Next week, at Dublin Horse Show, equine specimens of all shapes and sizes will jump fences, pull carts and gallop up and down under tiny children in the pony-club games. But why do they do it? Is it to please their riders or out of sufferance?
Many of us live with or enjoy the companionship of domesticated animals. Yet we often base our relationships with them on the mistaken belief that animals think the way humans do. The International Society for Equitation Science, a group that includes vets and zoologists, is trying to educate us humans about how animals learn. In Ireland, Orla Doherty is at the forefront of this relatively new field, an approach to training horses through understanding the horse’s mental capabilities.
“There is a tendency among us to attribute a greater level of rational ability to horses than what they possess,” says Doherty, a vet. “So when the horse refuses at a big showjumping fence or doesn’t behave the way we want, that can lead to punishment or force. But we get better results when we understand how different species learn – and design training methods around that.”
Doherty, who has a master’s degree in animal behaviour and welfare, has been involved in equine learning since graduating from veterinary college. “The study of animal psychology is relatively recent, particularly if we compare it to how long humans have been training horses, which is about 5,000 years,” she says.
Most of our early interaction with horses was based on our need to control their impressive range of physical powers. There is evidence that metal bits have been used in horses’ mouths for as long as we’ve been training them. “The reality today is that the scientific knowledge is only starting to be applied to how equines and other animals behave. Horses in particular are not very cognitively developed, but dogs, as predators, have developed different mental capabilities. So in our interactions with animals we have to look at the potential and limitations of each species.”
Many of us who keep animals tend to think of them as having human-like responses , but Doherty points out that most of this is anthropomorphism – giving human-like traits to animals, which she says can have problems for their welfare. “Horses are not capable of doing a task to ‘please us’. Their way of thinking is defined by being a grazing animal. They are alert and sensitive, they have a great flight response, but in many ways we misunderstand the limits of their cognitive development.”
Looking at animal learning with a scientific approach begins with the animal’s brain. “Rational thought and decision making take place in the prefrontal cortex, and in humans this is highly developed. In horses this area of the brain is underdeveloped and the cells primitive.”
Assuming that horses weigh up decisions and then act one way or another in response can also comprome their welfare. If a horse tries to step away while being mounted, the rider might shout or give it a slap. But the horse may be avoiding a rider on its back because it’s in pain. “Horses have evolved not to show pain, as they are herd animals. Exhibiting pain or weakness means you are vulnerable to attack. So we need to eliminate health and pain issues first. Then, with patient retraining, you can teach the horse a response that has a positive outcome: it gets a food reward or nice scratch when it stands still to be mounted.”
So what about when there is no pain and the horse just refuses to do what the rider wants? “Then the training or learning has not been firmly established. If you go back a step and reinforce responses to your cues they can progress. Thinking that they are being naughty or unwilling is not helpful.”
Orla Doherty is hosting a clinic with Andrew McClean, an Australian equitation scientist, on August 19th at Festina Lente Equestrian Centre in Bray, Co Wicklow. equitationscience.com, aebc.com.au
