No really....that's enough now!

It feels like forever since my last training session with Faith, although it has only been about a week. I don’t like long gaps between sessions, a couple of days, and I start feeling withdrawal symptoms. However, I try not to get too hung up about it, after all, like most amateur horse keepers, I find that life often gets in the way. This week ‘life’ has taken the form of feral kittens belonging to my next door neighbour who has five young queen cats who she refuses to get spayed, as she finds that she can get £25 a kitten. Consequently these young cats are having litter after litter, and frankly they look old before their time. One of them got run over the other week, and another of the cats adopted her litter as well. Unfortunately she brought all of them over to my stables, and they set up camp under a massive laurel hedge in my garden. I managed to catch four of the seven kittens the other night, and returned them to my neighbour. I saw the other three yesterday, bouncing around my yard, but neither I, nor seemingly mummy cat have seen them since, which is worrying.

So I wasn’t surprised when upon seeing me appear with the bumbag this evening, Faith greeted me with a big neigh! It was nice enough to work on the yard again this evening, which makes a nice change, and after a lovely groom, I started up with the rug again. Faith was brilliant as usual. I had the rug fully along her back, although undone, and we were walking back and forward nice and calmly. I also got her used to me bumping the rug and buckles etc. against her legs, and rattling the big clips at the front.

We then did a bit of work on getting her to respect my space, even when she was wearing the ‘snarky face’. I just do a little bit of an emergency stop in front of her with my hands out in front of me, and she immediately stops and shifts her weight back. I then ask her for a few steps of rein back, and then we walk on again. She was foot perfect, and I think bringing her up abruptly like this has just made her realise that I mean what I say, and caught her attention and focus a little more even just by using a bit of visual pressure.

I often get on my soapbox about not doing ‘too much’ with youngsters, but I often find myself out to be a total hypocrite. Most of the time, even during a week unblemished by distractions and gaps, I will end up training for up to 40 mins a session. Now if somebody told me they trained their two year old for 40 mins a night every night, I would probably begin to swell with righteous indignation, but the fact is, I totally lose all track of time, and get so immersed in the moment, that that is what we end up doing. Having said this, I do try to do at least two different activities, broken up by a grooming session, and hopefully I am a sympathetic trainer in that if I can see that it’s not happening for whatever reason, I will change the activity and end on a good note. But it is still so easy to get carried away with the clicker, and I can’t help thinking that because the horse is more often than not hearing ‘yes that’s right’, instead of ‘no, don’t do that’, the training becomes more compelling and absorbing for them as well.
This was certainly borne out this evening when Faith showed to me that she wasn’t particularly interested in going back to her stable for tea. Instead, she mooched around the yard for a bit, then went over to her rug, which I had left folded on the fence, picked the corner up in her teeth, and stood there with it in her mouth just looking at me, as if to say, can we do a bit more of this Mum? There is no denying it, and I really don’t think I am fooling myself, when I say that this little mare makes it quite clear that she actively enjoys our training sessions, at least as much as I do.

So we met halfway, and did a bit of WWYLM for a few minutes, which strangely enough ended up with me walking into her stable with her beside me, where she got her jackpot and a hug.

That Filly will be the Death of Me!

We had a rather windy, cold, wet, autumnal day here. I was having a rather bad day as the dishwasher had broken down yesterday, closely followed by the hot water heater. So I had loads of washing up to do, but no hot water to do it with. So I was in rather a stressy mood, plus I had my 20 week scan today, so was rather apprehensive about that as well.

Therefore, the last thing I wanted to see as I walked across the road to Mum’s house to have a shower, was the sight of a massive chunk of my huge willow tree having become detached from the tree itself, and lying in the front paddock. Worse than that, I could see Tommy and Tilly standing around snacking on the fallen part as if it were manna from heaven, but no Faith. I rushed over to the gate, and my heart stood still as I could just make out the Faith’s outline underneath the fallen part of the tree, standing, but not moving.

Instantly I assumed that she had been injured, impaled or trapped, and how the hell was a small, heavily pregnant woman like me going to get her out? I bundled John into Mum’s house, and dashed across to the stables. As I ran/ waddled quickly through the garden, Faith’s fate became clear to me. While Tilly and Tommy were happy to stand around the peripheral edges of the fallen branch, Faith had actually climbed right in between the branches and the fence, and was not only munching away quite happily, but was also effectively sheltered from the wind and rain as well!

