Learned Behaviour

Jessey

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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My musing for a Tuesday morning :) I have always fairly well dismissed the horses copying bad habits from one another theory, do you?

What's got me thinking is Hank's behavior over the last few months. He never used to put his ears back and certainly not at me, he was always the happy cheeky little chappy. Dan arrived in March and I have described him as Eeyore from the start, he very often has his ears back and generally looks grumpy, and when food is about this increases and he will have ears flat back and threaten as I bring his bucket to him. Now my happy chappy Hank is doing the same around food pretty consistently, though he doesn't really threaten me, just puts the grumpy face on.

I want to say its because he is no longer bottom of the totem pole, he uses this new found attitude to boss Dan away from buckets and haynets, and it is just carrying over when Dan isn't close by, or has he copied this silly habit for displaying attitude around food from Dan?
 
Things like wind sucking for example I'm not convinced horses "copy" eachother but I have often wondered if a foals mum done this for example would they learn it in those crucial first few months from mum?
As for more general behaviours, body language,facial expressions, greetings, movements in a field etc I do believe they adjust/learn to the types of horses around them. The whole dynamic has changed so therefore behaviours are bound to change in my eye. A non spooky horse out in company with a spooky horse for example will feed off that spooky horse, 1 work horse who is a lovely boy will feed off another work horse who is a pain to lead,he likes to drag given the chance and the good boy will match his pace at times and drag also if led together.Torin is grumpy to look at. Like Dan in his expressions etc and Rhan is completely different on her own but they both often "grump" when together. Rhan is top dog though so is it more about making sure Torin witnesses that as opposed to me?
I then also think well they learn from us so why wouldn't they learn from their fellow horses? How often do horses mirror their owners? The same can be said for the company they keep for most of their lives while with their friends/herd?
It's an interesting subject for sure.
 
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I am absolutely convinced they do learn behaviours from other horses but I also believe they can be trained out of them. They will do whatever they find gets them the result they want, so if making a grumpy face gets them left alone then they will use it.
Scully used to "resource guard" over the stable door so that any attempt to open it got a grumpy face - her way of saying go away I don't want to be disturbed. She was trained out of that using clicker training and once I got ears forward I added the cue of saying "happy face" - now if she puts her ears back I just say "happy face" and the ears come forward and she gets a treat of a scratch between her front legs which she adores :).
 
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fourlegs said:
I am absolutely convinced they do learn behaviours from other horses but I also believe they can be trained out of them. They will do whatever they find gets them the result they want, so if making a grumpy face gets them left alone then they will use it.
Scully used to "resource guard" over the stable door so that any attempt to open it got a grumpy face - her way of saying go away I don't want to be disturbed. She was trained out of that using clicker training and once I got ears forward I added the cue of saying "happy face" - now if she puts her ears back I just say "happy face" and the ears come forward and she gets a treat of a scratch between her front legs which she adores :).
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Of course they learn, but my question is do they copy behaviours, or just learn they work?
 
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Probably both - if they see another horse doing something they try it for themselves - surely this is how they learn from their dam as a foal - the "independant" learning possibly comes from their play as foals if they have other foals to play with. I am convinced that many of Scully's issues when I first had her were due to not having other foals to play with.
 
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I'm not sure on the learning it works thing in Hanks case, I have sure as hell never got out of his way because he pulled a face at me, he's 32" of fuzz ball, not exactly threatening :p so if it is a case of they learn what works, why would he continue when it doesn't work? He does get away with it to Dan most of the time, but Jess nails him if he tries bossing her about so it isn't consistently working for him.
 
Ginger cribs when in and given he chance but never have I had a report or spotted another horse in my barn doing the same in 6 years. We also have a weaver but again just the one.

Ginger always bossed Chanter around food. Running him off the hay etc. I have noticed that with the little princess he doesn't do the same. Today I popped his head collar on and he stood at the gate and waited while I put little ones food down and removed her rug. If that was Chanter he would not of got a mouthful let alone left alone to eat it all. So his behavior has changed with a new field mate.
 
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OwnedbyChanter said:
Ginger cribs when in and given he chance but never have I had a report or spotted another horse in my barn doing the same in 6 years. We also have a weaver but again just the one.

Ginger always bossed Chanter around food. Running him off the hay etc. I have noticed that with the little princess he doesn't do the same. Today I popped his head collar on and he stood at the gate and waited while I put little ones food down and removed her rug. If that was Chanter he would not of got a mouthful let alone left alone to eat it all. So his behavior has changed with a new field mate.
Click to expand...

I must have missed a thread, or am losing the plot, lol I didn't know Ginger had a new field mate. I had wondered.
 
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When Zi first arrived and begun to eat his way around the fencing the girls were fascinated and suddenly it was cool to crib! Both tried it but seemed to realise it wasn't enjoyable (for them) and stopped. Now it's only Zi that eats fences. He doesn't do it when in a barn, only when on the yard.
 
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