I’ve found that most people have an incorrect idea of what negative reinforcement entails - the term is widely used in the wrong way. Typically, what they are really thinking of is positive punishment.
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For everyone interested in this topic I highly recommend hanging out in your horses paddock and observing the “lick and chew” patterns of the herd. Stress can be caused by a whole number of things such as other horses bickering, birds in a tree, people walking in the distance, other horses getting turned out, or transitioning into a relaxed state (from grazing to napping).
Stress in and of itself & in relation to “licking and chewing” is not bad - stress in this context can be good or bad subjective to the human, but to the horse’s perspective it just is. In training the “lick and chew” can be used as a positive, because the alternative is that the horse holds on the the tension and becomes increasingly stressed/worried/explosive. It depends on what your sequence of training is on whether you use “lick and chew” as reinforcement (ie is the lick and chew before or after release of pressure).
I think its a great body language cue that can be used (amongst others) to communicate with our beloved equine friends 
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Yes, many do not understand. But a lot do, and still disagree with using R- with dogs. It comes up often in the context of training hunting dogs, for example. Training with e-collars, compulsory retrieves, etc. And sometimes obedience. Most people inwardly cringe at the idea of using a choke collar, for example, for training a dog to heel. Even though, there is nothing wrong with a choke collar in itself, and dogs don’t necessarily dislike learning to heel using R- and a choke collar (or other collar) rather than R+.
Both can be used effectively for many things, and often the most effective training is to use both together.
R+ is more difficult to use on horses under saddle but certainly can be used on horses. And husbands.
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I think the application is what messes people up. If you shake a bag violently and abruptly in front of a horses face (like many NH folks do) and do it until the horse eventually licks and chews, that’s still shitty training IMO. Obviously the horse will eventually stop reacting out of learned helplessness.
But, if you slowly and calmly expose the horse to the bag while intentionally staying under the threshold that’s good training. A horse will probably lick and chew with either situation though.
Pointing to that behavior as something it’s not is not a good practice. If you pinch a small child, eventually it will stop crying but just because the kid stopped crying and wiped its eyes doesn’t mean the kid learns to be ok with being pinched. The emotional response just naturally is going to come down eventually.
Warwick Schiller has a video I love called “desensitizing using CAT- H” and I find it such a good counter to the dated, traditional NH desensitizing BS.
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People do tend to forget that when using Negative Reinforcement, that the horse (or husband) learns from the moment of release of pressure.
I see this all the time with riders who don’t release the pressure of hand or leg.
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I listened to this podcast this morning and she explains every argument above–lol. Nothing groundbreaking but a good breakdown of how we are using certain training methods re R+/R- and how stress is not always a bad thing and how having no stressors is actually a stressor in itself.
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My MIL was a 2nd grade teacher and told me that kids do the same thing. Over the years she noticed that kids get very ‘mouthy’- chewing a pencil, biting lower lip, swallowing–when they were having an a-ha! moment, such as when something finally made sense or they got an answer right.
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Should be replying to S1969.
I’m talking about the kind of stress that results in licking and chewing.
That has only happened a few of times in the 10+ years I’ve had my ponies, up to 6 at one point, usually 4.
I’ve rehabbed a couple of horses who had an extreme slobbers in response to having a bit in their mouth. It was pretty obviously extreme anxiety. A shocking number of dressage trainers absolutely loved that these horses had ‘wet mouths’ pretty much as soon as the bridle went on. Yikes 
