Knowing Your Horse

A Guide to Equine Learning, Training and Behaviour

Lethbridge, Emma

1. Edition May 2009
208 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd

Short Description

If you understand how your horse learns and why your training is effective, you can train faster, more ethically, and more sympathetically. Emma Lethbridge thoroughly but simply explains learning theory, and how to apply it in a way that is both efficient for training and holds the horse's welfare paramount. Knowing Your Horse will be a key resource for those wishing to better understand their horse's behavior, and to make the most of that understanding to improve their training techniques.

ISBN: 978-1-4051-9164-7

John Wiley & Sons

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Is your horse afraid of the farrier? Are you both struggling during training sessions? Do you want to use clicker training but don't know where to begin?

If you understand how your horse learns and why your training is effective, you can train faster, more ethically, and more sympathetically. Knowing Your Horse will be a key resource if you want to better understand your horse's behaviour and make the most of that understanding to improve your training techniques.

Knowing Your Horse gives you a range of practical tools to employ in solving equine behaviour problems, and training tasks and case studies demonstrate these tools in use. Emma Lethbridge thoroughly but simply explains learning theory as applied to horses, and offers practical advice on reward systems, positive and negative reinforcement, and overcoming fears and phobias. If it's not horses but humans that are causing you problems in training, this book will also help you to explain the concepts to other people. Learning recaps offer quick summaries and training logs are provided for your own training notes.

Introduction.

1. The Principles of Good Horse Training.

2. Does Classical Conditioning Ring a Bell?.

3. Living With the Consequences.

4. All Possible Consequences.

5. Other Laws and Factors in Learning.

6. The Power of Positive Reinforcement.

7. The Sound of Learning - Clicker Training.

8. Negative Reinforcement - Reinforcement Through Escape.

9. Understanding Punishment.

10. How to Deal with Unwanted Behaviours without Using Punishment.

11. Step by Step.

12. Overcoming Fears and Phobias.

13. Learning with Character.

References.

Further Reading

This book is for owners who not only care about their horse, but also are willing to make a little effort to discover the true potential of their relationship. I can assure you your efforts will be more than rewarded. This book blends good science effortlessly with practice, so that the reader can soon become a more skilled trainer... If you understand the principles, then you are only limited by your imagination, and as you discover the many joys of training you will inevitably develop a deeper appreciation of horses... Emma is a passionate horse lover who genuinely takes the welfare of horses to heart, and she is also a scientist who understands both the theory and practice of learning and training. Perhaps what is less obvious is how rare it is to find this combination of characteristics in an individual who can write so clearly. She has brought together a wealth of knowledge with some of the latest research findings, to create an easy to read text.
Professor Daniel S. Mills, RCVS Recognised & European Specialist in Veterinary Behavioural Medicine, University of Lincoln, UK

Instead of punishing what many perceive to be the horse 'misbehaving', often it is the horse trying to communicate that he is in pain, or is being blocked by the rider. Far from being able to carry out the rider's wishes, it may be impossible for the horse to do so, but because, unlike a dog, he cannot cry out, he is punished for merely trying to communicate his pain or fear. It therefore behoves us to understand how the horse learns, and how his mind works. Scientific in thinking, Knowing Your Horse is nonetheless very readable. This book should be on the bookshelves of all who ride or train horses.
Heather Moffett, classical dressage trainer and founder of Enlightened Equitation, Devon UK

Emma Lethbridge is an animal behaviour consultant and riding instructor, who has ridden and trained horses for 20 years. She is currently reading a PhD in Psychology at the University of Lincoln. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience from the University of Sussex and a Diploma in Practical Equine Behaviour, as well as having trained with the British Horse Society attaining the Groom's Certificate and Preliminary Teaching Qualification. Emma currently trains with well-known classical dressage master Heather Moffett, and her renowned High School horse trainer assistant Becky Holden, and holds their 'Enlightened Equitation Teacher' Qualification.

E. Lethbridge, University of Lincoln