I didn’t know whether to cry or scream! But looking at how large and unstable the branch was, I decided that the horses needed to come in for the rest of the day until we could chop the fallen part of the tree up, so at least it was all on the floor, and couldn’t fall any further.

They don't come with instructions...

But sometimes they do tell you loud and clear what you need to be training! So this evening, with this morning’s debacle between Faith and Mum in mind, I decided to work on WWYLM.

I altered the layout slightly with three cones going down each side, and none over the drain, in an effort to keep the fluidity of movement at the top and the bottom of the yard, which is normally where Faith gets a little stuck.

Well she was very focused and we were going great guns, apart again from at the top and the bottom of the yard, where she has a tendency to want to cut across and go behind me. So I used arm gestures and got her to target my hand to keep her on the right track, and I think we had about a 70% strike rate with that, which bearing in mind this is only our second attempt, and she is completely at liberty, isn’t at all bad.

However, at one point, Faith obviously thought I was being a little pedantic in my requests for her to stay on track, and we had a disagreement whether her attempt to stay with me was click worthy or not. Faith’s response to this was to develop a very big shoulder and a sour expression, and try to walk over me. Now although I am trying to keep –R to a minimum, I am absolutely not going to be walked over, that is not an option for Faith. So I made myself very big, held my hands up, stomped my feet and growled. This stopped her in her tracks, and I asked her to back up a few steps simply by gesturing at her chest, and she backed up a few steps smoothly. We then carried on for a few minutes, which gave us an opportunity to end the exercise on a good note, which she did, earning herself three clicks and treats between then and the end of the exercise.

Then it was grooming time, and she stood like a rock while I fussed around her grooming her and picking up her feet. She shows no impatience during this activity, partly because she likes being groomed, but also I think partly because we have been working on ‘standing nicely while being groomed’ from day one.

So although I felt a bit down about Faith’s behaviour today (even though to be honest this morning’s incident was not entirely her fault), it has highlighted the fact that now would be a really good time to work on patience activities, ground tying for example, which will be our next activity.

I must admit, I do get a bit narked when people accuse clicker training folk for being a bit ‘namby pamby’. Yes, I could have got all heavy with her about invading my space, but actually the behaviour will be addressed just as effectively by teaching her that patience can be a positive thing. I have no intention of letting my horse walk all over me, but at the same time, I place a high value on teaching her how I do want her to behave, rather than merely trying to suppress the behaviour that I don’t want.

So in the same way, Faith has encouraged me to take a step towards teaching her something that she needs to know, and I will happily oblige her!

Hmmmmmm......

As I was doing the big muck out again this morning, I was interrupted by mother approaching me with a mixture of contrition and high dudgeon. She was a little bit cross because as she had been walking the dog around the outside of the field, on her special ‘dog walking path’ that we created for her outside the perimeter fence of the horses’ grazing, Faith came up to the fence on the scrounge, and finding that Mum had nothing for her, she had turned around and lashed out. Fortunately the only thing she came into contact with was the fence post, and Mum had given her a good growl, at which point she backed away from her looking slightly alarmed.

Now she was also contrite, because she also admitted that she regularly gave the horses bits of apple over the fence as she walked the dog, despite my numerous and insistent requests that she didn’t.

Now personally I have never encountered behaviour like this from Faith. She can get a little snarky and visibly frustrated during training when I am withholding treats looking for either the right behaviour, or varying the schedule a bit. But she will often come to the paddock gate for a bit of a fuss, and yes, she gets the odd treat from me too, but when I walk away, or tell her to run and play, she never looks in the least upset or bothered, and just tootles off.

Now I am starting to wonder whether I am sufficiently addressing the matter of emotional control with Faith. I must admit when we are training, if she is finding something a bit hard, and is getting frustrated, I might ask for another behaviour which she can do easily, so I have the opportunity to reward her, before returning to what I originally asked for. This normally works well both in terms of training progression, and distracting her from snarkiness, but at the same time not giving her something for nothing. I wonder if this is the right thing to do, but at the same time, I am conscious that she is only two, and as such has a fairly limited attention span, so keeping her motivated is an important factor in keeping her attention as well.

But then I also think that OK, Faith wasn’t in a training situation, there were no clearly defined rules or boundaries, and there was also the sense of competing for food and attention with the other horses who had received treats, so maybe, I’m making a fuss about nothing. I don’t know.

Bovvered!

I carried on with the belly strap desensitisation tonight, and built on yesterday’s work even further. So this evening I was able to rub the rope over her barrel and under her tummy working quite far back on both sides, and diagonally across as well.

