What is Pressure?

"Pressure" is a constant source of confusion for people learning about positive reinforcement. We use this term interchangeably with "aversive" but we recognize that not all pressure is aversive. Then assume that means all pressure is safe to use.

So let's sort this out. Aversives are anything, physical or otherwise, that the horse dislikes and will work to avoid, things that evoke unpleasant emotions and escape/avoidance behaviors. If you do something (anything) and your horse works to make it stop or go away or avoids it, you know it's aversive. Whether it's physical pressure or an annoying noise or invading their space or a swinging rope, if the horse is avoiding the aversive. With our R+ training we want to avoid intentionally using aversives as a tool.

Physical pressure, touching, pushing on, pressing on, tapping, scratching, rubbing, all physical pressure has a wide variety of responses. Every horse has their own feelings about which sensations they find as aversive, appetitive, or neutral. You can test the stimulus and see how they feel about it. If they find it aversive, you can work to counter condition it (if you need to) or you can respect their feelings.

Tactile cues are physical cues that let the horse know which behavior will be reinforced now. We always make sure the horse is ok with the tactile sensation by testing it first. Then we train the behavior with R+, shaping, targeting, capturing, then put the behavior on the tactile cue. The horse learns to respond appropriately to the tactile sensations.