Here in New England one of the things I really miss in the winter is the ability to ride outside on grass.  Or, as we like to call it, the ‘Carpet of Motivation’.  The reason it has earned that name is because of all the food rewards we’ve offered—and we’ve used just about every possible treat under the sun—none have the reinforcing impact of grazing.  I started the practice a few years ago and have since introduced several horses to it with excellent results.  The rule is let the horses tell us what they find reinforcing.  The horses tell us grazing is good!

Getting Started

The first thing you have to do is explain to your horse how the Grazing Game works.  Before starting your horse should already be familiar with the clicker, targeting, head lowering, and backing.

Begin on the ground with the horse in a halter and lead rope and let him lower his head to take a few bites of grass, then ask him to raise his head by following your feel.  Click for any response, even a momentary hesitation in chewing.  Then let him graze again.  Just a few bites, then ask him to lift his head.  Click for reply then let him graze.

If your horse doesn’t respond to your request to lift his head don’t jerk it up.  There are there several ways to illicit the behavior without force.

An easy way is to simply turn into your horse and walk straight through his line of grazing.  Your attitude should be one of “I’m going this way.  You coming?  Oh were you grazing right there?”  This nearly always results in the horse picking his head up to get out of the way and follow you.  Click that and let him graze again.  Provide a little warning you are about to start walking away and he’ll soon be with you as you walk off.

This should be practiced each and every time you are hand grazing your horse.

Consider the following if when you hand graze your horse just dives down for the grass and drags you around.

This is really just a variation on the mugging problem.  Just as your horse has learned that he can’t just dive into your pocket for treats he can learn that he can’t just dive for the grass at will either.  This isn’t a difficult point to get across.  Like other mugging behaviors the solution is 100% consistency on your part.

The number one reason why horses learn to ignore their human on grass is their human taught them to do it.  Consider this, when you take your horse out to hand graze what do you do?  If you are like most of us, you stand out there chatting with friends or just mosey along daydreaming as your horse eats.  Then, you look at your watch, say it’s time to go, then proceed to drag your horse back to the barn.  Meanwhile the horse knows this is the last bite so he’d better make hay while the sun shines and keeps pushing for ‘just one more.’

So the very first step toward leveraging the most powerful motivator on earth is to change that dynamic.  Set it up so that the horse doesn’t believe that this is the last bite of grass he’ll ever have.  The way to do that is to keep asking him to pick up his head followed by letting him eat again.  Your better leading and backing skills will go a long way here, and will improve dramatically if you practice like this on grass.  With consistency your horse will learn—quite quickly in fact—that when you ask him to come with you it doesn’t mean that that is the end of the grazing.  He needs to know that before you can effectively use the grass as a motivator for performance.

You will also want to have a cue that lets the horse know that he should return his attention to you.  I use the horse’s name.  So, before I ask the horse to do anything else I’ll say his name then immediately carry on with purpose.  When they get accustomed to this routine they will soon stop eating in anticipation of some change.

More halter-work

As your horse improves in his willingness to let you control his access to the grass when up close you can start to integrate grazing as a reward for distance work like longeing.  If you have been clicking and treating for longeing there is no difference except that you are standing on the treats.  Just let him put his head down for a few bites.  Then say his name and ask him to do something, such as Trot on.

You know your horse is with you when he will continue in walk, trot or canter nose brushing the grass but not grabbing for it until you click.

A most valuable side benefit of this is the gymnastic value of up and down transitions with the nose brushing the tips of the grass.  The most beneficial exercises are the ones the horse does without forceful coercion.  Here he stretches his own neck, and prepares his own balance to be ready to come to a quick halt.  What may start out as choppy eventually evens out as the horse practices a maneuver he’s highly motivated to perform.

Due to the nature and accessibility of the grass you must be ever diligent about consistency.  If you allow any loopholes (such as being too slow to provide the horse with something worth paying attention to) the horse will surely find them by deciding the grass is more interesting than you.

Under Saddle

Once in hand and distance work on the halter is going well you can introduce grazing under saddle.  A common concern is that of letting the horse graze with a bit in his mouth.  I can only say that we’ve been doing this for quite a few years now and it has never been a problem.  Other than a really slimy green bit to clean.  But the horses are happy.

