Rescuing Rusty

I am a clicker trainer.

Some people think that is all rainbows and marshmallows. That everything is all happy and hunky dory all the time. Actually, most of the time it is 😉

I have been given a hard time about being too soft and cuddly with my horses. I’ve been mocked about everyone getting a participation reward just for showing up. Isn’t that what we do?

That is where I draw the line, where I start to take offense. I reward generously and enthusiastically When My Horse Meets A Certain Criteria. Yes, we are all happy, and lovey dovey, and rewarding the slightest try, but there does have to be a try and the TRY is rewarded.We recently went to a school event that really drove the difference home to me. Before this I wondered if maybe I was one who gave participation rewards. Now it is very clear to me that I do NOT.

Some kids had worked really hard on their projects. Some kids had not. It was months of effort. The drive to the competition was long, but we did it. These kids had worked hard, they deserved to show what they had done. We were willing to put in the effort so their work could be rewarded.

We sat through the showing of their projects. We waited while the judges figured out their placings. We sat as every single kid got a token reward. The ones who had worked hard got a pat on the head. The ones who spent the time wrestling around and playing instead got the exact same pat on the head.

I train horses not children but I know what would happen if I tried to train my horses this way.

Say my horse Rusty is standing next to me in default mode, head straight ahead, four feet on the ground, working really hard at looking straight ahead, this is the hardest thing I could ask of him. I click and reward him. He turns his head towards me, nuzzling and searching for food, I click and reward him anyway. He got a treat either way! What is he going to do next? Will he work hard or will he keep searching for treats? Was anything at all accomplished?

I know there are reasons people want to reward all the children, all the behaviors. Some of these kids are small. They don’t really know they didn’t win something. Their token reward made them happy. That’s nice.

I have no problem with giving every horse in the pasture a cookie for free. It’s a good way to load the clicker. If you are wanting a certain behavior though, if you want them to happily work hard towards a goal, that isn’t the way to accomplish it.

I know I have been trained not to put the same effort in next year. Why not let the kids mess around and have fun instead of pushing them to concentrate, buckle down, work hard? When everyone wins the same amount of nothing they have trained nothing. I do like that everyone got a memento for their efforts, don’t get me wrong. Great, load the clicker. Offer a high rate of reward for those just starting out. There should be a jackpot though. An actual reward, for the ones that actually did good. A goal to strive for next time if they didn’t win it this time around.

Horses, children, any other animal out there, training is the same. Without reward we have no goal.

I’m going to put this here, not sure I want to share it to the fb page where people actually see it. People get on there and are so quick to judge, so sure they know everything.

We got home from town yesterday afternoon. I was tired. Shopping with kids is not fun. Rusty was standing at the gate whickering softly to me as we unloaded groceries. What could be more relaxing after a stressful day than seeing my favorite pony? With groceries hauled inside at least, if not yet put away, I grabbed a coat and went to visit.

I was a little disappointed to see that Heildorf/HellDwarf had come to visit. Not because I don’t like him but because it wouldn’t make our visit peaceful. Rusty has gotten so jealous since Coyote has been gone. His whole personality has changed. Coyote was always The Boss. Rusty was happy and easy going in the middle of the herd. With The Boss gone he has been thrust into the roll. He is uneasy and insecure in it.

The new Rusty frantically chases any horse I get near. He has always wanted to be with me, he’s been mouthy and pushy. Now he stands on top of me and has grabbed my coat sleeve with his teeth to remind me to pay attention to him. I’ve been making a conscious effort to pay attention to him. To give him time and understanding while he adjusts to loosing his friend. To reinforce good manners and only using his teeth on things besides me.

I thought we were having a good lesson, despite Hieldorf, because of and including him. I was rewarding Rusty for standing next to me, not killing HellDwarf. Loading the clicker more for Hieldorf. I stood between them as they stood nose to nose a couple of feet apart. I clicked and rewarded Rusty every time his ears weren’t back. There was lots of scratching and visiting in between.

I had worked with HellDwarf (I’m still undecided on the spelling, trying both ways out to see what I like) I had worked with him the day before while Rusty watched, indignant, over the fence. I was trying to make up for it. Things were going so nicely. I had two cookies left in my pocket. I wanted to do some more scratching and visiting before I left and save the cookies for just before I left.

The next thing I knew Rusty lunged past in front of me. My hand must of been up from the last scratch or going for the next. Unfortunately it was in front of his mouth as he lunged at HellDwarf. All I remember is the feel of it clamped between his teeth. Pinching and rather worrisome. There was no way I could get it out. It seemed like a long time my finger was in there probably no more than a second.

Then he let go. I was screaming at him, cursing him as he went past, probably still after Hieldorf. I remember Hieldorf being gone out the gate and leaving quickly as Rusty turned and stood in the gate looking at me confused, as I fumbled my way out the other gate.

