THE PITFALLS OF SEEKING PERFECTION

THE PITFALLS OF SEEKING PERFECTION & LEARNING TO RIDE A HORSE'S WAVE OF MOTIVATION

Good training techniques work but they can go pear-shaped for two main reasons. The first reason for a technique producing a negative outcome is if it is applied incorrectly but it can also go wrong if it is applied with the aim of the horse performing a perfect performance. I would like to talk about this last particular problem because it is a pitfall that people with quite good skill development can experience. The more experience you gain the more refined the mental pictures or representations in your head become about what you are seeking the horse to perform, unfortunately seeking perfection is poisonous. It is poisonous because for a horse to get confident and to remain engaged in training it has to feel SUCCESSFUL. But when someone gets stuck in a mindset of seeking perfection they can do the following things and end up destroying the horse’s sense of success:

1) They get the horse to perform endless repetitions of a behaviour wanting continual confirmation the horse does something perfectly: To explain the impact of getting the horse to perform multiple repetitions of a behaviour and demonstrate the negative impact this has on the horse to KEEP responding to cue for endless unnecessary repetitions - I start asking the person “what is 1+1?”…when they answer “2” again I repeat “what is 1+1?”…again they answer “2”….again I repeat “what is 1+1?....by this stage they are looking at me exasperated but they will typically answer again “2”! but again I repeat “what is 1+1?....this time they stop responding to me or start giving me a different answer or start laughing as they work out what has been happening with their horse because by me asking that question over and over again completely destroyed their motivation to respond to me but also made them feel frustrated as it made no sense to them as I kept asking when they had already given me the correct answer. Basically, if you want to unmotivate your horse to respond to you or inspire them to answer your question differently, or disengage themselves from you then repeatedly ask them the same question after they have given you the correct response. Sure, you can check a response to a cue but if it is a good response then move on! If you are teaching something or refreshing a response find an improvement but not necessarily perfection and move on.

2) They fail to really put emphasis on a good attempt: Instead of seeking perfection, you should seek EXCELLENCE. Excellence is improvement, not perfection and is more a recognition of quality of effort. When a horse makes an improvement I make sure they really experience a true release of pressure and I leave them alone for at least 20 seconds or longer. For instance, yesterday I was working with a client’s horse that was not stopping well in ground work. I presented my cue and because the horse did not respond I followed through with my pressure and had to repeat this twice, on the third presentation of my cue the horse responded much better, it wasn’t exactly correct as the mare skipped around to stop but the initial response to my cue was much more responsive, so I stopped and gave the mare a 20 second rest to really instil the perception of a release of pressure and successful navigation of my cue. When I sent her off again and asked her to stop it was just not responsive but it flowed, there was not skipping or tension, it was an excellent stop for this mare at this stage of training and this time I gave her over a minute to rest. Moral of the story is to really ensure the horse has a chance to perceive a release of pressure because a quick release of pressure that is followed immediately by a request to move again can swamp and eliminate any perception of the release of pressure or success.

3) Drilling exercises causing physical fatigue: If you want to make a horse perceive being trained as negative make them exhausted or repeat movements so their muscle and joints fatigue. When we exercise and become exhausted we tend to experience discomfort in our legs, the horse feels this discomfort primarily in their backs. Repetition of movements such as small circles put great strain on joints and muscle groups. Any repetitive movement causes wear and tear and therefore I advise the wise use of small circles because a horse only has a finite number of circles its joints can endure in its life time. Repetition seeking perfection uses up these circles and risks causing a horse discomfort from fatigue and exhaustion. A negative perception about being trained can hamper learning and destroys any sense of the horse perceiving they can be successful when working with a human. Instead they perceive pain and exhaustion.

When a horse fails to identify success it can enter a state known as learned helplessness. People tend to think horses can only enter this state if they experience great trauma but this is not so. They can enter it because they have failed to be perfect. Horses that are in this state lose their try or their effort engage with people and attempt to work out what people want. Instead they can become distracted, reactive or dull, their work inconsistent and their training regress more than progress.

So, what do you do if you find yourself in this situation? You have to take on board the points I have written above and drop your focus on perfection and instead focus on how to get your horse to perceive it is successful. A key to ensuring a horse can perceive success is to recognise and accept that horses, just like us, experience fluctuations of motivation. To ensure a horse can feel successful we need to be able to “ride the wave” of their motivation. If they are having a low motivation day, then focus on easy tasks so that they end the training session successful. If they are feeling great and in a good mindset then these are the days you can add in some new stuff or stretch performances. If you take into consideration how the horse is feeling each time you work with them and adjust your training accordingly you can set the horse up to feel successful and not pushed beyond its mental and physical limits each time you train. By doing this you will discover that your horse's motivation will become more consistent. Therefore, the key points to this article are – drop your quest for perfection, perfection is poisonous. Instead, change your quest to execute an excellent training session where the horse has been setup to feel successful about its ability to work with you.