What are start buttons and their benefits?
Giving the horse a tool such as a start button gives them the ability to say “yes” they are ready to accept whatever we are doing to them next or “no” they are not ready. Start buttons are all about giving your horse autonomy, which helps them feel empowered and builds confidence.
I love to incorporate start buttons in all of my training, as it builds a beautiful back-and-forth conversation between me and the horse. I’ll ask the horse if they would like to do something, they say yes or no. If they say yes, we continue. If they say no, we do not.
Teaching a start button behavior is beneficial for any horse, but is especially useful when we are helping a nervous horse work through a fear or preparing them for an unpleasant medical or maintenance procedure.
Some may think that the more choice we give our horses they will choose not to participate with us, but the opposite is true. If we give our horses the opportunity to say no, you will find that they will say yes, more often.
When the horse doesn't perform the start button:
Anytime your horse does not perform the start button behavior, it is your cue to not continue. It is incredibly important that we honor their ‘no’, as it helps them learn to trust that we listen to them and won’t make them do something they don’t want to do or aren’t comfortable with.
However, we then need to look back to figure out why they said no. That way we can make adjustments so they are more likely to say yes next time.
Is the criteria being increased too quickly? Is the horse having a hard time understanding the behavior? Is the horse feeling more anxious today? Is the horse experiencing any discomfort or pain?
To give a better visual of a start button in action:
-A horse that is fearful of fly spray.
The start button behavior is touching the fly spray bottle.
We hold out fly the spray bottle (asking horse if we can spray them) —> the horse touches the bottle (saying yes) —> we spray the horse with fly spray —> click and reinforce.
If the horse did not say yes by touching the fly spray bottle, we would not spray them.
-A horse that is afraid of being haltered.
The start button behavior is the horse putting their nose in the nose band.
We hold out the halter (asking if we can put the halter on them) —> horse puts their nose into the noseband (saying yes) —> we continue by putting the crown piece over their ears and clip the buckles —> click and reinforce.
If the horse wanted to say no, they would not put their nose into the noseband.
-Applying medicine to the horses eye.
The start button behavior is the horse putting their eye into our hand.
We hold out our raised, open hand (asking if we can put the medicine in the eye) —> the horse puts their eye into our hand (saying yes) —> we put the medicine in their eye with our other hand —> click and reinforce.
The horse saying no would be them not putting their eye into our hand.
-A horse that is fearful of getting shots
The start button behavior is the horse touching a target hanging on a fence.
We present or cue the horse to touch the target (asking if we can give the shot) —> the horse touches the target (saying yes) —> we wipe the area, tent the skin, and give the shot —> click and reinforce.
The horse saying no would be them not touching the target.
More possible examples of start button behaviors:
steping onto a mat for hoof handling
puting ear into hand for ear care/treatment
touching blanket for it to be put on
touching saddle for it to be put on
horse putting head into fly mask
touching a target for grooming
touching a target for sheath cleaning
And so many more!
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