I kept the reinforcement rate high, but quite frankly she couldn’t have been less bothered. Which is just how I like it!

The Law of (Positive) Double Effect!

Now that Velcro is less of an issue, I decided that the next step in rug desensitisation would be to tackle belly straps. Now I have been given some great advice on this, and I really wanted to try it out. However, now I’m being really honest here, as I get fatter, and less agile, certain aspects of this desensitisation process have worried me slightly, and this is one bit that I have been concerned about.

However, one thing that I hadn’t factored into this training equation, is the fact that there appears to be a law of positive double effect. By this I mean that by taking everything slowly and tiny step by tiny step, not only has Faith’s trust and confidence grown in me, but my trust and confidence and trust has also grown in her as well. Even though I have been around horses all my life, I have in recent years had a huge crisis of confidence, not just in my riding abilities, but in everything I do as a horse person. Clicker training has enabled me to build up my confidence in myself as a trainer piece by piece again, and made me unafraid to take a step back sometimes, and take things as slowly as is necessary for both me and the horse.

So anyway, I started the process with Faith totally loose on the yard as usual, and using a long leadrope folded in half, just draped it over her back, and ran it down the length of her back to get her used to the rather tickly sensation. Then I draped it over her back just behind her withers, and let it hang further and further and further down her far side, and swished it about a bit so that she felt it against her leg and knee. Then gradually I lengthened the rope so it was no longer doubled, and let the soft end touch the floor, and again wiggled it so that it touched her pastern and hoof.

Then I leaned down with the rope still draped over her back, and patted and rubbed her tummy. After this I leaned down again and gently took hold of the leadrope and brought it towards me underneath her so that she could feel it under her ribcage. I then pulled it back and forth gently, so that she could feel the sensation of it rubbing under her ribcage. I did the same on the other side, obviously doing all this in tiny, tiny steps, and keeping the reinforcement rate really high.

Well that little mare didn’t even react, and in fact stood through all this in the middle of the yard, calmly resting a back leg, with a soft relaxed expression on her face. Then it was back to her stable for a jackpot and a hug. Fabulous!

So my next move is to continue with this, but gradually work back along her belly a little bit, and even cross the rope back along her belly in both directions to simulate the directions of the cross surcingles. But today was an excellent start, and I am really, really delighted with our progress.

The Pleasure is Mine!

Well it would seem that the Velcro monster has finally been vanquished!

I had intended this evening’s session to take place out on the yard, and take advantage of some wonderful advice I had been given regarding the incremental desensitisation of Faith’s belly area for the belly straps on her rug. However, my hubby who is currently suffering from Manflu has decided that laundry is in fact a form of therapy. He had strung up two lines of washing across the yard, which is unfortunately the only appropriate space we have available for washing lines. Also the load consisted mainly of my rather voluminous maternity pants, which appear to take up the vast majority of the airspace above the yard, therefore we were confined to the stable.

So I decided to carry on where I left off with last night’s training session, and keep going with the Velcro. Well joy of joys, within a few minutes I could rip the whole strip with it laid across her chest, from both sides, while she nonchalantly rested a hind leg. Fabulous!

Once again, I came away walking on air. There is nothing like the feeling that you and the horse are working together on something, both listening to each other, and responding to each other with equal consideration. I cannot describe the joy and excitement that this training is giving to me. If I can get this excited over desensitising to Velcro, then frankly the future looks wonderful. Faith is undergoing the most incredible change, from a highly reactive horse, to a horse with an ‘all is well’ sense of calmness. I just can’t get over how the simple, mundane, everyday stuff that we are doing is just revealing and yielding so much, and the sense of real communication is just wonderful. I just love, love, love everything that we are doing, no frustration, no arguments, no fear, just communication, and the knowledge that your horse is working with you because they choose to, not because they have to. It is liberating and exhilarating.

Mixing it up a little

I had an absolutely brilliant session with Faith this evening, so much so, that I came away walking on air.

Despite being a rainy, dull, dark day, this evening turned out to be a lovely sunny autumn evening, which meant that we could get out of the stable, and back on to the yard to do some training.

Having recently bought an Alex Kurland DVD concerning the; ‘Why Would You Leave Me?’ game, I have been itching to get Faith out of the stable of an evening to give it a go. Now we had started on this before, but obviously, having not seen the DVD, I wasn’t aware of the pre-WWYLM game, which makes use of a circle of cones. The idea is that the trainer walks the circle with the horse on a leadrope, and at each cone stops, clicks, and treats. Eventually the horse cottons on to this and starts to become more ‘connected’ to the handler. The idea is then once the horse gets the idea, you can increase the time between clicks.

