Training Tips: These are just little tips for help with clicker training, ideas for new things to try and help with some of Alexandra Kurland's exercises.  Some of these are things I discovered through the work, some are taken from other sources. I have given credit if I can remember where  I learned it:

Backing:  I teach my horses to back from a hand cue on the front of their nose. It is helpful for my mare who bumps me with her nose when she is nervous and is an easy way to nicely ask my gelding to get out of my space if I am working on something and don't mind his company, but he is being a little too helpful.  According to Bettina Drummond, backing a horse by lowering his head and pushing (nicely) on the bridge of his nose is a good way to release the back.

Head shy or nippy horses:  If your horse is uncomfortable being patted on the front of his face and either pulls back or nips at you, teach him to allow you to touch his jaw instead. This allows you to approach from the side, avoiding his blind spot and helps teach him that a hand extended toward his face is not always going to be offering food.  Once he is comfortable with allowing you to reach past his mouth to earn a click, you can start touching in other locations. 

Head lowering: if your horse already knows how to drop his head from poll pressure, you can use this to help teach the rein cue.  Using Alexandra Kurland's rein handling skills, slide down the rein, and as you do so, lift your inside hand (the one closer to the halter/bit) up towards the poll. If the horse does not drop his head, allow the rein to slide through your hand while maintaining contact until you can put your hand on the horse's poll.  Ask the horse to drop his head from poll pressure, click and release the rein when he does so. After a few repetitions of this, the horse will start to anticipate the poll pressure and drop his head off the rein cue. Click and reinforce that and soon he will drop his head from a lift of the rein.

Head lowering or other behavior with stacked criteria: If you are working on training your horse to do 2 things at once (e.g. walk forward and keep her head lowered), you can click for the first behavior a few times and then click for the second behavior. If you keep going back and forth between the two behaviors, there will be moments when the horse does not end the first behavior before starting the second.  Clicking these moments helps your horse figure out that you want both behaviors at once.

Targeting: If you are trying to get duration on a target and your horse keeps playing with the target, try using a piece of tape on a wall, or some other fixed object that is not as easy to manipulate. I will tape a piece of colored or white cardboard to the wall with duct tape and use that for fidgety horses.

Targeting: It is useful to teach your horse to target your hand when presented as a closed fist.  If you are in a situation where you need a target but one is not available, then you can use your fist instead. If your horse tends to nip at targets, then you need to teach your horse to target with a closed mouth before training this. This can be done by clicking before the horse touches the target and tries to mouth it, or by letting the horse mouth the target and clicking for a moment of stillness after he has discovered he will not get clicked for putting his teeth on the target.

Building Duration:  If your horse gets impatient when you are building duration, try counting out loud so the horse knows you are still paying attention to him. For more help with building duration, see the article on duration on the Training Page.

Changing the Bend:  A good rule of thumb for feeding treats under saddle is to feed on the side to which the horse is bent.  However, I have found that if you are working on an exercise where you work one side and then the other,  horses can get stuck in one bend. To help the horse find the new bend, feed the last treat before the change of bend on the new side.  So, for example, if working 3 flip 3, I might do 3 sets going left, and feed on the left after the first two clicks (assuming I am clicking at the end of each 3 flip 3 sequence.)  After the third 3 flip 3, I will treat on the right, helping the horse to straighten and set up for the new right bend. As my horse becomes more proficient at changing the bend, I can go back to feeding on the side to which the horse is bent, but I find that this little adjustment of feeding on the new side can help a horse that is having trouble changing bend.

Nippy Horses:  If you have a horse that nips at you as you pass his stall door, teach him to tuck his nose in as you approach.  This is easy to free shape and if you feed the horse by reaching over the door, the horse will learn to back up just a little as you approach. In our barn this is handy as the the horse can hang his head out over his stall door and he just backs up a step when I approach. He is happy to come forward if invited, and I don't have to back him up to slide the door open without whacking him in the head.

