I picked up yet another book on dog training from the library today. This one focuses on clicker training or shaping, and my hope (and that of the rest of the family) is that a more focused approach to this type of training (we have only dabbled in it so far) will help us out with our currently very lively boxer puppy. I’ve already read a few chapters, and though I’ve had a look at several other books focusing on dog training through positive reinforcement, this one suddenly made me realize a couple of things I had only partially grasped before.
And with those realizations came the question: why not apply this to horses too? Surely you can train them with positive reinforcement as well? It seems like it should be perfectly doable, but how? I can sort of see how to work with a horse in such a fashion on the ground, but what about when you’re riding? Could go forego any sort of corrections and instead focus on just asking the horse to do something, as clearly as possible, and reward if he does it and do nothing if he doesn’t? Instead of becoming more demanding, you just ask again, in the same way? It seems like it should be doable, but whether its something you can apply to a riding school horse who won’t get that sort of training most of the time, I am not sure.
I’d love to try, though, because the best ride I’ve ever had on Murphy came out of him all of a sudden figuring out how to do something for himself and then getting praised for it for the rest of the class. But while I can picture teaching a dog new behaviours through shaping, where you reward as soon as the dog voluntarily tries a new action that is in the right direction, I find it harder to see how one would do the same with a horse. I can’t very well sit there in the saddle and wait for him to figure out how to do a shoulder-in. However, I suppose I can lay the groundwork by warming him up and encouraging behaviour that approaches what I am after, such as inner side softness.
I am not sure I’ll be bringing a clicker to the stables (though I am pondering it), but I think I want to try to get a chance to talk to my instructor about trying a new approach to riding. The main issue most people would have with it, I think, is the idea of not using negative reinforcement. Obviously, if a horse is trying to run off, you have to stop it, but I think that in most scenarios you can stop at just preventing the bad behaviour, instead of also correcting the horse with your whip or anything else. I am not quite sure how you approach a horse like Murphy, who loves to try to get out of work if you’re not determined enough. According to the book, there’s no such thing as a stubborn dog or a dog who is testing its owner. Dogs are simply selfish creatures who always will do what gets them the best result. I am not sure this is the whole truth, though I do think there’s a lot to it, and presumably that holds true for horses too.
The book suggests using a long leash to prevent a dog from running off (since running off would allow the dog to reward itself in ways that would beat any rewards that you can offer), and perhaps one can see, for example, keeping the horse framed between your hands and your legs as a similar approach. You prevent the horse from doing a number of incorrect things, but you leave the way open for it to try some desired behaviours. And when it does, you reward it. This does fit some of the instruction that we get at the riding school. For example, my instructor often says that if you ask for the horse to move on a circle in a good form, it doesn’t matter if the horse is also getting so eager that its doing backflips, as long as it does them along the correct track and in the correct form. But the instruction, as all riding instruction I’ve come across, also includes making a lot of demands and asking more firmly when the response isn’t correct, and that’s the part I am now wondering about.
Whew, that’s a lot of rambling all of a sudden. But I am very curious about this. I wonder if there are any books on clicker training/shaping for horses, and on using positive reinforcement, especially when riding.