Month: June 2023

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Modern Horse Training Takes Your Horse Into His Senior Years

I chose this photo for the cover of my new book for many reasons. First, it’s simply a beautiful image. I love the overall balance, the roundness of Robin’s topline, the softness of the reins, the energy and suspension, the settled attention. But I also chose this photo because of the statement it makes. Robin was twenty-seven when this photo was taken. He’s still in work. He’s still moving beautifully.

Balance is the central pillar around which I build all my training. Balance matters to me because I love my horses. I want them to be in my life for as long as possible, and I want them to have a good quality of life. Physical balance and emotional well being are woven together. Balance has always been a key ingredient, beginning with the very first lessons I taught Robin when he came to me as a yearling. Clicker training has been with us every step of the way. Modern Horse Training has been there throughout his whole life.

The other horse featured on the cover is Michaela Hempen’s Asfaloth. He’s also now in his twenties and still loving to play.

Asfaloth shows us how important balance is.

When you look at these two photos it is hard to believe it’s the same horse. The photo at the left shows Asfaloth in his early teens when Michaela was just beginning to work with him.

A lot of horses stand like this so at first all you may see is a grey Arab. No big deal. But compare him to the photo at the right and you’ll begin to some of the early balance issues. Look at his front legs. They’re angled back. If you were building a bridge, you wouldn’t want the support columns to be angled back like this. He’s long like a sausage. He’s falling forward onto his forehand. In this balance, he wouldn’t be able to produce the beautiful suspension you see in the second image.

A bridge or a house which is built on such crooked underpinnings isn’t going to last as long as one that is built well. Our horses show us that good balance carries them forward into their senior years.

Michaela’s excellent training is featured throughout my on-line clinics.

You can read about her work at her website: https://clickertrainingpferde.com/

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Modern Horse Training Puts Safety First

This is one of the photos I included in the book. This is Taylor Culbert working with her horse Theo. She adopted Theo from a horse rescue. In this lesson she’s using protective contact. That means there’s a barrier between them. Theo always has the option of leaving.

I love this image because it illustrates a great set up for protective contact. Theo could easily walk away from the gate, but he’s choosing to stay. He’s not crowding into the gate, reaching through the bars or stretching over the top rail. Instead he is standing politely in his own space presenting what Taylor is looking for – an ears forward, relaxed “happy face”.

When people introduce their horses to clicker training, I always recommend that they begin with protective contact. Protective contact means clicker training begins by placing safety first. If a horse becomes pushy because you have treats in your pockets, you can just step back out of the way. You don’t have to correct the unwanted behavior. You can stay focused on what you want your horse TO DO.

I recommend beginning with protective contact even when you know your horse well and you have no any safety concerns.

This “donut” structure is a great set up. The handler stays in the center of the “donut” with the horse free to leave on the outside. Choice is an important part of Modern Horse Training.

Part of good training is learning to use the environment well so you can set your horse up for success. Clicker training is going to introduce many new concepts, including one that may feel very foreign to both horses and handlers. Horses have choice. It is okay for horses to say “no”.

“No” is just information. It isn’t a rebellion or a sign of failure. It is just information. When your horse says “no” to something you have asked him to do, it means the lesson has become too hard or too confusing. He doesn’t understand what you want him to do. Getting to a “yes” answer means you need to make some adjustments. That may mean going back a few steps in your training to ask for a simpler step, or teaching a missing component skill, or changing the environment so it is less distracting. These changes will get you to a “yes, I understand that, I can do that” answer.

Horses that have been trained with commands have learned that they have few choices. “Well behaved” has come to mean they do what they are told. Safe, reliable horses are very much the goal of Modern Horse Training, but we want more than this. We want horses who participate because they want to, not because they have to.

When you begin with protective contact, you are saying to your horse: “This training is different. You have choice. I will listen to you, and I will adjust the training to meet your learning needs.”

If your horse walks away, the barrier means you can’t force him back into the game. He truly does have the choice just to walk away.

