Positive vs. negative reinforcement

Teaching half-steps/piaffe in hand uses both negative
and positive reinforcement (via sugar cubes).

Quiz

How do horses learn?

A)  Positive reinforcement
B) Negative reinforcement


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ok, so I suppose the answer is C) BOTH. :)

Anyway, the point is that many people really do not understand what negative reinforcement is. It is crucial to horse training as horses learn extraordinarily well via negative reinforcement. I think the term is misunderstood. Since positive reinforcement involves "reward," then negative reinforcement must involve punishment. That is just simply not true.

Here is a basic definition:

Negative reinforcement occurs when something already present is removed (taken away) as a result of a person's behaviour, creating a favourable outcome for that person.

When you put your leg on your horse - asking him to trot perhaps, and he trots off, you take the leg pressure away. THAT is negative reinforcement. When you halter break a baby, you give a slight tug on the lead. He learns if he gives to the pressure and steps forward, the annoying pressure goes away. Negative reinforcement.

Maybe your husband or boyfriend snores at night. You cannot sleep so you put earplugs in. The annoying snoring stops. Don't you think you would be more likely to use earplugs again? That is also negative reinforcement. The behavior of inserting earplugs got rid of something unpleasant for you (your hubby's obnoxious snoring).

NR (Negative reinforcement) is not punishment. It is not mean or cruel. It is simply a principle of behavior. A PUNISHMENT would occur if the outcome was NOT favorable for the person (or horse). Also, NR is not when someone engages in bad behaviour and gets something from it. If your rotten little kid throws a tantrum at the mall, and you give him a candy bar to shut him up - that is not negative reinforcement. That is actually POSITIVE reinforcement for the little brat.

Here is an example I see A LOT with inexperienced riders. Say you come in to the middle of the ring to stand and chat with a friend or something. You halt, but don't release any contact on the reins as you are standing there (maybe you are nervous your horse will spook). Your horse is standing quietly but wondering why there is still pressure in his mouth. His starts to toss his head, or root. You release the pressure on the reins because you don't want your arms to be ripped out. You have just rewarded your horse's head tossing or rooting via negative reinforcement. Great job, you have taught your horse to root!

Often, positive and negative reinforcement occur at the same time. Which I why I believe horses learn from both principles. We all have horses who will do just about anything for a treat. (eh-hem - Hampton!). That is positive reinforcement. In horse training, I believe you really have to use both principles. Infact, that probably applies just about everywhere: raising kids, managing employees, etc. etc.

What do you think?

It's not me, it's you.

I miss summer.

Last week I fell victim to the Flu. I cannot even remember the last time I had it but holy cow it took me down. It lasted a good 6 days. Today I was able to clean stalls and not feel like I was going to collapse! Yay! Still have a gross cough but I can deal with that.

Meanwhile, I made J - my instuctor - ride Hampton while I sat on the mounting block and coughed on Saturday. I was just as impressed with her riding as I am with her teaching. Hampton was not that impressed, however. He threw all his tricks at her to try to get out of work. There was a lot of kicking out at the leg and pig-rooting. Bad pony! But there were some nice moments in there. I may have her ride him once a month. It's good for him.

... but unfortunately, having a beginner ride him once a month is NOT good for him. He is not dangerous, but I should have known better. He is not comfirmed enough in his training to throw a beginner on him twice a week. He has developed a few bad habits as a result and his training has suffered a setback. It will all come back, it's not like he is ruined, but I have had a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach for a while about this lease situation and I am so glad it's over. Yes I did "break up" with this person and there was no drama. But boy do I feel better. She had texted me once about how he was "running into the railroad ties around the arena." This did not sit well with me. Our arena has railroad tie things around the edges. He was running into them because SHE WAS NOT BOTHERING TO STEER HIM. I gritted my teeth at that but I should have stopped it there. Two weeks ago she casually mentioned that she has draw reins "just sitting in her car" and maybe she could use them with him? .... yeah I kept my cool, but barely.

(my stance on draw reins is that they are mostly not needed ... are downright dangerous in uneducated hands ... and create more problems than they solve. However, I do believe there are some circumstances where they may be appropriate. Hampton is NOT one of them.)

Just not a good match. I am not the perfect rider by any means but he needs someone with independent seat and hands until he is a wise old schoolmaster. I might sound snobby, selfish and bitchy but I feel so much better now that he is not being leased anymore.

This week's schedule: Work on collection. Collection. Collection. Straightness. Straightness. Use the outside aids until I am blue in the face.

Dressage, grids, random news.

