Reward for effort, don't drill for perfection

One of our often repeated mantras here at Equestrian Movement is to "Reward for Effort, Dont Drill for Perfection."

We've all seen and maybe had a giggle at that meme circulating with the horse on the couch of his therapists office saying, "I just go round and round in circles but the circles are never good enough".

Maybe you've even felt a little guilty identifying with it but not sure what else to do! We have some tips for you:

Cross train

We love cross training. Break your arena figures up with poles, grids or do your training out on a trail. You horse wants to be stimulated mentally and you will be rewarded with a more willing and enthusiastic horse

Stop, feeling like you could've done more

We've all be caught out on the "just one more time" only for it all to go pear shaped and you've had to work your horse harder and longer just to find a positive note to finish on. This one is hard for us because we often say this when it feels really good and we want to do it again.

But you have to remember that when it feels good your horse is giving you their best effort and if you want them to continue to put their best effort in, you need to reward them and finish up before they get tired. Otherwise we risk them going mentally sour and physically sore.

Reward effort.

Do you know what rewarding effort gets you? More effort!! Do you know what repeating until its perfect gets you? A grumpy, sour horse and an unsatisfied rider. Rewarding for effort means your horse learns to give you their best effort for each ask, which is where you truly see the progress and can keep your horse sensitised and tuned in.

Use the exercise to create the movement

Going hand in hand with our previous rules using the exercise to condition the horse to be able to do the exercise along with rewarding for effort, stopping feeling like you could've done more and cross training gets the best results from our horses long term. Y

ou don't need every ride to be better than your last. When you can see the road laid out in exercises to get your to your goal you can see the repeated effort + the time to build muscle and tone is where you will see progress with your horse.

Our horses learn from the release of pressure. They don't understand when you're repeating an exercise again and again because you're not happy with it that it's because they aren't doing it "good enough". By the time you're at that point they're just enduring the process to physically and mentally tired to think hoping sooner or later you'll quit, turn them out and feed them.

But you can use that to your advantage. If you take about the third effort from your horse as their best effort (loose rule but it does tend to deteriorate after the third ask) reward and change exercises they will start to put more effort in. If you hope off feeling like you could've done more, turn them out to their paddock mates and feed them they will more and more look forward to the process of succeeding and being rewarded for their effort.

Still confused about how to structure an exercise plan with your horse?

Join our wait list for the journey to self carriage where we've got it all laid out for you in easy to follow lesson plans and exercises with accompanying video of horses at different stages of development.

Addressing unwanted behaviour is pointless without acknowledging wanted behaviour

Are you constantly on your horses case?

More bend!

More forward!

More frame!

… More, more, more!

One of the biggest things I have to remind my students of is to say good when they are trying, give them a break and give them pats for their good effort.

It’s not that we are purposefully hold out (although sometimes we are taught not to pat or say good boy/girl) but that we get caught up in what we are doing and trying to get the results. On focus is so centered on results that we forget to even congratulate ourselves for our effort and this has flow on affects to the horse.

When we acknowledge wanted behaviour with positive reinforcement (at Equestrian Movement we call them emotional motivators or our horses love language), our horse actively seeks the answer and therefore the reward. An added bonus of the win for the horse is the release of happy hormones associated with task completion, and if we have associated our emotional motivator with our connection with our horses, they will look to do it for us to please us and not just satisfy their own desires.

When we constantly say no, use negative reinforcement and hassle our horses, they eventually stop being curious and stop trying.

If every time they put effort in and try they are told wrong or not good enough there is no reason for them to try and nothing for them to enjoy in the learning process.