Your major concern, and again this is resolved through absolute consistency, is ensuring that the horse wait for your signal that he may graze.  Pulling the reins out of your hands is just the same as mugging.  Allow it to happen once and the horse will believe it is an option.  Therefore, right from the beginning, after you click, ask the horse for some thing like rock back half a step then present the reward.  Presenting the reward in this case is the signal he can lower his head to graze.  I touch the withers in a special way.  OR you may hand feed another reward.  It is wise to mix up the rewards, sometimes feeding something from your hand, sometimes letting him graze.  Since grazing is such a superior motivator it makes an excellent jackpot.

Related posts:

1. When the grass is greener over there
2. How to get a horse OK with clippers
3. Motivation of Dressage Horses: Richard Hinrichs

Sweet Libby

This week I worked with Libby, a 30 year old Quarter Horse mare, for the first time. Libby and her owner, Kirsten, were referred to me by Libby’s massage therapist, Heather Davis. Libby suffers from some lameness due to injury and hard use (before Kirsten). Not surprisingly as a result she holds her body very tightly. The massage therapy has helped Libby but Heather believed that if Libby could become more mentally relaxed that it would help her body to relax as well. This is where I come in.

Kirsten had started a little bit of target training with Libby before I arrived. I was curious to see how Libby responded to this. Did she ‘get’ it? Was she willing to work for food? How hard? With all of Libby’s prior history I had a feeling that this sort of free shaping work might be too big a leap for her. So I decided to go into the stall with her and work on some basic lessons in feel…. look at me, follow me, turn… on the lead rope.

As always my first objective is to capture the horse’s interest and cooperation. With some experimentation I discovered that Libby loved…LOVED…scritchies. Particularly in the udder area. This was, for her, way better than food. So, I began to click and scritch rather than click and feed.

Historically, Libby would only put up with any kind of handling (like for trimming) for only a short time. Then she would begin to fuss and struggle making the whole procedure unpleasant for everyone involved. I saw this happen when we opened the stall door and Libby tried to bowl me over to get out. This, I learned, was a regular occurrence. Libby is so very focused on what she thinks needs to happen next that all thought of the human goes right out the window.

I decided to make it my mission to show her another way. We worked for a while in front of the open door as I asked her to continue to back up, look at me, follow me and turn. For every tiny change I would release stop and scritch deeply for a moment.  (I eventually eliminated the click as it was unnecessary.)  Did this take some time? Yes, it did. But it was time spent scratching itchy spots (or being scratched from Libby’s point of view) which was, for all involved, way better than having a fight. Soon, I was walking her out of the stall on a long loose lead and she was exiting calmly. We went in and out several times.

As Libby began to let go of thoughts of leaving she did relax in her body just as Heather had predicted. The lameness was still there but overall she was walking much more freely and relaxed. It was a nice change that I was very happy to be a part of.

Related posts:

1. Building a Change One Tiny Step at a Time
2. Getting a Horse to Work WITH her Massage Therapist
3. It is Not About the Food

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 trimming) per se it is ‘can you continue to follow my feel in this uncomfortable situation?’

Prior to attempting to work near the horse with the trimmers on, I would do a lot of heavily reinforced ‘rope work’.  Meaning, following a feel on the line to look at me, follow me, turn, and so forth.  Make all that stuff something the horse feels good about.  Then what I’d do is find out how far away the clippers need to be before the horse becomes concerned about the buzzing noise.  Let’s say it 20 feet away.  Turn on the clippers and set them down 20 feet away.  Then proceed with basic ropework. I like to use a simple change of hand (figure eight) done in front of me.  That requires that the horse be able to follow the feel forward and through turns in both directions.  A handy test of the horse’s attention, lightness and softness.

The presence of the clipper noise will cause a WEE bit of distraction.  You’ll be asking the horse to pay attention only to your feel irregardless of the noise in the background.  That attention is rewarded with c/t.  Again and again  till the horse cares not about the noise.  Then move the horse closer to the clippers and repeat the process.  Continue this process until the horse couldn’t care less about the clipper noise.

When the horse doesn’t seem to care about the noise, I will then hold the clippers in my hand.  Hopefully you have the cordless type.  Maybe you could even put the clippers in your pocket and let it buzz away there.  If this causes a concern then just repeat the rope work till he’s more focused on the rope work and the click than the buzz in your pocket.

