We entered in the John Logie Baird Innovation Awards in December, made it through to the Regional Panel Interviews, then to the Final Panel Interviews - and we were absolutely chuffed to win our category at the Gala Awards Dinner on March 12th (the pic below was taken on the awards night with Alan Suttie from our design company Fearsomengine).  We didn't get to give an acceptance speech on the night - so I've added a few thank you's at the bottom of this post .... 

Much of what Pembroke writes is remarkably enlightened and insightful, particularly given that it was written several hundred years ago.  I will reproduce an example of this writing below:

CHAP. VIII

The method of curing restivenesses, vices, defences, starting and stumbling, etc.

Before any mention is made of the different kinds of restivenesses, vices, and defences, etc. it is not amiss to observe, that a horse's being good or ill-natured greatly depends on the temper of the person, that is put about him, especially at first; and consequently one cannot be too careful and watchful in this point.

Whenever a horse makes resistance, one ought, before a remedy or correction is thought of, to examine very minutely all the tackle about him, if any thing hurts or tickles him, whether he has any natural or accidental weakness, or in short any the least impediment in any part.  For want of this precaution, and previous inspection, many fatal, and often irreparable disasters happen: the poor dumb animal is frequently accused falsely of being restive and vicious; is used ill without reason, and being forced into despair, is, in a manner, obliged to act accordingly, be his temper and inclination ever so well disposed.  It must never be forgot, that it is necessary to work on the minds of horses, at first by slow motions which give them time to reflect.  By degrees every thing may be done most rapidly by us, the good temper, docility, and obedience of a horse, that almost any thing may be done with him by good-nature, and science.  Even the domestic, worthy, friendly dog is not more susceptible of education.

Pembroke does tackle the subject of punishment also - whilst he sees harsh punishment as generally unnecessary if a horse is well trained from the outset, he does go out of his way to describe how to use it ... effectively ... (you'll see what I mean) in certain circumstances.

Rearing is a bad vice, and in weak horses especially, a very dangerous one.  Whilst the horse is up, the rider must yield his hand, and when the horse is descending he must vigorously determine him forwards by approaching his legs to the horse's sides: if this be done at any other time, but whilst the horse is coming down, it may add a spring to his rearing and make him fall backwards.  With a good hand on them, horses seldom persist in this vice; for they are themselves naturally much afraid of falling backwards.  If this method, which I have mentioned, fails, (which it scarcely ever will) you must make the horse kick up behind, by getting somebody on foot to strike him behind with a whip; or, if that will not effect it, by pricking him with a goad.

Pembroke seems like the type of man who calls a spade a spade.  To his credit, his general attitude towards punishment is described in the following:

When a rider quarrels with his horse, he is generally the dupe of his passion, and the fray commonly ends to his disadvantage.  Whenever you see a man beating any animal, you will almost always find, that the man is in the wrong, and the animal in the right.

What a fantastic insight into the culture that surrounded horse training in the 18th century. 

Has anyone seen the webiste Epona.tv?  It's a good (and slightly controversial) equine site with lots of great articles and videos. The videos are subscription only, but many of the articles are free to access. 

There was an interesting poll conducted at the bottom of the home page, designed to test the reader's understanding of learning theory.  The poll asked the reader which of the following four examples given could be classed as negative reinforcement.

The results at time of writing were:
(A)  A prompt slap at the right moment - 43.7%
(B) Ignoring the horse - 7%
(C) Giving the rein - 24.6%
(D) Not giving the horse a treat - 24.6%

Do you know which is the correct answer? If you do, then you're doing better than 88% of accredited riding coaches in Australia, according to a research paper by Amanda Warren-Smith and Paul McGreevy (you can read the abstract

here

At the moment, horse training is largely based on the use of aversive (unpleasant) stimuli - for example using the leg or spurs to motiviate the horse to move forward, the use of the bit to slow the horse, or the use of the whip when a horse refuses a jump.  Using learning theory terminology in these examples, the use of the leg or hand would generally be called negative reinforcement, and the use of the whip would be called positive punishment.

"Positive punishment ??" I hear you say!  This may seem counter-intuitive, and yes, learning theory terminology is confusing!  It helps to think of negative (-) and positive (+) in the mathematical sense of removing or adding something. 

Positive punishment is where an aversive stimulus is added, for example the horse is hit when it refuses to jump.  The goal with punishment is to decrease the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring in future.  In this case, the rider would be aiming to decrease the frequency of the horse losing momentum into the jump and refusing.  Positive punishment punishes the target behaviour.

Negative reinforcement on the other hand, is where an aversive stimulus is removed, an example being that you take the pressure off the reins once the horse has performed a halt.  By removing the rein pressure immediately as the horse stops, you encourage the horse to respond even more quickly in future, as it realises that it can get rid of the uncomfortable pressure on its mouth by performing the halt.  So with the use of well-timed negative reinforcement, you can increase the likelihood of the 'stop' behaviour occurring in future.  Negative reinforcement reinforces (strengthens) the target behaviour.

