Horseman's Arts » Starting/restarting

Everything You Wanted to Know and More about your OTTB

sharon — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:18:26 +0000

One of the members of the Clickryder group responded to an inquiry about retraining Thoroughbreds off of the track by referring her to a website (www.helpfortbs.org) created to answer this very question. Out of curiosity I followed the link and found the e-book, free to download, that was mentioned.

The book is titled “A Guide to Understanding and Retraining Your Off Track Thoroughbred.” It is over 80 pages and packed full of detailed information about what an OTTB experienced as a race horse and his life on the track. It also provides a lot of sensible suggestions for what to look for when selecting an OTTB, how to transition him to ‘civilian’ life and tips for retraining. All in all it struck me as a most useful and thorough reference for someone considering giving one of these worthy horses a new life after racing.

The site is the online face for “Thoroughbred Placement and Rescue, Inc.” a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Thoroughbreds find new careers after racing. Go here to check out the site and get the free ebook: http://www.helpfortbs.org/retrainingIntro.htm

Developing a Soft Feel with Clicker Training

sharon — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:12:29 +0000

I’ve been working with a new horse recently. It has been so interesting because it has given me a chance to really think about what I click for in the beginning, especially when the horse isn’t “with me”. I wanted to write it down while it was still fresh.

This mare is 10 years old, and pretty set in her ways of bracing and leaving when she is uncertain.

The first session I spent just getting to know her in the stall and turning her on to c/t. She got it pretty quick.

Next session in the round pen she was so far gone (mentally back at the paddock with her herd mates) that food wasn’t even on the radar. I spent the whole time just patting the ground with the longe whip to get her attention. Starting with an ear. She’s flighty, so you blow on her and she was cantering around. Not what I wanted but it was where she was at. I waited. I wanted her to stop and check in with me when I tapped the ground with the whip. Owner asked, won’t this be expecting too much if the whip has always meant go? I just shrugged and smiled…Oh ye of little faith. (to tell the truth, I wasn’t even all that sure if it would be possible that day) I persisted. Eventually the mare did stop and looked at me, a little cock to her head. What??? I said, to the mare, nothing, just that. Thanks! The owner was surprised! So, slowly, she started to let thoughts of the other horses who she was fretting about not being able to see go. When she finally walked over she was calm and a little more ready to let me in. We quit for the day. The owner, being a quick study, followed up with the mare a couple times and told me that things went quite smoothly.

I wanted to see how the mare felt on the lead rope so the next time I worked with her (a couple weeks later) we did some rope work. I introduced following a feel left, right and down because she harbors a lot of tension in her neck. The idea is to show her that my feel through the lead rope to the halter (eventually reins to the bit) can be a Comfort and she can relax. I c/t this a lot. I take note that she loses her ability to stay with me if she gets going too fast. So, I take trotting off the table. I concentrate just on c/t for following that feel down and little inside flexions. When I lose her mentally I notice she refuses the food. When she is starting to offer some stretching down and is a little more relaxed, I quit.

The next visit was a week or so later. Back in the round pen on the lead rope. To start she is a lot more OK which was pretty cool right there. I continue with following a feel down (nose to the ground) and lateral flexions. It needs to be softly offered. I am clicking a lot but I’m also very conscious of how it feels in my hand. If it is pushy or hard I wait, keep asking for soft, click for soft–staying with me. I don’t feed if she looks off into the distance after the click. I click for behavior and feed for position. In this context that means that after I click I ask her to turn her face to me, really look at me (typically I’m standing at her shoulder), in order to get the food. Everything between the click and the actual delivery counts.

People often ask if they should perfect one behavior before moving on. I don’t. To me it isn’t the individual specific behaviors like turning or head down or whatever that a the most crucial thing. How it feels is what is crucial. So, in performing these various moves I have numerous opportunities to clarify my intent vis a vis the FEEL of it. So, with the mare I move between the ‘head down’ work (follow a feel down) and little turns on the rope. Some times, I see if she can follow a feel through an inside turn, click for walking, click for tipping her head in the right direction, click for stepping the shoulder through, this gets pretty good. Sometimes, I see if she can follow a feel through an outside turn, that one she has to follow the feel away from me and ‘unwind’. She finds this really difficult to the left, the side she really protects. I stay there a little bit and work on just the softening aspects and then continue. I go back and forth, checking on the little pieces, integrating, seeing how things have softened up how much more willing she is.

We were at this quite a while. The owner notes that after 1.5hrs the mare is still very present and significantly more relaxed. In the past, the mare would have long since lost her patience and her willingness. In fact, she might have become more braced, rather than less. We both view this as a very good sign indeed.

My newly acquired massage experience is factoring in too, which is so cool. In previous posts I’ve mentioned how Jim Masterson’s method depends on getting feedback from the horse. A lot of ‘eye blinking’ and ‘lip twitching’ tells us that the horse is aware of our presence on a spot they are concerned about. Time spent on this area with gentle touching/massage eventually leads to lip licking/releasing, sometimes yawning. SO interesting to see this mare processing like this when I’m in ‘waiting for a change” through a feel on the rope, I gently stay with it (sending the tiniest of gentle massages through the line) and just like with the massage, she softens and releases with lips licking. I notice that this is pretty much the same thing Phillipe Karl does with his flexions with the bridle.

