Training Young Riders
The AEBC runs a range of clinics and camps available for 6 to 17 year olds. Our Pony camps, Junior and Young Rider clinics are unique. We teach the basic principles of training psychology to all ages, progressively increasing the complexity of theory and practice with age-group. The ease with which the young people learn and apply their knowledge to all areas of training is remarkable when it is uncluttered by traditional dogma and folklore.
Our young students are taught to interpret behaviour problems as conflict behaviours (unless caused by health or gear) that have resulted from training confusions. We teach the young ones 'first principles' - to understand how horses acquire their trained responses and thus how to understand why training goes wrong and how to correct these errors.
Our young students are taught in groups of similar standards and with friends in a fun and intellectually engaging atmosphere. The problems they have with their horses and ponies are addressed and they are instructed how to train the required responses. If necessary, the instructor will ride the horse or pony to hasten its training. Our motto is, "a quiet horse is not always obedient, but an obedient horse is always quiet". They learn groundwork skills, dressage, showjumping, cross country, bareback, balance skills and hear lectures on aspects of evolution, ethology, cognition, horse psychology and horsemanship.
Our young ones rapidly learn things such as what motivates and reinforces a particular behaviour. They learn the priorities of how horses learn the various aids through operant and classical conditioning. Unsurprisingly, our young students tend to stay with us, yet in between clinics they maintain regular lessons with their own instructors. Lasting friendships are built during our clinics.
At the end of each pony camp or clinic, there is a fun Q&A session where they describe solutions for problems such as rushing at jumps, float loading issues, horses that refuse at water, horses that are tense in dressage, aggression, etc. At the summer camps, children are taught how to use 'secondary reinforcers' (Clicker training) to hasten learning and teach various tricks.
Many of our young ones have progressed through Pony camp and Junior clinic to Young rider and Adult clinics and many have gone on to become highly successful competitors, including representing the State and in some cases, Australia. There are also many young students who do not wish or are unable to compete, for reasons of schooling or distance etc, but want to train their horses in the most effective and humane way. But all of them remark that wherever they go, the understanding and skills they gained from the AEBC were invaluable.