In May I traveled to Sante Fe, New Mexico, for a two-day clinic hosted by Via Nova on the positive reinforcement (R+) training of horses. Each day was hosted at the beautiful Terra Nova Equestrian Center, one of a several equestrian properties on a quiet road where I enjoyed watching prairie dogs peek out of their burrows in the mornings. The facility itself boasts a nice set up of spacious stalls with run-outs, small paddocks, and a track system for group turnout, as well as a European hot-walker, and covered and uncovered arenas. The venue also featured a designated presentation area for the parts of the clinic that were not hands-on with horses which was very open, welcoming, and thankfully climate controlled.
The attendees who gathered created an incredible mix of equestrians from all over the world: veterinarians, scientists, professors, liberty trainers, mustang trainers, a horse show judge, a groom, and a lesson program trainer, among others. I’m sure we all came in with a different level of understanding and different views on positive reinforcement training which made for interesting conversations on how we can better the lives of domesticated horses.
Going into this clinic, I had very limited knowledge of R+ training with horses. I had heard of “clicker training,” but mostly used as a bit of an insult or dismissal of equestrians who “just feed lots of treats” and “do not compete at high levels” of the sport. That is the stereotype Via Nova Training is trying to break with their clinics.
Via Nova presented their Priority to Positive® program which is focused on presenting positive reinforcement training in a way that shows the science and the tools without being intimidating to the traditional sport-centric equestrian. This clinic was detailed and covered a lot of material, but I want to talk about the basics of the five steps of the Priority to Positive® approach. I found these steps to be a valuable guide in explaining how R+ training can help us to better communicate with our horses and in turn make us a more successful team both in and out of the saddle.
Understanding Motivation
Simply put, understanding a horse’s motivation to want to participate or avoid an activity or situation gives us insight into the “why” behind our horse’s actions, and also gives us the chance find the driving factor we can use to mold our horse’s response to different things.
Motivation comes in two types for horses: seeking and avoidance. Your horse might seek out an area of the barn where food is kept or distributed; whereas, they might avoid a scary corner of the arena where all the jump standards are stored. They want to seek out food and they want to avoid uncomfortable or scary environments. Via Nova believes in tapping into the horse’s primary motivation of seeking. Unlike traditional training that might use force to push a horse into the scary corner of the arena until the horse gives up their avoidance tactics, R+ training would use food as way to engage a horse’s mind and encourage them into the same corner of the arena of their own free will by giving them the opportunity to seek out the reward instead of avoiding the scary shadows behind the jump standards.
Look for “Yes!”
The next step in Priority to Positive® is about giving horses the chance to earn the reward and by seeking. This changes the narrative of from the “don’t do that” of traditional training with the “yes, that’s it” of R+ training.
Remember that game of Warmer/Colder where someone will direct another person to an object by saying “warmer” when they are on their way to the correct thing and “colder” when they are headed in the wrong direction? This step of Via Nova’s training is like playing that game with your horse but without any kind of punishment of “colder.” Since our horse’s don’t speak our language, R+ allows us to use treats as a reward for “warmer” and there is no reward for “colder.” This is a more encouraging way for horses to learn because it rewards them for the correct action and does not discourage them with any kind of critique or discipline for wrong attempts.
To help us understand what learning is like with R+ training, we partnered up and played with a Portable Operant Research and Teaching Lab (PORTL) kit filled with lots of miscellaneous objects (dice, slinkies, coins, blocks, matchbox cars, cotton balls, etc.). We had to choose an object we wanted our partner to handle, but we weren’t allowed to communicate or give any kinds of hints, we only communicated with a click with a clicker and reward when our partner interacted with the correct object. For example, say I wanted my partner to play with the matchbox car. I placed the matchbox car and four other objects (a cotton ball, a di, a coin, a block, and a slinkie) on the table in front of them. My partner would go through and start to touch the other objects, but I would show no reaction to those attempts, nothing positive or negative. Then, when my partner touched the matchbox car, I would click my clicker and give a reward. My partner may try to touch other object after the matchbox car, but I would still only click my clicker and reward when they handled the matchbox car. Eventually, my partner would only ever do things with the matchbox car because with my clicker and reward giving, I was able to reward them for doing right.
