Satori Center

Resources

Tidbit

To train with distractions or without?  now, that's a question!

And apparently it's been answered!

Yes, today as the wind whipped leaves around and the trees rustled and the chickens attacked, I reflected upon this dilemma.  Do we train in a bubble wrapped room or do we head for the open fields?

It turns out the bubble wrapped room wins.

Not that I have one of those.

In Influencing Horse Behavior, A Natural Approach To Training, by Jim McCall, he has a whole (4 page) chapter: Limited Distractions.

They (I'm not sure exactly who they are; it could have been students of his in Maryland or at A&M) experimented with six halter-broken yearlings who had been turned out since weaning.  Three of the yearlings were to be worked in a pen surrounded by several highrise buildings adjoining a busy road.  The other three were to be trained in a soundproof, completely closed quonset hut.  (yeah... don't have one of those, either...)  Training would include lungeing at walk, trot, canter, stop, and reverse.  

After four days the horses in the soundproof quonset hut were 'two days' ahead of the other group. 

Then the fun part - bring out the three who'd been in the quonset hut and see what happened!

The result was an immediate regression in performance.  They had to learn to pay attention to the trainer's cues in spite of the distractions.  And YET - drum roll - even still, these three were ahead of the three which were trained with the distractions present all along.

Well durn.

(Although the rest of the chapter is how to train without the use of a quonset hut!)

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

Links

  Books 

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." 

~ James Allen