Newsletter 2012

Dear All,


It's been a busy year and I'm ending it winding down just a little as I'm expecting a baby in February! This means I’m working until Christmas then I'll be back teaching my regular clients as soon as possible in 2013. As soon as Dad and baby can be left I’ll take on new clients again. I'll keep you informed.



Books

In other news I've been busy writing. I’ve a new ebook on how to begin clicker training horses which is available on Amazon, and other books on their way including one on resolving loading problems.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clicker-training-horses-Foundation-ebook/dp/B009Z0S1NE/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354875718&sr=1-4

 

 

 

 

 

Talks

When I've not been writing I've been talking! Dyfed Carriage Club and Carmarthenshire Riders both enjoyed talks about my work this year. I also presented at what was probably the first ever conference dedicated to clicker training horses, and gave a demonstration at Doghill Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan:

"Jenni Nellist's clicker training Demo at Dyffryn was brilliant. She won applause from a large audience who turned up on a very cold day last Saturday to watch. Everyone was fascinated and empowered by Jenni's demo. The two demo horses looked really game and seemed suitably impressed by this very ethical training system – as did some horses in the adjoining field who came to watch!"

Love Horses Magazine Autumn Newsletter

CPD with Shawna Karrasch

In April I was fortunate to undertake CPD with Shawna Karrasch. Shawna is a pioneer amongst horse trainers. Formerly a Sea World trainer she took the behaviourist principles from the oceanarium to horse training, beginning at the Maddens’ show jumping yard. After honing her skills there Shawna gave presentations to the United States Equestrian Federation.



Being able to practise with Shawna and my colleagues from across the UK was a real boost. Despite a strong foundation in behavioural science, clicker training is not widely used in horse circles. Finding I was on the same page as a more experienced trainer and picking up new ideas has really added to the quality of my services.

http://on-target-training.com/



Liverpool Vet School

My colleague Dr Helen Spence (http://www.helenspencehorsesense.co.uk/) teaches the optional equine behaviour day and needed some video footage to illustrate her teaching. I was happy to supply some! Unfortunately one of my client's horses had an accident necessitating hospitalisation and dressing for some weeks after. This shocking accident was linked with the filly's first significant separation from her dam and puberty; a significant period of emotional development where fear and frustration dominate. This proved ripe for developing fear associations and defensive behavioural responses related to treating the affected hind leg. The defensive behavioural response of choice kicking since restraint and fear left no other option.



Despite sedation the filly was still a problem to treat. I taught her owner to break down the feared stimuli (bending down to look at, touch and dress the affected hind limb) into much smaller approximations (systematic desensitisation) and to associate them with something the filly liked – food (counter conditioning). Balancing the two simultaneous approaches is a fine art, scared horses do not want to eat, yet eating involves chewing so has a calming effect. The approximations of treatment had to be small enough that the filly wasn’t deterred from working for food, but big enough for her to link them to food!



In the hour I spent coaching the owner there were 12 mini bouts of training entirely at liberty, not more than 3 minutes long to keep arousal levels down. Her owner got from being on the same side as the affected limb to crouching in front of it miming the actions required to treat it while her filly kept still. Over the following two days she continued to advance using the same protocol to progressively remove and replace the dressing by the due date and without further sedation – the only restraint was the filly's own understanding that keeping still was linked to a food reward!

Probably the first ever Equine Clicker Training Conference:


I gave two presentations: First I co-demonstrated 'how to start clicker training' with Dr Helen Spence. We had three very different horses to show delegates what can happen in the beginning and how to proceed; teaching the horses that the clicker noise is associated with food and that they had to perform behaviour incompatible with over excitement and 'mugging' in order to get the reward.



