ClickertrainedHorses

A place for members of r/ClickertrainedHorses to chat with each other

Hey everyone!

I know the answer my question in the title is probably "no", but I wanted try and to ask anyway and if you have any opinions on the topic. :)

I'm quite new at clickertraning, and have found it to be very fun to learn and my horse is very eager as well (almost too much haha). I've tried my best to research as much as possible (on the internet, tried going to a local trainer once), but I'm quite careful and slow with the training because I don't want to get into situations where I taught the horse something "unliterally dangerous" (considering several different people handle him) or train a signal that I later realize hinders me from doing another thing etc...

What I really would be happy about if there where some "standard" for voicesignals, handsignal etc (at least the foundation/most imporant ones) but I realized it doesn't seem there is one? I suspect that it's probably because "it's not popular enough" like negative reinforcement to need one yet, but I think it would greatly help people to not only get into the training method more, but make it easier to make it "viable" to sell & buy clickertrained horses. Maybe I'm just overthinking stuff or overlooking some info more experienced people know, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and any recommendations to where I could find something similar to "standards" to follow.

(Sorry if this just comes off as a rant, just curious to learn more! )

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hello fellow clicker training people! I am hoping that some of you are based in Aus, even better NSW and have any recommendations for rewards/treats for the easy keepers out there! I struggle to find anything that doesnt have too manny additives/is just forage based to use! Thanks!! I did use hygain fibre essential for a while but the small pellet size lead to a lot of wastage. I have also tried using things like celery but they got sick of that pretty quick!

Trying to keep this sub alive 😅 what has everyone been up to? What have you been working on?

With my TB mare I have been working on our backup and doing a little bit of reverse roundpen stuff, working on getting "walk on" on cue. We've gone backward a bit with our last couple of session as she has just been a bit distracted and keeps disengaging so idk what I'm doing wrong there but I'm sure it's me. She is very quick to leave if she is getting bored/furstated, so I really got to work on keeping her happy and engaged.

My Shetty I have been working on putting the cone target on cue & following the target stick, which she does pretty well but she has her ears pinned the whole time, idk why! No matter how high my rate of reinforcement her ears are always pinned.

With my mum's TB gelding I'm just teaching manners and targetting, he's very new to +R but I think he'll really enjoy it, he's super food motivated. I'm hoping I can do some riding with him down the track.

Hi everyone, my old gelding is blind in his left eye due to an old injury which has caused the eye to degrade over time. He needs anti-inflammatory eye drops once daily for the rest of his life(or until the eye needs to come out). He has been extremely tolerant of the drops but I would love to make things a little easier and more pleasant for the both of us by training him to accept them with co-operative care.

I have seen a few examples on Instagram but all seem to rely on the horses being able to see out of the eye receiving the drops to target the owners hand, so I'm a little stuck on how to train this 😣

Would love some tips/suggestions!

This is For anyone who puts there horse in a stable or barn during the night or day.

Have you heard of using straw pellets for bedding? if so tell me why you use them and if not why you chose not to.

I know nothing can beat the smell of a fresh bag of shavings being opened up but...

For those who don't know what straw pellets can do better than other types of bedding.

It Holds ten times its weight in moisture, allowing for less bedding material to be used most people I talk to haven't fully cleaned out their stalls since they started using it (2-3 years) They clean out only the wet straw and once a week add another 40lb bag.

pelleted straw reduces salmonella, bacteria, and mold

With increased surface area, straw pellets allow for greater absorbency and faster drying

Biodegrades much quicker than wood shavings which reduces the size of manure piles

What are your thoughts? Would you buy them if that meant you didn't have to clean out your stalls?

Price is a factor I understand that from my research it's slightly less expensive to use straw pellets on top of no labor to fully clean out the stalls once a week

Hey everyone, I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas what I could use for a low value food reward that isn’t hay pellets. My Clyde had a really severe case of choke after eating some dry alfalfa pellets. I am going to get his teeth checked but I’m extremely nervous that if I try and feed him the pellets again he will inevitably choke. Any help would be awesome! Thanks

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What are your favorite treats to use? Which brand/size works best for you, or do you make your own?

I've always fed the manna pro horse nuggets, but I heard someone say they were too large to use for clicker training. I'm gentling my first feral mustang & I wanted to use clicker training with her, so I was going to buy a big bag but I don't want to buy the "wrong" ones so to speak.

Would love any recommendations (or recipes!)

There are a range of people at my paddock. Some ride Western, some English, some are natural horsemanship people, some traditional pony club types, some are softer, some are harsher, but no one trains with positive reinforcement.

I find it difficult to watch how some of the horses are handled and some of the things I hear("he's just dominant" "he know what you want he's just being naughty" "give him a smack" "we can't let him win"). One of the ponies HATES being ridden, she tries to bite when saddled and has her ears pined the entire time but she keeps getting pulled out to cart kids around, I feel so bad for her. I find it hard to watch the kids and beginners be taught the same stuff I was when I was younger, stuff I wish I hadn't learned. Sometimes I want to speak up but I don't want to be that person who offers unsolicited advice.

I also struggle with feeling like I am a bad example because my mare has food anxiety/aggression(working on it, finding the right value food rewards has been hard but we've gotten there and she's 10x better) and I don't do much with my horses. I'll admit I'm not a very good trainer and I wish I had a heap of cool behaviours to show off to people but I don't. I feel like people see me target training or feeding a lot in training sessions and just don't get the point of it. I get a lot of questions about riding my mare and comments about how I should take her out or start riding her. I would like to do those things but I'm miles off her being ready, and a their idea of her being ready and my idea of her being ready are two very different things. And she may never enjoy being ridden, which is something I have accepted and I am not going to force her to do it if that turns out to be the case.

I like the community of my yard and getting to interact with a lot of other horses, but I do miss when it was just my horses and me at home.

So yeah, sorry for the long rant, I'm sure there are a bunch of you in a similar position. How do you deal with it? Does it get to you? I can brush off comments and suggestions about my guys pretty easily because I am strong in my convictions and know what I want for them, it's seeing how the others are handled that gets to me the most.

My OTTB mare came to me pretty anxious, so I've been trying to use clicker training to relieve a lot of that anxiety. We've made a TON of progress on standing still and relaxed in the crossties with clicker training, as well as standing still at the mounting block.

I don't always use the clicker, but I do usually reward her with treats when she does something well. For example, if I'm lunging her and she does something really well (such as trotting around while relaxed but with good energy, maybe even stretching her head and neck down), I'll praise her and bring her in for a treat.

I've also trained her how to "smile" on command just for fun, because it always makes me laugh.

It’s been very discouraging lately.

There are two schools of thought on this that I have seen. One group of clicker trainers believe in feeding (or at the very least rewarding somehow) with every single click, no empty clicks are allowed. Meanwhile other trainers will have empty clicks in between meant to mark a correct behavior in a chain without requiring a stop and feed. So which do you do? I'd love to discuss why you choose to do which if anybody is so inclined.

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