Empowered Equines

273 Cider Hill Rd. York, ME 03909


Our program aims to be a special part of our local community, providing education about ethical animal keeping.While we take many animals in need, including donkeys, sheep and ponies/minis, we try to focus on draft horses – animals frequently left behind or overlooked by other rescue organizations. With the combination of volunteers, students, and staff we work to rehabilitate the rescued animals physically, emotionally, and behaviorally. With proper medical care, nutrition, and enriched daily lives, our animals thrive. From here we work on behavioral rehabilitation and training enrichment with positive reinforcement.

Welcome Packet

A four-panel comic illustrating the different lessons a girl learns from her horse. The first panel shows a girl riding a horse with a man, highlighting teaching her to ride for a better life. The second panel shows her realizing the importance of empathy and compassion as her dog gently snitches on her riding. The third panel depicts her understanding she doesn't need to conform or exploit, with the girl gently touching the horse's face. The fourth panel reveals her realizing she was always rich in love and happiness, embracing the horse in a field of flowers surrounded by butterflies.

Daily Chores: (we will help find chores that are right for you)

A barn management checklist with tasks for morning and afternoon chores, including feeding, cleaning, training, and maintenance activities.
Diagram illustrating the basic needs of a horse based on the 6 F's according to Fed up Fred, showing foraging, freedom, friends, safety, comfort, and fun.
A table listing expectations and guidelines for behavior around animals, including kindness, asking permission, reinforcement, cleanliness, and safety.

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Comic comparing positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement methods in training horses, with humorous annotations and a warning about sarcasm.

Positive Reinforcement (R+) is a fancy way of saying we reward good behavior. We encourage a behavior to happen more by adding something the learner likes. With horses, we feed them a treat when they do behaviors we ask for. We use a smoochy sound to mark the moment the horse did the right behavior, so they know why they’re getting that treat. For example, we ask our horse to back up and make a smooch sound when they do the right thing, then feed them a treat.
This is a kinder way to communicate with our horses which behaviors we want them to do and when they’ve done the right thing. We do not push, pull, hit, kick, smack, pinch, flick, or otherwise upset our animals here. We ask nicely with cues we have taught (we will teach you these) and reward good behavior. This makes it fun for the horse to want to do the things we ask.


A four-panel cartoon illustrating horse behavior. Top left shows a happy horse with positive reinforcement, saying "Woohoo!" Top right shows a disappointed horse with negative punishment, saying "Oh shit!" Bottom left shows a hurt horse with positive punishment, saying "Ouch!" Bottom right shows a relieved horse with negative reinforcement, saying "Phew!" Annotations explain concepts like primary reinforcers, attention, threats, and aversive pressure.

No Punishment?

Instead of using punishment we try to set our animals up for success. We use food, toys, barriers, and set up the environment to make it easy for our horses to do the right thing and difficult (or impossible) to do the wrong things. We will show you techniques to empower the animals and safely avoid needing to use punishment.