Leslie's Force Free Horsemanship

11/11/2024

11/10/2024

Slowly we’re getting there!

I think one of the few “difficult” parts of positive reinforcement/Force Free training is that because we’re trying to avoid using aversive pressure, it means we are fully reliant on the horses understanding our cues to the fullest, as well as being willing participants in their work with us. This is especially true under saddle. This means pressure can’t be used to take shortcuts. (Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is a debate for another day)

Let’s say we’re teaching a horse basic riding cues. (as I’m currently working through with George) When we work with pressure, if your horse takes a left turn, even though you asked for a right, chance is you’ll stop your horse from taking that left turn by adding pressure from your rein or leg. Well, with R+ that’s not the case (not that you theoretically couldn’t, if you choose to do so, but not if one is trying to avoid aversives.)

So because of that, when we’re teaching a horse, you really have to go through the all the steps, because if you miss one, it’s likely your horse will get confused. You also have to make sure your horse is confident in each step, and willing to do the work the whole way. Otherwise, well, your horse is not going to have the same idea as you do (the beauty of freedom of choice 😉)

the difficulty lies in needing to have patience, needing to resist old habits to try and use pressure to “assist”, and reminding yourself that your progress is going to look very different from other people around you, it’s important to not compare yourself to traditional trainer, and not give in to peer pressure to have your horse do xyz at such and such point. You’re taking the slow but steady route remember!

However, there’s an upside to this! Because at the end of it all, you can be assured that for one, your horse has a full understanding of everything that you ask of them. There won’t be any holes in their training, that come up later down the line that you’re gonna have to patch up. Two, your horse will also be a confident partner, that is truly willing to work with you, and your horse isn’t going to be showing conflict behaviours. (Think of how many riders you know voicing their struggle with “disobedience”-“stubbornness”-“naughtiness” and just all the small little corrections that are often everyday occurrences)

So, in the end, I gotta say, I much prefer it this way

11/08/2024

Love this!! “Leave the life in, leave the fear out” excellent!😊

Loud people make quiet horses?
Maybe.
I don’t know about you, but as a highly sensitive person, when I’m around loud, quick moving, erratic and insensitive people, I tend to withdraw. If I can’t get away from them for whatever reason, the only way for me to get through being around someone like that is to somewhat disassociate.

All horses are highly sensitive, until someone creates lack of sensitivity in the horse.
Why would I want a horse to do that around me?
I’m certainly not saying you should tip toe around your horse, and you should very certainly prepare them for life. But why would you ever want to teach the horse that our body, our energy, our feel and the world at large is meaningless stimulus to be shut out?

Quiet, soft and calm people produce quiet, soft and calm horses. Smooth people who move with awareness create confident horses.

People who have self awareness and sensitivity to a horse’s needs produce quiet horses.

People who can prepare a horse to experience all of life’s uncertainties without creating a freeze or withdrawal response create quiet horses.

Quiet people create quiet horses.

Every horse needs a different touch, and only a person willing to spend more time listening than making assumptions about a horse can create a truly soft, calm but responsive horse.

As my teacher says: leave the life in, take the fear out!

11/06/2024

One of the largest points of online debates and confusion amongst horsemen and women exploring the work of R+ after coming from a traditional horsemanship environment is the topic of “pressure”

A rather ambiguous word, in the context of horsemanship, “Pressure”, is most used as general term for a wide range of stimuli.

In traditional horsemanship, this pressure, and the consequent relief of that pressure, is the motivation for the horse for nearly everything us humans ask them of.
The term “pressure and release” is most commonly used to describe this process, though in behavioural science, this process is called negative reinforcement.

The confusion usually happens when we see “pressure” being applied with a horse that is being worked with using positive reinforcement, the trainer, who has taken great care in transferring their horse’s behaviour to a tactile cue, then may be accused of using pressure and release.

So what is really the difference between those two kinds of pressure, and how do we know which one is being used?

The determining factors are primarily:

•What is the motivation for the horses response to the pressure

•How was this response taught

•What are the consequences, if the horse does not respond.

Taking for example, the pressure of your leg, to move a horses shoulder.

▪️What is the motivation for the horses response to the pressure
If, in order for the horse to respond with moving their shoulder, pressure must be applied to initiate the behaviour, and if removing the pressure at the very moment the horse does as desired, is the reason the horse continues to respond to the pressure, then negative reinforcement/pressure and release is being used.

If a different (non-pressure) cue can be used to initiate the behaviour, the pressure can be removed at any point, and an appetitive reinforcer or reward is the reason the horse continues to respond to the pressure, then a R+ pressure cue/tactile cue is being used.