Decades ago, dog training had a similar focus on aversive training tools and techniques, with prong collars, choke chains, and large sticks all seen as popular training tools.  Fortunately, there has been a lot of study into canine behaviour over the past few decades, and now dog trainers largely base their methods around something called 'positive reinforcement' - where the desired behaviour is shaped by using well-timed rewards.

It seems as though the same change may be occuring in the equestrian world.  I personally know of several people who have incorporated positive reinforcement into their training, and are attempting to minimise any aversives used. 

Do you, or anyone you know of, use learning theory to help you effectively train your horse?

I headed off to Birmingham to the BSAVA congress in April, to attend the Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy Study Group (CABTSG) day.  CABTSG usually try to cover a variety of species, however when I saw the initial list of speakers for the 2009 conference I was disappointed to see a distinct lack of equine topics!  Cats, dogs, rabbits, lizards and all sorts of other creatures are considered to be companion animals, however it is usually cats and dogs that get all the airtime. 

Technically horses are considered companion animals within the UK too, although they do seem to sit on the periphery of the group.  Perhaps this is partially because in wider Europe they are classified as a food-producing animal (as they are killed for meat in some countries - which will remain nameless!) ...

Although I would have preferred to just moan about the lack of equine content, I decided to be brave and put my hand up to do a short 10 min talk on the current state of equine behaviour modification training, as carried out by riders and mainstream instructors.

On the day there was an audience of around 70 people, mostly veterinarians and professional animal behaviourists.  Fairly daunting!  This is not my usual scene, however my husband is a behaviourist so he recognised a few faces which made integrating a little easier.

As I was researching my topic, I was reminded of how little horse training techniques and equipment have changed over the millenia.  I found photographs of spurs and bits that I had taken while at the Louvre, and other museums, and managed to match them up with their very similar modern-day counterparts. 

I can't help but feel that a change is in the wind though, that advances in our understanding of horses and other animals may allow us to achieve greater results than we previously thought possible.  The equipment and techniques employed in dog training has changed markedly over the past 20 years, and for the better I think.

Hopefully the same is in store for us?

We made the 5 hour drive to Birmingham this week to attend the British Equestrian Trade Association fair – and good thing we did. Technically it was a little early for us, as we don’t even start trading properly for another month or two! We had a couple of our most interesting products (due for launch spring / summer) on display, and there was a phenomenal amount of interest, especially in the Mosquito Magnet and the Fly Visor.

Admittedly, the Mosquito Magnet is pretty cool (I have got myself one for spring / summer), it covers an area of around one acre, and helps to keep the local midge and mosquito population to a bare minimum!

The Fly Visor is shaping up to be the product to beat this summer. It got loads of comments on the amount of eye clearance it gives the horse, and the amount of protection it gives the underside of the jaw. Some of the biggest mags have picked up on it, and are featuring it in their upcoming editorials. Keep an eye out for the Fly Visor (and our fluffy Spanish model - Revo) in Your Horse, Eventing, Just Dressage and Horse Scene over the coming months!

Mat and I also spent half a day in the Louvre looking through their amazing collection. I couldn’t help but notice how strongly horses featured in art, and human culture throughout the ages. I have included my favourite shot for the day (see pic).

Check out the lovely riding pants (just goes to show that jodhs have always been unflattering), and the tiger teeth right about to land on that horse’s rump! No wonder the bloke riding him needs to use such a strong bit to keep the horse from shooting forward ...

It’s amazing when you think about it – horses have played an integral role in the development of human civilisation. They allowed us to transport ourselves long distances, pull heavy loads, go charging into battle, and even provided us with food, milk, cheese and skins.

Amazing creatures.

It was with mild disappointment that I realised part way through the two hours of training we watched, that the techniques these riders were using didn't seem amazingly enlightened. The riders wore upturned spurs, and used them as they saw appropriate. Some riders looked as though they were being quite rough with their hands, particularly the younger riders. There were horses napping, bucking, and one was constantly grinding it's teeth. Grinding teeth is thought to be a symptom of a horse being in chronic discomfort (see Dr. Paul McGreevy's book 'Why Does My Horse ...').

One thing that I did find encouraging however, was the use of food rewards. Near the end of the training session, the rider would ask the horse to perform a specific movement, and if the exercise went well the rider finished the session, dismounted, and gave the horse a lump of sugar.

The use of rewards was encouraged by the previous Director of the SRS in Vienna, Colonel Alois Podhajsky in his book 'The Complete Training of Horse and Rider'. In this, he confesses that in most books on riding, punishments are discussed in much more detail than rewards.

He finishes the training section with '... From the manner in which rewards and punishments are administered, interesting conclusions can be drawn as to the character and mind of the rider.'

Discussion: How many of you use rewards (food treats, scratches etc) as an integral part of your training?

Second question: Would you consider it appropriate for the removal of leg or rein pressure to be termed a 'reward' in the context of horse training?

The SRS would be in a great position to lead the way in incorporating reward-based training to mainstream dressage training, as the current system they have is so well thought out, and well structured, with relatively slow training progression and clearly set out incremental training steps. The SRS riders are extremely skilled in their application of aversion-based training techniques, and I have no doubts that they could very easily switch to predominantly reward based training.