"We can never really know what it is to be a horse. Our best hope is to be as objective as possible and to balance our emotional attachment to the horse with our tradition of rational enquiry. To do this, we need to redefine the way that we think about the horse using sciences of behaviour"
Dr Andrew McLean
Those who have followed my career over the last ten years or so will have seen a dramatic improvement in my riding, training and coaching abilities - due almost entirely to the skills I have learnt from Dr Andrew McLean of the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre in Clonbinane, Victoria. I met Andrew about 6 years ago when faced with the talented but often opinionated stallion Landioso. I had asked for help from many people, all to no avail, but it was Andrew who single handedly helped me understand how horses learn and how deficiencies in the negatively reinforced signals of rein and leg pressure can cause conflict behaviours. My introduction to the science behind how horses learn - termed "Learning Theory" had begun. The rest, as they say, is history.
I simply couldn't get enough of my new found knowledge. Suddenly I could retrain napping and bucking horses, load almost anything onto a trailer or float, break in horses in a fast and ethical way and my dressage riding came on in leaps and bounds as I realised I could get a good tune out of a good number of horses. Landioso went on to qualify for the World Championships and win a couple of NZ National titles - including winning the Horse of the Year as his swansong. As I learnt more and more from Dr McLean I was invited to teach in various locations across the globe, following in his footsteps. I started doing guest lecturing at Universities on the subject of horse behaviour and training, and I even got help Olympic level riders with their more difficult mounts. I realised what I was put on earth to do - to train horses in a scientifically proven, ethical and sustainable, not to mention effective, way.
Andrew and his wife Manuela Mclean decided a few years ago to go more global in their educating of horse riders and trainers, and their brainchild Equitation Science International was born. 12 months ago I enrolled in their inaugural course - for a Certificate in Equitation Science which is an online course which culminates in a two week practicum at the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre. This was followed on with an Associate Diploma in Equitation Science which was a further two weeks of training and assessments in practical and theoretical aspects of horse training. And so I have just finished a one month stint in Australia, where I yet again learnt more that I thought possible.
The first two weeks were really just a recap for me - the certificate course is really just to make sure all students have reached a certain level of competency. There were 6 of us on the course, two from New Zealand, two from Australia, one from the UK and one from Ireland. It was nice to have a small number of students so we could get some one on one attention from both Andrew and Manuela.
The second two weeks was a lot more intense. A couple of the students from the first two weeks returned home and we were joined by a Latvian student Tatjana Leontjeva who impressed us all in her depth of knowledge in the science of horse training. For the Assoc Dip we divided our time evenly between the practical subjects of training, coaching and foundation training (breaking in). I got to start a 3 year old mare and within a week she went from being a hyper-reactive, sensitive chestnut, into a calm and obedient young horse under saddle. In the horse training section we dealt with training naive horses and problem horses in both in hand and under saddle training. There was much fun to be had in the role playing scenarios we did where one of us would pretend to be the proud owner of a problem horse - we would interview the owner to establish an anamnesis (case history) and then set about structuring training programs for both the horse and rider to solve the issues we were confronted with.
Definitely the hardest part for all of us was undoubtedly the coaching section. We had some brilliant tuition from Manu McLean on position and classical conditioning techniques, and some great jumping lessons from Andrew. But when were tested in real life teaching situations in front of our peer group and mentors - it really put our knowledge and confidence in our abilities to the test! I coach for a living, but teaching their students with Manu and Andrew critiquing us was quite a challenge!
We had a weekend away at the Melbourne 3Day event where we got to watch the Cross Country day and see AEBC student Rebecca from Perth complete her international Eventing debut in style. It was also exciting for me to see my old horse Corambo competing - he's a holsteiner I bought in as a yearling from Australia to New Zealand, broke in and competed successfully in dressage. He is now a very talented event horse back in Australia and his connections have their eyes on WEG in two years time. He was placed second after the dressage but an unlucky run out at a skinny on the crosscountry saw him lose his position. He's the grey in the photos below...
Another highlight was watching Manu train Para-Olympian Joann Formosa on the ex NZ stallion Worldwide PB as they build up to the London Olympics. Manu has done a brilliant job in retraining the stallion onto less traditional signals via the correct use of negative reinforcement and classical conditioning - PB now halts from trot with just two whip taps on his shoulder. One tap means shorten your stride. He also responds perfectly to voice aids and his "go button" is two taps behind the saddle for upward transitions and one tap to lengthen the stride. Jo is an inspirational rider. She basically has no use of her legs and a very weak arm - caused through both riding accidents and medical misadventure. A more determined lady I don't think I've met and I wish her all the very best of luck for London 2012.
Another favourite part of the course was getting to learn more about training racehorses with Jonna McLean - Andrew's brother. Jonna lectures in racehorse training at the Northern Metropolitan Institute of Technology and has been a successful racehorse trainer himself. We got to watch horses being trained in the barriers and he taught at length to me about the specifics of training racehorses using learning theory to get them to travel straight, turn well and lengthen, not quicken the stride on the home straight. Training racehorses is something I would certainly like to dabble in at some stage soon.
We had various guest lecturers in over the month, including Clinical Psychologist Jodi DeAraugo who gave us an amazing talk on meditation type techniques and techniques such as exposure therapy to overcome phobias. The crossover between human and horse psychology is very interesting indeed. Dr Lesley Hawson was another guest lecturer - she is completing her PhD at the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre - and she showed us the pressure pads for the rider's seat and legs that she is using as part of her latest project - it's fascinating stuff! Lesley also lectured us on Insurance and OSH type issues - very pertinent as professionals in the equine industry. Helen Godfrey who was also on the course lectured us in her specialist fields of outdoor education, teaching children and effective ways of delivering feedback in both the workplace and coaching situations. Very interesting stuff!
Andrew McLean also gave us some great lectures - my favourite two were about conflict resolution in the workplace and Forensic Ethology - talking us through being expert witness's in court cases involving horses. This is an area I have done some work in already but I would like to do a lot more of.
We spent our nights socialising with the McLean's - we all took turns at cooking in what seemed to become a Masterchef bake-off every night as we tried to out cook or fellow students! The hospitality of the McLean's is indeed legendary and this month was no exception as we were welcomed like long lost friends. A few nights in a row we watched some very interesting old training videos on piaffe and passage by Albert Ostermaier - these were both entertaining and informative.
Ongoing assessments were made of our abilities during the entire period of our stay and this culminated in a final teaching exam on the last Saturday before settling in to watch the All Blacks thrash Ireland in the Rugby, eating another divine Masterchef meal, and staying awake till the wee small hours to watch the Aussie sprint legend Black Caviar complete her 22nd straight victory in a row to take out the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in the UK.
The facilities at the AEBC are really second to none - a fantastic indoor school, great outdoor arenas, showjumps and a X/C course, racehorse barriers and an obstacle course - you name it - it's here! And it's all set amongst native Australian bush with plenty of wildlife on your doorstep. The very last two pics are of the magnificent Clonbinane Mansion that was destroyed by the terrible fires of several years ago. We went down to have a look just on dusk - eerily scarey!
As I finally set off back to New Zealand for the first time in over 6 months, I reflected back on just why I took a month out of my life to study for my Associate Diploma in Equitation Science. It has deepened my knowledge of the emerging science of Learning Theory and I have now gained a qualification that may one day lead on to further tertiary study - watch this space...