When the clippers can be on you and he’s unconcerned then hold the lead rope in one hand and the clippers in the other.  Approach the horse with the clippers.  Note the distance between your hand and the horse when (if) the horse moves.  Move slowly so that you don’t over face.  Let him move as needed but if your approach is calm and you’ve done all the prework then he shouldn’t RUN away, he might just step away.  The hand on the rope is just there to provide a soft barrier to leaving and an encouragement to look at  you. Move WITH the horse so that your clipper hand stays the same distance away from the horse that it was when he moved.  When he stops, you stop and simultaneously drop the clipper hand.  You could also click (slip the buzzing clippers back in your pocket) and then feed.  Then repeat.  The idea is that the horse learns that he gets a reward (the clippers go away AND maybe even a treat) when stands with the clippers in close proximity.

Repeat this as often as necessary till the horse chooses to stand still as the clippers approach.

When (and this involves a judgment call) I think the horse isn’t going to totally flip out when I gently touch him with the clippers I will do so.  Still holding the lead rope and guiding and supporting there.  With the clippers on the body I will let him move but be gently encouraging him to stay with me via the feel on the rope.  If all the work prior has been good he will quickly discover that when he stops moving his feet and checks in with you the clippers go away and other good things happen.

When he is OK to stand still with the buzzing clippers touching his body you will repeat this process with the clippers approaching closer and closer to the head and eventually the muzzle.

Since the horse will need to be OK with me restraining his head a bit I will put one hand on the halter and do all of the above as I approach the muzzle.  The idea is that the horse learns that when he relaxes and stays softly with your feel, irrespective of what might be in the other hand, THAT is the behavior that results in rewards (not the least of which at this point may be the clippers retreating.)

It is very important, IMO, to understand the proper use of Negative Reinforcement in this context.  This would be an example.  The REWARD is the clippers going away.  The behavior we are rewarding is “feet that are moving stop and the horse relaxes”.

It is also important IMO to recognize that feet WILL move.  It is natural for the horse to choose to leave with this feet when he is uncertain.  How FAR he goes will depend on how good all the previous work was.  So I’d rather let him move and then just wait patiently for the horse to choose let that worry go.

I don’t have a video showing this process with clippers.  But I do have video of working with a horse who was not okay with haltering.  You can see here (the first video on the page) the process of staying with the horse when she leaves till she chooses to stop and then getting clicked.  Very quickly it proceeds from there to her letting me halter her.  The same principles would apply if I were holding the clippers as well.

Related posts:

1. Teaching a horse to stand for mounting
2. It is Not About the Food
3. Getting a horse feeling OK inside about having his feet handled

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 necessary for Heather to stand on the hay bale to get a better look and feel of this particular area. As such it was necessary that Danke stand still. HA!

Initially I simply blocked Danke’s efforts to leave. However, when Heather invited me to join her on the hay bale to look at/feel a particular knotty area the problem escalated when there was no one up front to keep Danke still! So the first problem we solved with clicker training was just getting Danke to stand still long enough so that I could see what Heather wanted me to see. Then it was time for Heather to get to work. It was quickly becoming clear that just telling Danke not to leave was not helping her feel good about the process.

That’s when I said, “Well, you know, we could click her for standing here while you work. Do you think that would be too distracting?” As you know Heather believed it would be. But, I felt that it was worth a try because we weren’t going to get anything done at the rate we were going! So, we proceeded.

The part that I wanted to add to Heather’s story was how initially one might have questioned the sensibility of the plan. At first Danke tossed her head and stomped her feet. An inexperienced person might have said, “this isn’t working,” and quit.
But I kept the click/treats coming at a fairly high rate. Click for positiong her rump near Heather, click while Heather had her hand on her rump, click for stillness, click for relaxing the neck and so on. It really only took 5 extra minutes to start to see that Danke was ‘getting’ the idea that the clicks were coming when she let Heather ‘in’ and worked with her to release the area.

Heather’s surprise that the food would end up not being a distraction comes from one of the most common myths about clicker training. It is hard to wrap your head around it if you haven’t seen it time and again.

When the horse is really clicker savvy it isn’t about the food. It is about the process and the understanding.

Related posts:

1. Getting a Horse to Work WITH her Massage Therapist
2. Finding what motivates a change
3. Teaching a horse to stand for mounting

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. I am asking horses to tune into parts of their body that may be uncomfortable. These are areas where, often, the horse has spent a great deal of time and energy avoiding. So, it is not surprising to see horses feeling fidgety or anxious about my request for their attention to be brought back into these areas.

