Negative Reinforcement (pressure and release) training works, no one is denying that.
But we have to be honest with ourselves and put ourselves in our horse’s hooves.
If someone squeezes our arm to make us move out of their way and if that squeezing (and proximity) causes us to move and they promptly stop squeezing AND we are likely to move away in the future, that’s Negative Reinforcement. Most importantly, it’s not like putting a coat on when it’s cold or drinking water when we are thirsty or choosing to go dancing with a loved one. This is someone else making a decision for us, about where we should be standing, by using some kind of physical, emotional and mental “pressure” (unease/discomfort).
Imagine that same person does all kinds of things like that to you, after a while they don’t even have to touch you, they simply reach for you and you move away. You really don’t want them squeezing your arm every time. You might also get a little twitchy and hyper vigilant when they are around. This is so you are ready to do something, before they have to touch you or pressure you or make you do something you probably didn’t want to do or like to do. We call that avoidance behaviour.
Now imagine the arm squeezer (plus various other methods of discomfort to make you do various other behaviours) keeps you in an enclosed area, away from family and friends, dictates when you leave the paddock, when and what you eat, who your friends are if you have any, what else? When you need medical treatment, if they are even aware you need it, because they think posters about equine stress and pain are just dumb. Their horse does it all the time, so it can’t be stress or fear or pain! Or worse, they tell everyone it’s good and great when they get a calming, appeasement or stress behaviour, because the horse is “communicating” and then they promptly ignore what the horse is saying and halter them and get on with their pressure and relief training!