Clicker Training for Horses

1
Clicker Training for Horses

• By
• ClickerTrainingHorses.org

2
Clicker Training for Horses
Clicker Training Information When it comes to
teaching an animal to behave well, or to perform
certain desirable actions, clicker training is
one of the cheapest and most effective options
available. Rather than paying for expensive
lessons at an obedience school, with a clicker
and a little knowledge you can just train your
animal yourself during your free time.

• Clicker Training for Horses

3
Clicker Training for Horses
Technically speaking, clicker training is a kind
of operant conditioning. It is not a form of
classical conditioning. Unlike classical methods,
which make use of aversive control (i.e.,
punishments), the emphasis with a clicker is on
getting the animal to behave in a certain way
through positive input.  In other words, clicker
trainers encourage the target behavior.

• Clicker Training for Horses

4
Clicker Training for Horses
A clicker trainer will use nonverbal signals,
verbal signals, clicks, and rewards as
encouragement to perform target behaviors.
Rewards are important, because a reward is the
clearest way to indicate to an animal that
whatever it just did was desirable to the
trainer. With consistent training, the animal
learns that a reward will always come if it
performs that action.

• Clicker Training for Horses

5
Clicker Training for Horses
Of course, its not the case that clicker
trainers never make use of punishments. In order
to get an animal to learn, some type of
corrective action is necessary. However,
scoldings and physical pain are not among the
choices used by a clicker trainer. If an animal
fails to correctly do some intended action, the
trainer gives a neutral verbal sign to let the
animal know that it has not performed well enough
to receive a reward.

• Clicker Training for Horses

6
Clicker Training for Horses
Simple, but powerful and effective The simplicity
of this system makes it easily understood by any
animal.  The reason? All animals have and
understand the concept of reward.

• Clicker Training for Horses

7
Clicker Training for Horses
Clicker training (operant conditioning) is also
distinguished from classical conditioning because
it will require quite a bit of patience during
training.  There is no step that cannot be
broken down into smaller steps, and small steps
are the soul of operant conditioning. Also, no
step is so small that it cannot be rewarded.

• Clicker Training for Horses

8
Clicker Training for Horses
So if, for example, you want your horse to trot
out and fetch an orange traffic cone from the
middle of a field, you will need to give it a
reward for any action that seems like it might be
a step in the right direction even just looking
at the target during the initial attempts.

• Clicker Training for Horses

9
Clicker Training for Horses
Teaching any sort of complex target behavior will
require you to break it down into smaller steps
or segments that the student (i.e., your horse)
can handle. You can then lead the animal into
successive phases.

• Clicker Training for Horses

10
Clicker Training for Horses
Every success, no matter how small, is to be met
with the positive reinforcement of a click and a
reward. Incorrect or extraneous actions
(non-targeted behavior) should receive a neutral
word or gesture. This way, the animal gets the
idea and will eventually opt for the target
behavior over other actions.

• Clicker Training for Horses

11
Clicker Training for Horses
Clicker training is effective, and remarkably so,
because it is founded in this sort of positive
reinforcement.  Through positive reinforcement,
you can quickly enable your animal to understand
what specific actions result in a reward, and
weed out those actions that do not. An animal
will always naturally choose the action that
results in a treat its simply in the animals
best interests to do so.

• Clicker Training for Horses

12
Clicker Training for Horses
If your horse has already received classical
conditioning, you can still use clicker training
to make further progress. In fact, the progress
may well be faster. Research has shown that
equines crossing over from traditional methods of
training still enjoy excellent results. 

• Clicker Training for Horses

13
Clicker Training for Horses
This is particularly true when the trainer
assists the animal during the initial sessions
(which can take as many as twenty to fifty
training cycles to achieve success). Later, when
the horse has acquired sufficient mastery of the
target action, training can be augmented with
both verbal and non-verbal signals.

• Clicker Training for Horses

14
Clicker Training for Horses
Thank You

• For more information please visit
• ClickerTrainingHorses.org