How do you deal with being the only clicker trainer at the barn?

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.

in ClickertrainedHorsesby black-thoroughbred

100%

1.4y

HeadTown2616

1.4y

I am fortunate that I have my horses at my own property so I am not around other horse people judging me all the time. That being said my farrier told me that I should not be training my young Clyde gelding with food because he was very pushy and had no manners when he first came to me. I just said oh yeah I don’t cause I didn’t want to get into justifying why I do what I do to someone who is very traditional. For example, my two rescue Clydes would not pick up their feet when I first got them. My farriers advice was to tie a lead rope around their leg and belly to hold it up and keep it tied there until they accepted their foot being lifted. The farrier even said to me sometimes the horses will make a fuss and fall down etc. I was like oh I guess that’s one way to do it….. I’ve since trained my basically unhandled clydes to first and foremost most have manners around food and understanding the bridge signal (I really took my time with this, like three weeks lol). Then I did some training with the target again I went really slowly. Now my Clydes can self-halter, pick their feet up, let me touch their ears and eyes, etc. I’m now working on introducing clippers. I think that the horse world is still working on accepting a more gentle approach to training horses. I would suggest just keeping your head down and doing what you’re doing and people will see the results and ask what you are doing. My vet saw my horses when they first came unhandled and then again about a week ago and they couldn’t believe the changes and asked me what I’ve been doing, I proudly said positive reinforcement/clicker training

BlazedChestnut

1.4y

My solution is similar to yours. Just try not to be seen. I too have social anxiety, heh. It sounds like we are in very similar spots. I don’t ride my horse yet. Sure if I used traditional methods, I would already be riding but I think my horse would be unhappy. I don’t feel like a very good representative for the method either. I could have written this post tbh lol.

I have a few canned responses prepared should a conversation ever come up though. Hasn’t come up yet so idk how my responses would be received.

As for seeing the way the other animals are treated, I just try to accept it, sadly. This is the current status quo. Being a clicker trainer kind of feels like being a vegan (I’ve actually seen some clicker trainers use the vegan tag!) so I’ve also read a few articles on how vegans cope in the current status quo.

black-thoroughbred

1.4y

I don’t ride my horse yet. Sure if I used traditional methods, I would already be riding but I think my horse would be unhappy.

That's exactly it with my mare too. I could hop on my her tomorrow and I doubt she'd do anything terrible, but I know she wouldn't like it and I have no interest is forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do.

It does sound like we are very similar, I'm vegan too! And that is another source of my endless frustration 😅 Having deeply held beliefs that go against the status quo is tough.

BlazedChestnut

1.4y

Well I know my horse would be mad because it was her initial poor reactions to trying to start her traditionally that eventually led me to clicker training.

User deleted comment

1.4y

black-thoroughbred

1.4y

I don't say anything to others but it is hard to see some of the handling. I don't get questions from the adults, I wish they would ask so I could make my case, but I also find myself dodging the subject so I don't have to explain because I have social anxiety and it's hard for me 😅 And I train in my paddock which is far away from the riding area, so people don't see me training.

One little girl has seen me training and thinks it's "cool" so we've done a little bit of target training with her pony(same pony who hates being ridden). I'm really happy she's taken an interest but I find it hard with kids though because initial manners training can be pretty boring and they just want to do the fun stuff.

I don't think I'm better than anyone, everyone is doing their best with the information they have, but I do think +R IS better and the science is pretty clear on that.

Apprehensive-Bar9152

1.4y

If you’re not comfortable explaining yourself- What about just making some clicker training materials available to the barn? Buy your favorite R+ book and make it a stable copy, make a target or a treat pouch anyone can borrow, or even buy a bag of hay pellets to let people try. Find some inspirational r+ trainers and suggest checking them out.

neverchangingwhoiam

1.4y

I mostly just try to show them how much progress I've made with my mare using R+ training. Some people are open to it and others aren't. Unfortunately you can't change everybody, but I do try to share what I've done and which trainers I like that might help others. And if people ask for help, I'll definitely make R+ suggestions.