▪️How was this response taught
In order to first teach the horse to move their shoulder over

If we apply our leg pressure, and release the pressure when the horse moves their shoulder over, without another form of reinforcement/motivation being used, then negative reinforcement/pressure and release is in play.

If instead, the shoulder moving over was taught by asking the horse to step over a matt, or the horse was taught to move their shoulder towards a target, with the pressure not being introduced until the behaviour is understood by the horse, then it is a R+ pressure cue/tactile cue you’re seeing.

▪️What are the consequences, if the horse does not respond?

Say, you apply the pressure with your leg, and your horse doesn’t respond with moving their shoulder, but instead, they ignore it, or they push into your leg.

If the consequences of that, is an increase of leg pressure, then we’re talking about negative reinforcement/pressure and release.

If the consequences of that is no increase of leg pressure, or a removal of the pressure, we are talking about a R+ pressure cue or tactile cue.

For more in depth information 👇🏻
https://www.lesliehorsemanship.com/post/pressure-vs-pressure

10/31/2024

Each horse is unique!
Their facial expressions, their body language, their calming signals and displacement behaviour can vary greatly from horse to horse.

I know a horse whose facial expression shows only very subtle signs of tension, even if she’s close to an explosion.
I also know a horse who’s face is very expressive even with a small amount of tension or worry.

I know a horse who’s go to displacement behaviour/calming signals are rubbing her face on her leg and yawning.
I know another, who pretty much never does those, and tends to only shake their head, and blows air out of their nostrils.

It’s important to learn to read your horse in particular.
You can understand all the signs, and languages, but unless you understand YOUR horses language, you’re always going to be missing something.

Additionally, know what your horse looks like when they’re in pain. If ever, your horse has something unknown going on, and you can recognize their pain face, you’ll be glad to be able to read it and not feel the need to question on whether on not it is serious or not.

10/26/2024

We tend to resort to punishment, more easily when we’re not feeling good ourselves. If you have an off day, whether that is you feeling tired, worn out, or something is causing your mood to be down, I usually advise against working with your horses that day. At the very least, against working on something challenging (for you or your horses)

When we’re not feeling our best, most of us tend to get frustrated more easily, and naturally that tends to result in a higher chance of resorting to punishment. “Violence starts where knowledge ends” comes to mind.

And guess what? Your horse is the same way. When they’re not feeling good, they will get frustrated more easily, which will result in them showing more behaviours such as pinning their ears, biting, kicking, nipping, etc.

When you or your horses aren’t in a good frame of mind, be easy on both of you.
Allow yourself to take a break, allow yourself to take a step back.
Better to miss some training time, than to take a step back in your training, or relationship.

10/09/2024

Beware the trainer who stereotypes mares as being too hormonal, too b*tchy, too difficult…

Their aversion to an entire s*x of horses says nothing about mares and everything about how they approach training and horses in general.

Mares are hardworking, loyal and honest.

The people who tend to strongly dislike them are typically the ones who want to force mares to work through pain, stress, discomfort — or otherwise wish to ignore communication attempts.

They tend to “prove” their mindset correct by eliciting reactions from mares after ignoring warning after warning.

So, yes, they encounter a lot of “cranky” mares but the common denominator is them.

The sad thing is that the hatred towards mares is all too common in this industry.

Despite it being so female dominated.

We need to reframe the way we think about things.

A mare having pain that results in behavioural change due to her cycle is a normal thing.

It is not a sign that she should withhold communication that she’s uncomfortable.

Most of us who also cycle can attest to the discomfort of cramps and how we aren’t always going to feel our best.

Mares are a great lesson in consent and communication.

They are the matriarchs of the herd and the horses who are given the immense responsibility of educating youngsters and teaching them what it is like to be a horse.

Of course they are going to be open with their communication.

The success of their species has been reliant on them educating their young with such communication skills.

Mares have much to teach, to those who wish to listen.

And for those who don’t… well, mares serve as a great litmus test for who actually wishes to improve their horsemanship and honour the horse in the way they should.

10/08/2024

Just some George Size comparisons today. Simply because it never fails to crack me up!

10/02/2024

Additionally, George had his first little spook under saddle yesterday. He got startled from the sound of one of the feed bags in the tack room being rattled by the goat. I am very proud of his reaction! For a moment my thought was “and this is where we’ll have our first buck” but nope! He definitely thought of running, but immediately stopped, and settled back down! Of course he got reinforcement for both.

Just goes to show that the myth of “they’re never going to learn to handle scary situations if you don’t scare them” is just that.. a myth.

