Thursday, April 11, 2019

The Power of Praise

My late-winter into spring has afforded me with ride after wonderful ride on Q. From our first solo off-property ride in ages where Q tackled an easy 8 miles on the rail trail in 75 minutes with nary a spook (despite many oddities on the trail that day!), to circuit training rides on our home property (where she manages to hunker down and work for significant spurts of time without trying to bee-line back to her herd!), and several more rail trail rides with and without company - Q has absolutely excelled.

During and after each ride, I find myself grinning ear to ear. I'm just so freaking pleased with how the little mare is doing. Our relationship has reached a new level of understanding and improved communication.

As much as I give Q credit for all of this, I recognize that I've also done a lot of work to get to this point, and I'm proud of myself for that.

IMG_20190328_184021_218
All smiles during a 10 mile ride with Q to celebrate closing on the land

See, until 2011 my experience with horses was relatively limited. I lessoned through my elementary and middle school years and transitioned to riding friends' horses (always on the trail) through high school and college. While I fit in a ton of time and miles riding, I seriously lacked substantial education/training beyond how to ride a horse in a relatively balanced manner at various speeds over all sorts of terrain.

The majority of horses I rode in my youth were chill, solid citizens, who really didn't need a lot of input from me in the way of verbal communication. Even when they were green horses, they were usually relaxed and easy to work with due to the nature of their environments and the easy-going people who interacted with them on the daily. Lucky for me in many ways, but also not so much because I didn't get to expand my understanding/education until later in life.

DSCN9108
I was 17, Stan was 5. I loved dragging down and dead logs into a pile in the woods and then would simply
point-n-shoot Stan at them, give a cluck and a nudge with my heels and off we'd go!

Even with Stan, who was a green 4 year old when we met in my high school years, communication was almost entirely nonverbal. His quiet temperament lent itself well to this. We each provided input to one another about speed and direction as we explored and gallivanted over mountains in the middle of nowhere. While there were disagreements from time to time, we learned to trust one another on a level that I haven't yet found with another horse - and honestly may never again because the naive trust of a teenager isn't exactly easy to come by after a certain point in one's life!

When I finally got my first horse (Orion) in 2011, I carried on much the way I had with those early horses. I didn't talk much, if ever, to him. But later, as Griffin and then Q came into my life in 2012, my nonverbal methods weren't as successful as they had been. I had a Very Green horse and a Very Sensitive Mare in my life on an intimate level for the first time. Obviously, a lot had to change to find success.

Of all the things I have changed with regard to training and interacting with horses in these past 7 years (and I have learned so very much!), an increase in verbal communication has made the biggest difference. In particular, verbal praise.

20170709 Grif Dressage Tests-47
A listening ear on me for his "good boy" after our very first dressage test ever.

Griffin and Q absolutely thrive on spoken praise. "Good boy/girl" and "good job" are things I say all the time these days. And you know what? The tough training moments don't seem as tough as they once were now that I've unlocked this little tidbit. When my horses are uncertain about what the right answer is, I dole out praise as quickly and frequently as necessary. Their ears flick back to me and their bodies relax with each repetition.

Griffin's level of try is directly proportional to the amount of praise he receives. Q's level of relaxation and confidence is directly proportional to the amount of praise I give her. And I anticipate that the more confidence this mare builds, the more try she will offer me in the future.

I wish I had learned the power of praise and verbal communication earlier in my time with horses, but it is what it is. I'm grateful I've learned what I have and that I am implementing those lessons now. Beyond that, I am so very grateful for patient horses who haven't murdered me as I fumbled along in my journey.

30 comments:

  1. Great that you are having such good rides on Q! And how true is this statement in your post: the "naive trust of a teenager isn't exactly easy to come by after a certain point in one's life!" I struggle with this to this day (and I'm well past my teenage years!) - I've never had a relationship with a horse like the one with the scrappy pony mare that I had as a kid.

    Praise is important to me too, although, by accident, I taught my gelding that "good boy" when riding meant slow down! lol I must've relaxed my body a bit every time I said it, so he took it as a cue to back off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm currently reinforcing to Grif that he can't slow down just because he got a good boy 🙈 🙈

      Delete
    2. Hey, my horse has started doing the same thing! I say "good boy" and he drops down to a walk!! I can't figure out how he "learned" to do that, I certainly wasn't teaching it! So I'm obviously communicating something I'm unaware of and now I need to untrain him!

      Delete
  2. I hear you on what a sensitive mare can teach you! I also agree with the praise. Irish thrives on it and I have been known (in his younger years) to say things like 'oh you are such a brave little idiot' in a happy voice. :)

    Carmen likes it as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bahaha. The things said to animals in a happy voice that are anything BUT nice always make me giggle. Q's getting wise enough to my words that I can curse at her with meaning and she bucks up and behaves. Last week she gave two spectacular attempts to barge off with me in an attempt to return to the barn and I growled at her, "I know your heart isn't in it right now but I don't FUCKING CARE. You're going to WORK and if you adjust your ATTITUDE it will be easier and go by faster." By god if she didn't do just that lol

      Delete
    2. Oh yeah. I've done that voice too. Works with Carmen.

