The line between Training and Abuse?

There has been a lot of discussion and debate lately about the Equestrian Olympics, but underneath it all is one big question, "where is the line between training and abuse?"

Ethics is so personal, that line will be different for everyone. Some may say all aversives are evil, some may say so long as you aren't actively beating the horse it's not abuse. The trouble with this question is that it's being judged by humans watching, not the horse, the actual victim. What amount of aversive training is supportive to their learning and where does it become just torture or inescapable suffering? That's not a question for those of us applying the training, its up to the learner.

The problem with negative reinforcement (in planned, contrived, training - not natural settings) is that WE must APPLY the aversive so that we can remove it when we get the desired response. The aversive must also match or outweigh the difficulty of the skill being asked, meaning it's easier for the horse to do the skill than ignore the aversive aid.

We can condition our aversives, using gentler cues which predict stronger aids if the gentle cue isn't responded to appropriately and timely. But this conditioning needs to be maintained. When you reach a high level of skill in ANY discipline, we need enough aversive conditioning for the horse to be willing to do extremely difficult, strenuous, scary, even painful tasks (jumping extreme heights, running high speeds, or highly athletic manuevers). These take a toll on the body and if aversives are our only motivator they need to be strong enough to motivate the very difficult skills. If they aren't the horse will shut down and become dull to the aids, not responsive and light. A light horse is a horse with aids conditioned with strong aversive backup. Which can't be done without some level of what most would consider abuse.

We can achieve the same behavioral goals with R+, which would need to be trained with equally deeply conditioned appetitive history to motivate and train the skills. It would likely take more time because the horse needs to both understand the behavioral goal and build the body conditioning and muscle memory to perform these skills to high levels for any duration. It would also look vastly different to see a joyful horse moving and performing in a sport without heavy restraints and aversive aids, puppeteering them. They would look, what i think most of us are aiming for, light, free, enthusiastic, and inherently engaged in their sport. But we would also never push our horses to such extremes because extremes damage the body. We can condition them to WANT to jump the highest jump they can, but that's when it becomes our job to be the "parent" and say "no, no, that's too dangerous" and choose safe, appropriate goals for our animals.