Usually, when confronted with this “fidgety” response from a horse, I take it as a message to readjust my approach. It can take a bit of time initially to figure out how to get the horse willing to be with me and make releases. When I began working with Danke, Sharon’s tall and lovely chestnut warmblood mare, we had a little difficulty getting her to settle in and relax into the release process. Even the simple presence of my hand on or near some of her troubled areas would find Danke tossing her head, pinning her ears, and moving her body to avoid the touch. Since my work’s goal is to inspire release, it certainly wasn’t helpful to be battling Danke into demanding that she stand still and be

Danke

present with us. Sometimes those demands would lead to more resistance in her body and it would be the two-step-forward, three-step-back approach.

Sharon asked me how I felt about us clicking Danke for the behavior (namely the relaxed and willing behavior) we were looking for. Would it be distracting? I thought it would. I felt like shifting Danke’s attention “outward” onto the click and reward process with Sharon might take Danke’s attention away from me and my hands and from going “internal” with her attention. But, we decided to give it a shot.

I stood on a hay bale (Danke is a tall drink of water!) over Danke’s right hip area. Sharon stood at Danke’s head and we broke the whole process down into little pieces. First piece: asking Danke to stand next to the hay bale without moving while we briefly place a hand on the area of trouble. When Danke is still for even a moment in this, Sharon clicks and offers a reward. (This step actually consisted of a set of sub-steps.) Second piece: lengthen the time Danke is standing still next to the hay bale and remaining still (and relaxed) for a hand on her hip. Third piece: I wait for the “feeling” in my hands that Danke has shifted her attention to her hip and sacrum area. As soon as I feel this, I click, and Sharon is waiting at Danke’s head to offer the reward. Little by little, we are shaping Danke’s attention by rewarding her when she makes the decision to soften into my touch. It is working! And Sharon and I are so excited about what we have found! Teamwork! Danke is willingly deciding to bring her awareness into her troubled areas and offer release.

As it turns out, the use of “clicker training” was NOT distracting for Danke’s task of focusing inward. Not only was it not distracting, it was actually helpful! It allowed us to prevent instilling yet more resistance in her mind and body with continued requests for her to be still. Once she understood what we were asking (soften into my touch), the physical release process actually seemed much easier for her. The mental brace against the release of her hip was much more of a hurdle than the actual release of the hip itself. That is, once we opened the door with clicker training for Danke to let go of the mental guarding of her hip, the actual hands-on release work for that same area came relatively easily.

What a discovery!! I look forward to continuing this exciting work with Danke.

[Sharon's Note: Heather Davis is an Equine Massage Therapist. You can reach her via email at hdavis1234 @ yahoo.com.]

Related posts:

1. It is Not About the Food
2. How to get a horse OK with clippers
3. Equine Massage for the Performance Horse

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. Not because I am against corporal punishment (even though I am) but because in my view the better solution is to avoid a situation in which I get bit or kicked in the first place. Not too many people are even suggesting that maybe the horse is biting for a reason and maaaaybe someone might be missing the forest for the trees in their enthusiasm for ‘showing the horse who’s boss’.

Then, one of the list members, Audrey Summers, wrote of her experience working with some of the ‘rankest’ horses one might ever have occasion to meet on the track. I was enthralled with her story from start to finish! She was in the worst possible position and demonstrated that paying attention to the “things that happen before the thing that happens happens” and rewarding the right thing, yes, actually works to keep you safe.

There are no ‘quick fix’ solutions to real difficult problems. It always involves
paying attention as a life style. Since, I’ve said, probably more times than I can count, that we need to pay attention to the little things, long before they are big things, you can’t imagine how happy I was to read Audrey’s account. I asked her if I might publish her story here and she graciously agreed. Enjoy!

I am a five foot tall woman, and my appearance is anything but intimidating. On the track I had issues with people and horses. In trying to articulate how I was able to work with horses who are all basically big and stalled 24 hours a day except for an hour of exercise. I had a big learning curve, and I certainly got bit and kicked and pushed around (especially at first, when I thought my sympathy and admiration for these horses would keep them from hurting me). I took it so personally, getting bit, kicked, or even just ignored, and I did cry some embarrassed tears, but I had to get past that whole “Black Stallion” thing that so many kids grow up on. But there was no way I was going to be able to go into a stall and take over the space as a big man with a big voice potentially could.

