No. Of course, you can use Positive Reinforcement (R+) with traditional tack and aids. Via Nova’s Priority to Positive goal is to use standard riding equipment and aids for safety and to cue behavior—but not as a means to force behavior. The crucial difference is how these cues are trained and the horse’s motivation for responding to them.

People often associate Positive Reinforcement with clicker training — it is and isn’t.

The clicker is a marker that marks the behavior you want to reward, but a marker doesn’t need to be a clicker; it can be anything that’s consistent and distinct enough for the horse to recognize.

At Via Nova, we often use the letter “T” as a verbal marker, but it could be a whistle, a unique cluck — or while riding, a touch on the withers. You can choose what marker you want to use as long as it’s consistent and conditioned correctly.

As we all know, horses love food. By shaping behavior with markers, food rewards, and clear cues, they can associate their correct behavior with the reward — creating better communication and speeding up the learning and training process.

With less confusion, they’re more likely to perform behaviors that they might have resisted in traditional training. Positive Reinforcement can yield quick results once foundational behaviors are established. Like any type of training, the success and time it takes depends on both the trainer’s execution and the individual horse.

This is an important point. Positive Reinforcement doesn’t mean giving your horse treats in response to unwanted, pushy behavior. The first lesson we teach when we start training with Positive Reinforcement is “Manners.” The horses learn right away how to behave around food to receive their reward, and we emphasize that lesson for a lifetime.

In our PtP program, we also teach you the mechanical skills of how to handle the treats to discourage pushiness.