How training horses can change your life!

How Horse Training turned me into a Pollyanna

Before I started my positive reinforcement journey I used to be bit of a Negative Nancy. I could always find something to criticize. I was most critical about my own accomplishments. I couldn\’t feel satisfied about anything I did, especially when it involved riding. The only positive thing about my negative attitude was that I had a really keen eye for details. This made me a really good editor.

Negative Nancy

I really and truly believed that if I criticized myself it would help me become a better rider, horse owner, friend and so on. Sometimes I wondered why I wasn\’t yet a better rider… but I could always think of something that wasn\’t yet good enough to classify myself as \’good rider\’.

\"negativenancy2\"I  didn\’t understand that I made it impossible for myself to be satisfied, proud and happy about my achievements when I was only criticizing myself… I didn\’t understand that what I was focusing on (my faults, mistakes and failures) grew. I couldn\’t see that I was pushing myself forward on a downward spiral which was not at all uplifting or supporting.

This slowly changed when I started clicker training my first pony. In positive reinforcement training you want to reinforce a (tiny step towards the) desired behaviour in order to get more of that behaviour. In other words you have to be focused on the things that go right.

Focus on what you want to grow

When you need to be ready for every \’clickworthy\’ (positively reinforcing) moment, you start to focus on all behaviours that go well and are improving. It took a long time before this life changing attitude seeped into other parts of my life, but when it did it changed my life for ever.

First I changed my language. I was lucky that I had a riding instructor that studied a lot and one of her favorite subjects at that time was neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). NLP describes the fundamental dynamics between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how their interplay affects our body and behavior (programming) (source).

The words you use tell a lot about how you think: I can\’t…, I never could…, I always…, my horse always…, my horse never…, I will never be able to… and so on. Those were phrases I used a lot. Elma helped me change my wording and my attitude towards my own riding skills. Thanks Elma!

Challenge

Every time I was using a negative phrase or statement about myself I was encouraged to phrase it differently. It became a wonderful and challenging game. I decided to use it in my training journal as well.

Up until then I always (well, almost always… ) focused on my faults (I wasn\’t a good enough rider), my mistakes in training (too short, too long, not good enough and so on) and I often summarized my training as a failure. It was no fun to read back and I didn\’t learn from it!

Shift from self-criticism to self-motivation

Things changed when I started to keep track of my accomplishments in clicker training. I wrote down what my criteria were and how I changed them over time. I was focused on what went right, improvements and our progress. I also learned to rephrase my common negative statements. I still  focused on what I could improve, but I phrased it in a a way that was encouraging.\"selfcritism

See, how I just said \’was focused on what I could improve\’ instead of \’I was focused on my faults\’. Faults became \’learning points\’, failure became \’experience\’ and so on.

How did positive reinforcement horse training change your life?

\"_Kyra_en_ik_hippologic\"Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.
My mission is to improve horse-human relationships by educating equestrians about ethical and horse friendly training. I offer coaching to empower you to train your horse in a 100% animal friendly way that empowers both you and your horse.
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3 thoughts on “How training horses can change your life!”

  1. Wow, great journey you had and are willing to share! I am really critic on myself and recognize partly your story. I am always blaming my self and complimenting my horse. Although I am critical on myself, I write always something positive and something to work on in my training journal. I will try to observe my language 🙂

    1. Well done Cindy! That is a really good way. Maybe something else to consider is this: your horse can only do the right thing if (s)he got a clear cue. In other words every time your horse did something right YOU did something right too! 🙂

  2. Pingback: 8 Important Life Lessons I learned from Positive Reinforcement Horse Training | HippoLogic

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