Secondly I presented on applying clicker training to rescue horses. I began my career at the Blue Cross looking after and training horses, including rehabilitating the frightened and abused. This is where I began to develop my clicker training skills. Since clicker training is applied positive reinforcement, aka ‘reward-based training’, it adds positive experience to a horse's life in a way that negative reinforcement, aka ‘pressure and release’ cannot. In reward-based training a pleasurable stimulus is added to the horse, in pressure-release only an aversive stimulus, pressure, is removed. This may reduce the amount of negative experience for the horse since it learns how to escape and/or avoid aversive pressures, but it won't shift its experience towards positive emotional states in the same way that reward-based training does. The cutting edge of animal welfare science and philosophical thinking has moved beyond prevention of unnecessary harms to that plus addition of positive experience (Mellor, in press 2012, Animal Emotions, Behaviour and the Promotion of Positive Welfare States. New Zealand Veterinary Journal) reward-based training is a way forward for horse welfare in this respect.



Positive Loading

This common problem has generated a fair proportion of my work this year, with the latest victim of inappropriate and dangerous attempts to load him coming around to loading himself in just days: Positive Loading 2: Reef Reloaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-JNYPwqKI

I ran a well-attended workshop for the owners of problem loaders back in August. The notes from this workshop form my forthcoming ebook on the subject.

Look forward to seeing you in 2013!

All the best

Jenni

Solving horse behaviour problems and me

Being someone who helped others solve equine behavioural problems was an attractive career prospect for me. I already had an enduring fascination with the equine mind and the rise and rise of ‘natural horsemanship’. Reaching the equine mind was a dream that was becoming more and more of a reality for me. I discovered that this was a dream best realised through dedication to educating myself and translating that acquired knowledge to experience and vice versa. This process was my way of experiencing and understanding the whole purpose of 'evidence based horsemanship'.

I very quickly found out that the role of equine behaviourist carried with it a great responsibility; to the animal in question and the people associated with it. The old saying, ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ particularly stuck out in my mind. I didn't want to be the individual who had little knowledge and no realisation that this was the case! I became almost hyper aware of what I didn't know just by questioning my own knowledge and practise. This didn't put me off from trying, I just made sure that I plugged gaps in my knowledge and understanding with further learning whenever I found them. And I still do, the whole point of CPD!.

I found that a lot of knowledge derived from academia was essential, but absolutely useless when isolated from experience. I also found that while experience was also essential, it was also absolutely useless when isolated from knowledge and understanding gained from academic application. I discovered as much in the classroom as I did in the field... and still do! I'd now ask anyone who questions my 'paper' qualifications, “is it not best to be fully cognizant of what one is actually witnessing and practising, rather than to take a more blinkered approach and thinking one is fully knowledgeable of what one doing based on personal experience alone?” 

 

I would like to think that an accomplished horse behaviour consultant is not only an experienced and effective horseperson, but is also knowledgeable of ethology, psychology, neuropsychology, physiology and animal welfare science. And is able to apply the fruits of scientific endeavour to the practise of resolving horse behaviour issues through effective, safe and humane teaching methods. And continue to question current practise so that knowledge and practise can be improved for the future of all horses and their people. What I did yesterday might not be the same as I do today since new findings may have come to my attention that can improve my application!

It was during my studies under Dr Anne McBride and her team at the University of Southampton that I learned that the art and science of resolving horse behaviour problems relied on the correct diagnosis of the causes of behavioural issues. And that appropriate tailoring of behaviour modification relied on that differential diagnosis. This skilled undertaking relies on knowledge and understanding of both horse and human behaviour. This almost harks back to Barbara Woodhouse claiming that there were no such thing as bad dogs, only bad owners. I wouldn't go so far as to label the owners of 'misbehaving' horses as 'bad', horse behaviour can appear to 'go wrong' for many reasons, but one thing is certain: The horse’s behaviour is unlikely to change unless its human changes their behaviour first. The owner leads the way in behaviour modification since they are the one who calls me in to facilitate the process. If I fail to undertake full assessment before starting retraining, the less efficient, ‘therapeutic’ approach, 'sucking it and see', is the (usually) less satisfactory or humane result.

