We are doing a ball challenge over in the Academy. Everyone who wants to contribute a video of their horse playing ball will be included in a group video for all of us to share.
I was able to convince my daughter to come play with me. She has been having fun stealing my gopro and making then editing videos of her adventures around the farm. I thought she might like to edit this one and maybe she will do her own take on it. For now this is mine.
We had company over to play yesterday!
A neighbor girl came over. She has her own horses and is a very good horseperson. We worked on some ground work with Heildorf. Touched on the basics of starting clicker training, ground manners, targeting, that sort of thing. Then she went to playing with Heildorf. They played with smile, Spanish walk, and pedestal work.
She was doing such a great job I threw her up on Rusty for even more fun. We practiced riding basics, good hand position, leg yield, body position to get a good back without the reins. She did great. Rusty gets frustrated easily but was very patient with us.
It was a fun day and I hope that I get another play date soon. It’s no fair that they are mostly limited to the children 😉
I went out to check the tank in the cows pasture last week. The flies have been awful this year. Most of the herd was huddled together swatting flies, in or out of the pond.
All of them except Ghost. She isn’t really included in the herd. She came running up to me as I shut the 4wheeler off, begging me to help her.
I ran my hands down her back, brisket, and legs, smashing as many flies as I could. Rubbing away the pain of the fly bites. Scratching where it itched. She knew I would help her. She trusts me to take care of her and do my best to fix whatever problems she had.
Two of the horses wandered off the other day. I had let them both out to graze, together instead of only one at a time like usual. There is only one unfenced path out of the yard. I don’t worry a whole lot about them leaving. I don’t think there would have been a problem but those same flies, driving everything crazy. They wandered farther than usual and got themselves on the wrong side of an electric fence.
They were not happy and wanted back. They wanted back bad.
As soon as I realized what was going on I rushed to save them. In sandals and carrying one halter because I didn’t want to take the time to grab another. Ducking under the fence I called and they came running to me, begging to be saved. They came with such enthusiasm I thought my toes would never survive the saving. They knew they could trust me to take care of them and do my best to fix whatever problems they had.
With one horse haltered and the other following close on his heels we dropped the fence they followed me across the scary wire and back to the others.
Trust is such an important part of our relationships with our animals. Do they know that we will only do what is best for them or are they more afraid of us than of the scary things in life?
If we can get our animals to do what we want because they fear us then we wont be able to get them the help they need when the other things are scarier. If we can get our animals to do what we ask because they want to and they trust us to take care of them, they will run to us, instead of away, when they need help.
The kids wanted to ride last night. It’s been awhile and took quite a bit of time to get saddle and cinches, and children sorted.
It made me think through all the steps we take in the process of getting ready to ride. Thinking of +R as something that we do once in the saddle to help improve communication as we ride is limiting and only a small piece of the picture.
We’ve all heard the stories of horses who blow up when the cinch is tightened, as in holding their breath so the cinch stays loose, but also the stories of horses who blow up as in throw themselves to the ground or over backwards. Then there are the ones who wont stand at the mounting block or walk off as the person swings into the saddle. We can use +R to help with those issues too.
First and foremost making sure there are no pain issues and that we are tightening the cinch/girth slowly and politely is the most important. Once those are taken care of we can add a click and a treat to make the whole saddling process more enjoyable.
To start with I like to click and treat my horse as I add each piece of tack. Set the blanket on their back, click treat. Saddle, click treat. Check and adjust the cinch on the off side, click treat. Tighten cinch in slow increments, click and treat for each adjustment.
This may seem like a lot of clicking for one small action. I have horses who came with very bad associations with being saddled and ridden. With a few extra treats we can change that association from bad to something they look forward to or at least tolerate willingly.
I want my children to learn to get on and off by themselves and I want my horses to line up to the mounting block and wait patiently and willingly for me. To help with both of these I never skip a treat when getting on. Line up to mounting block, click treat. Swing into the saddle, or no saddle, click treat. My kids struggle into the saddle, shove cookies in as fast as the horses can eat them through the whole mounting process. This not only teaches them to stand happily for mounting but keeps them from walking off because they are waiting for the treat they know is coming!
Then there are all the ‘scary’ things you come across as you ride. For me it is usually children, both in the saddle and on the ground. They bounce and flop and make lots of noise. If we add a treat to go with all those scary things they do the scary things quickly change from scary to a sign that a treat will soon be coming.
It is tins of fun and a great thing to refine our riding as much as we can. It is also important not to over look the mundane things along the way as we get there though. Don’t skimp on the cookies as you get to the riding part.
This may look like a 4wheeler innocently sitting in the trailer. What it really is is one of my greatest fears taunting me.
