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!