The “lick and chew”, there’s no need to (scare your horse). I saw a video today that had me very concerned. Now that Natural Horsemanship/ pressure & release/ Negative Reinforcement trainers understand about the different nervous systems, the Flight/Fight and Rest/Digest states and the accompanying body language, they like to talk about it a lot, […]
The “lick and chew”, there’s no need (to scare your horse). Read More »
Do they really liked to be touched? I read a great article a while back about dog owners requesting that people ignore their dog. This can equally apply to our equines. The article went on to say that dogs are sentient beings and they have likes and dislikes and we shouldn’t expect them to be
Do they really like to be touched? Read More »
Paddock Paradise, history and examples. Not all of this will be useful or benefit your horse or be practical. Every horse and environment is unique. But the basic premise is to respect the horse as a species and try to improve their lifestyle and welfare. Some of the observations and science behind this concept, have
Paddock Paradise, history and examples. Read More »
Paddock Paradise I’m a big fan of Paddock Paradise (PP) approaches/philosophy, in that I understand that the modern domestic lifestyle doesn’t suit a lot of equines and a PP approach can be a good compromise. It’s not perfect either, but it comes a little closer to how equines evolved to live. It gets people thinking
Paddock Paradise, horses need varied terrain. Read More »
Is Negative Reinforcement “bad” and Positive Reinforcement “good”? There is always a lot of discussion that regularly does the rounds on social media surrounding the question, is Positive Reinforcement “good” and Negative Reinforcement “bad”? First of all, I would ask, for who? The trainer or the horse/animal? You are then assured that positive simply means
Is Negative Reinforcement “bad” and is Positive Reinforcement “good”? Read More »
All behaviour is communication This subject is about another big, huge, challenging mind shift we go through when we move across from traditional (aversive/ forceful) adversarial style of horse training, handling and interactions. When we change over to a different, more positive, empathetic and co-operative way of being with and training our horses via force
All behaviour is communication Read More »
Generosity I whipped up a quick video and voiceover to try to illustrate a point I’d like to make that is super important! I’ve talked about generosity before and I’d like to talk about the importance of it again. I realise “generosity” is a concept and can be extremely subjective. So let me explain. You
Paddock Paradise systems Fantastic words that encapsulate the approach needed, from PP fb group member Emma: “my biggest learn . . . . is making sure I embrace flexibility, observation, and keep my mind open to the changing needs of the horses and the land! What I initially implement is just a framework to build
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What is Shaping in Positive Reinforcement (clicker) training? What is Shaping in Positive Reinforcement (clicker) training? “Shaping consists of taking a very small tendency in the right direction and shifting it, one small step at a time, toward an ultimate goal. The laboratory jargon for the process is “successive approximation”.” (Karen Pryor, Don’t Shoot the
What is Shaping in Positive Reinforcement (clicker) training? Read More »
A horse who feels safe, is a safe horse to be around 𝓐 𝓱𝓸𝓻𝓼𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓸 𝓯𝓮𝓮𝓵𝓼 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮, 𝓲𝓼 𝓪 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 𝓱𝓸𝓻𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 I say this a lot. But how do we know when they feel safe and when they don’t? How do we help them to feel safe? How do we make them
A horse who feels safe, is a safe horse to be around Read More »
