Understanding How Horse Emotions Impact Training
All animals are born with innate emotions – from joy to fear to anger to curiosity – which impacts their experiences and how they interact with the world. At Via Nova, we pay attention to our horse’s emotions because it directly affects their ability to learn and make decisions in the moment. When we are aware of their arousal levels, we can figure out the best course of action to optimize their training session. This might be giving them choice to end the session early, take some time to burn off extra energy, or do something they find familiar and highly rewarding
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The Vital Role of Positive Emotions when Training Horses
The bond between horse and rider is more than just a physical connection - it's a deep emotional relationship. Understanding and harnessing emotions, particularly positive ones, is crucial in the successful training of horses. In the 1990s, Jaak Panksepp delved into the intricate world of emotions and their profound impact on behavior. He introduced the concept of "affective neuroscience," a field dedicated to unraveling the neural mechanisms underlying emotions. Panksepp's research revealed that emotions are not just fleeting states of mind but deeply rooted neural processes that guide our actions and interactions.
His work identified seven primary emotional systems in the brain, 4 positive (Seeking, Care, Play, and Lust) and 3 negative (Fear, Panic/Grief, and Rage). Each system serves a specific evolutionary purpose, guiding behavior and responses to the environment, and it’s not necessary to teach the young of any mammal species to PANIC if lost from the parent a foal will SEEK milk as soon as it can stand up.
In the context of training horses for sport, this system plays a crucial role in motivating the horse to learn new skills, respond to cues, and engage with the rider. Understanding how to stimulate the SEEKING system positively and effectively, which is associated with curiosity, exploration, and the pursuit of rewards, will drive learning and performance. Conversely, the FEAR system is designed to detect and respond to potential threats. In training, an understanding of this system helps riders recognize signs of fear or stress in their horses.
Positive Emotions and Performance
Wally and Priority to Positive® Program Supervisor Jasmine, working at Liberty.
The emotional state of a horse directly influences its performance in various disciplines, whether it be dressage, show jumping, eventing, or racing. A horse that is stressed, anxious, or fearful will not be able to perform at its best. Conversely, a horse that feels confident, relaxed, and engaged will exhibit greater focus, responsiveness, and willingness to cooperate. Because training deals with both emotions and learning, we need to understand how that impacts a horse’s arousal. Arousal can be described as a horse’s level of attention or activity - on one side you have low activity like dozing, and on the other side you have high activity like tearing around the field.
Incorporating emotional intelligence into equestrian training can yield remarkable results. When trainers and riders understand how to read and respond to a horse's emotions, they can tailor their methods to foster positive emotional states and have their horse work within the desired threshold levels of arousal. This, in turn, enhances the horse's ability to learn, perform, and excel in your chosen discipline.
“Threshold” is a way to understand the emotional states of your horse. For instance, if your horse is below a threshold level of arousal he will think and respond to the world around him by processing your cues. If your horse is over-threshold they are reacting instead of responding. With our horses, our goal is to have our horses in optimum arousal and performance range, but that can be a pretty narrow target! This ‘target’ will change depending on the task and the circumstances; The level of physiological arousal a horse needs to jump a Grand Prix course is different from the level of arousal they need to perform a walk to turn out. When we’re using Positive Reinforcement, not just for the safety and well-being of both the trainer and the horse, but for optimal learning, we want to err on the side of lower arousal.
When we talk about “over-arousal” we mean the red-shaded area on the right side of this graph, the area beyond optimal performance. The farther to the right we move toward High Arousal, the less the focused, conscious, decision-making part of the brain holds sway, and the negative, primitive emotions of FEAR, PANIC and RAGE take over, putting the horse in fight-or-flight mode.
Practical Application in Training
We know our goal is to stay in an optimal arousal state where the horse can learn and respond. But how?
First, you should try to prevent over-arousal by setting up for success. Here are some of the ways that this can be done:
Try not to work with a hungry horse, and avoid starting training sessions just before established mealtimes. If you must train with a hungry horse, you should lower their seeking emotion by pre-loading the food. Put a pan of food on the ground and wait a few minutes while they eat it. Providing food such as alfalfa before exercising a horse is also proven to reduce the occurrence of stomach ulcers. You can also give them a few handfuls of low-value treats to get them to chew contentedly before you cue or mark for anything at all. Want to know more about how to safely hand-feed your horse? See our guide here.
Mix movement cues with relaxed behaviors. Walk and then trot on, allowing movement to be a reinforcer for calm behavior.
Cueing lots of simple, well-practiced behavior that can be rewarded, mixed in with more challenging training.
Keeping training sessions reasonably short. Short may mean anything from a minute in the stall to a 20-minute session that could be made up of 6 sets of 5 behavior repetitions each, with quiet breaks for eating from a bucket, as long as the horse is staying actively interested. You can make a lot of progress with many short sessions.
Being clear with the use of the cues used.
Maintaining a high rate of reinforcement, and remember that not all reinforcement needs to be food.
Other options for redirecting an over-aroused horse are “Targeting”, or another one of the Via Nova foundation behaviors; “Liberty Leading”. Targeting in horse training refers to a technique where the horse learns to touch or ‘target’ a specific object with a part of its body, typically its muzzle. This object can be anything from a handheld target stick to a stationary object, such as a cone or a ball. This is a versatile and effective training tool that can be adapted to suit various goals and all disciplines, helping you develop a horse's focus, confidence, and responsiveness. Whether used for groundwork or desensitization, horses can quickly learn to enjoy and excel at targeting exercises, also helping you with things such as mounting or loading.
"Liberty leading" refers to a style of horse training or handling where the horse is not physically restrained by tack, such as a bridle or halter, and instead responds to the handler's cues through body language, voice commands, and subtle gestures. This type of training emphasizes communication, trust, and mutual understanding between the horse and the handler. Liberty leading allows the horse to move freely while still responding to the handler's requests. It is often used as a training tool to develop a deeper connection and partnership between the horse and the handler, but also to improve the horse's responsiveness and willingness to work.
Conclusion
In the world of equestrian sports, where the partnership between horse and rider is paramount, understanding the emotional life of horses is not a luxury - it is a necessity. Incorporating this understanding into practice through Positive Reinforcement (R+) training methods, will allow riders to build strong, trusting relationships with their horses. By honoring the horses’ emotional lives and fostering positive emotional states, we pave the way for a harmonious relationship with our horses. This, in turn, enhances performance, well-being, and the overall experience for both horse and rider in the arena, and beyond.
References:
Panksepp, J., & Biven, L. (2012). The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions. W. W. Norton & Company.
Hausberger, M., Roche, H., Henry, S., & Visser, E. K. (2008). A review of the human-horse relationship. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 109(1-2), 1-24.
McGreevy, P., & McLean, A. (2007). Roles of learning theory and ethology in equitation. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 2(3), 108-118.
Goodwin, D., & McGreevy, P. (2010). Training horses: Positive reinforcement, positive punishment, and ridden behavior problems. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 5(4), 187-195.
McGreevy, P. (2012). Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Saunders Ltd.
