Tag: clicker training

Training Shoulder-In at Liberty

After all of the ground work Wiley has been doing at liberty (turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand, side pass, etc), performing a shoulder in at liberty was straight forward. I took this video on day 2 of his training. I exaggerated the movement so it is easy to see on the video (he is clearly on 4 tracks and bordering on leg yield), and I am still working on controlling lateral movement. The video is a combination of 3 uncut videos, so you can see the work in progress along with some good steps.

To help Wiley understand what I was asking, I used a target for him to follow. Wiley is trained to touch his nose to the target. Since Wiley is already trained to move away from the driving whip, I used it to shape where his hind end needed to go. In essence, his nose follows the target and his hind end stays with the whip.

In a few more months, Wiley will be 3 and I can start lightly riding him. I really want to get all of this foundation training complete so I can transfer it to under saddle work. It makes that stage of training so much easier and less stressful. I can’t wait!

DelMarHorseGirl

4

Carrots for Breakfast. Squirrel for Lunch.

I spent Sunday morning with my new squirrel friend Spot. I decided to push through my squirrel phobia and see if I could hand feed Spot.  I was only at the barn for a few minutes when Spot parked himself next to my whip. This was my big chance. I held a carrot out with my gloved hand. I could barely watch. I was so afraid he would bite me, jump on me or who knows what? But to my surprise, Spot walked up, gently wrapped his orange teeth around the carrot and waited for me to release it. He never tugged or made any fast movements. It was like he had been doing this his entire life. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I fed Spot a few more carrots. He was always gentle and slow in his movements- so very un-squirrel like. At this point, I was feeling pretty proud of myself for overcoming my fears and planned on getting a picture of this to share.

I finished my barn chores and returned to the tack room ready to try for my squirrel photo op. As I went to open the door, I heard a slight rustling noise off to my left. According to my daughter I said, “Oh geez” and took 2 steps back. Right in front of me was the local bobcat with a squirrel in its mouth. It was so close, I could have touched the cat with my whip. Since the squirrel’s entire head and shoulders were in the cat’s mouth, I couldn’t ID the squirrel. A quick glance around revealed 3 other squirrels in the area. Were any of them mine?

Today is Friday, and I have not seen Spot since Sunday morning. It looks as if my little friend made a tasty lunch for the local bobcat. While I do miss my friend, I realize the bobcat provides a valuable service. With all the squirrels around, I just wish he would have picked another squirrel for lunch. Sorry Spot. Life is pretty rough when you are a squirrel.

DelMarHorseGirl

2

The Taming of the Squirrel

I usually dislike rodents at the barn, but I got to thinking….Could I train a wild squirrel to be friendly? I wanted a squirrel to enjoy hanging out with me….maybe even be able to pet it. The only problem with that scenario is that I am secretly scared of touching the little guys. No problem. I found a squirrel willing to work around my phobia.

Meet Spot. Spot is easily recognizable by the large patch of fur that was missing from his back, his torn left ear and the orange snaggle tooth that sometimes protrudes out of the right side of his mouth. He’s a real looker.

Spot was easily target trained to the end of my whip. When Spot hears my voice, he comes out. He sits next to my whip waiting for a carrot. He is so comfortable around me that he hangs out while he eats. He lets me pet him with the whip. I scratch him around the ears and stroke his back. He seems to enjoy the attention. He could easily run off and eat his carrot, but he sticks around until he is done. He waits patiently for the next carrot. He will stay around for quite awhile, leaving occasionally to chase off an interloping squirrel. But then, he comes right back to my whip.

The only challenge with having a squirrel friend, is that they are pretty sneaky. Sometimes while sitting in the tack room, I turn around and find Spot has been sitting quietly behind me the entire time. He scares the crud out of me! Oh well. I will enjoy his company while I can. Squirrels don’t last long around here.

Here’s a little video of my good friend Spot….

DelMarHorseGirl

3

Horse Jumping Courses at Liberty

Just wanted to share this old video of my previous partner Tucson. “T” could jump courses of up to 8 fences at liberty….complete with in and outs, rollbacks, and bounces. It only took minutes to teach him a new course too. Sadly, I never got it on video. This is all that  was ever taken….just a quick shot on a friend’s cell phone while I was working “T” one day. I didn’t even bother to set all the jumps. I never dreamed this would be the only video of his most spectacular trick. I have started to teach Wiley liberty jumping. It is a long process. You can bet when Wiley finishes learning it, I will get it on tape!

DelMarHorseGirl

0

Training a Horse for Lightness

Lately I’ve been playing around with how light my aids can be with Wiley. Eventually, I’d like to be riding Wiley at liberty…no bridle, no saddle… only minimal aids that “suggest” what he should do. But since he isn’t even old enough to ride, I am just working with some of Wiley’s ground training. I want him to get used to working off of extremely light aids. So, I have Wiley perform every movement without ever touching him.  Even without touching Wiley, I still have expectations of a prompt reaction on his part.  

To get Wiley to move off with absolutely no pressure, I simply slow down my aids. I move toward Wiley very slowly like I am going to touch the point on his body where the aid is. When a horse is trained well, he will start moving long before you ever touch him. As soon as he responds, give him a bridge word/click and a reward. He will start responding sooner each time. Horses are smart. They can predict what you are about to do. Play with it long enough, and you may just get a horse that will perform a movement with the smallest of aids. My previous equine partner Tucson could shake his head yes and no to answer questions just by a slight movement in my finger. Not only was it a pretty cool trick, it freaked more than a few people out when they couldn’t understand how a horse could accurately respond to their questions! 

In the video, I string together a bunch of movements from Wiley’s basic ground training. He spins on his haunches, spins on his forehand, side passes, backs, Spanish walk, backs again and walks to me on command. Watch him perform each one without me having to touch him. His response is, for the most part, pretty prompt (he is only 2 1/2, so my expectations aren’t too high). He is also learning how to handle a series of requests that come fairly quickly. All of this work will eventually translate nicely into under saddle, so it is time well invested. 

DelMarHorseGirl

2

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