason we want to place all of the horse\u2019s trained responses under the control of light aids isn\u2019t just for our convenience and laziness \u2013 it is for the horse\u2019s mental well being. The horse needs unobtrusive, pain free signals for all its movements in hand and under saddle. Good coaches and trainers have long known the importance of lightness of the aids as well as the fact that if the horse needs stronger pressure to motivate him to do something, then these pressures must always be preceded by light aids. But it was the writings of a man called Piet Wiepkema, a Dutch cognitive scientist, which first brought me to understand the relationship between an animal\u2019s well-being and the nature and consistency of the signals that it encounters in its life.<\/p>\n

Take a moment to contemplate this \u2013 any animal\u2019s existence involves giving and receiving signals and\/or \u2018pressures\u2019 from its environment. The signals\/\u2019pressures\u2019 it issues to its environment in order to procure benefits for itself are either inborn ones or learned ones, and the ones it receives from its environment are either from the physical or the behavioural world (including signals from its rider or handler). Animals have evolved the ability to offer and learn to respond to mild unobtrusive signals so that they don\u2019t have to endure a life of painful or unpredictable events such as the sudden attack by another horse during a squabble over resources such as food or mates as well as to predict predatory attacks. For example, horses soon learn that before another horse attacks, it lays its ears back.<\/p>\n

CONSISTENCY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Animals are thus able to learn signals that surround all events that not only predict nasty things but also nice ones too, such as the arrival of the person carrying a bucket \u2013 it means food. Wiepkema showed that how often a particular signal consistently predicts a particular response is directly proportional to the amount stress in an animal. If the signal always leads to the same response, the animal is relaxed in its response to the signal. Think of your own life. What makes you calm (or not) as an adult is that you have (or have not) found ways, generally using language, to control your response to others and to control the behaviour of others. All organisms need to be able to make their behavioural world predictable. The less predictable and controllable their world is, the more stress and tension they show.<\/p>\n

In horse training, predictability comes through the horse learning to respond in the same way from a light aid for each response (stop, go, turn and leg-yield). Responding in the same way means responding:\u00a0immediately to the light aid,\u00a0in a self-maintained rhythm and tempo,\u00a0with self-maintained straightness,\u00a0with self-maintained contact and outline,\u00a0with impulsion,\u00a0with all of the above properties everywhere and every time.<\/p>\n

So when you look at the above qualities of the rein and leg aids, you will appreciate that each response requires the development of many properties. These properties need to be trained one by one as you will see in a later article.<\/p>\n

This is why correct horse training has always focussed on producing a consistent set of responses each time an aid is given rather than a random assortment of various incorrect responses. The German training scale is the best known of mankind\u2019s attempts to train consistency of outcome in horse training. What is not well known in any equitation discipline is that problem horses are a result of defects in consistency of outcome from the aids. Instead, horsepeople describe a horse\u2019s training in terms of its \u2018will to please\u2019 rather than its reaction to the aids. Horses are frequently described as \u2018naughty\u2019, \u2018dirty\u2019, \u2018dumb\u2019 or \u2018hot\u2019 rather than using terms that describe what the horse\u2019s legs do or do not do in response to the aids.<\/p>\n

SIGNAL PRIORITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is important in horse training to recognise that there is a priority in training signals. At the very earliest stages in horse training, the horse learns to respond from pressures, such as lead rein pressure for leading, and under saddle pressure from both legs means go forward while pressure from the reins means slow. However, good trainers ensure that at the very beginning of each rein or leg pressure, that there is a light version of that particular pressure. This has been known for centuries and is described at length in classical training literature. This light aid therefore is the very first cue that the horse learns in-hand and under-saddle for go, stop, turn and leg-yield. The horse learns through Pavlov\u2019s principle, (Classical conditioning) to respond from those light versions of the pressures.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, during this training the horse also learns, again through Pavlov\u2019s principle to respond from associated seat, weight and position cues because they occur just before and during the light rein and leg aids. Horses learn these aids readily and unfortunately sometimes well before the horse has thoroughly learned about the pressures that actually enforce responses. Therefore, learning to respond from pressures and light aids should always precede any reliance on seat and position cues. Too many people rely on seat and position aids and forget to either establish or maintain the underlying foundations of rein and leg signals<\/p>\n