I will continue in this manner each time I work with the horse testing to see if I can go a little further or deeper until I can have that same soft feel in all gaits on the ground and under saddle.

The mare’s owner and I were talking later about how HARD this process is to articulate. Which is why step by step written instructions are so inadequate. It is NOT a linear process! It is all about how it feels. You present a thought, you wait for a reply, and then you respond. You go back and forth like this until there is clarity between you. What I’ve described here is about a given horse on a set of given days at the beginning of our journey together. Your horse’s situation might have me doing much the same or I might need to adapt my approach to accommodate some unique challenge the horse presents for whatever reason. Hopefully, even with that in mind this story might be useful to read!

Ah, expectations

sharon — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:16:52 +0000

It isn’t unusual for me to work with a client’s horse and find that I just don’t have the problems she is having. Part of it is that I come in with some better timing and clarity. But part of it is the fact that I am NEW and don’t have a long history established with the horse. So it is relatively ‘easy’ for me to make what appears to be a remarkable change. But it only works for me.

Now the owner can come in and do the ‘same’ thing and it doesn’t work for her. Is it because I’m so much better? I don’t think so. Not entirely. I think what happens is that the owner has to not only do what I did but also overcome the old history. So her

The lovely, perfect Tulsa

job is actually much harder.

The owner is a ‘cue’ (so to speak) for things to go a certain way. Horses like it when things stay the same. So, when the owner seeks to change the dance that they’ve developed over time and have things go a different way than usual the horse will resist that change. It is an example of how strong a behavior that has a long history of reinforcement behind it can be. Now, if we could just give the things we want that kind of reinforcement history we’d be in business!

So un-doing and fixing is way more difficult than just doing it to start. Unfortunately, until we’ve worked with lots and lots of horses we don’t know what we don’t know. I’m not immune to that phenomenon! I’ve got a mare, named Tulsa, who has been with me for 16 years. She is 20 now and is the one who put me on the path I’m on now. I’ll be honest, I experienced a lot of frustration with that girl over the years. Today, I shouldn’t complain because she gives a lot of people a lot of joy. In fact, one of her students said recently, she is the perfect horse to learn to ride on.

I had to chuckle to myself on that one. Cuz I look back and think of all the mistakes I made and I wonder if we didn’t have this history together and I were start again with her, would things have ended up different? Maybe so. Or, not. Who knows. Either way she taught me a lot and continues to keep me on my toes. And for that I’m grateful.

New life for a gaited show horse

sharon — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:06:32 +0000

This is an update on Pamela, a horse I talked about back in February. Just to remind you, Pamela is a 6 year old Tennessee Walker who had been used as a ’show horse’ prior to being acquired by my client, Michele Williams. In the previous installment of her saga I had managed to reduce the catching/haltering process from 30 minutes to 5 minutes and I had gotten on briefly. The picture to the right is from that day. Not a pretty sight!

It is now 3 months later. Progress is slow but I generally only work with Pamela once a week although recently while her owners were away they asked me to spend extra time with her which allowed me to move the process along a bit.

According to the previous owner, an ‘old-timey’ Tennessee horseman, Pamela was bred to be a show horse and thusly was just ‘high strung’. This was to explain why she would just take off running when Michele got on.

This was also the reason given as to why we would never be able to ride her in a snaffle. She had to be ridden in a long shanked curb bit.

Oh Ye of Little Faith.

Of course, Michele just ignored the man’s ravings confident in my certainty that Pamela really didn’t want to run off like that it was just that she didn’t know any other way to be.

And so here we are. Baby steps baby steps. The real problem, that the old owner just can’t see, is the deep worry in Pamela. As soon as you get on her first thought is to get back to the barn ASAP! So, our rides are all about making 1) being away from the barn a good thing, and 2) any and all efforts to relax and bring her attention to me is a Really Good Thing. She is trying SO hard! She really wants to let it all go but as yet still doesn’t fully trust that those old days are really dead and gone. But she is getting there. Last ride ended with a good half a minute of totally relaxed, neck out and down, regular horse walk. I’m so proud of her!

Hard to Catch

sharon — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:32:00 +0000

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 previous owner apparently thought this was normal and ‘just the way show horses should be’. Huh? OK not my world. But the fact is, the horse is now in my world and I say, it just doesn’t need to be like that!

So I decided to work with the mare as if she’d never been ridden before. I’ve been visiting with Pamela once a week and working on haltering, leading, ground work, and preparations to ride. My goal has been to ride this girl bareback wearing just a halter and lead rope.

Initially it took a good 30 minutes to get her to agree to let me put a halter on her! She lives with her son in a good sized paddock so I spent a lot of time convincing her that she should even let me approach her and touch her. In the beginning as soon as I touched her back she was gone–to the other side of the paddock! Now the process is down to 5 minutes.

I’ve also been doing a lot of ground work in preparation for riding. It’s all been about getting her relaxed, focused, and softly following my feel. Clicker training has played a crucial role in getting her to believe that maybe she’s left that other world for good. I’ve been very happy with her progress. And yesterday I achieved my first goal which was to ride her bareback! I even managed to get it on video.

There are three videos. The first one is the haltering process. The second one is the ten minutes or so I spent prepping to getting on. The third one is getting on and walking a little ways. It may not seem like much. I guess you’d have to have seen how uptight this mare was before to appreciate just how sweet, calm, and OK she is in these videos. A great start to a new life. (read about more progress here)