Working Double

By Neversummer September 4, 2018 Amarillo, Clicker training, Harvey No Comments

While Tanna was working with Amarillo, Armadillo in my head while I’m trying to write it differently 😉 , I was playing with Harvey. I didn’t remember him being quite this worried about it all. Maybe having Amarillo there at the same time upped his nervousness. We spent almost the whole time working on standing calmly.
Amarillo learned to kick the ball, got blanketed and saddled, and we stood quietly. I felt like nothing was being accomplished but really it’s a big thing. Running a horse until they stand still only gives them more energy for next time. Rewarding stillness and calm builds a happy place for them, teaches them that training is just alright, no need to be all up and worried.
I also worked a little on getting him to let me stand next to him, by his back. He was quicker to let me on his left side than his right. It never ceases to amaze me that people can be riding a horse but unable to stand on it’s right side. This whole left side tradition gets to the point of complete ridiculousness sometimes. I let him circle and circle then, in a combination of + and -R I stopped offered him a release and a treat. I am quite happy mixing my quadrants.
It was a good work session. It was fun to watch Tanna and Amarillo while they worked and to get them both used to working with another horse. My favorite part though was long after we finished working and they were out to pasture. I put Coyote away after his daily yard grazing and Harvey came running over to say hi. He and Coyote both got a treat and I walked back to the house. Coyote left to the other horses. Harvey came galloping down the fence after me calling. I stopped and clicked him just for wanting to visit. Then I taught him to target his forehead to my hand. I held it up and clicked when his forelock brushed my palm. Then as he began to place his head firmly against my hand. But then, alas, I was out of treats. I held my hands up and told him all done. He followed me down the fence awhile longer calling. I can’t wait to get to work with him again.

 

A Little Ride

By Neversummer September 3, 2018 Rusty No Comments

Just for the fun of it, and because I have my GoPro now so why not, Here’s some video from a ride Rusty and I took out across the pasture the other day. I’m a little disappointed that you can’t tell how big the hills are. Everything just looks round. There was a storm building to the west and I turned the volume down to less than half but the wind noise is still deafening. It was a beautiful day for a ride and the strong breeze kept it cool. There’s nothing like a nice canter across big open pastures.

 

Musically Inclined

By Neversummer September 2, 2018 Clicker training, Rusty No Comments

So, I’ve been teaching Rusty to play the piano. I had some lessons as a kid but I’m a little… Rusty at it!! Haha, it’s rude to laugh at your own jokes. So anyway. I got a cheap little key board at the local rummage sale and we wasted no time putting it to use. I was assured by a friend who’s horse is much more skilled at playing than I will ever be that the slobber that clicker training incurs wasn’t a problem for them. And she was right, it hasn’t been a problem for us either.
This is our second go at it and with time we will build in some length and try to cut out his attempts at biting the keyboard. I left in the ending to show him trying to mug me and looking for other ways to get treats. He figured it out though and went back to playing.

 

A Ride At Fort Rob

By Neversummer August 27, 2018 Coyote, Rusty No Comments

We just got back from a grand adventure. For the first time in forever we loaded up the horses and hauled them over to Fort Robinson for the weekend! My parents drove clear out and joined us, then we all joined a group of Morgan people, kind of, kind of joined, not kind of Morgan people, and rode all weekend.
I say kind of joined because we camped up at Soldier Creek while they all stayed is cabins down at the fort proper. Although there were as many people as I’ve ever seen up there, including local friends that we were surprised and delighted to see, we got our preferred camping spot, nicely secluded and nice big corrals for our horses.
We brought Coyote and Rusty, for Rusty’s first time camping out and riding in trees and hills, and we borrowed a friends wonderful little mare. Little is a terrible misnomer, she is huge. A wonderful big half draft mare who was perfect in every way.
We went on a nice ride Friday after we got there. We hadn’t gotten going until much later than we had hoped. There was a last minute call that a bull was out and in a neighbors corrals. Would we please come get him?? Then Saturday morning the Morgan people showed up at our doorstep, saving us from having to go looking for them. Coyote was off just a little though and Rusty was NOT ready for a large group of horses in big hills so we said hi but weren’t going to ride with them. Just visit and see the pretty horses.
My wonderful parents offered to stay behind and watch children so I could go ride on the one non Morgan we had along. She behaved beautifully in the big scary hills and kept up with all the zippy little horses to the end.
We got in lots of riding, by ourselves that was the only ride we joined the big group for, spent lots of time playing in the creek, and cooked plenty of marshmallows over the fire. It was fun to watch Rury’s confidence and abilities build and improve over the weekend. By the last day he was striding confidently out in the lead. It was a fun weekend and we were sad to see it come to an end. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again next year!