Another thing I learned pretty early on is that behaviour always happens for a reason, even if the humans around can’t identify one. Horses act to gain things they need or to avoid things they don’t. These reasons are purely equine and reside in the horse’s mind; my job is to translate ‘horse’ into ‘human’. Horses are only capable of equine behaviour, thoughts and emotions, and all too often humans give human reasons for horse behaviour. The concept of horses being ‘bad actors’ and performing bad behaviour on purpose just to get the better of people is probably as old as equine domestication itself. But I ask, “is that fair?” All horses want is to stay alive, eat and procreate. They don’t lose sleep over lost ribbons or the next show. Most problem behaviour comes from a conflict of interest between what horses were born to do, and human ambition. Compromises can be made, and there are good examples of them everywhere, its just that there are bad compromises too. Just as a plumber sees more faulty toilets than the average human population, so I see more horses where it’s all gone horribly wrong.

Good equine reasons for unwanted behaviour are fear of pain, loss of life and the unknown, frustration and confusion regarding trained behaviour, bad handling and social mismatching. Every behaviour has an emotional and cognitive reason behind it, I like to understand how the horse feels and thinks as well as what it does.

In my opinion good training is an art where the end goal is presented in successive, achievable chunks. Some horses require smaller chunks than others, especially where emotional problems such as intense fear or anxiety are a primary concern. I've learned that proper diagnosis enables finer tailoring of any training plan before it's begun.

Any behavioural problem, be it excessive aggression towards other horses, refusing to load into the box, or napping on rides out, will have the following elements in its past and present. There will be an emotional reason for the behaviour – the psychological state that motivates its performance. I have found that I can ascertain such a reason from the triggers for the behaviour and from its consequences. There will be elements in the horse’s temperament, breeding and past experiences that predispose it to the particular behaviour. There will be a learning experience that started the problem in the first place. And there will be factors and circumstances in the horse’s day to day life causing the behavioural problem to continue.

When these things are known it is possible to do that fine tailoring, creating the individual rehabilitation programme. And this is where I'm able to use my creative streak alongside good instructional and coaching skills. In my experience rehabilitation usually requires husbandry and handling changes as well as specific retraining. I'm glad that these days I have a large tool box to facilitate this. I've found this toolbox necessary to maximise the potential for change without harm to the safety and welfare of both horses and people.

The trouble with pressure-release

'Pressure-release training' and 'negative reinforcement training' are the same thing by different names. 

If I'd been strictly correct in what I'd said in the picture, I would have said, 

"the problem with negative reinforcement training is that aversives must be present in order to be removed".

The character count may not have violated twitter's stipulations but would you have understood what I'd said?

Now my problem with negative reinforcement since we understand that it is the same as 'pressure-release': That the horse learns to do a desired behaviour by the trainer releasing pressure (or other 'aversive' stimulus) when the horse is doing that desired response. In actual fact from the horse's point of view, the desired behaviour enabled the horse to escape something he found aversive. He learned that  the desired behaviour was effective in this matter and that it was worth doing again!

Pressure-release is a common term, but also (I believe) a misnomer. If we are using it in place of the scientifically correct term 'negative reinforcement' then 'aversive-removal' is probably closer to the mark. This is because pressure isn't the only kind of aversive stimulus that can be released just when the horse is doing what the trainer wants. Perhaps this just doesn't sound as comfortable as 'pressure-release'. 

As an aside I consider the term 'pressure-release' to be a 'reinscription of technology' (I read a lot from the social sciences with respect to animal welfare while undertaking my MSc thesis!). Reinscribing technology is a way of re-wording something to make us feel better about it. A more common example might be saying that a bit is 'stronger' instead of more 'severe', as stronger doesn't sound as painful! Buying a stronger bit must be easier on the mind than buying a more severe one.

The above digression aside, my point is that horses who find a particular stimulus aversive are motivated to avoid it. In order to make sure that they can, they pay attention to all that predicts it. When they've done this they will most likely avoid those stimuli too, since they have become classically associated with the original learning experience. Just as Pavlov's dogs learned that a bell predicted the arrival of food, horses (and dogs) can learn what predicts the presence of something they don't like or are afraid of.

So my problem with negative reinforcement is that aversive stimulation (of whatever nature) must be used in order to be removed, and it will be readily linked to anything else the horse noticed about the learning environment at the time. I have experienced this over the years that I've worked with horses, and it inspired my MSc research. In that I demonstrated that even mild aversive pressure (just a little pull on a lead rope) can increase the time it takes for a horse to voluntarily approach the trainer afterwards - just as Sankey et al found (see ISES proceedings from the 2008 Dublin meeting). www.equitationscience.com

Of course while I have this problem I accept that aversives happen and I aim to reduce that as best I can - of course sometimes I don't see them coming and the horse has to alert me to that sorry fact! I try to learn from it and move on.