I think for me it is about where you place yourself, body language and timing. And I did develop a certain tone and voice to mean business -but there is only so far I can go with that. Some of this sounds cliched -but there is also respect and being constantly listening to what horses are telling you. One of the first horses I had was one who hated to be bridled, and would practically flip over about it. What was I supposed to do at five feet tall and nervous with a Marlboro Man type exercise rider breathing down my neck to get the horse ready? I used carrots and baby talk, and practiced when things were quiet and took extreme care about how I touched his poll. It worked, and soon he dropped his head and opened his mouth -the formerly flightly flip over backward guy. And it really impressed people that this small girl could get this horse to have his bridle path clipped without a twitch. Obviously, this would not have worked with an aggressive horse, who at that point in my experience would have eaten me alive, but I was tuned in enough to see what this horse needed. I know many folks who would find many things wrong about doing it that way, or don’t want to hand feed horses, or whatever. But it worked, and I have used it again (sometimes having to put on the bridle by opening the headstall, etc) on racehorses that have driven impatient others to almost maddness and abusive by refusing to open their mouths or let it be pulled ver their head. Being only five feet tall means I have to be patient and find other means. I have been harrassed and scoffed at about being sentimental and such (what other think I’m being, anyway)-but a horse can’t train and win races if you can’t get the bridle on…

The last truly dangerous horse I worked with was a successful racehorse who was so rank he could not be galloped and was trained by jogging on a hotwalker and racing frequently. He was highly sensitive, and a cunning and ferocious biter. (He was a brilliant chesnut, with a very refined head -I thought I had met Flame from the Black Stallion series…) The trainer I worked for had more years of experience than I ever will, but he had the mindset that he could handle this horse straight on. That worked for a while until the horse grabbed him by the arm in the stall (when on the tie chain in the back) and shook him and would not let go until we ran in the stall and got the horse off of him. It was a horrible bite to the biceps, and this horse waited days for the perfect moment to make his move.

How did I manage this horse at my size? Timing, timing, timing. And always being aware of where I was spatially. Haltering him in the stall was a very careful dance. I had to wait for the right moment to move in after the teeth gnashing and rearing. I always worked with him with a chain over the nose, even when he was tied to the wall. That way I could brush him (with a very soft brush or rag -he was one of those Chihuahua coated horses that was painfully ticklish) and take my eyes off enough to groom. This was not so I could shank him, but so I could “listen” to him by feeling his energy and where his head was through the leadshank in my hand -and give a little tweak back if necessary. I would drape it over my forearm when I had to poultice his front legs and be vulnerable down there putting on bandages. I could “feel” where he was through the line.

I also adored this horse, I loved his power and honesty-and I respected that he had obviously been through a lot and still had his nobility intact -even if it made him dangerous. And did baby him in the ways I could -I gave treats by hand from outside the stall (just the right distance), lots of admiring (but not mushy) talk, was very careful not to tickle him while grooming, etc. Lots of ego boosting and reassuring stuff, which I think he needed to be a good racehorse. But I never doubted for a minute he would have really hurt me given the chance, and it was essential that I not romanticize his beauty too much. I never assumed, like my boss did, that we had a certain understanding between us, or that I had him figured out. Everyday I had to be at my best. The last day I worked in that barn I finished working on him and was in the aisle picking up my stuff when he just managed to nip me on the back of my ribs. It was a horrible nip that was a blood bruise, the only thing saving me was that I wasn’t closer. I remember looking at him and seeing the gleam in his eye -a very malicious “Gotcha!” So in no way had the rapport changed and we become friends or whatever. I hadn’t changed him or understood him in a certain way that unlocked him or made him better (which wasn’t my job). I just figured out how to be around him without getting killed.

Ideally, he would have been taken out of racing and allowed to be a regular horse and had his behavior addressed in a long term way. I doubt that he would ever be a safe horse, and wonder what happened to him. But I know in that environment, woe to the person who kicked him in the belly or tried to bite back, or really discipline him. I have seen horses get ruined, break through stalls walls and tear themselves apart when someone (usually men, but not always)has enough and isn’t going to put up with what a horse is doing or “getting away” with anymore. I learned a lot and got to take care of some pretty nice horses who drove other grooms crazy because I could work around their issues and they could get to the races. But I had to be very flexible, what where I was, and learn good timing, among all those other little hard to articulate things. How do explain that or recommend things to do -very hard, and one is often misunderstood or seen as cruel or brutish.

