This is an overview of some of the main services Instinctive Horse Training can help you with. Understanding why your horse feels the way it does and behaves the way it does is paramount to making the profound changed needed. We use evidence-based protocols and positive reinforcement at all times. Being an Equine Behaviour specialist, Melanie is at the forefront in the UK re specialist training, behaviour modification and turning unhappy horses into feeling safe and calm.
By applying the use of “marking” emotions or behaviours we would like repeating, gives your horse the invaluable information he needs to understand exactly what he has done right at exactly the right time! We then immediately positively reward that action. This whole training ethos actually sets the horse up into a way of pure understanding. He/she will be able to, and really want to, repeat those same behaviours and emotions again. Just like us, any behaviour which is positively rewarded has a very high probability of being repeated. It’s a win, win situation.
I chose not to spend my time correcting what I don’t want. Most horse training methods concentrate of correcting what we don’t want. However, giving the horse the information about what it is we do want and by setting up the environment so it can succeed, and by helping him find it easy to succeed, the horse finds clarity. When we mark that moment(clicker) and reinforce it with something the horse finds of high value, he will always try to repeat that action.
We as humans learn in exactly the same way. Think of it! We use star charts for young children. We use a monetary bonus for completion of set targets at work or as a reward for extra effort. Why should horse or animal training be any different? Sadly, horse training still exists in the stone-age. The use of forcing our will and dominance is endemic in the fabric of horse training. Using and instilling the fear of reprimand if the horse does not do exactly what you want, exactly when you want it! It is the surest way to make your horse feel increased fear, feel frustration, anger and worst of all RAGE, and is the reason why I am kept so busy
Science based, positive reinforcement training is exactly how all modern day behaviour/scent/service/rehab dog training is performed. Zoo’s internationally are training for cooperation in veterinary procedures (as well as enriching the lives of their captive species) using exactly these methods, as is the base of young child education. I am the first horse trainer in the UK to use all this science and positivity in a commercial yard. The results of which are amazingly brilliant for all the horses and all their owners.
