The Presentations 2026
This year’s theme is THE MOVING HORSE
From groundwork and liberty to riding, including jumping, dressage, agility, endurance amd more, this year’s presentations explore the many ways we can develop healthy, joyful movement through positive reinforcement.
You’ll discover a huge range of exercises, techniques and approaches from some of the leading pioneers in reward-based training – whether your goal is better movement, greater body awareness, competition, or simply helping your horse move with more confidence and joy.
Expect plenty of practical ideas, fresh perspectives and a whole lot of inspiration to take home and try with your own horses.
All presentations will be held live online on Zoom during the Summit 13-15 November 2026. There will be opportunities to submit questions to all speakers. Purchasing your ticket also gives you access to the recordings (they will not be sold separately). Check out FAQ for more.
Mary Hunter
Moving your training skills forward using PORTL
Would you like to improve your training skills? Or, maybe you’re confident in your skills, but you have a new training procedure, idea, or concept that you’d like to test out? Or, perhaps you're just feeling stuck — you have a behavior you’d love to teach, but you have no idea how to get started.
In this presentation, Mary will introduce you to PORTL, the Portable Operant Research and Teaching Lab. PORTL is a tabletop teaching game that you can use to improve you teaching skills and learn more about how behavior works.
Once you understand the basics of PORTL, you can use it to test different procedures and explore new ideas for how to teach behaviors. The beauty of PORTL is that another human is your learner; you don’t have to worry about frustrating your horse or undoing the training progress you’ve made so far!
After discussing the basics of PORTL, Mary will present several case studies that will include both PORTL and animal training video examples. This presentation will give you new ideas and show you how to use PORTL as a tool to solve your own training puzzles.
Friday 13 19:00-21:00 CET
Jana Lohrová
R+ Endurance Training
How do we train horses for endurance riding positively? As well as fitness training, we also need to prepare our horses for many other challenges to be able to compete in endurance. I’ll explore how to prepare horses for being in different environments, open spaces, as well as being in a group of running horses.
I’m going to explore this topic in detail, looking at what the challenges are and how to overcome them without pushing the horse. I’ll also explore what training steps are necessary for success…. and if anything is impossible to train in this way, and whether you can do it with every horse.
Saturday 14 09:00-11:00 CET
Melanie Watson
Training Confidence: Positive Reinforcement for Spooking and Reactivity
Many horses react to their environment by spooking, rushing, spinning, bolting or trying to escape. Whether the trigger is traffic, unfamiliar objects, noises or situations encountered out hacking, the underlying learning principles remain the same.
In this presentation, I will explore how positive reinforcement techniques, including systematic desensitisation, counter-conditioning, habituation and target training, can help horses become calmer, more confident and better able to cope with challenges in their environment.
Using traffic training as a practical example, I will share videos illustrating each stage of the process, from preparation and training foundations through to teaching alternative behaviours that replace escape responses and support calm decision-making. I will also discuss the role of the nervous system and how training can help horses move from a state of reactivity towards greater confidence, regulation and resilience.
Saturday 14 11:30-13:30 CET
Angelica Hesselius
Riding Is Just Another Position: Building gymnastic movement on the ground and in the saddle with reward based horse training.
In this talk, my horses and I will give you a glimpse into our daily gymnastic work: exploring different gaits, lateral movements and balance from a variety of positions.
We often think riding begins when we sit on the horse. But what if riding is simply another position? By varying our position, we can offer support where the horse needs it most, make specific parts of a movement clearer, and help the horse carry the same gymnastic idea from one context to another. You will see us work from the front position, through short reining, lunging and long reining, with and without tack. And, of course, from the saddle.
The position may change, but the gymnastic principles and reward-based communication remain connected.
Saturday 14 14:00-16:00 CET
Amanda Jay &
Gilly Slayter
R+ Outside the Bubble: A Positive Reinforcement Mindset in a
Negative Reinforcement World
All of us who’ve found success using R+ want to expand and share our experiences and knowledge. We know we can help improve the welfare of horses by the way we train. But we have to be seen using it! That takes entering the world of equestrian tradition and even competition. But as fast as the community of R+ equestrians is growing, outside the R+ bubble, equestrians have mostly never heard of Positive Reinforcement
training, much less attempted to use it.
How can we venture into that world and maintain an honest focus on using Positive Reinforcement? We’ve developed a set of Core Principles to guide us. We’ll go in depth about how we apply them to crossover horses and crossover situations, maintaining a Positive Reinforcement mindset in a Negative Reinforcement world.
Saturday 14 16:30-18:30 CET
Nina Steigerwald
Horse Agility - Training for Body and Brain
Horse agility is a special form of groundwork: rider and horse work as a team to complete a course featuring a wide variety of obstacles. As well as the classic jumps, tasks and equipment seesaws, for example, can also be creatively incorporated. The alternation between brisk movement and intense concentration develops body awareness and overall motor skills. This liberty work fosters a closer bond with the horse, whilst the horses themselves become more skilful, agile and alert – and have a lot of fun.
Sunday 15 09:00-11:00 CET
Hannah Weston
Gymnastic Jumping for Every Equine
Jumping training offers so many benefits – fitness, agility, body awareness, strength, confidence and, of course, fun! I’ll show you how to introduce it positively and progressively, building a strong foundation from the start.
This session is suitable for every equine, from minis and donkeys to horses and ponies, whether ridden or non-ridden. We’ll explore exercises on the ground, at liberty and under saddle, from complete beginner to more advanced.
Whether your horse is naturally enthusiastic about jumping or needs a little more encouragement, you’ll learn how to develop these skills positively. And if you already love jumping, you’ll come away with fresh training ideas and a strong reward-based foundation for more advanced work and competition.
Sunday 15 11:30-13:30 CET
Shawna Karrasch & Jessie Hillegas
Shaping Under Saddle: Precision Bridging for Biomechanics,Movement and Self-Carriage
When we transition to positive reinforcement under saddle, one of the biggest hurdles is maintaining clarity without relying on escalating pressure. Selective bridging allows us to communicate mid-movement, giving our horses the precise feedback they need to adjust their balance and expression while maintaining relaxation. By capturing small adjustments in various elements of a movement, we can empower our horses to become enthusiastic participants during the shaping of healthy movement.
Sunday 15 14:00-16:00 CET
Adele Shaw
Movement Without Frustration:
Creating Healthy, Happy Movement Through Calm Engagement
Movement-based training with positive reinforcement can support fitness, weight management, health, and performance—but it can also amplify food anxiety and frustration. Horses may rush, crowd, offer frantic movement, struggle to stop, or display increasingly unsafe behavior. Trainers often mistake this behavior for enthusiasm or motivation.
In this presentation, Adele Shaw examines why asking for movement can create these problems, how frustration changes the quality and safety of training, and what trainers must consider when working toward healthy, happy movement through calm engagement.