. When the response to the seat and position aids begin to fail or even take too long to work and the horse no longer responds as he should, he soon forgets these aids entirely, as Pavlov predicted. Pavlov found that a conditioned response will be repressed if the stimulus proves \u201cwrong\u201d too often. If the seat does not produce a reliable response, the horse will stop responding to it. The same is true for the leg and rein aids \u2013 if they don\u2019t work, the stronger motivating pressure should follow. It\u2019s as if the horse is saying: \u201cPlease don\u2019t use a force 6 pressure, I\u2019ll do it from the light aid.\u2019\u2019 Using the right amount of pressure is a vital skill in horse training \u2013 not too much and not too little. Problems also occur if the rider maintains the mild pressure of the light aid when the horse has already responded. The horse desensitises to the light aid.<\/p>\n

LOSSES OF PREDICTABILITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

However the problem with the horse that has become desensitised to the aids for whatever reason is not just that he loses his response to light signals. There is a big price that is often paid for this and it is called conflict behaviour. Conflict behaviour incudes flight response behaviours (i.e. fast ones) such as shying, bolting, bucking, rearing and leaping. It also accompanies associated health and welfare issues that include worsening colic attacks, immune suppression, hormonal changes and poor and \u2018stringy\u2019 body condition. Conflict behaviour arises from the stress that occurs due to losses, from the horse\u2019s viewpoint, of predictability and controllability of its behavioural world. The horse is trying to run away from the stressful situation.<\/p>\n

Conflict behaviour may also arise when the trainer does not regularly target a consistent set of responses from an aid. When all of the properties of each response (rhythm, straightness etc) are automatic from each light aid, the horse becomes relaxed in its body because the aid predicts a precise response. The horse\u2019s world is now predictable. The horse\u2019s general life is calmer too – things like separation anxiety disappear as well as other nervous tendencies. This is because, unlike before when responses were more random and less precise, the horse is now able to \u2018read\u2019 humans. More than anything else it is responsible for establishing what are known as rapport and trust between horses and humans. The horse is no longer insecure and whinnying for its mates shouting: \u201cHelp, I can\u2019t read humans, I can only read horses, is there anybody out there?\u201d Think about this. Does a small squeeze of the legs result in the right response but a bigger kick result in the opposite response, i.e. slowing or showing \u2018piggy\u2019 behaviour?<\/p>\n

Obedient, well trained horses are like obedient, well trained dogs \u2013 they just don\u2019t call out or become controlled by their environment. They are \u2018on the aids\u2019. Of course young horses going out for the first few times can be expected to be more nervous, but after five or so outings they should become unfazed by new surroundings if they are on the aids and their responses are consistent.<\/p>\n

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many associations that we train into the horse\u2019s repertoire of signals. One of the most important is the acquisition of verbal praise such as \u2018Good Boy\u2019 for reward. Few people consider how the horse acquires this as a positive reinforcer, and consequently few horses adequately respond to it. We assume the horse knows what we mean, as if the horse has some kind of pre-programmed English vocab in its head. Because verbal commands have to be learned, they are called secondary reinforcers. To be effectively learned they have to be associated with a primary reinforcer, such as food or scratching\/caressing the horse at the base of the withers (a proven site where French researchers showed lowered heart rate more than any other site). Because the base of the withers is so close to the hands of the rider, scratching\/caressing is the most useful primary reinforcer. To train the horse to respond to \u2018Good Boy\u2019, the words should occur just before and during the scratching. The words and tone should be the same each time. Soon the words come to evoke the relaxation that results from scratching at the base of the withers. The words should be re-associated with the wither scratching from time to time.<\/p>\n

PRECISE TIMING<\/strong><\/p>\n

The light aid should be attached to the stronger aid that comes after it. It should not be isolated by a gap in time before the stronger aid. In horse training, the time gap between the light aid and the stronger pressure should be the same as the time gap in between footfalls in the rhythm of the gait – all responses should have occurred by the count of 3. In other words the stronger pressure comes very swiftly after the light aid. Training horses effectively therefore requires skill and speed in decision making and action. In a fraction of a second you have to decide if the horse responded adequately to the light aid, and if not back it up with stronger pressure which is subsequently released the instant the horse gives the correct response. This way the horse optimally learns the light aid, and it rapidly evokes the correct response without any increase in pressure of the aid. This is the aim of all horse training \u2013 to transform the pressure-release training rapidly to lighter versions of the pressure, and then later to transform those aids into seat, weight and position aids. Through careful repetitive training, the horse eventually \u2018rote learns\u2019 his responses to the light aids so that he can avoid stronger pressures altogether.<\/p>\n

Next the Exclusivity Principle<\/a>, which is about the importance of keeping aids and their responses unique – and what happens when they are not\u2026<\/p>\n

Originally published in the September 2004 edition of The Horse Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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