Putting it to use

Now that you know what positive reinforcement IS, now let’s learn how to use it to train our horses.

Let’s go back to the ABCs. We, the trainer, control the Antecedents and the Consequences, the horses choose the behavior.

So, start by setting the scene, make the right behavior choice easy and obvious for your horse. Arrange the situation so the learner is very likely to make the choice you want them to.

When they DO the desired behavior we need to mark it with a signal, so they know exactly what they did right.

Then we reinforce the behavior, positively, by adding something the learner likes.