I received books about clicker training for Christmas – Alexandra Kurland’s Clicker Training for your Horse is excellent. Lots of sensible advice on using all quadrants of operant conditioning.
There is usually more than one solution to a problem, so the more tools we have in our tool box the better we are able to solve problems. Whether this is positive or negative reinforcement, or redirecting or counter conditioning we can decide what the best way is for our particular animal.
As my daughter has just acquired a foal all this information will be very useful. Many chapters are on foal and young horse handling.
So now after a festive family Christmas I will be off to the field to do more target training. Also I won’t chastise myself for using a little light negative reinforcement – using tactile cues e.g leg aids. What I don’t like is the escalation of pressure to elict behaviour, we now know there is a better way.
My journey to more positive training.
Positive Horsemanship. 