 

Harvey, 3rd go, 3rd Video

By Neversummer August 21, 2018 Clicker training, Harvey No Comments

The third and final video from this session. We worked on haltering. If you notice the peanut gallery in the background and all the banging and clanking and climbing around she was doing. He was totally unconcerned. That didn’t bother him near as much as the thought of getting touched by a halter.
His whole demeanor changed. His head went up, he wanted nothing to do with it. When he was dropped off the lady was horrified that I wasn’t going to leave a halter on him and he does know how to wear and behave in a halter but I don’t want that sort of “good” behavior. The people who accept this sort of haltering are the same ones who want advice on how to get their horse to let them catch it in the pasture, how to get their horses head down so they can bridle it, what to do about their horse always having its nose stuck in the air while they’re riding, oh well, a tie down will fix the problem.
I want him to come willingly, drop his head and put his nose in the halter himself. No fear, no stress, knowing what we do together wont hurt him. It will probably even be fun!
Watching the video, and at the time even, there are a few things I would change. I followed him backwards a couple of times while he tried to evade the halter. I don’t like that. I should have just stayed put and let him leave then welcome him back enthusiastically.
There were things liked too. His mat training was going well. He did let me put the halter on in the end. Not the good haltering I would like but once on we ignored it completely and did fun stuff. We let the haltering be a good experience then took it off again. When I have time, as if that will ever happen, I want to halter him then bring him out to graze, build some good associations. He’ll be haltering himself in no time!

 

Harvey, 3rd Go. 2nd Video

By Neversummer August 20, 2018 Clicker training, Harvey No Comments

In our second video from the same work session as the last one we worked on mat training and standing quietly. Good manners in other words. I am making an extra effort on these two, because they are not mine, to make sure they are well behaved. I don’t mind mine a little rotten.
I am not being as adamant as I probably should be about both his front feet being on the mat. I’m accepting a foot or even just standing quietly. There has been lots of discussion lately about teaching it as a default behavior and I think it will be a goal here for me.
Harvey is leading wonderfully. He glues himself to my right shoulder and stays there. Most of the time. I’m not taking credit for teaching him to lead, it seems to be one of the things he came with. I will take credit for helping him want to do so when loose though.

 

Harvey, 3rd Go. 1st Video

By Neversummer August 19, 2018 Clicker training, Harvey No Comments

I got the video, videos really, I took a series of short ones, edited! I was going to put the good parts from each one into one video but decided they were nicely broke up into their own little topics and I would leave them that way. I mostly just cut them up shorter trying to get whole chunks instead of pieces.
My favorite part I missed getting on film! Again. I went out to the corrals and called the horses. Harvey, who had just gotten worked the day before came running. He was the first one through the gate, which made for easier sorting, and wanted to work some more.
His eagerness and enthusiasm made me think back to my days of using the round pen. By the second or third day of working them the horses didn’t want to be caught. They might be settling down in the pen and willing to do what was asked but they didn’t want to go in there and work more.
In this first video we were working on targeting the ball again. This is my version of desensitizing. It’s still mostly theory. Just because it worked with Rusty doesn’t mean it will work with other horses. Instead of coming at him with anything I am going to let him explore and play with scary things. We’ve already done plastic bags when I take them their regular servings of husks off the sweet corn. Now I’m letting him bounce the ball around under his stomach, which he is totally unbothered by. Next we’ll bring out the tarp and let him play.
In the video you can see some hard core mugging as I let him search for the answer while learning some food manners. He is learning that the food only comes when he does certain things and trying to figure out just exactly what those things are. When it gets to hard and he starts to get really frustrated I move around a little to move him around to help him find the right answer.
You can see towards the end where I go to stroke his neck and he jerks away. This is another one of his many conditioned aversives, he does not like to be touched. Sometimes people who don’t want to use food as a reward ask why they couldn’t just pet them, give scratches, instead. With him that would be more punishment than reward and certainly wouldn’t get you anywhere. He also doesn’t appear to have been worked much, if at all from his right side. Before we started doing any official work he would let me touch him from his left side but took off if I even got on his right side. Now he’ll put up with petting on the left and let me touch him on the right. We’re getting better!

 

Clicking Clinic.

By Neversummer August 5, 2018 Clicker training 1 Comment

We got to drive clear down to Scottsbluff yesterday to meet with some other clicker trainers. We are very lucky to have others so close who enjoy this rather obscure method of training. By close I mean within a few hours. It’s all relative. A couple hours is closer than the other side of the world.

