Any kind of training can be made robotic and unfeeling. You can take any training method and do steps A, B, & C in a unfeeling and clinical way and probably still have a "trained" horse, but most of us on this list want a special relationship. You could use school as an analogy. We can learn by rote, and neither us nor the teacher will enjoy the experience, but we'll get the job done, only learning what we're asked and we won't try any harder. Most of us can remember a special teacher though, that went the extra mile to engage us, help us with our individual learning styles, and make learning fun. We went above and beyond what was asked.
Don't let anyone fool you. ALL methods of horse training are technically Operant Conditioning. Pressure/release, food are all motivators. It's what we do as feeling beings and what we do to help our horses understand what we're asking them to do in the easiest way possible within the constraints of our teaching styles and abilities, and their learning styles, abilities, and personalities. It's also the things we do the rest of the time. A touch, a look, the things that let the horse know we care about them. I do think a gentle, slowly escalating pressure, giving the horse time to figure out what we're asking and immediate release works well but I must say that adding a well-timed click and reward can help a horse understand more quickly and will often cause the horse to seek out training. That said, I think many people are results oriented and you can take any of these training techniques and increase the pressure too rapidly trying to get to the end, enjoy the journey! Cherie
