_edited.jpg)
Beginner's Guide to Clicker Training Horses
- Melissa Murphy
- Mar 17
- 14 min read
Clicker training is often associated with dogs and marine mammals, but in reality, it’s a powerful tool for training all kinds of animals— including horses. As the equestrian world embraces gentler, more positive training methods, clicker training is gradually gaining popularity.
However, with professional trainers still far and few between, the method remains inaccessible for many. If you're curious about clicker training but unsure where to begin, keep reading to discover what it is, why it's effective, and how you can get started with your horse!
Operant Conditioning: A Basic Overview
Every trainer relies on operant conditioning to shape behavior— encouraging desirable actions while discouraging unwanted ones. This is done using the four quadrants: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
Punishment is an action taken to DECREASE a behavior (e.g. bucking, biting, bolting, or anything we don’t want our horses to do).
Positive Punishment refers to the addition of an aversive stimulus (such as a slap or pull on the lead rope).
Negative Punishment refers to the subtraction of something pleasurable (removing yourself and your treat bag from a horse who misbehaves).
Trainers should always strive to avoid punishment.
Reinforcement refers to an action that INCREASES a desirable behavior (e.g. standing quietly on the crossties, touching a target, or anything else we want our horses to do).
Positive Reinforcement refers to the addition of something pleasant (scratches or treats).
Negative Reinforcement refers to the subtraction of something aversive (ceasing the tapping of a whip or releasing pressure on a lead rope).
Negative reinforcement may sound familiar, as it is the basis for natural horsemanship. Pressure is applied (either with hands, legs, whips, or ropes) and released when the horse offers the correct response.
Clicker training, on the other hand, is a form of positive reinforcement where the horse is given something desirable (most often treats). Positive reinforcement teaches the horse that they will receive something they want for performing certain behaviors, thus making them more likely to perform those behaviors in the future.
This means that positive reinforcement (also called R+) can be used to teach your horse a wide variety of behaviors as long as you are rewarding them consistently with something your horse enjoys.
Why the Clicker?
Positive reinforcement sounds easy enough: just give your horse a treat when they do something you want, and they will perform that response more often, right? Well, this basic formula leaves a lot of room for error.
Imagine you are teaching your horse to stand still on the cross ties. They dance around and paw at the ground, so you start by rewarding them for just a second of standing still. You notice your horse stop moving, so you reach into your treat pouch and hand them a treat. However, in the couple of seconds it took to procure the treat your horse might have cocked an ear to the side, lifted their head to see some horses moving outside the door, or lifted their leg to begin pawing again. Now, there is no way for the horse to know which one earned them the snack.
Therefore, we need a signal that can bridge the time between the correct response and the time it takes to pop a treat in their mouth. Fittingly, this is called a bridge signal, and a clicker makes a uniquely effective one.
The bridge signal (also called a marker signal) works by becoming a secondary reinforcer through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning involves repeatedly pairing a previously neutral stimulus (called the conditioned stimulus or CS) and a stimulus that already elicits an innate response (called the unconditioned stimulus or US).
Think Pavlov’s dogs. After repeatedly pairing a bell (the CS) with food (the US), the dogs started salivating whenever the bell rang, even if food wasn’t present.
When clicker training, the clicker will serve as Pavlov’s bell, and after being repeatedly paired with food in a process called loading the clicker (more on that later), the horse will experience the positive emotions associated with getting a treat whenever they hear the sound of the clicker.
Now you can use the clicker to mark certain behaviors, and your horse will understand what you are rewarding even if it takes a few seconds to deliver the treat. For instance, when you see your horse stand on the cross ties, you can click the clicker. They will experience a flood of positive emotions that will become associated with standing still, and you’ll have the time to hand out a treat.
Once loaded, the clicker becomes a powerful tool for communication between horse and trainer, as you can mark specific approximations of a behavior instantly, helping your horse understand exactly what you want.
Before Getting Started Clicker Training Horses
Even though clicker training sounds easy enough, there is a lot of care, planning, and precision that goes into successfully using positive reinforcement with your horse. A clicker in the hands of a sloppy trainer can easily make the horse more frustrated and anxious. Researching clicker training, gathering the right tools, and having a clear plan before getting started will help set your horse up for success.
