Natural horsemanship

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Natural horsemanship is a concept combining both ancient and new ideas, used by horse trainers and clinicians around the world to enforce the desired behaviour of horses.

[edit] Basic ideas

There are countless variations of natural horsemanship but overall it all boils down to the following ideas:

The horse has a functional, evolutionarily successful intelligence system and social system.

The horse has a highly developed communication system practiced primarily through body language. The horse is receptive to human body language constantly.

The human must be knowledgeable of the horse's natural instincts and communication system, and furthermore, utilize these concepts to teach the horse.

Natural Horsemanship seeks to make the wrong things hard and the right things easy. A horse is rewarded for responding to a cue appropriately by a release of pressure.

There are two types of reinforcement:

Positive reinforcement is when a behaviour is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.

Example: A horse is led to a trailer, the horse walks in easily. The horse is fed an apple. The apple is the rewarding stimulus. Clicker training is one method of using Positive reinforcement. Because horses are not predators, food rewards and positive reinforcement are not commonly used.

Negative reinforcement takes place when a behavior is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unwanted) stimulus; the desired behavior results in the removal of an unwanted situation resulting in the reinforcement of the behavior.

Example: If pressure is applied to the horse’s shoulder and the horse moves away, the pressure is released. The unwanted, annoying, uncomfortable pressure applied is being subtracted; this serves as a reward for the correct behaviour. This is commonly used in natural horsemanship training techniques.

Natural horsemanship has become very popular in the past decade and there are many books, videos, tapes, and websites available to the novice equestrian. This new philosophy has capitalized on the use of reinforcement to replace punishment and force, consistently reaping benefits on account of so many unique and perceptive characteristics.