Do you start riding your horse as a 2 year old? The Secret to Breaking Horses: Start Your Foal with a Bridle of Trust - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com
Yeah, a lot of people believe that, when they don't understand the principles. I personally find treats a very effective tool for 'correcting' rude/dangerous/aggressive behaviour! It's not the *type* of reinforcement that's the problem, it's the *behaviour* that's reinforced when people aren't paying attention, don't appreciate the importance of timing or such. Eg the horse does something Good, they offer a treat, the horse, not 'knowing better', snatches at it, has ears back, 'mugs' them for it, whatever. If the handler allows this & gives a treat, guess what?? They've just begun training & reinforcing the horse to be 'rude'. Ensuring you pay attention to what behaviours you're getting & reinforcing will take care of that. Learning the principles of behavioural/learning psychology(not as heavy as it may sound) is invaluable in helping you be effective with whatever techniques & reinforcement you use. (It'll also stop you confusing this type of thing with 'respect' issues too:wink::lolI've actually tried to avoid treats with the foal, because everything you read says "no treats, it makes them nippy."
Yeah, it's a matter of learning the principles, listening to all opinions & making your own informed decision. I find it interesting that while most animal trainers(human teachers included) have realised and embraced the value of focussing on teaching & reinforcing the Right behaviours rather than just focussing on 'correcting' the Wrong, the horse world seems slow to catch on to the importance of positive reinforcement. Considering the fact that these principles are effective for every other species it's been tried on(even cats & husbands!:lol means it's likely to work even with horses.most people I talk to tell me that I am obviously not correcting him enough if he is still doing the behavior(s).
Yes, but just try to ensure you reinforce the behaviour you want *when it's happening* rather than after it has stopped. It also doesn't have to be food - there are other ways of rewarding an animal, just that food is a strong & convenient 'tool'. If you're going to use food for training regularly, rather just as an occasional treat, it's also a good idea to use something healthy & low sugar/starch rather than 'junk food'. Eg pinch of chaff or of whatever the horses' regular ration or supp, diced carrot, fruit tree leaves, rosehips, cabbage, spinach, other vegies....Next time I'll take the horse cookies and if he does good like that, stop and give him one, rather than waiting until he acts up and whopping on him. Now if he acts up I guess I'll have to whop on him anyway, but the point is, I should try to catch the behavior I want before I get the behavior I don't.
I disagree with allowing a foal to fight being tied mainly because of the possibility(it's not rare) of injury to immature necks. It can cause joint, bone & tendon issues, and has also been associated with 'wobblers syndrome' and other nervous/spinal issues.I like to let them have a good fight of a rope which inevitably they lose; .... What I aim for is that resistance is futile. ....
The other thing that I think is that you have to work very hard to get the respect of a horse that may have viewed you as a play mate. I believe that you have to be the right type of person to change the nature of the relationship you have already established.
Ha ha ha, and don't we all have enough of those! Yep, even without misunderstandings, IMO most things are down to difference of opinions, rarely 'facts' so I hope you take my disagreements respectfully, as that's how they're mean - I hope I come across as discussing or debating, not arguing.... altho I know I don't always succeed!In my opinion (so take it with a grain of salt)
Agreed, as I hope I got across already. Just that physically, paddock life with little exercise, especially if cushy, soft paddock life, is not great for developing healthy, sound beasts, so for that reason I like to teach them at least the basics when young.there is nothing that can be achieved with a foal/young horse that can not be achieved with an older animal.
Can't think of anything like that myself. What problems were you thinking of? Re getting bucked off, I tend to think of that as a 'whoops, slipped up on something previously & missed the signs'.Also I think that with an older horse you can see if there are any holes in your training immediately - getting bucked off is a pretty good clue. Whereas with a foal that is incorrectly handled the problem may not be obviously apparent for quite some time.
On your later points above, yes! So true. Motives can also be... naive. I don't think it's essentially much different training a baby from scratch than training a 'grown up', excepting that a grown up may have already had a lot of practice at certain attitudes that may either help or hinder the process. IMO there are not half as many good trainers as some people think. As for your first comment above, I suspect you're mistaken.:wink: If you are confident of your ability and successful in training older horses, you're likely to be just as good at training a foal. Consistency is not just needed for babies and if I thought a person wasn't good enough to deal with a foal I wouldn't think they'd be any better at training an older horse.So the reason behind my point of view is that I don't think I am a good enough horse woman to muck around with a foal from day one. ....degree of consistency foals need but I don't think there are as many as you think. I think that it is important to question motives of people wanting to start breaking/training horses by getting a foal, if a person believes that it is guaranteed to be easy and risk free to train a foal then that person doesn't have the experience required to train any horse.