Why on earth would I want to teach my horse to stand on a mat? At first glance, it seems like an easy enough thing to do, and perhaps it is, if you only look at the “big picture” and …

This week’s blog should be on the next foundation lesson; mat work. Instead after struggling with whether to write about a recent clinic I went to or not here, I felt I must deviate from our foundation lessons for a …

I like to relate grown-ups and duration by suggesting you look at it this way. You and I are having a great conversation, you have my attention and I have yours. We are responding to each other’s emotional bids. Now …

There are all sorts of discussions out there about are you using positive or negative reinforcement. The real question should be: how do I teach? How can I stop behaviour I don’t like or train a behaviour want? The training …

But my horse is STILL muggy!

So what if you have tried to follow the steps but your horse is still not great at grown-ups? You now have the cleverest horse in your barn but in between being brilliant he …

Why do some horses that are fed treats become muggy?

Usually, a horse is muggy, not because they are getting treats, but because the treats are fed indiscriminately. The horse gets treats for no apparent reason that he can see. …

For some folks this would be a dream come true, but what does this have to do with clicker training?

Let’s start by looking at the idea of getting paid to do nothing. I even thought it might be fun… …

It is time to play with your human “horse” again for the next part of food delivery. This next step is one that helps develop space management of your horse by using food delivery.

We are going to add in …

I hope you had fun practicing you food delivery mechanical skills. You will be happy to know we are ready to get your horse started on targeting.

You should be getting very fluid and confident in your basic food delivery/target …

This series of lessons, showing you how to use the foundation lessons of Alexandra Kurland’s clicker training, though they appear very simple, were very carefully designed. If you progress systematically through them, you will see amazing results from your horse …

All good training begins with a solid foundation. Just like building a house, if the foundation isn’t solid there will be issues with the structure later on and you will have to either put Band-Aid solutions in place to ‘fix’ …

Now, let’s look at the horse you have and make a list of all the things he does that you would need to change to have him be your dream horse. Most of us would say “I don’t like it …

We would all ride our dream horse wouldn’t we?

So, what would your dream horse look like? What would this dream horse be able to do? What would you like to feel confident doing with your dream horse? Be specific …

One of the biggest keys to success with clicker training, like any form of training, is about how to set things up to be successful before you actually do any training. Most people don’t think too much about what they …