Our sweet Dottie got adopted! Dottie has really blossomed into a sweet, curious little mare this fall, largely thanks to multiple volunteers at the rescue being willing to take it slow and let her learn that it’s fun to interact with people. You can read about some of the work Meghan did working on building […]
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Did you know that horses could be trained with clicker training? In this section you’ll find lots of information about how positive reinforcement training methods can be used to create horses that are smart, brave, athletic and enthusiastic about training. If you’re skeptical, I recommend starting with this blog post, which summarizes a research study that examined whether clicker training causes horses to bite.
Walt Disney needs some Clicker Training!
This is a humorous little clip that has been circulating around the internet. Its well worth watching for a few laughs, if you haven’t seen it yet. The clip is a 1941 Disney short called “How to Ride a Horse.” Now, while watching, I couldn’t help thinking how much this horse could benefit from a […]
Gracie makes more progress
Kirsten captured some great pictures over the weekend of Gracie and I interacting. I’m petting her in most of these, but the way my body is turned, you can’t really tell. I just love how calm, relaxed, engaged and curious she looks in all of them. She is definitely a different horse from last November! […]
Tex Practices Being Brave
The weather was perfect this weekend for playing with the ponies at the rescue. I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday working with Tex, one of our two year old ponies. He’s friendly and halter-broke, but really hasn’t had a whole lot of training. Tex was absolutely TERRIFIED of people when we first […]
Setting up Optimal Training Sessions
There’s a video of mine that’s being passed around several training groups of what not to do during training. It’s one of my older videos, from when I had been clicker training for almost a year. I love taking videos, as I think they are great for improving my training skills. (In fact, videoing yourself […]
Slow and Steady Progress
What a great day on Saturday with the horses! My friend Kirsten was out at the rescue for the weekend and we worked most of the afternoon with a few of the horses. I am continually being reminded that animal training shouldn’t be a race. Slow and steady progress beats fast and rushed! The horses […]