It is our job to make the lessons clear enough, interesting enough, reinforcing enough that our horses want to stay. Modern Horse Training means our horses truly do have a voice that is listened to.

Find me on Instagram at @alexandra.kurland.5

You can buy the new book, “Modern Horse Training”, through my web site: theclickercenter.com and from Amazon and other booksellers.

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Modern Horse Training Is . . . (continued)

I’m practicing the skill of writing short posts. Here’s the second post I put up on Instagram. You can find me there at: @alexandra.kurland.5

But note – I couldn’t resist adding a bit more to the original instagram posts.

I love this photo. Robin is waiting for the lesson to begin.

Here’s the story behind this photo. I was getting set up to video the runway lesson. That’s a lesson that I use to introduce horses to standing on mats. Instructions for the lesson are included in the new book, “Modern Horse Training”.

Obviously, mats don’t worry Robin. He loves his mats. He had been standing off to the side of the arena watching me set out the cones and the mat.

The camera was up on the deck that overlooks the arena. Once the cones were in place, I left the arena to turn the camera on. I went out of sight into the barn and then up a flight of stairs to the loft. Robin let me know that he was eager for the session to begin by going over to stand on the mat.

His behavior tells me that he not only understands the runway lesson, he enjoys it. He wanted the lesson to begin!

I love this about our clicker-trained horses. They let us know in so many ways that this is training they truly enjoy.

How do your horses tell you they enjoy their training time?

Robin and Fengur join me in the morning while I clean up the arena. When the chores are done, we have a game of “musical chairs” around a circle of cones and mats. Robin is waiting patiently on a center mat while Fengur has a turn. (Note: I try to reduce my use of plastic, so when I needed more cones, instead of buying new ones, I reused cardboard shipping boxes. They work great in my cone circle.)
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Modern Horse Training Is . . .

I’ve been dipping my toe into Instagram. I’m just learning my way there. I like writing books. Writing short posts to meet the Instagram format is not my normal style, but I’m appreciating that it’s a useful skill to develop. I’ve been enjoying picking out some of my favorite photos to share to define what I mean by Modern Horse Training. They make good posts to add to my blog which is what I am doing here.

Here is the way I began on instagram. This post was published on May 26, 2023

My new book “Modern Horse Training” was published on April 26, 2023. Today I am celebrating the one month anniversary by exploring Instagram. People who know me are aware that I am a very reluctant user of social media.

Instagram is very much unknown territory for me, so bear with me as I figure out how it works. I am very much like many of you who are new to clicker training. I’m asking the same questions. What is this? How does it work? How do I begin?

Regular users of social media would have been chuckling if they had seen my computer usage over the last couple of days. I was like a nervous horse edging up to a puddle, jumping back, nosing forward again. Should I or shouldn’t I put a toe in?

I have bravely decided to test the water. Just like that nervous horse I could easily jump back out again, but I have a lot that I want to share with you about Modern Horse Training – not just the book but what that phrase has come to mean to me.

I’m motivated to take the first step in. You can reinforce this behavior in a number of ways. You can, of course buy my book. That’s very reinforcing! It is available through my web site, theclickercenter.com, Amazon and other book sellers. You can leave a five star review on Amazon. People have been writing some extraordinary reviews which I deeply appreciate. They are great reading! And they certainly help to spread the word about clicker training.

You can share the book with your friends. And you can share your own images of what Modern Horse Training means to you. With your help, I’m going to be learning how that’s done on Instagram. You can laugh as I stumble my way around hashtags. Just remember the answer is always obvious to the one who knows it.

Right now I have questions not answers which means I am exactly where someone is who is new to clicker training. I am imagining them opening my new book for the first time and beginning their journey into clicker training – just as I am beginning my exploration of Instagram. The difference is they get to play with their horses. Whatever anyone says about social media playing with horses has to be more fun!

You can find me on Instagram at alexandra.kurland.5