Reef is only 6 months old and was due to be moved with his mum to the stud where he was conceived. Despite having cooperated with loading in the past, Reef associated it with pain due to injuries - the reason why he'd been travelled before now. Prior to this video Reef had been subject to what became a highly pressurised and frightening situation, just to get him and mum to he stud. That attempt failed. Here is his retraining progress just days after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-JNYPwqKI&feature=youtu.be

Equine Clicker Training Demo 2012

I'm very excited to announce that I will be giving a clicker training demonstration with Doghill Farm's horses on Saturday 27th October. Clicker training is a fun and effective way to train horses, but it's shrouded in myth as it's not exactly mainstream yet! I'm aiming to show a little something for everyone, from clicker newbie to the more seasoned trainers. There'll be a demonstration of how to begin, plus how to proceed with the more nervous individual, where you can go with training a youngster and what you can do to fill a rainy afternoon at the yard!
All are welcome to attend, just see my Events page for details or contact me jenni@jenninellist.co.uk 07974 569407 Should it actually be a rainy day the demonstration will be held under cover!

The Equine Clicker Conference 2012

With less than two weeks to go I have been talking to one of the conference organisers, Helen Gilbertson: http://www.hannahdawsonequine.co.uk/clicker-training/helen-chats-with-jenni-nellist/
I discussed my clicker training beginnings and how setting small, clear and realistic goals enhanced my life as a welfare centre groom.

Positive Loading

The perennial problem, the horse that won’t load, not for love nor money, or even a well-aimed lunge line.


Well! Where there are problems there are solutions! Can you turn your horse’s loading problem into a successful learning experience that lasts both of you a lifetime?

With behaviour comes attitude. According to cognitive behaviour science, behaviour is part of attitude, along with thoughts and feelings. So if your horse’s behaviour states that he does not want to go in that box, chances are that he feels he does not want to go in that box, and that he thinks he does not want to go in that box. Whoa, that box must be bad!

So it must follow that to change his behaviour, his whole attitude has to change. He hates and/or fears the box. He needs to move from unwillingness and sensitivity to feeling more upbeat about the whole thing. He needs to view the box with a smile! He can do that if he can find out that the box holds nothing but good outcomes for him.

So, he’s not going to believe that in one hit. He hasn’t so far, and if things carry on as they are, chances are he’ll never make that change. Right now he is downright pessimistic about that box.

An intelligent approach could be to reduce his pessimism by not following through with all the things he dreads in relation to the box. Just let him discover that he can be near the box through his own free will. This won’t be giving up as through his own free will he’ll be able to be a calmer horse. Then he’ll be receptive to learning new, positive ideas and be able to come to a place where he can be an optimist. No one I know can readily find an optimistic thought when in the fits of despair, but most can from a less gloomy place.

But do horses really get moments of pessimism and optimism? There’s not a lot of concrete proof within the covers of the academic journals that’s for sure. But horses can learn about good and bad outcomes, they can be negatively affected by pressures and they can look forward to pleasurable experiences when they know they will happen. These pressures and different quality outcomes all affect and change horse behaviour (and attitude!) in ways that anyone can influence once they know how.

Learning skills that can help you influence your horse’s behaviour is possible if that’s what you want to do. You can not only affect what your horse does, but how he does it – his whole attitude in fact! And you may find that you will be, as Billy Connolly puts it, “better for it”.

New skills might include learning how to find the ‘beginning’ for your particular horse. Not all horses start their retraining on the same page.

Another new skill might be reading the finest points of your horse’s attitude, such as when he changes from pessimist to optimist and vice versa.

And of course there is learning the knack of timing ‘reinforcement’ – outcomes of your horse’s behaviour that motivate him to do that same behaviour again and again. And there is knowing what kind of reinforcement to use and why. You might already know about pressure and release, or you may not, but what other forms of reinforcement do you know about?