Alex Kurland adds a further dimension to this, so that the horse is doing more than just walking alongside the handler on a loose rope. She likes to think of the handler holding an imaginary box in front of their body, and the horse should keep his nose ‘in the box’, so he is walking along beside the handler with his neck wrapped around the handler’s body. The idea is that the horse will then stay like that without any contact on the rope. This then leads into exercises such as Three-Flip-Three and Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder.

However, on a purely personal level I don’t like the look of the horse being flexed like this for such a long time, and walking with this constant flexion. I think it looks uncomfortable, and certainly too much for a young horse like Faith. Don’t get me wrong, I think lateral flexion is important, and I would like my horse to give me a relaxed flexion that is free from resistance and tension when I ask for it. But for me, the constant flexion of the ‘nose in the box’ is not something I am looking for. Added to this, I also want to do this exercise completely at liberty to begin with, as I anticipate that this is really going to be one of the foundations for all the liberty schooling that I intend to do with Faith.

So anyway, my yard isn’t particularly big, so rather than setting the cones out in a circle, it had to be a kind of elongated rectangle. I have also just purchased some new cones, the kind that are slightly raised discs, and I happened to be using the fluorescent yellow ones this evening. I was a bit concerned at first that Faith would come out of the stable and be wary of the cones, and not want to approach them. However, my fears proved to be groundless, as she walked straight up to the first one, squished it between her front teeth, scraped it along the ground a couple of times, then handed it to me!

So we started doing the exercise, and we were getting it really well. We did have a few issues with Faith wanting to cut inside the cones at the top and bottom of the rectangle. However, I simply made it clear with hand gestures that I wanted her on the outside of my body, and she got it almost immediately! After going around the rectangle three times perfectly, stopping and click/treating at each cone, we left it there.

Then I gave Faith a ten minute break from thinking stuff, with a lovely groom, and I am very pleased to see that her winter woollies are starting to come through at last. This seems to mean another colour change, with her winter coat being a little darker than her end of summer coat. Lord knows what colour my horse will be in the Spring!

Then I did some Velcro desensitisation with her. She had obviously processed the work we did the other day, as she was really good with the Velcro being placed on her shoulder. After about ten minutes, I could rip the long Velcro strip apart in three stages, with her standing quite comfortably. Brilliant, just brilliant! I then called her to follow me back into her stable, and gave her a big jackpot and a hug. What a clever girl.

I was just so thrilled with her calmness, and focus this evening, even when she trod on the plastic cones a couple of times and trailed them under her feet, there was absolutely no startle reaction at all. I am ridiculously proud of this little mare.

Crash Test Training!

Disclaimer: No children or animals were in any way hurt or put at risk during the production of this blog. Although I may now have a few more grey hairs!

Not long ago it was my son John’s third birthday, and for his birthday my parents bought him a lovely little bicycle. I keep his bicycle on the stable yard, along with a selection of other toys, and every day when I do the mucking out, John comes onto the yard to play with his toys in the fresh air.

Now although John loves his bicycle very much, we haven’t had an awful lot of success with teaching him to ride it. He knows how to pedal and to steer, but up until today would only do it if he was being pushed lightly from behind. It seemed that he was very unwilling to get cycling under his own steam.

Now today is ‘big muck out’ day when I completely turn the beds and add new bedding. Having recently been diagnosed with SPD, I was very conscious of protecting my SI joint and lower back area from too much strain. As I was concentrating a bit harder than usual on what I was doing, I wasn’t paying much attention to John, until he suddenly appeared in the stable behind me. “It’s alright Mummy.” he said, “Faith isn’t scared of bicycles, she’s a really good girl.”

I walked down the yard to the big double field gates, and there was Faith poking her nose through the bars of the gate and giving John’s little bicycle a thorough inspection. I clicked ad treated her and gave her a big fuss, and continued to click and treat her as she sniffed and nuzzled the bicycle all over.

I then wheeled the bike away to the other end of the yard, and encouraged John to get on. He hopped on and I gave him a little push, and he was away! “Wheeeeee!” He said, pedalling like fury. “Look at me Mummy, I’m going really fast!” Well this was a first. I watched open mouthed as John whizzed down the yard, and banked right, towards the field gate. I ran after him, knowing that he hadn’t yet discovered the brakes, and turned the corner just in time to see him crash straight into the gates, right between Faith’s front legs, giggling helplessly.

