What is so powerful about clicker training? Why does it work and what do you need to succeed? Here are some of my favourite tools for training horses and how they changed my training approach to a much more horse friendly way of training. 1 Clicker or bridge sound The most powerful communication tool I […]
10 Tools that changed my Training Approach (I) Read More »
Today my barn friend took me and Kyra to the forest for a trail ride, here in BC, Canada. All went well and I realized that it took me many tiny training steps to turn my 11 months old feral filly into this reliable non spooking trail horse I have today. Basics I had to tame Kyra
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There is something special about horses. There is not an animal in the world that smells as good as a horse! I think the best spot to smell a horses\’ scent is right behind their ears. Unless you have that special grey that uses his pile of poop as a cushion while he sleeps. That spot behind
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This blog is written by Sandra Poppema, B.Sc. Sandra studied Animal Management in The Netherlands, Europe. She graduated in 1999. Animal Management The key focus of this Bachelor program is the management of human-animal relationships and animal welfare. Ethics, animal welfare, behaviour and human-animal relationships were key topics of this curriculum, along with biology and management. She continues to study these topics with a
How to start house training your horse in the arena so that you\’ll never have to clean up after your ride.
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Now that the temperatures are much higher than in winter it becomes more enjoyable to spent some ZEN time with your horse. ZEN time is time spending together without having an agenda. You can take a chair and sit down in his paddock or pasture and just see what happens. Herd behaviour I really like to
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Of the seven key lessons in clicker training  \’targeting\’ is my favourite at the moment. I love targeting so much because it is inexpressibly versatile and I am excited because I just discovered new possibilities of this game myself. What is targeting In targeting you ask you horse to touch a target with a body part.
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A slowfeeder net is a hay net with much smaller mazes/holes than regular hay nets. Whereas the regular hay nets have mazes varying between approximately 8 – 15 cm (3,1 – 5,9 inches), slowfeeder nets have mazes of 3,5 cm – 6 cm (1,2 inch – 2,4 inch). The goal of a slowfeeder net is to slowdown the intake of
What I really liked about the Natural Horsemanship method I followed in the late nineties, was the step-by-step program I bought. It was very practical because it described the horse behaviour in advance: I could expect this, this and this. Fan-tas-tic! I just had to follow the steps and boom! \”Friendship\” and \”Partnership\” where delivered.
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I\’ve seen a lot of tips and tricks about buying a horse, but strange enough none of them spoke about how your future horse will fit into your equestrian dreams and goals. What is the most important thing you wish you could do with your (future) horse? Have you thought about this at all? Emotions versus rational When people buy horses they are often led
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