One study researched how many lessons should be repeated in a training session. The results are very exciting.
In one study, researchers wanted to find out how many repetitions it takes to teach a horse a new lesson. They wondered if it made a difference if the lesson was repeated only three times or more.
To find out how many repetitions it takes for a horse to learn a new skill, they trained 20 horses. They taught them to back up, lower their heads, lift their hind legs and turn their heads. This was done over a period of six weeks. As a cue, they put pressure on parts of the body-such as the chest-and reinforced the correct behaviour through release of that pressure (negative reinforcement).
The scientists evaluated the horses’ performance in each training session, giving them scores of 1 to 6 based on the quality of their responses to the cues, the amount of pressure needed to elicit responses, and the speed of the responses.
Results
During the first training session, the horses performed slightly better when the task was repeated six times. But in all other sessions, up to the 12th and final session, the horses performed equally well whether they repeated the task three or six times.
This shows that horses can learn new lessons and tasks even if they are only performed three times in a riding session twice a week. Additional repetitions make no difference in how well or quickly they learn a new skill.
Uta König von Borstel, PhD, a researcher at the University of Giessen, Germany, spoke on behalf of her student Franziska Fröhlich, BSc, and her research team during the 2022 International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) Conference held in Hartpury, UK, from 9-12 August.
She commented, “Quite often we riders just base (how much training repetition we think horses need) on a feeling,” said King of Borstel. “But we might be wasting our time, and too much repetition might even cause boredom or frustration for the animals. “To reach a certain level of performance after a few training sessions, time – and possibly frustration and / or boredom – can be saved by repeating a task only three times per training session,” said König von Borstel.
Source: The Horse
