#positive reinforcement horse training

[braveheartbeasts]

Liberty Work Horse Training Expositions

Braveheart Beasts provides in-person riding lessons in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Led by head trainer Kaleigh Marie, the focus is on relationship-based training in areas such as liberty work, classical dressage, and positive reinforcement. Whether you're a rider seeking to improve your skills or a horse owner aiming to enhance your equine-human bond, Braveheart Beasts offers personalized guidance to help you and your horse reach your goals.

Additionally, you can find inspiration through the Braveheart Beasts Facebook page, which showcases expositions and events featuring liberty work, bridleless riding, classical dressage, and the power of true connection with horses.

Braveheart Beasts Serving RI and USA North Kingstown RI, 02852 (401) 379-9775 braveheartbeasts@gmail.com www.braveheartbeasts.com Facebook | Instagram

Watch video here: Learn about Braveheart Beasts and the mission that created the Connection Academy

[sandra-hippologic]

Horse Training Tip that will make it easy to start

Whenever you have a Challenge with your horse, the first step is to break the problem down in smaller pieces. Imagine your horse doesn’t lift his feet well for cleaning or trimming. How can you break down that problem for your horse? Break it down for your horse Your horse doesn’t know anything about your expectations! When you break your goal down and start rewarding your horse for a slight…

[woodsfae]

Working with equine vets is so fraught, because they think they're experienced and/or trained in universal horse behaviorism, but they're actually familiar with a near-universal cultural background that creates certain consistent behavioral responses.

For example: you're supposed to handle and train horses from a young age so they are exposed to lots of important stimuli throughout their development. You want your 1,000-2,000 pound animal to be calm when faced with blowing bags, kids on bikes, loud cars engines, and a thousand other things, because otherwise you have a panicked 1,000-2,000 pounds of horse trying to escape with zero rational thought besides "fleeeeeeeeeeeee and kick it to shit along the way so it doesn't get you."

In the USA, most young horses get training that would be considered abusive in pets like cats/dogs. One of those things is hard-tying. That's when you take a foal, put a halter on it, and tie them to a post on a very short lead. Then you let them get bored/upset/scared and try to move away. They are young and not very strong yet, so they can't no matter how much they struggle. And then they learn helplessness when tied up and don't pull even as adults. To be clear, this is abusive and there are much better ways of training a horse to stand calmly while tied, just like there are ways to train dogs to be calm while tied up for a bit. This is just common and isn't illegal in the USA. Both healthy and abusive training methods aim for roughly the same goals: a predictable and calm horse that tolerates medical examinations, new stimuli, leads/ties well and doesn't pull, to name a few. This is for safety purposes. Horses are large, and dangerous even under the best of circumstances just because they're flipping huge. A dog steps on your foot, maybe an ouch? A horse steps on your foot, maybe an ouch in best case scenario, maybe a broken foot.

However, Partner's rescue horse didn't get any training of any kind as a foal, good or bad. He was born right when a breeding ranch was starting to go under and he was entirely neglected. He was just loose in a pasture, feral. He wasn't handled as a foal. He wasn't haltered. He wasn't trained. He wasn't habituated to anything scary or unusual. Then when he was about ten, they decided to rectify that mistake and then a did a really really great job of traumatizing him in short bursts, then letting him back out in the pasture, now even more afraid of humans and new things after the "training" didn't work, leave him alone a few months, repeat.

Eventually my partner (a positive reinforcement trainer) met him right around the time he had been sold and a new person was carrying out their own inept attempt to cow an adult, traumatized horse into submission they way they would a untraumatized foal, and it went so badly that that person decided to have him put down. So my partner convinced them to sell the horse to him, and ten years later Canner-the-horse has come so so so so far and is trained to do many impressive and cool things, but he will never have the same reactions as a normal horse born and trained in the usa. And he is always going to have that trauma background and his "flight" reaction to stress turned way the fuck up.

All this to say, it was really fucking annoying when the who vet insisted she knew horse behaviorism stayed right on him continuing to examine him as he started to back away, because her experiences says "he'll stop when he hits the fence because that's what horses that have been this calm do," when Canner's actual instinct says "bolt the second I feel trapped because that's what's kept me safe before."

