Is Touch Rewarding?

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The keyword in the title of this post is ‘rewarding’, and what that really means is, if something is rewarding, it leads to an emotional reward or as a behaviourist would put it an emotional reinforcement. So what sort of things reward horses? Read more »

How positive reinforcement training works

And why it works so well…

I believe positive reinforcement, and training methods based on it’s principles, are the next stage in the evolution of the long relationship between horses and humans. Here are the reasons why I make this claim… Read more »

Positive side-effects of brushing a horses mane

This is a quickie post just to show you the power of positive reinforcement and how you can use it every day in simple ways so that both you and your horse get what they want. Read more »

Compliance or Learning to be Helpless

This post deals with the third reaction to coercion in the form of negative reinforcement and positive punishment (threats and increasing pressure), it also deals with coercion in the form of negative punishment, where something positive, usually a ‘freedom’ is taken away. Different causes but the reaction to these coercive methods is always the same. There are many names for this reaction, such as freeze, learned helplessness or, as I put it, compliance. Read more »

Another Confusing Parelli Day

Impressions of Parelli

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I found myself watching a demonstration of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. The clinic was being given by a Parelli five star instructor who was in the middle of a tour of Europe, and had probably got to the stage of jet-lag and fatigue where he was forgetting which country he was in, but nevertheless, he came across, (as is so often the case), as a thoroughly nice human being. He had that understated, unassuming energy that is sometimes called calm-assertive, that all animal people have, a quiet, confident authority around animals and situations. The students also, seemed perfectly pleasant and several of them had brought along their horses who I’m sure were all very nice equines. So all was set up for a thoroughly enjoyable experience, a great opportunity for learning and progress, but unfortunately that was not the impression I eventually left with. Read more »

Are my horses pets?

Are my horses pets?

To answer this interesting question, the first thing we need to define is what makes an animal a ‘pet’. I have read many books on the subject of the relationship between humans and the animals we keep as pets, but I’ve never yet found a satisfactory definition of what actually makes an animal a pet. So to get a handle on this idea, perhaps we should turn things around and first look at what defines an animal as not being a pet. Read more »

The Laws of Behaviour Part Two

In the last post I introduced the idea of the four laws of behaviour, so one question we might ask is which ones work best? Well there is a small problem:

They all work! Read more »

The Four Laws of Behaviour

Did you know there are only four ways to train a horse? Actually what I am about to explain goes way beyond training your horse because in this post I am going to explain four universal laws.

I call them the four laws of behaviour. Read more »

The Principles of Natural Horse Keeping, part two

Principle #1.

Our management of the horse  must always create good-health and well-being in the herd.

This is the most fundamental principle on which we base our thinking about the horse. Every thing we do with our horse should stem from this principle, it makes sense on every level. Good-health and well-being should be more than just a principle, it should be a right of all horses. Read more »

Seven principles of Natural Horse Keeping

Seven Principles of Natural Horse Keeping

Principle #1.

Our management of the horse  must always create good-health and well-being in the herd.

Principle #2. We base or relationship on the Natural Behaviour of the horse. That means: Life in a herd, a life full of natural movement, a diet that closely relates to the natural fibre-based diet. Read more »