Can you teach your frustrated horse, that is mugging, dancing, sniffing your pockets and offering all his latest trick to be calm and confident in training? Yes, and here’s how!
HippoLogic’s R+ Horse Training system contains 12 Keys to Success: 6 Key Lessons for Horses (Key Lesson PATIENCE is one of them) and 6 Keys to Success for Trainers that help you give your horse Clarity, Consistency and Confidence in your own clicker training skills.
Can your teach a horse to be calm and relaxed with Clicker Training?
It’s debatable in the R+ training world, but since I’ve taught many horses to relax I believe it’s possible!
In this video you see Fionn who transformed from a very eager but frustrated horse into a calm and relaxed horse. The “AFTER” is not the end result yet! 😉 He’s already better than in the video.
Behaviour in Horse Training
Behaviour is always changing and the horse will always do what’s best for him: is mugging while standing reinforced? He’ll choose the mugging every day, just to see if it works! Even when it doesn’t he won’t give up!
When you’ve already taught him incompatible behaviour with mugging, and something that is DESIREABLE, you both will benefit in all your future training. The “non-mugging” behaviour (keep head straight and away from your pockets) will be default in your next behaviour, for instance Stand & Relax.
Benefits of Key Lesson Patience (Stand & Relax)
Your horse get Clarity! He’ll know what is expected from him and what behaviours are reinforced (if you do it right 😉 ). You’re building confidence in your horse and Key Lesson Patience is an EXCELLENT default behaviour:
Safe behaviour/increases safety
Helps teaching your horse to be calm and wait for cues
It’s the best default behaviour!
Start laying the foundation of a two-way communication with your horse
Foundation of ground tying
Helps with mat training
Safe behaviour for mounting
Safe behaviour for when the vet comes
Safe foundation for husbandry skills: deworming, eye care, mouth inspection, taking temperature
Grooming
Tacking/saddling your horse
Incompatible with/Solves
Pawing
Wandering off
Starting to graze
Ignoring you
Pushing you
Fidgeting with his head
Dancing around you
Backing up
Flipping his head
Trying to face you (a common behaviour that takes all pressure away in NH)
Stressed/tense
Mugging for treats with tricks like kissing faces
Pinned ears, nipping
Aggressive behaviour
When your horse is showing aggressive behaviours, take away the cause first! Aggression is often coming from anger or fear! Do not try to stick “calm and standing still and relax” on top of frustration, anger, fear. It will backfire! Listen to your horse, figure out what he’s worried about and work on that issue first.
Once you solve the reason for his anger, fear, frustration that leads to aggression everything else becomes much safer and easier to train! When your horse shows aggression, ask help from a professional!
Do not punish your horse for aggressive behaviours because that will make it worse. Yes, you can defend yourself if necessary, and I hope you never have to! Beware you won’t get into ‘a spiral of aggression’ with your horse.
Work on Basics first, to offer your Horse Clarity in Training
All Key Lessons for Horses are foundational behaviours in Clicker Training that will help you train save, strong basic behaviours that will then automatically be ingrained in all future behaviours.
Take the time to teach your horse these 6 basic behaviours in positive reinforcement horse training:
2 Patience: Stand & Relax, waiting calmly and confidently for your next cue. Increases safely and reduces frustration. Keep your horse in Learning Mode
3 Targeting: the most versatile behaviour that help you train almost ANY behaviour!
4 Mat training: basically targeting the feet, offers so much clarity for your horse
5 Head lowering: can help calm your horse down, increases safety and helps your horse to encourage exploration behaviour
6 Backing: super important for safety reasons, makes going though gates and unloading horses easy and effortlessly.
In the next blog more about how YOU can improve your clicker training skills, stay tuned. If you don’t want to miss it: simply subscribe to my blog with the button in the side bar!
Are you teaching yourself to clicker train your horse? Are you outgrowing the trick training phase (which is super fun and a great way to lay the foundation of a two-way communication with your horse) and now you want more?
Your interest in positive reinforcement horse training is spiked and you would love to do everything you do now, but then using clicker training? This is for you!
Become a Confident Clicker Trainer
When you want to do more with positive reinforcement and feel confident training your own horse, this is the course for you! The Confident Clicker Trainer course is a high quality, online training program that you can do yourself. You’ll become automatically confident in your skills when you get predictable results. This course is aimed at novice and advanced clicker trainers who want to make their foundation really, really strong so that they can train everything else you want, faster and easier.
Enjoy Your Horse More
When you implement more positive reinforcement in your training and daily interactions with your horse, you ‘ll develop a strong bond. You’ll enhance the communication and built mutual trust and understanding. Clicker Training is so much more than a training method!
Happy Horse training! You are the trainer!
Sandra Poppema, BSc Founder of HippoLogic and creator of the Confident Clicker Trainer course
This is such a great question! I understand where it’s coming from and I was glad she asked.
The answer is ‘No’. Don’t mix R- (negative reinforcement) or P (punishment) with R+ (positive reinforcement) inGrass Training. You want to keep Grass Training 100% positive reinforcement if you want predictable and solid results that last.
>> ‘It’s Autumn here and almost Winter, can I start Grass Training’?
wanted an Australian clicker trainer know. Yes, and Winter is actually the best time to start!
Why? Because the grass you’re competing with (over your horse’s attention) is not as enticing as super lush, sweet Spring grass.
You can start lying the fundamentals now of this important training and you’ll reap the fruits when you need them! In the course I will teach you how you can setup your Grass Training without grass.
>> ‘My horse is overweight (has EMS) and is on a strict diet and can’t have grass. Is this training for us’?,
Yes, and it’s actually the best course for your horse! In Grass Training you train your horse to ignore grass (and you’ll be more interesting!) and teach your horse a Stop Grazing cue with positive reinforcement, so thatyour horse will choose NOT to graze.
Especially when your horse has EMS or is overweight you get into endless tugs of war with your horse over grass, right? What if that stops? What if your horse will ignore grass by choice? Wouldn’t that make everything more fun? It was for me!
Why R+ actually works so well and all other details, I explain in the course. I also teach you how to setup your Grass Training without grass! Learn more
What can I expect from the HippoLogic Grass Training course?
After this course if you follow the step-by-step instructions your horse knows Stop Grazing and Start Grazing-cues. You’ll understand why everything you’ve tried before didn’t work and what you need to do instead in order to get predictable, positive and long lasting results.
The aim of this course is to teach you how you can train your own horse so that you can enjoy your horse more when you trail ride or have to lead him near or over grass without getting into a tug-of-war.
What is included? Step-by-step instruction videos Written instructions Detailed Shaping Plan ‘Grass Training’ Practical printouts that will make training easy
What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement methods. Can you use them both? Mix them? Why does it matter to you or your horse, if you use negative or positive reinforcement? How does it effect the relationship with your horse?
Difference between R+ and R-
Positive reinforcement (R+) is adding something the learner wants (appetitive), so the behaviour strengthens and will occur more often
Negative reinforcement (R-) is subtracting/taking away (aversive), something the learner wants to avoid, and therefor will strengthen the behaviour
In R+ we can only add the appetitive (the thing the learner WANTS to have/get) AFTER the behaviour occurred. We need to set our horse up for success, and that takes preparation and effort from the trainers’ side. We need to understand our learner!
In R- we can only take away an aversive (something the learner wants to AVOID) away, after WE (the trainer!) applied it (!)
In R- the animal doesn’t get much choice (or none): he has to do it, otherwise the consequence is that the trainer will apply another or an escalating aversive until the behaviour occurs
In R+ (if done right) the animal has (at least more than two) choices to earn the appetitive
How to tell the difference between R+ and R-
What makes an appetitive an appetitive and an aversive an aversive?
It depends…
It depends how the receiverit experiences.
Negative reinforcement (R-)
Negative reinforcement is often called Pressure-Release method, because the pressure is often used and escalates until it becomes aversive enough, for the animal to take an action to avoid it.
Some people therefor think that all pressure is aversive and should be avoided. I used to think that, until I started to understand the learning quadrant (see below).
Except there is more to it, than ‘pressure is aversive and should be avoided’. Examples of non-aversive pressure are: rubbing, massaging, acupressure, allogrooming, some play behaviours. Also tactile cues trained with positive reinforcement and added after the behaviour was learned can be very appetitive. This is how you can train rein cues, without using any aversives or pressure-release.
What about Mixing R- and R+
I think the brain makes a decision on either the aversive OR the appetitive. If you use both (pressure-release and then a click on top with a treat), the learner still reacted to the aversive in the pressure release. I’ve also see that it creates huge problems for the horse: he wants the appetitive, but it’s now associated with the aversive. Mixed emotions… You want that piece of cake, but you have a cavity that is painful… Something good, is now associated with something you want to avoid. A confused horse is not a safe horse!
Choice and Control for your Horse
What if… choice and control are HUGE appetitives for the learner?
I believe they are! In traditional training the learner (animal) has no choice or control over the environment, including the trainer. I’ve seen so many times that the focus of the horse when starting to use positive reinforcement training, switches from the treat, to the learning itself and to the decision making part/control over his environment.
When rehabilitating horses and other animals at the SPCA I’ve seen it over and over again: my 5-15 minutes a week clicker training each horse, had enormous positive ripple effects the rest of the week and with other people too! Something I never seen with R- training!
What’s the learner’s decision based on: Avoidance or Gain?
I don’t think we can effectively mix R- and R+ in training a new behaviour and gain trust of our horse at the same time.
First of all, when we mix the negative reinforcement always comes first! If the behaviour is offered by the horse by choice and own initiative you should already have reinforced it with an appetitive. Then you can’t apply negative reinforcement any more…
So mixing means: Aversive first, then Appetitive. Secondly, when the horse already reacted to the aversive (R-), in my opinion the treat on top didn’t make the horse do it. It was the aversive!
