MISINFORMATION & IGNORANCE

The Misinformation Spread by Some Reward Based Horse Trainers

Before I start I want to let you know three things:

1. Not all reward based trainers spread misinformation. Many share information that is balanced and promote an understanding of how to apply the approach skilfully.

2. I am speaking out because I am work daily with the harm created by this misinformation.

3. I am wearing my flame proof suit and expecting to be set on fire - so be it - I am ready.

There are many ways we can influence and teach behaviour to horses. We can teach behaviours we want by either applying and strategically releasing pressure to create understanding (this is the traditional and most common way used). Or we can teach behaviours by presenting something the horse desires after the performance of a behaviour, commonly food is used. We can also discourage the performance of certain behaviours we don’t want by either removing something desirable or applying an uncomfortable pressure when the horse performs what we don’t want them to do.

These methods don’t just work for horses. Through life, your own behaviour, thoughts and feelings has been shaped by events and experiences that have either encouraged or discouraged things you do, think and feel!

A major cause of problems with horses is created by poor training due to ignorance of how to apply training methods; deliver and progress training; observe and interpret training responses and make decisions - basically a lack of understanding and skills in training. In the horse world there tends to be more focus on the idea of riding and less on training. This is ignorant of the fact that every moment with a horse you are doing things that are encouraging and discouraging behaviours - therefore training!

All these methods to influence a horse can be effective; however, they need to be applied well. If they are not applied well and for the right reason, the outcome can be terrible and damaging. In my experience I have seen horse’s screwed up by awful round penning and groundwork methods, over use of the whip, spurs, the use of treats and just ignorance about training and preparing horses for certain disciplines where horse’s are rushed and fried. I have seen horsemanship methods, classical dressage approaches and clicker training performed horrendously and horses suffering as a result. It was seriously confronting for me when I started coaching people and having to witness how people misinterpreted and employed a technique I just demonstrated in front of them! Needless to say I don’t go and label the “tools” or approaches as being “good” or “bad”. I see them as tools….tools that can be used really well when you have the skills and knowledge to use them well with the right reasoning and approach.

So, what about this misinformation I am complaining about. Well, when it comes to people promoting training approaches all trainers sit on a spectrum. There is a spectrum of skill and expertise but there is also a spectrum of ideology. My own personal ideology I have described above. I am skilled in the technique and art of all types of training approaches and tools. After working with many horse’s I have learnt that depending on the individual horse, what it knows, how it feels, how it is struggling and the specific circumstance of a situation, will determine what I need to pull out of my training toolbox and where I will start.

I am therefore an advocate of teaching people to be skilled with all approaches to teaching and discouraging behaviour and how to make good decisions about what to pull out of their toolbox.

This is because it is the knowledge and skills of the person hanging onto the lead rope or sitting on the back of the horse that is typically the problem - not the whip in their hand, the bit in the horse’s mouth or the treat in their treat bag! Therefore, I promote education and skill development in people - not just fixes for horses - to fix a horse I need to teach the human!

Now at the other end of the spectrum from me is a group that don’t think like this. They typically label themselves under the banner of “reward based” trainer. They tend to believe that training and encouraging with reward (e.g. treats) is the only morally and ethically right way to work with horses. Some times they will even state that as a scientific fact which is absolute rubbish. Even in the education of humans we know that teaching in a way where only desirable and positive things happens has many negatives outcomes and problems.

Unlike me, they tend to blame and demonise training approachs. Here are some examples of misinformation abut pressure training presented with authority the other day by a “reward based trainer”:

“With pressure release training a significant part of the training is about correcting the horse when they make the wrong decision. Pressure release training makes us reactive to horses and whatever they show us behaviour we always react with pressure. They don’t have a big master plan of how get to behaviour going”. As long as the horse is doing what the pressure trainer wants they leave the horse alone. This in turn creates passive horses. Who rather not try to engage and experiment with behaviour because it is not worth risking to do something wrong.”

This is all incorrect. It is as ridiculous and wrong as saying the following - all reward based trainers spend a big part of their training bribing their horses in hope the horse will like them and wont do anything scary. Reward based training makes people only skilled in giving a treat and focusing on making horses so fat and lazy they can’t move to do anything else. Reward based training creates food aggressive horses who only engage with people for treats and usually only get stuck doing tricks on the ground and can’t progress to under saddle because they are all too scared to ride."

Good training is good, carefully planned and executed training that focuses on teaching. Horse’s learn exceptionally fast when they are set up to learn, there is no need to correct them all the time. They learn well with pressure and treats.

It is a usual story from these particular trainers that they tried horsemanship practices and pressure training but had a terrible time with it and they believed their horse suffered because of it. Then they found reward based training and it changed their life with horses.

All I see when I read their background stories and misinformation they spread about pressure training or horsemanship programs is that they - like many - struggled in performing it well. They struggled to apply it and therefore got to experience all the negative outcomes that happens when you apply training approaches poorly! So instead of identifying their poor knowledge and skills and the problem was them and their understanding and execution - they blame the method!

I am supportive of people having training preferences, if someone found something easier to pick up or they enjoy a particular training approach better, then great. But don’t go making claims and judgements about an approach you have only had limited subjective experience with and clearly failed at. Because you are not helping horses. The more people are inspired to develop their understanding and skills in ALL ways to influence a horse is how we can help horses. Not by creating this righteous ideological propaganda of “rightness” and “wrongness” between pressure and reward. It is not real, it is not fact, it is not even ethical, it is just ignorance and human ego.

There, now go ahead and set me on fire or support me. It is time to bring balance back to the discussion of training approaches.