What Tigger has taught me about Positive Punishment training

So what has Tigger taught me about dominance/fear/punishment based training and how does that help me in the horse world??

First things first he taught me I can't control everything or dominant all animals. Most dogs (or horses)  will give in to your requests and won't fight back if you get physical. Unfortunately that is why us humans have gotten so good at punishment based training. It is reinforcing to us. We jerk, hit, or threaten and it scares the dog or animal enough for them to give in to us.

Well not in my world...I live with a 120lb dog that has brain damage. So what does that mean, it means he has no off button. He does not have the self restraint to stop... He will bite me, more than that he could and would seriously attack me if he felt threaten. How do I know this, well because I have been on the receiving end of his bites twice, and he has come at me with the intend to harm (while muzzled).

So why in the world do we keep him? Because he is a very loving dog, and it is not his fault that he has brain damage. Plus we have learned how to safely live with him! First off we had to let go of any fear based training. He knows his commands of sit and down. We worked with him as a partner and through positive reinforcement gained his trust and respect. We carefully manage his world and try to see any problems that might arise. For example I have taught him to sit and be muzzled (he expresses his opinions, but does it).  See with Tigger there is no option of physically making him do what you want because plan and simple he would hurt us. If I can convince a dog with a brain injury to work with me through positive reinforcement than why not use it on my horses too :)

In so many ways this translates over to horses. They are big and have the potential to hurt you. For the most part since they are prey animals they will give in to pressure easily, but sometimes you get the one that decides to voice their opinion as they should! The downfall with them voicing their opinion is it can hurt you. One kick, buck or rear and you can be seriously injured. The advantage of positive reinforcement training is that you considerably lower the risk of them acting out because you don't put them in the position where they feel like they have to. Does it guarantee your safety,no, but it gives you much better odds if you ask me.

Tigger and I some years back. He was 2 years old here...now he is 7 1/2 :( 

Spring time updates

Spring is here :) And I sure have been enjoying the longer days. The last two evenings have been spent at the barn. We had some super relaxed and awesome sessions with Navi, Willow, and Pixie.

Pixie and I enjoyed a quiet 1 1/2 hr ride last night around the ranch. We did some hill work and some trotting in the hay field. (The vet said she needs to lose weight). After riding out we went into the outdoor arena and did some more trotting and a little canter work.

Pixie needing more exercise plus Willow and I are still working through our min of 30 rides out and about just means life is busy :) . I am going to go out every other day at a min to make sure everyone gets ample time.

Last Wednesday everyone got their spring vaccinations and Char got her teeth floated. We discovered she lost a tooth at some point...not sure when that happened. It shouldn't be too much of an issue, she will just have to get her teeth done twice a year. Jess is still healing up from the hole in his cheek so he will get his teeth done next month. Oh yes, the hole in the cheek...we don't know how that happened either. We could speculate, but honestly it is all guessing. The good news is only a little over a week out and he is doing great!

Looking forward to heading out today. Supposed to be sunny and 65, you can't ask for better weather!

Expectations

A common thought is that Positive Reinforcement training makes you passive, but I can't think of anything farther from the truth. Everyone has their own opinion (as they should :) ) though so because of that let me give you a list of expectations that I have for my horses.

First of I expect my horses to be safe around people. Absolutely no kicking, rearing, bolting, etc...

Beyond the basic safety behaviors here is a list of some of the behaviors I expect from my horses:

