Recently, on the Yahoo Classical Dressage group talk has turned to how to deal with ‘bad’ behavior such as biting and kicking. Absolutely all agree that this is not something that we ‘wee humans’ can really tolerate since our bodies are pretty fragile when compared to horses. They can do Real Damage to us! There is no agreement, however, as to what is the right way to deal with such...
Recently I wrote about horses who drag owners to eat grass. In response, Nell made a deceptively simple comment, “So what if your horse has a fit? – does this work both ways?” I’d replied, “Sure, if her ‘fits’ get your attention!”
That exchange got me to thinking about reinforcement in general and how important it is to understand how behaviors get stronger or weaker. This...
Recently this issue came up on the Clickryder group. What to do when you are walking your horse and he just dives for the grass without any thought of you. No amount of clicker training for leading nicely seems to keep the horse from running to the grass when he sees it. I answered it there and I thought it was a good one to keep. I added a few more thoughts here.
To me, this is a great example of needing to...