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Let me run this by you. :-)
There is a state in which the horse is moving toward the
release—
searching for/seeking the release. It is necessary in my
opinion for the horse to be
'operant' to the release in order to work in lightness at an
advanced level.
Assume that we have a state of harmony. The rider is moving
with the horse.
Then a situation is presented to the horse that is a little
bit 'out of harmony'.
Maybe the rider tones her abdominal muscles presenting a
slightly
slower tempo than the current harmonious tempo. The horse
would prefer
harmony and so adjusts himself to get in a tempo that
matches the rider.
This sort of thing is going on dynamically, continuously on
a stride by stride basis, a
conversation if you will between horse and rider. Positive
reinforcement strategies play
a part in the early stages of development of this
conversation. Even some free shaping!
However, there is simply far too much going on while riding
to think that one can train
cues for every possible eventuality with +R. Particularly
if the whole idea is to (as we
would with a dance partner) leverage the horse's desire to
seek harmony.
Horses don't want discord they want harmony.
So if my body is in the shape of collected walk while they
are performing a free walk that
is discord. The horse, esp one who has found reinforcement
in doing so, will seek to
change his behavior to seek the harmony, the release from
the discord by collecting
himself into the shape my body presents.
I can make it more obvious to the horse, via
+R, that this state of harmony exists
and is achievable. I can make the whole conversational
aspect to it more clear
with gobs of +R slathered on the learning process. But
bottom line, if one wants to dance
one must want harmony and one of the dance partners (who
ever is leading) is going to
have to suggest 'disharmony' at some point in order to get
to harmony.
Even if it is just the most subtle of firming up of the hand
at the small of the back
(speaking literally of a man and woman dancing).
I view this as THE Highly Murky Area presented by the Matter
of Riding with the Clicker!!
sf/cr
Yes I think this is an aspect to horses which
is so frequently missed:
the horse wants to get along, he wants to find meaning in
what you are doing.
Horses are social, gregarious creatures. I think,
sometimes, that people
underestimate horses (and other creatures) and somehow
imagine that since we
are human that the world revolves around us.
But there IS
a horse's point of view.
And I think within their culture WE are the bumbling
foreigner in THEIR country.
But they are kind and want to get a long so if we give the
impression that we are trying
to -communicate-, well, they are going to try to make some
sense of it.
The difficulty in all this for us is coming to terms with
the fact that the horse WILL be
taking EVERYTHING into account (right down to the energy
levels of the very molecules
that make up your body) when trying to interpret our
actions. Again we are so self
absorbed that we think the only thing that 'counts' is the
part WE think is important!
<lol> Fact is, everything counts all the time.
If we are saying six different things at once, all
conflicting, even the most generous
horse might just give up on us. Many horses have done just
that--particularly your more
sensitive types. They have decided we humans don't have
much useful to offer so they
don't have much interest in us. With those we have to bend
over backwards to reach out
just to get them back in the game with us.
I think the more we have this in our minds while we are
strategizing over
which methodology to use for training the better our results
will be.<G>
sf/cr
This is a common issue, is 'contact'
undesirable thusly making the 'release' a reward?
Answer is, IMO, no. The release is a reward not because
contact is 'bad' but because
(since release means that's right) being right is good,
because harmony is good, because information is good.
Do some people pull on the reins and cause discomfort? I'm
sure it happens -- a lot.
But none of those people are in fact seeking to reinforce
or inform the horse in anykind of systematic way.
I think that the real problem
with execution of -R is in not fully appreciating just how
quick a study horses are.
In my experience the reasons why people aren't successful
with -R techniques are
pretty OBVIOUS when I observe their work.
They do too way much at the wrong time for the horse to
understand what they want.
They MISS the fact that the horse already acted and then end
up punishing that act
through their continued bumbling. <sigh> It ain't easy!
sf/cr
No matter whether your training falls into
what APPEARS to be -R by strict scientific definition, the
horse should NEVER be working to avoid something - he
should always be working to FIND something - and what he
finds should always be a good thing in his mind.
Bill Dorrance said "As soon as the horse learns to get with
your better feel, he'll be under your control. If you
haven't had an opportunity to learn this, then you'd
continue to think you have to MAKE the horse do something,
instead of HELPING him to do it. Before that can come
through, he has to be reassured that he can find what you
want without being forced."
Beaudant said "In all probability he {the horse} has
responded to the aids actually applied and not to the aids
we think we have applied. The fault is nearly always with
the rider, who, not knowing how to speak the language of the
aids correctly, has failed to make himself understood, or
has even expressed the exact opposite of what he wished to
say. The rider must reduce his actions to the very minimum
and leave the horse the greatest possible freedom in his."
J-A/cr
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