Most vices just like all other behaviours are built up over time through reinforcement. Generally, these behaviours are very strongly embedded (learned) by the time we start thinking of them as vices. In fact, I often wish I could capture the exact reinforcement schedule used when building vices in order to use it when building other behaviours!
First lets take a look at a few of the most common vices we face with horses. Pawing, fence-walking (or worse!), weaving and cribbing or wind-sucking. There are many common themes here. For the horse, stress and frustration (or high levels of excitement) are the ones that immediately come to mind. Also, a lack of emotional control. The inability of the horse to cope with the stress\frustration in a calm way pops out as a physical vice. The behaviour that results is not random though, it is wholly predictable if you understand reinforcement and in particular self-reinforcement.
For instance, let's look at fence-walking. Why has the horse learned to fence walk? There must be something in it for the horse to repeatedly waste it's energy walking a fence-line, we simply need to identify the reinforcer(s) at work. With fence-walking the reinforcer is usually the return of a buddy or buddies, occasionally (like pawing) it is being fed. A typical scenario is that the horse's buddy is taken out of the paddock, and our fence-walker begins patrolling the fence-line. In some cases, neighing, bucking and stampeding around or even threatening to knock down or jump over the fence in a tantrum. To 'calm the horse' it may either be taken out of the paddock and taken to its companions or a companion is brought back to the horse. Voila! Reinforced, the horse now repeats the behaviour each time it is concerned about being left alone. Every time it is reinforced the behaviour gets stronger. If it isn't reinforced a couple of times, the horse makes the behaviour different (worse) in order to 'make' the reinforcement happen. Sound familiar? Sounds like a Variable Reinforcement Schedule, that we use to train our horses to have very strong behaviours doesn't it?
Now we know how the horse learned to fence-walk. In order to correct the behaviour we must remove any and all reinforcement, this is know as extinction. Killing off a behaviour that has been taught through reinforcement. Extinction can be a long and painful process (for the owner!) and one of the problems with extinction is that the behaviour will get worse before the animal finally gives up. This is usually when owners and trainers give in and the horse gets one more bout of reinforcement - making the behaviour even stronger! It will, however work provided all reinforcers are removed, from now on - forever.
However there is often a double-whammy with vices. We humans are reinforcing the behaviour, but also the horse adds in its own self-reinforcement. A self-reinforcing behaviour is one that doesn't require outside influence. It's something that provides some form of comfort to the animal, or person, performing it. These are also called 'superstitious behaviours' and you will see them all the time around you in other humans. Nail biting is a common one, touching parts of the body or clothing. Take a look at any sportsman - see all those funny movements they make before taking an important penalty shot or preparing themselves for competition. Those are self-reinforcing behaviours, superstitious behaviours. They have absolutely no effect on the action that they need to perform but they comfort the participant and become so ingrained that they don't even know that they are doing them. For horses, like many animals, one of the most highly self-reinforcing behaviours is movement. We humans do it too, pacing back and forth or even rocking when stressed. For horses, comfort is gained through movement, the ability to escape! So the very act of racing or pacing up and down the fence-line becomes reinforcing for the horse. It can draw comfort from monotonous walking, or pacing and adrenaline\endorphin rushes from frenzied activity.
Simply removing the reinforcement that we are providing will not be enough to stop this behaviour. We need to recognise and remove the horse's ability to self-reinforce too. In the case of our fence walker, this may mean that we need to change the fence-line in someway. For some horses, simply putting some obstacles in the way or changing it's ability to view horses walking away from\to the paddock will be enough. For others you may take a more 'cold-turkey' approach, building a totally bullet-proof fence and simply leaving the horse to it's own devices - let it walk the fence for days if need be, but only return its friend when the horse is calmly grazing (and repeat the exercise). If this is not practical, you may need to restrain the horse from performing it's self-reinforcing behaviour. Simply tying the horse (to a strainer on the fence) in the paddock can be a good remedy. Of course, you need to ensure that they horse is safe. It must not be able to break free but you don't want it to get tangled, nor should it be left for long amounts of time without water or food or being checked. However, being restrained from movement will immediately eliminate the self-reinforcer and speed up extinction immeasurably. Don't worry if the horse becomes a digger, pawing will not be as satisfying as walking and if it is never reinforced it will not take hold - the horse will give up easily on this new behaviour.
As you can see, just from this one example vices are not quick to fix but the process is quite straight forward.
- Identify what reinforcer(s) have created the behaviour
- Remove the reinforcer(s) and let extinction occur.
Well, that sounds easy but, of course, in practice you often need nerves of steel while you outlast your horse. You may also need to be a lateral thinker both in thinking about the reinforcers at work and in strategies that will enable you to stop self-reinforcement.
In a future article we will look at others methods that can help you to get rid of behaviours you don't want - such as distraction and counter conditioning (replacement of behaviours). In the meantime I hope this has given you some insight into why some behaviours are so easy for your horse to pick up, and so hard for you to get rid of!