Thankfully we did prevent that (him having his horsey ptsd triggered and bolting) from happening.

Annoyingly I'm going to have to do the blood draw myself because he was too nervous after that examination to risk having her pull the blood.

And she's one of the best, most flexible horse vets I've ever met and I feel lucky she was so chill about following our instructions for the most part and will accept a blood sample drop-off that I take. sigh.

[dezmineann]

Nobody should ever be mad about training differently let alone jump on someone who just posts and leaves for the people who may need to see or want to see that type of content

[equinesandeducation]

Clicker trained horses man 🥹 (turn on your sound and join me on a ride with my amazing Frelsi)

[kkintsugi]

Yet another day of being downvoted on the internet for being right 😔

[dinodressage]

starting over on a new blog sucks, but there's no better horse to christen my Tumblr than Ari, my lump-headed, target-stick-loving, racetrack failure.

[horsesarecreatures]

There are many things wrong with this video. The thing that stands out the most is the lead rope dangling with the rope halter. Rope and nylon halters don't break like leather ones do, so if the horse steps on the lead rope they can injure their noses and necks quite badly, and even panic and flip over. It's a stupid thing to do in general, and especially when someone is creating situations that they know might cause a horse to spook. The part where the horse is running away with the lead rope dangling is extremely dangerous and there are horses that have had to be euthanized due to injuries created from such situations.

I do think that "flooding" and "learned helplessness" are better ways to describe "fundamentally the idea that horses should be passive objects, not to react unless told to and only with the energy permitted by the rider." That is what is happening in the video. So many things are being thrown in this horse's face that he's starting to just shut down. The spooking stops not because he's become more comfortable with the situation, but because he sees that running away does not cause it to stop, and eventually just gets exhausted. This is not a horse that's terrified to death in this specific video because he's not sweating, panting, or bolting as hard as he could, but he is showing clear signs of discomfort. It looks like he's crapped all over the place, is still running away from the person, stiffens up at many points, and flicks his ears back in forth in an unsure manner. This is avoidable.

Desensitization IS important because horses are flight animals that spook. In the wild, spookiness might save them, because there are predators that could kill them. In a domestic setting however, for the sake of them not getting injured and being nervous all the time, it is better for them to be desensitized to common things they will see like plastic bags, cars, tarps, farm equipment, etc. What shown in this video is just not the right way to do it.

New objects should be introduced to horses slowly, and if they back away, the person should not chase them with it and should even consider backing off and removing the stimulus. They should wait until the horse shows curiosity, and let the horse approach them and sniff the object at their own pace. Any progress, whether it be the horse approaching the object or simply not running away, should be rewarded with a click and a treat. This builds the horse's confidence, and they learn to trust the handler instead of worrying that they might do something bizarre or sneaky.

Horses "desensitized" by flooding and learned helplessness as seen in this video may stop spooking with the same frequency, but they don't really trust their handler, and when they do still spook, it is often more explosive and there's no calming them. Whereas horses desensitized by positive reinforcement learn that most unusual objects won't harm them, that their handler's won't put them in bad situations or punish them by chasing them if they do react, and that curiosity, even if cautious, is a good thing.

Here is a far better video of how to desensitize a horse to fly spray, which most horses are initially averse to.

Oh yeah there's a part 2 of the horse desensitizing that I love.

🐎: Hey what's with that tiny predator, the one you're hold- WOAH WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS IT UP SO HIGH

[dezmineann]

You Can Do R- Correctly

When you're all about R+ and tryna tell people about R+, you're often having to use examples of mistreatment of horses in order to get your point across.

Traditionally, horse people tend to use R- and THAT'S OK!

Most people who are into R+ grew up on R- and are well aware that you can do R- correctly to establish a relationship with their horse.

The difference is all dependent on where you are in your horse journey. This doesn't mean you'll eventually become R+ BUT most people who turned to R+ are those who maybe had a horse with a difficult problem that traditional training methods couldn't solve. So, instead of selling the horse to someone else or dumping them at the meat market for being "dangerous", they found a safe alternative.

