I had never seen a horse so food oriented as Whistler. Amos used to say that Whistler would sell his mother for a blade of grass and then smile to himself at having made a joke about Whistler's mother (fortunately I was too young to be in on the joke that Whistler's Mother was a famous painting).
Amber found that she could get Whistler to do most things when enticed with the promise of food. He used to be a pill to catch, but when Amber started bringing carrots with her to the paddock Whistler soon learned to meet her at the gate and slip his nose into the halter. Loading into a float, tying up, saddling, standing still for the farrier were all problems that were taken care of with a little cunning use of food rewards.
I hadn't ever given much thought to Amber and Whistler until one day at the Royal Show I had a discussion with Walt and Amos.
I had qualified in the C grade showjumping with Hank who was owned by a friend. Walt and Amos came along to help me get ready for my classes, but also to visit the livestock, cakes and preserve pavilions. They loved the cakes and sweets. During a lull in the competition I wandered around with the old brothers to look for somewhere to have lunch. We came across a small portable yard with a couple of people inside with a horse and a horse float and a crowd of about 30 people watching from outside. Apparently, it was demonstration on how to load a horse onto a float.
The fellow in the middle asked the lady who owned the horse to show people what he was like to load onto the float. She proceeded to lead the horse towards the ramp, but just as he got there he ducked to the side and missed the ramp. The owner brought him back and he did it again. Then when she brought him to the ramp the third time he stopped, leaned on the lead rope and ran backwards until he got to the other side of the yard. The lady said that this was typical except sometimes he would rear and strike if she got more forceful with him. The fellow thanked her and took the lead rope.
He said he would teach the horse to load quietly by giving him positive reward only. He talked about fear and claustrophobia, gentleness and calmness etc. before starting with the training. The fellow produced a toy clicker that made a clicking noise when it was pressed. They were often found in the Cadbury and licorice show bags. He explained how by asking the horse to do something, then releasing, press the clicker and give a food treat the horse would learn and at the same time have only a positive experience. This was the first time I had heard of clicker training and I later learned that it was how the US Navy had trained dolphins.
The trainer asked the horse to approach the float ramp. At the first step forward he released and at the same time clicked. He then gave the horse a sugar cube. Then another step, release/click and a sugar cube. When the horse got to the ramp he baulked. The trainer waited, but the instant the horse leaned forward he released, clicked and gave him another sugar cube. Pretty soon the horse was able to go into the float one step at a time with the trainer rewarding him for every step. The horse was then backed out and the process was repeated.
On the third time the trainer didn't reward for each step forward, but instead kept asking until the horse took two steps. Then he released, clicked and treated. You could see the horse searching for the treat. When the trainer didn't reward him after just one step the horse started to search the trainer for the sugar. Eventually, he gave up searching and tried another step for which he was rewarded. With more repetition the trainer withheld the click and reward until the horse made more of an effort. After about 45 minutes the horse was going in and out of the float quite eagerly and only being rewarded when he went all the way in and then all the way out.
I was pretty impressed at the change in the horse and thought that this was a technique that I should investigate a little further. Just as I was thinking this I heard a familiar croaky voice.
"Excuse me son, but I was wonderin about somethin. Now that ya got that horse to go in and out of the trailer, can ya get him to just go halfway in or halfway out and stop 'im?" Amos asked the trainer.
The fellow thought about it for a minute and it was obvious the answer was not immediately clear to him.
"I ain't been asked that before, but the method relies on a targeted purpose for the reward. The point of usin clicker trainin is to give the horse a clear target that he must reach in order to get his food reward. In this case, I eventually made the target to be goin into the float and comin out of the float. I guess if ya change the target to be goin only halfway in, then ya'd have re-train the horse for the new target. But I can't see why that would matter 'cause why would ya want ya horse to only be halfway in a float? It'd look pretty silly goin down the road like that.
There were a few laughs from the crowd.
"Thanks son," said Amos.
In the truck home that night I brought up the subject of the demonstration and asked Amos about his question.
"Matey, did ya notice how fixated that horse became on where the next lump of sugar was comin from? Once the horse figured out that if he did somethin he would get some sugar, he began lookin at what to do to get the sugar. He was pokin around that fellas pockets and mouthin his arm huntin for the sugar. When he didn't get sugar he got more fidgety and was tossin his head. After awhile he got the picture to take another step and the sugar would be comin his way, but if he didn't get it he got pretty bothered."
"But Amos, he did learn to go into the float and when he started he wouldn't even put a foot on the ramp," I said.
Walt piped in. "No matey, he didn't learn to go in the float. All he learned was how to push the right buttons in order to get the vendin machine with the sugar to pop one out. The horse's focus was on the food, not on listenin to the fella. If he was really listenin to the person ya would be able to stop him at any point with no trouble because he would be mentally connected to the human. But the fella only taught him what he needed to do to get a lump of sugar. The mental connection was to the sugar not the person."
"So do you think it's bad to reward a horse with food as a training technique?" I asked.
"Matey, the food ain't the problem. It's how ya use it. Horses love to eat and food is a powerful motivator. Just look at how Amber has trained Whistler to be caught. She can't go into that paddock without that tub of lard on legs tryin to harass her. It ain't because he loves her, it's because he sees her as a mobile feed bin. It's the same when she ties him up for the farrier. If he didn't have a flake of hay in front of him how long d'ya think it would be before he started stompin and fussin for his food? It's pretty rare to see a person use food as a reward and have a strong connection to the horse that ain't about the food. I reckon people should stay away from usin food to train horses. For most people it is just substitutin one problem with another."
I see the problems of food reward on a regular basis. The mental fixation on food when a person is working with a horse so often gets in the way of real communication back and forth between horse and human. I want to be more important to my horse than a slither of carrot or a biscuit of hay.