The morning started out with dogs. We got to see some big beautiful pit bulls in action. They were well socialized, had excellent manners, and very good training. Jeffery talked about how the younger one would be classified as a dominant dog in more traditional circles. He barked a lot and was more physical with other dogs. When really it was all signs of insecurity. Then he brought out his older dog who was very quiet and patient with the puppy bouncing around his feet and face. This one was the real boss. He was very confident and didn’t need to show anyone he was tough.

The bouncing puppy was very reactive and spent the beginning of the day barking incessantly and pulling constantly, front legs off the ground, at the end of his leash. In a very off hand manner, Jeffery tossed them a harness to try as he continued to work with his big dogs. After the tack switch the puppy almost immediately stopped barking. Not completely, there were still lots of dogs, and new people, and things to bark at. But the barking only erupted occasionally when a new dog was introduced or something set him off instead of constant.

We discussed and demonstrated TAG teaching over lunch. And did some outright clicker training of people while we were at it. It was lots of fun watching a persons mind work as they tried to figure out what was being asked of them. It was also fun watching the “trainer” try to figure out how to thin slice it and how to give cues.

After lunch it was on to horses. Rusty and I got to go first. It was different talking to a group of horse people who knew what we were talking about than school children who know basic normal horsemanship st most. We got to discuss the things we were doing. And they were very understanding when Rusty couldn’t resist eating the green grass instead of handing me my hat.

Then Kyler showed us how he has been working with the flashy little Shetland he is training. They have been using clicker training to help her calm down and focus as well as to get her to move forward calmly. She was a wonderful example both of a reactive hot horse being calmed by clicker training and of how it is a safe method for children to train and work with horses. They gave a great showing.

During Kylers demonstration and Berns afterwards, everyone wanted to borrow Rusty’s toys! This is one of the few groups of horse people where a rubber chicken, a bouncy ball, and a trampoline are sought after horse training tools! I loved the way they got passed around, not only by the children playing happily on the sidelines but by the trainers working with their horses.

Last, but certainly not least, Bern brought out his pretty Appaloosa mare. They have been working hard on laying down on cue and even though she didn’t lay down there on the grass in front of our shade tree we were unwilling to leave it was nice to see the obvious training and time he had put into her. The showed how to start a horse on clicker training using a target, a cone in this case. Then he gave an example of transferring targeting, or touch, to another object. Rusty’s bouncy ball in this case. That turned into a demo on teaching a horse to pick something up. They came really close to getting it in one session.

Then it was time to go home. It was a fun, informative day talking to clicker trainers in person, for once, instead of online. Everybody has so much knowledge and so many things to learn from them all. The things that stood out the most though were the change of collar on the puppy and the amazing effect it had. The children. They were everywhere. It was wonderful to have kids involved, both training and watching, and to be doing a type of training that is, for the most part, safe to do with small children in close proximity. We discussed how I can train on Rusty with my kids underfoot. Kyler demonstrated how it can be applied safely by a kid without the bucking and running often involved in traditional styles of colt starting. I can’t wait to do it again!

Training In Real Life

By Neversummer August 3, 2018 Amarillo, Harvey No Comments

I haven’t hardly had time to look at the new ponies these last couple of days. Rusty and I are going down to a clinic Saturday and  I want to make sure he’s on his best behavior and remembers what we are going to talk about. That maybe half an hour spent there seems to take up the whole amount of time I have to work with a horse in a day.

I got to thinking and noticing something today though, as I fed chickens and gave the horses some husks from our sweet corn the night before. I stood at the fence and watched the horses and the goats hanging out, eating their treat, and asking if I had more. I had the plastic bag they had been carried in in my hand. It rustled and crinkled, Amarillo took a step back. Then he came right back to me sniffing and curious. The goats wandered underfoot, fighting for more of the husks.

I realized then that they are being trained by everything they encounter in life. I get so worried about “training sessions”. Some people get so focused on round penning. It is such a tiny part of their lives, such a specialized environment. Why concentrate our efforts on that when we have their whole lives to train?

These horses will have four wheelers, tractors, combines, and semis driving past all the time, chickens, cattle and goats underfoot, the big noisy payloader delivering their feed. They learn to come running and stand under it expectantly instead of running away. They learn that four wheelers are part of their herd  not scary. Baa and baby baa, or Snow White depending on who you are talking to 😉 walk around under their feet and bounce about their heads. Coyote and Rusty come running when they see people, setting a good example. Once they are all in together it will be even better. They’ll learn to come to so they don’t get left behind.

I need to stop worrying about the days I don’t get out play with them with a set training goal. All of life is learning and of we use it effectively amazing things can be accomplished by not working with the horses.

 

First Day Of Training

By Neversummer August 1, 2018 Amarillo, Clicker training, Harvey 2 Comments

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/