How to Start Clicker Training Your Horse Part 1: Relaxation and the Marker Signal

Clicker training is certainly an effective training technique, but getting started the right way really sets you both up for making great progress and having a smooth journey with it. Our focus is always on relaxation, softness and connection. Your horse should be working with you and not just thinking only about the food or getting tense during your time together.
Like many people, I also learned the hard way that focusing too much on behaviour and not enough on emotion can cause problems like over-arousal, tension, frustration and anxiety in your horse. I've spent the past 7 years exploring and refining my approach to enable horses to stay relaxed and confident during to training and to stay focused on you and not the food.
This video is part 1 on how to get started successfully, showing practical techniques to ensure your horse is calm, relaxed and focused on you as you introduce clicker training, and is also helpful if you've already started clicker training but are having problems with tension.
Parts 2 and 3 cover teaching the first 2 behaviours we teach in Connection Training - Stand Quietly Together and Walk together.
This is just a snippet, really, as there is always so much variation in the training depending on the horse you're working with. To find out more, our online Club is the place to go. In the Complete Training Foundation online home study course, we have videos on the science of emotions, tailoring the training to your horse, balancing relaxation and motivation featuring a wide range of horses, as well as step-by-step video tutorials on the 7 different Foundation course behaviours. There are also complete training sessions with 3 different case studies from Hope Pastures rescue centre, including Lady and Tino who featured in this video. These are invaluable for seeing the training in real-life speed and how I deal with the different personalities and issues that arise.
Want to know more? The bestselling Connection Training BOOK is the place to start 📖
Get it on Amazon or download Chapter 1 free here: connectiontraining.com/book/ for a preview 👀
More info on us, our training approach and the CT Club can be found at: connectiontraining.com/

[@ashleymillerhorsemanship]

Thank you for providing these videos for us! I really enjoyed them. ❤

[@audreyandremington5265]

This is interesting. I do dog agility and I'm always trying to get my dog really excited but at the same time he has to focus. I never knew that too much excitement could be a problem when clicker training horses!

[@elizaeliza5937]

Same Audrey and Remington. My main experience with positive training comes with working with my dogs and cats, where excitement leads to them enjoying the training and willingly offering behaviors. But I suppose when your working with an animal that is so large that it can literally trample you to mug you for treats, especially when frustration happens, keeping things more calm and relaxed is ideal. :)

[@laurenkifer9145]

Honestly I have this issue with my dog he gets so excited that he loses focus and ends up just dancing around like a nut I think with agility it’s less of an issue because they are moving their feet I imagine it’s fairly similar with horses

[@geop.s]

Very important video Obrigada ♥️🇧🇷

[@natalied138]

How long would you spend on this before starting on the next stage of clicker training?

[@elizaeliza5937]

My best guess is when you start to see clam relaxed behavior reliably through out training. But it sounds like you will never truly stop this phase of training, as you want to continue to reinforce your horse staying relaxed and clam. As they say you can always start a session with this training, and then move forward when your horse is nice and relaxed. I would even make some future sessions just this, that way training doesn't always mean something new or difficult is coming. That is coming from my experience with clicker training dogs and cats so take it with a grain of salt. I am no expert.

[@charlottesw03]

Every single video is in front of the super busy road in the background making it really distracting! Maybe next time just angle it slightly differently (I have vertigo and ended up just turning it off - sorry!).

[@ConnectionTraining]

sorry about that, I didn't even notice it! Will do next time :-) Most of my other videos are in quieter places (this rescue centre is in a city), so hopefully you won't have the same problem with all of them!

[@kimfroman2023]

@ConnectionTraining I appreciate the voiceover so we are not hearing wind and traffic.