Do horses learn from their mistakes?

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CobsGalore

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I arrived at the field this morning to find my cobs foot well and truly stuck in the fence. I would say that 98% of the fencing in his field is electric, and there is probably 1 or 2 meters of stock wire fencing where the bushes aren't thick enough to stop them from going right up to the fence.

Luckily he wasn't panicking too much and calmed down once he saw me, but all in all a very scary experience. :(

I had to ring my friend to get her to bring heavy duty wire cutters down to the field and we finally managed to cut him free. He has made a big hole in his hoof wall, but nothing that won't grow down, and *touches wood* he doesn't appear to be lame.

I assume that he did it by trying to get to the long grass on the other side and then pawing the ground, getting the wire stuck between his foot and shoe.

I feel awful :( and have electric taped off the small amount of stock wire fencing that we have to stop them getting to it, and will keep wire cutters nearer the field in the future.

But my question is, if I didn't, do you think he would remember what happened, learn from what happened and stay away from the fence?
 
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I believe he will learn from it yes.

My pony is a serial escape artist until I put up a new electric fence. He touched it and now won't go anywhere near anything that even resembles white tape.
 
Probably not as quickly as you have learnt from your mistake:D

I always electric off any stock fencing with a strand about 12 inches from the ground and 6 inches from the fence and another one above the top of the fence.
 
I think he would perhaps stay away from that part of the fence, but it is unlikely that he would make the connection between where he got stuck and other parts that have stock fencing.
 
Yeah he won't go anywhere near electric fencing and is usually quite a sensible one in the field.

I have now ensured all stock fencing is covered or not accessible and won't be making the same mistake again :(
 
Horses learn through observing the outcome of their actions, just as we do :)

Horse wants grass, and reaches over fence to get grass. He has just learned that if he stands really close to the fence, he gets more grass. So he'll do it again, and again. Each time he does it, his brain registers "success" and "got a reward for what I did".

On one occasion, something grabs his foot. What happens next depends on how scary he finds this - if he struggles and it hurts, the pain may well cancel out some of the "got a reward for what I did" memories. If he doesn't struggle (and, in fact, continues to eat grass while his foot is stuck), it won't have much effect on the "got a reward for what I did" memory.

It's the same as us picking blackberries. Each time we do it, we get to eat lots of blackberries. On one or two occasions, we get scratched, or stuck in the brambles. Does this stop us picking blackberries? Answer... "It depends" :D
 
Up to a point, yes, otherwise it would be very difficult to train them to do/not to do, anything!
They learn by association, not by reasoning, so if a particular action brought discomfort or a fright, they may well avoid doing it again. They wouldn't understand why, though.
 
Yes I think he will learn , my chaps got a big pop from the fence at the start of spring and have been very respectful ever since. Glad it wasn't more serious but I bet you felt sick when you saw him:(
 
Yes- its fab watching Dolly as you see them learning, she zapped her nose a grand total of 4 times befor she learnt from her mistakes ;)
 
jemima*askin said:
Probably not as quickly as you have learnt from your mistake:D
Click to expand...

^^this :D
I have a highly trainable and (I think!) intelligent but food-obsessed cob x who got stuck in the same bit of fence twice in a week :rolleyes:

I couldn't fence it off:o she had to move fields.
 
No, either that or I have a very stupid horse, he is a habitual pawer, he paws when feeding, bounces gates till they open, got his foot well and truly stuck in his haynet, had to be cut free, has lots of old scars on his legs from rolling too close to fencing, since he is a total escape artist, after 4 yrs I have yet to decide wether he is an idiot or a genious
 
My mare would learn from just one occassion, my gelding never learns. He regularly gets stuck in fences (not quite as much this year, but regularly from 4-7yrs old), never panics, just stands there until rescued. Last week I left them strimming the drive to the yard and he climbed up a pile of building stone and had to be backed down it. He is a 17h hunter but I'm convinced there is some shetland in there somewhere. Whenever you think he is safely fenced in he finds a new way of getting into trouble.

I too wonder regularly if he is an idiot or clever, I'm swaying towards idiot!
 
