EquiTeam member and contributor, Gillian Birrell, shares her lightbulb moment.
I had a jumping lesson at Team Oakden a couple of weeks ago, and I was asked the question “how does your horse learn”?
I thought it was a trick question, and as I tried to think about how a horse’s brain works, and what I know about Frankie, I completely missed the point of the question. The answer was, through progressive repetition. This was a bit of a revelatory moment for me and got me thinking about how important repetition is in every part of our horse (and rider) training.
I was thinking back to my children being in Primary 1 and how they learned their alphabet. I can recall my son practicing the letter “a” by saying the sound, tracing the letter with his finger, writing it down over and over again.
I can also remember how tricky he found this to begin with – I don’t think his first attempts at writing this letter would have been identifiable as anything other than a squiggle! Then we would move on to the next letter… when we went back to “a” he often forgot what it was!
I found it frustrating at times that he couldn’t retain this simple letter and I couldn’t understand how not practicing for a couple of days could have such a big impact.
His teacher’s advice? Practice the next letter, as well as the last one, before gradually increasing the number of letters he could recognise, say and draw, then put them into small words, then small sentences, then small stories… progressive repetition.
Sometimes, as the number of letters increased, he would forget the ones we started with. So we would go right back to the start, practice them, without him feeling ridiculed. I asked questions about letters and every time he got the answer right, he felt more confident.
He could never have managed to go from practicing the letters on an individual basis to writing a story. But by breaking them into chunks, all of a sudden he “knew” the letters. He didn’t just recognise them, they became part of a language that he knew without having to give it thought. Through primary and secondary school, his lessons have developed in complexity and specialism, but he can still recognise his alphabet as it is part of his core learning.
On the other hand, on those occasions where he overheard me saying a word I shouldn’t, he seemed to have no problem remembering and repeating it! In the wrong environments, when I didn’t want him to and normally in front of my mother! Why could he repeat the bits that I didn’t want other people to hear but not mundane learning things? Progressive, positive repetition.
Knowing now what I know about my horse, I can see how the same applies to children. When he practiced the letter and got it right he got a smaller reaction than the guffaws of laughter every time he used the “naughty word”… and in remembering back each time he said it the laughter and reaction was probably bigger.
With horses, and with us, we learn by progressive repetition. We ask a simple question such as, “can you walk over this trot pole?” If your horse is like mine, the first time he will probably stop and look at this terrifying thing on the ground and really not want to put his feet over it.
With lots of encouragement, he steps forward, and gets a huge pat and lots of praise. We keep going over it until it isn’t an issue, then over time it becomes a cross pole, then an upright, then a spread.
However, if we have a big gap in jumping, or don’t remember the importance of the progressive repetition, the system doesn’t work.
I have lost my nerve a bit when I’m jumping – I don’t know why but through my sessions with Jane Brindley at Horse Riding with Confidence Scotland, we have identified my freeze response when jumping. My heart rate picks up, I lose the ability to listen, or steer a course. We discussed how to use circular sighing and visualisation to address this.
EquiTeam’s coach Liz reminded me to go back to basics – lots of poles on the ground and I’d soon be ready to confidently jump the heights I was before. BUT… I’d arranged a Halloween jumping day at our yard, I wanted to participate, I went for a cross pole class thinking it would boost my confidence and allow us to have fun.
The reality was my tension and Frankie’s apprehension got mixed together. My tension down the rein was NOT progressive or positive repetition; my inability to breath was not encouraging or positive, and I did not start at the poles on the ground. In fact the only thing that was on the ground was my bum when I was promptly deposited.
I showed Liz my video and she said she could see it coming from three seconds in – long before we had even approached the first jump.
I did practice the breathing, but I forgot the fundamental, that the learning journey is not just mine – it is Frankie’s too.
By not jumping for a while and by feeling anxious, there was no progressive repetition or positive reinforcement. What there was, was a rider in freeze mode and a horse who sensed the danger and decided to get out of the situation we were in.
It is easy to sometimes think that the behavioural issues are our horses’ to own. I think this is often not the case. In reflection, my jumping was doomed before it started. It should have been calm and encouraging for both of us; it should have progressively repeated from the tiniest of poles with him getting praise and me feeling safe while I breathed; it should have been a step by step process.
The issue was not height, colour, or shape of the jump. The issue was my approach to a situation I was anxious about and my lack of preparation or planning. I wasn’t fair on him.
There are so many scenarios where this is true and I’m sure we can all think of one.
For those that hacking is a scary experience, we can start by going down a small track and back, or walking past a parked car in a safe space with someone we trust, until we are comfortable hacking across a stubble field alone.
For those whose horses have issues at the mounting block, we may progress from positive praise when they stand still eating a treat and letting us scratch them, to being able to mount without someone holding them.
For horses who are scared of the syringe with the vet, we progress from a pretend one with a lickit or treat, to the smell of surgical spirits on the pretend one and treats… until we actually have a horse who is not terrified when the vet arrives.
As owners and riders, we have a huge responsibility for ourselves and our own safety, as well as for that of our horse. Our approach to that shapes our responses, as well as theirs, and from what I can see in every scenario, it is about positive repetition. If the jump looks too big, or the hack is too long, go back a step! There is no rush and no urgency in learning with our ponies.
There just needs to be an approach where we build it up slowly, confidently and as a partnership. Progressive Repetition.
Gillian x
