Dropping and Fruity Whickering
Training a horse is always the study of one, but it needs and overlay of equine ethology and physiology, breed genetic types and the individuals’ history.
It is not anthropomorphic to describe emotional states relatable to our own emotions as mammalian brains have more similarities than differences. Jaak Panksepps neuroscience research findings describing the 7 Affective Emotional States help to categorise the known responses to make them easier to understand. The Affective Emotional states are always capitalised as they are not absolute descriptions, but broad categories with a range of intensity. They are SEEKING, PLAY, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF, RAGE, FEAR and LUST.
During training times, we want to mostly engage with the SEEKING system. Identifying true PLAY will need another post as just because you think you are playing with your horse, your horse may not be recognising the activity as play, so it isn’t PLAY in the definition of Neuroscience and will not be engaging in the brain in the same way as imagined.
Dropping and over arousal while clicker training is not uncommon with geldings and stallions during their training. Mares sometimes show a similar emotional response represented as deep and fruity intense nickering sounds.
Dopamine is produced when the horse understands that there are no threats and no unpleasant consequences likely in this new style of training and the dopamine release causes the neural reward system to become activated and in some cases it becomes over-activated.
This is especially noticeable in horses who are new to R+ especially when the horse has had a strong R- (Negative Reinforcement/Pressure & Release) training background. When trained with strong R-/ Pressure & Release, ( strong R- is defined by the horses perception of it, not by the humans intentions) horses either show angry and defensive behaviours, or they show depressed shut down behaviours which can look like dull obedience.
During well devised positive reinforcement training, the horses are given a “voice” and know they are enabled to openly say “no thanks, not now” and be respected for that decision. When that has previously not been allowed in training or handling procedure times, with the horse not being seen, handing over control and giving decision making back to the horse, is a very pleasant experience for all learners, but the environment must be set up so this can remain safe for all involved.
When the horses opinions are noticed and respected, at first there can be a backlash phase which might look like “what if I say no to that”? This period will usually pass quite fast provided the trainer provides a consistently high reward rate, rewarding the yes answers and the no’s too.
Rewarding both yes and no reduces coercion risks, maintains engagement and avoids putting the horse in a situation where they must choose between a rock and a hard place: earn the desired food reward by doing the thing they don’t want to do, and just to be clear, I would not advocate using food rewards during normal training sessions in that way.
By engaging the SEEKING system and providing rewards, zero unpleasant consequences for mistakes and rewards for non compliance as well as compliance will create a more optimistic outlook regarding the training processes. It will also create improved motivation, resilience to mistakes and over time, a more optimistic mood will pervade during training times with anticipation of training being likely to be a nice experience. This should pervade all husbandry and handling activities too as training begins long before the horse enters the arena.
With sufficiently high rates of low value reinforcement, the horse becomes less and less over aroused by the pleasant training time, but for many geldings the “dropping” evidence or the fruity whickering in mares never completely goes away. Horses, like elephants never forget, but provided training interactions stay pleasant for the horse, the memories will be buried more and more deeply as time passes. The longer and more deeply the horse has experienced being over controlled, the longer it seems to take to resolve the problems surrounding dropping and over arousal, with many never stopping the dropping or fruity whickering behaviour
I have noticed that some individuals do have a noticeably different learning abilities, some are very fast thinking, some need a little more time to process information and some have distinctly shorter memories, which may have different reasons, ranging from actual brain physiology and capability to the way that the learning process was conducted or different environmental stimulus at the time of learning. For these individuals, repeating the same training frequently enough to assist retention of lessons is necessary.
Be patient and wait for the slower processors or they will get anxious about being hurried, be totally prepared and watching for responses with the fast thinkers, or you will put them off because you missed their first response, and repeat lessons often for the horses with shorter memory. Little an often is usually much more effective for all learning styles, with 2 or 3 repeats of the same lesson lasting only 5 or 10 minutes and made within the same day is one of the most powerful teaching tools you can use to teach a new movement. This may not apply to all training activities eg not suitable if training a high energy effort or training to gradually overcome a fear.
Similar emotions which are expressed repeatedly over time are then described as moods and ideally we would want our horses mood during training to be optimistic rather than pessimistic. Emotions and the longer term moods are triggered by memories, current human activities, the wider immediate environment, a tendency for optimism or pessimism, with living arrangements, diet, and presence of pain as underlying factors changing perceptions of all other things going on.
If horses have felt silenced or not listened to in the past, feeling safe to voice fears or preferences can be very empowering and may feel like an almost intoxicating experience of joy for some who have previously felt strongly oppressed. The Genie is being let out of the Lamp and this may feel like a challenging time for the human.
Over control and fear inducing event setting incidents may have occurred very early in the horses life and may have been inadvertent or seemingly mild and insignificant at the time. Behaviours learned in very early life will have the most long lasting effect, and are likely to be carried through into maturity if not addressed adequately.
In the end, training needs the hearts of the humans to be wanting the very best for their horses for the horses sakes and not for an ego trip or for thrill seeking. The language, scientific terms and academic knowledge are not unimportant, but the delivery of the training is what really counts and some people are naturally good at the “Horse Training Art” despite them having relatively little knowledge of the academic aspects underpinning what they are doing, but of course the Science behind behaviours helps a lot.
Positive Reinforcement Training isn’t a Woowoo training approach, or made up by one individual or another, it is based on tested scientific facts, but it is still very possible to apply R+ training concepts badly and also possible to apply them really well. It is a relatively new form of training for horses, but has existed in the dog training community for a lot longer. It is still evolving as new understandings of cognition and perception are made.
There are a lot of people professing to teach forms of Positive Reinforcement, but it is wise to choose help from someone who has been out there doing it rather than just talking about it, or with limited experience with few horses. If the teacher is always correcting and controlling, this is always going to be off putting for the learner, whether horse or human. If the trainer advertises on videos to be using strong R- or Pressure/Release more than they’re using R+, then it may not be as positive an experience as we would hope for the horse.
We don’t have to clone ourselves to become like any particular trainer, we can still be ourselves, and I choose to apply my own imperfect version of R+ to the AAoR by Bent Branderup, applying all L.I.M.A Principles as I find it a perfect fit, with the AAoR already being a non-forceful gentle, gradual way to enhance the horses physical abilities, equally suitable for old or young, large or small horses destined for any role in life, whether ridden, driven or unridden.
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