Others may have observed the toxicity of dominance culture in the horse industry and wanted to get away from it because it didn't make any real sense (bonus points if you have some training in psychology).

Maybe they want the clearest forms of communication for their horse? Whatever it is, usually R+ people just want to have willing partners and are doing all the work to be friends with their horses.

When we bring up R-, it's not to say that working your horse on a pressure/release system is bad. However, the mindset that can slip in whilst using these practices are what we are trying to diminish. Dominance theory, anthropomorphizing them, making excuses to be able to hit them cuz "they're bigger" (reread that one), scare tactics in the name of desensitization, how much more can I go on?

With R+ there is virtually no way you can mistreat the horse because the principles are founded upon willingness, what horses deem as fun/ good tradeoff, and animal welfare.

I truly encourage everyone to just look into R+ principles. You will find yourself in a wormhole of fabulous information on how to help your horse be a horse and a willing partner without the anxiety and fear. You don't have to be an R+ person in the end BUT knowing how horses learn, how to correctly read their body language whilst checking your own will make you a better horse person overall

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[rootin-n-bootin]

Hopping with some perspective as someone who trans horses, mules, and donkeys-

Positive reinforcement training has been pretty well studied by scientists to be extremely (if the most) effective means of training horses and personally when done by an expert- the safest.

A lot of aspects of a broad training method called natural horsemanship is oriented around beating or exhausting a horse into submission, and has a foundation in dominance theory. The belief is that the horse wants to be the alpha stallion and you have to over power it to be the boss.

In reality horses function in the wild as harems, family units, or found family units. While they will boss each other around and get physical, the vast majority of their communications between each other are more akin to positive reinforcement than negative: grooming each other, flicking flies away, playing, protecting, keeping each other company, finding good grass and water crossings, etc.

In a domestic environment however horses frequently have too little space, too little resources, and have the additional stressor of humans. Thus resulting in a frustrated horse.

Example: If Hazel the lesson horse gets out of a training session where she was wearing ill fitting tack (riding equipment) and smacked with a whip, forced to run and do intense physical maneuvers without the muscle to do so- she’s going to be sore. Then has to fight her way to get to the hay because there’s 8 horses on an half acre lot, but then Maggie a horse with stomach ulcers and is very grumpy about the constant pain decides to run down Hazel but with the lack of space Hazel gets beat up excessively because she can’t escape-

yeah you’ll start thinking horses are crazy aggressive animals that only understand beating each other up, so you have to beat it first before it gets you.

Except when you put a horse in a species appropriate environment where space is utilized effectively for them to be able to step away from conflict, they have more than one eating and water spot when in a herd environment so they can choose who to avoid and who to spend time with, a horse like Maggie is being medicated for ulcers, no horse is sore from wearing badly fit tack or being beat and ran into the ground- you’ll get a herd dynamic that’s less about taking frustrations out on each other and more about actually getting to be horses (bonding, socializing, exploring, playing).

Not too mention, positive reinforcement can be done with what’s called “protected contact”. You can almost entirely train a horse to lead, pick up its feet to be picked out, teach tricks, and even put a saddle on while you’re on the other side of a physical barrier. That’s a lot safer than how some negative reinforcement methods require you to facedown a charging horse and beat it back (some horses are so “blown up” mentally they don’t respond to beatings either, too which you’re really in trouble).

And lastly as a trainer: positive reinforcement is so gloriously effective on mules and donkeys that I honest to god had a mule just this last weekend watching me work with another mule on picking up his feet to be trimmed on- and a mule who I’ve barely touched or worked with… Picked her foot up on cue and held it for me perfectly. She watched another mule learn, and wanted so badly to participate she completed the action without me directly training her and prompting her.

You do not get those kind of results at all in the slightest with negative reinforcement.

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

[hellenhighwater]

hi! I saw your vid on TikTok of Mal throwing a fit post-picnic time. how did you harness train the cats? and where did you get their harnesses?

