Equal and Opposite Behaviors
But if you teach your horse to rear isn’t that just asking for trouble? Wont he do it while you’re riding?
Well yes, it is a very real concern.
Like here where Sunshine is confused or unwilling. He offers a behavior that is well rewarded when I’m on the ground. It isn’t a full rear. More of a school halt, weight fully on the hind quarters, one leg in the air. It is something I will want him to do while I’m riding. Eventually. Right now it was not what I was after.
A behavior that is not rewarded will not be repeated.
The trouble people get into with that is that we tend to think that a reward has to be something we intend as a reward, a cookie or a good job pat. Anything the HORSE finds rewarding is a reward. In this case that would have been getting to stand still or me getting off of him. There are a number of things that could have been a reward here.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction that will put a stop to the unwanted behaviors.
So we needed to find something that I did want him to do that made his little up he offered there impossible. Like walking in the other direction. So we turned and walked and rewarded him for that. The little attempt at a rear was left behind, no big deal made of it. Something that made rearing impossible. And he got a big reward for that.