by Eva Prabhakar

Created on: July 25, 2008   Last Updated: November 03, 2010

An elephant never forgets. Well, so doesn't a horse! For long it has been overshadowed by the elephant in people's mind in the arena of memory. The horse is generally perceived as a beautiful and strong animal. Its excellent memory just serves to complete the package. It can be trained to do almost anything based on a very useful tool known as learning by association'.

A visual stimulus acts as a precursor to a specific behavior. Memories are stored in the its mind in such a way that recollection is possible minus the vagueness we experience. The more this memory is replicated, the stronger is the translation into the subsequent behavior. The good news, further, is that even if an incident hasn't recurred in the recent past, it won't forget about it. It is always just a visual cue away!

Before training a horse to do something, make sure that it doesn't sense any imminent danger in its surroundings. It will instinctively flee from the scene as a protection mechanism instead of facing the threat'. This survival instinct tends to override any learned behavior as it is entrenched firmly into the mind of this conventionally prey animal in response to the approach of a predator.

However, these are very intelligent creatures, and perceived threats can be gradually changed into harmless stimuli by positive reinforcement. There are two ways to achieve this. First, since they tend to mimic each other, leading one to watch another approach something that it is scared of can help to replace any previous detrimental memory. Second, using basic positive reinforcements such as reducing the pressure on its mouth as it takes a step forwards or rewarding it with food immediately after the desired behavior can help the horse to start associating this stimuli as all clear'.

It is important to note that while teaching a horse something new, such as jumping over a hurdle, the process must be broken down into simple steps. At each step, positive reinforcement must be incorporated. This helps to consolidate each step into an overall desired response.

On the flip side, some things need to be untaught'. This is a fairly uphill task thanks to the horse's good long-term memory! Here, it is important to be patient and calm as it is extremely sensitive to its environment. Again, this is part of its basic instinct to survive. Any impatience on your part can confuse this animal with an unintended opposing association to the same stimuli. Fortunately, taking advantage of the fact that it is also a quick learner, sometimes just one sufficiently strong positive association can start off the behavior in the desired direction.

Horses have been known to get emotionally attached to their trainers, and remember pleasant experiences as far back as 10 years ago! Understanding the workings of its mind can not only help you to train it, but also to develop a wonderful lifelong friendship with this very loyal creature. An added perk is that your new friend won't judge you because it doesn't reason; it only mirrors your behavior.

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