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Reinforcement Spectrum

If we look at the use of negative and positive reinforcement as a spectrum we are all on this spectrum, whether we know it or not.An image of the linear aspects of reinforcement
Some are at the extreme ends of the spectrum, so they only use positive reinforcement or only negative reinforcement.

My personal view is that we can be anywhere along this line as long as we aren’t extreme, as long as we don’t make people who are moving along in their horsemanship journey feel guilty.

Many extremists do make me feel uncomfortable. No-one knows our horse better than we do, what suits one may not suit another. We must tailor how we train to individual horses.

Positive reinforcement is not the choice of many because they lack understanding at this moment in time. So please be understanding of where other people are on the reinforcement spectrum and don’t be an extremist or a pedant.

If we only use one aspect of operant conditioning we may do so due to not understanding how to use all four quadrants correctly.

We do need to be mindful of the emotions involved with negative versus positive reinforcement and learn to read our horses reactions as we train.

Lets us embrace our fellow horse trainers (we are all training every time we interact with the horse). It is up to us to watch what we are reinforcing – if you get unwanted behaviours look at what reinforced the behaviour.

If you need to go to the extreme end of the spectrum using negative reinforcement then ask yourself why? What has fallen apart? How can I retrain this without being extreme?

If we go too far to the positive end our horses may get over aroused and that is not good either.

Moderation in everything is good.

We must look at the whole horse and our husbandry as well, set them up for success.

Just as Iife is never just black or white using the principles of learning theory is not either.

Often when we are young we look at life as idealists and become fixed on things being good or bad. As we mature we mellow in our understanding and reactions and become more rounded and accepting of other peoples points of view.

Please let us be mature in our acceptance of everyone on their path of learning. Whether we totally agree with them or not others often have valuable experiences to share.

Punishment is another spectrum that I may explore on another day.

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Saddling Mojo

Mojo being saddle – he was very good, a bit fidgety due to the noisy tractor coming round the corner and collecting hay from the barn. I didn’t get it done up as the girth seems too small and I didn’t want to try too hard to get it fastened. It did go up last time but I need another person to gently hold the saddle in place. At no tme during this was he restrained and he was free to leave at any time.

Mojo bending to touch a target, I am trying to get duration and he seems to understand the counting. We have got up to 4 as we did with the barrel last time.

Tried it with the feet too and managed 3 before I felt him want to put it down. I clicked before he felt like he was going to snatch them back. Missed that off the video as my camera switched itself off.

Hopefully he can be ridden soon and stay calm and relaxed about it. Love this little horse – he has such an expressive character.

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Short and Long reining.

I have been desensitising Mojo to the feather lines in preparation for long reining. We have done a little short reining with shorter lines but today was the first time walking with both feather lines attached. I was very unco-ordinated but Mojo was a star, targeting the cones on the circle and not being stressed by the lines on his back or even round his hocks at the end.

We did it on a small circle as the school had been watered a little too much and there was a big puddle at one end.

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Mojo Trotting a Circle

I bought a long lunge type whip, more like a stick though and then tied a bag on the end. This I used to get Mojo trotting round me – he loves to chase the bag so a longer one was easier for me to get him to trot a circle.


I now have a saddle but haven’t tried it on him yet. Will do that tomorrow and then take some photos for the saddler – it is the same size as the one he wore last week.

We had a bit of a disaster whilst foot trimming, he kicked out and somehow got his leg caught over the lead rope, and as he was tied up he panicked and broke both the head collar and the lead rope clips.
We let him settle and reassured him with lots of scratches. Then I held him so it wouldn’t happen again and he was very good with his hind feet. We do think he was a little shocked by it all and it took a while for the adrenaline to dissipate.

He seemed fine once it was all done, the other horses were being fed during the final foot being rasped. He looked but made no attempt to pull away even though he could see his tea.
He went out to the field once he had eaten his well earned tea.

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Cone Cirlces

Mojo has to learn to walk forward on a verbal cue, without me or the target being a cue.
Here is our first attempt – he hasn’t seen the cones in a circle before. What a clever boy – he does learn quite quickly now.

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Mojo and mounting.

