My Training Method
Positive & Negative
Reinforcement
Training
More commonly known as clicker training, it is a training method that uses positive and negative reinforcers to shape desirable and undesirable behaviors in horses.
Positive reinforcers add a wanted or pleasant stimulus to increase or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For example, you ask a horse to pick its foot up and he/she does, he/she gets a treat. You’ve added a stimuli.
Negative reinforcers remove an aversive or unpleasant stimulus to increase or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For example, you use a flag to move your horses hip away, when they step away, you stop waving the flag. You have removed a stimuli. Negative reinforcement is horses is more commonly known as “Pressure”.
How is it done?
Positive Reinforcement— R+
By using a bridging signal, most commonly a click, to mark wanted behavior. The horse than learns to associate the click with a positive stimuli, in my training a small handful of grass hay pellets. I use R+ to teach behaviors such as, handling feet, backing up, saddling, and stops. These are a few examples, your imagination is the limit for R+ training your horse.
Negative Reinforcement— R-
Pressure is applied to the horse in many different situation, most common is leading and riding. You apply pressure by pull on the lead rope and release the pressure when the horse steps forward. When you are riding and you use your reins to turn and let go when your horse starts to turn, R– is what you are using.