Learning to retrain a problem loader or any problem behaviour really can be quite an adventure, with new, personal discoveries around each corner. And since it is your journey, you have it in you to have a well travelled one.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/321399481283134/

What now?

Predictability, all the things that tell horses what to expect, and what to do next. When we’re training them they rely on the clues, such as where they are, where any apparatus is, what their person is doing, what other persons (including horses) are doing, and so on. Discriminating exactly which stimulus (clue!) reliably accompanies a behaviour and its outcome is a process of elimination. The horse has to learn a stimulus-behaviour-outcome sequence and to do so he has to turn detective.



Can horses really be that bright? Mischka, a 22 month old sports horse filly is learning to touch cones with her muzzle for food, then to learn to touch them in alternation in order to earn the food, and then to perform the same pattern of alternation with an increasing distance between the cones.



That’s hard. At 22 months of age Mischka is a horsey teenager, puzzles like this can easily frustrate her and make her either quit the training process or become enraged by it. She really needs clues as to what to try next. The first clue is that her person is looking at one of the cones which are placed side by side; their position will become another clue. Mischka investigates, her person says YES! and immediately presents her with a handful of food. Miscka investigates the same cone again but her person is now looking at the other cone. Miscka investigates more thoroughly in case her person hasn’t noticed then switches to investigating the same cone as her person. This makes her person say YES! again, and more food is presented. The person’s attention returns to the first cone and after a trial investigation of the second cone, Mischka returns to investigate the first, with another YES! and more food. The clues Mischka used to get the right answer were the direction of her person’s attention, the position of the cones, her preceding behaviour, and the behaviour reinforced via the reception of food.



Mischka rapidly makes the link between alternating her touches of the cones and food, or no food if she makes the incorrect choice, and consistently swaps cones. The stakes are then raised. The cones are placed nearly half a metre apart. Now Mischka has to make an effort to get her nose from one cone to the other. Perhaps it’s easier to stick to just one cone now? Mischka tries this and only touches the first cone after being rewarded with food the first time. There is no outcome for this behaviour and Mischka makes the effort to bring her nose to the second cone. This makes her person say YES! and food is delivered. Mischka recognises the clues from the earlier lesson, notices where her person’s attention is, recognises that touching each cone is only rewarded on the first touch, never the second, third or any other number of touches, then smoothly returns to alternating her touches.



This raise in the stakes is repeated several more times, with the distance between the cones growing to nearly 8m. Now it becomes very apparent that one of the clues that Mischka is using is the proximity of the other cone. When it’s further away and slightly out of view because it’s behind her, the behaviour of switching between the cones falls apart. Swinging her forehand from one cone to the other no longer works because the stretch is too far and it puts the previous cone out of sight so that it is no longer a clue that it is also the next cone.



Mischka first tries to solve the problem by walking to the people in the training area, perhaps to get a better idea of what they are looking at! Her attention seeking behaviour is ignored and then Mischka spies the other cone. She’s told YES! just as she starts to head towards it. This gives her the clue that she’s got the right answer, but she continues her route and touches the cone before looking for her handful of feed. The clues to keep going are the early signal for reward, and her person looking at the cone and also walking towards it where she ultimately gives Mischka the food. Mischka tests investigating the people again when she finds them closer to her than the next cone, and after a few trials gives up as there is no outcome.



The sight of the next cone remains an important clue. On one occasion Mischka starts to walk to her person after leaving a cone, then remembers that this will not result in food, so stops and starts to walk backwards. While reversing she notices the next cone and turns and walks forwards to touch it – with the now firmly expected outcome of food reinforcement. After consuming the food Mischka walks backwards again, because last time she got reinforced for touching a cone she had just happened to be walking backwards in the same place. Mid back-up she steps forwards again and touches the cone she just backed up from. Her person fails to reinforce her because it was the incorrect cone. Mischka walks forwards then and circles around finding the next cone, and some positive reinforcement for doing so. Then she reverses, catches sight of the next cone and walks onto it.



