Reflections on My Riding Journey | Mistakes resulting in reduced welfare

My current “heart” horse, Milo.

From a very young age, I have been fortunate enough  to work with horses and develop as a rider. At age 4, I began riding Arabian horses and by age 5 was showing on the Arabian Horse circuit. My discipline of choice became the first one my coach introduced me to, hunter pleasure, which on the Arabian circuit differs significantly from what most equestrians would envision as the mainstream hunter. During my youth, I had limited access to the internet, and the range of information available to learn about horses was nothing like it is today, leaving me solely with the teachings of my instructor as my influence. Her views shaped and coloured my understanding of horses from a behavioural and training perspective for many years to come, leading me to make many mistakes due to naivety and lack of understanding of how horses learn. While I regret much of what I have done in the past, I recognize that my mistakes have directed my  journey to learning more about equine behavioural science and adapting my training and riding style using science based methods, allowing me to do justice by my horses and offer them the respect they deserve. 

My trainer was and still is very well known on the Arabian horse circuit and produces winners. Many of her training practices, however, are questionable, and it took me many years to recognize this. Idolizing someone from the age of 4 to 12 means I viewed her as infallible and blindly trusted what she said was true, even if it was not. Her practices, compared to what was accepted in that circuit at the time, were not unusual. From what I recall, the Arab circuit relied heavily on shortcuts.. Said shortcuts often involved training gadgets such as draw reins, side reins, tie downs, 10-ring martingales and virtually anything you can imagine to create more force to pull the horse’s head into a certain position. Everything I was taught as a rider focused predominantly on headset, and there was little in the way of teaching what correct carriage even was and how to achieve it. If the head looked good, the frame was expected to be there. In terms of headset, the use of hyperflexion was commonplace and so normalized that it was never something I thought to question until I moved onto other disciplines of the horse world. I was also taught to use my hands lazily and ineffectively, see-sawing to try to get a response from horses whose mouths grew deader and deader due to the harshness of their handling. 

Riding my old horse, an Arabian named Farley. In a kimberwicke that my 9 year old hands probably shouldn’t have bee attached to.

Similar to the restrictive gadgets imposed on the horses, the manner with which I was taught to handle them was also forceful. If they misbehaved, they were being rude or disrespectful. If they puffed out for the girth being done up, I was taught to knee them in the stomach because they were being bad by doing so. If they tried to bite from being girthy or due to frustration from being overstalled, I was to hit them as discipline for biting. Overall, the use of punishment was so normalized that I never even thought to consider why it may be bad. From a learning theory standpoint, most of what I was taught was entirely ineffective and relied on coercion and disabling the autonomy of the horse. Everyday, I was unwittingly souring horses and making them seek to avoid my presence. I don’t believe my role models at the time sought out to be unkind to their horses, either. I do not believe they engaged in these methods out of sheer malice. They did, in a weird way, love their horses but the training methods and what they believed to be acceptable were vastly misplaced in terms of learning theory and fairness to the horse.

Poor management was so common within this breed circuit that for years, I never even considered the fact that horses may not like being stalled or isolated because everyone I trusted and respected was guilty of housing their horses in this manner. When horses adopted stall vices to cope with the stress their lifestyle imposed on them, my trainer taught me that they were just “dancing” when they were weaving,“playing” when they stall walked, or entertaining themselves when they cribbed. The acceptance of these practices and behaviours further reinforced  to a youngster like myself that they were normal-  the way horses were meant to be. Despite my trainer’s  barn having enough room for group pasture turnout, the horses remained confined to stalls and small paddocks the vast majority of the time. If they ran in the field, it was viewed as dangerous and they were brought in. These aspects of teaching and management bred into me a certain amount of impatience, anger and frustration with the horses when they did not meet my or my trainer’s expectations. As a result, I struggled immensely when I got my first horse at just 8 years old, a 6 year old Arabian gelding named Farley. He was green, heavy in the hand, spooky and had a tendency to bolt. Despite these issues, I loved him dearly, and my trainer never indicated any cause for concern with said behaviours, nor considered a way to change them by adapting his living and management style. I believed her, so for the whole time I trained with her, Farley remained in a stall and a small paddock a short part of the day.  He didn’t get to go out in the rain, despite the fact that we lived in a temperate rainforest and it typically rained about 80% of the year. 

