What is R+ Training?

Absolutely! Positive Reinforcement has already been used successfully by Olympic-level riders such as Beezie Madden to problem-solve and improve communication.

Positive Reinforcement (R+) can be used to train for competition and horse sports in multiple ways. With our PtP approach, we see endless opportunities. Some examples:

• Positive Reinforcement improves communication and builds trust between the rider and horse, which means the rider has a willing and attentive partner in the competition ring.
• Rewards, markers, and cues used during training to improve the horse’s movements and performance can be transferred to light, non-coercive aids under saddle.
• Positive Reinforcement can solve problems that a horse is experiencing in competition—like fear of jumping over water, refusing to enter the arena, or even getting into a trailer to go home!
• Regular use of Positive Reinforcement training builds heart and confidence in horses. The training makes sense to them and gives them a reason to try.
• Be assured that you won’t need to stop and feed your horse during a class or test! The relationship and trust bank you’ll build with your horse throughout R+ training means you can enter the competition arena, complete your performance with a willing partner, and know that your horse understands their reward comes afterward.

Positive Reinforcement training is wonderfully effective for ground work, but it doesn’t stop there. We often start undersaddle behaviors at liberty, so that we can be certain the horse understands clearly and wants an opportunity to perform what we ask.. We then systematically transfer the cues to light, non-coercive aids under saddle. This systematic transfer of cues is how we can apply R+ training to reach equestrian goals without resorting to increasing pressure.

Positive Reinforcement (R+ ) training techniques improve communication and build trust between the rider and horse. This means the rider has a willing and attentive partner in and out of the competition ring.

Think about how you feel about working hard—you expect and deserve to get paid, but you don’t have to have a coin handed to you every minute. On the other hand, if your boss quit paying you entirely, or only paid you with pats on the back, you’d soon lose your motivation.

But you can learn to work for a certain period of time, and then receive your pay. Horses can learn this too, if we teach it to them correctly! They learn that they may need to do a behavior more often, or longer, to receive a food reward. And a funny thing happens along the way—as the behavior and cue is associated over and over with food, the cue itself becomes rewarding.

We can also deliberately train the horse to respond to non-food reinforcers, such as a pat on the withers, but we do this systematically by associating the pat with food.

Absolutely. Positive Reinforcement training (R+) can solve problems that a horse is experiencing in day-to-day training or at competitions — like standing at the mounting block, fear of jumping over water, refusing to enter the arena, or even getting into a trailer to go home!

No. Of course you can use Positive Reinforcement (R+) with traditional tack and aids. Via Nova’s Priority to Positive goal is to use standard riding equipment and aids for safety and to cue behavior—but not as a means to force behavior. The crucial difference is how these cues are trained and the horse’s motivation for responding to them.

People often associate Positive Reinforcement with clicker training — it is and isn’t.

The clicker is a marker that marks the behavior you want to reward, but a marker doesn’t need to be a clicker; it can be anything that’s consistent and distinct enough for the horse to recognize.

At Via Nova, we often use the letter “T” as a verbal marker, but it could be a whistle, a unique cluck — or while riding, a touch on the withers. You can choose what marker you want to use as long as it’s consistent and conditioned correctly.

As we all know, horses love food. By shaping behavior with markers, food rewards, and clear cues, they can associate their correct behavior with the reward — creating better communication and speeding up the learning and training process.

With less confusion, they’re more likely to perform behaviors that they might have resisted in traditional training. Positive Reinforcement can yield quick results once foundational behaviors are established. Like any type of training, the success and time it takes depends on both the trainer’s execution and the individual horse.

This is an important point. Positive Reinforcement doesn’t mean giving your horse treats in response to unwanted, pushy behavior. The first lesson we teach when we start training with Positive Reinforcement is “Manners.” The horses learn right away how to behave around food to receive their reward, and we emphasize that lesson for a lifetime.

In our PtP program, we also teach you the mechanical skills of how to handle the treats to discourage pushiness.