Depends entirely on the horse. My black mare does not learn from her mistakes at all! :rolleyes: As she originally injured her back leg back in november (sliced a sizable flap out of the front of her cannon bone which went down to the bone, and a deep cut into her hock), and she was extremely lucky not to damage either her bone or her joint. From the looks of things she seemed to have kicked out by the electric fence and come down on it....

And literally last month (on the morning of my exam:mad:) what does she do...yep kicked out by the fence and dragged it down :eek::rolleyes:. She cut herself in the exact same place as last time (front of cannon bone), fortunately not nearly as deep and didnt require a vet ;)

So in my experience with this mare she does not, but I have come to the conclusion the black mare is as dumb as a box of rocks mind (further evidence is continuously cutting her own back legs with her own feet!) so she may not be a great comparison :p

However, I'd say the spotty one would - although he's too smart to get himself into such ridiculous scrapes! - as he has always been very respectful of any electric fencing, to the point that if you make a similar sound to the electric clicking (like with your finger nails) he will start snorting and backing off away from whatever he thinks might be making the noise. Makes me wonder what has made him be so fearful of electric fencing.
 
I think they do! My mare used to paw all the time and she pawed up over some post and rail when tied up, she ended up getting stuck, breaking it and pulling it down (the posts were rotten) and she did not do it again whilst tied up. The only times I have since seen her do it when tied since are at a show and when waiting for the farrier so longer than usual.

I find it really interesting that horses often know human intervention will get them out of a situation, and are prepared to calm down and let us work around them even when adrenaline is pumping and they are frightened. I found a deer caught in barbed wire once and the poor thing would have torn its own leg off before it let a human near it, thrashing around with its leg completely ruined down to the bone. People were called and it was of course put down, it just kind of highlighted the difference between horses and similar animals, and how far domestication can go to override instincts.

Glad your boy managed to avoid serious injury, he probably thought 'I'll just wait here til she comes and sorts me out!'
 
Yes, and they can learn very young indeed.

I opened a gate and taped off a small section yesterday so a mare and foal could access some fresh grass. The foal got the wrong side of the electric fence and tried to get back through the stock fence, got mildy tangled and was freed. I decided to leave things as they are but keep a close eye.

The foal is now quite happily using the gate and won't go near the fence. I just pop them back and close the gate when I am not there. I don't think the mild shock will do the foal any harm at all except maybe teach her that fences bite!

But learning from one incident depends on how many times they have "got away with it" before. Animals can learn from one incident if they've seldom done that thing before. That is why they (and humans) can become phobic for apparently irrational reasons after one bad experience. Respect for electric tape is a form of phobic reaction.

I've thought about horses trapped in fencing waiting patiently for us to untangle them and wonder if that applies to unbroken or wild horses? By teaching them to lead and tie, don't we teach them not to struggle? Just a thought and not looking for an argument!
 
Horse's are like people in that some are brighter than others! One of my horses will respect an electric fence but always checks if it's on, if it's not, he'll walk straight through it, the other won't go near it on or not! I had a pony that was regularly found the wrong side of the electric fence, i thought she was jumping it but one day I saw her use the protection of her winter rug to push her way under it to get to the best grazing.
 
All our Fell pony learnt from this sort of thing was "If you get stuck in a fence, don't worry, someone will come and cut you out eventually"
 
Hmm, if they are anything like may sister's horse then I would say they do not learn! He has done this numerous times - he once got both front feet in the wire! Thankfully he does not panic but my sister did wonder why he wasn't coming across the field! We have removed most of it now and electric fenced off any left.
 
Taz got his foot stuck in stock fencing while in the field panicked and removed the bulb of his heel, going through 6 arteries and de-nerving his foot. he almost bled to death and was on box rest for 8 months.

And you will never guess what he did again a year later? he did it again! this time he lacerated all across the scarring and punctured his fetlock joint.

3 year later (despite being fenced away from it with electric fencing) he rolled and got all his legs wrapped up in barbed wire and stock fencing, panicked when on the floor, staggered to his feet and took off and removed the majority of his hair and skin from his legs.

3 weeks ago (5 years since the original incident) he was in the field and pawed at the ground and got his foot caught in the electric fencing (which was on) took off and took most of the fencing with him and getting it wrapped around his legs so he was stuck getting zapped until someone went out to check on them (luckily no injuries!)

so unless your horse is an idiot like mine you shouldn't have too much of an issue hopefully!
 
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