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Here’s the thing about using clicker training for stuff that the horse is afraid of (demonstrated by some escape behavior), like using electric clippers on whiskers, if you try to click ‘for’ letting you approach with the buzzing thing you are invariably going to get the timing wrong. They are already thinking of leaving long before you click and if you click when they are thinking of leaving then you will only make matters worse.
So, what I would do, is pretty much the same as what I said last time about mounting. It isn’t about the mounting (or [more...]
 The lovely Danke
I thought I would follow up with my own observations of the experience with Danke and the massage therapist.
As you may recall (and if you missed it you can read about it here) Danke was not OK with having Heather standing on the hay bale while she worked on her croup area. This was the first time she had attempted to work with her like this. In the past if Danke needed to move Heather would just stay with her till she settled. But, since Danke is so tall (17+hands) it was [more...]
 The author, Heather Davis, with Cheyenne
By Heather Davis
I am a certified equine “massage” therapist, applying principles of touch to encourage horses to release old neuromuscular strain patterns and relearn how to exist without previously held pain and resistance. Much of my work is informed by the work of Ida Rolf (known as “Rolfing” or Structural Integration), osteopathy, shiatsu, and myofascial release. Many horses, when asked to “let go” of old tension and memory stored within the body’s vastly intelligent network of innervated structural soft tissue, will take some time to relax into the willingness to release. [more...]
Recently, on the Yahoo Classical Dressage group talk has turned to how to deal with ‘bad’ behavior such as biting and kicking. Absolutely all agree that this is not something that we ‘wee humans’ can really tolerate since our bodies are pretty fragile when compared to horses. They can do Real Damage to us! There is no agreement, however, as to what is the right way to deal with such behavior.
Several people weighed in with their techniques for biting or kicking back those horses who offered such behavior. I shake my head reading these suggestions. [more...]
Recently this issue came up on the Clickryder group. What to do when you are walking your horse and he just dives for the grass without any thought of you. No amount of clicker training for leading nicely seems to keep the horse from running to the grass when he sees it. I answered it there and I thought it was a good one to keep. I added a few more thoughts here.
To me, this is a great example of needing to live and train in the Real World where there are all manner of reinforcers [more...]
 Danke, a tall and beautiful sensitive chestnut mare, came to me for training with quite a bit of emotional baggage as a result of some unsettling prior experiences in her life. One positive was, though, she arrived quite clicker-savvy because her owner used clicker training to teach her some tricks during several months of recuperation for an injury.
Danke is one of the most sensitive horses I’ve ever met. She has a strong sense of self-preservation. I discovered early on I could not pressure her do anything. Either she bought in or it was ‘no deal.’ If she was feeling vulnerable [more...]
OK I’ll be honest!! I can’t stand watching the little dance of line up horse to mounting block, he moves as soon as rider starts to get on block, so rider stops getting on and repositions the horse, and the whole thing starts over again ad infinitum. Good grief it doesn’t need to be like that.
Here’s the thing. If a person is unable to change this situation in a few sessions then what it tells me is one or both of the following: a serious lack of ideas when it comes to actually TRAINING (not just hoping [more...]
 Charlie is a 7 year old TWH. His owners, Jim and Donna Dehaas, who were relatively new to horses, just happened to find me after an online search for trainers in the area.
One of the problems the Dehaas’ had with Charlie was handling his feet. In fact, he’d already kicked Jim. And after slamming the farrier hard he had to be sedated for shoeing.
It didn’t need to be like that. The Dehaas’ wanted Charlie barefoot so the first order of business was getting the shoes off
Getting the shoes off would be Lauren (Gruber’s) job. But [more...]
I have been working for the last couple/few months with a 6 yr old gaited mare named Pamela. The mare is owned by a lovely, but mostly inexperienced, older couple who are so tickled with the change in their horse. When we started this mare was so not OK. The slightest sudden move would have her leaving just as quick. Even though this mare had been ridden before (in fact had been a ’show horse’) it was full of tension and worry. As soon as the rider mounted the mare was… outta there. The [more...]
Dix, Lauren’s 13 year old Lippizan, is on the “20 year plan”. It has taken some years, and a lot of changes, for Dix to finally get healthy and happy. But (do we need to knock on wood?) it seems to be happening.
When I first met Dix at Lauren’s place in Florida he was one UN-happy camper. He was not well, physically, and he seemed pretty miserable as a result. Try as she might to analyze and improve every aspect of his diet, care and training things were still not right in his world. [more...]
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