• Leading nicely- and by that I mean I want them to match my pace. If I am slow, they are slow, if I back they back, etc...
• Stand tied- Pixie is my only horse that will on occasion set back when tied, I can usually predict when not to tie her though.  To combat that behavior I just taught her to ground tie while we are grooming and tacking up. 
• Ignore other horses when we are leading or riding past them. If a horse in the pasture next to us takes off I fully expect my horse to look, but then I want them to focus back on me and walk calmly. 
• Lunge walk/trot/canter on a loose line or free lunge without leaving me. 
• Pick up all for feet on command and hold their own foot, I hate being leaned on! 
• Accept worming and other medication without much fuss.  
• Stand for mounting beside anything I line them up too. Example stumps, rocks, mounting blocks, trucks, etc.  
• Flex automatically when I mount up. I shouldn't have to tell them too, I want them checking in the minute I sit down in the saddle. 
• Flex to both sides with barely an ounce of pressure. 
• Back up under saddle when I barely pick up the reins
• Whoa the minute I take a deep breath- no matter the gait. Inside and outside the arenas
•  Be able to line up to gates so I can open them- Both Willow and Pixie are finally mastering this. We are now open both the round pen gates and outdoor arena gate. The trails this summer will be our next test :) 
• Yield both front and back end with very light cue.
• Be traffic safe- I ride along the road and I need them to ignore all vehicles including semi trucks.
• In general be trail safe. Which is why we are working with Willow right now, she is far spookier than I want her to be :)  
• Be polite around treats. I walk in my pasture with my treat bag on me. I expect them to be polite around me and the other horses when I am present. They are not to mug me or be pushy. Treat manners are a safety behavior for me since all five horses are pastured together I can't have them mugging me when I am in the pasture with treats. 

Ok, so that is what I can think of right now. Keep in mind I ride in halters only. So I expect my horses to respond to the lightest of touch without a bit. I want them so in tune with my body language that others don't notice my cues. Now of course we are not perfect and I will be training them for the rest of their lives, lol, but we perfect one thing at a time. Yes, we still have holes we are working on when out on the trails and when distractions are present :) 

In the end, regardless of what we are doing, I expect my horses to be responsible for watching me and responding to my cues. I want them thinking on their own though, I hate micro managing. Which is why +R training works so well for me because it teaches them to think and figure things out. This training is far from passive if anything we expect more from our horses because we know they are capable of doing it. The difference is we don't use pain or fear to teach them. The horse has the choice, which makes the behavior 100x more reliable in my opinion. Once they understand what you want and it has become a trained behavior you will rarely see them not perform on cue. For example when I mount Pixie, no matter where I am or what I am mounting from, she will flex the minute I get in the saddle and will continue until I ask her to move off. This makes mounting safer for me because she is thinking flex not forward and she isn't relying on me to hold the reins. I physically am not holding her there she is responsible for herself. (Of course she is rewarded for this behavior )

Lost Connection for Willow and I

Yesterday I headed out to the barn by myself and had planned on riding Willow for our 4th ride. I didn't have any real plans other than ride and play with her, but when I arrived I ran into a couple of other ladies and we decided to all ride together.

I started with ground work and Willow did great. After warming up we tacked up and rode in the arena for a bit before heading out to the trails. She did well the first part of the ride, but then we got into some mud and new territory. She got upset then and did some small spooks and dancing. We made it up to the top of the hill we were riding and I decided to dismount to hand walk down the muddy hills. I had lost the connection once we hit that mud and she got nervous so I figured no reason to try and ride her down the hill. Could I have ridden her down the hill, sure I probably could have, she wasn't doing anything I couldn't handle, but why. Once we made it down the long hill it was very clear she was concerned with the other horses and getting home so I decided it would be a good opportunity to work on some leading manners. So we walked the rest of the way home, lol. We did some yielding and very low key things, but even when I asked quietly, many times she would get very very anxious and move very fast around me. Not what I was looking for all. I gave her rewards for quiet behaviors and we stopped to graze a lot, but I never felt the connection come back. It was plainly obvious that she was more worried about the other horses (who were a bit anxious and rushy too)  and getting home.

To be clear I never felt like I didn't have control over the situation. That was never an issue, physically Willow did what I asked. She never tried to pull the lead rope out of my hands, she responded to me when I would ask her to move her feet, but mentally she was gone. I always ask myself when working with my horses if my lead rope wasn't here would they still be with me. And my answer was very clear yesterday, Willow would have been gone.

While the ride/walk, lol, wasn't the greatest ever, it was a good eye opener on what Willow and I need to work on. We definitely went to far to fast. That is okay, we just take some steps back now. My revised game plan now is that I either ride Willow alone or just with my partner. That way I can end the ride when we are still working together and she isn't anxious. It is not fair to ride with others and cut their ride short. By summer I figure Willow and I will be back to riding all the trails with my riding friends :)  

Once again Pixie Owned it!