On Saturday we had a dressage lesson with my now regular dressage instructor down here. We worked a lot on collected canter and the canter-walk transition. Our transitions were OK, but I wasn't collecting him nearly enough. J had me really challenge the Hamper until he offered me a TRULY uphill, bouncy canter. It required some grunting (mostly from me). It was a breakthrough for both of us to be honest. Now I know he is capable of it. We also did some shoulder-in and leg yield work - working on that connection to the right rein. We had some bobbles, but also some really nice leg yields all the way across the arena. I was super proud of the beast.

On Sunday our "reward" was another lesson with Dorothy Crowell. :) She started us off doing some flat work. I really like Dorothy because she has such a different approach to things. I really like taking new tools from different instructors and finding what works for me. Dorothy had me really turn my chest to the inside - so that my "headlights" (or boobs, but I don't have anything close to an impressive rack so ...) ...were almost facing Dorothy who was at the center of the circle.

She also nailed me for using my left hand way too much (*guilty here*) and had me raise my left hand obnoxiously high in the air so I could not use it. It was more difficult than it sounds but I started to figure it out. haha.


I cranked my stirrups up for Dorothy's lesson. My thighs BURNED.

 We moved on to a line of THE MOST FUN GYMNASTICS EVER. Basically, it was a bounce, two strides (with 2 placing poles) to a jump, 2 strides (with 2 placing poles) to a bounce. So Hampton had to pick his way through this. He figured it out immediately and his cute face just lit up when we approached this exercise. He absolutely loved it and I felt him "lock on" and pull me to the first bounce every time.

Almost too cute to handle.

I was doing a little better about NOT jumping ahead but I realize that a big part of the problem was that I still grip with my knees. (Damn you saddleseat land!!). This causes my lower leg to slide back. So .... perhaps some no stirrup work for me. Or like Dorothy said, "pretend you are at the gynocologist." ... hahaha she is my kind of lady. But despite my mediocre riding, Hampton jumping like a BOSS. I think I may hit up some little hunter shows this summer as he is getting to be quite sylish!

Call George Morris?

ME: "Dammit why do I always jump ahead."
HAMPTON: "Did you see me jump like a badass?"

So a super fun weekend with my poneh! :) I'm a lucky girl.

In other news:
I think I found the reason why Hampton had a little spell of misbehavior (the rearing episode) and I just had a sense that he was "agitated." He wasn't being bad, but when you know a horse really well you can just tell when they are not 100% right. Also, Hamps had developed a habit of jerking his right hind up when I was tacking him up. At first I thought maybe it was his stifle of hock bothering him, but then I realized it occured at the exact moment I went to tighten the girth. He has been on Ulcer Guard pellets for 2 weeks now and that behavior has vanished. He is also back to his normal relaxed, peaceful self. (see above photo, haha). Glad I caught it early before he started to act out further. He probably got a little stressed from moving to a stall which changed up his routine. He is otherwise happy, wolfing down his food and drinking lots. His weight looks fantastic.

Also ... I have decided I no longer want to lease him out. For a couple of reasons, but none of them are a super big deal. How do I break this news to his leaser? She is a very nice person but it's just not a good match and in about a month we need to start getting into "competition mode" as far as schooling goes. I don't want to confuse him with 2 riders at this point. I don't want to hurt her feelings so I'm not sure how to break it to her? Advice appreciated.

Well hey good job if you read all of this!

(WAY) Back in the Day ... Bar

This is another installment of the Horses of my Life series in which I feature those special creatures who have taught me the most. The previous blogs are listed in my sidebar.

Bar

For Christmas this year, my mother gave me one of the best gifts ever. She took a bunch of old VHS tapes of me riding and compiled them onto 1 DVD. It is funny. It is scary. Some moments gave me goosebumps. An all-around super awesome gift.

I think my favorite is the footage she found of me riding Bar. (circa 1992 ... I was 12)

Adjusting my stirrup.

Bar was an old-style type Quarter Horse, about as wide as he was tall. I believe he was a barrel racer and pony horse on the track before he landed as a school horse in Indiana.

He was "the most difficult horse to ride in the barn" according to Mrs. K. If you were assigned to ride Bar, it truly meant you had graduated to "advanced rider" status around Kaufman Stables! He was very sensitive, and was nicknamed "The Tank" for obvious reasons and also because he was known to just run straight through fences. I never experienced or saw that, but that was the legend. lol. If you could even get Bar to walk, you might as well have Horse Whisperer status. Looking back now, I see that he was just overfed and underworked, but whatevs.

Anyway, the first time I rode Bar I fell instantly in love. He was, in fact, the easiest horse to ride in the barn because you did not have to do anything but sit there and chill out!

He was my favorite right away. He is perhaps the reason I have fallen for a number of big bay geldings in my life.

Bar taught me a very important lesson in horsemanship, and that is how to "sit chilly." Some people never really get this aspect of learning feel and how to sit "in" the horse and not "on" him. Bar taught me how to relax and wait ... to sit with him and bring the energy down a notch.

