Clicker training for horses is based on positive reinforcement. It is adding something the horse likes (usually food or scratches) after a behaviour, which makes that behaviour more likely to happen again.
The desired behaviour is marked with a click, also known as a “bridge signal”, which bridges the gap between click and reward. This means the horse knows reinforcement will follow hearing the click. Timing and correct use of food is crucial to success, and to avoid unwanted behaviours.
Lucy Chester, of Lucy Chester Horsemanship, says all horses can benefit, from days-old foals learning the very basics to adults learning advanced liberty and ridden work.
Setting horses up for clicker training success
There are several things you can do to help get your clicker training off on the right foot.
“Making sure the horse has a full stomach before training is important,” Lucy says. “I always make sure that mine has had a haynet and a bit of hard feed.”
Lucy’s second recommendation is to use appropriate reinforcement – not all treats have the desired effect.
“I generally recommend something of very low value to horses like Thunderbrook’s HayCobs or Simple Systems’ HayCare,” she advises. “Pressed hay or meadow grass, or even chaff, which has a longer chew time, will lower arousal around food.
“You want something that doesn’t smell strongly as horses have a good sense of smell and as foraging animals, they will try to find it. This makes training harder and can result in undesirable behaviours such as ‘mugging’.”
The time of day is another key factor.
“If your horse is desperate to go out in the field, it might not be the best time to be training,” she says. “I made the mistake once of trying to train my horse during his nap time. He always has a sleep about 11 o’clock, and that was never going to work.
Pick your moment: your horse might be less conducive to learning new things when it’s nap time. Credit: Alamy
“Mosquitoes and midges are more likely to be around in the evenings and the horse could get annoyed by them, which would have an impact on training,” Lucy advises. “It’s about knowing your horse and experimenting to find out what suits each one best.”
Another aspect to consider to get the most out of your training session is your working environment.
“If someone has just started trimming the hedge by the arena, it’s probably not an ideal time to start,” Lucy cautions. “A lot of people are in livery yards that are really busy, so it’s much better to try to do it when it’s quiet. Then you can focus 100% on the horse.
“Horses love positive reinforcement training and if you’re busy talking to someone else, the horse is going to be nudging you for the food, because you’re not focused on them, and it’s not fair. I find people are really interested in what I’m doing, which is great, but it means you’re distracted from your horse and the training. So if people are interested, ask them to talk to you about it afterwards.”
Likewise, if there is another horse in the arena, because you are using food, there can be an issue with resource guarding, so Lucy prefers to train on her own.
How to learn the correct techniques
Don’t expect to be able to nail clicker training by yourself, straight off. Lucy says that of all the ways she has tried training horses, clicker training has been the “hardest to do well – in the beginning”.
“It’s important at least to start with a professional to guide you; timing of clicking and rewarding is key, and all these things will have an impact on the success of training,” she says.
“Food is highly motivating to horses, and once you’ve got a solid foundation, everything else becomes easy.”
Choose appropriate treats: carrots are too high-value and may encourage the horse to snatch at them. Credit: Alamy
How to avoid mistakes in clicker training for horses
Lucy outlines how to use the treats correctly.
“People think horses can get pushy or bargy because of the food but as well as using appropriate treats, as above, it all comes down to timing,” she says. “If the horse comes to sniff your pocket and you just give them a treat, you’re reinforcing that coming to your pocket gets the treat.
“It’s very easy to make simple mistakes like that, or to click at a moment where they’re coming back towards your hand or towards your pocket. I tend to use a bowl of chaff or something with a longer chew time, and I reward constantly for being in a certain position. So you’re training them where you want them to be when you deliver the reinforcement.
“You put food in the bowl. They eat it. You click and then you put more food in the bowl before they finish eating. You’re teaching them that after the click, food comes, and they don’t need to stress about it. Then you can do the same thing standing next to them, because they’ve already understood that you bring the food to them, they don’t come to you for the food.”
But even when you’re doing everything right, some horses can still be snatchy.
“For me, this highlights that everything isn’t OK,” warns Lucy. “If a horse is in pain, their ‘stress jar’ is fairly full so it doesn’t take much to tip them over.”
Changing times for horse training
Lucy has noticed a shift in attitudes towards horse behaviour, but believes there is still some way to go.
“I think things are changing but I saw recently, for example, someone had posted on a behaviour page a horse showing pretty extreme discomfort; tail swishing, head tossing, ears pinned back,” she says. “Probably 60% of people said pain, talk to the vet, but 40% said, ‘You need a better trainer, sell the horse, it’s being naughty’. I thought, ‘Poor horse, why aren’t you listening?’”
Lucy lists research papers to back up the system with science.
“If people are sceptical, there are numerous studies to back up the effectiveness of positive reinforcement as a way to train horses,” she explains, listing Larssen & Roth, 2022, Sankey et al, 2010, Carroll, Sykes & Mills, 2022.
“And there are many trainers like me who are proof it works, for all horses from two-week-old foals to stallions and everything in between,” she concludes.
Never too young to start: even young foals can benefit from clicker training. Credit: Alamy
Are you keen to try clicker training for horses yourself? Keep an eye out for Lucy’s starter exercises, which will be published next week.
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