“A positive reinforcer is something the subject wants, such as food, petting, or praise.”

~Karen Pryor~  Don’t Shoot the Dog!

A positive reinforcement is one of the training methods at our disposal.  We can use this method to shape any kind of behavior in any animal.  It works very well with horses, especially with trick training.  Positive reinforcement encourages the behavior it is linked to, to continue.  

With trick training, we use the positive reinforcer to let the horse know when he did the right thing.  This encourages him to try that same thing again, which also gets rewarded.  The horse then starts to think that he has us trained.  If he does this one thing, he can get us to reward him.  This ends up being great fun for the trainer and the trainee. 

Often, when we train horses, we use food as the positive reinforcement.  Most horses love food and it is a good reward for them.  However, some horses might love a good scratch as their positive reinforcer.  Once horses get the idea, they often enthusiastically offer their reinforced behaviors, hoping to receive their treat. 

A reinforcer is used as close to the action as is possible.  However, it is not always possible to do this effectively.  So, we bring into use another tool called a bridge signal.  A bridge signal is any specific sound that allows the horse to understand the connection between the action we want and the reinforcement that comes later.  One example is using a clicker as the bridge signal.