Well that little filly didn’t even flinch. She did however take the opportunity to give the top of John’s head a thorough exploration with her nose. Neither of them were hurt, as Faith was protected by the gates, and John had managed to stay seated on his bicycle. Once again I clicked and reinforced Faith loads and loads, and gave her a big fuss.

Once again I wheeled the bicycle to the other end of the yard, and the whole process began again. Three times John crashed into the gates directly in front of Faith’s chest, and three times Faith just stood like a rock, and waited to be clicked and treated. John thought this was hilarious, and Faith realised that she was onto a good thing too. Tommy then came over to see what all the hilarity was about, and the next time John came whizzing around the corner, it was Tommy standing at the gates waiting for the crash!

So for the next ten minutes or so, Tommy and Faith took it in turns to stand at the field gate, while my small son pedalled straight at them at speed, and each time they got clicked and reinforced for standing there calmly! Both the horses could have wandered off to graze at any point, but they were clearly finding John’s antics far too interesting. Anyway, as amusing as this all was, it wasn’t getting the mucking out done. So John and I had a serious chat about steering.

So I set John off down the yard again, and this time he banked left instead of right, and went straing into the tack room. “Wheeeeeee” said John, Boooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg went my metal feed bin as John pedalled into it at speed. The horses wandered off to graze as I picked my giggling son up off the floor.

Nothing to hide.

Yesterday I did some more Velcro desensitisation with Faith. I try to do something different with her every day, partly so she retains her enthusiasm, but also because I am a great believer in latent learning, and giving horses a few days to process new stuff often reaps its own rewards. We have spent the last few days working on head lowering using both my hand on her crest, and sliding a hand down the leadrope as a cue. Faith is very quick, and has learned this well, but now we need to build some duration on it.

Anyhow, I put that aside yesterday, and got the Velcro out instead. I was very pleased to be able to break through a glass barrier that we have been encountering, and was able to rest the Velcro on her shoulder, and tear it slightly. Now just as with the head lowering, we need to build that up bit by bit, until I can rest the strip on her shoulder and tear it apart completely.

Now I do watch her body language very carefully while doing this, and yes, admittedly she is still keeping her weight on the far outside leg when I rip the Velcro. But for the moment, for me, this is OK. I have pushed the boundaries an increment further with what I am asking her to do, so there are some other criterion e.g. standing square, that I am prepared to loosen until she becomes more comfortable. With the Velcro strip touching her body.

It then just occurred to me how important it is that we use the horse’s body language as a barometer of their mental states in this way, and how useful that information is to the trainer. That got me thinking about the idea of solving a problem by training incompatible behaviours. So for example if a horse is a bit toothy while you are working with them in the stable, you could train them to keep their nose on a target, which is obviously incompatible with them taking a swipe at your bum when you pick their feet out.

I recently purchased an Alex Kurland DVD where she is working with an Icelandic pony who has a fear of being saddled. She uses the head lowering as an incompatible behaviour both to help the pony calm down and relax, and as it is not a forward moving exercise, allows her to incrementally work towards saddling the horse.

Now I am a HUGE admirer of AK’s work, don’t get me wrong. However, there is just a niggling little question in the back of my head about how far we should mask one behaviour using another. If your horse is taking a swipe at your bum when you are picking his feet out, I would want to know why. Is he uncomfortable? Does he trust you enough to let you have his foot? Is this just the result of an unlistened to request beforehand? If we are teaching incompatible behaviours are we really solving problems, or are we just masking them, and actually creating conflict for the horse.

I could use head lowering to get a rug on Faith, but how far would I be able to tell how comfortable she was with the process? Would I potentially be setting up a conflict for her if she felt she couldn’t use her body to express how she felt, because I was asking her to do something else with it?

I don’t know the answer to this, but again it’s a potentially useful and powerful tool, but one that needs to be wielded with much thought and caution.

Like owner, like horse.....

Like owner, like horse...

I have just recovered from hysterics at my first sight of Faith having a roll. Judging by the state of her when she comes in from the field, particularly when we have had a bit of rain, I knew she liked to have a good roll.