One of the most memorable moments that accurately depicts the example this trainer set for me as a young child was when my horse was too heavy in my hands during one of my hunter classes at a big Arabian show. I already rode him regularly in harsh bits like kimberwickes or thin, twisted wire snaffles. I was taught that he was softer in these bits because he liked them, not that he had to soften due to increased pain if he didn’t. Despite the use of harsh bits, he was still heavy on my young arms when we first started showing. The way my trainer “corrected” such heaviness resulting from the lack of proper carriage was to take my horse to his stall at the show and tie his reins to each side of his girth, like side reins, and to leave him in there for over an hour. She tied him so short that he had to hyper flex to get any relief. He called and called for help and by the time he was finally untied, his muscles were convulsing from exhaustion and he had gone into what now realize was learned helplessness. Despite the example my trainer had set for me for years leading up to this moment, this interaction made me very uncomfortable, but I was too afraid to speak up. It was too much of a feat to call into question someone I had grown to idolize and view as one of the best riders I had seen. 

Much of Farley’s life for the first several years I owned him took place in his 10x10 stall or a slightly larger dry lot paddock in individual turnout.

Eventually, I became burnt out from showing on the Arabian circuit and decided to move out of show barns altogether. I took my horse to what many would consider a “backyard barn”, a  low key facility with 20 acres of group turnout, a small outdoor arena and most of the space used for the horses. The change in my horse from the change in management was pretty much immediate. Gone was the spooky, bolting horse I had grown frustrated with and punished time and time again over the years. He was quiet to ride and even became beginner safe, all because he had the social turnout that he had needed. Unfortunately, due to the deprivation for years prior, Farley became hard to catch in turnout, sometimes taking hours to catch. This made me grow impatient and resentful with him, and I utilized the method of chasing him until he was tired, then was disappointed when it did not make him easier to catch. I did not understand the aversive nature of this coupled with my anger when he was finally caught was quite literally conditioning the undesirable behaviour I hated so much. I had only been taught how to utilize punishment and dominance theory to exploit horses to do what I wanted and to punish them when they didn’t. The school of thought I had known so well relied entirely on intimidating horses into submission or using tack and bits to force them to do what I wanted.

At age 16, I made the decision to find a new home for Farley where he could teach some younger kids to ride, and I decided to focus on getting into the hunter/jumper circuit. I began to access more online information during this time and came to realize the holes in my learning and how many problematic behaviours I had been taught for years, However, I was still naive to the entire truth of the situation. After selling Farley, the owner of the barn I’d been boarding at gave me a 4 year old off the trackThoroughbred mare that had come in to be rehomed. Maya, as I named her, was the quintessential ulcery, high strung and neurotic Thoroughbred. I cinched her up too fast the first time I tacked her and she exploded. She was hot to ride, like a rocket ship ready to launch when you put leg on,and had difficulty relaxing. I assumed this was simply due to her breeding and previous career as a racehorse, rather than potential ulcers or the fact that I was rushing her under saddle, riding her like I would a trained horse for sport horse disciplines. I also had such limited knowledge on  equine nutrition that I did not know how to feed her correctly to do her justice, factors created the problem horse I rode. Eventually, I sold her and purchased yet another OTTB, this time a 5 year old gelding I called Dallas. 

Dallas’ upside down neck and my use of a pelham as a bandaid for his rushing that I caused from a poor flatwork foundation.

Dallas was a saint of a horse and with his patience and quiet attitude, I started to learn a lot. Still, being young, I tended to rush to do things and therefore did not end up doing them well. With jumping, I taught him to rush fences by utilizing bigger bits as bandaids and assuming said rushing was due to excitement and enjoyment of jumping rather than nerves and confusion from inadequate or incorrect rider communication. I kept Dallas for several years, starting lessons under a jumping coach who was  more ethical than my last trainer, but still perpetuated ideas that were centered around bitting up for control, disciplining bad behaviours, and failing to recognize certain behavioural cues that would indicate stress. I also failed to get an education on the essentials of proper foundational flatwork, and instead had  jumping and the “fun stuff” prioritized in my lessons. Luckily, for me, my growing access to the internet and social media sites like Tumblr allowed me to find studies and connect with people who knew more than I and could teach me or at least direct me to sources where I could read further and reassess my practices. Unfortunately, for me, there was also a lot of bullying on these social platforms which led me to becoming more defensive and closed off to certain schools of thought. This resulted in a refusal to look further into information that may confound what I knew and believed to be true. 

