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RPlus | how to manage breaks
Marlitt Wendt, Conny Ranz, Pferdsein, RPlus, R+, Clickertraining, clicker training, Clicker, Clickern, Positives Pferdetraining, Positive Verstärkung, Pferdeverhalten, Pferde-Ethologie, Pferdeethologie, Equine ethology, Native horses, Shaping, Target, Pferdetraining, empowered equestrians, Wildpferde, positive reinforcement, positive reinforcement training, Zirkuslektionen, Bodenarbeit, Freiheitsdressur, Freiarbeit, Wenn Pferde lächeln, Belohnung, Belohnungslernen
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How many breaks make sense?

 

According to the type of horse, its training level and one’s own skills the number of necessary breaks during the course of each training session can vary significantly. It frequently helps to retreat from the actual endeavor, the work on the lesson itself, in order to analyze the status quo. It can then be asked how much one should reasonably focus on taking breaks. For example, it is possible to capture a situation in training with one’s smartphone to get a first impression, and to document the relation between training and breaks. First, you note the amount of minutes used for training, for example, requesting specific lessons, clicking, and giving rewards. Second, you compare this to the amount of minutes used for breaks like grazing, petting, walking around, and so on.

Only in exceptional cases

 

A share of more than fifty percent of time used for training in the narrower sense carries a risk to overburden most of the horses in the long run. The consequences manifest themselves as inner agitation, an externally visible increased degree of excitement, and an accumulation of mistakes.

Regular cases

 

An even balance with a share of around fifty percent of time used for training in the narrower sense, and the remaining fifty percent spent with breaks from learning is a reasonable design of learning units for most horses. That is to say, lessons are not only learned when a being is actively doing something but are particularly consolidated during allegedly passive phases. In the course of such passive phases the newly learned contents are replayed in the mind, connected with prior experiences, and woven into an emotional context for the long term.

Sensitive souls

 

Easily excitable horses and horses that visibly suffer from stress in training already frequently need a higher number of calm moments in training. A share of seventy to eighty percent of time used for breaks during training has proven reasonable. Additionally, this helps the horses to relax in training, and to learn to better regulate their own level of excitement.

Do nothing

 

This is also one of the biggest challenges for human beings. In general, we are not used to doing “nothing” for such a long period of time. We get bored easily if the horse is “only” grazing, and we cannot be productive and work on our training goals. Furthermore, we frequently do not know how to design a break so that the horse really perceives this phase as break in comparison to just another differently named training unit. So, breaks need to be structured and planned in advance just like training lessons. We have only succeeded in creating the space that includes our learning goal as well as a genuine sensation of having a break if the horse is able to reach its personal level of relaxation, and can visibly relax in between two lessons.

Marlitt Wendt & Conny Ranz

AUTHOR: Marlitt Wendt