Once I determined the finger wasn’t gong to fall off and had time to think about it I started trying to think of the causes. It was an accident. I do not believe Rusty was trying to bite me. He came with issues, biting was one of them. Not bad or often, but he didn’t see any reason not to. I still don’t think this was on purpose.

I think this was a case of trigger stacking. Having Hieldorf around has been stressing him. Me working with Hieldorf has been stressing him. Coyote being gone has been stressing him. All of this then I was standing between them feeding him AND Hieldorf. He snapped. He just meant to get rid of that obnoxious horse and my hand was in the way.

So if I’ve decided on a cause I’m fairly sure about the next step is figuring out what can be done about it.

Not trying to work with the two of them together seems like a safe place to start. Rusty needs a lifetime of manners training. Clicker training has worked wonders on him, I have to remind myself sometimes that I didn’t used to be able to walk down the driveway leading him, but the old him still shows sometimes. He is ridiculously mouthy and we’ve been doing lots of work on picking things up, fetching, using his mouth on things. The more we do that the more I need to be extra careful to emphasize not using his mouth on me. I think more time too, time for the herd to get settled again, time for him to get used to Hieldorf, time for him to feel settled and comfortable again.

It’s going to be a little bit before I do too much with Rusty. My hand is fairly well out of commission for awhile. When we do start back up maybe we will start with some protected contact until I get comfortable again. Regaining confidence is not just for riding. I will be doing my best to remember gloves. I always say that. Every time he takes treats with excessive enthusiasm and nips a finger. It is going to have to be my every time safety device. Then lots of treat manners.

Taking responsibility for all things that go wrong can seem daunting sometimes. But if we take it as a chance to improve ourselves and our horses it can be very empowering.

I saw a wonderful video of Georgia Bruce’s where her horse fetched a Hula Hoop and set it over a target. It was pretty impressive. h
It looked like so much fun I wanted to try it. We were out playing today when I remembered it all. I grabbed the kids Hula Hoop and a lick tub.
First we worked on targeting the tub. Then I showed Rusty what I wanted him to fetch. Then we put them together. It’s no where near as good as Goergia and Rumba the wonder horse but for all of five minutes effort I thought Rusty did a pretty good job!

My always brilliant and with a handy different perspective husband said I needed to teach Rusty to target the ground next to the tub. I thought that was a weird idea and tried to figure out what he was talking about. Then I finally realized, Rusty always has the hoop sticking out in front of him. If he touched the ground in front of him, next to the tub, the hoop would go right over! It’s so nice to have someone looking in from the outside to offer perspective we would have missed otherwise!

I actually got to play with Red/Heildorf/HellDwarf today!

It’s the first time since he got here. We’ve been so busy with other stuff and letting him hang out and get used to his new home. I’ve been loading the clicker since he got here though. Being careful to take him some treats every time I go outside and clicking as I feed him. It’s making Rusty rather crazy. He can’t stand for anyone but hi to get treats, even if he gets them too.

Today I rode Rusty, so he wouldn’t feel so ignored, then brought Red out. I know he’s been started under saddle so I threw a saddle on him. He took it as well as expected. I clicked lots for putting the blanket on and the saddle and cinching. All the little things I like to do every time I saddle. He was starting to like this clicking stuff and looking for his treat every time I clicked by the time I was done saddling.

Then we did some manners training and began target training. Then we went for a walk. He was excited to get out and see new sights. I let him lead, with some guidance from me and we wandered around the yard. Down the drive out off the yard I let him look at the big wide world out there. Back towards the house, around the chicken coup, where he finally did spook at Daisy. To the hitching post where we unsaddled and let him go.

He was excited to be back out in his pen. Give him time. He’ll end up like the others, begging not to go back.

When a baby is born so much thought and effort is put into choosing a name. Thought is put into parents names, bloodlines, nicknames. Of course I am talking about horse names.

Flair came with a beautiful name. Justapesty Solar Flair. It describes his color, breeding, and it’s pretty.

I’ve never been very good with pretty though.

We started out referring to the two horses as Red and Silver. A quick easy way to figure out who we were talking about as my mom and I discussed horses. We didn’t know, couldn’t remember names yet. It made life easier.

Red has kind of stuck though. It’s just what I think of him as. It’s not a pretty name. Quite boring and plain. I like that in a name.

But then I was discussing a man who writes excellent articles about historical Morgans. I asked my mom if she had read any of them. She didn’t think she had who was he? I couldn’t remember. Christian Hieldorf I thought?

We were talking on the phone for once and as it came out I thought that it couldn’t possibly be right. Nobody could be named Helldorf. As we laughed and tried to figure out what it could really be the name quickly transformed to HellDwarf. And I loved it. Someday something needed to be named HellDwarf!

Then it occurred to me that we had a small fiery red horse with the disposition of a Tolkienesque Dwarf. We took to calling him that jokingly. Lovingly.

Has it stuck? Maybe. My daughter says NO! She want’s to call him Red. I don’t see why we can’t go with both. No matter his name he is settling in nicely.