Rewarding The Wrong Behaviors

By Neversummer May 8, 2021 Clicker training No Comments

My daughter is brilliant. I know all parents think that. You’ll just have to take my word on it.

My son is sweet, and darling, and a bit of a handful. He is emotional and tends towards full blown fits.

I like to think we manage to avoid issues most of the time with preventive maintenance. His sister likes to push his buttons though and is very literal in her interpretations and upset when he isn’t. It leads to meltdowns. I admit to asking her more often than I probably should, why she had to do that! Couldn’t she just let him be?

I admit also that I give him what he wants more than I should just to get him to stop. I know it’s wrong, I know the behavior that is being encouraged. I know better. But the screaming! Sometimes there are things you do to survive.

He’s a great kid, but pointing out the good qualities doesn’t help us to the point of this story.

His sister sits back watching as we try to avert meltdowns, or at least get hi to stop a tantrum. Then she looks at me with her big serious eyes and says “You just reinforced that behavior. Stop giving him what he wants when he cries and whines because that’s reinforcing him to do it”. You don’t know judgement until you’ve seen it from an eight year old who knows better. The horse groups on facebook are nothing in comparison.

With her strong positive punishment I am learning to do a better job of holding out and waiting until he does something that I want repeated and rewarding that.

Who knew this would be so hard. I’ll take horses any day over trying to train children. If only we could turn them out to pasture when we’re done playing. It would make child rearing a LOT easier.

Chewing

By Neversummer May 5, 2021 Rusty No Comments

Have you ever sat and watched your horse eat?

It’s an amazingly enjoyable activity. Unlike people chewing a horses chewing is soothing and peaceful.

More than that though, it’s amazing to watch how they can sort anything that they don’t want out. First with their sensitive agile lips as the tear pieces of grass from the ground. The if any stray pieces have made it into their mouths they carefully spit it out the side as they chew. Coarse pieces of grass, leaves they don’t want to eat. In the process of chewing they slip out the ides of the lips without effort and seemingly without thought. Most of the time, nothing makes to to a horses belly that they don’t very much mean to make it there.

Watching horses eat can be an educational undertaking in other ways too. We can see what foods they like to eat, which grasses are tastiest. What plants are good. We can tell the basic condition of their teeth, if they are able to get a healthy bits and if the chewing process is efficient.

It never hurts to take the time to sit with your horses and watch them eat.

 

 

Roping

By Neversummer April 28, 2021 Rusty No Comments

I got on Rusty for the first time today. He’s been feeling so good with his new shoes I thought I’d go ahead and ride him back from his time out to graze the yard.

It was so great to be back I decided we’d do a little roping.

He was willing but didn’t think I had the roping dummy set properly. Once he readjusted the dummy that I had placed badly roping practice went great. He hadn’t lost his touch while he’s been off work.

Single Center Whorl

By Neversummer April 27, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments

For the Horse Whorl Page

The single center whorl is the most misunderstood whorl there is.

Most people look at the single whorl and expect to find a dependable, trustworthy horse, uncomplicated and the thing to look for in a horse.

And that is true. Sometimes. Maybe even most of the time.

The whorl only gives us a small piece of the picture though. Especially when it is a whorl that tells us almost nothing. When the whorl is a single center we have to look at the head shape to get any idea of temperament.

When the single center whorl is on a head with a straight profile, large jowls, and wide set ears, then yes, the horse will be everything we expect from a single center whorl.

Sometimes I will talk to people who can’t figure out why their horse with a single center whorl isn’t fitting the expectations. When I see a picture of the horse from the side there are large bumps between the eyes, deeply dished profile, or some other extreme that throws the idea of a single center whorl being quiet and dependable out the window.

While it is good to look for a single center whorl if you are looking for an uncomplicated horse it isn’t the only thing to look for. All parts of the horse need to be taken into consideration.

New Shoes

By Neversummer April 24, 2021 Rusty No Comments

Today was a big day for Rusty. He got his first ever pair of shoes.

A year ago Rusty had a little funder episode. It wasn’t a normal sort of founder, no grass or grain involved. The vets didn’t have any idea. A farrier told me about cold weather founder, when they get sore when the weather gets cold. It was the only thing that fit. Rusty was back to normal within a couple of days.

I thought we had gotten away without any problems.

This winter he got sore again.

With some long distance help from a very good farrier friend I was able to get him comfortable. But he needed more. She said shoes would probably be a good thing. Wanting my horse to be sound and comfortable again I could clearly see that something more drastic had to be done and went in search of a farrier.