Backing a 4wheeler out of a trailer terrifies me. I would rather work on loading, or unloading, the rankest of horses. Those ramps. The lack of control. The thought of backing one out of the back of a pickup, way up high instead if the small drop from the trailer, makes me break out in a cold sweat.
Unfortunately for me, I have pasture to check. Cattle and water tanks need to be checked every couple of days, three days tops. I can either bounce a pickup clear out around the pasture using far more gas and putting lots of wear and tear on a pickup. Or I can bring the 4wheeler, make a much quicker trip, use less gas, use a vehicle that is made to bounce around the pastures. I need to use the 4wheeler. I need to get over my fear.
I’m not going to do that by forcing myself to do it. Telling myself that my fears are stupid, I’m obviously in no danger isn’t going to be of much use either.
Instead I go through careful and stringent safety procedures. I double check ramp placement. I double check that wheels are lined up. I do everything in my power to make sure it is safe.
I only do what I’m comfortable with. There’s no way I can haul it over in a pickup and back it our of the bed. So I don’t try. I can slowly and carefully handle the low trailer, so I do.
What does any of this have to do with horses?
Everything!
If we are scared to do something with a horse it does us no good to do it while we are trembling in fear. Being told our fears are stupid doesn’t help either.
The most useful things we can do are to stay safe, prepare carefully, and slowly build up to where we are afraid so we can accustom ourselves to what we are facing and become more prepared as we get there. Once we work on all these things we may find that the thing formerly so scary is not as scary anymore. I backed out of this trailer today, after carefully double checking everything, without the usual lump in my throat! Pickup bed here we come!
A good friend and I put on a trick training clinic last week. I’ve been meaning to write about it ever since. Haven’t had time to come up for air much less have time to write though.
I had agreed to do it two years ago. Covid got in the way last year. This year camp was a go and the clinic was back on.
My friend Heather agreed to come along and help me. Without her it wouldn’t have worked. We split the groups up. She taught one trick I taught another. Between us we were able to give people almost enough attention to keep them interested. Her better than me. She was great at in person training. Not so sure I am.
Rusty and Heildorf came along and gave a demo as we got started. As soon as we unloaded they were set upon by nose flies. Again! I couldn’t believe it. They usually only last a week. Of course both clinics would fall in that week. Between that and the new place Rusty was crazed. Head in the air he bounced around, reverting somewhat to his old running people over self. I tied them both to the trailer and got the scarf I had along to do ‘sneeze’. Draping it over the nose band of the halter I used it to cover his nose and keep him safe from flies.
He looked like a lovely harem girl but it calmed him down enough that he was able to focus. We did some practicing. He remembered he was a big boy and had some education. Fortunately. A whole day like that would have been awful. I was called over to the arena so they could introduce the clinicians. His nose protection had to come off.
While there I talked to a lady who said she had some insect wipes that did a pretty good job with nose flies. She’d drop them off for me. As I walked back to the trailer the first group followed me. I was totally unprepared. Forgot my chicken and my handkerchief/nose fly protection. There were tons of people in the first group! Or it seemed that way as I tried to start. Remembered all I hadn’t loaded up with. Tried to remember what I had planned to say anyway.
Somehow we made it through. Not sure how or what I said. Fortunately after that Heather got there to help me out. Also after that first great experience I remember to stuff my pockets with rubber chickens and handkerchiefs. Such important training tools 😉
My main take aways from the whole hot, windy day were the number of people who had no problem at all with feeding their horses treats. We are in far western Nebraska. This is ranch country. Some of the people there lived in town and had horses they board somewhere. Most of them were ranchers. That means cowboys. There is a bit of a reputation that goes with that of being rough with horses. People like to say mean things sometimes, especially in clicker training circles.
Out of this whole bunch, almost seventy 4h kids actually entered in the camp and any accompanying parents, there was one family who said they “didn’t want to ruin their horse, he’s a ranch horse” about feeding treats. I’m sure there were others. They quietly drifted away though, to sit in the shade or find things that did interest them. That worked out perfectly. It gave us more time to concentrate on the ones who were interested. The ones who had already taught their horses a few tricks, the ones who wanted to learn how to teach a trick, the ones we may have been able to plant a seed in that will begin to grow when they are ready.
One delightful grandma, there with her grandchildren and obviously an experienced horse woman, asked Heather why I was telling people to use scratches instead of treats? When told that many people didn’t like to hand feed horses, she scoffed. “Why would anyone worry about something like that?” They fed treats all the time, she couldn’t believe there were people who wouldn’t. That did prove to be true throughout the day. Hand feeding wasn’t a problem. Tricks weren’t a problem. The only problem was time to get to everyone. Time to get the idea of what we were trying to do across.