      Delete
  3. Praise works so much! I don't have to do as much now with Amber, but even still if I'm teaching her something new or difficult or both, I'm constantly talking to her like "just a little more. Almost there, hon. Yup! Good job! One more step; you got this!" and then we've got it and she gets showered with praise and scratches lol. Having two sensitive mares tho will do that to you haha! I'm glad Q and Griffin are doing well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man, two sensitive mares. I can only imagine!

      Delete
  4. Remember back in...2013, when I first started riding Lily on trails consistently in preparation for endurance, and I mentioned to you that discovering constant praise had been a turning point for us? That my spookfest of a mare suddenly really enjoyed her job because of it...I was so excited at the time. And you had said something along the lines that you would have a hard time with a horse so insecure that they required that level of reassurance?

    Well, now you know what I meant. :) And I am thrilled that it’s working out for you the way it did for me. ️<3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep! And I have had a very hard time with it evidenced by my literal years of working on it 🤣

      Delete
  5. This is why I got so pissed when the last Trainer I rode with immediately told me to basically STFU and quit talking to H'Appy. I talk to him all the time. It keeps his attention on me, helps through my own tenseness and everything is always better when you have someone to talk to anyway.

    Happy to hear Q is coming along so nicely. It will be an amazing day once you two hit that endurance trail again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love this, verbal praise is so important for many horses! For Goose it goes both ways - I have my "good boy" voice and my "knock it off RIGHT THIS INSTANT" voice and he absolutely knows the difference. Love to read how well Q is going so far this year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm like Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde with the voices, too, lol!

      Delete
  7. aw <3 charlie is the same way about thriving on praise. and actually, it really helps *me* too. somehow, the act of telling my horse he's a good boy and he's ok has the power to also reassure me. funny how that works ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very funny how that works 😉 I have definitely had a much easier time with praise for the horses since my own self-talk has improved.

      Delete
  8. Maybe stopping the inner monologue to acknowledge our horses' praiseworthy moments gives us humans time and space to cement things in our brains as well? (and it doesn't hurt to turn the praise back on ourselves now and again either) ;D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You said it! As soon as I praised myself more on the day to day, praising the horses got easier. The effort was in tandem and the results on both sides are amazing.

      Delete
  9. I didn't realize how much praise worked until I got Spud - he soaks it up and just digs in harder. Annie also loves praise, but will slam on the brakes once given a "good girl!", haha. I have also been working on encouraging her to not slow down or break gait just because she was told she's amazing, much to her displeasure I'm sure!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Oh I'm GOOD?! If I'm GOOD them I must be DONE!" No. No, horse. Please keep going. lol

      Delete
  10. I have found that well-timed verbal praise can actually replace a clicker in clicker training, so it makes sense that horses will learn from verbal praise when added correctly! It's much like giving a cookie for good behavior, especially when you're consistent in the phrasing and tone. I tend to use a very distinct "yes!" as a verbal marker (usually followed by a standard "good boy/girl" and pats). The horses learn to seek it out! You can't explain what you want in English, but boy can you use some carefully timed words as a positive reinforcement!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! THIS! I have *absolutely* taken that approach with it and definitely thing that well-timed positive reinforcement has made all of the difference in the world.

      Delete
  11. There's praise, and then there's a legitimate plea to someone to STFU. One boarder (who luckily left just last week) will, for example, lunge her horse and literally every step the horse makes is accompanied by "good boy, that's a good boy, trot, trot, trot, trot, good boy, trot, trot, trot" I don't know if the horse tunes her out, what he would do if she did STFU and he had silence....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good gracious. Yeah, I bet that horse has learned to tune out the human!

      Delete
  12. Soooooooo I am *that* person that runs a continual conversation with the horse I am working with. The sensitive, opinionated mares seem to find it entertaining. I’ve noticed that running my mouth tends to increase my patience and amusement at whatever random event may occur. Yes, I do talk to the ancient car while driving/working on her, as well as the bike. Microexpressions count at 100 mph. I tend to warn people in advance that I am definitely NOT talking to you unless I say your name continually. YMMV!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha! Mileage varies, absolutely! And I completely concur with helping to increase patience and amusement - makes complete sense to me. 😊 You sound just like my husband except he never let's people know he's not talking to them. I respond to him - or try to - constantly as a result.

      Delete
  13. Absolutely agree with you! One other thing about verbal praise, at least for me, is that it helps me both mark a specific behavior that I'm interested in and keeps me looking at little steps of progress. So instead of thinking just "I want this done better", if I keep praising the horse as they make little approximations to the behavior I want, I keep myself tuned in to those approximations and making the progress quantifiable instead of nebulously qualitative. It also means that I can evaluate my own praise frequency and think about whether the approximations I'm praising for are reasonable or not. If I'm not saying "good boy" even though the pony is changing a few things, maybe I'm not asking for an achievable step. If I go for a while in silence and I'm doing more than just warming up or conditioning, maybe I need to change my criteria.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, yes, yes! I concur completely. I especially love "if I keep praising the horse as they make little approximations to the behavior I want, I keep myself tuned in to those approximations and making the progress quantifiable". Well said!

      Delete
  14. Verbal praise is pretty effective when it's used in a consistent manner, same tonal quality and pitch and same word sounds every time. It also helps I think provide a feedback loop to us as well, it cements in our mind that our horses are doing a good job, and keeps us present as well.

    ReplyDelete