What You'll Need
The tools needed to start clicker training horses are easy and cheap to acquire. All you need to get started are:
A clicker (or any other distinct sound or word you plan on using)
A treat bag (a waist bag works great)
Treats (and lots of them!)
A feed pan or bucket for your horse to eat out of
A target (anything your horse can touch- cones, whips, sticks with tennis balls on the end are options)
An enclosed space with a gate (stall, paddock, arena, etc.)
Protected Contact
Even if your horse is already familiar with human interaction, it’s best to start clicker training in protected contact for the first few sessions. Positive reinforcement can be highly motivating, and even horses that are used to hand-feeding may become more excited than expected when training with food rewards.
Protected contact means having a safe barrier between you and your horse while still allowing interaction. This could be standing outside their stall with a stall guard, working over a gate, or using a fence in an arena or paddock. The barrier helps prevent frustration, anxiety, or potential aggression.
With a divider in place, any excitement or frustration won’t escalate into unsafe behavior, as either you or your horse can step away when needed. Once your horse can stay out of your space, touch a target, and remain calm around food, you can remove the barrier. If at any point your horse becomes overexcited or pushy, you can always return to protected contact as needed.
Loading the Clicker
Once you have everything you need to get started, it is time to begin loading the clicker. Loading the clicker is the process where you classically condition the sound to elicit anticipation for food. Even though the process of loading the clicker is simple, positive reinforcement can start going wrong here if you don't emphasize calm, relaxed behaviors around food.
Start with your horse in protected contact and put a feed pan or bucket on the ground. Even if your horse can take food by hand, I still recommend starting with a bucket to prevent nippiness as the initial groundwork and manners are set.
Typically, your first clicker loading session will look like this:
Step 1: Familiarize Your Horse With the Environment
Start by throwing some treats into your horse's feed pan. Once they are finished and lift their head, throw in some more. This helps your horse learn that they can find food in the bucket. Repeat a few times until your horse knows to look in the bucket when they hear you throw in some treats.
Step 2: Add the Clicker
Now you can start pairing the food delivery with the clicker. Click the clicker just before throwing a small handful of food into the bucket. Before your horse lifts their head out of the bucket, click and give them more food. This will show them that food is not a finite resource and encourage them to stay calm.
Step 3: Build Duration Between Clicks
After multiple repetitions of Step 2, you can start clicking and rewarding when the horse lifts their head from the bucket. Start small and click the second their nose reaches the rim.
Step 4: Practice Maintaining Calm
Over the next several sessions, slowly increase the amount your horse lifts their head before clicking and rewarding. If at any time your horse gets impatient or pushy, wait or step away if you have to until they calm down, then immediately resume the process at an easier approximation.
Aim for about 20-30 repetitions over a 5-10 minute session. Don’t overdo it, and keep your sessions short in the beginning. If you have time, you can come back a few hours later for a second session. Slowly work through Steps 2-4 several times over a few days.
Step 5: Check the Strength of the Association
After several sessions spanning multiple days, you can test the strength of your conditioning. Click the clicker and observe your horse:
If they act excited in anticipation of a reward (a raised head, wiggling lip, searching their food bucket, or nicker are indications of anticipation), you have successfully made an association.
If your horse appears not to notice the clicker, you will need to continue the loading process.
Keep in mind that all horses are individuals and will have differing reactions to getting food. Some may act noticeably excited for a treat, while others might be more subdued.
Loading the clicker is a simple process, and with consistency, most horses catch on within just a few sessions. Depending on your horse and the number of sessions you do, it may take only a day or two before you can start marking behaviors. However, to keep the association strong, it’s always a good idea to spend the first few minutes of each training session re-loading the clicker.
Avoiding Pushy Behaviors
One of the main misconceptions about positive reinforcement is that it creates cookie monsters. That’s because many people have experienced horses that became spoiled by too many treats and are now pushy and aggressive in their search for more. With a correct procedure that emphasizes relaxation and manners, you can avoid pushy or mouthy behaviors.
Choose the Right Reinforcer
When training with positive reinforcement, you want to use the lowest value reinforcer needed to get the horse to perform, with a few high-value rewards sprinkled in for extra good work.
