This video is annotated, so I wonât write a whole bunch. Itâs some more of the same from the last video, but Iâm adding a new stimulus and duration with moving the plunger, which takes a little bit of time and thereâs a âclickâ at the end which also sends a vibration into her mouth. Previously that was difficult for her, but she doesnât have a response to it now.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #mustang #husbandry #cooperativecare #husbandrytraining #cooperativecaretraining #artoftraining #humanehandling #stillness
Some thoughts about experimenting with affordances and behavior chains:
đł Loosely playing with the idea of going from affordances to behavior chains. Exploring several possible affordances can lead to a the emergence of a behavior chain, which can then be taken into the âreal world.â
đł The square, pole, and cone are my version of affordances, and it was fun to find a different way to use them than just simply going around.
đł Siri was low energy, so I tried shoulder-in around the square instead of just walking or trying to go faster.
đł You can reverse engineer a behavior chain (cone, jump, square to get the horse to come around the square, over the jump, and stop at the cone), or look at it non-linearly (those things taught separately then combined, which is how I happened to do it).
đł Just try something - make up an exercise on the fly from props (square, jump, cone).
đł Try other things - do something else with the same setup (shoulder-in, jump, cone).
đł Itâs a little bit like Legos - you have the components, and from that you put things together.
đł I would never do this one at speed, but itâs an interesting thing to try at âslow.â
đł It challenges a few different axes of movement in succession, as well as the horseâs desire to be in the moment and respond to each request rather than assuming whatâs next.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #experientialequitation #behaviorchains #affordances #ecologicaldynamics #intrinzeninspired #doweirdthings #gotrythings #novelmovement #movementpuzzle
The point is not to make everything calm, itâs to be so synchronous that together youâre agile and adaptable.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #synchronicity #agile
Over the past week or so, Iâve been looking at the world through the lens of affordances. I received an electric fireplace and hadnât decided where to put it before it was assembled. The cabinet and insert are not attached to the base, so I had to move the whole unit entirely from the base, or take it apart.
There was a half-assed way to move it as well (remove the cabinet to relieve some weight, which I also did), but I wanted to see what it would take for my body to move it the way it was, just to see if I could find an affordance and use it as a way to organize my body in a novel way.
Although I probably made myself sore, moving it the stupid way was surprisingly entertaining and a much more interesting puzzle than I expected. I probably wonât do it again. đ
Also, my cat thought it was a special ride, just for him.
#affordances #ecologicaldynamics #heavythings #intrinsicmotivation #intrinzeninspired #doweirdthings #gotrythings #fibrobody #novelmovement #movementpuzzle #cathelp
I had to do some videoing for a consult with legendary trainer Trudi Dempsey: Equine Trainer and Behaviour Consultant, because everyone should be getting outside help. I mean, letâs face it: I am obviously incredible, but even *I* need help sometimes! đ Anyhow, in setting up to video, I once again learned the lesson of antecedent arrangement. Iâd set my phone up against a feed tub (just like the other one you can see) thinking neither of the horses would even notice, let alone care. I was wrong! Both were interested, and both just had to investigate. Yay for investigatory behavior and intrinsic motivation! (Boo for my temporarily ineffective hand target! đ) Which meant I had to reset the camera, and try to call the horses off the shiny little rectangle in order to get the footage I needed. Even more hilariously, one of them smeared the screen so I couldnât stop the video and got several seconds of my (as ever unintentional) scowl, now here for your amusement.
Second video in comments because Facebook doesn't want to make good on its promise to add videos to a post.
Moral of the story: donât assume your horse doesnât notice changes in their environment. Even shiny little rectangles.
You can find Trudi at www.equine.training, as well as her podcast, âLead A Horse To Water.â
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #artoftraining #humor #antecedent #antecedentarrangement #rbf #enrichment #intrinsicmotivation
I was part of an immensely cool discussion with @pantherflows and @r_eflectiveequine, among others, about what we do when a horse is stuck in freeze mode, staring at something. I shared an idea I use either for crisis management or for taking the opportunity to experiment with nervous system down regulation, but not a total overload (hopefully thatâs obvious - if youâre over threshold, abort mission if you can).
There were some different ideas on whether to click or not, which was awesome because I spent the next week thinking about it. I click, and came to that conclusion after that week because yes, I do want to âtrainâ this behavior. Iâm fairly certain my (and my clientsâ) horses are not conflicted about the food, itâs not playing a distractionary role (thereâs a place for that, too), they have all the time they want to look at the thing, I donât ask for their attention unless I can see theyâre close to offering it, and they can go back to looking at the thing if they want to. I donât need their attention 100% of the time. If I do need it for some reason, I can try a target and see if that works. Most often there comes a point where theyâre ready to reengage.
A bulleted list of my idea:
âŞď¸ Click/feed when horse checks in with you
âŞď¸ Wait for the horse, donât ask for their attention
âŞď¸ Opportunity to learn subtle body language and develop your timing
âŞď¸ Move away if you need to
This has sort of an ethical component to it. One could argue that itâs not ethical to directly manipulate the emotions of another being. Since I am rewarding the horse for bringing their attention back to me, I am prioritizing - putting a higher value on - the horseâs shift away from freeze. I am prioritizing the emotion I want over what the horse may need to feel in that moment. I would argue that horses living in domestication do have to change their lives in order to accommodate people, and this is a comparatively non-invasive way to co
Now I know why the dirt mound is shaped that way. Iâm really impressed by her body control and range of motion.
#tracklife #brainsnotreins #affordances #intrinzeninspired #movementdiversity #enrichment
Lightning, mustang mare that Iâm teaching to cooperatively halter. Sheâs not easy to catch 100% of the time, but itâs not necessarily an ordeal.
