I Guarantee it!

Lately I have been meeting some really interesting people in life. Not so much that they're interesting in a good way, like they do things I'm genuinely curious about or interested in, but interesting in a sense that just when you think you've heard it all....  Which of course always makes for good blog fodder, so that's a plus. Lol

There was a couple at the barn who bouht a 3 year old stud colt. The horse was cute enough, but the back story didn't make much sense. Also the fact that these people are newbies to the horse world, means they were and are prime targets to be taken advantage of, which we all know happens far too much.

Speaking to them one night about their horse, (which they did geld upon getting him home so Kudos for that!) I was given the hostory on the horse. He was saved from the kill pen. Okay I get it, he was a rescue. But obviously the auction house doesn't care who buys the horses they run thru, just that they are paid for, preferably before the end of the night. But that's when the details went a bit sideways. They traveled almost to San Antonio (about 3 hours away) to pick up the horse. They chased him around for nearly 3-4 hours because he was turned out on 160 acres. Whaaaaat????  Personally I have never heard of a kill pen facility that turns horses out on that much acreage.

Then there was the matter of having the horse trained. They had one of the guys at the barn saddle the gelding up one night and he really went to bucking as he ran around the round pen.  I don't know if anyone got on him afterwards, but if they did, it was most likely they ran the hell out of him and wore him out before they got on. Then the guy said he had found a trainer up near Bryan, Texas that charged $XXX the first month, then a bit less the next month and a bit less from there on out, but after 3 months or so, he would have the horse not only doing the barrel pattern, but also kid safe- gauranteed!

I'm not sure how he took it when I said, "People like that scare me. There are NO guarantees in training horses. They each learn at their own pace and just because You want to do something with them, barrels, jumping, dressage, cutting.... doesn't mean the Horse wants to do that too. The only one thing that I can say IS guaranteed- You Will spend a lot of money."

They have since changed barns, so I don't know what happened with the horse or if they will send him off to the trainer with the guarantee or not. I can only imagine the first month costs the most since the horse would need work to get him into condition for riding besides correcting a few other issues he has. I wish them luck with the horse.

Do we laugh or cry?

Over all the years I have been with horses, I have to say that while the animals themselves do things that amaze me, it's the people around them that don't often thrill me. Some of them scare me, some puzzle me, I find myself shocked, amazed, appalled, disappointed, disgusted and sometimes I just shake my head because there are no words.

The other night I was on CL and found an ad for horse training. The photos showed a horse in work and all looked well enough that I clicked on it. What I found in the ad, well I'm not even sure what the hell it means.

The person claims to train "using mainly negative reinforcement." Then goes on to say they also use positive reinforcement, but also positive punishment and negative punishment.

Is that confusing enough? What the merry fluck? I can't imagine how the horses learn anything. Positive punishment? Is that when the horse is positively going to be punished?

Most people use positive reinforcement or rewarding good behaviour. When the horse does what we wanted them to- we praise them, pat them, tell them how good they are and let them know that This is what we wanted. This is how they learn what to do to please us.

Trying to figure out what the ad poster meant by negative reinforcement and negative punishement, I can only imagine the ways they make the horses life unpleasant for the moment. In doing this, do they feel proud of themselves?