Clicker training, liberty work, and pressure and release.

This post isn't about any one horse really. It more has to do with my stance on training. Years ago only one way of horse training was known. It was harsh, and all to often you hear the reasoning it has to be so harsh is because they are big animals so you have to be harsh in order to be safe. And in some cases I won't dispute that reasoning. They are big animals with the ability to hurt you, but in most cases you don't have to be harsh to get good results.

Back when I got Pixie she was flighty, not trusting, and had no confidence.  It took me a while to find that out though. I had already ridden her and it wasn't until I did new things I figure out instead of her looking to me for safety she thought she had to leave. She wanted nothing to do with me when things got scary. So I turned to traditional natural horsemanship methods to try and find the answers. Some worked, and other days we were running around the round pen for hours and she was out of her mind with fright. It was one of those days I decided this wasn't working there had to be another way. So I started looking into my ways of training dogs and reading up on positive reward training for horses.

I started by just hanging out with her, no more riding until we got trust.  We introduced her to the clicker and food rewards. I used a combination of pressure and release with rewards to teach her the important things like not bolting when something scary happened. Then I started to teach her to think things through by using the clicker to start target training. We started with easy things like touch the mounting block and get rewarded. I wanted her to learn how to learn. We spend months on ground work alone. During that time most of it was spend off line in the round pen. Not running, but just hanging out. I wanted to know how far I could push before she left me. Haltering her and forcing her to stay was a band aid approach for her. She needed learn on her own that I was the safe place, but without force.  I had set a goal of in one year we would be able to trail ride. We did meet that goal :)

I prefer to work at liberty with my horses, it gives them the chance to say no and for me to figure out why they are saying no. Does this mean they get to do what ever they want, nope it does not. I set rules and boundaries just like with positive reward dog training. Do I still use traditional tack? Yes, I do. We use halters, bridles, bits, saddles, etc... I am not an against the use of tack, I just don't like to use it as a band aid. Does it have its place to teach new things...yes, I recently switch bits with Pixie to try and help her collect better. It worked. But now I mix it up ride with just the halter one day and the bit the next. I will always try to find the least forceful way to teach something first. I have no time limit with my horses, so I can take as long as I need to train new things.

I made mistakes with Pixie and learned from them. Jess didn't have to learn anything new, and Willow we have used our new ways of training and she has grown so much in the last few months. Navi will be trained using a combination of pressure and release and clicker training.