I think that we can hugely confuse horses to mix R- and R+ when we train a new behaviour! It’s sometimes difficult enough to train traditionally trained horses with positive reinforcement, since they are afraid to show initiative, make their own choices and take control back over their body and environment.
What you focus on, grows
I’ve tried (in the beginning of using positive reinforcement) to mix R- and R+. You get really confused quickly, because the expectations of a horse saying “No” are so contradictive in training.
A ‘No’ in Natural Horsemanship training
When a horse says ‘No’ or refuses to offer the behaviour (maybe he simply doesn’t understand what he’s suppose to do), the go-to reaction of the trainer is: apply more pressure (increase aversive). Manipulate the horse into the behaviour.
A ‘No’ in Clicker Training
When a horse say’s ‘No’ or refuses to offer the behaviour (maybe he simply doesn’t understand what he’s suppose to do), the go-to reaction of the trainer is: explore why the horse says ‘No’ so he can serve the horse better! She then can change the question by changing the setup (antecedent arrangement). In other words: manipulate the environment, so that the answer becomes easier for the horse to do.
Doing both
In an attempt to make things even more clear to my first pony Sholto (my guinea pig for clicker training) and used R- and R+, I thought I could make it easier for him. By offering more boundaries (aversives) to make it easier to ‘choose’ the right behaviour. I think it was confusing for both of us!
Also, I couldn’t receive and react to my horse’s No’s in a clear way. The NH way didn’t accept it, and listening to my horse would make me feel like a failure (lot’s of traditional voices in my head, like “Don’t let him get away with it!”).
In short: for me mixing R- and R+ in training new behaviours was short lasted.
I think Sholto was happy, too that I started to focus on one thing and he could started to trust me on that.
Bond with your Horse in Training
In my 30+ years of experience and training hundreds of people, I see that clicker training does a much better job bonding with your horse than NH.
In Natural Horsemanship your horse does it to avoid negative consequences and in Clicker Training your horse does it because he’s understood, listened to and the massive value of having a choice and control (over his environment and his own body!) helps your bond.
I never gained “Partnership” or “Harmony” using R-, but using R+ it was clear that I developed a clear two-way communication built on mutual understanding, mutual trust and love! That’s why I have a horse! To bond with! That’s important to me. I’ve also discovered that the more focus you put on the R of RELATIONSHIP the R of RESULTS will follow!
Happy Horse training! You are the trainer!
Sandra
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
This important foundation behaviour is often skipped in training because we assume our horse can already do this. We often forget to spent a little time on this behaviour when we start clicker training our horses. Spanish walk, picking up items or lying down are so much more exciting to train, right? I get it! I started with the Spanish Walk after teaching to target a skippy ball. It got me in trouble and that’s what I don’t want for you.
Standing Still is Easy
Somewhere along the line we’ve picked up on the myth that that horses can do this…or have been trained to do so. Then when they don’t we get mad, impatient or annoyed. Can you imagine what the horse must feel when the handler (in the horse’s experience) “suddenly” yanks the lead rope- or worse the rein to make him stop moving?
Let’s see how we can avoid this! First let’s assume our horses don’t know to Stand and Stay. Then we’ll look at how long they would stand if we would ask them to or if we stand still, if they would stay with us, or wander off.
Key Lesson #2 in HippoLogic Clicker Training: Patience
In the HippoLogic R+ Training system Standing and Relaxing is covered in Key Lesson #2 Patience. It’s my favorite default behaviour, it can help calm your horse down, you can teach your horse to use this behaviour to communicate consent or ask for Patience before he’ll receive any other cue.
In my system Key Lesson Patience is when your horse lines up with you (shoulder to shoulder) and knows how to relax. That relaxation is then easier to ask in other behaviours too. Therefor this is a foundation behaviour, which in the HippoLogic system is called a Key Lesson: your Key to Success in Clicker Training.
Baseline Behaviour
This is what we call the ‘baseline’: how long can your horse stand and how does he stand? With ‘how’ I mean: does he become mouthy, pushy, does he gets impatient. Start pawing or walks away (at liberty) or walk around you (on a lead rope)?
Start Training
When we know where our horse is at, in huis education we can start in the proper way. If your horse stands for longer than 30 seconds, you can start with building duration. If your horse can stand for 2 seconds before he moves, I would start with teaching your horse to relax first.
Before and After
Fionn was not relaxed at all at first. This is a snippet of how he used to be: fidgeting with his head, offering Key Lesson Table Manners (non-mugging behaviours, like looking away) in order to get my attention and treats.
It got him overly excited! And this is to be expected with some horses when you start clicker training. Other horses are just not like that and are perfectly fine from the beginning.
BY teaching your horse to wait patiently and to relax,e ven when you have treats and are training, it decreases frustration (and potentially anger issues/ aggression later on in training) and increases the two-way communication and mutual understanding between you and your horse. Watch the video and see how close Fionn is to get overly frustrated…
Useful Training Tools
For some horses and some trainers it really helps to create a visual or physical space to start training this behaviour. Horses learn in ‘context’ and when we set up our learning space the same way every time, our horse will start anticipating with his behaviour when he recognizes the set up. This will make it so much easier for your horse to understand!
2 Parallel poles on the ground to mark the designated area to stand
A square made out of poles
A specific area in the arena (for example X)
A cone to stand next to (only if they haven’t learned to target it)
Training Tools to teach Key Lesson Patience
Once your horse understands what to do (Stand and Relax), in that specific training area you created, you can raise your criteria and fade out your training tools. You can ask for longer duration, more relaxation, ask for this behaviour without the training tools (mat, cone, space in which you taught the behaviour) but in the same place, ask the behaviour in other places/circumstances (‘the ‘context shift’), you can add a cue and so on. Until your horse can do this anytime, anywhere and for a decent amount of time!
Train this with me
In my free March Masterclass (March 3rd, 2024) I’ll be talking about Key Lesson Patience in depth.
Clicker training can be all about the details. For instance when you’re gentling a Mustang, or working with a rescue horse with trauma it can feel like you’re making only little progress. Here’s how you can shift that!
Change your Expectations!
First you have to realize that every step towards your goal is moving in the right direction! If you would move in the opposite direction you’ll never reach your goal.
We often forget this simple fact and it makes us feel as if we have not accomplished much!
Know what’s Important for your Horse
Knowing what your horse thinks and how he feels about you and your training is important. When we see a wild horse relax in our proximity, that is HUGE progress! Maybe not for the people in your environment, for you and for your horse it is!
Without relaxation your horse cannot be in ‘Learning Mode’. If your horse is in flight of fight mode, he’s not open to learning! Your horse needs to Trust you, needs to have a certain level of Relaxation and needs to Experience that he has Choices. That he can influence Training! That’s important! If you see any progress towards these goals, it’s a WIN!
Here’s how to Stay Motivated when your not making Progress
When you keep a Training Journal, and keep Track of your Progress in Training, it’s easier to stay motivated in times you feel that you’re not making progress. You can read back and see what you have accomplished! That often gets you motivated again!
Having a coach that can remind you of where you started and what you’ve accomplished with your horse so far is also really helpful. We often downplay our own accomplishments, where an outsider can see the real change you’ve made for your horse!
Make a Win List
Making a Win List is a simple training tool to keep you motivated and to keep track of your accomplishments in training. It’s very simple to do and a lot of fun.
Make a list of all your Wins in training, add the date and that’s it! You can add fun things like making photos or short videos of all training accomplishments can make it even more fun. When I was in the process of gentling my former wild horse, I made photos each months of all my accomplishments: not interesting for outsiders (a picture of me haltering Kyra, or lifting her leg to clean her feet) but HUGE accomplishments for us, knowing she was over threshold 24/7 at first! Approaching her was a problem, so can you imagine having her put her head in her halter herself, is a big one!
Start Your Win List this year!
Try to keep a win list for one year so you can see how much progress you’re actually making! Maybe you’re not making a big change with 2 days of training, 20 days or 200 days will help you see that you are making progress!
Here is another fun thing if you don’t make a win list: a Jar of Success! Also a very fun thing to do!
Download my Win List
Here is what I do, I put all my Wins in one spot! I hang it somewhere where I read it often!
When I got my first wild horse and didn’t know if I could tame and train a wild horse, I started making a Win list. I also photographed all trained behaviours and the first two years I made a photo album of all accomplishments! This kept me going, even during times I felt desperation and felt I didn’t make any progress!
It helped my realize that success is not a straight line: it’s more a wavey line with up and downs. And even with times of plateauing! It’s all part of the normal learning process. Tools like a Win list keep you going!
More resources
I have more tools to help you in your Clicker Training Journey: Search my blog for 6 Keys to Success for Trainers or 6 Key Lessons for Trainers.
Happy Horse Training! You are a trainer, you can do this!
Are you confused about these terms? Do you not use clicker training, but you do use positive reinforcement?
What is Clicker Training for Horses
The term “clicker” training stems from the hand-held device that makes a click sound when pressed. Trainers use it to mark a desired behaviour of their horse. The click is then followed by an appetitive reinforcer. Appetitive is per definitions something the learner values and wants to have (and is willing to work for).
The “clicker” is often made out of plastic with a metal plate in it that makes the “click” sound when pressed and pops back into shape.
What is Positive Reinforcement (R+) training for horses?
Positive reinforcement is giving the learner an appetitive when (or shortly after) a desired behaviour is offered.
Positive reinforcement means “strengthening a behaviour by adding an appetitive”. The way positive reinforcement training is used best is to use a “marker” signal that pinpoints the exact desired behaviour. It gives the animal more clarity and he learns quickly to pay attention to the marker signal.
Appetitives don’t have to be food, but food is the easiest to work with and horses eat 16 hours and day and therefor almost always interested in eating.
If your horse likes scratches or something else, you absolutely can use that in training, too. As long as it strengthens the desired behaviour.
Marker signal pinpoints the desired behaviour
The marker does *not have to be* a click, it can be a word, a light signal, a tactile signal, even a body language cue (which happens if people “pre load” and are taking a treat in their hand before they mark desired behaviour. Whenever the hand is in the pocket, horses anticipate on it and now expect a treat. This mistake can cause mugging and frustration due to unclear communication).
