Teach your horse to be responsive to all the aids all the time. -Hans Senn For many people this will be taken as a literal quote about the aids used in riding. And I am pretty sure this was the context in which it was written. But for me it makes me think of a bigger concept. My relationship with my horses is more than riding, doing training session or food. My goal is to have an exceptional relationship with my horse, one that is bigger than any one of these components. It about all of our time together...it is all valuable. I want my horses to respond to me no matter if it is a training session or not. I dont want the focus of our relationship to be on any one aspect, and especially not about food. I use food quite a bit as a motivator in a systematic way. It is easy to get them to do behaviors for food but finding the balance and avoiding entitlement is an art that takes some awareness to develop. People always ask me if they can get rid of the food, the clicker or the target. For me that is the goal. I dont want our relationship to rely on these tools. They helped me to communicate, motivate and create behavior. But if we are not conscientious we can create a dependence on these things, like a crutch. In the long run, instead of helping us they can even get in the way. As the behavior becomes solid I will begin to fade these tools and employ and much more random schedule of reinforcement. I continually say thank you via positive reinforcement throughout our time together but they never know when, where or if food is coming. Mint was taught to load in a trailer with food, target and clicker. However, now he loads whether I have these things or not. He was taught grooming, clipping and vacuuming, injections, hoof handling, lead changes, transitions, etc with these tools but now anyone can do these things with him and he maintains a nice, calm and happy attitude. He learned to associate good things and with theses tasks and these feelings last when we do it right. So my thought is that I want my horses to be responding to my requests, all the time no matter what we are doing and vice versa. Through the learning process they have learned that I am also listening and responding to their requests and concerns. It is a two way street. The mutual respect and communication is what creates a partnership. One valued by both parties. These are my thoughts for today…not my only thoughts, I am pretty sure I will think again before the day is through. :) Shawna
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 18:26:19 +0000
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