Sunday we got the chance to go out and enjoy a nice sunny winter day. We decided to ride out around on the roads close to the barn. I was riding Willow ( 3rd ride out of our min. of 30) and my partner was riding Pixie. The purpose of this ride was to help with my partners confidence. Willow has been spooking a lot while they ride and it hasn't been helping either of them. We warmed up in the arena. Where I might add Willow was awesome! We did some walk, gait, and canter work before heading out. Pixie and my partner warmed up and started to come together. Pixie was a little confused in the beginning when I wasn't riding her. After we all felt comfortable we headed out with two other riders. The 4 of us headed down the road. Things were good, but my partner was nervous so we decided to head back after just a quick ride. Well going back one of the other riders decided to split off and go the other way around. Well needless to say we didn't make it really far before we heard the thundering of hooves behind us. The other horse decided it was NOT going to split off from the group and basically ran away with his owner and came back to the group. Well Pixie and my partner were in the back of the group. It is always scary for horses to have another one run up behind them. They don't know why he/she is running. My partner became very nervous, but Pixie held it together for the both of them. She handled it like a champ. Actually all three of the horses did extremely well! And once the other caught up with us he was good to go too. Then we calmly road back to arena :) I continued to ride with the others, while my partnered call it good for the day. I did switch horses though and rode Pixie for the last part of the ride.

After the ride Pixie and I did some liberty work. Besides liberty work we practiced side pass at the trot. She did it beautifully!

It is events like this that make it even more clear to me why making sure we have a connection with our horses is so very important. I don't want to have to rely on equipment to control my horse. Obviously I do have to to a certain point. I have to make sure they are safely under control when out in the open, but beyond that I want to know that in a scary situation they look to us for safety and it isn't just the fear of pain stopping them from running away. There are many times when I am with my horses that it may not look like we are doing much. It may just look like we standing or wondering around, but in reality I am working on making sure I have that connection before I ask more of them. If I don't have them "with" me it is pointless to continue on with training something. I want more than just the physical action I want their mind in it too. More importantly I want them to be happy and not fearful. But there is the hard part of all this...Making sure the horse is okay with the training.

Winter has returned and Thinking of a fun possibility

I had been enjoying our really mild winter, but now we return to our normal temps and snow. Not much snow luckily, but cold. In all actuality it still isn't bad outside. As long as we dress for the weather it can be tolerated.  Because of the return of winter I have only gotten one more ride in on Willow, however today I hope to have another ride on her.

Pixie and I enjoyed a nice afternoon together on Friday. We played in the indoor arena. We did some ground work and then rode bareback some. She was very light and connected for the most part. At times she wanted to go see the horse that was inside with us, but overall she stayed with me. We even played with the ball, boy she loves playing with the ball :)

So on to my fun possibility. I have been toying around with this idea in my head for a while. I haven't said it out loud to anyone though. It is something I have gone back and forth with for many reasons. The main reason is time. I don't have a lot of extra time, but still I think I might just be using that as an excuse :) If you want something bad enough you will make time for it. I just have to make sure that not one of my animals will suffer because of it. I still have to make sure I have enough time to work with my herd/pack, lol. Good thing spring is coming and it will be daylight longer :)

So what is it...well I think I want to start helping people with their horses. I want to do some demos or lessons, for lack of a better term. I don't want to do this to make money so it won't be something I charge for. I want to do this to help show people there is a different way, a way to train without causing pain or fear in their horse. I want them to see that a true connection is available without bit,spurs, whips, etc.  That they don't need pain to control their horse. I want to show them what I have discovered over my lifetime with horses. I learn more ever day. My learning will never be complete, but I hope to pass on what I have learned thus far. I want to know that I did everything I could to make the world a better place for horses. My passion is training/teaching so it is something I will do. I love seeing others learn and grow so I look forward to pursuing this.

More on that later, but for now I am off to get ready for breakfast with friends (that sadly are moving away ) and then on to the barn for the day :)