Archive for March, 2010

Clicker Taining Principles 3

How to do it

When we clicker train an animal we are using two types of learning. Don’t worry too much about the names but it is important to understand the principles here. Read more »

Clicker Training Principles 2

Clicker training is something that has been around for many years, it is also known as positive reinforcement training, (PRT). This is a more accurate name that describes the basic mechanism. We have three elements here: Positive, this means that PRT works only with positive emotions. Reinforcement this means that behaviors that are reinforced are likely to reoccur and training which implies some form of learning is taking place. Read more »

System Thinking

Systems thinking is something that is very popular in human society and something that simply does not exist in horse society. We humans love to buy into a system when we buy a horse we usually decide somewhere along the line which particular system we are going to put the horse (and ourselves!) through. It might be a very traditional and specific approach such as classical dressage or it might be something more general such as ‘English riding’. It might be a Western system or it might one of the growing number of alternative ‘natural horsemanship’ type systems. Systems are great aren’t they? Just follow the individual steps in the booklets, DVDs or podcasts and hey presto! At the end of the process you have a perfectly trained horse and a perfectly trained rider. Well actually no, that usually is the opposite of what happens. Read more »

Personalities, Horse-analities and Systems

Many of the currently available systems of training horses propose the idea that horses have different personalities, or ‘horse-analities’, if you prefer. (Ho-Ho-Ho) In general this is a good thing as it helps people understand their horses as individuals. You may have heard terms such as: left brain or right brain, dominant or submissive, leaders or followers, introvert and extrovert or even in some of the more elaborate systems, terms such as, ‘the minister’ or ‘the unicorn’. Read more »

Who is really training your horse?

Horse training 24/7

One of my horses is a thoroughbred chestnut gelding who is socially low-ranking within the herd. I have a problem with him, and the problem is:

All the other horses in the herd keep training him to move his feet! Read more »

Anthropomorphic Addiction

This article is about addiction. But please don’t be put off. It is about one of the most common addictions in the world, an addiction suffered by probably 99% of all people that work with animals and certainly, almost everyone who doesn’t. Like all addictions it is very powerful (addictive) because it is very rewarding – and sadly, like all addictions, it is very damaging not only to ourselves, but also to those around us. This addiction costs us billions every year, globally it has spawned multi-billion dollar industries to feed our passions, on a personal level, it frequently consumes all our time, our relationships and our resources. Our passion and fascination with this addiction can last a lifetime and many of us are prepared to devote our lives to the pursuit of the pleasure that it gives us. Read more »