Heather Nelson Liberty Training
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Build a bond with your horse through liberty training. www.heathernelsonlibertytraining.com
03/14/2023
Praising for the “wrong” guess in training might sound ass backwards. We think that if we praise an incorrect answer that we will see it all the time. But what if we switch our mindset to praising for trying to answer, for just staying engaged in class?
We can use this feedback to adjust our training so that our desired behaviour is more likely to occur next time. If we set it up better our horses will find the correct answer easily and we can reward it over and over. We will tip the scales of reinforcement to the desired outcome.
Remember that time you answered a question incorrectly and someone laughed at you? Or the time you made a mistake and you were punished for it? Did that make you eager to try again or did it shut you down or frustrate you? Let’s create safe spaces for our horses to try and then set them up for success with questions that make sense.
If they do get it wrong we can have compassion for ourselves too. “Oh well that didn’t work. Let’s see if I can set it up better next time.” It doesn’t mean we are crappy trainers. We just need to smile, observe and adapt.
I cue Extra to go and then reward any movement that she offers. If she wanders a slow circle around the pen, she will be fed her hay pellets. If she canters around the pen she will be fed her hay pellets. And if she doesn’t feel like going and doesn’t move 🦧…I will still feed her hay pellets. 😅
So why does she move then?
I find rewarding for less leads to more with horses. We often think, “If I reward my horse for a slow walk, then that will be all I ever get.” That’s just not how horses operate when they are given the freedom of choice on a regular basis.
When I first saw people using the reverse round pen (the horse in on the outside and the human is on the inside of a barrier) I didn’t understand the purpose. I thought, “They miss out on the benefits of lunging such as changing circle sizes and moving from circle to square etc.”
Now I see the reverse round pen as a different exercise than lunging with its’ own set of benefits!
When we are playing in protected contact we are both safer. I can jump and run around inside my pen with no worries that my horse might bounce too close to me. My horse can leave if she doesn’t want to participate. In Extra’s case she can even leave the arena as I rarely close the gate. She knows I’m limited in my abilities to restrict or pressure her. This feeling of freedom opens up possibilities for fun.
Enrichment game time! I built a fancy food puzzle out of everyone’s favourite toy, a cardboard box.
At first Sailor was so skeptical of the whole operation that he wouldn’t even take carrots out of my hand near the box.
Extra saw what we were doing and was like, “Let’s just destroy this puzzle.” (This is how Extra approaches any food challenge, especially hay nets.)
I repaired and upgraded my design. It provided over half an hour of entertainment until I took it away. bonus, Sailor got accustomed to noisy things swinging around his head.
There was some food stabbed into holes in the box and also holes for food to fall out of the box if it was shaken.
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Duncan, BC
V9L6G4
Opening Hours
| Monday | 8am - 9pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 8am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 8am - 5pm |
| Friday | 8am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 9am - 2pm |
| Sunday | 10am - 4pm |