However, today was the first time I have actually seen her doing it. At first I thought she was having a fit, then I thought she had been stung by the electric fence, then I realised that she was just making completely sure that she was covering herself with as much mud as is physically possible. She is a pretty grubby little filly at the best of times, despite being groomed every day and plastered with mane and tail conditioner. However, I think today she is putting in an extra special effort as we are expecting a guest this evening. This guest happens to be the proud owner of an Andalucian mare who is never anything other than immaculately groomed and turned out. The owner herself is a total glamour puss, and never goes near the stables without a full face of stunningly artistic makeup, a brand new set of nails, and top to toe designer equestrian gear, she even manages to smell glamorous for Pete’s sake!

Despite my best efforts, I have never been blessed with the ability to remain even vaguely smart or clean near horses. I had an absolutely tortuous childhood being forced to do every single tack and turnout class that myself and my motley ponies could be entered for, and I think I have been scarred for life. But it would appear that despite warning Faith that she needed to be as clean as possible for our visitor who is just ‘dying’ to meet her, my instructions have clearly been ignored. I think my best bet now is to go straight out into the field and have a roll around in the mud myself, and hope it acts as a kind of camouflage, so that my glamorous visitor fails to find me. Particularly if I stand next to my grubby filly!

Begin at the beginning...and relaaaaxxx!

I have been freshly inspired by watching my Alex Kurland DVDs recently, and am busy adding to my growing collection. I watched her Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder DVD the other day, and was deeply impressed, not only by the groundwork that was done but with the ridden work as well.

I have never paid much attention to the ridden bits before, but AK used them to show how building up the groundwork layer by layer develops into ridden work that is so smooth and fluid, and completely lacking in tension, unlike 99% of the riding you see today. I know there are people who have concerns relating to ridden clicker work, and rightly worry about setting up conflicts in training a horse to do something that might look good, but isn’t necessarily biomechanically correct or healthy. I do understand and sympathise with those concerns. I myself started riding with the clicker without really giving this any thought. However, seeing how AK’s ridden work is built on so many layers of groundwork, that the ridden work just seems to flow so naturally, and as I say, completely without tension. So I do think that with really, really thorough preparation, and the total elimination of tension through the many layers of groundwork, riding with the clicker can be a totally holistic and natural progression for horse and rider.

With this in mind, I decided to work on some of the stuff that AK does in her second DVD called ‘ground manners’. Basically what we were starting to look at was yielding the quarters and the forehand.

Now Faith will back up from a simple gesture to her chest, but she has not really learned to move her quarters or shoulders in response to light pressure. So, for once using the headcollar, and working in the stable, we started on the exercise where AK teaches the horse to back around the stable. The idea is that every time the horse approaches the corner, you gently ask the horse to flex to the outside (i.e. the wall), while still gently encouraging them back with a hand on the chest. The horse will then yield the quarters to the inside and step around. The idea is that this should become a smooth, fluid movement with the absolute minimum of pressure and zero tension on the part of the horse.

Now Faith was a little tense and suspicious at first, and we would get a little stuck on the corner. The idea is not to escalate the pressure, but just to hold the flexion in a relaxed, soft way and let the horse work out for itself that it needs to step around with the quarters. I felt that this relaxed, inert softness was very important, as the last thing I need is Faith to ‘ping’ back at me from a stable wall. So I gave her a slight clue in that her body was angled slightly so she wasn’t straight back into a wall or corner, and when asking for the flexion, I kept my body as soft, relaxed and inert as possible, and kept my eyes down. As soon as she even shifted her weight to the inside hind, I clicked, released the headcollar, stepped back so she had to come towards me, and gave her a treat.

After a couple of attempts going clockwise, she stepped round a full step on the corner, and I left it there, and repeated the lesson anti clockwise. Again, after she had given me one lovely big step around with her quarters, we left it there.

I gave her a couple of minutes to think about all that while I gave her a little brush, then I did little work with a slightly different version of yielding the quarters. This time I stood her up in the middle of the stable, and gently asked her to flex to the right, I then pointed to her hip, directing my energy, and just inertly softly held that position until she stepped through and under with her right hind and moved over. As soon as she gave me that step, I clicked, released the headcollar, stepped back and treated. Same again on the other side, and we were done.
So we will carry on until that single step is relaxed and fluid, and we will build on it bit, by bit, by bit. Always in the back of my head is AK saying “Tension is your horse’s enemy”. Not a bad mantra to bear in mind I think.

Never underestimate your horse!

I mentioned a post or so ago about how I thought I had been making cone work a bit too easy for Faith. This was brought home to me yesterday when we were working with the cone in the stable. I had decided that I would no longer keep my toe on the base of the cone to prevent it falling over, thus hoping to shape a more accurate attempt by Faith to pick it up.