10/01/2024

Someone is starting to look real good under saddle!
Second ride with a saddle and reins on. So far we’ve done all our rides bridle-less and ba****ck.
George is still figuring out this whole “left, right and straight” business, but slowly but surely he’s starting to figure it out. I can’t blame him though, with our sessions this summer having sometimes up to 2 months in between, he’s allowed to be a bit confused at times.

09/01/2024

Despite our training sessions being sporadic as usual, George is becoming better each time.
This would be the 4th or 5th time working on riding cues, in short 15min sessions.

We’re working with primarily hand and voice signals so far, at times with neck rope, other times without one. The cues were all taught on the ground first without pressure.

08/17/2024

Yes!! All of this!
As I always say: every time your horse says “No” it is an opportunity for us to prove to them that we are truly listening, and that we respect their “no”. The more we do this, the more our horses will be happy to work with us and say “yes”

The difference between a trusting horse, and a horse who doesn't trust us yet, is that they will be quiet in their discontent.

This is a double edged sword. Because if we are not also quiet, still, selfless and adaptable, the trusting horse will not make it easy for us to hear their concerns.

How do we measure consent? How do we measure motivation? I do not think it is accurately measured by how quickly a horse says yes. Because we now understand, that manipulative training can easily talk a horse into giving us what we want, and that it can look really good. It can look like consent. But the horse actually, had no recourse to effect change over their life. We know that powerfully harsh training steamrolls a horses ability to say No, sure. But so does quiet, manipulative, covertly dominating training.

So I have found, that the only way we can accurately measure, if a horse remains fully in consent to our activities for them, is if we regularly receive quiet No's. Disobedience is a data point, ostensibly that might be used to actually measure consent.

A horse feels they have a choice, when they regularly exercise that choice to contradict us and what we want them to do. When that happens, we can be confident they felt that they could.

But we confuse this easily. We believe that disobedience is dysregulation. That the horse said No, and it was MY FAULT, because I wasn't correct enough... good enough... or worthy. As if the horse doesn't have their own life going on. As if they are a pure reflection of our own skill, and not bringing their own self to the activities. Sometimes, a horse can say No Thank You, and it has nothing to do with you, your skill, your technical abilities or talent. In fact, talented and technical handlers can manipulate a horse out of anything. It takes a lot of reserve, gumption and bravery, for talented and technical handlers to know that they can make it happen, and make that look good, and decide not to.

To pick up the horse with soft and simple techniques only, use the techniques lightly, and believe the next thing the horse does as genuine. Every time. Always. So far, for me this is the best formula I have to be absolutely certain when I say;

"My horses love to train with me. AND they regularly disagree with me."

But when they disagree, they do it calmly. Gently. Safely. Lovingly. With a huge amount of respect and rapport for me. And even, (I am discovering this summer) for my students too.

My job is to listen. Let go of the Latestagecapitalisthellscape that tells me to Make It Happen. Prevent my personal wounds of my inner child that wants the horse to fill their void, from running my horses life as a long-form therapy. Leave that behind. And focus solely on horsemanship through the lense of an authentic life long partnership with these incredible creatures we are blessed to care for, and know.

08/15/2024

And period👏🏻

And here we are.

A world in which at the one hand, horses can think strategically, plan ahead, be cunning and false to get out of work and mocking their owner, a fully humanised approach, people just waiting for such arguments to base their unfair treatment and training approaches on, like a lost wanderer in a desert finding an oasis.

And at the other, defending these unfair treatments with complete lack of compassion because horses 'feel different' and denying them any kind of emotion and experience that could be similar to a humans.

Do you see the hypocrisy?

It's okay to hit a horse because they are big and have thick skin and this is how you have to downgrade them into something less, while also granting them the human traits of deceiving, lying and plotting.

The study says nothing more than that horses can make a cost-benefit analyse, which of course they can, this is literally how mammals survive.

And a video showing up of an upper level rider hitting her horse hard to press into some form of collection and impulsion is plain abuse, because they do have basic emotions and nerve endings to feel pain and fear like all mammals do.

There's no hidden agenda, no missing message.
We are all made of the same substance, heck we have such similar brains.

It's just our ego tripping frontal cortex they lack.
Good for them!

We should get out there once in a while and realise what this life is about. You'd be amazed.

Thanks for coming to my Thursday rant.

Read the study, not the articles. And get yourself acquainted with scientific language before making assumptions.
In fact, why not get acquainted with brain anatomy, ethology and psychology, like real knowledge about horses first.

Even my daughter understands that better than most of those 'upper riders'.

08/13/2024

Something so important to understand! It’s a hard line to walk, to advocate, without making people feel attacked. A line I try to navigate on a daily basis and one I try to improve on all the time.

07/31/2024

07/30/2024