04/03/08 Rewarding good behavior

A lot of old timers wouldn't be caught dead giving their horses food as a reward during training but some new research suggests that rewards can help young horses learn faster. I'm Jeff Keane and I will be back after the break to tell you about it. The era of repetitive training and punishment in schooling young horses appears to be a thing of the past. Susan Allen is here to explain how well timed rewards whether it be a treat or a pat on the neck helps young horses learn faster. That's right Jeff a research team from Europe found that yearlings that received grain in response to voice commands were able to learn new behavior forty percent faster than a control group of yearlings. Better yet, in teaching handling skills, like stopping , standing, picking up hooves, inserting a thermometer , etc&the reward group of yearlings learned in nearly half the time as the control group. Make sense, look what a little praise verses criticism does to a child. Jeff and like small children these young horses that received rewards for appropriate behavior became more approachable to humans. And this isn't just for green horses, noted judge Hilda Gurney says that the "principle of rewarding after a good response is just as important when you ride at the high levels". She notes that "if a horse is trained by punishment, drill or repetition he'll soon learn to hate his job". And no matter what style of riding it is easy to spot the miserable horses, the ones with their ears back and a snarl on their lips. I'm Jeff Keane