As long as it’s clear, always the same and a unique short sound so the horse doesn’t have to reason ”was this a marker or not”?. A word can sound different according to your emotions (very happy or barely satisfied with the result). A clicker always sounds the same. I find that an advantage. Another advantage is that it can communicate over great distances!
Clicker training is Positive Reinforcement, but not necessarily the other way around
Clicker Training IS Positive Reinforcement training in my (personal) ‘book’, but Positive Reinforcement doesn’t necessarily have to involve a clicker. I used these terms interchangeably. I like the way “clicker training” sounds and it has a happy colour!.
Using a marker signal does creates clarity for the learner and enhances two-way communication in training, which leads to faster results. Therefor I recommend using a marker when training a new behaviour!
Sandra Poppema, BSc Founder of HippoLogic Enhancing Horse-Human connections through clicker training
Are you in doubt to start your own horse under saddle? I believe you can do it. You know your horse best. By starting your own horse you can do it exactly the way you want.
Struggling Finding a R+ Pro to Start Your Horse?
It’s still very challenging (if not impossible) for most of us to find a professional R+ horse trainer in your area that can start your horse with positive reinforcement. That’s a dilemma most of us face.
When I started my first horse with clicker training it was also because I couldn’t find anyone else. It turned out fine! I didn’t do it all by myself! I had a mentor and an accountability partner (a dear friend who was also a clicker trainer) to keep me on track and to guide to trough the steps and helped me find solutions when I got stuck.
Kyra became super responsive to the lightest cues and also willing to ride. You know you can FEEL when a horse loves to ride and when horses hate it! 😉
Starting your Horse
Starting a horse under saddle starts on the ground. That’s by far the easiest way to go: building confidence and offering clarity so that the transition to the saddle will be smooth.
Positive Reinforcement Groundwork
In the video you’ll find a snippet from my training with Fionn, my mini horse.
Fionn knows already lots of behaviours at liberty. In this video you can see how I’m teaching rein aids without pressure-release.
I use Key Lesson #3: Targeting to help Fionn understand what it is I want and what he has tp pay attention to.
The HippoLogic R+ Training method is a clear, complete and easy R+ horse training system that consist of 6 Key Lessons for Horses and 6 Keys to Success for Trainers. The system guides you through each step of training behaviours.
Teaching Reins Aids with Positive Reinforcement
Key Lesson Targeting helps Fionn understand that he needs to bend his neck. Once he knows the cue for ‘look to the left’ and ‘look to the right’ standing still, I change the context.
The next step is to ask to pay attention to the cue in walk. Where his head goes, his body will follow. Now you I can steer him in any direction.
Teaching rein aids with R+
Questions Clicker Training your Horse?
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to my complete R+ Horse Training Method and our fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
2024, The Year of R+ Movement Training
Starting your horse under saddle, teaching him to ground drive or starting him with ground dressage like the classical Long Rein or In Hand Work takes time. Therefor I offer one year of support. There are only 60 spaces in the year program, which offers your weekly Clicker Coaching Group sessions, tailored feedback on your training videos, personal guidance in our group and access to the complete HippoLogic R+ Training System.
Not sure? Start with a free clicker training assessment to get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me. In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
This week in the Academy we are working on creating a personal Training Plan for our horses, tailored to our personal goals.
Training Plan is one of the 6 Success Keys for Trainers. With a Training Plan, you’ve always something to fall back on. It’s a valuable training tool towards your dream!
What’s the next Behaviour you want to Train?
What’s one goal that you have for your horse?
Here is the thing: 🥳We have a plan, a goal something we’re really excited about. 🤩We start, we’re enthusiastic about it, convinced that we’ll make it to our goal! Then… 😎Life happens
🥵We get distracted and never get back to our goal, the behaviours we were convinced we would train successfully…
3 Benefits of having a Training Plan written down
With a Training Plan in hand, we get back on track quicker when ‘life happens’!
We can figure out our exact roadblocks.
We can discover patterns. What distracted us and steered us off our course? Maybe you don’t know how to build duration, train a criteria as distance (for at liberty movement training) or don’t know how to put behaviours on cue and offer our horse Clarity. When that happens, we often stop with that behaviour and move on to the next (“Shiny Behaviour Syndrome” LOL), simply because we don’t even realize we don’t have actual cues and we don’t have behaviours under stimulus control.
Make a Training Plan that works
When we then come across our Training Plan, we quickly can focus on our goals again. Therefor it’s a good idea to keep your Training Plan, which is a vision board for your horse in a place you’ll see it daily.
The second thing that helps use this valuable training tool is to schedule in a time to evaluate your plan and advancements and to see if you’re still on track. What we focus on, grows! Let’s focus on the good things, and work our way towards our goals little by little. That’s what we do in the Academy working consistently towards our own goals. In a group we have accountability and get many reminders to stay on track!
Consistency is Key.
Have you ever made a Training Plan for your Horse?
Would you like to have a Training Plan? Join the HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy and deepen your training skills in a supportive environment. Join us here for a full year or click here when you’re not sure and prefer a monthly membership. Members get 4 LIVE Zoom coaching calls per month and coaching on HippoLogic courses!
Happy Horse training! Sandra Poppema, B.Sc., founder of HippoLogic
Are you inspired and interested in personal coaching in a group or do you want to have access to online clicker training resources and a fabulous, supportive R+ community, then join our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy today!
Welcome to a new world of training, communicating with your horse and cultivating friendship in training.
When you want to become successful in a (any) new skill, this is what I recommend as being a coach for the last few decades.
#1 Learning a new skills asks for a Teacher
Find a coach. Preferably 1 (one) coach/approach!
Why am I mentioning this? When you seek out multiple teachers/coaches you’ll get very confused as your knowledge is not yet that deep and you won’t recognize that they might all talk about the same thing (clarity for the horse). Chances are you’ll get confused: “But the other coach recommended [A} and you’re recommending [B]” They are both letters in the alfabet, you both need them to communicate. Maybe the order of teaching your horse things matter. As a beginner you don’t know this. 😉
When you’re looking for free information, books, videos, blogs, an online course, I would recommend: follow and apply 1 coach/approach (with a bit of a risk of implementing it wrong and confusing yourself and your horse since this is a one way street. No one evers learns to ride a horse from reading a book)
A like-minded, critical friend who wants to learn this as well can also be a good start. By discussing what you learn, asking critical questions (5 times WHY is a good technique) and following your gut. heart
#2 Basics first! HippoLogic Key Lessons in Clicker Training
Start simple! Basics first.
It’s enticing to go after your dream behaviours first (just like in riding you might dream of trail riding or winning competitions), but setting yourself and your horse up for success is by starting practising the basics.
I always start with teaching horse and trainer (owner) the 6 Key Lessons for Horses, your Keys to Success in Clicker Training. I also teach 6 Keys to Success for TRAINERS. Skills that makes you a success.
Like keeping track of your training so that you can find what you’re doing well (and do more of that) and things that led to undesired behaviours/results and changes those.
Start with the most important basic behaviours:
Key Lesson Table Manners: teaching your horse safe behaviour around food and treats in training.
Key Lesson Patience: teaching your horse to wait for your cues and >>Relax<<. Many horses get really, really excited when they discover there is food involved! See Key Lesson #1
Key Lesson Targeting. In targeting you teach your horse to touch a specific object (target) with a specific body part (usually the nose). With targeting you have a super simple exercise that will become very valuable in training almost all future behaviour.
Key Lesson Mat Training. This is targeting for the feet. You teach your horse to step onto a mat. Then you can teach ‘stay’ (ground tying), go over to the other mat (sending your horse away from you and your treats without chasing him off, creating more space between you and your horse to increase safety and so on)
Key Lesson Head lowering. This is important for tall horses and teaching them to self halter and put their heads into the nose band themselves. Also for medical issues like eye, ear, nose checks etc. Head lowering can also help calm a freaked out horse down and helps you determine how high his anxiety is (they won’t lower their heads and it’s feedback, you can ask for Key Lesson Patience)
Key Lesson Backing. This can increase safety (they can’t mug if they can’t reach your pocket, which ties into Key Lesson Table Manners), it can also help making your horse more athletic, or back out a trailer safely.
The Key Lessons for Horses are like LEGO blocks: you can train all future behaviours with these foundation behaviours. You can teach your horse to be brave and calm around new objects (Key Lesson Targeting, Patience, Head Lowering) and make him bomb proof for trail rides. A coach can see the whole road (And alternative routes too), where a student sees the destination (end goal)
Then I teach 6 skills for Trainers, it will be a bit too much for here and I don’t want to overwhelm you.
#3 Clarity for you and your horse
Make sure your horse understands what is happening and what he can expect: having a clear “start clicker training ( meaning: food involved!🥳🥳🥳) session”- signal and a clear “End of clicker training session”-signal (no more treats after this signal🛑) Is one of the most important communication you can give your horse.
Most horses become (overly) excited that they finally get something they value and they don’t want you to stop! There is food involved! (As you know they eat up to 16 hours a day, so they don’t get easily satisfied by just the food)
One tip that will help with Clarity is to start clicker training only in 1 specific place until the basics and the start/end signal are learned. That way, if things do go sideways, you can simply avoid that training spot until you found a solution/support to overcome that specific issue.
It helps you keep doing the other things/ training techniques ‘pure’ that you already have going. Riding in the traditional way is based on negative reinforcement (pressure-release) and by not bringing clicker training (positive reinforcement and food) into the context of riding you can still keep riding like always, without your horse mugging for treat under saddle.
#4 Consistency
Make sure you train consistently one behaviour before training another new thing, and another. When you notice this happens, you probably have a hole in your training, you get stuck (but don’t realize it) and therefor you go to the next thing/behaviour.