Reversing has become a means of sighting the next cone, and a clue that she is going to make a correct choice. So also does circling forwards and away from a preceding cone. Clearly a less changeable ‘go find the next cone’ signal is required. Mischka needs to discern just one signal or specific compound of signals that means ‘there is another cone for you to find and touch’. Her person adds in a verbal signal ‘TOUCH’ while focusing on the next cone just as Mischka is on route to it and success, regardless of whether she reversed to sight the cone or simply walked forwards from the preceding one.



The next chapter is where Mischka learns to look for the cone in direct response to her person’s direction of focus and the verbal cue, perhaps even if the next cone has been moved a little since she was last there.

Connecting with horses

When people talk about having a connection with their horse, where the communication between horse and person is invisible or once you know what they’re doing, nearly invisible I’m reminded of the Clever Hans story.

For those who don’t know Clever Hans could count and do maths, and counted out the answer by pawing the ground. But actually he couldn’t. His skills were scrutinised and it was found that if his owner didn’t know the answer, he didn’t either. What he could do well was read his person! He would watch his owner, Herr von Osten, and paw the ground when he saw a very, very slight downward movement of von Osten’s head, and then stop when von Osten very, very slightly raised it again when the ‘right answer’ was reached. Initially von Osten denied helping his horse in these puzzles, and quite possibly he was not aware that he was helping his horse. It took a very observant student to notice what was actually happening. Horses are amazing observers and I think that is part of the ‘pure connection’ that people talk about – horses are ready to receive information.

I think that connection is based on three things: attraction, empathy (at least from the human) and communication. We are intrinsically attracted to our horses, for one reason or another. We are ready to communicate with them, but there has to be a ‘how to’. That ‘how to’ is empathy – to feel for – and communication, and what we communicate to the horse will affect how attracted he or she is to us.

With attraction and empathy our channels of communication with the horse are set to ‘ready to receive’. I think all people who are very good with horses are ‘ready to receive’. And once ready to receive, we can then be ‘ready to respond accordingly’. That’s where timing our communication signals comes in – sending the message when the recipient is ready to receive. I think that in good horsemanship it’s working both ways, if we send messages when the horse indicates through his or her behaviour that he or she is ready to receive, then the horse learns when and how to open lines of communication with us.

I also think that communication is learned, that we co-create a language with our horse. I do get a bit behaviouristic about this. Having my communications received and responded to in the manner that I wanted is reinforcing – if I signal ‘please do this’ to my horse, and she does so in response, then I’ve got what I wanted and am more likely to do it again in future. I may also learn to make this request when my mare is attentive to me, so she learns how to communicate to me to cue her to do something that invariable ends up in reinforcement for her and so we both become more sensitive or ‘connected’ to each other.

Scientific definition
Reinforcement: A consequence of behaviour that makes the individual more likely to perform that specific behaviour under the same circumstances in future.

In my experience horses tend to ask for opportunities to get positive reinforcement more often than they do negative reinforcement unless they are stuck in a pickle as it were. Positive reinforcement is more pleasing to the horse, and a pleased horse is more pleasing to me. I don’t like my horse to get in pickle, so mostly she’ll be getting positive reinforcement – for her those things are food when she’s in the mood (that’s a lot!), scratches when she’s in the mood (“but there’s only so much scratching I like Jen”), and a canter up the common when she’s in the mood (quite often these days as she’s leaner and meaner). This all means that I don’t think food, when used most deliberately, gets in the way of greater sensitivity or connection to each other, but it will if there is no understanding about how it is given – from either party, horse or person!

Scientific definition
Positive reinforcement: To ADD a rewarding stimulus to the individual as a consequence of behaviour increasing the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in future.
Negative reinforcement: To REMOVE an aversive stimulus from the individual as a consequence of behaviour also increasing the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in future.

If a person wishes to become a horseperson who has a connection with his or her horses, that person needs to love horses, needs to understand what their horse’s behaviour means to their horse, and needs to learn how the laws of learning work and are applied (not necessarily in academic language, it’s practical application that’s at stake). Then they may become a horseperson and realise that the state of being for a horseperson is lifelong personal development. So yes, like Ghandi they may be different today as the result of what they learned yesterday – I know I am.