I had planned on trying to push the idea that we use the same training we use for tricks no matter what we are training. Not sure that got across. We may have some horses who pick up their feet better than they did before from our work on the simple bow.
I know we had many parents who got great photo opps from Heather’s work in teaching hug. Those parents quickly understood the purpose behind it as they rushed to get pictures. Oohing and awing over their children and horses.
By the end of the day Rusty had had enough. He was hot and bored. He was done roping, he was done Spanish walking. Our demo was fairly well pointless. Which is unfortunate because the last group of the day were the ones who really got the idea and managed to teach the basic tricks best of all. It might also be that Heather and I were reaching our stride and getting the idea of the teaching down pat. It was more likely that it was the oldest group and they were able to do the training. There were a few girls who had a simple bow down by the end of the day!
I go tasked to do a little clinic for 4h. I love the idea of 4h, even if I can not figure out how to do it for anything. So I happily accepted.
The day of the clinic dawned HOT. I was sick to my stomach, because having to do anything with, or especially in front of, people makes me so nervous I can hardly stand it. The pickup with plenty of room and air conditioning had broken down the day before.
We squeezed into the front of the trusty old single cab pickup. It roared on down the road, happy to be out of fence checking duty.
At the arena with time to get the one shady spot, set up, and get the horses used to the new place we waited.
In no time at all pickups and trailers started pulling in. Not a large number but a good amount for us to practice in front of for our big clinic coming up in a couple of days!
Children, big and small, new to horses and life long riders came leading their horses. A local horsewoman who is very active in local horse activities and a great roll model to the youth in the area came with her husband. She is a great person and a great friend, I was happily surprised to see them pull in.
We got down to business.
I had been practicing a routine at home with Rusty and Heildorf. Last month. Before kids got out of school, cows needed to go to pasture, and summer activities took all my spare time. We’d had two times to go through it in the days before the clinic. I found many places where my mind went completely blank. I took guesses and forgot my balloon popping on the bridge altogether!
Oh well. They were forgiving. Now we have two days to practice before we do it in front of much larger less forgiving groups. Gulp.
After the demo we got started. The official theme of the day was over coming fear. I hadn’t practiced anything but figured I knew my stuff well enough to improvise. The trusty curtain rack was the toy for us to play with. We took turns going through, practicing stopping to reassure our horses, not forcing, offering lots of rewards.
I had planned on talking about how we can use scratches as a reward, and did, but everyone there was very happy to feed treats!
One girl had been working on teaching her stout enthusiastic 24 year old horse to kiss! I told her we could work more on that is she’d like. Then never got a chance to 🙁 It’s so hard to get to everything!
The horsewoman and her husband do clicker training! A mixed bag of clicker and Parelli. Their horses were getting clicked and treated like crazy. Two sisters there because their whole family is new to horses were m ore than happy to offer their horses food as a reward for their good behavior. My best friend who came along for support and to offer her help, which was priceless, was willing and interested.
Out here in the middle of nowhere, ranch and cowboy country, we had a clinic of random riders who were all interested in rewarding with treats, interested in tricks, and in no way bothered by the idea of using positive reinforcement. How cool is that. We get a bit of a bad rep among positive reinforcement people. Many people seem to think that the cowboy type is rough and tumble, bucking horses out, and forcing them to their will. I’m not going to say that type isn’t out there. It’s there no matter where you go in the horse world. It’s not all there is though!
There was a message from the school saying that the first act of the talent show would be outside.
I didn’t dare to hope that there might be a horse involved. It’s a rural school, lots of kids have horses. It wouldn’t be too odd if some child had decided to bring a horse.
I pulled up to the parking lot and there was a stock trailer parked in the place I always take when I have a trailer on. It was looking good, odds were it was a horse! As I walked in there were parents standing outside the door to the auditorium holding a lovely little palomino paint pony. When I pulled my daughter away from her class to change clothes for the act she was a part of she told me that a friend from her class was going to do tricks with her pony! Her pony was way better than my horses and could rear! This I couldn’t wait to see.
We all gathered around outside the school and a tiny little blond girl lead the pony out. She was darling and smaller then the pony. She had no trouble holding onto him and despite some nervousness at the crowd he did exactly as she asked. Together they showed his well balanced and controlled rear then a beautiful bow. It was great seeing a small child having no problem asking this difficult tricks of her nicely behaved pony.
Of course after the presentation I went over and said hi. The mom had trained the pony and was happy to have such a wonderful little guy around for the kids. He knows more tricks and I can’t wait to get to see them! This poor family isn’t getting rid of me so easily.