After watching Luca Maria Moneta's interview with Horse and Country TV, following his success at the 2013 Puissance at Olympia, it struck me that the use of treats in horse training is something that is often not fully understood. Click here to watch Luca's video.
I've met trainers that say that they never feed their horse from their hand and met many more people that dish out the horse candy like it's going out of fashion. So who which way is right?
The answer is neither!
A common issue with using treats without understanding the psychology behind them is that people soon find themselves in situations where their horse will not do things unless he is given a treat. I know horses that will check you out and if you don't have a treat they won't let you catch them. The horse has become the trainer and knows that next time the human will make sure they have plenty of treats. Conversely, if you make a rule of never using treats you lose a very useful training tool.
When do treats not work?
There are situations when the use of treats is completely pointless and ineffective. Dealing with a horse that has a fear or comfort issue is one. How often have you seen people using treats to coax a horse into a trailer? Most people have tried it, I know I have, but it comes from not understanding what is important to a horse. When a horse is afraid for its life, or even just doesn't trust you, the last thing they are thinking about it their stomach. An example in the human world would be how people often lose their appetite when they are under great stress, such us facing an important exam or interview. If you are walking alone in a forest in the dark, with strange sounds coming closer behind you would you really think "hmmm? I'm hungry right now!". There is a simple biological explanation for this phenomenon. Eating slows you down, a full belly weighs you down and it takes energy for the body to digest. When you brain is picking up environmental cues that signal danger it begins preparing you for "fight or flight", and that means emptying the digestive system, not filling it up. That's the reason people that have a sudden fright may mess themselves! There's a lot more science to it but you get the principle.
Even if you manage to get your horse to take a treat, if he is stressed and his mind is on the stressful thing, eating is unlikely to help him make a meaningful mental connection. Some horses start grass munching when they feel pressure. It's a quick "grabby" kind of munch, as if they need to get as much as they can in their mouth. Sometimes food literally falls out of their mouths where they eat so fast. This could be compared to comfort eating in humans. The sensation of eating gives them a temporary release from their stress but it does not help them really feel any better about what is causing their stress. Eating your weight in ice-cream after an argument with your boyfriend (or girlfriend) might make you feel a bit better whilst you're eating but it doesn't address the reason for the argument and the problems in your relationship. This is why it is often better for people that do not know how to use treats to not use them at all. You can cause a horse to go farther with a treat than it would without but when the treats stop the stress is sill there and then the horse is much further past it's threshold and you have a very upset horse on your hands, or worse, you think the problem is gone but next time it is only worse.
So why bother giving treats at all then? Because when a horse is calm and confident he will start to ask for reasons to do things, the "why should I?"s and "what's in it for me?"s start coming out. It's much easier to remain friends with someone that makes you feel great and knows the things you like. We tend to ask horses to do the same things over again. Their lives don't tend to have as much variety as our own, and horses are quick to become bored. Showing a little appreciation can go a long way toward making them feel better about yet another course of jumps or putting effort into transitions.
If your horse starts to become rude about getting treats it is a sign that you are giving too many for too little effort. Treats should be used as rewards for the horse putting more effort than normal into something. If you keep giving the same reward for the same amount of effort soon the horse will start to make less effort in order to find out how little he can do to get the same treat. It's a sign of their intelligence but ironically people accuse these horses of being stupid because they seem to be going backwards in their training.
Personally, I advise against showing the horse the treat before he has made the desired effort. If your horse does something because he knows he will get a treat then it is a bribe and will not lead to the horse doing it without the treat. If you surprise your horse with a treat when he makes a big effort then he will begin to link try with treat and will have the hope of a reward. This is far more likely to lead to a bigger effort next time. Hope is a powerful motivating factor, even more than receiving a guarantee. This is the reason so many people develop gambling addictions.
I've heard people say that giving horses treats is not natural because horses do not give each other treats. I disagree with this. A mares milk is very sweet and her foal knows its life depends on her milk to survive. A mare will push her foal away if he is too rude and will not permit him to drink until he behaves in the desired way. This is natural leadership at its best. When the foal has calmed down and asks nicely the mare decides whether to allow the foal to drink. The lead mare will carry this lesson on with mature horses. She controls who gets to eat what, when and where. If she decides that she wants to share the hay pile she will. If she feels that another horse needs to be more respectful she'll keep them away.
The art to using treats, as with any form of positive reinforcement, is to do so consciously. Know when you are giving your horse a reward and why you are rewarding it. This enables you to keep the leadership role and not become the horses puppet or carrot dispenser.
And if you happen to give too many treats don't beat yourself up about it, it's a sign of your loving nature and your horse is likely to have a lot of positive association with you. Just remember that you need to balance being nice to be around with being someone worth listening to.
It doesn't have to be a complicated issue, just be conscious of using treats to reward the horse for making more effort at tasks he is confident about. Hopefully this article has given you some food for thought (pardon the pun) and you have a better idea of when is an effective time to give a treat or not.
If you enjoyed the content of this article, you can find more like this plus a community of like minded horse lovers, videos, tips, support, fun challenges, competitions and out very special "self-competition" groundwork class at From the Heart Horsemanship Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/890643461490209/?ref=share
No comments:
Post a Comment