Rescuing Rusty

Before I get to the final get on video here’s a fun trailer for a horse trick training book. She has Morgans and all the horses in the video are beautiful Morgans. She has a couple of babies she’s trick training. I can’t stop thinking about what wonderful horses these are going to be to start. By the time they are old enough to ride they’ll be so used to having people all over them and working off cues they’ll be a joy to start. It’s making me want a baby

Here is our last getting on method. Our first and, probably, only attempt at it. The video is a bit long because it’s a long involved process. Theoretically I knew we could do it. All the pieces were in place it was just a matter of putting them all together. And I had to catch him in the mood. We’ve been working on laying down for awhile. He does a good job of it on command-ish. But when he doesn’t feel like it he doesn’t feel like it and we don’t do it. I had tried before to catch this but he said no and I turned him out instead.
There is some danger to this method. Not that there isn’t in anything to do with horses, or anything we do in life. Not just in the getting up, but in the laying down. Rusty very nearly broke my foot doing this a few weeks ago. He was doing a perfect job at it. I was standing safely on the side away from his legs and he stood up. watching him now I can see the issue. As he stands he jumps back with his right front leg then pushes hard off of it. I made the mistake of standing in that exact spot and he pushed up off of my foot. It hurt. I may have yelled a little. Not at him, just at it hurting so bad. My yelling scared him and he thought I was mad at him. I was worried it would affect his lay down and had to comfort him before I could limp off to find some ice.
Today was one of his willing days so we gave it a try. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen when we tried it and was pleasantly surprised when he just stood there. He was a bit confused when I sat on him and started asking for up. I’ve been adding an up cue to his bows. It seems like a good way to extend duration if he knows to stay down until I ask him to get up. I also thought it might help here. He looked at me for awhile like you want what!? Then very politely stood up.
This very nearly concludes our exploration of different and unusual ways to get on. Now I’m trying to think of what we can take apart, examine closely and put back together in new and unusual ways next?? Spanish walk? Bowing? I would like to do a riding something but most of this was done in small pieces, short amounts of time, with children running under foot that I need to keep an eye on. It’s hard for me to find time to saddle up and ride. If it is something simple I can do bareback, that would be good for both of us. Please let me know if you have any ideas!

I got it! Today I accomplished the last weird way of mounting that I could think of. To celebrate here are two of the, many, really cool ways to get on that I am not capable of. These people do such a wonderful job with their horses and supply so much motivation and so many goals to work towards.

This is our usual, boring, normal way to get on. I’m including it here any way. It is after all practical. We all need a way to get on our horses on a regular biases and, even though it’s fun, who has a pickup parked just right or a trampoline just sitting around the barn to use on regularly?

I am not proud of this mount. Embarrassed really. But I am going to share it anyway.
Rusty decided to target me with his rear end the other day when I was trying to do something completely different. My horses are always the ones who teach me the best stuff so instead of complaining or reprimanding him, we went with it. Since it was a behavior that he wanted to do he has progressed very quickly with it. This is our first ever attempt at it, no practice here. I am going to rework the get on a little. It’s my awkward scrambling and fat rolls that are embarrassing, Rusty was wonderful and very patient

Not gonna lie, I’m pretty proud of this. All in all it was a pretty easy thing to teach. Our biggest problem was all the good green grass that kept distracting Rusty. Today I was able to turn him out to graze for a couple of hours before I worked him. In an ideal world I would be able to do that regularly. Unfortunately it doesn’t usually fit into my schedule. Today it worked and he was able to concentrate enough to play.
Nothing like having your horse self load. Self load their person that is 😉 Here is the latest in our search for ways to get on!

On our quest to find many of the different mounting options a friend mentioned, perhaps jokingly, using a trampoline. It occurred to me that I had one! The next chance I had I drug the kids little trampoline out of the play house to try.

I really thought it would be more difficult. That’s the joy of a clicker trained horse. Or perhaps just of Rusty. Instead of having to work on getting him next to it, then used to the jumping, he just walked up and stood there chewing. I bounced around a few times to be sure. Laid across his back from both sides. Then got on!

Rusty and I have been playing with all the different way it is possible to get on a horse. Trying to think outside of the usual and come up with unusual, overly complicated methods. It has been fun digging into the different layers of training involved in some of the more interesting ones. It may seem like a silly useless undertaking on the surface but, like with all trick training, the benefits go so much deeper.

Yesterday though, we didn’t accomplish anything. Not what I had intended at least. It is spring and that green grass gets a little distracting. I was trying to get him to walk under my noodle and he was more interested in grazing. Or butt scratches. We did accomplish that.

Completely by accident I taught him to target me with his butt. He wanted it scratched. I, his lowly and loyal servant must comply with his wishes. There is simply no use arguing with someone of his determination.

After that amusing interlude I gave up. He was acting… weird. I don’t know how else to describe it. Other than the eating, that’s normal for right now, he kept leaving. He never leaves. He wants to be with me. If I don’t work him he eats the fence. If you ever wonder why so many boards are gone from the wind break, he is the reason.

I tied him up! And saddled him. The goal was to ride out through the cows, check calves. By the time we got to the gate into the pasture he had convinced me that was a bad idea. Not doing anything bad, just… weird. There was a storm blowing in. Dark clouds had ridden the horizon most of the day. The wind was sucking back into them, determined to take us all with. The warm air from earlier in the day was moving out to make way for cold. I was not brave enough to ride a hot colt who wasn’t interested in working out into the hills.

Once we turned around he proved my fears to be somewhat justified. He was never scary. He was, however, stuttery? He would leap forward with tons of energy, or freeze up and not want to move. The lightest leg was his cue to run. No amount of leg pressure was enough to persuade him to move when he was stopped.It was a good ride though. We did some leg yields, worked on haunches in, loped circles in the soon to be garden, and practiced his Spanish walk. Besides, he mastered targeting me with is butt. What more could I ask of a ride 😉

Here is a quick video of him targeting and, eventually, making around the pickup. Original goal accomplished.

I got my first one. I don’t know why I waited so long. Seriously, they cost a whole dollar a Walmart. Why not bite the bullet, take the plunge, I invested my money.

I tried getting Rusty to target with his knees years ago, one or two at least 😉 It didn’t work. He touched the pool noodle once and I clicked him, he had it instantly. I think the difference here was that the other target was the one we had been working on targeting with his nose. He wanted to bite it and we couldn’t get past that. Between both of us have lots more experience and never having seen one of these things is his life it worked wonderfully.

He does a decent Spanish walk but I want him to have a great one. We are lacking speed, height, and collection. He wants to put his nose way down and his hind legs trail way behind. With the pool noodle as a target he is lifting his knees much higher and chasing after it. Two problems being worked on already. Standing next to him I could see his withers rise. He dropped his nose to sniff the noodle but once done he would lift his head again. I think this is going to help us a lot, I just wish I could remember who’s video it was showing this.