The “Shiny Behaviour (Object) Syndrome” is also a tempting pitfall: you’re working on mastering the basics and you see someone else working on lying down, Spanish walk or something else that excites you. You want to try that, forget your basics and will get stuck. The same with riding, when a rider isn’t able to control the horses speed, or the placement of the back feet under the mass, asking the horse for a piaffe will fail. None likes to feel like that
Knowing that you will encounter this temptation, will help you resist until you and your horse master the basics and you have improved your chances to be successful at that dream behaviour!
#5 Follow your Instincts and Listen to your Gut
I’ve found that many horse owners do know their horse best. When they have the slightest feeling their horse doesn’t like something or gets frustrated, they usually are right!
Trust your feelings!
Many of us are programmed to ignore those feelings. We’ve been told “the horse doesn’t mean it” or” he won’t bite” when he’s flattening his ears or is girth sour. Horse’s are never ‘acting’ (that’s more a human thing) Know your species!🐴
Training hundreds of horses and hundreds of horse people, taught me that the quickest and safest way to success is: Master The Basics First!
Bonus Tip
Find your new tribe! Before clicker training your horse, you belonged to the tribe of traditional horse people or the tribe of Natural Horsemanship people. When you slowly but surely change your ways, you won’t (fully) belong to that tribe anymore.
Start looking around for your new tribe: with other clicker trainers, people who understand that you can train your horse safely (!) with food and gentle ways, without having to dominate or coerce your horse into behaviours.
Happy Horse training! Sandra
New to Clicker Training?
Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse. No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.
You’ll get:
My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
Many people struggle with having enough time to exercise their horses. I’have a Facebook support group for Overweight Horses and many people told me that time is their biggest struggle. Also in my other FB group (HippoLogic Clicker Training Horses) people struggle with a lack of time. It’s a common struggle for people and the struggle is real!
Step 1: What is the real problem?
As a clicker coach I notice that everyone has the same amount of time (24 hours in a day), yet some people feel they have never enough.
Therefor I don’t ‘time’ is the real problem: everyone has it, but it’s how we prioritize our tasks Or do we have enough clarity about what we can do in a certain amount of time? When we have clarity about the steps we need to take, we often also have a better idea of time.
Are you dedicating much of your time to other people’s priorities (e.g. doing chores at the barn and doing them better than anyone else)?
Sometimes horse people use ‘time’ when they are at a dead point (plateau) in their training… When you’re stuck and don’t get the results you want, your brain can take over and steer you in another direction: “This (other thing) is really important!” , so you won’t be confronted with the issue of feeling like a failure (your brain hates that and is trying to avoid that at all costs. So instead of solving the problem, your brains solves it by redirecting your attention).
Have you ever come home from the barn, only to realize that you’ve been chatting the whole time or doing chores instead of the reason you came to the barn (enjoying and interacting with your horse)?
When you are stuck about getting more forward movement or better quality movement (your horse needs to carry himself more) and you don’t know ‘how’ to do this with positive reinforcement, it can happen that you get distracted.
I struggled many years with consistently scheduling to exercise Kyra. I didn’t really know how to turn her into a willing Go-Horse. Until… she got laminitis and was diagnosed with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). Suddenly I had 3 hours a day and 7 days a week to take care of her (my priorities shifted 180º: from “I have to do something, but I don’t know how….” to : “I HAVE to get her in shape and get her healthy again! I need to take action. NOW!”)
Another reason that can feel like a lack of time is a lack of motivation. When you would have an accountability partner, a friend who helps you exercise your horse it would be way easier, wouldn’t it? Having someone to share your struggles and wins with and discuss your approach is so incredible motivating! If this is what you need, come talk to me.
Fear is another reason that often holds equestrians back from their dreams. When I was a horseback riding instructor and worked with fearful riders, I heard all the excuses in the book why they hadn’t ridden their horse. A lot of them used ‘the lack of time’ excuse. Once they overcame their fear of being in the saddle, those excuses simply evaporated. Time wasn’t really the issue, as it is often not the real reason. It’s often a deeper lying reason…
Step 2: Be honest
What is really holding you back from exercising your horse?
If it’s really is time, maybe it’s time to consider another person for your horse… Unless your horse and your wallet don’t suffer from you not enjoying your horse to the fullest? If time would be the real reason it’s would be the easiest to solve: Simply hire a trainer or find a leaser to help you exercise your horse.
If you have a hard time doing that ask yourself: What’s your struggle really about?
Is it:
Time
Prioritizing important tasks (I can imagine that Health for your horse,is pretty high on your list)
Support or lack of motivation (exercising your horse feels hard and an ‘endless task’ rather than something you can both enjoy and look forward to)
Knowledge (you can benefit from a step-by-step shaping plan how to go about teaching your horse to offer movement with R+ or you could use a clear schedule or training plan to get to your exercise goals for your horse)
Not having as much fun (you dread going to the barn because the path to get your horse in shape or recover from laminitis is taking all energy out of you. You’re stressed about it and it’s hard to turn it into a fun endeavor)
Fear (from fear for your horse to the fear of ‘messing your horse up with (positive) reinforcement training/treats, doing it wrong, fear of failing in the end/not reaching your the health goals for your horse and so on. Very common and not many people talk about this!)
Just some things to ponder about… When you find the underlying reason the good news is: you can do something about it! Imagine your horse being in perfect health and shape….
Step 3
Find support to overcome the thing that you’re really struggling with! Participating in an online course with a coaching part, finding a clicker (exercise) challenge, a coach or friend who can help you. It all helps! You can also join my Facebook groups: Clicker Training or R+ Exercising Overweight/Laminitis horses
5 Tips that can help you
Find a friend that has a similar or the same goal with her horse. Support each other
Find someone online and set dates for the next 4 weeks exercising or clicker training your horse
Make your own schedule for the next 4 weeks and check off each day on your calendar that you did it! Cleebrate with a friend at the end of 4 weeks. Rinse and repeat
Find a coach to help you take your training to the next level
Join the HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
Start off well with a solid plan. In this series I share my 7 steps to help make Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis/EMS/Overweight Horses a success. Read step 1 here.
Every year in September I offer a course to help horse owners exercise their overweight/EMS or reluctant horses using positive reinforcement so their horses start to offer movement, start to enjoy their exercises and get your horse in shape with non ridden exercise. Get notified here.
Step 2: Differentiate your Goals
Make a distinction between Weight loss goals (‘My horse needs to lose 100 lbs) and Movement goals (‘I want my horse to be able to offer 5 minutes of trot’).
Movement Training Goals can help support the Weight loss goals for your horse, but the opposite doesn’t have to be true.
The difference is that Movement Training Goals are all about behaviour!
Behaviour goals (training a desired behaviour, like duration in trot or a better quality trot) are different from Weight Loss goals, which are very much intertwined with Diet & Nutrition and Management of the Horse. .
Now you have distinguished between the different kinds of goals you have for your horse, you can take the next step in making a Training Plan That Works!
Maybe you realize that you need to train other behaviour first, in order to become successful in Movement Training.
Distractions
You have only a grassy outdoor arena and your horse is more interested in the grass than in you/your cues in training.
Grass Training for Horses (a course I have) will help you get the grass temptation out of the way of your Movement Goals
Your horse isn’t ready for in hand or at liberty work
Maybe you don’t have an arena and need to hand walk your horse on the road and need to tackle one or more of these obstacles:
Your horse is afraid of dogs
Your horse is nervous in traffic
Your horse is herd bound and doesn’t want to heave this equine friends
Your horse has another challenge that prevent you from working on your Movement goals.
It can seem like a detour, but working on clearing your obstacles first is actually taking the short road towards your goal.
Changing your setup and/or environment
Movement Training goals need a different preparation and different setup than Weight Loss goals: For Weight loss goal Diet & Nutrition and Management play a bigger role.
Maybe you’re sick and tired of spending 10 minutes setting up your training environment (for instance your reverse round pen) and cleaning up after.
The threshold to START is too high and you let this get in the way. Change your approach of Movement Training (I teach an at liberty exercise (At Liberty Rectangle, which is easier for horses than running around in circles) that takes less than 2 minutes to set up and clear up, because the setup/clean up/where to store your stuff was a HUGE hurdle for most clicker trainers.
2) Your horse is in an environment ( part of the Management pillar) that prevent him from exercising himself. You need to rethink how you can set up your environment so it will support your goals for your horse
3) Having some eyes on your training/approach and some outside input (community!) can shift your perspective on things and give inspiration to new and better approaches.
Stay tuned for Step 3 in making a solid Training Plan that actually works!
Happy Horse training!
Sandra
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
Let’s talk about one of the 6 Keys for Trainers (these are your keys to success) in Equine Clicker or Horse Training. Accountability!
What is Accountability?
Taking responsibility for that what you decided on to do. When your intention is to train your horse 5 times or sessions a week, what help you actually do it? Just having an intention is often not enough.
There are two kinds of accountability. Most horse owners I’ve worked with, thrive with accountability. There are different ways of keeping yourself accountable.
Internal accountability
When you have internal accountability, you could say that you’re highly self motivated. You decide on a specific goal with your horse and do it!
You might write it down in your calendar to remind yourself of it or make a schedule (without someone telling you to do so). Then, when they see your reminder pop up on your calendar or phone, you just do it. When you have ways to keep yourself accountable, I call this internal accountability.
Accountability is not just for the first few steps towards your goal, its really taking responsibility to do what you have to do in order to accomplish your goal.
Most clicker trainers have enough internal accountability to start, but when their goals get more challenging or after when the novelty and excitement of their new goal wears off, they (also) need external accountability.
External accountability .
Then there is external accountability. This is when you need support to help you stay on track with your goals and to remind you to take action.
For example you have a coach or friend that you report back to about when you have done some training or have accomplished a step towards your goal. Your accountability partner becomes a powerful motivation to do what you said you would do. Just knowing that you have to report by email, text or in person can boost motivation.