Starting with horse cookies loaded with sugar is bound to overexcite your horse and make it harder for them to focus on the task because they are distracted by how good the treat was! In general, Timothy or Alfalfa pellets make a good reward.
Start in Protected Contact
The last thing you want is to have to defend yourself if your horse gets pushy. That’s why I recommend always starting in protected contact. That way, you can easily step back and avoid confrontation if your horse gets overexcited or starts searching you for food.
Emphasize Calm
It can be fun to watch our horses get excited and run around. However, when clicker training, you always want to emphasize and reward your horse when they are calm. Just like the sound of the clicker, emotional states can become classically conditioned, so if you always let your horse get overexcited when training, they will come to associate you, their training environment, food, and the clicker with an overaroused mental state, making it harder to train calm later on.
Be Conscious About How You Feed
When offering your horse a treat, bring your hand directly to their mouth so they take the food with their head straight, rather than turning toward you. This teaches them that they don’t need to reach for a treat every time they hear the click.
Keep your hand steady, and don’t pull it away until they’ve finished eating. If they feel like the food might be taken away before they're done, they could become anxious, which can lead to biting.
Train Manners
Your horse only knows what you teach them. Therefore, you will need to teach them how you want them to respond around food. Never reward your horse when they search you for food, get in your space, or nip at you. Early in your horse’s clicker training journey, you should train a neutral default (covered later on).
Ending Sessions: Avoiding Accidental Punishment
Remember our review of operant conditioning? Negative punishment refers to the removal of a pleasant stimulus that leads to a decrease in responding. That means if you abruptly leave your horse, you can inadvertently be negatively punishing them for whatever you ended their session on (which tends to be their best approximation of a behavior). That’s because when you walk away, your horse loses access to food and their ability to work for it (which is highly reinforcing for them).
Leaving your horse with food is the best way to avoid accidental punishment at the end of a session. If you are using grass pellets, put a couple of large handfuls in a feed pan or give them access to hay or pasture. This way, they can eat for a few minutes after you leave and not come to associate the end of a session with the removal of food.
Training Basic Behaviors
Now that your clicker has been loaded, the fun part can begin. At this stage, it can be easy to get carried away trying to teach your horse new things. However, it is important to keep sessions short and start with simple behaviors to prevent frustration.
Even though there are many different behaviors you can teach first, targeting, neutral default, and backing are where I start with my horses.
Targeting
Targeting is one of the easiest ways to introduce your horse to clicker training. It involves teaching your horse to touch a target—such as a whip, cone, flag, or a stick with a ball on the end. Once your horse understands the concept, you can build on it by having them follow the target or touch it with different parts of their body. Targeting makes it easy to position your horse or get them moving in a force-free way.
To teach your horse to touch a target…
Step 1: Choose Your Target
Your target can be any object that’s easy for your horse to touch. Cones, whips, trailer hitch alignment guides, and flags all work well. You can also find specialized horse training targets online. If you plan to use targeting for movement-based exercises like running or jumping, choose something lightweight and easy to carry.
Step 2: Offer the Target
Touching the target is a response that will need to be shaped over time. Start by presenting the target and rewarding the smallest attempt to engage with it.
If your horse is naturally curious, they might sniff or investigate the target right away—click and reward when they move their nose close to it.
If your horse is unsure, begin by rewarding them for looking at the target, then progress to rewarding closer interactions.
Step 3: Reward Successive Approximations
Over several sessions, you can slowly guide your horse toward making contact with the target.
First, click and reward for looking at the target.
Then, start clicking only when they move their head toward it.
Gradually withhold the reward until they bring their nose even closer, until eventually, they make contact.
When they finally touch the target, give a big reward and stop reinforcing attempts that don’t involve actual contact.
Step 4: Practice Targeting Different Positions
Once your horse confidently touches the target, build on the behavior by varying the position:
Hold the target in front, above, to the side, and below them.
Move it forward and have them take a step towards it.
Continue rewarding every time they make contact.
By practicing in different positions, you help your horse understand that the goal is always the same—touch the target—no matter where it is.
Neutral Default
The neutral default is one of the most important behaviors you can teach your horse. A neutral default is a calm, relaxed position your horse will naturally return to whenever they aren’t being cued to do something else.