Mal's never been anxious, so I actually started her really early on; she's never not known how to wear a harness. She doesn't love having her legs handled, so hers is an over-the-head harness with a waist belt instead of the kind Vice has, which has leg holes and velcroes, without going over the head. (Vice is chill about his legs being handled but doesn't like stuff over the head.) Both are from...either amazon or a yard sale, I don't remember. Neither are special or exceptional enough to recommend; they work fine but there's nothing about them that makes them better than any other kind of harness.

It should be noted that Malice does not complain about having her harness put on--the griping is only because she knows that when the harness comes off, she's done with yard time.

Baby Mal, in her section-of-a-tube-sock 'training' harness:

For Vice, I kind of went at it like you would if you were breaking a horse to saddle--touching him gently with the harness, exposing him to it, draping it over his shoulders and putting gentle pressure on it--it fits appropriately snugly--and practicing sticking his leggies into the arm holes, with lots of praise and positive reinforcement throughout. He's limited to brief yard time right now and I try to cut it short on a positive note, before he gets distressed--if a loud vehicle comes past or something startles him, he will try to bolt and will hit the end of the tether and freak out, so I try to not let things get to that point. So right now yard time is just a few minutes of adoration and then back inside with the harness off and lots of treats.

[roancowgirl]

This is the same premise behind horse training as well, you prevent and fix a lot of issues by taking the time to develop and animal that understands what’s being asked and wants to do it, rather than being forced into it

The simplest concept that would help pet owners so much more than Cesar Millan ever did would be that forcing facilitates helplessness, not learning.

Regardless of your methodology you're not going to see your best results by walking into heel yourself, pulling your dog into a position, holding them in sit to be petted, pushing and using body blocking when trying to build impulse control, guiding them around by a headcollar, etc.

At best, you'll get a dog who has learned the inevitable and leans into it. More often, I see lazy or confused dogs who learn to only listen to outside pressure, or worse, become anxious or overaroused due to their own lack of control and autonomy.

Please, examine your training every so often to make sure the dog is the one doing the action on their own, not being actively imposed into it.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Sh*t has hit the fan in equestrian sport and I genuinely wonder if this is the beginning of the end of it's social license to operate.

I used to respect Charlotte Dujardin as "one of the kinder riders out there". Sadly it seems like this was all just marketing. She just happened to have a horse like Valegro that tolerated her harsh handling (she described him as "hard mouthed" which is a pretty good indication that he had poor training to start with).

But she was the golden girl of dressage and the UK's darling of the sport. Now the curtain is peeled back to reveal casual whipping of a horse's legs over 24 times, commenting how the whip "doesn't whip hard enough."

Methodical and not at all seeming angry or disregulated while the 15 year old on the panicked horse's back cries out. This is not a one off. It's a technique. I've seen it before. Instuctors that chase after "lazy" horses in riding schools with a whip so that the horse "doesn't get away with it."

What about horses getting chased around a round yard with a whip until rearing in panic and lathered up in sweat? I've seen that too, during an equine science program where we were supposed to be learning how to break in weanlings.

It just happens to be a Olympic gold medalist doing it and getting caught.

In the article it says "you can't force a 400-500kg animal to do something." You absolutely can and horses are regularly forced into things they don't want to do. They're flighty prey animals. They say "no" pretty clearly in competition rings but then the whip comes out, the spurs go on and the horse shuts down. Despite the blue tongues from lack of oxygen, mouths strapped shut with tight nosebands, bits that they can't escape from, froth and blood in their mouths, they continue. Because they have no choice.

When your training principle relies on negative reinforcement and positive punishment, escalation like this inevitably occurs. When your training principle is based in domiance, on "not letting them get away with it" and on "making them do it", this is where it goes. The horse's autonomy and feelings diminished into "naughty" or "just trying to be lazy" ... not fear or pain or just a simple struggle to do something they're not physically able to do.

And it becomes normalised, laughed off and accepted, especially when a gold medalist Olympian does it.

The only reason this is a scandal is because an elite rider got caught doing it. But this is not a one off or a "bad apple" this is what the entire traditional horse training model is based on.

