12/15/2022
Great article!
The vital, yet often forgotten element of ethical training ⤵️
It plays a massive role in compassionate training, regardless of whether you choose to use negative reinforcement (pressure & release) or positive reinforcement (clicker training)🥕
It’s importance can be overlooked as we discuss the pros & cons of each reinforcement type. No matter what we choose, this is something we must always be working on if we want deep relationships with our horses ♥️
It is ✨ emotional attunement ✨
This is the ability to recognize, understand & respond to another’s emotional state 🌊
Studies show that emotional attunement is the #1 predictor of relationship success over time 🤯
Unsupportive behavior such as minimizing the scope of a problem or discouraging the expression of feelings has been found to be particularly predictive of relationship distress.
How often do we do this to our horses? 🤨
In mainstream practices, trainers offer a release of pressure when (and *only* when) the horse performs the desired behavior, even when their request is painful, confusing or scary. This is considered to be low attunement.
An example of medium attunement is when pressure is released at the first sign of relaxation in a horse in the face of fear.
High attunement is when the human stops whatever she’s doing at the *first* sign of a “no” in the horse.
We can talk more about the step by step “how-to” in another post. But the key concept here is: responding to the horse’s needs is essential to a strong connection 💫
To paraphrase from Sarah Schlote’s blog, Connection Before Concepts: A comparison of 3 pressure-release methods…
When turning a blind eye to what the horse is communicating to us, we communicate something powerful to them: that we don’t see or “get” them.
Do you feel safe with someone who doesn’t see or “get” you? Do you stay in a relationship with people like that? If you do, are you resorting to appeasement patterns or shutting down in order to make the relationship work? It’s no different for our horses. They learn to tune out pretty quickly in response to not being “heard”
Thoughts on this? Share in the comments!
- MM team 💫
Photo by This Mustang Life
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