Are you a clicker trainer?

Maybe you just started exploring the magical world of clicker training? I still remember my first explorations, initially sceptical and then more and more intrigued.

My internet search brought me to Alexandra Kurland. If you have not yet seen her website and Blog, you should pause here and read some of her excellent articles on clicker training.

I wait for you…

Welcome back!

A treasure trove, right?

I started out by reading her articles and books and watching her DVDs.

Since 2013, I am one of Alexandra Kurland’s coaches of her online course which I have translated to German and published in 2016.

I have organized a number of workshops with Alexandra in Germany and Italy, many of them in combination with attending Anja Beran’s International Workshop.

In 2019, I hosted the first Clicker Training and Behaviour Science Summer Camp with Alexandra Kurland, Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, and Mary Hunter, and in 2020 and 2021, I presented together with them during the online science camps (pandemic, remember?)

In 2021, Alexandra invited me to co-teach some of her Stay-At-Home Clinics and in 2022, I co-presented with her at Clicker Expo Live.

Later that year, we organised a virtual Dressage Camp with Anja Beran as a special guest. That was a treat! A weekend deep dive into horses, balance and Feldenkrais lessons given by Anita Schnee.

It’s fair to say that I gained some experience training horses and coaching people with horses.

My work with horses is based on 4 PILLARS that inform each other:

  • Clicker training
  • Classical dressage
  • Feldenkrais method
  • Science

Further down I provide interesting details on these 4 pillars and links to other sources that you may want to investigate.

In addition, I suggest the following podcasts to which I was invited: Equiosity (episodes 21, 22, 27, 28, 83, 167-169, 190, 191), Horses for Future (episodes 6,7), Friends on Horses, and The Carrot Sessions Webinar, Drinking from the Toilet (episodes 161, 162) and An Equine Conversation (S3 E4).

And the podcasts in German:

Knackfrosch & Gummistiefel, Pferdegewieher (episodes 88, 108) and Fair.Stärkt (episodes #02-05, #02-08, #03-05, #04-04)

My goal

is to help people build a wonderful RELATIONSHIP with their horses based on kindness and considering emotional as well as physical BALANCE.

To achieve this I use clicker training based on an ethic that respects both the horse and the person.

I am inspired by a scientific curiosity to explore both theoretical and practical questions.

With a similar curiosity, patience and without prejudice, I seek balance, elegance and efficiency in the movement of horse and human.

These goals and the four pillars that guide my work with people and horses were to a large extent sharped by my mentors. Let me introduce them to you.

My mentors

Alexandra Kurland and Panda, clicker trained guide for the blind

In 2010, I began learning about CLICKER TRAINING from Alexandra Kurland.

The positive effects on my horse and our relationship were immediate and from that moment, I was hooked and studied her work intensely.

Anja Beran and her work in the art of CLASSICAL DRESSAGE influence me immensely.

Anja Beran and Pao in piaffe

I admire Anja’s outstanding skills as a rider and teacher but also her kind, generous and passionate personality. Her therapeutic riding proves the importance of classical dressage and why we should learn more about achieving balance even if we never imagine ourselves training a piaffe.

Mary Hunter and Jesus Rosales-Ruiz

Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and Mary Hunter taught me everything I know about BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS.

Jesús, who advises me on the research on crib-biting, and Mary, is an expert in explaining complex scientific principles to people who are not behaviour analysts, such as myself. Read more about their activities here.

Nathalie Van Cauwenberghe is my instructor in the FELDENKRAIS METHOD.

Nathalie Van Cauwenberghe

She has a background in classical dance and rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympic level and is passionate about graceful movement in balance. She has helped me immensely to improve my body awareness and made my communication with my horses more efficient and fluent.

Now that you have met my mentors, let me describe in more detail how each of them influences my work with the horses.

But first I want you to meet Asfaloth.

Asfaloth – my challenge​

Asfaloth clicker super star

Asfaloth came to me in January 2009. A 10-year old Arabian-Cross gelding, trained as a reining horse. He was beautiful, attentive, and also quite angry.

He did not stand still being tied, threatened to bite when reaching for the halter and during saddling.

Riding was not without challenges. He would often escape into uncontrolled backing, sometimes rear, and was an expert in ridding himself of the rider by performing a sudden spin. It was all manageable but not so much fun.

How could I change that?

Finding Clicker Training

I always had a passion for DRESSAGE. I love the harmony between horse and rider, this magical connection that creates a communication invisible to the outside. But I didn’t know how I could achieve that.

So I started taking lessons with a Classical Dressage instructor in my area.

Then, during a lesson on a  cold winter evening, SOMETHING HAPPENED that changed my whole approach to horse training, and life in general.

It was one of those cold days with snow sliding off the roof that turns horses into time bombs ready to explode at any moment.

Asfaloth was explosive that evening and my instructor told me to make him trot faster around the arena in the hope he would focus more on the work. That was a stupid idea (I recognized that later). He could not cope and started bucking. On the third buck, I hang on his neck. He was good and came to a halt but I could not get back into the saddle and had to let go, falling with my shoulder first on the frozen ground.

The result was a broken scapula which meant I could not ride for a month.

In hindsight, this was a good thing because I started implementing lessons from Alexandra Kurland’s THE-CLICK-THAT-TEACHES Series.

