equine

In-Hand Work: Teaching Lateral Movements with Clicker Training

Gymnastic Groundwork Demo Series Part 3 Lateral exercises where your horse is going sideways as well as forwards are really useful to build your horse’s suppleness, strength and straightness, which is why they’ve been used for thousands of years in both in-hand training and ridden work! But, how do we teach them using positive reinforcement? […]

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Using Start Buttons and Consent Cues in Horse Training

How do horses communicate their preferences or willingness? How do we make sure we’re listening and respecting them?  Consent comes down to emotions as it’s about how your horse feels about certain situations. Giving horses a voice and enabling them to communicate with us is a key part of building a great relationship and connecting

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Horses Saying “Yes” and “No” – How to Read Your Horse’s Emotions

Listening to your horse means being able to read what he’s saying through his body language. Horses express fear, joy, confidence, anxiety, confusion and frustration through movements and actions – when you watch for these behavioural signs and respond to them, you start to open up the conversation between you and your horse. Even though

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Mounting a Young Horse for the First Time with Clicker Training | How to Stay Safe and Connected

Backing a young horse for the first time is often seen as something dangerous and dramatic. Horses who aren’t prepared can panic, bucking bolting and rearing. But, it doesn’t have to be that way! I believe that horses should have a positive experience when someone sits on their back for the first time and this

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Hoof Trimming with a Frightened and Aggressive Rescue Pony

Building trust with horses who have experienced neglect or abuse takes time and dedication. In this video,  you’ll get to know Valiente, a pony rescued in Spain in terrible condition. CT Coach Claire Waldron worked patiently with him to help him overcome his fear and voluntarily participate in having his feet trimmed – it actually

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Loading Preparation and Simulation Exercises (Before you even get to the trailer!)

Help your horse to overcome loading fear using these simulation exercises. They are perfect for breaking loading down into smaller steps for your horse so that you can keep the training calm and positive. You don’t even need a trailer or horsebox to do them. At Connection Training, our focus is always on keeping the

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Toby the Painting Pony! Trick training for fun and enrichment with a retired horse.

Toby is retired from riding but still loves to learn and play. Painting is one of his favourite things to do and he always goes to stand by his easel as soon as it’s brought out! Trick training is a great way to enrich the lives of horses who can’t be as active as they’d

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P3 Why teach your horse to FOLLOW a target?? Lunging, lateral work, stretch down and more…

This targeting video explores FOLLOWING a target – one of the 3 types of nose-targeting exercises I teach and use for, well, pretty much everything! In this video, you’ll learn: – how to teach your horse to follow a target and then use it to train: – leading – bending – lunging – freejumping –

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P2 Why Teach Your Horse to Touch a Target? De-Spooking, Rein-Back, Loading and More…

Targeting is a really versatile training technique that you can use for so many things. In the last video (part 1) I explained what targeting is and the different types of targeting. This video looks at some of the practical uses of touching a target. Touching a hand-held target is the first type of targeting

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P1 What is Targeting? And why is it so USEFUL?

P1 Targeting! I use targeting ALL. THE. TIME. It’s one of the most useful behaviours you can train your horse for leading, loading, de-spooking, lunging, groundwork and riding. But what is it? Well, basically, it’s teaching your horse to touch an object with her nose when you ask. But, there are 3 different types of

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