Well I don’t know why I had bothered keeping my toe on the cone in the first place. Yes she did knock it over, but she simply picked it up very delicately by one of the flimsy corners and presented it to me in the most smug manner she could summon.

At that moment, I was reminded of something I had recently read in one of Marthe Kiley-Worthington’s books. She was discussing the relationship that people often have with their horses, and she mentioned the existence of a kind of ‘mother-child’ relationship. By this she means that people often treat their horses as if they are in a kind of perpetual childhood, and treat them as if they are infants with limited intellectual or problem solving skills.

I have certainly been guilty of this, and will almost certainly continue to do it to a certain extent, even though my horses seem to point out to me on a daily basis that they are intelligent beings, capable of impressive problem solving skills.

Hopefully if I continue with clicker training long enough, my horses will be able to shape my behaviour and bring about a satisfactory change...in a completely positive way of course!

Horse vs Machine

One thing that constantly amazes me about Faith is her boundless curiosity. My other two neds have pretty much seen everything, and frankly if something isn’t at least as interesting as the grass in front of their faces, then it isn’t worth bothering about.

However, Faith has to investigate absolutely everything. We had an amusing incident with the tractor the other week. Michael was moving a pallet of bedding on to the yard using the forks on the back of the tractor. He had to drive through the front paddock to get to the yard, and the horses just happened to be in there.

Tilly and Tommy have long found tractors, and farm machinery in general incredibly boring, and barely spare it a passing glance. Faith however thought that the tractor was the most interesting thing ever, and totally prevented Michael’s progress across the field by standing directly in front of him, blocking his path. Once satisfied about the front of the tractor, she proceeded to explore every bit of it that she could reach, going around the back and up the other side. Only when she was satisfied, did she let Michael continue on his way, and even then followed him across the paddock until I closed the yard gates behind him.

Well today we had a delivery of 16 telegraph poles. They arrived on the back of a vast articulated lorry, which had a massive crane and a grab. I shut the horses in the front paddock next to the road while the driver unloaded the telegraph poles on to the railway line. Well all the time the poles were being unloaded, I could see Faith straining to get her head and neck as far over the fence as she could to inspect the delivery as it was being made. I am hoping that this natural curiosity and fearlessness of machinery will stand us in good stead when we eventually start hacking around the machine infested countryside of the Fens!

Some thinking time....

This morning I decided to return to Velcro desensitisation, as well as doing a bit more cone work. I am a great believer in latent learning, so I hoped that Faith would have been processing our last few efforts with Velcro, and be feeling more relaxed about things.

As the weather is nice and quiet at the moment, we are taking the opportunity to work mainly on the yard, which is great. So I started ripping the Velcro, and clicking for Faith standing nice and still, which she generally does. I do this on quite a quick repetition, so that Faith can have a really high rate of reinforcement for it. So Faith is fine with it when I stand by her head, by her shoulder or by her tummy. What I really want to be able to do is rest it on her and rip the Velcro. So we worked up to that, I rested the fly mask on her shoulder, ripped the Velcro, and she skipped away. Too much Mum, don’t like that. OK then, I stood by her shoulder, did a few more rips while she stood quietly, and moved on to cone work.

Now I have probably done cone work with Faith maybe five or six times, compared to the twenty or so times I have done Velcro desensitisation with her. This morning her strike rate for picking up the cone and giving it to me was 100%! Brilliant! Now having said that, we still have some refinements to make. The behaviour is not on cue (at least not an intentional cue that I am giving), so the behaviour is not completely under control yet. Also because my cones are really light, I keep my toe on the corner of the base so she doesn’t knock it over, this means her strike rate can be higher, and consequently the rate of reinforcement is higher, which motivates her.

I need to revise my policy on this, as dealing with frustration and developing emotional control is something Faith needs to work on. I am of course bearing in mind that she is only just two years old, so I am not judging her too harshly, still it is a lesson that is best learned sooner rather than later. At the moment she deals with her frustration by giving me her ‘big’ shoulder and getting close to walking into me. She does this quite slowly, and I simply back her up by gesturing at her chest, and when she backs up a couple of steps out of my space, she gets rewarded, and we start again. There is nothing aggressive about it, but she is just clearly telling me that she doesn’t enjoy not getting it right, and finds it frustrating. So yes, I need to allow her to get it wrong a bit more, so that she becomes OK with that. In a sense, I have sacrificed that part of building the behaviour, in order to help get that behaviour established, and now I need to go back and address that.

