The 3 D's of shaping reliable behaviours are all factors that make it more difficult for the horse to complete their behaviour.

Why is a pressure cue, used in positive reinforcement training not the same as pressure and release?

Often one of the first questions I get from my students is "do I need to use a clicker?" The answer is "no!, but you do need a marker...

Something that I’ve noticed is becoming increasingly common, are trainers, organizations and barns who use almost exclusively Natural...

Let's talk about why the idea, that you can make your horse more spooky or "disrespectful" by allowing them to react fearfully is wrong!

The most important aspect of Force-Free Horsemanship is that we intentionally provide our horses with more choices during training. One...

Shaping is one of the most important educational tools in ethical horsemanship, and it's not only essential in force-free and/or reward...

Let's talk a bit about using positive punishment. Positive Punishment is the application of an aversive stimulus after a behaviour to...

The 5 freedoms are the basics of any animal welfare, and the 3 F’s are the top three basic welfare needs of a horse. These go hand in hand and are our minimum welfare requirement for any horse. Before these needs are met, we cannot even consider any behaviour modification (aka. Training) and oftentimes behavioural problems can be directly be traced bad to a lack of these requirements.   The 5 Freedoms are:   Freedom from Hunger and Thirst. Freedom from Discomfort. Freedom fro

I don’t “correct” bad/unwanted behaviours One thing that always makes people confused when they first encounter force-free or positive...

Last post I talked about operant conditioning, so today brings us to the topic of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is also...

On my social media posts, you will see a lot of talk about "positive reinforcement", "negative reinforcement", "punishment", "Aversives",...

Welcome back to the Leslie Horsemanship Blog Today, Let's talk about food anxiety. Food anxiety during training is an incredibly common...

Positive Reinforcement is often very misunderstood. Especially the horse world is plagued with old school beliefs and misconceptions...