Episode 302: Michaela Hempen and Carmen Heritier: Starting Young Horses Pt 1

Michaela Hempen has been a guest many times on this podcast. We began in Episode 27 with single-subject design and then Michaela introduced us to Blondie, the mare who was the subject of the research project she did on cribbing.

We’re returning to Blondie again in this conversation. Michaela will be contrasting her experience restarting Blondie under saddle with that of Malu, a three year old quarter horse mare. Malu belongs to Carmen, a dog trainer and now horse owner. She sent Malu to Michaela to get her started under saddle.

In this episode Carmen describes her own training background which includes an interest in canine fitness and balance. She introduces us to Malu and shares her reasons for choosing Michaela to help her get Malu started under saddle.

We talk about shaping with both positive and negative reinforcement, and the beginning lessons Michaela covered with Malu.