Rescuing Rusty

Another post I’m writing here to add to the Academy page. This month the theme is riding with +R.

I was lucky to be able to haul two horses out for a lesson yesterday. Even luckier that the lesson got to be with a trainer who, as well as being a very skilled trainer and rider, also uses positive reinforcement. If anyone hasn’t met Andrea I highly recommend checking out her page. She’s always sharing great training advice and it’s fun to see the horses she’s working on. You can find her here https://www.facebook.com/millshorsemanshipandhoofcare/

Taking lessons can be difficult when trainer and trainee don’t follow the same training principles. Some people get outright upset at the thought of feeding food while riding, or at all. Finding a trainer who is willing to allow you to train your own horse in the way that you want to is one of the most important things we need to look for in  a riding instructor. Many trainers who don’t do clicker training, or positive reinforcement themselves will still be willing to wait a moment while you reward with a treat or even get in on the game and point out places where you should be clicking.

Because we didn’t have to worry about whether we agreed on using a clicker or not, she had her own treat bag strapped on all through the lesson, we were able to get right down to business.

I was hoping to get through a few anxiety issues with Heildorf and she immediately put him to sleep with the tapping techniques she’s been working on. So we left him to sleep and got Rusty.

Rusty and I don’t have any problem areas we needed to work through so we began a basic dressage lesson to see if she could find any major holes and offer us specific things to work on.

We worked at a walk, if there are holes there then there’s no reason to start trotting. Stretching and bending were a great starting place. Being able to click him and let him know exactly where and what he offered that was what we were looking for made short work of each separate piece allowing us to move forward quickly. Andrea could instruct, I could help him find the place, and click  him for it as soon as he got there. Knowing exactly what we wanted helped him know what to offer. He could go straight back to the correct movement and avoid any stress, he gets very upset when he doesn’t understand exactly what is being asked of him. If we don’t recognize the signs he gives showing his upset it would escalate or he would quit offering all he has to give.

We were able to cover lots of ground quickly. Finding proper movement and position is LOTS of work for a horse who is out of shape. By letting him find the right thing quickly then  rest, he was able to do the work without wearing out and souring.

The lesson was wonderful and being able to click and reward him all the way through made it fun for both of us. Riding should be as enjoyable for the horse as we are able to make it. Endless drilling without any reward for the right answer is no fun for anyone.

Our treat delivery is a very important and often over looked part of our training.

We make a contract with our horses that when we click they get a treat. It is the foundation rule of positive reinforcement. Breaking that rule can break the trust and ruin our training.

Even if we give a treat every time we can still earn their mistrust if we don’t practice good treat delivery. As soon as we click, not before but immediately after, our hand should be in our treat bag preparing to deliver.

If we have to take the time to unfasten the carrier, if we fumble about dropping treats, if we get distracted, all these things can cause stress for our horses and make them less eager to work with us. We need to work on and practice a smooth clean delivery.

That same premise applies to riding with positive reinforcement.

The positioning is different than it is on the ground. I like to use different treats when riding because of this. My usual hay pellets are hard for me to feed, a bigger single cookie is easier for me to feed without dropping.

Horses can get over excited reaching for their treats if we don’t work on good positioning from the saddle like we do on the ground. Throwing their heads in the air and stumbling backwards looking for a treat is no fun when we are sitting on their backs.

It is important for us to keep hands low and reach well forward to make it easier for them to reach. Bracing an elbow on your knee can help keep everything stead and in a good position too. If you can reach that way. Switching sides that you feed on keeps your horse stretched evenly on both sides. A light tap with your fingers or a scratch on the neck can serve as a signal to your horse to know which side to expect the treat from.

Poor feeding position and over excitement in the horse can easily lead to fingers getting nipped.

In this video it was one of Harvey’s first times having me sit on his back. I wasn’t practicing good positioning and he was VERY excited about getting his cookie! The second part is a slightly later ride. I was doing a better job with my offering which helped him to calm down and placed his head an a more comfortable position.

While it is important to be organized physically, to have everything in its place and to have a schedule to follow, it is also important to be organized mentally in our training. 🧠

⭐ Knowing where we are going next in our training and how we plan to get there is one of the most important things we can do. ⭐

It can be fun to go out and see what our horse has in mind, to see what he wants to do and is going to be good at and go from  there. Letting our horse lead us can be one of the most rewarding things we can do.

But.

While it is important to keep play as an integral part of training and let the horse shine in the areas he is skilled and willing,  without a clear plan in mind even this can become stressful.

If we enter each training session with a clear goal in mind we can help steer our horse, and ourselves, cleanly without clicking behaviors we hadn’t intended. It can be great to be able to capture a behavior when offered unexpectedly, it can also be very confusing to our horse if we start trying to shape more than one behavior at a time.

Before going out to work it can be helpful to have an end goal in  mind and a shaping plan to reach that goal. A list of behaviors we need to teach and the order they need to be taught in in order to build the end behavior. We should have an idea of the full training plan even if we only plan to work on the first step so we are prepared for any leaps in learning the horse accomplishes and not left wondering what to do next.

If our training plan isn’t working out the way we had planned it can be more beneficial to stop and take a break to reorganize instead of pushing onward in a haphazard manner trying to force it to work.

For organized training we need:

✅ A clear,  well defined end goal

✅ A plan to reach that goal

✅ One step at a time

✅ One behavior at a time

✅ To retreat and rethink is better than clinging to a plan that isn’t working

Being organized in training can  be eassy as long as we remember these simple guidelines.