Common examples of setting up some kind of external accountability are weekly lessons, coaching or getting together with a friend at the barn and train or ride together.
Combi of both internal and external
When horse owners set a new goal for their horse they are super excited and can’t wait to get started. This is when the internal motivation (with the end goal in mind) is super high.
In Force Free Movement Training, especially when you want your horse to loose weight or have another long term goal in mind, like piaffe, Spanish trot or passage, the internal accountability can wear off after a while.
You know you could do it when you would surround yourself with like-minded horse owners that have the same or similar goals. Being a member can be such an invaluable tool to help you accomplish what you want with your horse.
Accountability is one of the 6 Keys for Trainers in the HippoLogic clicker training program. This is something people often forget to set in place for themselves for a long term success.
Reasons Motivation decreases in Clicker Training
Accountability will help you keep going, even when your motivation decreases. What makes your motivation decrease?
Not seeing results. Your expectations are too high, your effort was not enough or you didn’t do the right things to get the results you’re aiming for. Or, you just simply forgot what you’re starting point was (I have a solution for it, which can be a great tool to keep motivation high) and you’re getting the feeling you’ll ;never’ reach your goal.
It takes (way) longer than expected. Maybe your horse doesn’t really understands what you want and he’s tuning out easily in movement training. You don’t have a shaping plan that works and got stuck. Or you simply didn’t realize that it can take 3-4 months to see weight loss results in a recovering laminitis horse. After all, his feet are healing when you start and this is not a normal situation that fits traditional approach (it’s easy to coerce your horse into a certain amount of exercise when you use negative reinforcement and punishment, because you don’t have to take into account the horse’s feelings about it). Which brings me to the next point:
Comparing yourself with others. It’s an easy pitfall to compare yourself with others that are getting the results you want. But comparing your own ‘Chapter 5’ with someone else’s (maybe) ‘Chapter 7’ or ‘Chapter 23’ is not helpful. We don’t know where they started and what they’ve done, all we see is their results. It’s also not a fair comparison to compare your horse that might have metabolic issues with a healthy horse. I made this mistake at first and instead of feeling motivated (“Yeey, it’s possible”) it made me feel like a failure (“Why can they get their horse in shape in a weeks and I don’t? What’s wrong with me?”). It made me feel miserable and in despair. Luckily my supportive tribe (it’s all in here) helped me stop doing this!
Feeling isolated. After a couple of weeks of training your recovering laminitis horse, while seeing all your friends ride their (healthy, non-EMS!) horses, or seeing that their get their (healthy!) horses in shape so easily, it can be really hard not to give up on your force free (R+) movement training plan for your horse. This can demotivate you. Don’t give up! There is hope! Find yourself a tribe, join mine.
5 Tips for setting up accountability
Make a plan and set up reminders in your phone or calendar
Join a tribe of like-minded equestrians or horse people with similar goals
Get weekly coaching
Make yourself accountable by sharing your plans on your social media
Key Lesson for Trainers #4: Accountability
Discovering what Accountability was, and that I could set it up and use it in a conscious way, was a real game changer for me!
Setting up accountability as part of my clicker training really helped me accomplish the most challenging goals of my life. We are social animals and we all can use support in some way or another.
I hope this gave you some ideas and motivation to try it out and see what works for you.
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
Let me start by giving you a bit of background information about myself, which will give you some context. I’ve always loved horses. I felt a deep soul connection with them from the age of 4 and love them with my whole heart. I wanted to ride, and be with them all the time (still do). When I finally (after years of nagging my parents) got riding lessons, I discovered it was amazing to be with horses and ride them.
No fun, using a whip
Riding could also be scary! When I was scared, the horse often didn’t do what I wanted. Then I was told to hit him with my crop! They just sugar coated it with “Give him a little tap, when he doesn’t listen”, after all it was “only an extension of my arm”, another very misleading term. We won’t do with our arms what we do with a whip. Whips are meant to cause pain! So we can coerce the horse with pain and fear.
There I was, between a rock and a hard place!. I wanted to belong to ‘the good riders’ and I also wanted the horses to love me back. The psychological mechanism to obey an authority, even when it goes against your own values, is proven in the famous Milgram experiment(s).
I believe a lot of horse owners struggle with obeying their instructor and how they really want to treat their horse. I’ve been a riding instructor for many years, and I’ll tell you a bit more about it later in this blog.
What I learned from Horses
When I got a free lease pony, I was 12 years old at the time, I could do whatever I wanted. Most Saturdays I sat there, just being with them, observing, and serving them. Want to have an itch on your bum removed? Let me help you. Don’t like the saddle? Let’s do without.
I was using force free training since I was 16, but I was not very good at it yet (Captain Hindsight). I believe that giving Sholto a friendly word ( Good boy!) or a reward (long) after training ended was the way.
I was riding with long reins instead of light contact and tried to give him choices. Until of course, he choose something I didn’t want to allow, then I fell back on traditional ways. Even though it make me feel guilty afterwards. It was the lack of having an alternative way that kept me in that place.
With a traditional background, in which he horse has to listen, or else… I only knew to coerce the horse. They had told me: “He’ll never listen to you, if you let this slide“. Or: “He needs to know whos boss. Be the alfa stallion “. (Back in my day it was believed that one stallion led the heard. Things have changed!). “Don’t let him win!” was another warning I’ve heard many, many times! However, horses told me another story.
Horses don’t think in terms of ‘winning’!
Whenever I fell off, I noticed that Sholto did not ran off without me. Even though he was a stallion. Next time I could saddle an ride him as easy as the day before.
I discovered that ‘even’ stallions don’t act as if they want to “win” from their humans. Or that they keep scores.
Sholto in his twenties
Yes, they remember the bad times, and they will anticipate with their behaviour. That’s called self-preservation. ;-)) They have good memories. They are also very forgiving, too.
I wanted to befriend my Sholto and I figured out that when I had used the whip too much (to his standards) or had been too rough (I was a teenager, with loads of hormones, just like my 6 year old stallion) I couldn’t catch him the next day in the pasture.
Normally I could approach him, but then he’s simply walk away. His dam was much worse. She had lost trust in humans long before we met and was very ‘hard to catch’.
A video of Sholto a few months after starting clicker training. Before I had to get him, after he came to me!
This way I learned a lot about ‘respecting’ horse’s nature and learned to understand them better. If I wouldn’t respect their feelings, and they had a choice (3 hectares is a lot of choice), they choose not to be with me!
In the meanwhile in the riding school, I started to find ways not to use the crop as much. The more I had to hit horses (‘He needs to listen to you!!”), the less I enjoyed riding lessons. This was the reason I quit taking lessons: too much guilt. (read more about using whips in riding schools here).
Loads of mistakes
With Sholto, I made a lot of mistakes and we still we bonded. In 1999 when I learned about positive reinforcement I started to apply force free training in a systematically way. In a way that Sholto could understand! He was 16 years old and I can assure you: You can teach an old horse new tricks!
Coercion is more common that you might realize (see protest of the horse)
Clicker training
Clicker training offered clarity! A Click meant clearly “Well done” and then an appetitive (something he appropriated and wanted to have) follows. Using a bridge signal to communicate THIS is what I would like to see more of, was such an eye opener! I think it was the best kept secret in horse training! Also thin slicing (shaping) a behaviour gives the horse clarity.
At the same time, I also learned about Natural Horsemanship, which was based only on negative reinforcement: When Sholto did something desired, I took the pressure away.
Now, Sholto had a mind of his own. He was ‘stubborn’ which just meant he had loads of patience to teach me the right way. LOL. The rule between us was: if you’re friendly to me, I will comply and be friendly to you. I didn’t make that rule, by the way. I learned the hard way about that rule.
Natural Horsemanship (NH)
The problem I had with NH (not at first, in the beginning it was fantastic that I could teach him new things so quickly using pressure-relief) was that I had toapply that aversive pressure first!
I only noticed this when I was teaching. Again, the Milgram experiment (in a lighter form) comes to mind.
I often had to pressure my clients, the horse owner, to apply enough pressure to their horse that he would comply!
The success of negative reinforcement is that it’s 100% positive reinforcement for the trainer: results!
Sandra Poppema
With results, a feeling of power can emerge: a 1000 pound animal, that can kill you with one kick, listens. To you! Horses are Power! When you ride a horse it demands respect (this is engrained in culture and history: riding is for the rich and powerful).
That’s why it took me so long to abandon NH: instant results and… without having an alternative way you still are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It makes you feel bad and it makes you feel good, but don’t know how to turn training into a Win-Win.
Looking from the outside in, as instructor
When I was teaching groundwork and riding lessons, I was looking “from the outside in” and noticed that I was not the only person that struggled with this: applying something aversive to a loved one (their horse) in order to get what they wanted (desired behaviour). It felt wrong at some level to do so. And selfish. It also did impact the horse-human relationship in a negative way. Luckily most horses ‘let it all happen’ and we don’t have to notice if we don’t want to see it. I looked away many, many years.
The easy way was to follow instructions in my natural horsemanship home study package. But since it left a bitter taste in my mouth because it impacted my relationship with Sholto in a negative way, I decided to do more clicker training. Sholto was such a different pony when he knew I would offer clicker training!
The more I used clicker training, the more I realized our relationship was changing for the better. The mutual understanding, his willingness to work for me and WITH me changed. I think he really liked me more and certainly enjoyed working with me more. I know because I used clicker training for all my trick training and in the arena it was “work” (using NH): lunging and lots of movement using pressure release (relief!). He started to be more and more reluctant to go to the arena, his way of telling me!
Kyra pushed me further towards positive reinforcement
My horse Kyra (born in the wild and super sensitive to pressure) told me the same story: it was no fun to be trained with negative reinforcement.
When I got Kyra in 2009, I had a decade of clicker training experience and teaching. When Kyra told me clearly one day “NO” to NH, I pivoted and decided to use R+ (positive reinforcement) from then on.
