How the professionals do it

I went to visit the Horse Protection Association of Florida on Sunday to volunteer and look at a few horses for Kathy. The farm is everything I would have expected from them based on their website and more. FHOTD has me looking at rescues with a more critiquing eye these days and HPAF is a really great example of a well run rescue. Great website? check. Well managed, clean and asteticly pleasing property? check. Happy horses well on their way to recovery? Double check.
I think they said they had 63 horses and everyone looks better than Tie already. We could learn a thing or two from them for sure! HPAF also has a professional trainer to work with the elidgible horses. That is just top notch in my opinion. Check out their website. It is really nice.

In other news Tie got his feet done yesterday. The farrier was impressed with how well his feet were holding up to the lack of nutrition, and thinks he is doing just fine feet wise. I am excited about this as we all know no feet no horse.

A few people have recommended probiotics to see if we can get Tie more regular. Any thoughts? It is worth a shot, and I read some positive reviews online.

Here is Bodhi in his winter garb (red blanket) meeting some new pasture buddies.

Reinforcement: an Introduction

First what does it mean to reinforce? Reinforcement is a reward for a "right answer" Reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior recurring. What ever behavior is reinforced will then likely repeat. I like to keep this in mind when new behaviors pop up in horse training. "What behavior am I reinforcing and HOW am I reinforcing it"

The How
There are two basic types of reinforcement. Negative and positive reinforcement.
Positive- Is anything added that is rewarding when the appropriate behavior is expressed. Giving a dog a cookie for the command "sit", smiling at your partner and saying "thanks" for doing the dishes, giving a child a gold star on a completed homework assignment- these are all examples of positive reinforcement. Exotic animal trainers(dolphin elephant etc) use positive reinforcement. "Clicker" training is a gaining popularity, and also uses positive reinforcement- a topic for another post!

Negative-(not to be confused with punishment) is taking away an irritating, non rewarding, or uncomfortable stimulus. How we normally train dogs to walk on a leash is using negative reinforcement. A new puppy quickly learns that he can remove the uncomfortable feeling of tightness from the rope by walking forward, the same a horse is conditioned to move "off" a leg. The reward is in the removal of the stimulus or "aide" as we riders like to say.
Most traditional and "natural" horse training is primarily negative reinforcement. Leg and rein aides are of course negative reinforcement. You want your horse to move away from your leg, you want your horse to give to reins. This is all taught by negative reinforcement. Also Parelli's Seven Games uses negative reinforcement, along with Monty Robert's join up games. So you see in the eyes of a behaviorist the new "natural" movement is not so new or different after all!

Both forms of reinforcement have their own unique weaknesses and strengths, and just like disciplines have very passionate followers. I plan on delving into the drawbacks of each in following posts...

Bodhi News
The cold is finally here, in North Central Florida and Bodhi looks like a woolly mammoth. He just loves this weather! I am debating what I am going to do about blanketing this year. He is a Haflinger and I do live in Florida. Does he really need a blanket? Is this just to make me feel better? I am thinking about loaning Bodhi's Blankets to two ederly boarders who do not have any blankets. They are two short coated arabs that need all the help they can get keeping the pounds on this winter.

At what temp do you blanket your horses? What role does their individual winter coats weigh in your decision making process?