In neutral default your horse should…
Be calm and alert but not looking for food
Have all four feet on the ground
Hold their head out straight in front of them
Clicker training can be exciting for horses, and without a neutral default, they may become restless or pushy searching for their next reward. Establishing this behavior early in training helps prevent frustration, overexcitement, and food-seeking behaviors.
To teach the neutral default start by…
Step 1: Reward the Moment They Assume the Position
The neutral default must be shaped gradually. Your goal is to capture the correct posture and reinforce it immediately.
Stand next to your horse, relaxed but attentive, with your clicker ready.
Watch for any moment when your horse naturally faces forward with their head straight.
The second they do, click and reward.
At first, you may only get fleeting moments of the correct posture, but with repetition, your horse will begin offering it more consistently.
Step 2: Build Duration
Once your horse understands the basic position, begin gradually increasing the time they hold it before clicking.
Instead of clicking instantly, wait one second before rewarding.
Repeat several times, ensuring they remain relaxed.
Slowly extend the duration— first to two seconds, then three, and so on.
Building up to several minutes of neutral default takes time, so be patient. If your horse gets frustrated or fidgety, go back to a shorter duration and rebuild slowly.
Step 3: Add Distractions
Eventually, you’ll want your horse to stand calmly while you do other tasks— like setting up the arena, checking your phone, or having a conversation. However, they may become restless if they have to stand without getting reinforced.
Once your horse can stand quietly for 30 seconds, start introducing distractions.
Pretend to talk to someone, glance at your phone, or move an object nearby.
Click and reward as soon as your horse remains in the neutral default despite the distraction.
Gradually increase the difficulty until your horse can stay calm and relaxed for over a minute, even when you’re not directly engaged with them.
Step 4: Practice Often
For the neutral default to become second nature, it must be reinforced often.
Start each session by rewarding your horse for standing calmly.
Don’t always wait for their longest duration— sometimes, reward after just a few seconds to keep the behavior strong.
Make neutral default a habit, so your horse naturally returns to it whenever they aren’t being cued for another behavior.
By consistently reinforcing this calm, patient stance, your horse will learn to relax and focus between cues—leading to smoother, frustration-free training sessions.
Back Up
Before leaving protected contact, it is important to have a way to get your horse out of your space if needed. That is why I like to teach the back up early in a horse’s training so I can always get them away from me.
To teach your horse to back up…
Step 1: Get an Initial Shift Back
At first, reward even the smallest movement backward. Different horses respond to different cues, so experiment with these gentle methods to encourage a shift back:
Some horses naturally follow if you stand at their shoulder facing the same direction and take a step back.
Or you can face them and lift your hands and take a small step toward them to encourage a back up.
If your horse is target trained, you can guide them backward with it.
Whichever method you choose, avoid using force or escalating pressure. The goal is for your horse to move back willingly with just light encouragement. The moment they shift backward, click and reward. After a few repetitions, wait until they take a full step before rewarding.
Step 2: Build Up More Steps
Once your horse consistently responds with a single step, gradually increase the number of steps.
Add steps one step at a time
Build up over multiple sessions to keep them engaged and motivated.
Once they can take several steps back, vary the number of steps they need to take before earning a reward. This prevents them from anticipating a set pattern and ensures they remain responsive to your cues.
Step 3: Add a Cue
If you haven’t already added a verbal or physical cue, now is the time. Choose a clear, consistent signal—this could be a word like "back", a hand motion, or both.
Every time you ask for a back up, pair it with your chosen cue.
Gradually fade out any extra encouragement (such as stepping toward them or using a target).
When first adding the cue, go back to rewarding a single step, then build up again.
Step 4: Generalize and Refine the Back up
If you want your horse to back up whether you’re 2 feet or 20 away, whether you are standing in front of them or off to the side, you will have to train it. Once you have a solid backup:
Ask your horse to back from different positions— stand in front, beside, and from further away.
Add distractions by training in different environments and around new stimuli.
Slowly refine the behavior until your horse can back up as many steps as you want, regardless of the environment.
With consistency and patience, your horse will learn to back up smoothly and reliably—making training safer, more effective, and more enjoyable for both of you.
Now that you’ve mastered the basics of clicker training, you’re ready to build a true partnership with your horse—one based on communication and a shared excitement to learn.
Comments