I still was teaching so I decided to write a manual (just like the one that helped me learn NH) that I could give to my clients for self-study. I called it the Key Lessons, your Key to Success in Clicker Training.
Looking back on my bond with Sholto, I realize that it had become the dream when I started to listen to him and give him a voice, choice and control in training. I thought I had a fabulous relationship with him before that, but when I changed my ways it improved even more!
What Force Free Horse training means (to me):
Using positive reinforcement to train behaviours
Using positive reinforcement to develop a two-way (!!) communication with my horse
Not overstepping my horse’s boundaries (If he’s fearful, let’s lower his anxiety instead of ‘making him understand it’s just a plastic bag’. Fear is real! The horse thinks his life is in danger, help the horse! Make him feel safe first!)
Steering away from using force, coercion to get ‘my way’ and finding a win-win solution.
This approach brings a horse-human relationship build on mutual (!) trust and clarity (which I couldn’t offer to Sholto without my bridge signal). This is where a friendship can develop.
Values
Now I know what you might be thinking: “You can’t give your horse choices all the time?” Yes, you can!
But, what if he’s sick and you need to give meds he doesn’t want to take? Then you can give him still choices. Here is the key: having my equestrian values clear, help make decisions about using coercion/force easier.
My top value is not “having fun”, my top value is equine welfare. That’s why I don’t use coercion to get what I want if it’s just for me.
However, if the horses health or life is in danger, and his welfare is compromised I do whatever it takes to change that around. If I need to apply pain for medical reasons, so he can heal, I will. When such a decision is based on values, you won’t have guilty feelings about it.
I can talk hours about this. There are so many ethical, moral and emotional dilemmas around the topic of horse training and keeping horses.
Force Free Movement Training for Kyra
When Kyra got laminitis and was in pain, I had to help her lose weight and exercise her. Exercise was already aversive (it’s hard to move an obese body) and mentally her welfare needs were not met. She was in solitary confinement (no herd to feel safe in), on a restrictive diets (no 16 hours of foraging) and not freedom (a relatively small paddock).
I tried the coercion the first two days, but it impacted our carefully built bond of the previous ten years, in a negative way. Therefor I decided (again) to make a decision that I would try this (,movement training for my fat Kyra) with positive reinforcement.
Long story short: Kyra lost loads of fat, got healthy and best of all: we bonded over the whole experience! I know it would have been completely different if I had fallen back on negative reinforcement (NH/traditional training and coercion). With clicker training I helped Kyra change from a whoa-horse into an eager go-horse. She learned to love her exercises and it served our riding, long rein training and at liberty work for years to come.
I believe that you can help your horse get in shape with clicker training. How? I’ve done it, and I’ve helped many clients do the same.
Do you have a laminitis horse that is reluctant to move?
Is your horse overweight? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “More exercise” to get your horse in shape? Do you struggle getting your horse in shape with non ridden exercises, trained without coercion?
Consider my course Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can only join after a personal conversation. I tailor this 2-week online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs!
To see if you’re a fit I offer a free assessment. In the assessment we’ll find out what’s holding you back and you’ll find out what you can change to get your horse in shape. There is no obligation to join my program. People have told me the assessment is a great tool and gave them lots of insights. Book a assessment
Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
Teach your horse to move by himself, at liberty
Sandra Poppema, BSc
Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse. No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.
You’ll get:
My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
Do you have a herd bound horse that you can only work in the arena? You can’t ride your horse and he desperate needs to lose weight. Are you looking to help your horse get fit with non ridden exercise?
Weight loss for Equines
Before we look at R+ Movement Training, lets get the big picture first. Weight loss for equines is based on 3 pillars:
Management; How we keep our horses
Nutrition/Diet; What and how we feed them
Exercise/Movement; How to they burn off calories
Force Free Movement Training for Horses
There is a lot you can do to influence each pillar. I’ve tons of experience exercising non ridden equines with positive reinforcement and helping people get fat horses fit.
In 2016 I started with my own horse Kyra, who was diagnosed with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome) when she got laminitis. Exercising my horse with R+ was my #1 priority. She was overweight and exercising was hard. I was a clicker coach with an online business and online R+ courses , therefor I wanted to exercise Kyra with positive reinforcement.
Long story short: I found ways to do it and got better and better at it. I started to help other horse owners who struggled with getting their reluctant, overweight horses in better shape. I’ve seen many horse owners successfully clicker train their overweight horses, using non ridden exercises!
From Reluctant to Move, to Eager to Exercise
The horses who were reluctant to move at first, started to enjoy their exercises with Force Free Movement Training!
Once horses overcome their first hurdle: aversive association with the arena and/or exercising, changes happen fast!
When moving/excising becomes a habit for the horse and he’ll know it won’t be boring, endlessly long and hard, but fun, easy to do, short and they will get something in return they LIKE, their attitude changes completely!
7 Ways to Exercise Non Ridden Overweight Horses
In my Facebook group many horse owners are struggling with exercising their horses consistently! Exercising Laminitis EMS Horses is aimed at force free (R+) exercising laminitis EMS horses, who are often overweight and reluctant to move. You’re welcome to join.
Some people think: ‘There is nothing that I can change’ and .this is exactly what it feels like, when you’re stuck.
At that point you don’t see what others see (from the outside in). It can feel there is no hope and you might have to fall back on traditional (coercive) training methods to get your fat horse fit.
I’ve been helping people with overweight horses since 2017. Teaching R+ non ridden exercises and sharing my At Liberty Rectangle (I used to call it Reverse Rectangle because I adusted the Reverse Round Pen idea to something easier for horses) exercise that works really good to exercise a horse force free.
I’ve found that there is always something we can do, change or improve to help our equine. A bit of support and inspiration from others in the same boat ,can help a ton!
7 Excellent Exercises for non ridden horses:
Hand walks in the arena
Hand walks outside the arena (off premises, on the road, in nature)
Cycling with your horse
Long reins (this is really fun and you can do a lot of dressage exercises to get your horse in shape, when advanced)
At liberty in the arena (tons of exercises that you can do with R+)
Driving/ground driving
Swimming
Cycling with Sholto
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How to Start Exercising an Overweight Horse
Depending on where your horse is at right now, walking can be a great start. With clicker training you can teach your horse quickly to *offer* movement. The first step to start enjoying his movement training.
Start where your horse is at!
The aim for walking is one steady, brisk pace. That’s probably not where you’re at right now, but that’s what you can accomplish with R+ real quick.
It’s not necessary to start with trot or transitions right away. Most important is to start the *habit* of regular exercise and make it fun for your equine, right from the start. Positive reinforcement an amazing tool to help horses change their minds about aversive things.
I’ve found that starting with short, 10-20 minutes hand walking/long reining a day, you can accomplish a positive impact. Keep in mind, this is only the beginning. It’s a start!
Is your horse overweight? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “More exercise” to get your horse in shape? Do you struggle getting your horse in shape with non ridden exercises, trained without coercion?
Consider my course Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can only join after a personal conversation. I tailor this 2-week online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs!
To see if you’re a fit I offer a free assessment. In the assessment we’ll find out what’s holding you back and you’ll find out what you can change to get your horse in shape. There is no obligation to join my program. People have told me the assessment is a great tool and gave them lots of insights. Book a assessment
Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
Teach your horse to move by himself, at liberty
Sandra Poppema, BSc
Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse. No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.
You’ll get:
My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
When your vet just told you: “No more treats for your horse! She needs to lose weight immediately!”. You might worry how to clicker train your horse, now treats are forbidden by a professional you trust!5 Tips to keep clicker training your overweight horse.
Feeding Treats vs Using Food Appetitives
I find that there is a difference when someone with a traditional background tells you “No more treats”. In the ‘general horse world’ treats mean: commercial horse treats made with lots of molasses, apples (high in sugar), carrots (also high in sugar), maybe even sugar cubes (when I was a kid I was told that horses love them!).
Horses need to eat! Even fat horses need forage. That’s tip #1.
Tip #1 Use Food Reinforcers From Your Horse’s Diet
The reason equine vets are against feeding obese horses treats is obviously for health reasons! Remember: they are the ones that see all the bad things that are a result of overfeeding horses, or feeding the wrong diets! We usually don’t call our vet to check on our healthy horses, unless when we buy a horse. So vets have plenty of good reasons for this advise!
Instead of adding treats or food reinforcers to your horse’s diet, subtract them from his diet, so that you can use them to train!
Does your horse get hay cubes or soaked beetpulp? Those can be great appetitives in training. You already know that your horse loves these! Even vitamin/mineral pellets (in small quantities!) can be used in training.
Tip #2: Measure the Amount of Appetitives
Before you start clicker training your horse, take out the total amount of food your horse is able to have that day. Put that amount aside for training. Don’t add anything else!
I have two mini horses now and they are getting chubby. So I really am strict to set aside two little hands of normal grass pellets (no molasses) for their training. It looks so little! It’s difficult!
I made up a rule for myself to help me: once my treat bag is empty I can’t have any refills! When I had Kyra, who was 14.2 hands tall, I could use way bigger amounts. I realize that this is just something in my head. I will get used to it
Tip #3 Feed Smaller Portions (Without Frustration)
I don’t recommend being really frugal with treats in training, but using a high rate of reinforcement (RoR) can help train faster. I prefer 3 or 4 pellets for each click, use a high RoR and also give general amounts for really good outcomes. Keep in mind that I train mini horses! But this might work for your horse, too
I rather train a bit shorter (because the daily ration is used up) than train longer and get worried about feeding more calories in training than they use up.
Feeding less food in training will help you become more clear about your goal! If you’re worried that the calorie intake during your sessions are bigger than than that your horse burns off: choose movement behaviours.
Tip #4 Focus on Movement in Training!
Ask your horse to burn some calories with clicker training! This will make Force Free Movement Training FUN for your horse. Even though exercising is aversive for most overweight horses, they are also often highly motivated by food! There is a reason they are obese.
Tip #5 Use Non Food Reinforcers
Did you know you can reinforce behaviour with … behaviour!
