a Jury of my Peers

I want to share a misjudgment I made. I love academia,the University of Washington, Applied Animal Behavior Program -there is controversy but it feels different than some of the controversy that involves more value judgments. I think value judgments are important, i make them when i have to about things that are important to me.
I’m in a different phase of life “career”,I’ve had chronic pain for 40 years and recently went through the worst bout of insomnia that seems to be being managed. The trigger stacking theory has sure been ringing home for this human animal.
I have been a “paid” horse professional for 40 years, and been riding and handling horses since i was 7. Have attained various horse-type certifications in riding, safety and training as well as an advanced psych degree where i did practice in human mental health.

i recently applied for a cert and took a course with an ancillary org not part of the University. In horses and horse training the method that has been used since the time of alexander the great and Xenophon the earliest documented horse training methods, is negative reinforcement. Often called pressure and release. Good practice and timing teaches people to use as little pressure as possible, give instant release the horse associates the release with it’s last action. Associative learning via negative reinforcement. Of course, just like dogs, there has been the historic use of punishment and punishing equipment and tools.

Horses are different than dogs. I would never feel like i would be a “dog professional” after this wonderful, balanced and informative University program, because although I have had dogs, I have never made them or their behavior my study. Horses, the contrary.

One big issue with horses is human safety, they weigh between 700 and 2500 pounds. The insurance industry in the US calls it a rugged adventure sport, which is code for people get hurt and killed doing horse things. I have been an expert witness, once in the death of a child whose sister, mother and grandmother looked on. I can not stress enough the safety aspect of horse sports and simply horse ownership. It is only in the last 20 years that horses have been considered pets. 
They generally do not bond to humans like dogs, they are prey animals. Most of my clients over the years want to think of them like dogs, silly clients teach baby horses to stand on their shoulders because it is cute at 200lbs, not so cute when it is 2000lbs.

The conflict about positive reinforcement in horses has to do with human safety and it is real. Horses don’t try to hurt people usually, it is the humans who misunderstand the nature of the prey animal, its cognitive and emotional abilities.

I use some positive reinforcement, but it is not always practical. There is a divide in the horse world, i would say most professional trainers are slow to see how food positive reinforcement can be used to supplement training let alone go 100% R+. Again, it is safety, food is the most powerful reinforcer, when mistakes are made, and when people are not consistent (98% of us), don’t understand or have proper timing (98%) having a 1000lb animal step on you, crush you, shove you, butt you with it’s 150lb head, accidentally bite you…. There is a reason the zoo’s don’t let lay people feed the zebra’s and elephants. Trainers should learn behavior science, timing, learning theory, etc. It is the rare human that has the innate ability to handle some animals. I am sure we see this in dog training too. And, I don’t know what the stats are for dog associated injuries caused when people make mistakes, i do know the stats for hospital emergency room visits because of horse back riding injuries( not handling). 48,700 people out of 300,000 are estimated to be injured in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database (2017).

In the US, we have few standards for training, and most are derived from the Olympic organizations, the racing industry, and international competition governing bodies. The role of the horse has changed from necessary transportation and a farming tool for survival to a sport animal or a pet. 
The expectation of a $300,000 show jumper or a Million dollar stakes winner are usually quite different than the expectations of most pets and local competition animals. There are the “Milans” of horse training, to be certain. And there are ethical questions about horses treatment and, for some, their use at all. As long as handling and riding them is still in the picture, given their inherent danger, given the inconsistencies of most humans, given that few people will have exposure to and experience around the animal in ordinary life (as opposed to when they were necessary), given the misconception of a prey animal when we are a predator animal, I think the discourse must continue. My value judgement is that, of course, we should be kind and humane, but I’m not ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater after my life’s experience and advocate 100% R+.

Now, since i didn’t even read the ancilary organizations charter or application handbook before i applied to get more letters after my name, I feel sort of like a trumpian who went to a sanders rally. I was offered a lesser certification and encouraged to reapply in 6 months, because I appear to have horse experience. I looked on a data base and there are 15 certified horse people in the us and canada. I find this partly humorous, in our last live meeting through the University, our guest was talking about various orgs and their certifications, and the varing meaningfulness of them. The guest recognized some exemplary dog trainers who were associated with not-so exemplary ancillary orgs. Another thing I wonder, if i were younger, would I have read more before i started filling out online forms. My misjudgment was I already knew i didn’t belong. And no, I don’t belong to the NRA, I didn’t vote for Trump, but I do want to be arrested for civil disobedience supporting human rights before i die. I am happy to be judged by a jury of my peers, but sometimes i am not sure who they are?????