Transitioning from traditional horse training to clicker training can be tough especially if you have been practicing for years. When I started adding clicker training to my program I struggled with these details that I had trouble letting go of with all my experience using R-. Hopefully these tips will help you use clicker training better with your horse.

I’m discussing what the difference is between actual desensitization and flooding. Tying things to horses has been somewhat popular on social media recently and I wanted to talk about some of the potential issues with doing this in training.

Horses can easily learn to bang on gates and stall doors or paw in anticipation of their meals. To fix these behaviors is pretty straightforward. You need to set aside the extra time while feeding and really watch what behaviors you are giving attention to.

Horses speak almost exclusively in body language. Some signs that the horse is tense can be hard to notice if they haven’t been pointed out to you. Being able to see small changes in posture, muscle tension, and body language will help you to understand what your horse is thinking. These small things can help you notice if your horse is starting to become worried and you can then help to calm the situation.

Trying something new with horses can be hard because we can get so stuck on doing things the way we’ve always done them. But the mat gives the horse a focal point to stand on and acts as a target. This can be helpful for training the stay, tying, grooming, tacking up, or tricks.

Wondering how long a normal training or riding session should last? I’ll tell you what I do with my horses and explain what ending on a good note should look like in a lesson.

Horses are designed to see all the way around them in order to look out for danger. When horses can’t see out when they are in a stall, wash rack, trailer, etc. they can become panicked. Horses can also be worried when they can’t see other horses. Being in a herd is a horse’s security system and without that the horse could feel like he has to look out for danger at all times. I’ll talk about what environmental changes you can make to keep your horse feeling safe.

Tying a horse can become dangerous fast if you don’t pay attention to the details. I’ll give some tips on how to keep you and your horse safe while he’s tied up.

Having a horse that resents being saddled can be very frustrating and even dangerous to deal with. I’ll talk about some ways to break the lesson down and rebuild tacking the horse up. I want the horse to have new, positive experiences with the saddle.

Riding with loose horses has become more popular with videos I’ve seen on social media. So I wanted to discuss some benefits and dangers of doing this exercise.