🐘 What Elephants Teach Us About Trust—and What That Means for Our Horses

                           Elephants, Enrichment and the Power of Positive Reinforcement

I came across a fascinating study recently (thanks to Rachel Bedingfield 🙏) that beautifully supports something many of us have seen with our own horses:
When animals associate their experiences with something positive, they become more optimistic and resilient—even in uncertain situations.

Here’s what the researchers found:

🧠 Elephants used past experiences—and the emotional value of those experiences—to make decisions about ambiguous situations.

🐘 They showed a clear "positive bias":

• They approached an ambiguous positive cue 3x more often, and
• Responded to it twice as quickly compared to a cue associated with a negative experience.

In contrast, when the ambiguous cue was associated with something negative, they were slower and less likely to engage.

🐴 Why This Matters for Our Horses

This is the emotional groundwork of what we do every day with compassionate, positive reinforcement (R+).
When our horses feel safe, heard, and valued—they don’t just learn better…

✨ They feel better.
✨ They become more confident.
✨ They trust more deeply.

R+ works—and not just because it's effective. It’s kind.

📚 Curious to Read the Study?

You can check out the article here:
👉 Click to Read the Full Study

💬 Thoughts? Questions? Reflections?

I always love hearing from you. Just hit reply to this email and share what’s on your mind.

With warmth and curiosity,
Melissa