Social Learning

Brandy learned to put her foot on the tank by watching me

Social Learning is the ability to learn by observing and then imitating someone else. Researchers used to claim that horses lacked the cognitive ability to do this, but recent studies proved them wrong. The key element seems to be that the observer must know and trust the demonstrator. I think Brandy learned to put her foot on the stock tank by watching me use it as a mounting block, and she learned to duck under her stall guard by watching me. Facebook comments on this post indicated that many people have observed Social Learning, and some use it purposefully. A few simple ways to make use of it:
1. Let younger horses observe more experienced horses in training sessions.
2. Enlist experienced horses to demonstrate new skills for less experienced ones.
3. Demonstrate yourself what you want the horse to do, being sure that you are projecting a positive emotion in the process.
For an in-depth article with additional references see Social Learning

References and Resources:
Konstanze Krüger, Kate Farmer, & Jurgen Heinze, “The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses,” Animal Cognition, May 2014 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-013-0696-x
What Horses Really Want by Lynn Acton (Chapters 16-18)
Do As I Do: Using Social Learning to Train Dogs by Claudia Fugazza