The FEI is making a big show of this because they want to look tough on horse welfare so the Olympics doesn't throw out Equestrian sport. But just wait until the dressage kicks off. We will see the same tense, stressed out horses, toe flicking and hollow with hop-step piaffes that are an insult to the Classic masters of old.

The sport of dressage will crash and burn if it continues on its current trajectory. Equestrian sport will follow as a whole when the public realises these are not animals "enjoying their jobs". Unless the FEI allows for a huge paradigm shift where people can compete tackless and use positive reinforcement (actual +R and not the pathetic pat on the neck they pass off as +R), the sport will fall to ruin and the elites will have only themselves to blame.

[devotioncrater]

i'm thinking abt how stede and izzy are different versions of themselves when they're together vs when they're alone with ed.

stede with ed is soft-hearted, fails to communicate authoritatively. he doesn't taunt him or sass him. he rarely swears. he tells ed that ed wears fine things well. he doesn't listen to ed's advice when a strong impulse decision occurs (killing in cold blood).

stede with izzy is more comfortable in an authoritarian position. sassing izzy is a hobby for him. he swears at/with izzy and makes fun of izzy's horse peg leg. he listens to izzy when faced with a strong impulse decision (the cursed coat).

izzy with ed is hard-hearted. stuck in his own stressed-out ways. he doesn't provide ed with any positive affirmations/reinforcement. he isolates himself from the crew while serving under the role of First Mate. he pushes edward's buttons to illicit a reaction, like a kid who feels neglected.

izzy with stede is more relaxed, a lot calmer. he gives stede affirmations/positive reinforcement. he isn't First Mate, so he slowly integrates with the crew. he's changing and growing. he teases stede, but it's not malicious in intent like it is with ed because he doesn't need a reaction from stede.

they both idealize an image of ed in their head. they both don't fully understand who ed is and what ed wants because they're putting him on a pedestal, for better or worse. on some level to them, ed is still Blackbeard. they both hunger for ed's opinion in order to make themselves feel "worthy" or "good" enough. we see this pop up again and again. it's in everything izzy does until he's shot, and it's in everything stede does up until ed leaves him at the fisherman wharf.

and yet, somehow, stede doesn't idolize his perception of izzy, and vice versa. they see each other as regular people who have sharp teeth and gentle hands. they're dynamic is symbiotic like an anemone and a clownfish are symbiotic. stede provides something izzy needs (positive attention) while izzy provides something stede needs (feeling capable/training to become capable)

[brujahinaskirt]

Just some lil' thangs you might not notice about the level of detail RDR2 puts into Arthur's interactions with horses if you aren't personally experienced with horses:

[Sorry if this has been done! I couldn't find a post like it in recent tumblr history, and hope I can at least add some thoughts that haven't been analyzed to death already!]

(First, a note about me: I was raised on a quarter horse ranch and trained by a cadre of old-school cowboys in the Western tradition. Some of them were excellent teachers and some of them were crabby-faced bastards who thought "horsemanship" = engaging in a constant war with your horse... which gives me a little insight into positive and negative horsemanship styles on display in RDR2.)

(Second, thanks to fellow horsegirl @mangocats for helping me compile this list!)

(Third, a simple note to say that although I playfully use the term "horsegirl" in this post, the notes here apply to any gender. Same goes for the use of terms like "horsemen," which is not commonly used in the Western equestrian world to indicate a rider's real gender.)

Now, without further ado:

Press X to Calm. Arthur uses a tried-and-true low-stress, gradual escalation method of approaching and calming a spooked horse that begins with establishing physical contact with one hand and slowly increasing contact until the horse is fully calm and is once more amenable to human direction & commands. This is usually a preferable method to getting a frightened horse under control imo, but it's a "soft hand" method, and not something you always see in machismo-loaded equestrian circles. I've written about this a little in another meta post, so I won't get too deeply into it here.

