T3 Equestrian

12/09/2026

Presenting, for cuteness. The Short King and his companion pig, Isadora Pumpkin

05/09/2026

THE REBEL HAS LANDED!!!!
I’m thrilled to announce that MLC Tormod the Rebel has joined us here at T3 Equestrian!

Thank you so much to Janet Rowe of Muskoka Lake Connemaras for entrusting us with this stunning Connemara stallion. He’s already impressed us with his kind and utterly sensible temperament.

23/08/2026

Big News, coming soon!
Can’t wait to share it 👀😉

08/08/2026

Inspiration and breakthroughs in thinking can come from many places.

One of mine on lateral work came from these satirical gems from The Dressage Curmudgeon. Between the points 1) that all lateral work is just moving the macaroni shape in different directions, and 2) that we really shouldn’t need leg pressure to straighten/move the body, only leg position? It helped me develop my ‘game controller’ lateral work to my horses, and others, easily and consistently.

I love these, and think of them often with fondness and a giggle.

http://dressagecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2013/10/abracadabra-half-pass-welcome-to.html

https://dressagecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2013/09/things-seem-to-be-going-little-bit.html?m=1

30/07/2026

This is a great, thoughtful piece by Matt Brown. Similar thoughts are wwwhy I’ve started my post series on Learning Theory.

There’s an old saying, “nothing is new under the sun, horses are still horses.” It’s absolutely true. But our understanding of horses? That continues to evolve, and needs to, at every level.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bfmq3DwDh/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Matt Brown invite le monde équestre à une profonde remise en question 🐴🧠💭

📸 Sportfot

27/07/2026

Let’s look at Learning Theory (Pt 5; Negative Punishment aka “No dessert for you”

Last of all, we have Negative Punishment.
Negative = something is removed
Punishment = behavior decreases.

The simplest description of this is … consequences. A great example is “Finish your vegetables, you don’t get dessert.” The problem with negative punishment is it requires some understanding of cause and effect. It’s a tough one with horses, because their capacity in that sense is limited.

In my experience, this one is either misapplied or accidentally applied by leading to frustration for horses.

A great example goes back to my reference to horses that kick the wall at feed time.

You prepare feed
Horse is impatient/anxious and starts kicking the wall
You leave with the feed to until the horse stops kicking the wall so ‘s/he’ll learn not to kick the wall’

Unfortunately this relies on the horse understanding kicking wall = food leaving. But the kicking starts before the food appears. The food leaving doesn’t match the behavior beginning. So, to the horse, we’re just being unpredictable which increases the frustration/anxiety. Guess what happens next? At best nothing, at worst it gets worse because the frustration spikes.

I struggle to think of good examples of where we can or do use negative punishment in a way that horses understand. I’d love to hear if you have my examples to discuss!

(Pic: happy horses in the back field here. No kicking walls because there’s no walls available to kick!)

26/07/2026

Let’s talk about Learning Theory (Part 4: Positive Punisment aka ‘The Hot Stove’)

Now we move on to Positive Punishment, and ooooh boy does this get people’s feathers ruffled. It’s also where we hear words like unethical, force-based training and even cruelty thrown around. And sometimes that’s true.

But not always. Remember:
Positive = something happens
Punishment = behavior is less likely to reoccur

The thing about positive punishment is, it’s rooted in the rules of evolutionary adaptation.

Those rules are
1) Don’t die (horses see this one as somewhat optional)
2) Pain teaches

Seriously. Those two rules get pretty much every creature of every species through life, ourselves included. And that’s why refer to a hot stove.

Touching a hot stove is a positive punishment scenario. You learn very quickly not to do that again. And we use a similar situation with horses ALL the time.

It’s called electric fencing. They touch the electric fencing and learn very quickly it’s a bad decision. And so a thin set of wires contains horses when they could walk through them easily.

Adding leg when a horse balks is technically positive punishment. So is a one rein stop to halt a bolting horse.

Positive punishment can be a normal part of horse handling and training, under specific circumstances. It can also absolutely be misused and there are risks. I plan to talk about this after the upcoming post on Negative Punishment.

(Photo: the horses and some of our grazing Kune Kune pigs. All of who are contained by electric fencing.)

25/07/2026

Let’s look at Learning Theory (Part 3: Negative Reinforcement)
Negative Reinforcement gets a lot of bad press over the past few years in favor of Positive Reinforcement. Because Positive is good Na Negative is bad, right?

Well, no. Remember, positive = adding and negative means removing ‘something’ that reinforces behavior. Negative reinforcement is the foundation of the history of training horses. Denny Emerson of Tamarack Hill Farm frequently uses the term ‘gentle pestering’ which is a fantastic description of negative reinforcement.

When we ride/longe/do groundwork, we apply pressure to cue for different reactions. (leg,rein, nose, neck rope, spur, whip, stepping towards the horse). The training occurs through the release of pressure.

Pressure
Horse reacts
Pressure immediately reduces
Horse thinks ‘aha! This is how I make it go away!’

Initial training means shaping the behavior by adding enough pressure to create a SMALL reaction that resembles what you’re looking for and removing the pressure at that point.

And repeat a few times to confirm the idea. Negative reinforcement works by confirming the horse’s idea that they can cause the pressure to stop by doing X. Too much repetition teaches the pressure is coming back no matter what they do. And that’s not negative reinforcement.

Where do you see negative reinforcement used in your daily interactions with your horse(s)?

(Pic: Erica Saunders (me) with Still Standing. One of my two self restarted OTTBs, from their first rides off track.)

24/07/2026

Let’s look at Learning Theory (Part 2: Positive Reinforcement)

Building off yesterday’s post on the basics of learning theory, let’s look at positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement means something is applied or something happens that makes a behaviour more likely to occur. The most common way we hear about positive reinforcement training is clicker training. So we usually think about food or treats.

BUT! That’s not really how it works, and it doesn’t work in a vacuum. Positive reinforcement training isn’t only happening when we are actively providing what we think of as a positive reinforcement.

And keep in mind that horses make their own associations based on their perspective as a prey animal.  Horses care mostly about food, friends, and freedom.

So, common examples of positive reinforcement at work include:
- the arrival of food while a horse is pawing in the stall at feed time? Or even kicking the wall!
- That pony marching towards the grass for snack time, while a child skis alongside? Also positive reinforcement!
- The horse that comes to the gate when they hear the rattle of grain in a bucket

All 3 situations involve an action (horse or human) with a result that makes repetition more likely! Only one is intentional and initiated by a person.

What other examples have you seen recently?

(Photo: ET and Dora the pig, who both think food is a fine reward.)