One full minute of a horse falling asleep while getting scratches.
No tricks, gimmicks, or drugs. No magical stick training. 1.5 years of hard work, consistent training, and trying to recreate a safe, enriching world. And finally this horse feels comfortable enough to begin not just enjoying scratches, but taking a nap after asking for them.
Pasture interactions can be a reflection of how the horse feels in its environment and with the training it does receive. For Oberon, even changing to primarily food-based training and having multiple acres didn’t change his opinions overnight. He has needed repeated, good experiences and opportunities to make choices in as many scenarios as possible. We have worked and reworked how we approach challenges. He came to me with an amazing set of behaviors—he loads, leads, ties, holds still for vet examinations, and even could have his feet trimmed. But, he would be rigid, you could hear his breath pickup, and he would sometimes startle explosively. He has a kick that will send you to the hospital.
His behavior didn’t reflect his internal state, because training is only the tiniest slice of the puzzle. You can create some behaviors in days, minutes even for certain ones. But recreating a horse’s world view takes years. For some, depending on past history, current living condition, and age, it may never change. For others, it may not take much to help them open up and begin to explore the world.
But, there is no speeding past to get to this point. Be prepared to buckle up and put in the work. But I promise it is worth it.
GENTLE RESTRAINT
For emergency situations.
Teaching your horses how to respond to pressure and restraint is an incredibly valuable tool. You can apply it in a number of situations and it can help keep them calm with a behavior they know how to do even when the situation makes them uncomfortable. It is not a substitute for training and should be phased out where appropriate, but it can drastically reduce the risk of a behavioral injury in an emergency situation. Just like you would for formal training, try and introduce stimuli slowly and build your way towards the final goal rather than racing to the target—your horse will thank you, and it might save you an unintentional hospital trip for yourself!
#horsetraining #thinslicing #horsecaretips
GENTLE RESTRAINT
For emergency situations.
Teaching your horses how to respond to pressure and restraint is an incredibly valuable tool. You can apply it in a number of situations and it can help keep them calm with a behavior they know how to do even when the situation makes them uncomfortable. It is not a substitute for training and should be phased out where appropriate, but it can drastically reduce the risk of a behavioral injury in an emergency situation. Just like you would for formal training, try and introduce stimuli slowly and build your way towards the final goal rather than racing to the target—your horse will thank you, and it might save you an unintentional hospital trip for yourself!
HABITUATION: How wild horses can get used to explosions
Sound on. 🔊
This was loud enough I could feel it in my chest a little bit. I started filming after several detonations occured. Habituation can be an incredibly powerful thing!
#detonation #explosion #wildhorses
WHY BEHAVIOR CONSULTANTS DON’T RECOMMEND TRAINING FOR A PROBLEM BEHAVIOR AS A FIRST STEP
WHY BEHAVIOR CONSULTANTS DON’T RECOMMEND TRAINING OR RETRAINING AS AN INITIAL SOLUTION FOR A PROBLEM BEHAVIOR
Obviously, horses still need care even if they don’t feel comfortable. For this situation, we took a few steps to ensure work could be done on the feet while also keeping the farrier safe.
1. Administration of pain medication prior to farrier visit as directed by a veterinarian
2. Moving to a spot with dirt and no gravel to help horse be more comfortable
3. Using a bucket with sloppy food, to keep the horse’s head straight and to indicate when frustration levels were increasing for the horse
4. Frequent pauses, aiming for stopping before the horse escalates to any problem behaviors
5. An amazing farrier
There may be residual behaviors even after pain goes away due to the horse remembering discomfort with the procedure. We can never be 100% certain a horse is pain free. But, we might begin retraining this behavior if we have enough other indicators that the pain is likely to be gone. And, in some cases, the problem behavior goes away when the pain does.
#behaviorconsultant #horsebehaviour #horsehealth
DOES YOUR HORSE LOOK LIKE THIS DURING TRAINING?
Training is an art form and each horse is an individual. Your horse’s behavior is good information about where improvements can be made.
