Let’s talk about something I know a lot of us feel: that pressure to train a certain way. You know the drill…hours at the stable/paddock, a full grooming session, tack-up, 30+ minutes of “proper” riding, then untacking, cooling down, and all the other bits. That’s what I grew up thinking horse “training” meant. If you didn’t spend at least a solid chunk of the day with your horse, was it even worth going out there?

Then came adulting.

When I moved my horse to agistment, suddenly “horse time” involved travel, planning around the weather (hello, wind, heat, rain, frost), juggling work, short winter daylight hours, and all the usual life stuff. And just when you start to carve out your own rhythm…bam!...someone kindly throws in a well-meaning “you should be doing X, Y, Z” and suddenly you feel like you’re not doing enough. Sound familiar?

But what if we flipped the script?

What if training could look totally different?

That’s where positive reinforcement (R+) training came in and changed everything for me. Coming from the dog world, I was already familiar with the concept of short, fun, focused sessions. Now, as part of a course I’m doing where we’re encouraged to keep all our training sessions to just 1–2 minutes at a time, for all species, a whole new world opened up for me.

Instead of squeezing in a big, “official” training session, I’m fitting in micro-sessions with my pony, Ninja (who, by the way, came to me with a very rough history and a big bucket of trust issues). And what a difference it’s making.

In the last couple of weeks, with maybe 1–3 short sessions a day (some days we don’t train at all!), we’ve worked on:

Oral medication

Hoof lifts

Recall (coming to her name)

Creating space at the gate

Walking together calmly - no barging, no rushing

Each of these sessions lasts no more than ten minutes total, and even that’s broken into 1–2 minute bursts with plenty of breaks for scratches (her absolute fave ). And here’s the kicker: she’s loving it.

Where she once avoided being caught, Ninja now meets me at the gate, usually with a good amount of nickering! She’s so into our sessions that she didn’t want to leave the training area! (Yes, we worked on that too, by making going back to the paddock just as reinforcing.)

This way of training fits beautifully into real life. I can do a quick session between rain showers (did I mention it’s finally raining?!), or in that weird 15 minutes before a Zoom call, or when I just want to go outside and have fun with my pony. No pressure. No guilt. Just connection, play, and progress.

So here’s your permission slip:

Yes, that counts as training!

That five minutes of connection? That one click-and-treat for a great try? That moment of softness and choice? That’s all training too. And it all matters.

Give it a go. Start small. Pick one thing you’d like to work on with your horse and see where it leads. We’d love to hear…what are you and your horse working on right now?

Let’s celebrate the small, joyful steps. Because they’re actually huge.

Written By Emma Lanera of the PPGA Equine Sub-Committee

Photo by Megan O'Hehir Pet Photography https://www.facebook.com/moh.petphotog