Curious about clicker training? Start with these two simple exercises

Clicker training for horses relies on the concept of positive reinforcement. This method involves giving the horse something it enjoys – typically a treat or a scratch – after it performs a specific action, increasing the chances that the desired behaviour will be repeated. How to clicker train a horse requires great timing, and a few important bits of kit. It’s best to have a professional help set you on the right path, as – according to expert Lucy Chester – it’s “one of the hardest training methods to do well at the beginning”.

Lucy prescribes two exercises for starting clicker training.

How to clicker train a horse – the basics

1. Teaching a horse the meaning of the clicker

You will need:

• Empty bowl
• Clicker
• Dampened chaff or low-value reinforcers, such as haycobs, pressed hay or meadow grass
• Alternative feed source (such as haynet within reach) so you are not the only source of food

Set-up

Pick a quiet place where the horse is relaxed.

Either work behind protected contact – a barrier such as a fence or a stable door – or tie your horse up with a haynet, if they are happy to be tied. Try to stay a short distance away so they cannot reach you to snuffle your pockets.

Shaping plan

• Click and put a handful of chaff or a few hay pellets into the bucket.
• Before the horse finishes the food, click and add more. This teaches them that the click comes before the food.
• Repeat until their eating rate slows down. They will make the connection between the click and the reward very quickly (classical conditioning).
• After about 10 repetitions, give an extra big handful to the food, then retreat and allow the horse to finish eating. This will prevent you from moving into the negative punishment training quadrant (by taking the food away).

Once the horse understands that the click is followed by the arrival of a low-value food reward in the bucket, you can move on to the next task.

2. Teaching a horse to touch a cone

You will need:

Everything listed above, plus a cone or other marker.

Set-up

As above

Shaping plan

Hold a cone (or other marker) up for your horse to touch with their nose. Horses are naturally curious so usually will but if they don’t, you can put it on the floor or even reward them for looking at it to begin with. Then click and put a few haycobs in the bucket. Using a yellow or blue cone (or other marker) will help as horses have dichromatic vision; they see clearly shades of yellow and blue.

Repeat three to five times, then add a handful of food into the bowl and step away to give the horse a break. It’s important with positive reinforcement not to use negative punishment accidentally by taking food away from the horse.

When the horse understands to touch the cone, you can add the voice cue “touch”, then only reward (click, then feed) when you have given the horse the cue (stimulus control).

Try to avoid frustration, be clear with your asks and include breaks when you put food in the bowl, then retreat. Make sure you do this when you finish training too.

Lucy adds: “These are my two foundation exercises before teaching horses how to take food from my hand, first with the barrier, then without.

“You can avoid negative punishment and frustration by always leaving the horse with food before you leave.

“Once the horse understands what the clicker means and how to be calm around food, the sky is the limit!”

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