Overall Horsemanship Style. You'll notice that while he does occasionally drive them hard in emergencies such as escaping the law or chasing a train, Arthur never "forces" his horses to comply with commands; in other words, he doesn't use his strength to try and bully a horse into doing something, like crossing a river, or physically punish a horse to "desensitize" it. "Forcing" horses to do things using tack designed to create discomfort or using raw bodily intimidation + fear & pain-motivated negative reinforcement is a tragically common tradition in old-school Western riding (and still advocated by some popular TV equestrians whom I think are straight-up animal abusers... if you know you know). It's dismal, but for a lot of the cowboys I know/knew, when a horse isn't obeying, you need to "show it who's boss." Arthur never approaches animals this way. By contrast, especially for the time period, he is exceedingly patient with horses and animals in general. We can even see this in his dialogue to wild horses; when they gradually calm down after the initial "breaking in" process, Arthur usually says something companionable like, "See, we're friends now."

And a sub-point on that: Horsemanship Temperament. Arthur never gets mad at or yells at his horse. Even when he gets chucked to the ground, he'll yell DAMN, THAT HURT, and then it's back to trying to calm the spooked horse. Which is exactly the right attitude to have. (Though if you've never been hurled face-first into a pile of sun-baked manure because your horse saw, idk, a twig on the road, you might not appreciate how even-tempered a character Arthur is for never succumbing to the temptation to yell, "COME ONNNN GIVE ME A BREAK IT'S A STICK YOU SILLY BITCH!")

Horse responsiveness. The horse emotional cues in this game are incredible, from their reactions to other animals and weather events to their reactions to Arthur. You can see the horse's neck muscles tense and relax when being calmed, their eyes changing in size, their head drop and raise in response to the reins, and their annoyance seeping through with stomps and pinned ears well before they start to spook. When Arthur speaks to his horses, you can even see a subtle ear flick backwards as they listen to him. When he gives certain commands (such as a mild squeeze of the knees to speed up a bit), a calm and attentive horse will often issue an affirmative snort; this is incredibly lifelike and essentially a "roger roger" between horse and rider. I was also impressed that Arthur uses his thighs and his knees to cue his horse more than his heels. Usually you just see the dramatic heel cues in in video games, but in real life, a rider gently but firmly squeezes their knees/thighs far more often than laying into their horse with boot heels, which is a fabulous way to get sent to the moon. One thing I would have liked to see is more riderless idle horse animations. Lazy or bored horses do a very classic pose where they rest their weight on one side, cock a hip out, and jauntily kick a back hoof up. It would have been right at home at the hitching posts in RDR2, and the horses are otherwise so lifelike, I find myself missing this little pose.

Historical bits. As players, we don't have much choice with this, since Rockstar matched bits to saddles rather than letting us customize them. With that disclaimer out of the way: Arthur uses a wide range of bits, some of them much harsher than others, designed to offer more control over a difficult horse's head through pressure points within the mouth. This is historically sound and far from obsolete in modern horsemanship, though I would certainly avoid using some of the harsher bits in RDR2 on my horses to avoid hurting them accidentally. That said, it's important to note that "harsh" control bits (like those wickedly straight-shanked bits you see with some of the cooler saddle styles) aren't instantly or automatically painful. While many of us modern horsegirls may frown upon the just-for-the-hell-of-it use of many styles of old-school, Wild West bit, in the hands of an experienced horseman with a good sense of appropriate rein pressure (which we can assume Arthur is), even a curb bit should not be a tool of pain. In the hands of a novice, however, some of those bits would absolutely hurt a poor horse's mouth and are typically reserved for troublesome (potentially dangerous) animals who may need to be curtailed quickly. I'm assuming Rockstar chose them for style more than characterization... but I do wince when I see those hard stops with the straight shanks, every time.