#clickertraining #horsetreats #horsetips #horsetraining #horse
FOLLOWER VIDEO: We love to see hard work pay off!
I got this fantastic video in from a client, whose horse is on an ulcer medication trial. They have been using the videos/tips/and tricks from social media to help there mare cooperate with receiving her medication. They are looking good!
Wormer tube training is a relatively easy behavior to train (assuming your horse does not have past trauma associated with it). And teaching it can teach you a great deal about timing and shaping. I always recommend starting with a barrier between you and the horse (protected contact). But this can be a fun one to train even if you don't usually use food in training!
#horsetraining #cooperativecare
TRAINING TIP: Inclement Weather
Training on bad weather days is important—the goal is for horses to be comfortable performing behaviors in a huge variety of settings rain or shine. But, we don’t have to pair our most difficult behaviors with gross weather days. It’s often far more productive not to, so we don’t risk creating a situation that results in trauma for us or the horse. But that doesn’t mean we won’t ever use train those hard behaviors in difficult environments. Sticking to well known behavior the horse likes performing initially can help build your horse’s confidence in bad weather. And you’ll be amazed what they can perform even in the weirdest conditions with a strong foundation under your belt.
#horsetraining #hoofcare #clickertraining
FOOD PREFERENCE TEST
When working with food, ideally we want to use the least valuable food the horse will still work to receive. But, sometimes the food we think is the most valuable sits somewhere else in the horse’s mind. Things like levels of hunger can also affect results. So, multiple tests over time are best for finding the food to use in training.
Have you done a food preference test with your horse? What did you discover?
#horsetraining #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses
COME WITH ME TO PASTURE ROTATE HORSES
Behavior nerds, what to do you think: synchrony or trained behavior?
The horses intially learned to go in the back with a series of buckets. And, Obie has learned to follow me to those. But, today, there are no buckets. No markers. No treats. This is also the first time Obie has stuck himself in the paddock instead of going down the alley from the main pasture.
I have no treats or buckets. Just some opportunity for fresh grass at the other end, some cues trained with food and a marker, and some knowledge of syncrhony under my belt. I’d say they did pretty good!
#horsetraining #pasturerotation #synchrony
Did you catch the moment the filly's behavior of walking in front of her dam got reinforced?
Bonus question for behavior nerds: Where would you stick this in our operant quadrants?
The dam is 7 years old and this is her first filly. The band separated from the main herd for the foaling, but are now back with the main herd.
#wildhorses #foal #horsesoftiktok #feralhorses
A young colt, removing pieces of a tumbleweed species to eat. These are thorny plants.
QUESTION FOR YOU:
If you could choose a topic for an information or training video you had free access to, what would it be?
One of the greatest challenges I find is deciding what kind of content to film and produce, especially when so many behaviors and situations are nuanced. Many trainers will provide free videos and resources on widely applicable topics to help people get an idea of what they do without having to spend any money. I think this is an excellent way to get an introduction to someone before taking a leap of faith with their services.
So, for you, if you could have access to any video on any subject, what would you choose?
#horses #horsetraining #questionforyou
Salt Lake City (and Surrounding Area)
I have in-person behavior consultation and lesson slots available from April 28th through May 15th.
Consultations:
If you’re experiencing a problem behavior with your horse (examples: biting, bolting, reactivity), I may be able to help. I am building up my case load in preparation for taking the exam for the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. After I am certified, my rates will go up so take advantage of it now! Consultations come with a behavioral modification plan, one month of support where you can call or text me with any questions, weekly checkins, and one free follow-up session. I am here to guide you through difficult behaviors—I don’t abandon my clients!
Learn more about consultations here: https://equineabcs.com/behavior-consultation/
You can check out the IAABC and learn more about their organization’s mission and policy here: https://iaabc.org
I am also available for both clicker training (aka positive reinforcement) or pressure/release lessons (negative reinforcement). Lessons are done on-site with you and your equine.