But I couldn’t help thinking that even factoring all those points in, Faith has learned to pick up a cone faster than she has learned to accept Velcro. Now I wonder why that is. I have noticed that her body language is totally different between doing cone stuff and doing Velcro stuff. If I’m honest with myself when we are doing Velcro stuff, her weight is almost always on her outside fore, and she is looking away slightly. She is prepared to stay (and she is at liberty, so doesn’t have to), but in her heart of hearts, she would rather go. It also might be that cone work is just more fun for her because it is very interactive, (she is doing something, rather than having something done to her), so she is really in more control of the situation. It also might be that I am generally more relaxed about the cone work, because let’s face it, it really doesn’t matter if Faith can’t pick up a small plastic cone, but it kind of does matter if she can’t accept a rug. So maybe I am just giving off unconscious signals of tension when doing the rug stuff.

So what to do about it? Well firstly I am going to stop getting my knickers in a twist about rugs. I am going to buy a cheapy one like Tilly and Tommy’s rainsheets, that has no Velcro, and will more than adequately keep her dry. If I can’t use the ‘posh’ rugs till she is three four or five, then who cares, as long as she is healthy and dry somehow.

I am also going to keep up the work with Velcro, but slow it right down to ensure that she is totally relaxed with it, according to what I pick up from her body language.

So this brings me neatly on to the usefulness of teaching what I call ‘daft things’. Now I am not a fan of trick training, I have always been open about that. By that, I mean I don’t like the idea of teaching horses to do stuff that is essentially a human activity. For example, Alex Kurland (who I very much admire) shows horses who are trained to pick a paper out of a letter box, or put a basket ball through a hoop. I don’t really like that, as it seems to be trying to teach the horse to be a kind of pseudo-human, and I like horses to be horses, because their non-humanness is one reason why I like them so much! I feel the same about teaching dogs tricks as well.

Anyhow, there are some ‘daft things’ (such as picking up a cone) which I think can be ethically taught, because it is fun for the horse, it teaches them how to learn, and also it teaches the trainer how to teach. This is what I have found with Faith’s cone work. In itself it is a useless activity, however, when comparing it to the other stuff that I am teaching (e.g. rug stuff), it has been useful to compare and contrast not only the results, but the processes themselves. For example, the cone work has highlighted the need to help Faith with emotional control, that it is a good time to start teaching her about yielding her shoulders and quarters. It has helped to introduce carrot stretches, it has highlighted that being able to help the horse feel that they are in control of their training, makes them more confident, which in turn speeds up the learning process. It has also made me aware of things like the correct mechanics of treat delivery, and the importance of incorporating failure into the learning process, or rather, allowing it to be part of the process.

This will then inform and develop my training when it comes to the more ’important stuff’, and hopefully make it a more pleasurable and fruitful process for both Faith and I.

Multi-tasking training!

Multi-tasking training!

I have never made any claims of being a domestic goddess, or even an averagely efficient woman, and my beloved husband constantly teases me about having a short concentration span. However, today I hit upon an ingenious plan for multi-tasking training.

The aim of our recent rug desensitising sessions has been to get Faith used to the feeling of the rug on her back when she moves. We have had some limited success with this as it has been either a bit too windy on the yard, therefore limiting us to the stable, or I have been too poorly to do stuff with the rug adequately.

Now today it was a lovely calm evening, and I am slightly less of a snot monster than I have been, so I decided to do some rug stuff on the yard, and...now here’s the ingenious bit...combine it with some ‘picking up the cone’ stuff, to get her moving around a bit more. Tah dah!

Well it worked really well, and she was concentrating so hard on the cone that we really improved on yesterday’s work, with the added bonus that she was also wearing the summer sheet as well. We carried on like this for nearly ten minutes, with Faith backing and coming forward, and stretching down while wearing the rug.

But this is of course the real world, and my chooks happened to come around the corner making a bit of a fuss. This got Faith a little worried and I could see her ears flicking back to the rug, and her mouth became a little tense. So I quickly undid the rug and slid it off before it became an issue. Once the chooks were out the way, I popped the rug back on her for a few minutes and rewarded her for standing quietly, then took it off again, and we returned to ‘naked cone stuff’, and again she did really well.

So I think we shall carry on in this way for a few sessions until the rug becomes completely incidental. I am pleased with today’s progress though. Well done Faith!