Category: Positive Reinforcement Training

Weather can have an adverse effect on our horses, especially when we are training with potentially threatening stimuli. Windy weather causes them to be generally more hypervigilent and therefore ultimately more anxious and reactive as a result of their vision and hearing being less less reliable for detecting potential threats/predators. I often class adverse weather […]

Weather can have an adverse effect on our horses, especially when we are training with potentially threatening stimuli. Windy weather causes them to be generally more hypervigilent and therefore ultimately more anxious and reactive as a result of their vision and hearing being less less reliable for detecting potential threats/predators. I often class adverse weather […]

FREE ARTICLE AND A POWERFUL VIDEO THAT WILL GET YOU REAL RESULTS IN YOUR TRAINING! Let’s begin with a very normal and real scenario – you turn your body towards your horse and look at his hindquarters, you begin to extend your hand out towards his hip whilst looking at them and he yields them […]

WORMING!! That horrid thing that we have to do to our horses at least once a year. It’s often a really unpleasant, aversive experience for them, especially if they have suffered force previously to get the job done. Hardly surprising really given that worming paste tastes pretty awful! Most horses will do their utmost best […]

I place HUGE emphasis and focus on touch acceptance within my programme both inside The Academy as well as in my one to one coaching. Here’s why… Many horses don’t actually enjoy being touched or scratched by humans due to unpleasant or even painful classical associations which have been paired with human touch due to […]

I think one of the most wonderful outcomes of training with appetitives and positive reinforcement is the sense of empowerment it gives the learner. As Dr Susan Friedman explains – control over our environment is a primary reinforcer, and giving the animal control (as we do when using +R) develops their self confidence beyond all imagination – […]

My personal training journey has been expanding into more advanced areas over the last while as my young horse’s education has been developing. One of these areas is what Ken Ramirez, Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer of Karen Pryor Clicker Training, calls ‘Concept Training’. One of these concepts is called ‘Adduction’. Adduction Adduction takes us into the realms of […]

I need to share this excellent article written by my great friend Carolyn Jenkinson! Why…because this is where we should all be aiming to get to with our horses, even if we aren’t there just yet. I personally am very lucky to have my horses in an environment where all their needs are met and they […]

There has been plenty of discussion going on recently in various Facebook groups I am on about the whole concept of the use of physical pressure with horses. Pressure – what is it!? The term pressure isn’t really a very helpful one when we are trying to establish what is driving the horses motivations to perform a […]

When my client originally contacted me for help, and then I consequently met this horse in her home, she was and had been separated from the my client’s other horses for quite some time due to her dangerous behaviours around every possible valuable resource – hay, space, humans etc. She used to kick the other horses, the fencing, run […]