I was able to find a man who used to trim for me and the man I trained with years and years ago. I begged and pleaded for hi to please take a look at my horse. As with all good farriers he was booked and for as long as I have known him, not taking new clients. He’s an extremely nice guy though and agreed to meet me closer to where he would be seeing clients, in two weeks. It was a long time to wait but with trimming guidance from my friend, I would send her hoof pictures, she would tell me where to take more off, Rusty was comfortable and waiting two weeks was doable.

We met at the fairgrounds. He was there first. I had already broken one key rule of any farrier client relationship. I made him wait. I felt awful, he was nice about it.

We unloaded and he set to work. Rusty was beautifully behaved. Unfazed by the new location and people.

Dave, the farrier, said he would recommend shoes. I said I was expecting that and was happy with whatever it would  take to get his feet back in order and sound again.

That quick little founder last winter hadn’t left hm untouched after all. The hoof wall was distorted and separating.  It had happened so slowly and without lameness that I hadn’t noticed until he finally did come up sore and the hoof was growing out straight at the top. Then everything started to look like a train wreck all at once.

The kids watched in fascination as he pounded the shoe into shape. Rusty stood quietly, impatient and bored, but good. He took the hammering well with me clicking and shoving cookies in his mouth the whorl time. Dave was understanding and curious about the clicking and the training we do. We discussed how his wife gives her 16.2 hand gelding a cookie every time she gets on and has used that to teach him to stand still as she climbs on.

I enjoyed a discussion on feeding treats with a very good trainer who trains completely different than I do and still has no trouble giving treats.

By the time he was done we had caught up on old times and Rusty’s feet looked ten times better. We’ll be keeping this up for the next year or so and then, hopefully Rusty’s feet will be back to normal!

Burrs

By Neversummer April 22, 2021 Heildorf 1 Comment

I turned the horses out in the tree row to get some grazing on the nice green grass. I ran a bit of electric fence, just enough to give them a small corner. It’s not plugged in but I wont tell them that 😉

They were there for half an hour tops. Just long enough for me to run out through the cows. Look at the new calf. Stop to say hi to Ghost. I came back to this. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon digging burrs out of their manes, tails, and forelocks instead of working with them.

Was it worth it?

Maybe not.

More Snow

By Neversummer April 19, 2021 Clicker training No Comments

It snowed again.

Good because we need every drop of moisture we can get. Bad because it’s cold and wet. I’ll take it though.

We had a calf born in the cold and snow. His mom went off and left him. He was alright, just hungry. We brought them both up to the barn, put her in the chute so he could get a meal but he had been too long without food and couldn’t figure out what to do. We let the mom out and bottle fed him. Our daughter is getting big enough she was able to help with that. It’s always been a bit intimidating for her. This time she held the bottle while we tried to show him how to swallow with no trouble. It worked and now he’s back with his mom and she finally wants him.

Feeding gets interesting in the snow. The wet melting snow works like glue sticking the bits of ground hay to the windows of the feed truck making seeing impossible. The windows have to stay up to keep it all out and then they fog over on the inside. It makes life interesting.

After feeding I walked back to the house, stopping along the way to visit the horses. I’ve been remembering to bring a treat bag along. I can give a couple to the goats and keep them from going completely feral. I can visit Poppy and ask for a couple of tricks from Ghost. And most importantly, I can stop like this and get a few minutes of horse time.

Rusty has learned his group manners perfectly. He knows he will get his turn if he stands in one spot and waits patiently. Lady is only barely brave enough to join the others in the line up. Harvey runs after me, he can’t control himself enough to wait his turn. As I get to each one they are asked to perform one behavior, they get a cookie and I go to the next. Back and forth, up and down the line. I get plenty if exercise because they can’t stand close together to do this.

For Rusty I’m working on stimulus control. I appreciate him offering a sound YES and saying ‘thank you’ but only when I ask. For now he is mostly rewarded for being still. Harvey I’m happy with just holding his quivering over excited little body still. When Lady is brave enough to come up we work on treat manners. Heildorf offers smiles and kisses. They are sweet but I torture him by stepping onto the feed bunk. He bolts then comes back for a treat. I hope the repetition will sooth him. Instead he stops coming back to the fence and we go back to smiles and kisses.

Inside the house in the snow and cold we pass some of the time playing computer games with the children. We are starting new characters in World of Warcraft. I’m willing to play because there are pretty horses. The kids want to know why it’s so easy to play these entry level characters. My husband, who is truly brilliant and actually listens to me when I talk, tells them it’s like positive reinforcement. They are teaching us to play by thin slicing, small easy steps, and rewarding us as we accomplish them.
Then he turns to me and says they really are training us aren’t they?!

I said yes. If they do it right we will be like the horses standing in their pens begging us to come let them out to play! Just then my son said “I want to play!!” and confirmed their training.

Apparently they don’t talk about how they are being trained in the gaming world.Not the same way we talk about how games are a good example of training in the positive reinforcement training world.