Training based on learning theory to help people understand horses and horses understand people.
12/21/2024
2024 lessons are all wrapped up, and I’m getting ready for something a bit different in the new year. It’s been a good six years since I have focused on my own riding education, so it’s time for another trip back to -education in Australia!
Some of you know I’ve been going through a long slow recovery from a pretty nasty training accident (over three months ago now). I’d like to thank all my family and friends and my very patient students and training clients for bearing with me, encouraging me, and praying for my recovery so that this trip could still go ahead. I’ve been planning it for the last 8 months 😅
My lessons will be in good hands with Rosie, and I hope to return refreshed and with lots more to tools to share with you and your horses!
12/05/2024
Christmas gift alert! A couple spots just opened for riding in January. Tuesdays 4-6, Thursdays 1-3, Fridays 2-4.
11/21/2024
I enjoy drawing patterns in the freshly harrowed arena with my horse’s feet. How precisely can I place each hoofprint? Today’s pattern was a 20 metre circle with half 10 metre circles to change direction.
10/02/2024
This horse is so much fun. He’s been in long-term once-a-week training with me and just keeps improving. So much talent. 💕 I remember when he was heavy and pushy and couldn’t stand still, and now he is soft, light, easy to move, and so, so willing.
09/11/2024
If you know, you know… thankfully, Tesla couldn’t have picked a better time—I have the equivalent of 4 horses in full time training right now, so she is welcome to some time off.
08/21/2024
Dancing in the field with Tesla. I’m working on teaching her passage.
Horses are context-specific learners. Something that I teach Tesla in the arena is not necessarily performed in other contexts (such as the outdoor arena, the field, or the show ring) unless I specifically train it in those areas. The average number of different areas to train in before a horse generalizes and can perform in any area is 5.
08/13/2024
What do you do when your horse spooks? Get frustrated? Tie him in the 'scary corner'? Get off and lunge? Unfortunately, none of those are very effective solutions. Read the latest article on my website for an effective, behaviour science approach: https://clairetyhorsemanship.ca/2024/08/13/feed-the-spook/
Spooking, or stepping quickly forwards or sideways without being cued to do so, is a natural behaviour in horses that can be very annoying and even frightening to us who handle and ride them. There…
07/23/2024
Time to register for autumn classes! Only 1 spot Fri 3-5! Link in comments below.
07/05/2024
How we talk about riding and training is important. Compare these two ways of describing what goes on during a leg yield:
1) Front legs abduct from indirect rein.
2) Hind legs adduct an equal amount from inside leg.
3) Front legs adduct an equal amount.
4) Hind legs abduct an equal amount.
Versus this description, from The New Rider’s Companion edited by Emma Callery (1994):
The horse travels forward and sideways down the arena. … Your outside leg stays near the girth so that it controls the shoulder… if it goes too far back, the horse will throw the hindquarters over too much. Feel the outside rein to ask for slight flexion…your other hand controls the degree of flexion.
The first is a bare-bones biomechanical description. The second is a complex mechanical description. I am sure some people think and learn well with the mechanical side, but I prefer learning and teaching with a biomechanical approach. I find it clearer myself, and I find my students give fewer conflicting cues to their horses when the end goal is clearly stated.
Which description do you find more helpful, and why?
06/24/2024
Another horse graduated! Here’s Handsome, being very handsome on his last training ride before heading home. His owners were very involved, did their homework, and participated in as many training sessions as possible. It is always the owners who learn with their horses who end up with the best training results!
06/21/2024
I think I have the sweetest students in the world. Today was the last class for many of my kiddos (tomorrow is last for the remainder) and I love all the drawings, cards, and candy, and the big smiles and some tears from those taking a break for summer. Thanks guys. You’re the best!
06/06/2024
This is why ‘pushing him through it’ is not the greatest training option.
In re-training and prevention of undesirable fear responses, riders should use downward transitions to slow the horse’s legs during these episodes, rather than simply ignoring them or accelerating.
Current practices, such as round-pen techniques, lungeing, driving or chasing horses for any reason, are detrimental if they induce fear and elicit a flight response.
Such responses are not difficult to distinguish because they generally involve raised head-carriage, hollowed loins, short choppy steps and tendencies to quicken.
We recommend that systematically inducing fear in horses should not be used in horse-training.
- An excerpt from Equitation Science, volume 2 by Andrew McLean, Paul McGreevy, Janne Whinther Christensen & Uta König von Borstel
06/05/2024
I sat and observed for part of a training session this week. It was fascinating.
The horse is presenting with aggression in several different circumstances. Aggression is a highly complex group of behaviours, the goal of which is to protect a resource necessary to life such as food, companionship, even liberty. It can be caused by pain or fear, and can be reinforced accidentally very easily. Finding the cause is key to finding the solution. I suspect that for this horse there are different causes in each situation.
So I sat and watched.
What do you see? Do you notice that every time the handler moves as if to go away, the horse threatens? Do you see that the horse does not maintain his own immobility? Does not step back when he encounters the pressure from the crossties? Flinches when the brush approaches his hindgut area? Each of these observations are key to my treatment plan for the aggression presented when being handled directly.
