We’ve just finished a series of head spinning topics, so we’re changing gears to talk about trick training. Our discussion is based on the trick training chapter from my book, “Modern Horse Training”.

We begin by talking about the many benefits of trick training. If you’re a “serious” trainer and you don’t think tricks are for you, change the name to enrichment and you may see many uses for teaching tricks.

What makes one behavior a trick and another serious training? When you teach your horse to paint is that trick training, enrichment, a useful step towards teaching a horse to accept a dose syringe or all of the above?

Horses learn a lot from trick training and so do handlers. Tricks are easy to teach. What isn’t so easy is bringing the trick into balance so it doesn’t turn into a nuisance behavior. Learning about stimulus control is one of the many benefits of good trick training.