The Art of Natural Dressage

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:39 am 

Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:25 am
Posts: 62
I'm not sure if this is the right thread here - but I have a question to you :)
I'm not sure how to deal with it.

Do you give treats to your horse when you're doing nothing?
Just sitting in the stable, cuddling, scratching and so on. Do you give your horses in this time of "doing nothing" something? Or is this a time without treats?


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:05 pm 
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Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:20 am
Posts: 6281
Location: Dresden, Germany
I give treats when I am not asking anything from my horses, and they can always get a treat if they ask me for it. But then for me the function of treats is not really that of a reward but for me
treats are communicative feedback, like a smile in a conversation, telling the other one "yes, I am still here with you, attending to what you say". It's the same as in a human conversation where I also smile without my partner having "earned" it.

On the other hand, I can answer your question with a clear no: I don't give treats for doing nothing, simply because there is no time in our interaction when we do nothing. There's always communication going on. ;)


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:11 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:25 am
Posts: 62
Thanks Romy!
Today I have to tell you something. I have such an important insight - maybe one of the most important insights ever in my (horse)life.
On the weekend i surfed on Romy's Youtube-Channel for a long long time. And now my mind changed - it's not about learning the horse one trick and one more trick and so on... It's just about learning to understand each other. And with this new important insight I spend the last days time in the stable.
And do you want to know what has changed?
The horses are much more relaxed when I am around, we learned how to do the front crunch, we know the trick turn around the own axis and the communication is getting finer and finer. We are sooo much motivated now. It is just great.
I tried to learn Karim how to do the front crunch long time ago, but it didn't work and so we let that go... And now, we know how to do it. We just learned it by chance.
And before sometimes it was getting boring. I was thinking about, hmmm what could we learn together, what trick should we try to do. And sometimes I just didn't know what to do. So it was boring for the horse and for myself.
And now 1 hour is nothing. I'm just sooo happy right now.
I have to take some new videos for you! Will do this on the weekend.
And a big Thanks to you, Romy - for all the pictures, videos and great stories you are posting :bowdown: :giveflower:


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:49 pm 
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Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:20 am
Posts: 6281
Location: Dresden, Germany
That's absolutely wonderful, Marlene - so nice that you and your horses are so happy now! :)

And I am glad that I could help a little, but actually the things I post are just one part of the puzzle. The much more important part is what the person who sees them is making of that information. If you had not been in a mindset that is open for this kind of interaction with horses, you would just have seen us doing funny tricks and exercises. So you get a big bunch of flowers as well. :giveflower: :kiss:


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