Last week Liz came to help me with Mojo and saddling and mounting block acceptance. We found his saddle does not fit so didn’t walk him round in it, instead we did some desensitising to having someone lean over him. He was so good that Liz felt able to lay over him, and along his back, then sit up.
We then asked him to walk forward – I had him online as we hadn’t put a bridle and reins on him, he wlaked a step and then felt Liz’s legs on his side and he tensed and scooted off. Walked him in a circle and he calmed down and Liz hopped off.

We now need to desensitise him to legs.

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Mojo and saddling

Mojo is pain free now after his Equine Touch therapy, so it is back on track with his saddle desensitisation.
I have been able to put on his numnah and surcingle with no problems, so a few days a ago I tried his saddle again. He was fine with having it on and the girth fastened and walking around with it on.
He still needs to be happy to stand at the mounting block so that is what we did today. Just with his surcingle on, it took a few attempts to get it fastened due to my clumsiness!
We got there in the end and I was very pleased with him.
Sorry for my very dusty pony!

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Mojo Agility and Barrel Pushing.

Mojo October 23rd 2015

We did the barrel again today – trying to remember to feed at arms length – not sure I did that all the time. Mojo remembered he had to push the barrel, we started with 3 repetitions of 1 push and got up to 3 repetitions of 3 pushes. We finished there as I used the short side of the school and we had run out of space. Made a big fuss of him and gave him a jackpot feed.

Then I put him in the stable with his hay net  (so we don’t get expelled for making a mess in the sand school)!

I put out the agility course I want to do for the Fair Horsemanship Challenge. The only thing I got wrong was not walking over the tarp with him. To do that I may need a bigger tarp, but I was very pleased with Mojo. A bit sticky through the cones but we went back and did them again afterwards and he was perfect. I may need some help with the proper video as the umbrella opening was only just in the frame. It has been a lot of fun though training each obstacle and then putting it all together.

Then came the fun bit – he has been very sticky leaving the barn and going back to the field. So we made it a fun game today – thanks Jo Hughes for the suggestion. Who would have thought a flag on a carrot stick could be so exciting.

Targeted high, targeted low and did hip over, circles and some nice shoulder-in. Mojo did not even notice the mini tractor mowing the golf field. He only grass dived twice and came straight back up to continue playing the game.

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Mojo, the barrel and frustration.

I have just finished a shaping course with Jo Hughes and Carolyn Jenkinson of The Academy of Positive Horsemanship

Mojo was much more animated during this course than the last one, he got quite frustrated too when the rewards were not forth coming. I waited for a behaviour I wanted on the 3rd day and Mojo decided that was not a good idea.

I now need (with Jo Hughes help) to improve his impulse control and put the mugging on an extinction program.

Otherwise he is good with following the target and doing the agility obstacles. The umbrella was no problem when I opened and closed it several times. He couldn’t wait to stand on the tarp and his staying still on the mat is better. I now need solid cues for all these behaviours.

Then onwards with the foot lifiting – he did hold it up for a few seconds last time and I need to do this everyday and be consistent and not reward his pawing and stomping.

This is a video of him with the umbrella.

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Mojo update

I went on a course last weekend about neuranatomy – really interesting and lots to remember and relate to how our horses feel about various stimuli.

At this talk I arranged with Heather Richardson of Amberly Aromatics to come and do an Equine Touch treatment with Mojo.

We started with history taking,after that Heather offered Mojo some aromatherapy oils – first carrot seed which he seemed to quite like, but the camomile was really exciting. Mojo was very intent on inhaling and there was a large Flehman response. (The flehmen response acts with the vomeronasal organ (Jacobsons organ) near the palate to amplify smells.) So he was getting a good dose, then he licked some from Heather’s hand.

Then walked I him up and down so Heather could assess his gait. Mojo appeared to be stiff and had an assymetrical pelvis.

We had to counter condition the Equine Touch treatment as Mojo was finding it a bit too much, so good to have a therapist who has knowledge of learning theory and how aversive stimulation affects emotions. Heather gave some red light treatment and has sent me a link to some research so I know the science behind how it works. It is all on her website so why not take a look.

We now have exercises for the next 2 weeks before Heather comes back to assess.

I am sure Mojo will begin to feel better very soon and we can then counter condition the saddle again, after it is correctly fitted – I intend to get Julie Knaggs ( a Lavinia Mitchell saddle fitter) out once Mojo has the all clear.