The Positive Pony

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The Positive Pony

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Cassie, Annie, and Bird

✨️ Founder of Equilescence℠ ✨️
🌿 Growing together with horses in alignment with science, soul, and self 🌿

Learn more! 👇🏻
www.thepositivepony.com/links

04/10/2026

This is the uphill battle that exhausts me most. 😤

Prioritizing positive reinforcement in training does, and I can’t stress this enough, NOT mean we do not have boundaries.

Yet this argument against R+ (and gentle parenting) might be the most pervasive.

There's an ongoing misrepresentation of R+ that assumes only two ways of being exist, aka a false dichotomy.

You either:
🥕 Use R+ and have no boundaries, or
🛑 You set boundaries and do not use R+

But in reality, you can absolutely do both.

R+ is how behavior is taught, not whether limits exist.

“Boundary” has become a buzzword for making rules for others. But boundaries are not about controlling another’s behavior. They are about controlling our response.

A boundary says if you behave in a way that makes me feel unsafe or uncomfortable, I will respond by creating safety for myself. Your response then dictates how we proceed.

Boundaries are also a two-way street. We expect our horses to respect our space, comfort, and limits while we routinely ignore theirs. Their hesitation. Their tension. Their subtle “no thank you” that shows up long before the bigger reaction.

When we overlook their stress signals, we are crossing boundaries, too. It’s unfair to expect a horse to honor ours if we consistently disregard theirs.

I'm not saying our horses are free to behave dangerously. But mutual understanding is built, not demanded. When we listen to their communication, we make it easier for them to listen to ours.

It is also our job to set the stage so unwanted behavior is less likely to occur in the first place.

“Making the right thing easy” includes management, whether you are using R+ or R-. Management plays a huge role in setting and maintaining boundaries.

This also isn’t about emergencies, which is often the type of example folks use to try to pull a “gotcha!”. Creating safety sometimes requires immediate action. I’m talking about everyday interactions where we can listen, adjust, and prevent escalation.

I'm also not playing morality police, where R+ is superior to R-.

I simply need to address this falsehood that refuses to die.

Using R+ does not mean allowing horses (or dogs, kids, etc.) to walk all over you.

03/31/2026

Yes, R+ is coercive.

But so is R-! 👀

Let’s be so for real. All training is coercive, but there is still a lot of pushback against R+ in particular as being coercive by those who have no problem coercing behavior out of an animal using R-, and if we want to call out the pitfalls of one quadrant, we need to address how those same pitfalls show up in the others.

Now I know some people get up in arms about not nitpicking definitions, but too bad, I do! Shared language is how we communicate, and so we need to agree on definitions to understand each other, so let’s get to it.

When you look up “coerce” in the Merriam Webster dictionary (my personal fave, none of this dictionarydotcom garbage!), the very first definition is “to compel to an act or choice.”

And if that isn’t what training and behavior modification are at their core, then I don’t know what is.

Sure, there is an element of force that is associated with “coercion,” and with “compel.” But I’d argue that even in the most species-appropriate setting, there is always an element of force over a captive learner’s life because we control their resources.

We force them to live in environments that we control — how much forage is available, where we place it, what quality it is, what water sources they have access to, how much space they have to move, what herdmates they go out with, and what professionals they see and when they see them from vets to farriers to bodyworkers, to name a few.

In training, which is generally accepted as necessary in domesticated/captive animals, we control the reinforcers, whether that is the removal of pressure or the addition of a food reward, when our horses do what we ask. We also control the punishers.

They distill from the environments that we put them in and interactions they have with us what they should seek and what they should avoid. What feels good and what doesn’t.

We are inherently in a position of power over our horses, whether we like it or not.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing! It simply is.

But that is, in my mind, also a great responsibility.

The quadrant doesn't matter; training means accepting that we are in some way, shape, or form coercing another being to do what we want, even if they enjoy it. ✌🏻

02/04/2026

These lyrics are haunting me right now.

As a Vermonter, it’s basically a state holiday when Noah Kahan releases new music. I’ve been listening to The Great Divide on repeat for the last few days, trying to burn the lyrics into my brain.

But as I listened to it for the billionth time while I was driving to my mom’s house for dinner the other night, the pre-chorus stirred up a thought that brought me to tears.

Even though this is definitely not what this song was about, my heart and soul brings everything back to horses.

I think about all of the horses who have gotten me where I am today all the time.

I used to have a deep misunderstanding of their needs, how to read and respond to their behavior as communication instead of shutting it down or dismissing it.

I recognized how bad it must have been for them, not because I didn’t care or didn’t love them, but because I (and many of my mentors) didn’t know any better, and they paid for it.

It must have been really hard for them to keep it all inside.

I try not to beat myself up for not knowing then what I know now. Though I do think there is a healthy amount of guilt and regret that can cause us to change for the better, and to see where we could act differently if we were faced with the same situation today.

There is a Great Divide between where I once was when all of these photos were taken and where I am now. And while there is a sadness for the girl who didn’t know better then, I have so much grace for her knowing I’d end up where I am now.

--

Dedicated to the horses I think about all the time: Jäger, Nell, Jab, and Slide (in order of appearance). 🤍

12/04/2025

Don't shoot the messenger 🤷🏻‍♀️

For real, though, these are all conversations I have had with students on more than one occasion because all of these things play a role in your horse's ability to show up as their best selves.

🙊 There are too many horses with unbalanced teeth and/or feet, which creates imbalances in the body. Also, thrush is a big deal and often overlooked, period.

