S3 E6: How learning with horses can teach young people key life skills - with Bex Tasker

From the age of about 10-11 years old, it was my dream to have my own children’s riding school. I started instructing at 16 and taught a lot of young people. Initially at riding schools & then at Pony Club where I often taught the youngest members, the more junior groups.In my mid-to-late 20’s, I’d had enough of teaching young people, of dealing with their parents and so I chose to focus on working with adults.I didn’t realise at that time, that part of the reason I’d had enough was because of the more conventional way I was having to teach people & that this just didn’t sit right with me. At that time, I didn’t know of or see another way. I wasn’t aware of alternative options.Fast forward to a few years ago, and my initial dream started to re-kindle in a fashion, with sparks, ignited by the work of people like the lovely Bex Tasker from Positively Together in NZ. I started to see a handful of people around the work, having learning adventures with young people that looked absolutely amazing.This, their approach, different from that conventional way, really got me & I started to have hope that my initial dream, could, in some way, happen in future. For now, this is something that’s still in my future, something I have bubbling along in the back of my mind, but now I have hope. I have hope for amazing alternatives for ways of working with young people and horses, and moreover, I’m so excited by what I’m seeing is possible to support young people learning about working with horses and other species in very cool ways that I wish were around when I was young.I couldn’t go past inviting Bex to come and have a chat with me here on An Equine Conversation, to share about her own learning journey and how she evolved her career to working with young people & animals, totally busting the myth that it’s something that we shouldn’t do. Bex does amazing work with young people as the learn about training animals and in turn, that’s giving them a bunch of personal development, teaching them invaluable life-skills on how they engage with their peers, families & humans around them. This includes learning about compassion, boundaries, choice & consent. Hugely important life-skills for us all.I find this work of Bex’s incredibly inspiring, as do others & Bex has more recently started to support other positive reinforcement focused coaches who work with and want to work with young people through her Shaping the Future membership.This is an episode for anyone who’s involved with young people, not just those in the animal training space. I hope you enjoy and find inspiration in this conversation. Bex Tasker:Bex and her family live on a small farm in beautiful Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Under her business Positively Together, Bex teaches humans in NZ and around the world how to inspire behaviour change in their horses and dogs. Bex is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner and has been training with positive reinforcement for over 20 years, being best known for her long-standing passion and speciality in teaching humans about clicker training for horses. However, Positively Together also runs programmes in which youth experience the power of positive reinforcement and see learning and communication in action, as they work hands-on with friendly trained animals (currently there are sheep, horses, chickens, dogs, cows, pigs and rabbits!). The youth programs and multi-species focus have been growing rapidly since 2018 and have become a special passion for Bex and her team.Positively Together offers a "Junior Animal Trainers" programme, and “PupStars” classes for kids and their dogs. The flagship “Next Gen Trainers” membership for tweens and teens remains the heart project, with the monthly workshops and strong community providing a safe anchor for kids during the challenging teenage years. The focus for all the youth programs is on animal welfare and trainer skills, and the underlying values of compassion, consent, confidence, resilience and respect – for animals, and for humans.Over the years the videos of these kids classes posted on Positively Together social media pages have prompted enthusiastic enquiries from trainers around the world wanting advice on how to design and launch similar programs. Bex has guided many people through this process one-on-one, but as a firm believer that, as Dr Friedman says, “All of us are smarter than one of us”, a new idea was born. "Shaping the Future" was launched in early 2023. It is an online coaching collective and community where those of us who are passionate about teaching kids and animals can come together to share ideas and advice, gain support, get inspired, and ultimately get started with changing the world! If you have a special interest in this field, in any capacity, Bex and co would love you to join in! In this episode we discuss: 1:24 - episode introduction4:40 - introducing Bex Tasker7:30 - Bex’s horsie start & the realities of paying your own bills9:21 - reflections & learnings10:19 - dogs & the return of horses to the forefront of life11.39 - the disconnect that can exist in how we train dogs versus horses & how Bex started training with the same approach with both15:43 - the beginning of a career working with training animals19:44 - a challenging time & a change in career away from animal training, into Criminal & Fraud Intelligence20:09 - shifting back to training with humans & animals full time & the similarities this has with Intelligence work24:24 - starting out & forging a new path28:12 - the advantages to having minimal outside influences30:06 - building a new community/tribe32:55 - the irony of the isolation leading to dedication enabling creativity & a better training approach - which led to the creation of community to enable a better training approach for more people (so they don’t feel lonely or isolated) & finding your tribe34:54 - ‘good training is good training’, the importance of understanding how behaviour & learning works35:45 - the difference between true isolation & isolation among a group of others when you have different ideas & views, the need to at times create your own community38:22 - the importance of us being visible so people can see an alternative - ‘just doing what we do & being who we are is actually enough’41:43 - starting to work with young people in the animal training space - finding what makes your heart smile44:13 - a collaboration, creating ‘Mane Priority’ events including ‘Dream It, Be It’ - an animal careers expo to show young people & their parents options46:13 - mentoring teenagers & developing ‘Next Gen Trainers’ in collaboration with a Youth Worker friend47:15 - trying other things to see which worked best & finding what lights Bex up48:19 - evolving to add in more species, beyond horses (including the ‘wool puppies’)51:32 - the learning we can gain from working with multiple species & taking best-practice from outside of the horse world & cooperative care55:57 - developing young people into nimble trainers: the difference (or not) between training sheep and training horses & learning to adapt training to different species (humans included)59:49 - we humans are ‘training’ one another all the time, consciously or not & learning to do it well is a great thing - the world would be a better place with more compassion & kindness - bringing the influence we’re having on others to a more conscious level1:04:00 - animal training teaching young people critical thinking skills1:05:55 - importance of young people understanding choice & consent & how animal training supports this learning - respecting every species right to say ‘no’ & having your own boundaries1:11:17 - feedback on the program from students, parents & other observers1:17:15 - a run-through of Bex’s programs - both for the young & the young at heart (see links below for more information)1:22:33 - Bex’s top tips for you: have compassion, stay curious, just be you, follow your gut & look outside the horse-world for learning1:26:26 - resources that Bex likes right now1:30:23 - episode wrap-up, notes & what’s on next week Links from Bex:Website: www.clickertraining.co.nzVirtual communities and courses: www.positivelytogether.appFacebook: facebook.com/positive.reinforcement.trainingInstagram: instagram.com/positively_together Our links mentioned this episode:  Sign-up to our email listAbbey's Run Equestrian websiteAbbey's Run Equestrian on Facebook Thank you to Matthew Bliss for podcast production & consultation. You can find out more about podcast support on offer via: https://www.mbpod.com/