Horse Problem - Horse Brains - Why "leave it while it's working"/walking away on a positive works!

QUESTION: I worked with the problem gelding yesterday that I told you about earlier, and you were right! I "left it while it was semi-working" during his last lesson, exiting on a positive, even though he was only just starting to "get it," what I was teaching him there, and when I came back in for his next lesson a couple of days later, he not only completely had it down from the get go, but he was indeed farther along than where I had left him, just like you said he would be! It's amazing! How can this be? Why is this so?

The brain is made of billions of nerve cells called neurons. Neurons communicate with each other by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters or synapses. Neurons don't touch each another. To communicate messages back and forth to each other, neurons send out special delivery messengers across tiny, fluid filled gaps called synapses. These messengers/neurotransmitters/synapses, wait near the gaps until a neuron's electrical signals arrive. Then they jump the gap and dock on the other side, carrying their message to neighboring neurons.

So, another simpler way of understanding what the brain is doing there: These chemicals travel through root-like structures, called dendrites. Dendrites look similar to roots of a plant, or branches on a tree. Dendrites branch out and look for connections with neighboring neurons at those junctures called synapses. (To "connect the dots" so to speak, for understanding/learning something.) These Dendrite spines, or branches, are short outgrowths that further increase the receptive surface area of a neuron (so things can be better comprehended). The surface of a dendrite branch is covered with junctions that are designed for greater reception of incoming information. The more dendrite and synapses that are there and the denser their thicket of interconnections, the greater the brainpower. But they aren't static, they grow, when stimulated to grow. (When you are teaching/when the horse is learning a new behavior!)

So, as the brain learns something new, every time the horse perceives (learns!) something, a unique (new) network of neurons gets activated, stimulating the growth of more intricate webs of dendrites to more quickly facilitate the learning. Each connection does not disappear or return to its original state. Instead these connections become more solidly and intricately intertwined. New dendrite "branches" continue to grow! Pretty fast, too. Even after/past the initial stimulation that produced the sudden growth.

And, so, when you walk away on a positive after teaching the horse, those dendrites keep growing for a while all by themselves for the new behavior learned. When you come back later, they are actually longer, more intricate, than they were before. That's how a horse's brain as well as even the human's brain learning center works. Fascinating, isn't it?

To understand it more overtly firsthand as a human, I like to use this example for people to understand what the firing off of those synapses (which then stimulates the growth of new dendrites/"learning branches") actually feels like in an exaggerated form: have you ever spent a day at the beach/swimming in the ocean? Or, maybe a day snow skiing, especially the first day of the ski season that you go out & ski? Or any such similar new hyper stimulation of the brain's sensory and learning center. Like..., even, you spent many hours in one day playing a new video game perhaps. Well....when you go to bed that night, have you ever had the sensations while you're lying in bed, eyes closed, that you are still in the ocean, or still skiing, or still playing that video game? That sensation is about new synapses firing off message charges hyper rapidly (similar to electrical charges of lightning) to stimulate quicker (perceived needed now) brain growth in the brain's learning center, but high-speed like suddenly, and new dendrites and more synapses rapidly growing as a result.

Then, the next time you go out skiing, especially if you take a pause in between (and you're not going back to it with muscle soreness which is telling your body to rest instead), you're actually better than you were before when you last left the slopes. The dendrites kept growing for that new behavior, independently. That was indeed the sensation you felt when lying in bed at night and it felt like you were still skiing!

It appears to be the same for horses, which backs up, too, how successful the route is when teaching a horse the natural horsemanship way a brand new behavior, for us as trainers/horse teachers to patiently "leave it while it's working!" Or in some cases only "semi-working." And don't beat a newly learned behavior into the ground. If you leave it while it's working, walking away from teaching that one particular new behavior, leaving that on a high positive via bonding/reward (which releases pleasurable endorphins in the horse's brain, making the behavior desirable, not negative), not pushing the window there too far before you accidentally get to a negative, indeed the next time you come back to work the horse, even day or two or even weeks later sometimes, the horse is farther along there than where you left them, so often. The dendrites for that new behavior in the brain learning center kept on growing longer, more detailed, more intricate branches all by themselves, then making it easier to perform the task!

Pretty amazing if you think about it.

And you've just experienced that phenomenon first hand there with that particular horse. The horse was stuck trying to get down the new behavior. But you wisely broke it down into finer baby steps, affording you the opportunity to offer positive rewards more often, and for the baby step successes. And you indeed had him progressing well enough and positively enough, though not completely there yet, but walked away on a positive with him semi-getting it. And walked away on a good positive. You came back later/another day, and he's farther than where you left him, suddenly him totally "getting it" all by himself from the get go. The brain dendrites kept growing in that region, independently. (To "connect the understanding dots"). Even when the horse was away from the training session.

This indeed is how horses learn. So keep that in mind and it will lessen your own learning curve frustration if/when you think a horse doesn't get something. Keep the faith that nature will take over and the horse's brain will work on it, all on its own. Just keep the lessons positive and progressing forward (be progression focused, not goal focused), but don't feel you have to get the entire behavior at first. If you walk away on a positive, even the horse only semi-getting it at first, the horse's brain will keep working on it, all by itself - new dendrites growing, which naturally expands that region's learning/understanding capacity. And each time you come back in later, the horse is generally so often farther along than where you left them. The brain took care of that growth/understanding all by itself!

Doesn't mean they don't back step in learning sometimes, they do. Very often a horse learning curve for learning a new behavior entails two steps forward, one backwards, and sometimes it can seemingly get worse right before it suddenly turns a corner and gets better permanently, for good. And there's a reason for that as well. Often a horse gets it, gets it, then suddenly he internally panics that he's giving up his will, pecking order, whatever you wish to call it, and he'll briefly experiment "one last time" to see if his old ways of doing things still work (that's the back step and the old dendrite branches still existing, haven't faded yet). Remain highly consistent, calm, patient, and his brain will rule out once and for all, "oh, okay, this new way is the only acceptable way here." And he'll settle in with his newly learned, now permanently, behavior, new dendrite branches take over permanently (then the brain switches that learning from short term, to long term memory parts of their brain, in that order).

I just think knowing some of this, how the brain works in the horse (and even with humans), helps us as trainers to remain very patient, not taking slow learning or back steps personally, and also remaining understanding that "we don't have to get it all right now." Which is what natural horsemanship is all about, to its core. Give the horse's brain time to grow the new dendrites (often overnight!!) and they get there, still, with very gentle pressure/release, natural horsemanship techniques, which are quite respectful of the horse's spirit & soul.

 

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