🙊 There are too many horses who run out of hay or don't have enough feeding stations for the number of horses in the herd, causing frustration, stress, and/or resource guarding.

🙊 There are too many horses turned out alone, with too many other horses for the space, or with horses that are not a good fit for each other, leading to stressful herd dynamics.

🙊 There are too many horses who simply aren't moving enough. Horses are a species designed to move. Movement is crucial to their mental and physical well-being. Even horses that are turned out 24/7 may not actually be moving much if they are camped out in one spot all day.

🙊 There are too many horses wearing ill-fitting equipment (i.e. halters, blankets, bridles, saddles, bits, boots, etc.), which leads to mild discomfort at best. Anything that your horse wears needs to fit them appropriately.

🙊 There are too many horses who don't get enough REM sleep, which requires them to lie down. Not getting enough sleep in general disrupts your horse's physical and cognitive health.

🙊 There are too many horses whose diets are out of balance in one way or another, but especially in terms of minerals. Certain ratios (i.e. iron to zinc to copper, calcium to phosphorus, etc.) need to be balanced for your horse to thrive. Mineral imbalances impact everything from hoof health to vital metabolic processes.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every horse, either. Every horse needs to be treated as an individual.

This isn't about chasing perfection; it's about meeting our horse's basic needs.

We won't get everything right 100% of the time for whatever reason, but we should always strive to do our best.

Because at the end of the day, no amount of training will outweigh the impact of horse-first management and environment. ✌🏼

12/01/2025

My dear friend who introduced me to Bird said it best... 💙

"How special it is that you get to build a relationship with him based on helping him feel good in his body before anything else."

So many of us build our relationships with our horses based on what they can do for us, and for a long time, I was no different.

Over time, I became repulsed by the idea of such a transactional relationship with these deeply feeling souls.

I cared less and less about what they could give me and more and more about how I could give back to them.

Because of when he entered my life, Bird is arguably getting the best version of me.

I have zero expectations of him. I simply want to give him the life he deserves.

That doesn't mean I don't do anything with him.

We spend quiet time together, play, and train. He receives what I consider to be necessary and regular supportive care (farrier, vet, dentist, and bodywork).

But it means I prioritize how he feels (without neglecting my own emotions) and provide him with opportunities to express his autonomy within our relationship whenever possible.

In return, he's choosing to slowly open up his heart to me. Not because he has to, but because he feels safe enough to want to.

And for me, there's practically nothing more special than that. ✨️

11/26/2025

20 years...

20 years of hands-on experience made up of weekly riding lessons, equestrian federation certifications, natural horsemanship training, 4-H, and competitions, and not one mention of the difference between reinforcement and punishment.

I'm not blaming those programs or my mentors. Chances are, they truly didn't know better.

But when I stumbled upon positive reinforcement training because my mare, Annie, demanded I add new tools to my toolbox, I fell down a rabbit hole that was so much bigger than I ever could have imagined.

I, like so many of you reading this, had never been exposed to the information that being in the R+ community exposes you to.

Heck, I didn't even know that I had been using negative reinforcement (and quite frankly, positive punishment) for all of those years.

I did know, however, that my main riding instructor was different than others. Her horses lived out 24/7 as a mixed herd and always had access to hay. They were significantly happier and sounder than any other horses I had encountered at the time, but it wasn't until I put two and two together as I learned more *why* that was.

Now, with years of learning, practicing, and teaching others about how to use R+ with horses as my main training focus, I still run into situations (typically with boarded horses) that, when we examine the whole picture to determine how to best help the horse in front of us, would benefit from the use of R-.

And what I have discovered time and time again is that my experience and knowledge gained from diving into R+ has positively shaped my ability to use R-.

I use significantly less pressure, release quicker, and get results even faster without pushing a horse over threshold (because I actually know wtf that is now, how to read subtle signs of stress, and how to de-escalate a horse safely!).

All because of R+.

This isn't to say that I'm not eternally grateful for my 20+ years of experience and how it has gotten me here today, but rather that I wish all of the information that is foundational within the R+ community was more widely accepted and shared so that we all could be better horse people sooner.

Our horses deserve at least that. ✨

11/17/2025

I will never accept someone telling me that horses should not have access to forage during bodywork EVER AGAIN.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard well-known equine bodyworkers preach about how important it is not to feed your horse during bodywork sessions. And for a long time, I believed them.

I could rationalize their reasoning.

They often say that the horse needs to be fully present during bodywork, without the potential interference of food, so the practitioner can get a true read on the horse's responses.

I also understand that, from a behavioral perspective, this type of work is not really about operant conditioning.

Vet care, farrier visits, and bodywork rely more heavily on classical conditioning and the emotional associations the horse forms while the work is happening.

Sure, you can and absolutely should prepare your horse for these types of visits and practice behaviors that will set them up for success, but we all know that does not replace the actual experience itself.

Because of this, I figured positive reinforcement was not the star of the show, specifically when it comes to bodywork, and that it made sense to leave food out of the equation at the direction of "the experts."

But at the same time, that never fully aligned with my own experience.

I've successfully used forage during vet and farrier appointments and seen first-hand how horses can stay engaged while eating.

So why is bodywork so different?

Spoiler alert... it's not!

Check out my latest blog (link in comments!) where I go deep on why access to forage wins every time and why I'm calling BS if someone tells you otherwise. ✌🏼

Address

Milton, VT
05468

Website

https://www.thepositivepony.com/

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