As I matured and neared the end of high school, I ended up rehoming Dallas as a trail horse when he was no longer sound for jumping after a paddock accident. This resulted in the most remarkable influence in my perspective on training and working with horses: the adoption of a little 2 year old rescue from the BCSPCA. He was a spitfire of a 14.2hh, skinny little thing that looked a full year younger than he was. I named him Milo. Due to prior abuse and neglect, he was very distrustful but also had such a natural curiosity that made him easier to work with. I initially tried to employ the methods I’d been taught that relied predominantly on force and punishment, only to have him increase in aggression as a response or completely go over threshold and do things like rearing up and walking on two legs. This made me afraid of him but also forced me to start looking into other means of teaching.  I began  learning in earnest about positive reinforcement and applied it to teach him basic concepts like blanketing and being hosed or fly sprayed, things I’d never had to consider with previous horses. The manner in which this approach altered his behaviour was clear. Milo became considerably more receptive and less defensive,and I started to believe in this method more while still holding onto punishment and force based methods to an extent. 

Over the years of working with Milo, I’ve been challenged immensely. He was amiable to start under saddle but would be very excitable and explosive in new situations, due to changes in weather or when hearing loud noises or sudden movement. He really taught me how to ride with his acrobatics, but looking back, I definitely could have avoided much of this with different management styles and more patience. I could have had him out in larger, group turnout from the beginning, and I’m sure I would have seen a tangible change in his behaviour.  I could have emphasized reward based groundwork more to work on his nerves. I  could have started with a classical dressage foundation in training much earlier than I had. Overall, my training was moving the right direction in terms of developing using science based methods, but it was inconsistent and I was still impatient in the first few years working with him. Had I sought out better role models, outside support, or taken behavioural classes earlier, I likely would have been better able to adapt his behaviour more quickly and effectively and could have avoided many of the problems I created, such as his refusals over fences. My lack of patience in moving him up and teaching him to jump resulted in a shoddy foundation that didn’t instill confidence, and undoing the negative associations with things I screwed up on initially is an awful lot harder than not messing up in the first place. Fortunately, I  avoided guidance from punishment based trainers who encouraged me to beat him at the base of the fence when he stopped and adopted more compassionate methods that I would not have been capable of doing in years prior based on my knowledge. I owe Milo more than any other horse for what he has taught me and the direction he has pushed me in for developing my training. I am not perfect, but he has inspired me to be more compassionate and aware of how the horse is feeling and to be a lot more detail oriented when looking into why horses react to things the way they do, rather than just blaming the horse for being bad like I would have in years prior. He has also shed light on the repercussions of punishment as a training method and pushed me to research. He definitely was a more challenging behaviour case than I was ready for at the time, but without him, I would have robbed myself of the exponential growth and learning I’ve experienced.

My horses’ lives now are a stark contrast to that of my first horse. 24/7 turnout and socialization, huge positive difference in behaviour.

In recent years, I have continued to educate myself on a scholarly level about horses, predominantly through courses that Guelph offers, but also through exploring studies on my own and talking to a variety of horse people that social media has allowed me to connect with. I have also learned the value of dressage as a foundation for all riding, soaking up the writings of people like Walter Zettl, those far ahead of their time in terms of implementing rewards based programs that consider the horse and focus on relaxation. I notice the positive differences that my growth in knowledge and my ability to recognize and share where I went wrong in the past has made to my training. The horses I develop get consistently nicer. It gets easier to problem solve and deal with new cases and  new behavioural issues.. There are fewer explosive behaviours. My horses no longer develop stereotypic vices. They aren’t hard to catch; they actually want to be with me. As I move further away from the aspects of dominance theory, punishment and coercion that I was once so familiar with, my horses like and trust me more, making them much easier to train and far more adaptable. The most stark comparison that I can make nowadays is by watching my yearling Oldenburg colt grow up and remarking on the differences between him now and Milo as a 2 and 3 year old. I believe Milo is the more intelligent of the two but due to my emphasis of a rewards based program from a young age, coupled with the lack of neglect or abuse, my colt, Banksy, has grown up to be essentially unflappable. Easy going, easy to introduce things to without big reactions. Enjoying training and wanting to participate, Banksy learns things quicker and without as many problems. This has been particularly eye opening as it allows me to compare my past and present personal training methods as well as those used from one horse to the other, as each horse has their differences.