When you have a limited amount of food for training, find those things your horse loves to do, to reinforce the behaviour! Most overweight horses like to do ‘nothing’. I’ve successfully used Key Lesson Mat Training as reinforcer for high energy behaviours in the beginning of our Force Free Movement Training.
You can also make a ‘behaviour chain’ (I like to back chain behaviours for quick results) so that you get more behaviour for one appetitive.
Train without Frustration!
Make sure your horse doesn’t get frustrated in training, or you might have to fall back on a high RoR or even feeding more, instead of less. It can happen to the best of us. Point is that we learn (quickly) from our mistakes and avoid them in the future!
Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
Is your horse overweight? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “More exercise” to get your horse in shape? Do you struggle getting your horse in shape with non ridden exercises, trained without coercion?
Consider my course Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can only join after a personal conversation. I tailor this 2-week online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs!
To see if you’re a fit I offer a free assessment. In the assessment we’ll find out what’s holding you back and you’ll find out what you can change to get your horse in shape. There is no obligation to join my program. People have told me the assessment is a great tool and gave them lots of insights. Book a assessment
Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
Teach your horse to move by himself, at liberty
Sandra Poppema, BSc
Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse. No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.
You’ll get:
My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
When Kyra got laminitis one of the things I had to do was exercise her!
It was such a nightmare falling back onto negative reinforcement that after 2 days of lunging, I decided to try to get her moving using clicker training.
I did this because Kyra was really agitated with me. She was telling me she didn’t like to be suddenly coerced. At. All.
I never seen her making those faces to me, see photo. ->
It broke my heart, seeing Kyra so unhappy.
Falling of the Exercise Wagon
I tried many times before she got laminitis to exercise Kyra with the aim of weight lost. I fell of the exercise wagon over and over. Then there was this, then that. ‘Life happened’, and so on.
Real reason -in hind sight- was that I didn’t know how to train a whoa horse and turn her into a go horse with positive reinforcement.
Kyra didn’t offer forward movement in the first place. She was never a forward horse (so I thought). Over time, this changed by the way! I set up accountability for myself and a support group of supportive people!
Duration in movement: Training for Trot
Duration was a struggle (trotting for more than a few steps was hard at first), to get her moving at all was a struggle.
Getting ‘more movement’, for less treats wasn’t really happening. Normally I hadn’t any trouble fading out treats after behaviours got consistent and on cue.
These things made me feel like I couldn’t do this, so I quit. I told myself: She’s happy like she is, so…
I also wanted to believe: It ‘s not as important because, she’s always been ‘chubby’, it’s her breed (Exmoor pony x Andalusian) and she was happy and healthy…. Right? (I was wrong!)
So she slowly gained weight over the years, and I kept looking away. I literally didn’t ‘see’ how overweight she really had become! The master’s eye fattens the horse: we see what we want to see.
You can only train for duration is when you are measuring what duration you’re getting. Do you get 2 steps of trot, then you can aim for 3. And add a step (or a few seconds of a behaviour ) more. Biggest pitfall is lumping when I was aiming for duration. Once I started tracking it became easy.
Exercising became matter of life and death
When Kyra got laminitis I had to rethink my movement training! I had to prioritize it!
The vet told me to stop giving treats and start exercising her. Weight loss became a matter healthy or sick and even a matter of life and death. He gave her a body score of 9 (the highest score there is!)
I tired lunging and round penning twice. It broke my heart to see that R- damaged our relationship, that I had so carefully build over the years with clicker training.
Having the fear of losing her, made me dedicated!
What I leaned using R+ to get fat Kyra fit
I decided to change back and use R+ in exercising her. One I made a firm decision I found ways to exercise Kyra and to help her loose weight. Learned a ton. It wasn’t always easy, but now I know what works and what doesn’t I help other horse owners who are struggling to exercise their overweight horses with positive reinforcement.
Here is a video of 5 things I learned using positive reinforcement to exercise Kyra and let her lose weight.
Helping Kyra loose weight with my Movement Training strengthened our bond. Over time, she turned into a happy, forward moving horse! She became fit and recovered from het laminitis!
Join our Force Free Exercising for Laminitis Horses Facebook group
If you struggle getting your overweight horse fit with clicker training, join our support group.
Kyra was always prone to being overweight. When she turned 8 she got laminitis and the vet diagnosed her with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). That explained a lot: why she got so easily overweight and was always hungry. EMS is like diabetes 2 in humans.
Exercise advice: lunging or round penning
Getting the advice from the vet to “go lunge” or “round pen” my horse, in combination of the crash diet he subscribed didn’t work for Kyra. She was very reluctant and unhappy to do so. I was miserable chasing her around with a whip. She always had listened super well, but these traditional ways were absolutely not good for her. She became very reluctant, even after one time to go in the round pen.
Reluctant horse
She tried to escape, didn’t want to go in the round pen and she basically screamed “NO!, NO, NO” at me. It stressed her out, to be coerced into movement and it stressed me out. I felt it damaged my relationship I carefully build over the years with positive reinforcement as training and two-way method of communication.
All the changes were super stressful
She went from pasture with her herd to solitary confinement. A small paddock (in comparison to the huge pasture she was in before) by herself.
The crash diet was eaten in 2-3 hours or so, which meant that she was not eating for about 20 hours a day. It’s very bad for horses to have empty stomach, because they make stomach acid 24/7. They can get ulcers when there is no food to protect the stomach lining.
The crash diet lead to wood chewing. She ate a hole in her shelter in just one afternoon, she started chewing wood and all the fences were munched on.
She chewed the slow feeder net the next day!
On top of that she started pacing and walked a deep trench along the fence. All in the first couple of days after her diagnoses.
I followed the vet’s advice
I tried lunging (I hadn’t lunged her for 7 years after she had told me clearly she didn’t like the NH method of mr P.) Kyra was very upset about it. She didn’t listen to me any more (yes with a whip she did do it, but that made me feel uncomfortable.
As you can imagine, I felt miserable seeing my horse so unhappy.
Things to improve welfare
These new (undesired) behaviours told me her welfare was compromised and I had to take action and change things. Which was scary… At the same time I noticed clearly how much stress all these changed were causing her.
Avoid long term stress
Long term stress is one of the things you want to avoid when a horse has inflammation in the body. Long term stress alone can lead to inflammation or prevent inflammation to heal. Since laminitis is inflammation of the lamellae, the tissue between the hoof and the underlying coffin bone horses benefit from a stress free environment.
Having a (former wild horse in solitary confinement (paddock) and putting her on a crash diet, was taking away 3 of the 3 F’s. Her freedom to roam in the pasture, her friends, who she could only see from a distance and forage. The wood chewing was a clear indication of having not enough chewing time/fibres.
So I changed her diet and gave her more food, more fibre and I started to hand walk her instead of lunging. Every. Single, Day. Until she got better, less pain and wanted to move.
This is what I did (R+ Movement Training)
I used positive reinforcement (clicker) training (R+) to encourage her to move. Yes, I used foodrewards! Vet had forbidden to give her “treats”. 😱
Using Treats in Training for laminitis horses
I went very slowly with building exercise and training for forward movement, in comparison with the advice I was given.
I have been using R+ since to tame Kyra (she was born and raised in a nature reserve). Then I switched over to NH, but she quickly let me know she didn’t like the NH exercises nor the way I was “asking” her to do them. (That’s a whole other story).
I used fibre rich foods to reinforce the behaviours I wanted: forward movement, steady pace and later speed and distance (time).
I used grass (yes a handful of long grass for a good effort), triple soaked beet pulp pellets (to soak the binding agents out. Shredded beet pulp is better, but that wasn’t available in Canada at that time) and hay cubes (not all hay cubes are the same and some horses can’t have them because they choke in them!).
Going against the vet’s advice
Going against the professional advice ,I changed her diet. I still gave her way less than before, but enough to keep her stomach going 24/7, since I was afraid of ulcers and gut ulcers. I also used food in training with my Movement Training..
It was a huge gamble, but it worked. Kyra became interested in moving (duh! With food! LOL) and she also started to loose significant amount of weight. Maybe a bit slower than with the professional advice I was given, but she was happier and all her newly developed stereotypical behaviours disappeared!
Kyra stopped wood chewing, pacing, and started to be her lovely self again.
From Whoa Horse to Go Horse
Before her laminitis Kyra was a very “whoa-horse” and not a “go horse” at all. Since she was healthy (so I thought) I didn’t make exercising a priority. Until I had to…
The method I developed over the years after her laminitis is based on positive reinforcement to get the horse moving willingly. All the things to make this succeed, I have written down in the eBook I wrote Getting my Fat Horse Fit.
Support
I didn’t do it alone, I had a support system (also in the book) and a plan!
Having a clear plan was so helpful! I had been going on and off with exercising Kyra in the previous years. She has always been ‘chubby’ or ‘barok’ (Kyra’s sire is an Andalusian), but since she was healthy I started an exercise regime, got distracted, stopped, a few week later started again. I never followed through so she did lose weight and stayed fit and slim.
In my eBook I wrote all the things I learned to be successful to keep the weight off of her with Movement Training. It was a process of developing Movement Training with positive reinforcement and setting up everything else so I wouldn’t fall of the wagon again.
Having the fear of laminitis really pushed me to take action and get Kyra fit. Now I help people do the same. If you’re interested in my course, follow this link.
Warning!
I don’t recommend going against the advice of experienced professionals! Absolutely not! In this blog I’m sharing my journey and what I did to get my horse from fat (and with laminitis) to fit and healthy.
Exercising played a major role in our success. That’s the message I would like to convey: exercise your overweight horse!
Please do everything you can t prevent your overweight horse from getting laminitis! I didn’t and I regret not doing enough. It might have been different if I would have had a way (back then) to make movement for my who horse fun and interesting! So that I enjoyed it more and would have kept going. Now I have that, and it has been a joy to exercise horses with clicker training.
