Naturally Equine - your link to EQUINE BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE in Scotland

Amanda is an equine behaviourist and experienced clicker trainer. She has studied the science behind this training method and has also trained with Alexandra Kurland (click here for continued professional development) since 2005.

As a result, clicker training is not just a training method she uses, but has become a way of life.

As well as training with Alexandra (a Classical Dressage Instructor), Amanda also trains with a local Classical Dressage Instructor and is successfully combining this more traditional approach to Classical Dressage with clicker training.

Amanda is also training with James Shaw, instructor in Tai Chi for the equestrian.

She has clicker trained her stallion since she bought him as a foal in 2004 and now also trains her gelding with the clicker.

Crown's Classic Pearl was the first breeding stallion to be clicker trained in hand and under saddle following Alexandra Kurlands books and DVDs while he also started breeding, making him one of the pioneer horses in the development of Equine Clicker Training.

Crown's Classic Pearls story features in one of Alexandra Kurlands Clicker Training DVDs !!

Amanda has had great success clicker training horses, young and old, and those with or without behavioural problems.

Once you experience the speed, effectiveness and sheer fun of clicker training, you will never want to go back to other training methods. Watch your horse turn in to an enthusiastic , thinking, willing partner who can perform beyond what you had imagined.

Simply put........Clicker training uses a “Yes Answer” signal to tell your horse when he has done something right. It pairs that “Yes Answer” with a reward, so he is encouraged to repeat that behaviour again. Clicker training is a Positive Training method that creates happy, enthusiastic, training partners in our horses.

Horses are intelligent animals. They are eager to learn and eager to please. Clicker training will show you how to use your horses intelligence to achieve something we all aspire to…..owning the horse of our dreams !!

To create this learning experience we use a small plastic clicker. The clicker makes a distinctive sound when you click it acting a camera taking a picture of the exact moment you want to capture, so the clicker marks the exact moment the horse has done what you asked for. It tells your horse “Yes, that is what I want you to do” and it promises him a reward for a job well done (a bit like a pay check).

Clicker training is a training method that uses positive reinforcement (operant conditioning or trial and error learning) to encourage the animal to perform behaviours that you want (rather than punish the behaviours that you don't want. In other words, it is rewards based training.

The use of positive reinforcement as the most ethical way to train animals was initially defined by B.F. Skinner in the early 1900's. He defined the way that animals learn in terms of reinforcers (which encourage desired behaviours) and punishers and he also stated that the most ethical ways to train were using the reinforcers.

Many trainers went on to adopt this method of training due to it's efficiency and it's ability to produce very reliable and accurate behaviours in response to a cue (or instruction) .

A famous couple who were behaviourists and trainers, the Breland-Baileys, trained with B. F. Skinner and, among many other significant achievements in life, were commissioned by the US Government to clicker train bomber pigeons in WWII. Bob Bailey continues to share his knowledge with trainers and is famous for his chicken camps (training schools where the animals being trained are chickens). hey move so quickly you learn good timing skills very quickly !

All of the animals that you see at Sea World, The Shedd Aquarium, etc are trained using positive reinforcement (clicker training) and more and more professional animal trainers are turning to Clicker Training, a faster, more effective, force free training method that is fun for both the trainer and the trainee.

The reason it is called clicker training is because we use a small plastic box with a metal strip in it which, when pressed, makes a clicking noise. This click marks the moment that you want to reward, or you want to say 'yes' to (it is called a bridging stimulus). For the dolphin and whales that we see in the aquariums, a whistle is used as this is audible for the animals, but it is the same training method.

Clicker training has become so popular with professional trainers and pet owners alike that an international training conference (continue professional development course) called ClickerExpo is held each year in the USA.

Clicker Training is a scientifically-based training system and it works to engage both the trainer and the animal as active participants in the learning process.

It builds a relationship between trainer and animal that has it's foundation in mutual respect.

Clicker training is an ethical and effective way to allow trainers to tap in to good horsemanship skills which may have eluded them in the past. I have been taught by many instructors who simply yell instructions at me, but can never actually tell me how to achieve my goal, they can't break it down in to small enough steps for me to understand the mechanics of the behaviours I am trying to achieve, they just expect me to make the massive leap to the perfect end goal. For me, using clicker training has allowed me to begin to learn the skills and gain the knowledge that good horse trainers have but are unable to share via the spoken word.

I have learned more about horsemanship with a clicker in my hand than I ever did from being yelled at by an instructor, or sitting with dressage judges while they score a test, or standing watching hours on end of horses jumping etc etc. I can learn what looks good, but until I know WHY that looks good and right, I will never be able to teach it to a horse or even request the correct behaviour from a schoolmaster. Clicker training has taught me WHY things look good. It has given me an understanding of the mechanics of the difference between an OK performance and an excellent performance from a horse. Once I know how something is put together I am in a better place to build it myself.

Training horses with the clicker has taught me about teaching softness rather than 'kick it harder' to get a horse active, I have learned that a whip should not be a tool that you get handed when you are riding a 'lazy' horse (resulting in the horse suddenly shooting off coz he knows you just picked up a whip and is afraid of being whipped)....and much more.

So clicker training is not trying to re-invent the wheel, it is trying to provide people with the tools to produce their own good quality wheels. I just prefer the ethos behind training with clicker training, where the horse has a choice, can show me how he likes to learn, can be a partner in the learning process and is not there with me simply because he can't escape me.

My horses are at a traditional yard and I am pleased to say that the vast majority of people have no problem with what I do with the clicker. They may not agree with it and they may not want to use the clicker in their training. They neither force their methods on me, nor me force mine on them and we all get along just great. We applaud each others successes and support each other wherever we can. So we are actually all practicing positive reinforcement training on each other.....we can't escape it (can you see how it begins to fit in to day to day life ??)

People are using clicker training the world over to get amazing results with horses who have been labelled, 'dangerous beyond help', 'should be destroyed', 'a lost cause', 'psychotic'....the list goes on. I know of horses who have been labelled 'untrainable' and as a last resort, they were clicker trained. In a period of time, wonderful riding horses were produced out of these 'untrainable' animals. All training methods have failed to help these animals.....except clicker training.

I know I am not training anything new (I am not re-inventing the wheel), but the use of clicker training allowed me to tap in to a skill set and knowledge that the 'experts' and 'Classical Masters' are often unable to put in to words for me so that I could learn it myself and then teach it to my horse....and to other people.

I find that many people who are not clicker trainers do not see that it has real life applications as the method they are currently using works. And lets face it, if it ain't broken.....but personally I chose clicker training because I thought the methods I was brought up with for training people and animals actually were 'broken'. The fallout from the way behaviours are often taught can be very significant. I decided that I was not just concerned with getting a desired behaviour from a person or an animal, but I was also conscious of the fallout from how that behaviour was taught. Clicker training helped to opened my eyes to the potential fallout from training through force or coercion.

I see applications for it in every day situations with animals and people. Now that I have experienced the speed, efficiency, fun and wonderful products of clicker training, I can't go back.

Clicker training has become a way of life for me.

CLICKER TRAINING VIDEO'S

This section will be updated with new video on a regular basis......keep checking back