Lessons can be booked here: https://equineabcs.com/improve-your-training/
Learn more about me and explore other services at my website:
https://equineabcs.com
Have questions? You can schedule a FREE 15 minute zoom with me with no obligations to make a booking.
https://equineabcs.as.me/schedule.php?appointmentType=60789796
Reducing Costs
If you’re alright with me filming sessions to use for social media and education, I can offer services at a reduced cost. Please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] to learn more!
TRAIN A COOPERATIVE DEWORMING PROCEDURE
Training a cooperative care procedure for dewormer is good place to start if you’re beginning to explore food reward based training. There are many ways to train it, but here is one. This assumes you already have a conditioned marker!
1. Use a low value food—the lowest your horse will work for (soaked timothy pellets are good).
2. Have your horse behind a safe fence (not electric) with a pan you can drop food into.
3. Raise a fake wormer tube up. The action of raising it often will get a horse to look ar it. Mark this.
4. Place food in bucket (and remove tube). This sets you up to repeat.
5. Repeat a few times until you get a fast, consistent response.
6. Up the criteria: For some horses, this is reaching towards the tube. For others it is touching it.
7. Continue to gradually ask for a little more until you are getting a consistent nose touch to the tube.
8. Up the criteria again and click for some lip movement. If your horse likes molasses, you can coat the tip of the tube in that to encourage mouth movement.
9. Gradually shape this to get more of an open mouth behavior. A soft, slightly open mouth will allow you to manuever the tube at later steps.
10. Work at this level for a while to ensure your horse knows this behaivor well.
11. Begin to add duration in the form of slight movement.
12. Create longer and longer duration, adjusting the the criteria to create the behavior you’re hoping for.
13. Add water (or another liquid) into the tube. Go back to an easier criteria for a while. They will taste what is at the end of the tube so use wisely.
14. Build back to duration.
15. Add tiny amounts of the liquid
16. Build duration + liquid amount together.
17. Add in movement of the tube if you like.
Notes: Watch your click timing carefully! If you click at the wrong moment you could get a horse that thinks biting the tube is best. Make sure to use a dummy tube that is safe (so, like not glass)
Keep sessions 2 minutes or
Systematic Desensitization - A brief description
A very brief breakdown of systematic desensitization. For something like gunshots, I think habituation with environments setup to give horses safe places to be can be an even more effective tool—and, it doesn’t require extensive time investment like systematic desensitization often requires.
But you’re all here for my fashion sense, right?
#systematicdesentization #mountedshooting #horsetraining
Good training is like watching paint dry. I usually only get videos of dramatic problem behaviors in 3 cases:
1. The client already has a video prior to contacting me
2. I happen to be videoing and unexpectedly trigger the behavior
3. I make a mistake.
In the case of 2 and 3, I do what I need to get me and the horse in a safe spot, then I walk away until I’ve made a solid plan to re-approach situation in a way that will not trigger the behavior and will minimize or eliminate stress for the horse.
#horsedewormer #problembehaviors
#behaviormodificationtraining #retraininghorses
Wormer Training
This has been about 15 sessions over the course of 1.5 years. As long as they have learned the behavior, you can resume training even after long stretches between training.
#clickertraining #horsetraining #horsedewormer
Are you good at reading horse’s emotions?
A recent paper published in Applied Animal Behavior Science found that participants with horse experience only correctly identified horse’s emotional states around 50% of the time.
While I don’t have the study photos, I have put together 5 videos where context makes the emotions of the horses fairly clear. How many can you correctly identify?
Read the full paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159124000194
Toothless was Trained With Fish, Scratches, and Play
(or positive reinforcement)
Of course, lack of clarity when using food in training (or when using pressure for that matter) can cause frustration. But, with good and ethical application of food in training, horses are likely to develop positive associations to us and the things directly associated with our arrival. Don’t be surprised if they get as excited about your car arriving as they do the food truck! (And if they are overexcited, that’s some good data that training could benefit from some cleanup.)
#positivereinforcement #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses