This morning I offered a free webinar Horse Training Mastery in which I explained how people can use the 6 Key Lessons, your keys to success in clicker training, to get maximum results in their training.
These are HippoLogic’s 6 Key Lessons for Horses:
- “Table Manners for Horses”
- “Patience”
- Targeting
- Mat training
- Head lowering
- Backing
Goals
At first these simple (read: not-complex behaviours) are your goals, but when you master them, that’s where the FUN part happens!
To me it’s magic because training these basic behaviour that make a great foundation, they really come in handy to teach other behaviours! Yes, you can use the Key Lessons for Horses as Training Tool.
For example, once your horse masters nose targeting, you can use the targeting as a way to explain gaits. Ask your horse to follow a moving target and click and reinforce “movement” instead of touching the target. That’s an example how you can use targeting as Training Tool to teach cues for walk on, trot and even canter.
In this video you can see how Key Lesson Mat training become my training tool to teach “Whoa” and “Walk on” . Because of the context (rain and wind!) I get a bonus: trot.
Aren’t mats a way better training tool than whips or training sticks? Click with your horse in training.
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Strategies
Wait, there’s more! Once you’ve trained all Key Lessons and used them to teach other behaviours, your horse masters them well enough to use those Key Lessons as Strategies in your training.
How you can do that, I explain on Wednesdays in my free live webinar Horse Training Mastery- Bond with Your Horse in Training. Click here for more info and to register. For free.
Read more about HippoLogic’s Key Lessons (incl step-by-step training plans)
Key Lessons for Trainers
I also developed 6 Key Lessons for Trainers and just like the ones for horses they are first your goals. New habits to help you get insight in your training and to get a compass that leads to your goal.
No goal is too big! Dare to dream big. ~ HippoLogic
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- Principles of Learning & Motivation
- Training Plan
- Shaping Plan
- Accountability
- Training journal
- Emotions in training (human and equine!)
Just like the Key Lessons for Horses, they start out as goals, then they become valuable training tools and eventually you can use them as strategies to help you excel in training!
I talk about those too in the free webinar.
How have you used targeting to teach behaviours?
Let me know in the comments if you’ve been using targeting to train other behaviours and inspire the readers. Click!
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The sooner the reinforcer (treat) is followed or even been given during the desired behaviour the sooner your horse connects the dots. This is not always practical and that’s why we use a ‘bridge’, the click, to close the time gap between the desired behaviour and the delivery of our reinforcer (giving the treat). The click also gives you, the trainer, time to get a treat out of your pocket and give it to your horse. The better your horse is clicker trained, the longer the time gap between the desired behaviour (the behavior that you want to see repeated) and the treat can be.
Lying down without coercion can be a challenging behaviour to train because there needs to be a certain amount of trust between trainer and horse. It helps if you use high value reinforcers to train this behaviour. I use my 
Clicker, your horse’s favorite treats, a place where your horse is likely to lie down (soft surface like a sandy spot in the pasture or the arena)
You need to learn as much as you can about your horse’s behaviour and his habits. In the live webinar I give tips how you can learn about your horse’s habits and normal behaviour. In order to capture this behaviour you need to be prepared! Make sure you have your clicker and high value treats so that you can let your horse know right away what you want to see more of: lying down.
Let’s see how we can prevent these objections from happening.
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When you decide to use less pressure-release in training and focus more on positive reinforcement, you give your horse a voice and a choice in training. Therefor you have to learn to listen what your horse is communicating to you if things don’t go as planned.
Depending to the cause of saying ‘No’ you can come up with another way, a new strategy to make it easier for your horse to say ‘Yes’ (without making something else more difficult!).
What was the situation and what do you think caused your horses to say ‘No’ ? What solution did you come up with and what was the result? Do you think it benefited your relationship with your horse?
A training diary is all about making yourself conscious. Keep it motivating and phrase things in a positive way so it will be pleasant to read back.
gate instead of me wading through the mud to get her. She has to go through the mud anyway, she might as well do it by herself so I don’t risk loosing a boot in the mud or getting stuck there.