And finally (sorry for the long post, my toddler is not going to give me time to edit it down), I don’t work on the track anymore, and I would never tolerate that kind of behavior or continue being around a horse like that if I couldn’t improve him and remove the danger. I wouldn’t ask a horse to be in that state of mind or stay in sport or situation that necessitated him being that amped up or unhappy. Fortunately, I have not run into anything close to that kind of stuff in the recreational boarding barns I now inhabit, but I do see many horses getting away with obnoxious behavior and pushing their owners around, nipping, etc. And, as this thread demonstrates to me, it is harder than it seems to try to explain or show people what you may want to recommend, even the basic stuff. And even in the extreme if a horse needs a more physical response, I am not sure how to endorse it without being misunderstood.
–Audrey

Related posts:

1. Bad Behavior Doesn’t Just Happen
2. What’s reinforcing THAT?
3. When the grass is greener over there

To me, this is a great example of needing to live and train in the Real World where there are all manner of reinforcers ‘out there’ to reward behavior, some of it Unwanted. The grass is obviously highly motivating and much more interesting than whatever you have in your pocket. Your choices are, either live with the existing behavior Or don’t go where there is grass to tempt him or learn how to control his access to the grass. Option 3 is what I would do.

Now the challenge you have is get a lot more interesting than the grass. This may require a huge effort on your part because he is highly motivated (he wants the grass and will go through fire to get it) and there is a strong reinforcement history (remember that from my Expectations post a few days ago?) of the dragging the human to the grass behavior. So, changing it will require something dramatic on your part. Something as big as his desire to run to the grass.

So, I would start by whacking the ground hard with a whip or the tail end of my rope like a lunatic until the horse whipped around and stared at me with a ‘what the heck happened to YOU?’ look. When he gives me that look I go to him, pet him, and then carry on. The instant his attention starts to drift off toward the grass (and this is before he actually dives for it because when that happens you are sunk) you can interrupt that thought by having another lunatic fit till he looks at you. When he checks in with you you get all calm and smile and carry on. This must be repeated each and every time you (start to) lose his attention.

Over time he will learn that it is necessary to pay attention to you because if he doesn’t you have a fit. But guess what? Who needs to pay attention? He only will if you do! So is no easy solution. It is simple… just not easy.

Now you can either decide to not let him graze while walking with you (ever) or you can decide that you will reward him for paying attention to you by letting him have a few bites. The second option is for people who are quite confident about their skills. Cuz with some horses the grass is like potato chips you can’t have just one. But if you go with second option you must be able to get him to stop eating. I do this by getting the feet moving and I might do that by having another fit.

This is an example of using negative reinforcement. The reinforcer/motivator is you having a fit. The behavior you want is ‘look at me’ or ‘give me your attention’. You have a fit till you get the attention then you cease the ‘having a fit’. If you remove having a fit when he looks at you, you will increase the likelihood of him paying attention to you in the future.

Related posts:

1. Grass – The Carpet of Motivation
2. What’s reinforcing THAT?
3. A Better Way to Deal with Bad Behavior

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 and other horses were nearby she might just stop and start kicking the unsuspecting victim. I had to be very careful who was riding nearby.

Clicker training was instrumental to her recovery. There were quite a few holes in Danke’s training, so quite a bit of time was spent doing groundwork, longeing, and noodling under saddle in order to get all the little bits and pieces that worried her straightened out. But straighten out they did and now she is such a lovely horse to ride.

One of the most interesting parts of her story had to do with how I resolved a problem she had with cantering, especially to the left. Whenever Danke was asked for canter to the left, she immediately threw her whole body, stiff as a board, to the left. No matter how well things appeared to be going prior to asking for the canter left, as soon as she THOUGHT that we were going to canter she did the same thing.