Nowadays, my personal take on equine learning theory is very much backed by science. I have seen the differences in horses’ level of participation and enjoyment  being around their trainer that comes with a reward based program. I have seen how much more sound bodied and minded horses are when they’re afforded the ability to relax within programs and  have their behaviours considered and viewed as a means of communication rather than an attempt to disrespect their trainer. What has influenced the biggest changes to my program is not only been seeing the impact of certain methods on my horses, but also reading empirical studies that emphasize how horses learn and the outcomes of different methods. You can argue with yourself quite easily using anecdotes, but it is a lot harder to refute evidence brought forth by equine science professionals. It does not allow you to justify unfair training practices as easily when you have experts pointing out all of the problems with them. While I do not reject negative reinforcement in training, I do recognize how much more of a powerful training tool positive reinforcement can be. I also try to limit punishment as much as possible due to the ambiguity inherent in it: it doesn’t allow the horses a means of understanding the right way of doing something. It only highlights where they went wrong, which can make them afraid to give the wrong answer, thereby making them less inclined to try to offer the correct behaviour as they learn. It is my belief that the more stress free a horse is, the quicker it learns and this is supported in studies examining negative and positive reinforcement comparatively, finding they perform fairly similarly in the absence of stress (Valenchon et al, 2017). Another study tested positive reinforcement as a method for trailer loading horses slated to go to slaughter. There was a profound reduction in time it took to load and horse problem behaviours like biting or kicking (Dai et al, 2019).  As such, I utilize both methods, typically trying to do more positive methods with my personal horses and not having the same freedoms with all client horses, but teaching with negative reinforcement in a manner conducive to learning, not just drilling them with louder cues that resemble punishment more and more until they finally respond. 

I stopped using martingales on Milo 4 years ago and haven’t since. He has never worn a gag bit, twisted wire and is typically ridden bitless or in a soft snaffle. Major contrast to how I was initially taught.

It took me far too long to realize, but now that I have, I recognize the importance of science based learning in animal training, but also even in the teaching of humans. Many of the methods we’ve grown comfortable with using in a number of different schools of thought such as dominance theory or punishment based programs do not hold up when tested and have proven themselves to be unethical. I am of the mind that anyone unwilling to utilize learning theory and science based methods in a position where their job is to teach ought to not be teaching. Recognizing the science behind what you do and learning how to effectively communicate with the creatures you’re trying to train is a necessity for efficacy in training. Horses will fail to be managed and trained ethically as long as proper management and training styles continue to be condemned and ignored by traditional minded trainers. We are doing them a disservice by failing to learn and adapt with the times and engaging in cognitive dissonance as we deny their needs as flight animals who have adapted to live in herds and behave a certain way. It is my hope that the more often horse people speak out on and normalize the science based methods behind the training and keeping of horses, the more change we will incite. I recognize the mistakes I have made and still make or will make in the future, and I vow to continue to improve, grow and learn so that I can adapt with the times and offer my horses the best that I can. 

Works Cited

Dai, F., Costa, A. D., Bonfanti, L., Caucci, C., Di Martino, G., Lucarelli, R., & Padalino, B. (2019). Positive Reinforcement-Based Training for Self-Loading of Meat Horses Reduces Loading Time and Stress-Related Behavior. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, NA. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A602299498/AONE?u=guel77241&sid=AONE&xid=2cf9d97c

Valenchon, Mathilde, et al. "Stress affects instrumental learning based on positive or negative reinforcement in interaction with personality in domestic horses." PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 5, 2017, p. e0170783. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491171575/AONE?u=guel77241&sid=AONE&xid=16155f51. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.