Conditioned Emotional Response

Tank's lesson today. For those who don't know, my Tank is leaving this world, so I'm sharing some of the many lessons she's taught me.

We all know about classical conditioning, pair something with food and horses love it. But I didn't fully understand the implication of all of that in practice.

When I was first transitioning to R+ with Tank, 15 years ago, I had thoroughly conditioned the halter as a bad thing. Everytime I put it on her I'd take her overthreshold and we'd get into a fight and I'd use it to prevent her from getting to the safety she needed. She didn't just dislike her halter after this. When I put on her halter it elicited the same emotions as when we were actively fighting, wrestling, and preventing her from getting to her safety. The halter fully drew out those same emotions, without me needing to start using it in any way, just putting it on put her in the "I'm afraid, I'm not in control, I have no choice, I can't reach safety." So even when we started clicker training, if I put the halter on her she shifted into this frozen, learned helpless, scared horse, even if she was being behaviorally compliant, the emotional state was obvious.

While in reverse, when I taught her to target I only used the target with R+. The target was paired with food, so it elicited her seeking and satisfaction feelings, feelings of fun, choice, and engagement. We play the target game, she does NOT need to reach it, but it's so fun when she does. Quickly the target was breaking down walls the halter and force was never able to get close to.

Previously, when we'd go for walks, if Tank got scared she'd bolt all the way back to her stall, I'd try to stop her with the halter, but I couldn't, she'd break any object between where she was and the stall she needed to get back into. The moment I'd USE the halter, that trapped, panic, out of control feeling would take her from scared to terrified. It elicited those emotions big time.

While when on these walks, without a halter, with just the target, at first she'd spook and run, less panicked back to her stall, then I'd meet her half way with the target and start again. But then soon, when she'd spook, she'd jump and go right to her target, even if I didn't have it up, she'd find where I had it and use it like a security blanket.

I didn't realize that classical conditioning wasn't just making targets "feel nice" and halters "feel scary" (when used as I had used it back then), but it genuinely ELICITED the emotions they are associated with. So when haltered, it elicited fear. When targeting, it elicited comfort, safety, control, choice, and fun. Not because it's a halter or a target, but because of how it was conditioned.

ps - Of course we fixed the conditioning of her halter later, once I understood, but she had me on a steep learning curve and I wasn't seeing it until I saw it.