First Day Of Training
I would say this was the first day of training for Amarillo and Harvey but really they’ve been training since they got here. What better way to show two new, unsure horses that I am a good fun person than to start loading the clicker? I click then treat and repeat. By the end of their first day here they were starting to come when called.
This morning I strapped on my shiny new GoPro, grabbed my target and a bag of treats and went to find the horses. Unfortunately they were on the far side of the corral. on the other side of a pen full of waist high weeds covered in thick morning dew. There are few things in life worse than wet jeans. I braved it anyway. Following one of the many horse trails that meander throughout I made it to them staying mostly dry.
When I got close I called to them. They looked and stood. Finally Harvey started my way. Such a good pretty boy. When he got to me I clicked and treated him, Amarillo was quick to follow. I turned and they followed quietly behind back to the front corrals.
I separated them. It was a little upsetting. They were quickly shut behind their separate gates. Amarillo wandered off to explore corrals he had not yet seen. Harvey was less chill. I had wanted to work over a different gate, but, this was the one closest to Amarillo. And it worked. He wanted his buddy to come back but he likes food a lot too. He figured out the target and click thing very quickly. I may have another Rusty on my hands. He was very enthusiastic.
I left Harvey after a few good goes and walked over to Amarillo. He had come back to the gate and was hanging out watching. Until the target came close. Then he nearly left. Who knew a tennis ball on the end of a curtain rod would be so scary. He finally overcame his fear of the terrifying tennis ball and figured out what we were talking about. He got the targeting down nicely without the excess enthusiasm Harvey had.
I went back and forth a few times between them then forced myself to quit. This is my first time starting from the beginning and doing it right. With Rusty I had no clue what I was doing and we started somewhere in the middle. With these two I am determined to do it right. It was a great first go and I cant wait to play with them again.
Unfortunately the video is to long to load hear. Lets see if this works https://www.facebook.com/309985332692651/videos/661619447529236/
very interesting! Cant wait to see what you are doing. Sadly the link doesn’t work for me. Are they on your youtube account?
It was just to the video on the facebook page. Nothing overly interesting. The last time I did it though it put the video up. I wish these dang computer things could be consistent.