Lots of learning to be done as I work with the owners on this one! Thankfully, some brilliant minds have done excellent research on aggression in horses. I’m excited.
05/24/2024
Arrow was a champ on the mountain trip this past weekend! Tried everything and did it well. It was a lovely time away.
05/15/2024
Tesla helping teach lessons today.
05/01/2024
Lowering the horse’s head lowers heart rate and aids in relaxation so it is an excellent training tool to help keep a horse below threshold while learning. Here, Ben is learning a cue for ‘head down’ that makes it convenient to use, even from the saddle. If he gets tense while riding, I will have a ‘relax button’ to push!
04/20/2024
Curious horses are shown in studies to learn faster. Promoting curiosity then would be a good training practice. Horses show curiosity in different ways. Some horses are curious about sights, others about sounds. This little guy is very curious about smells. He always wants to approach and smell new things. Way better than being terrified of new things right! So why not let and encourage your horse to investigate? It will promote relaxation and learning.
04/16/2024
Autumn is coming! Lesson registration open for September 2024-June 2025. Link to info and registration in comments.
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This horse is so much fun. He’s been in long-term once-a-week training with me and just keeps improving. So much talent. 💕 I remember when he was heavy and pushy and couldn’t stand still, and now he is soft, light, easy to move, and so, so willing.
I sat and observed for part of a training session this week. It was fascinating.
The horse is presenting with aggression in several different circumstances. Aggression is a highly complex group of behaviours, the goal of which is to protect a resource necessary to life such as food, companionship, even liberty. It can be caused by pain or fear, and can be reinforced accidentally very easily. Finding the cause is key to finding the solution. I suspect that for this horse there are different causes in each situation.
So I sat and watched.
What do you see? Do you notice that every time the handler moves as if to go away, the horse threatens? Do you see that the horse does not maintain his own immobility? Does not step back when he encounters the pressure from the crossties? Flinches when the brush approaches his hindgut area? Each of these observations are key to my treatment plan for the aggression presented when being handled directly.
Lots of learning to be done as I work with the owners on this one! Thankfully, some brilliant minds have done excellent research on aggression in horses. I’m excited.
#equitationscience
Lowering the horse’s head lowers heart rate and aids in relaxation so it is an excellent training tool to help keep a horse below threshold while learning. Here, Ben is learning a cue for ‘head down’ that makes it convenient to use, even from the saddle. If he gets tense while riding, I will have a ‘relax button’ to push!
#creativetraining
#equitationscience
#classicalconditioning
#relax
#clairetyhorsemanship
Piaffe training doesn’t have to involve ropes, pulleys, and whipping. Shaping the steps with combined reinforcement from the very first lift and hold of one leg at a time to multiple strides in cadence, which is what Tesla is practicing now. There is still more shaping to do before it is truly correct.
Training according to learning theory is more pleasant for everyone involved.
Here’s Hunter, working on ground riding. This way the go, stop, and turn cues are all pre-trained exactly how they will feel to the horse when I get on.
#stepbysteptraining
I love my riding lessons. They are so picky!
Tesla and I have been working on upward transitions since our last lesson in November. It was slow going, but there is significantly less hollowing in the upward transitions now. The clip is part of what I sent to my instructor.
Now what we have to work on—I kid you not—is having Tesla’s front feet take off sooner. Currently, as you see in the clip, her front feet go behind her girth before they lift off, so despite her much nicer posture, she is still on the forehand. My homework involves walking as slowly as possible and moving one foot at a time to increase Tesla’s stability and ambidexterity.
Pretty cool stuff, am I right?
Teaching you to get horses to do what you want them to
Claire started riding when she was seven, and by age nine decided to be a trainer. Over 13 years, she has engaged in many disciplines, including dressage, jumping, western, and ranching, and has ridden various breeds, as well as young horses and problem horses.
She has spent ten years experimenting with different trainers’ methods, from traditional to natural horsemanship. She picked up the best aspects of each of these methods and has incorporated them into her own work with horses. However, like many of her clients, Claire found that often these trainers could not help her understand why their method worked, or what to do if it didn’t. Horses are trained every time they are handled, so she believes horse lovers must understand how their horse’s mind works.
During her nine months of study and work at the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre (AEBC), Claire completed the Diploma of Equitation Science, one of the first Canadians to do so. This has enabled her to bring together training methods to train horses in an ethical way that can be adapted to any horse and rider. Equitation Science explains how horse training works through learning theory. This means she can create new solutions to difficult problems because of her thorough knowledge of learning theory.
Claire believes horse riding is more enjoyable with a well trained horse. Known for gentle and effective teaching, she has been helping riders of all ages and abilities improve their horse handling and riding for the past five years. She enjoys using exercises that create effective, fun, and challenging lessons, making her a favourite at riding camps. Seeing horse owners incorporate her clear instruction to achieve success in training their own horses is what inspires her teaching.
In addition to the Diploma in Equitation Science from Equitation Science International (ESI), Claire is certified to instruct horse riding and handling by ESI, holds a Diploma in Equine Studies with Distinction from the University of Guelph, Canada, and has attained 4-H Level 5 Horsemanship.
