My horse went for me yesterday, and he really meant it - Thoughts?!

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

OP. You made an error, something we ALL do (some of us waaaayyyy more than once ??).
I'm not very familiar with "liberty" work but clicker training I do know. CT definitely works but you need to have a very good idea of the principles behind it before trying, it's so so easy to reward the wrong things if your timing is even fractionally off. Timing is everything in CT and an awful lot of people find it hard to "get it".
May I suggest the Karen Pryor book "Dont shoot the dog". Even if you never pick up a clicker again, and I wouldn't blame you after this thread, it makes for an interesting and informative read.
Your horse is a beautiful lad but he definitely thought you two were on a different page in the video.
Traditional training is fine (depending on what "traditional " means to you of course) but knowledge moves on, we learn more about communication with our animals, science has moved on etc. Remember, it's not all that long ago that people were obsessed with "dominance " in dogs based on a bad conducted and unnatural study of wolves which even it's original scientist debunked..!!!!

Thank you, I appreciate it - I will be sure to give this a read. Thanks to everyone else who has also posted since my last comment - they have all been read and taken on board.


I also JFP at Olympia and was quite surprised at how tense and ears back all of his horses were all the time - didn't enjoy it at all.

 

[AdorableAlice]

I cant speak for the one you knew, but done properly it really does work.

This is a very simple exercise that just happened to be at the top of a youtube search. It shows how quickly and easily you can shape behaviours

I am struggling to see the point of the work on the coloured horse in the video. What actually is happening ? Touch a toy, 2 steps sideways and get a treat. it is beyond me.

 

[paddy555]

I am struggling to see the point of the work on the coloured horse in the video. What actually is happening ? Touch a toy, 2 steps sideways and get a treat. it is beyond me.

the horse certainly isn't struggling. He is enjoying endless "treat time" and probably hopes it will go on forever. the size of his belly suggests it has already been going on for some time.

 

[Shilasdair]

Of course you're not a numpty!
We all do things which, with hindsight, we wish we had done differently

Of course the OP is a numpty. If any of us had the slightest bit of sense, we'd take up crochet, or perhaps basket-weaving rather than paying vast sums of money to keep large rude animals which enjoy rolling in mud, injuring us (deliberately or accidentally), making a mockery of our attempts to train them.

As my dad once said 'In the old days, horses worked for people - now you work for your horse'.