Considerations of the learning of the horse - An overview on the phenomenon

Abstract

The following discourse shall give an overview on the learning of the horse, and bring to mind the biological relevance and the complexity of learning processes. Different methods of learning shall be demonstrated, regarding concrete examples. Easily misinterpreted terms of learning theories most referred to shall be discussed critcally, with the attempt to use the appropriate language to describe the phenomenona as exact as possible, omitting common terms like "negative reinforcement" or "positive punishment". Albeit the discussion shall point to the fact that instructions written by authors experienced in veterinary medicine on training horses can be found in literature from earlier centuries. This early literature also dealt with learning processes. Of course it could not consider the knowledge of behavioristic learning theories, which developed in the first third of the twentieth century. Nevertheless the formulated instructions give a surprisingly good amount of advice on the learning of horses, which some contemporary theorists declare as their own achievements in analysis, their own experiments and their own interpretations. A distinction shall be made between learning in its biological function and genetic disposition, as the former is the achievement to adapt to changing circumstances of the biotop. Reward and punishment are explained as hippagogic methods to stabilize behaviour modification. Punishment, against its wide spread ethical attitude, is explained as a natural and common method in animal societies to prevent undesired or dangerous behavior of young and adult individuals and thus promote the order of the group and the survival of the individual.