Horsetalk. We all know Arthur baby talks horses, and that his babble to his horse increases in affection with bonding level and varies a little depending on the horse's sex. But he also does something peculiar and frankly delightful with his vocal modulation on certain horse chatter lines. In those moments where he seems to go a little vibrato, warbling his voice as he talks ("waiaiaiaiaiaiaiat! come bahahahahack!" he calls after a fleeing mustang), Arthur is actually mimicking calming/positive horse sounds (usually a friendly nicker or a greeting whinny) in an attempt to communicate in horse language. While I think a TON of horsegirls have secretly nickered at our horses when no one else is around the stable, making horse noises at your horse is not a "traditional" training technique, and imo is something other gang members would definitely make fun of him for. It is also very adorable. I wanted to add that while horses are excellent at noise commands (like whistles, clucks, kisses, etc.), they usually aren't very good at identifying spoken word commands, including their own names. Therefore, the majority of the talking Arthur does to his horse is just free companionable chatter, much like we babble to our house pets. The command is in the cluck, the leg pressure, the yah, the rein slap; it's not the spoken, "Come on, girl, here we go!" That's just Arthur being a horsegirl.

Saddle checks. If you pay close attention, in cutscenes and in the map, Arthur will occasionally reach down and test various pieces of his saddle. This is particularly true with checking the cinches (those big straps that loop behind the front legs and under the belly), which good riders often do, as saddles can adjust during a ride. Straps that are too tight or too loose will cause a horse discomfort, since they change the way the saddle rests upon them and distributes the rider's weight. You can even watch the saddle shift when Arthur mounts and dismounts, reflecting the changed distribution in weight! This honestly floored me the first time I saw it. Rockstar really consulted people who know their stuff.

Bad Habits. IMO, Arthur's a little slouch-backed in the saddle. This is noticeably worse if he's hungry or sleepy, but even well-fed and rested, his shoulders drop and curve out his spine more than is ideal. This won't hurt his horse, but it will come back to bite him directly in the lower back as he ages, and I argue it's probably biting him in the ass a little now. (More on that below.) Arthur's "behind the horse" etiquette isn't particularly lifelike. In RDR2 (as in life), sometimes idling or benignly messing around behind a horse will cause them to randomly kick, and any equestrian knows not to hang out aimlessly in the kick zone. IRL, if you're about to walk close behind a horse, it's good etiquette to reach out and gently lay a hand on a horse's hip to let them know you're going to pass behind them before you step into the kick zone. I would have liked to see an animation for this, but I'd guess this would have been a real pain to animate without "locking" Arthur in place (as with the petting and brushing animations), so I can't really count this against him in good conscience. He also holds his reins in a full fist rather than between the appropriate fingers. This is a novice mistake, but I'm guessing this is an animation choice more than a characterization one, because I can't imagine getting those wobbly rein physics to rest perfectly between a model's wee little fingers. Which brings us to...

Reins. Arthur keeps a pretty tight (though not oppressive) grip on the reins when he has a horse in motion, facilitating quick communication from rider to horse and increased emotional response from the horse, and he tends to use both reins when he isn't holding something else. This increases control and often allows for clearer communication between horse and rider in comparison to the laxer "rein knot" one-handed Western style. More on that point: Arthur sometimes holds the reins in one hand. This is not lazy horsemanship, but rather a mainstay of the Western riding tradition; holding the reins in one hand allows for a rider to keep one hand free for whatever they might need... usually rope/weapons. Using two hands, one rein in each, does deliver much more refined control (especially with a nervous or inexperienced horse), which is why you often see Arthur switch between one- and two-handed riding. Rockstar also makes the clever choice to make reins “stretchy” so they move with the neck and simulate rider give and restraint, rather than having them just flop around at a static length. This makes reining feel a lot more dynamic and responsive, in my opinion.

Bareback vs. Saddle: To Rockstar's credit, riders' carriage when bareback is entirely different from the saddle carriage animations, and displays a lower center of gravity.

