Down to business or Play based Learning. My views on Training.

"He's impossible, stubborn and nothing works"

Once upon a time, I was told this about a horse that refused to load, and for me, this was where a lot of my inspiration came from. 

The horse in question did appear stubborn, no amount of tugging, pushing, pulling, feed or lunge lines would get him to load if he didn't want to.

Yet watching him in the field showed that he was incredibly intelligent.

Taking off his rugs with all straps done up, opening gates, opening stable doors. 

It was clear to see he was a horse that liked thinking but didn't like pressure.

Therefore I decided to give something else a go. 

I turned the task of loading him into a puzzle, something that he had to work out, for his own gain. 

A game if you like. 

He didn't like going onto the lorry, but he did like coming off.

He also liked to think that he knew what was coming next. 

This was where he gained the upper hand.

For me this was what I was seeing from him:

Mum will put all of his boots on and take him to the lorry. 

If he walked straight in, he got tied up, shut in and taken somewhere. 

If he stopped and refused he would be bribed with treats, and if that didn't work and he continued to play up, he would already have gotten away with stealing some treats and then would go back to his stable where his haylage was waiting.  

He had it all worked out.

Not loading =  Reward.

This wasn't the owner's fault at all, he was a supremely intelligent horse and he could second guess almost everything that she was doing. 

This was where the game came in.

I decided that the best way to get this horse to load, was if we made it something that was a large gain to him. Therefore, the reward had to come from being cooperative to what the handler wanted. 

Being a confident horse I started by playing with him on the ground, with some brain teasers to get him thinking but still doing as I asked.

One of these exercises was walking right round him with a lunge line, back to his head and asking him to turn out of the loop that he was in. 

Every time he managed this he got put back in his stable for some time to chill, eat and think. 

In short, cooperation meant the end of the session. 

This then built up to doing two or three things in a row before I would put him to bed. Gradually building up his concentration span and interest levels.

I then took it a step further, to start with it was a case of doing our normal exercises but next to the lorry. 

If he acknowledged the lorry in any way that was positive, ears forwards, stepping towards it, he was rewarded and we finished the session.

 You can probably see where this is going, we worked closer to the lorry and built it up to being rewarded when he touched it, then put one foot on etc. 

In time he worked out that the lorry, or rather his reaction to it, caused the human to dispense rewards. 

This became an incentive to him.

Over a couple of weeks he puzzled it out all by himself and worked out that in fact the best possible outcome for him would be to go into the lorry. 

Eventually, we withheld all rewards until he was up and stood where he needed to be. 

If he decided he was going to refuse to move we simply stood there until he took a step in the required direction, then rewarded him and quit the session.

For me, training is about making things a game or a puzzle, to let the horse work out for themselves what the right answer is. every horse is different so there can be no set training method in my eyes.

I have never met two horses that react the same, so every time is a little different and I tweak what I am doing according to what the horse is showing me.

I think that learning should be enjoyable, or at least satisfactory. Everyone should gain something out of each session, both horse and handler.

Fire away with responses and your own ideas on this topic, I love to hear what other people think!