From the first targeting lesson, I was amazed at how smart my horse was (of course!) and how much fun we had. I was hooked.

Others began noticing the changes. The barn owner told me how playful Asfaloth had become and my vet noticed that he was a lot friendlier and cooperative.

Classical Dressage

I put my dressage ambition on hold for a while focussing on learning clicker training.

But I kept my goal of reaching the harmony that I admire so much in great riders. It was in 2011, that I discovered my road towards achieving that goal when I met Anja Beran, attending her first annual International Workshop.

What inspired me then was her skill to use dressage therapeutically. She presented a number of horses, that were destined to be pasture buddies at best. Yet these horses were showing us exquisite piaffe, flying changes, and much more.

Anja explained how she achieves this transformation by applying the principles of classical dressage with lots of patience, love, and skill. At that moment, I knew that I wanted to learn as much as I could from Anja.

Anja Beran, Asfaloth, and myself in 2012
Anja Beran, Asfaloth, and myself in 2012

In 2012, I gathered all my courage and traveled with Asfaloth across the Alps to spend one month with Anja. What I learned during that time has directed Asfaloth’s training until today.

Anja gave me the guiding principles that help him align his body in a better balance. My job was to find a way to teach him.

This is how it all connects to CLICKER TRAINING.

A-Squared

But HOW do these puzzle pieces fit together?

At first, the connections between classical dressage and Alexandra’s clicker training were not obvious. Alexandra does not have a lesson called ‘Shoulder-in’ and for good reason. But BALANCE is embedded in her work and it leads directly to the lessons we know from classical dressage.

Clicker training DVD hip-shoulder-shoulder

The connection became apparent to me when I was working on a lesson called “Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder” (DVD Lesson 17 of The-Click-That-Teaches series). It was the revelation of connecting to the outside rein into the contact that finally made sense to me and connected the work of Alexandra Kurland with what I learned from Anja Beran.

Don’t think that you can just skip lessons 1-16 and get the same effect! You need the preparatory steps! Trust me on this.

From that moment, I began seeing CONNECTIONS everywhere.

That’s what I call ‘A-squared’.

Anja teaches me WHAT I need to train and Alex teaches me HOW to train it.

Anja’s horses move with such elegance and grace. Light as a feather. It is a delight to watch. If you have not seen her ride, you should visit her website and follow her Facebook fan page. She also has excellent books, DVDs. (If you can get only one, then you should watch this one) and online courses.

You should also listen to Equiosity episodes 74, 75 & 76 when Alexandra, myself, and a wonderful group of clicker trainers met with Anja for a private chat.

Alexandra’s foundation lessons lead to improved balance and movement for the horse’s benefit and continue developing with the more advanced lessons. It’s all intertwined.

In Alexandra’s new book, Modern horse training, Asfaloth represents the progression from an unbalanced “long sausage horse” to a collected “round orange horse”.

Modern Horse Training by Alexandra Kurland (p.714)

In addition, Alexandra is teaching us, the rider, to move in a better balance. Our horses tell us how important that is.

And here’s the connection to the FELDENKRAIS METHOD.

Feldenkrais method

Moshe Feldenkrais was an outstanding person. Read his biography, it’s very interesting. You can read a concise biography here.

The method he developed, initially to manage his injured knee, is quite different from physiotherapy or physical exercises such as Pilates or Yoga.

The Feldenkrais Guild® of North America describes the method as such

The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is a powerful and revolutionary approach to improving your life that uses gentle, mindful movement to bring new awareness and possibility into every aspect of your life.

If you want to know how this relates to horse training and clicker training, in particular, you should listen to Equiosity podcast episodes 144 and 145 with Feldenkrais practitioner Anita Schnee, who knows Alexandra’s work in detail and guides lessons during Alexandra’s clinics.

Feldenkrais at the horse riding barn
Enjoying a Feldenkrais lesson at the barn with a feline assistant

I take weekly Feldenkrais lessons and my horses tell me that it’s time well spent.

My communication with them is much clearer and overall, I feel a lot better. My chronic back pain disappeared and my knee stopped hurting.

And that carries over to my riding.

Find a practitioner in your area and give it a try.

Science

I am a scientist and that makes me a sceptic per definition.

Before investing myself in a new endeavour, I do my research and study the evidence.

What convinced me about clicker training was the scientific basis. In fact, there is a whole field of science behind it: BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS.

Who knew? (In my defense, it’s not well known in Europe.)

By the way, I was equally hesitant about the Feldenkrais method but there is convincing evidence that it is effective. So I tried it.

Now this field of behaviour analysis turned out to be REALLY interesting. It’s actually closer to Biology (my field as a trained veterinarian) than Psychology.

I began reading textbooks and scientific articles. A very good entry into this field is through Dr. Susan Friedman’s Living and Learning with Animals course.

I wanted to bring behaviour analysis to the veterinary sciences.

So I convinced Jesús Rosales-Ruiz to be my supervisor for a MSc thesis in Equine Science on stereotypic behaviors. To my surprise, the University of Edinburgh accepted my proposal.

This started a whole new exploration that I will describe somewhere else.

Just to say that this journey gave me a new understanding of behaviour and training – and a new horse.

We’ll get to that.

For now, let me leave you with all that.

Explore the resources that I provided and then come back to this website, if you like, and investigate some more.

Have FUN doing it.

Yours,
Michaela