Hi,
This is the last email in this series. What a sprint! And you made it through all 10 emails! Good for you – and your horse 🐴
You obviously are very dedicated and want to be the best teacher for your horse ❤️
In this last email, I will wrap up the journey we took together, pulling the strings back together.
Remember the four guiding questions inspired by Israel Goldiamond’s Constructional Approach?
- 1. Wohin willst du von hier aus gehen?
- 2. Wo stehst du jetzt?
- 3. Wie kannst du dorthin kommen?
- 4. Was hält dich motiviert?
We started out by defining the goal: Where do I want to go?
In this example, my goal was to work with Blondie at liberty.
Then we identified where we are now. When Blondie was free in the arena, she would go to the fence and crib.
To find the starting point for training, I needed to identify an available repertoire that could be a stepping stone toward the goal behavior.
Blondie knows the mat well, and she does not crib in her paddock during training. So I identified this as our starting point.
Then how do I get from where I am now to where I want to go?
Through a progression of different lessons built toward the goal behavior, starting at where she was already successful.
I was shaping both behavior and stimuli (environment) in small approximations but not simultaneously.
I monitored Blondie’s responses to each variation and adjusted on the fly whenever I noted a hesitation or tension. This allowed a fast and smooth progression through the lessons.
You have seen that I was very methodological during the training. That is what Blondie taught me to do. She needs this predictability. Not every horse does. But it is not difficult to maintain because this approach is very successful and allows us to progress very fast.
This leads me to question 4 of Goldiamond’s constructional questionnaire:
4. Was hält dich motiviert?
Success!
Breezing through the lessons with a happy horse is a lot of fun.
Especially so if you have started out with a shut-down horse, that suddenly becomes explosive for a short while before she truly enjoys hanging out with you.
That is the magical transformation that we want to see.
At this point, let me ask you how YOU want to keep going?
I really appreciate that you have taken the time to read 10 emails and watch the videos 👏👏👏 . I suppose you are generally interested in this work since you have made it this far.
I will be building more email sequences on different topics. If you allow me, I will send you an update on my activities. To receive these occasional updates, you don’t need to do anything.
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Hope to get in touch with you again soon,
Michaela