Rewards

            I've been thinking about how to give Talana rewards when she does things I like, and, conversely, to provide consequences for behavior I don't like. This way, it becomes easy for her to do the right thing, and hard to do the wrong thing.
            There's always the example of verbal praise for good behavior, and verbal scolding for undesirable behavior. We humans are pretty good at that. We are such verbal creatures. How many of our animals learn the word, "No!"? And, "Good boy!"? But that's not really enough. The momentary pleasant sound of a happy human is often paltry when compared to the joy of racing away across the grass, or when compared to the deep fear of That Thing Over There That I'm Pretty Sure is Going to Eat Me. So as I get to know my animals, I like to learn what it is that they like, and dislike. What is my dog's favorite treat? What is his least favorite thing to do/what is hard for him to do? What is a neutral thing that he doesn't care about? What toys does he prefer?
            I have been learning these things about Talana. Some are obvious: She loves apples and carrots. Grain is pretty great, too. She doesn't like it when I make her think too hard, but a bit of a puzzle can be fun, especially when she gets the right answer. But more specifically, what things make this horse tick?
            Talana doesn't like groundwork very much. She'll do various things if you ask, but she's always worried about The Evil Circle Game. Letting her know that she can stop is a reward when I am on the ground. "Ok, good job, stand still a moment," is a good way to let things sink in when she's just done the correct thing. Or even, "Ok, good job, slow down some," will let her settle a bit and think things over. When I push her, she's worried. When I let the pressure evaporate, she feels safer. Sometimes I want her to think a bit harder, so that is when I move her feet. Sometimes I want her to relax, so I might move her feet just enough to make her worry about how much work she's going to have to do, and then release the pressure and let her halt. "Whew!" She says, "That was a close one, I almost had to do real work there! I'm so glad I get to stand now."
            She's very different under saddle. Talana likes to move. She wants to go see what's over there; she wants to trot up this hill; she wants to canter around just for fun. She likes moving her body, and she seems to like taking me along. Talana has gone on a number of endurance rides, and I think she must like being a trail horse. What is the point of just standing around now that I'm sitting up there? We're all ready to go - let's go. This means that asking her to halt too much makes her frustrated. "Why aren't we going already? What now, silly human?" So when I want to remind her that I am the one calling the shots, I sometimes ask her to halt. But I don't make her stand around for a long time; if she halted nicely I ask her to Walk On, because that is her reward for stopping so well. Doing this a number of times as we're just riding around helps her remember that it's not such a pain to stop, because she gets to go again pretty soon. It helps her keep from being fidgety while we're halted for me to do my stretches.
            The other thing she really likes is when I dismount. That is a huge reward for her. Sometimes when she does something really well, I praise her lavishly while asking for a halt, and then hop off while still praising her. I rub her shoulder and face and let her stand for a bit without me sitting on her. It seemed kind of funny to me when I first thought of trying it. "Isn't it wrong to get off the horse when you're supposed to be riding around?" But I tell you what, when I hop right back on after doing that, she does such a good job with whatever that thing was, again and again. It's such a big statement to her when I get down. Even if both of us want to keep working, giving her such a big break like that seems to really get her attention. "Hey, I did something good! Whatever that was, it worked!" And then when I get back on, I can ask for that same thing and she is delighted to do it just right, many times. This is part of why I insist that she stand perfectly still, no fidgeting, with her ears on me, when I dismount. I want to reward her for being extremely stable at that critical moment. And lifting my weight off of her back is a big reward.
            I'm not saying I hop up and hop down all the time while we're working. It's kind of inconvenient. But for important things, I'm happy to do it. For instance, Talana is kind of afraid of the river. It runs down past the bottom of the meadow, and whenever she comes around the trees and gets a good look at it, her eyes bug out. All that water! Yikes! She doesn't like to walk toward it when we are riding. So, I walk her toward it at the end of our ride. We go down about as far as I think she can handle, and then when she's doing a good job walking forward without resisting, it's time for us to halt. I go ahead and take the saddle off right there, so that she's thinking about how nice it is to have the girth loosened (while looking at the water), how nice it is to get the saddle taken off (while looking at the water), how nice it is to get petted and stand there in the pleasant breeze (while looking at the water). Before long, looking at the water will seem like a nice thing to do, too, because of these associations.
            I think of these things as tools in my training tool box. The more I work with Talana, the more I can develop finesse in my communication with her using these tools and others I find. I know that I can tell her when she's doing something I like, and make it feel good to her to do that thing. That makes both of us happy.