Now, with traditional training, this could be different. Instead of only clicking and rewarding with interaction with the matchbox car, I might also swap my partner’s hand away when they touch any of the other objects. This would have been discouraging for my partner because my swatting discourages their curiosity and their motivation for learning. The swats of “don’t do that” may even convince my partner to stop touching the objects altogether. Much in the same way, this step of Via Nova’s program allowed us to understand why encouraging horses to stay in their primary motivation of seeking mode and not discouraging them into avoidance mode is not just a more effective way for them to learn, but also a more positive way that inspires curiosity for them to look for that “yes, you did it!”
Create Opportunity
This next step is where equestrians would start working hands-on with their horses. Now that we understand that we want to encourage curiosity and use our horse’s desire for seeking, we can give them opportunities where they can seek out reward. This is the step also where the Priority to Positive® approach starts to introduce verbal cues and targets that can be used as a way for the horse to earn reward. This is called “charging” which can be used with any object or verbal cue.
Let’s go back to the horse who avoids the scary, jump-filled corner of the arena. We wouldn’t want to jump into the scary corner of the arena with treats and hope that the horse eventually comes to investigate—that would be confusing and too big of a step for the horse to make. We want to start by charging our target and our reward cue. Let’s say we use a target of a tennis ball on the end of a stick. We would present the tennis ball stick to the horse and every time we held out the target and the horse touched their nose to it, we would click and reward them.
By clicking and rewarding when the tennis ball is touched, we are “charging” both the tennis ball and the clicker. We are explaining to the horse that the tennis ball is what they should seek and that the sound of the clicker means a reward is coming. By introducing the target of the tennis ball, we give the horse an opportunity for them to learn and the chance to earn a reward.
Shaping Towards What You Want
Shaping the behavior is the next step with Via Nova’s training. This is where we would take small steps towards our end goal. These are the little steps that help the horse understand different aspects of the process. Shaping would eventually be something that the horse remembers from their training and repetition and would be weeded out completely with time.
With our horse who does not want to go into the scary corner, we have charged the clicker and the target and we can now use those tools to teach our horse that the corner of the arena and the jumps hiding in it are nothing to fear or avoid, instead that by interacting with us there is an opportunity to earn a reward. With this horse we might start by putting the horse loose in the arena and walk a few steps away from the horse, then present the target. When the horse takes a few steps towards us and touches the tennis ball, we would click and reward them. We would continue to lead the horse the same way in a few different areas of the arena, and then finally into the corner of the arena, making sure to reward every time the horse touches the target when we present it to them. This process builds the horse’s confidence in a way that they can understand. The corner and the jumps might be scary and intimidating, but they know that when the target is presented and they seek it out and touch it, they are rewarded and that motivation is stronger than their original avoidance.
Set Up For Success
The last step of the Priority to Positive® approach is where Via Nova wants equestrians to understand that when teaching a horse something with positive reinforcement the result is the responsibility of the teacher—not the learner. It is our responsibility, as our horse’s teachers to realize what we can and can’t change when it comes to training. It’s our responsibility to change what we can during practice in safe environments in order to set up our horses up for a successful and positive learning experiences.
We won’t be able to control what corners of the show arena or jumps our horse finds intimidating, we won’t be able to get them used to every single different type of environment they might encounter in their lifetimes; however, we can control how we practice our training at home, how we prepare our horses for different situations, and we use our body language consistently. Via Nova talks about this step as creating a “trust bank” with our horses that we can draw from in situations that we cannot control. By practicing in a way that challenges the horse in small increments while always encourages them to seek the reward, we build their confidence in themselves and in us as their partners.
Via Nova’s Priority to Positive® approach can be used in every aspect of training from ground manners, loading in trailers, standing for the farrier, and can be built upon to address different aspects of under saddle work. I left the clinic excited to add positive reinforcement training to my horsemanship. But more importantly, I left feeling hopeful for the future of the industry. Spending two days with the wonderful and dedicated trainers at Via Nova and the group of horse-loving attendees who came together over their connection with horses and their drive to do their best by them filled me with a sense of enthusiasm for not just meeting the horsemen and horsewomen at the clinic, but enthusiasm for how we will all use R+ to impact horses lives positively.
Will positive reinforcement training be embraced by the whole of the equestrian industry? I don’t know. Will there still be trainers who refuse to entertain different types of training even with proven results? Unfortunately, yes. Will the attendees make positive changes to the lives of each horse they touch? That is undeniable. I encourage any equestrian who is seeking to learn different training tools to explore Via Nova Training and positive reinforcement training. I think you will be excited about the reward opportunity.