There are three primary drives in animal behaviour – individual survival, sex, and hunger. When we are talking about comfort or discomfort, we are invoking the survival drive. A horse weighs up life’s choices in terms of survival/danger. The survival drive is stronger than the hunger or sex drives as evidenced by the fact that a horse will deny itself sex or food if it feels in peril. This makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view. Why risk death for a morsel of food or a chance to reproduce if they can be put off for a less risky time?
A horse only understands the concept of comfort because of the concept of discomfort. Discomfort both triggers and taps into the survival drive. The strength to which survival is triggered by discomfort will depend on the horse’s perception of the danger level. Nevertheless, it is the sense of discomfort that motivates a horse to search for new behaviours.
In contrast, experiencing comfort does nothing to drive a new behaviour. Only discomfort evokes new behaviours. Comfort has a null effect. Comfort is the end product of a horse’s avoidance of discomfort. Without discomfort, a horse does not seek or search for comfort. If they did a horse would never stop searching because of the promise that even more comfort may be found if they just tried something new. This would make horses untrainable.
This brings me to question the idea that horses are comfort seekers. Many people (including behaviourists) refer to horses as comfort seekers. But I question if this is true. I actually think they are discomfort avoiders. That may seem like a semantic and insignificant difference, but I believe it is a very important difference and explains a lot about horse behaviour and training.
Maybe one way to highlight the difference is to compare people and horses.
Humans are comfort seekers much more than they are discomfort avoiders. People are always looking for another option or a better deal. They rarely seem happy with what they have and are often on the lookout for better opportunities.
I have known several very rich people in my life. But I never met any who thought they were rich enough or would turn down an opportunity to be even richer, despite having more money than they could spend in their life. They can’t be content with just having enough money to buy the things they want in life. It seems it is human nature and part of all of us. I know if I want to buy a new TV, I not only want with all the bells and whistles I want. I’m not content with a TV that only allows me to watch the shows I want to watch. I want a TV that does everything and has the best picture quality. I’m not content with a good TV. I want the best TV.
Horses are different. Horses just want relief from discomfort. That’s their primary motivator. A horse would be content buying a nice TV at a price they could afford. A horse wouldn’t have to go online to find the cheapest possible price in the entire country.
When I teach a horse he will be free of discomfort if he turns left when I apply a feel to the left rein, he feels contented with turning left. He doesn’t say to himself, “yeah, turning left was okay but I wonder if backed in reverse if I’d feel even better?”. Once he has learned the path to avoid discomfort, he doesn’t search for alternative behaviours just in case one of them is even a better option.
So why do I say all this?
If I am right and horses are discomfort avoiders rather than comfort seekers, it explains how and why a horse can find contentment in training and working. If we train in a way that convinces a horse that going along with our idea avoids discomfort, then we are also training them to feel contented to work with us. On the other hand, if I am wrong and horses are comfort seekers, then they may never be able to feel contented about working with us because they are always looking for more comfort than we can offer - just like the rich person looking for more ways to be richer.
I am not suggesting that horses never seek comfort and only search for ways to avoid discomfort. For example, I suspect a horse’s curiosity is sometimes (but not always) driven by a desire to seek more comfort. However, I believe the drive to avoid discomfort is a much stronger motivator for a horse to search than the drive to seek more comfort. Horses are just happy to stay out of trouble and don’t stress about whether there are better, more comfortable options than the one they already feel okay about.
People argue whether or not a horse can be happy in their work. I have serious doubts about their ability to be happy regarding work as if it were something they would choose to do. However, I do believe horses can feel contented and untroubled by working with us. But it can only come by helping them understand that their idea to avoid discomfort comes about by following our idea to work together.
It looks like my mare, Chops is seeking the comfort of a scratch. But in reality I initiated the scratch, she did not seek it.