This note is a bummer, but it is, I feel, an important one to know. Arthur is WAY TOO BIG to ride a significant number of horses in the game. Horses are not bikes or cars. In real life, it's extremely important to consider a rider's weight and height and general carriage when matching them with a horse, especially for long-distance rides... and unfortunately, Arthur is prohibitively huge. If I saw a man Arthur's size astride that teeny little Morgan, boots tips damn near dragging, I'd give him a piece of my damn mind. That said, it's just a video game, so if you love that white Arabian or that sweet little Morgan, ride without shame; you are not hurting a pixel horse! But if you're into max realism or a horse an experienced rider like Arthur might conceivably choose for himself, go for something larger, leggier, and stronger. Though Rockstar fictionalized their breeds a little bit, I think one of their taller well-balanced styles like the Dutch warmblood, standardbred, Hungarian, Andalusian, or even one of those svelte Americanized Belgians suits Arthur much more comfortably. Online's Kladruber would also be an excellent choice for Arthur. (Ain't nobody saying SHIT to Arthur Morgan on a heavy breed like a Shire, though they aren't well suited for everyday long-distance all-terrain riding, and I feel sympathy pains about that leg spread just thinking about it. Speaking of...)

Real talk about Arthur's "swagger": Though I'm 100% sure it's a dominance thing for some crusty ol' cowboys, most equestrians don't saunter around Like That TM because they are listening to Rod Stewart croon If You Want My Body And You Think I'm Sexy at all times. That "swagger" is just... well... to be blunt, it's sort of what happens to your gait after you spend all day with your legs straddling a big animal moving on rough terrain. Hang out with some adults who have ridden horses daily since they were wee beans and they'll tell you allllll about what it can do to your posture. Contrary to cowboy jokes, it's not so much about being bowlegged (which is massively exaggerated as it pertains to horseback riding) as it is about lowering one's center of gravity to compensate for things like muscle strain, spinal compression, and lower back pain. Due to the high impact nature of riding, many career horsepeople develop chronic back problems and "swaggers," and for some it's eventually more comfortable to ride than to walk. Not saying you can't hc an Arthur who struts his stuff, of course! Just saying that, for those of you who might struggle to reconcile Arthur's blisteringly low self-esteem in his physical appearance with his "swagger," here's a horse world answer.

Knights Templar'ing it. This is another bummer for a ton of cute fanfic scenes, but riding two-to-a saddle is really not good for a horse. It's not just about raw weight, but about the distribution of that weight and where the pressure rests on a horse's back/organs. A bean like Little Jack sitting right in Arthur's lap isn't going to add too much stress to a horse big enough to carry a tanky dude like Arthur comfortably, but a whole second adult sitting behind a saddle is a very different story. Imagine the difference between carrying someone piggyback versus having someone stand on your spine! It's all about the position. Larger breeds can tolerate riding double for a while, but it should not be done for long distances, and it definitely should not be done if a rider expects to need heavy exertion from the horse. Adults riding double doesn't happen too often in RDR2 (usually just during an emergency), so this isn't a critique of Rockstar or Arthur; it's more so a helpful realism note for fanworks. An experienced horsegirl like Arthur is sure not to ride double casually. Pro-tip: If you want someone to teach your (non-bean-sized) OC how to ride a horse, consider having the teacher controlling the horse from the ground via a lead/lunge line while your OC sits in the saddle.

Oof, that smarts... When Arthur picks up hay bales with short sleeves on/bare hands, he makes a soundless "OOF OOOH EEEE OUCH" face. The first time I saw this, I absolutely lost it with glee. Anyone who has moved hay (or straw; they're different!) with bare arms knows how prickly and scratchy and itchy it is, and it's loving little touches like this that make RDR2's horses feel so darn real.

That's all I can think of for now! I hope this list was at least somewhat helpful, even if it's far from an all-encompassing resource on horsey stuff in RDR2. Happy riding, meatverse horsegirls & virtual horsegirls, and remember to always thank your horse :)

[horsesarecreatures]

Last Sunday a 19 year old girl from Germany named Franka came to try Amba. It was, in my opinion, a dream combination. I rarely get to see other equestrians ride Amba, and it was really nice to see how well she listened and how good she looked with an experienced rider on her. Franka used to have her own horse that she rescued, but had to sell her when she moved to the U.S. She practices bridleless riding, positive reinforcement, liberty, and groundwork, and was able to read Amba very well. She said she loved Amba and thought she was really well trained, but she is trying other horses this week that are closer to where she lives. I doubt those horses are free though, and once again I really hope she picks Amba. It's a good match and also I'm just getting tired of trying to find someone.