Sheâs historically flung her head around during R+ training, generally from food anxiety (even though weâre just using hay pellets).
She wasnât understanding how to lower her head and drop it into the noseband without flinging it and the halter, so I used a cone target. This is not revolutionary, itâs a very common practice. However, thinking of it as a constraint might be a little different - using the cone to constrain the movement choices without using restraint. A âconstraints-led approach.â (See Rob Gray below.)
Seems like a waste of time to teach a horse something they already know well enough to get the job done, right? But whatâs really important here, tasks or learning? Both are necessary, but the objective can change based on whether itâs a training situation or a âliveâ one. Because sheâs reasonably catchable, Iâm not worried about having to get the whole job done for safetyâs sake right now.
By teaching them something they already know, you build learning/reinforcement history and have the opportunity to refine what they know. You can further develop your language/conversation skills so that learning new things is easier because thereâs a greater foundation for communication.
This comes in handy now when working on expectations and structure around food, and later when she will know she can be more focused with her movement, and more aware of her body and proprioception when sheâs started as a riding horse.
Bottom line: it starts on a small scale first. Small scale skills can be scaled up for larger scale behaviors. Itâs almost always time well spent.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #mustang #cooperativecare #cooperativecaretraining #artoftraining #humanehandling #
This is the second session of cooperative oral syringe training with Bucky, a mustang mare of one of my clientsâ. I started with just targeting her muzzle to the syringe, and added the hand target to the bridge of her nose as a separate piece after that, combining them when I was sure she understood both. She knows what the syringe is and doesnât love it, so Iâm not going to get particular about where she touches it. Iâd started off using my hand as a proxy, and built in the syringe from there. This is toward the end of the session, and the last trial shows that I pushed a little farther than she wanted, so she disconnects and goes for the dropped pellets on the ground. No harm done, we did reconnect again.
I was listening to âNot Another Dog and Pony Show Podcastâ (link below). One point made was on fully cooperative care with 100% opt out, and an experience where dogs trained with 100% ability to opt out struggled at the vet when opting out wasnât available.
I have always felt like less of a trainer when teaching cooperative care behavior with ârestraintâ - like with my hand on the horseâs face. I teach it that way because not everyone is going to approach it the cooperative care way, so it made more sense to me to teach it the way people will do it, as long as itâs not unduly stressful for the horse. We can build in restraint as part of the behavior. A kind of future-proofing. It also gives the horse information about whatâs going to happen. I donât fully use my hand as restraint, but will add âegg yolkâ pressure if the horse can handle it. Otherwise I let go and try again. Itâs a good tactile barometer of the horseâs understanding and comfort level. This can work for better or worse, and thatâs where the art of training comes in.
That said, I still do it with no tack as the presence of a halter often creates a mental/emotional restraint. That type of restraint is often what has contributed to the problem Iâm trying to
This is the first time Iâve been able to touch Brandiâs hind foot with my hand. As always, some notes:
âŞď¸ Built-in pauses - looks like Iâm feeding for nothing, but Iâm reinforcing a pause, and then Iâm pausing at shoulder and hip as a check-in to see if going forward is a good idea or not. Also emphasizes the difference between cuing for a foot lift, and *not* cuing (I donât want her to lift her feet willy-nilly if Iâm just standing and not asking).
âŞď¸ I was going to click for my hand touching her hoof. Iâve never gotten to this point before, so at first she lifts her foot and puts it right back down, just like sheâs learned. So, I ask again with fingers at the chestnut (my cue to lift a foot), and this time Iâm able to slide my hand down and catch her foot and actually hold it. If it didnât work this way (which it doesnât quite for the right hind just yet), I can click for just the touch of my hand to her hoof and not try to hold, and build from there.
âŞď¸ Sheâs still not 1000% relaxed in her body. Thatâs always the goal, and sheâs SO MUCH better than she started, but itâs not there yet. Short sessions, high rate of reinforcement, small, logical steps, and alternating between different tasks is whatâs been most effective for getting us to this point, and that will only continue to work for us going forward.
Also pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to click with a cough drop in my mouth. Harder than it sounds! đ
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #hoofhandling #husbandry #cooperativecare #husbandrytraining #cooperativecaretraining #artoftraining #mustang #feralhorse #humanehandling #stillness
Some (scattered) thoughts on a recent moment with Foolâr:
Weâd just taken a break and he was eating across the arena, so I went to the mounting block to see what heâd do. I figured heâd wander over, but I didnât expect the trot.
âŞď¸ Itâs a good sign that the work weâve done is okay and he knows what Iâm going to ask next, but itâs not the whole picture.
âŞď¸ Hereâs where it can go poorly - this looks like enthusiastic participation, and for this part it is, but it was trained, so itâs not a guarantee that heâs 100% all in, it just means itâs worth the trade for timothy pellets. Thatâs not terrible.
âŞď¸ I still have to be careful to back off when heâs no longer leading with yes, and it doesnât mean he wonât change his mind. (He did on this day after a short ride, but he doesnât always).
âŞď¸ This is important because weâre still in the foundation phase with riding in particular, where many small wins are necessary now for some larger leaps forward later.
âŞď¸ Once a horse has got the game, you have a lot more latitude in the affordances you have and the environment and antecedents you can take advantage of. In doing that, you have opportunity to try to develop more intrinsic motivation for the game itself, and less so for the food. This is where it gets fun, and where weâre at right now on the ground. More and more this is where Iâm taking a closer look at my training and looking for ways to find ways to let the horse lead as well as find the right balance of challenge to ability, hopefully employing more intrinsic motivation.
âŞď¸ But we have to make sure the ground is solid enough first, and one of the clearest ways I can do that is with R+ (though, as always, other things are always happening).
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #bitless #experientiallearning #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #intrinzeninspired #artoftraining #problemsolving #humanehandli