When your horse has or had laminitis, one of the recommendations you’ll get from your vet is to exercise your horse, so he’ll lose weight. Where to start?
Before you start exercising
Make sure that the trigger for laminitis is identified and removed
Your horse is off all pain medication
You have a tested (low sugar) and balanced diet in place
Your vet has given you clearance for exercising your horse
Start where your horse is at
You may have to start really short walks in hand. With short I mean 5 minute walks. You can gradually build duration. Keep in mind that even a little exercise is better than none!
We have to start our horse somewhere. Starting with a short exercise regime can also help us build the habit of exercising our horse on a very regular basis!
Make exercising appetitive (fun!) for your horse
Exercising can be hard for overweight horses! They might not enjoy it. Using positive reinforcement can really help shift this for your horse.
In positive reinforcement training, you strengthen a behaviour by giving your horse something valuable for what he just did. When you use a bridge signal to ‘bridge’ the time gap between the desired behaviour and the moment you’re able to deliver a treat, your horse will pay attention to what he just did and do more of that behaviour.
Use positive reinforcement to help your horse move
When your horse doesn’t want to move you can wait until he does a slight weight shift forwards, then click and give a treat. With a ‘treat’ I mean a sugar free food reward, something that is low calorie, yet still yummie for your horse.
The next step is to click for a step forwards. This way you can literary raise your criteria for a click and treat, step-by-step. That’s how I did it with Kyra. She was already clicker trained, so she understood that she had to take initiative and move.
I found it very rewarding to use clicker training to exercise my laminitis horse, because she didn’t want to move in the first place. Using force would have negatively impacted my good relationship with Kyra and I didn’t want that to happen. I’ve tried it at first, but it was clearly the wrong choice for us! She resented lunging and working at liberty in the round pen, so I had to come up with alternative ways. And I did.
Do you struggle with exercising your overweight horse and help get your fat horse fit?
Make sure you find a tribe that understand the struggles that you’re going through. When you are a clicker trainer, it can be extra challenging to exercise your horse using food rewards, because the majority of people, including vets an farriers, don’t understand this training method. They only see a horse that struggles with movement AND that gets ‘treats’.
Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse. No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.
You’ll get:
My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
One of the biggest struggles I see, when horse people shift to positive reinforcement/clicker training, is that they are fighting their environment. They love clicker training so much, they want to convince everyone else how great their new method is!
It’s discouraging to discover that “they” won’t listen. Trying to convince other horse people at your barn of the benefits of positive reinforcement will most likely drift you apart from them. I know, I’ve done this myself! We forget that we can not change people, people can only change themselves!
Why doesn’t everyone wants to clicker train their horse?
The harder we try to convince others that clicker training is more friendly, more ethical, more beneficial to the horse-human relationship, the harder pushback we get. It’s called the confirmation bias.
The next thing that happens is that we, as new clicker trainers, get discouraged. We also get conflicted about using negative reinforcement and punishment, the more we learn about the effects on our horses. we might notice that we’re fighting against the norm in our barn.
We keep explaining how clicker training works, and all we get is sneers about how we spoil our horses with cookies. That’s because when we start clicker training our horse, we are not yet experts in it. From the outside it might indeed look sloppy, we don’t get results or we are just feeding cookies… When our horses get really, really interested in our food reinforcers, that’s all “they” see: how clicker training turned our horse into a cookie monster.
This can create reaal doubt and insecurity… You know in your heart this new way of training, is better, but you’re wondering why you feel so bad sometimes.
Change your environment to change your behaviour
I like James Clear’s book Atomic Habits very much! It really helped me understand better why it’s so difficult for most clicker trainers who are introducing more and more positive reinforcement in their daily training and interactions with their horse to keep moving the needle more towards R+.
Our environment influences our behaviour! So if you want to feel good about using clicker training to train and ride your horse, finding a supportive tribe will make it much easier to do so.
In short: when you were using negative reinforcement (R-) training (traditional, or Natural Horsemanship) you were surrounded with like-minded people. They all used R-, and you belonged. You didn’t need to explain why you were using a flag on a training stick, using a rope halter or a whip. Those are the ways of the tribe.
Now you’re changing your ways, and seeing positive changes in your horse and the bond with your horse, you feel the urge to explain why you’re doing things differently. That’s why most clicker trainers start to feel lonely after a while and why they don’t feel they belong anymore.
That’s the point you have to make the decision that in order to make your life better and easier, you’ll need to find a different tribe. A positive reinforcement tribe! So you won’t have to waste all your energy on explaining R+ to deaf ears, continuously defending your new method of training or feeling bad about the pushback you’re receiving now you’re ‘abandoning’ the R- tribe behaviours and rules.
Treat R+ training as embracing a new habit
What James is saying in the interview and in his book, is that when you surround yourself with people who are used to the habit you want to master (clicker training your horse), you’ll make your life much easier!
Don’t think that you’re the only one in your area! I’m speaking from experience that there are many barns with people who are also looking for more friendly, ethical ways to keep and train horses! Even having one clicker training friend at your barn, can really help you feel better! When you can’t find someone, there is always the option to find an online tribe of clicker trainers.
That is the very reason I started the HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy: to create a community of R+ trainers, who find the relationship with their horse and the welfare of their equines really, really important! It’s inspiring to be in a R+ community where we get to know each other in person (Zoom really can feel like you’re meeting in person!) and have similar training goals and the same training ethics.
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
I believe that when you really want to have a great two-way communication with your horse, in which you listen to each other (!) and act on each others communication (!), you should stop coercing him. I believe that the foundation of a trustworthy and loving bond with your horse starts with listening to him and addressing what he’s trying to tell you all along.
Ways we coerce our horse (sometimes even without realizing it)
When you shut a horse down with a tied noseband, so he can’t open his mouth to avoid the working of the bit. A horse wants to avoid to bit because of discomfort or pain
When you use a whip to correct him when he’s not forward enough or to ‘remind’ (I find the word ‘threaten’ sometimes more suitable) the horse’ of the consequences
Using a rope halter. These halters are thin and made out of polyester and therefor work harshly into the horses sensitive skin, onto the thin bone in their nose and behind their ears. All pressure is laser focused on that one tiny part of the thin rope that presses on the horse’s head and therefor “we” (we as in horse people in general) like to use them, Even when we aren’t aware of what they are doing to our horses, we do see our horse listens better when we use these, instead of soft halters made out of band or leather.
Chase after out horses in the pasture until they give up or give in, so we (again, ‘we’ as in horse people in general, not you! 😉 ) can catch them and do something our horse obviously dislikes (and anticipates on by running away from you)
What would happen if we would listen more?
We would hear the message of our horse!
“But I don’t know how to listen!”
Start by simply observing and noticing what you’re feeling when you see certain reactions, or behaviours of your horse. Look at these photo’s above. In which ones looks the horse more comfortable?
Pay attention to these things and how they relate to each other:
The shape of the eyes: round and relaxed, or open and round, half closed and relaxed or half closed and tension above the eye.
Head position: high with tension in the neck, or more horizontal and relaxed? Is the head position natural or forced?
Mouth: open, closed, lips open, lips and chin relaxed? Wrinkles around the corner of the mouth or upper lip
Nostrils: open or closed? Wrinkles above the nostrils?
Ears: open or flattened (closed), to the front, sideways, are both ears doing the same?
The more you pay attention, the more you’ll see. Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. Look up pain faces in equines.
How to listen to our horse
When our horse shows discomfort or when he wants to avoid our equipment (like his halter, bridle, bit, saddle) we investigate: does he have pain, an injury, is he sore, is he anticipating on what’s coming with avoidance. It’s painful when our horse walks or runs away from us in the pasture because he’s anticipating on riding, right? BUT, when we would address his feelings about it, we can change it! When a horse shows signs of avoidance or pain, investigate!
Correcting is a nice word for punishment in the equestrian world. The goal of punishment is saying (but often: shouting) ‘NO!” to our horse. It’s meant to decrease behaviour. When you simply say ‘No’ to a behaviour, you’re not explaining to your horse what he’s suppose to do. It’s likely that he’ll fall into the pitfall of that undesired behaviour. Usually what’s undesired behaviour for us, is desirable for the horse! Punishment is clear ONE-way communication. Punishment will not give the learner the feeling of being heard or understood. When we focus on what we do want and find ways to reinforce more desired behaviours positively(by adding appetitives/something the horse values and wants to receive), punishment will be unnecessary. Not only will it make our horse feel better, we feel better too.
Rope halter vs flat halters. Simply try using a flat halter again and focus on the behaviours that change. Will your horse grass dive, pull you when you use a flat halter? These are the behaviours that you can improve using positive reinforcement/ clicker training. Teaching your horse to lead by following you, can make a lead rope unnecessary. Even when leading on grass! Your horse will feel heard and valued.
When your horse is hard to catch, he’s definitely telling you he doesn’t want to be with you. Worst case scenario, ‘you’ means ‘all people’. You can change his feelings by listening to him and addressing what’s bothering him. It can be that he dislikes grooming, or being manhandled when cleaning his feet, or he’s anticipating on a bumpy ride with an unbalanced rider, poorly fitted tack. All these things can be solved! And when you find an experience horse person, it will be worth the investment in time and money. In return you’ll get a better understanding and a better relationship with your horse.
Want to learn to listen to your horse?
Find someone who can help you interpret his language. You’ll know! Actions speak louder than words. When your looking for a trainer, riding instructor or clicker coach, pay attention to how they treat their horse and how the horse reacts to the person. That will tell you a lot!
Want support implementing what you’ve learned? In the HippoLogic training method, ‘Emotions in Training’ is one of the Key Lessons for Trainers. I find that when we notice how our horses are feeling about training, we can make it better for them. This enhances our bond with them.
Do more with Clicker Training!
Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!
Want to do more with Clicker Training?
Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.
Not sure? Start with afree clicker training assessmentto get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.
In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.
HippoLogic -> Clickertraining.ca 
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