Seems my jumping form was better when I was 12 than at 33.

He was pretty fun to jump, too, although at 12 years old ... (if you think I am scrawny now, take a look at 12-year-old Karen. Good grief) ... I basically had no hope of trotting to a jump. Bar wanted to canter and I let him. No use fighting. He enjoyed jumping so much that he tried to buck me off a couple of times during that lesson!

I didn't know "Oh shit" when I was 12, but if I did, I would be saying that
here when Bar's head vanished and he wanted to buck.

Enjoy this short little clip from the lesson video. As you can see, Bar only had 1 speed and that was Mach 10. Also, I did not grow up riding at a fancy lesson barn. We learned much like this - in a group, horses and people flailing around for a while. My hair is smashed and escaping from my helmet (which I doubt was even approved), and I love the stone wash jeans and untucked shirt. But Mrs. K was pretty strict about safety and there is something to be said about learning to ride like this.

And thanks to the DVD my mum gave me, I have plenty more where this came from. :)

Smell ya later 2012



Winter wonderland poneh

 Hampton has spend the final week and a half of 2012 enjoying some time off. I have been busy with holidays and work, and the girl who is leasing him has also been on vacation. We have done a few sessions of long-lining - which has been really good for him. But unfortunately everything on the farm has been snowed on and frozen over so there is no safe place to ride at the moment. Some places are ok to walk and trot but seeing as how my horse is not the most sure-footed creature on the planet, I'm not going to risk it.

I am going to try and drag the area tomorrow and see if I can turn into something appropriate to ride on. We have TWO lessons coming up - one with Alex Gerding and another with Dorothy Crowell .. so, you know, I should probably ride the beast a couple of times before then. It is not even that cold here (hovering around 35 which in my book is totally tolerable to ride in), but the ground it just crappy.

In other news, here are some goals for 2013.

• Show First and Second Level. Hit up at least 1 rated show, hopefully more.
• Earn scores toward USDF Bronze Medal
• Lessons, lessons, lessons
• FHF adult dressage camp
• Participate in 2 or 3 mini horse trials. Possibly move up to Beginner Novice during the summer.
• Qualify for USDF regionals? If so, attend them.
• Start saving $$ for a new dressage saddle.
• By late fall, start schooling more solid 3rd level.



weee. Blown-out Hamper photo

 I debated applying for Event Camp as LAZ's place. I thought about this long and hard. But I decided not to do it. It's very expensive and to be totally honest ... and I think this shows through this blog ... eventing is not where my heart is. I love dressage and I dabble in eventing because it is good for Hampton and also good for me to get out of the sandbox and do something different. I would rather take that money and go to FHF dressage camp, or to a clinic or even a show. Or a new saddle. :)

I am not quitting eventing. I enjoy the little mini trials we do, but I doubt I enter a rated trial or anything like that. I will continue to event at the level which is fun and safe for me. I realize we are "ready" to move up. But past Beginner Novice is no longer fun for me, it is nervewracking and I'd just rather not. We have escaped with zero bad experiences so far, pretty much by pure luck, and I don't want to overface either of us. Ever.

2013 will be about building strength in our dressage with a goal of 3rd level in late 2014. I suspect we may get "stuck" at 2nd/3rd level for a year or two. He needs to build strength and I need more education. But the ultimate goal is PSG with Hampton. I also have no doubt he can learn all the Grand Prix. He may not be competitive (maybe on a local level, but certainly not national). In order to acheive this, I have to invest in education because let's face it: I have no clue.

Question for you all: Is there anything you'd like to read more about in 2013? Anything you'd like to know about Hampton? Or anything in general? within reason? :)

Also,

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my blog readers.



Last ride of 2012.



Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all my readers. I have something pretty funny for you all.


This is yours truly ... in the 80s.

omg pony is obese! prob a thyroid problem, danger of founder!

Love,

Karen & Hampton

Thank those behind the scenes

November horse prancing.

Our really wonderful caretaker at the farm is taking his annual holiday this week. I am filling in a few mornings for feeding and other chores.

Today I cleaned 25 stalls, fed-watered-hayed 25 horses, turned them all out in the appropriate fields, cleaned up the aisles and did blanket switches. I do clean Hampton's little barn 4 days a week but that is just 5 stalls. Today was 5x the workload I am used to.

Julian, our usual caretaker, does this every single day!! Let me tell you my arms feel like rubber and my back hurts. Thank goodness for my brand new Dublin boots I got for Christmas (*woot woot booty dance*) or my feet would have been cold and wet as it is OF COURSE raining here. STILL.

So if you do board your horse, please remember to thank those who care for them. It is hard work and often with very little appreciation. I was a show horse groom once and rarely was I even ackknowledged. A thank-you note goes a long way.



Hampton sporting his new trace clip.