How horses learn and how many people think they learn are often at odds. Julie Goodnight sheds light on how horses learn from every interaction with a person–for better or worse–in the latest episode of Ride on with Julie Goodnight. (JulieGoodnight.com/Podcast)
Julie Goodnight on her horse Annie
Horses are always learning, and the more people understand how they learn and how this shapes their behavior, the more effective training is and the more responsive the horse is.
© 2018 by Julie Goodnight New window.
“No one sets out to teach a horse to be difficult to handle, but it happens a lot,” says Goodnight. “People often unknowingly reward the wrong behavior or fail to reinforce a cue, and–whether it’s a lack of awareness, a fear of the horse’s response, or the mistaken belief that the horse won’t like you–the horse learns the wrong thing. That’s not fair to the horse”
Goodnight discusses how horses learn and make associations, become trained or untrained, what a reward looks like from the horse’s perspective, and the difference between reinforcement and punishment.
“After decades of teaching horsemanship clinics and working with literally thousands of horse-and-rider pairs, I’ve seen a common lack of understanding in people about what motivates horses,” says Goodnight. “Having a basic understanding of the science-based concepts of training and shaping behavior will make your job a lot easier!”
Horses are always learning, and the more people understand how they learn and how this shapes their behavior, the more effective training is, the more responsive the horse is, and the more cohesive the horse-human relationship is.
Listen and subscribe to Ride On with Julie Goodnight at JulieGoodnight.com/Podcast or any podcast app.
About Ride On with Julie Goodnight
With nearly 200,000 downloads and 70 episodes to date, Ride On with Julie Goodnight offers informative and entertaining topics about horse training and equestrian sports. This podcast is for every horse enthusiast, at any level. Whether listeners are brushing up on horse training skills or learning something new, each episode inspires, informs and motivates them to achieve new heights in their horsemanship. In the What the Hay? Q&A segment, Goodnight answers listener questions with candid answers and practical solutions based on her lifetime of experience with horses.
About Julie Goodnight
Goodnight is the popular host and producer of Horse Master, a successful how-to TV series on handling, riding, and training horses since 2008. Goodnight travels extensively sharing her no-nonsense horsemanship with riders of all disciplines. Goodnight is experienced with many kinds of riding—she grew up on the hunter-jumper circuits in Florida and is now at home in the West. She and her husband, Rich Moorhead, live in the mountains near Salida, Colorado, where they enjoy riding the trails and training cow-horses.
Explore Goodnight’s training library of articles, videos and more at JulieGoodnight.com/Academy.
Press release by Megan Fischer