Adding Energy: When training a behavior where you want more energy, using a preferred treat for the better efforts can really help to increase the horse's enthusiasm and motivation.  The excitement over the food works to your advantage in this situation.  In other situations where the horse is getting too enthusiastic, it sometimes works better to stick to your regular treats to encourage a calmer and more thoughtful response.

Cues:  When adding a cue to a behavior, make sure that you vary any detail that you don't want to have become part of the cue. This means you need to ask for the behavior in different locations, in different positions relative to the horse and you also need to decide if your body posture is going to be part of the cue.  Horses are very context sensitive and a new cue needs to be proofed in many different situations.

Mat work: An easy way to build duration during mat work is to ask the horse to stand on the mat while you pat him. If the horse can stand on the mat while you reach out and pat him, you can click as your hand pats the horse and the horse will learn to stay on the mat until you touch it. It is easy to build duration by adding in more patting and moving around the horse. This leads easily to ground tying and teaches the horse to keep his feet still even when you are moving.

Mat work: If you have a horse that paws a lot when learning mat work, and you end up clicking while the horse is pawing, making sure that you deliver the treat when the horse is not pawing can minimize reinforcement for pawing.   So, if the horse paws as you click, time your treat delivery so that the food is actually delivered when that foot is now on the ground.  Remember that while we think of the click as marking the desired behavior, the food itself is a primary reinforcer and you can use that to your advantage.

Mat work: To teach your horse to stand on mat with his hind feet, you can walk the horse forward on to it but the horse might become frustrated if he wants to put his front feet on the mat. So another option is to stand the horse and then place the mat underneath him, just in front of his hind feet. You can click for forward movement of a hind foot toward and on to the mat. I like to use a piece of plywood for this as it gives the horse nice feedback on his foot position.

General Training: If you don't have a lot of time for training or the weather is too cold, you can add in little bits of training as part of your routine. I like to practice working my horses from the right side by leading them in or out to their fields one way on the left and the other way on the right. Even just the act of getting led from the right every day will make your horse more aware of your presence on that side. I sometimes add in a few little targeting exercises when they go in or out.  All those little pieces add up to make a difference.

CIicking while in motion: Sometimes it can be helpful to click and treat while keeping the horse in motion. If I am clicking for forward to help a sticky horse learn to lead better, I will feed the horse and keep everything moving so that both the click and the treat (primary reinforcer) are delivered while the horse is doing the desired behavior.  Most horses do have to learn to eat from your hand while moving, but catch on quickly.  This is not recommended for horses that tend to invade your space or would benefit from a chance to stop. Remember that a chance to stop is a chance to ask the horse to go again.  But I do use it for horses that seem to think that stopping for the treat means I want them to stand still.

Teaching a Retrieve: For horses that are reluctant to hold objects in their mouth, I have found that it is just a matter of persistence. Even if I feel that I am making no progress, I just keep doing a little session every few days, clicking for any lip movement or touching the object with the mouth instead of higher up on the nose. I might also try different objects. A lot of horses find it easier to pick up a towel or piece of cloth than a plastic toy.

Identifying what is reinforcing behavior:  It is important to be aware of what reinforcers are available to your horse at any given time. If you are clicking and treating and not making any progress, you need to look at your own timing and rate of reinforcement and then see if there is anything else that is reinforcing the horse for an alternate behavior.  I have found that it is important to be aware of what might be driving unwanted behavior.

General Training:  A lot of riding issues can be solved by working them through on the ground.  Most people do groundwork as prep for riding but then they forget that they can go back to working on the ground when they have a problem. I find that working a horse in-hand allows me to have more control over head and neck placement, a better view of how the horse is using his whole body and allows me to break things down into smaller pieces.  In addition, it is easier to treat in position and get the horse on a rapid rate of reinforcement.  Working on a lunge is another great way to see what is going on and help the horse figure out balance and coordination issues without the added weight and complications of a rider.