During longeing, I had discovered that she was quite responsive to a “kiss” signal to canter. I decided that to resolve the problem under saddle I would do “nothing” to ask for canter in any “normal” way (with legs and seat); instead, I would sit upright with a very relaxed seat and just “kiss” for the canter. Before it could go bad, I would click the instant she thought about cantering. I could feel her start to take the first step with the outside hind. Of course she stopped mid-stride when I clicked. I fed her a lump of sugar and then set her up to canter again in the same way as before. Again I’d kiss and again I’d click the instant she thought about cantering. I repeated the procedure, again and again. Each time, though, I let her canter a little longer before I clicked. Again and again, I’d click, stop, and treat for “thinking of cantering,” “a step of canter,” “two steps of canter,” “a quarter of a circle of canter,” “half a circle of canter,” and finally “a whole circle of canter.” I continued in this manner day after day.

Of course, every day I was also clicking her for accepting my leg for forward movement, clicking for slow down, clicking for accepting turning aids. Little by little, when it came time to canter, I would begin to notice that she would accept my leg aid to request that she continue to canter, and I’d click that. Then I started to integrate some downward transitions, and I’d click those. Then upward transitions back to canter using my leg and seat in a normal manner. Of course, I’d click those, too.

I continued like this for no less than three months. Yes to the casual on-looker it appeared that I wasn’t ‘doing’ anything. And I seem to spend a lot of time stopping to feed treats. I was often asked, can’t you just canter that horse yet? I’d just smile and say, nope not yet. Every day, if she said she couldn’t do it, I would return to clicking for one stride. But bit by bit, it got better and better, until one day the problem was simply gone. Today she has a beautiful canter and is happy to pick it up when asked from trot or walk. This is just one example of rewarding the behavior you want and taking the time it takes. And having more than just a “little” faith in the process!

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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 they figure it out) and/or a serious lack of willingness to pay attention to how the HORSE is feeling.

Here’s what I would do instead. First, turn the horse on to clicker training. This is especially valuable when you are dealing with a horse who comes to the table with a whole lotta ‘ideas’ that aren’t the best. Second I would spend time with that horse on the ground showing him how I’m gonna make the ‘right thing obvious’. I get his attention and he starts to let go of the worry he’s carrying inside and the need to flee that comes with that. Through rope work I show him how to follow a feel. I do this rope work in a variety of locations not the least of which is while standing ON the mounting block.

With me standing on the mounting block, I have the horse do circles around me and most important changes of direction (a figure eight). This allows me to lead the horse up to the block without getting off. I don’t make him stand. But I do click him every time the saddle is right in front of me. Pretty soon, because click means treat, the horse is putting the saddle in front of me pretty regular. They aren’t stoopid. Then I put a foot in the stirrup, click/treat. Repeat that a few times. Move the saddle around, click/treat. Put a little weight on the stirrup, click/treat. Start to swing my leg over, click/treat. And so on till I’m sitting in the saddle, click/treat.

Now you go through that process every time you mount (it will get shorter every time), which is not that big of a deal, and soon enough (in a few days) the worst that is happening is that the horse expects a treat as soon as you get on. Now IMO that is a LOT more pleasant that being off to the races as soon as the leg swings over.

How the horse feels after you get on is a whole ‘nuther story but I’d handle that pretty much the same as the above.

Check out this video for an example. This is an actual training session with a horse who is in the habit of taking off as soon as the rider gets in the saddle. It is all connected to her general worry about being ridden. A step by step, positive reinforcement based approach has made a world of difference for this mare.

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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 in order to ensure both of our safety it was crucial to preserve Charlie’s good will. So, I spent a good hour with Charlie just getting to know him, get him relaxed, and feeling OK about being handled. I introduced clicker training to him so that we’d have a sure fire way to let Charlie know he was OK and doing the right thing. Then I spent another hour just focused on handling his feet and showing him there was no need to worry or kick. He never did.

The time came when I looked at Lauren and said, OK well let’s give this a try. So she brought over the shoe pulling tools and set about getting the front shoes off. I was standing ready to click & treat the whole process. Step by step the shoes were removed and the front feet trimmed.

Knowing how much of a problem the back feet had been we fully expected to quit if we needed to and resume the shoe pulling process another day if need be. But we didn’t need to. Charlie stood like a champ for the whole procedure. Now where was the camera when you needed it? What a pretty picture it would have been to see Charlie standing with his back foot resting softly in the hoof stand cradle while Lauren removed the nails.

When it was all over Jim laughed and said, I couldn’t even imagine this taking place without a circus! But there Charlie was as relaxed and happy as a horse could be.

That is the way we like it!! Charlie agrees.

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