Little bits of progress

I worked with the three horses today.

Paisley is learning to put the bridge of her nose into my outstretched hand instead of putting her lips on my hand. We worked on this quite a bit last week and she would spend the first 15 minutes of training time trying to nibble my hands instead of putting her nose down. Today I tied a rope to her halter and looped it around the fence and back through the halter ring to keep her head from straying into my space. Then I put a chain across her nose and through a side ring of the halter. If she nibbled and didn't stop when I said "Quit", I gave the chain a quick jerk. She quickly quit trying to nibble and got very focused on getting the nose into the hand. Jerking the chain is punishment because it follows an action which decreases in frequency through the process. I think it helped her get focused on doing the right thing quicker.

She is going to be a very large draft horse sized mare and this nibbling thing is not acceptable. I was hoping that it would just go away by not being rewarded, but it's been several months and it hasn't decreased a bit. Time for a different approach.

When you want a behavior to stop, you have to make sure that you cease to reward it. Then you can either train for a behavior that precludes doing the unwanted behavior, or you can punish the behavior. Horses are quite adept at learning from punishment.... just watch how the mule tries to get out of the way of the red mare, who will kick the stuffings out of him if he doesn't.

The red mare, Loretta, got training from her back today. I can't really say "under saddle" because we are still working bareback. We worked in the roundpen. I drew a circle in the middle of the pen and then went around to each fence post and numbered it from 1 to 16. First we walked around the pen on the rail three times with a reward at the 17th post we pass (one farther than where we started). I got off and showed her this pattern: pick a fencepost number, go to the center of the pen, rotate by turning the haunches until you are facing the number, then walk straight to the chosen fencepost, stop take onestep back and collect your reward. I don't think she learned to read the numbers, but she picked up the pattern right away and executed her manuevers like a well trained horse.

JD, the Wiley Mustang, had been so difficult yesterday at the back of the donkey paddock that we started there. I walked him through the pattern three times which was simply walk to each of the 3 far corners, stop facing the corner and back one step. He doesn't feel very safe out there on the edge, but he did it with me on his back with no problem. We marched between corners for about 15 minutes then adjourned to the front of the paddock where we practiced neck-bending. He did just fine. Whatta guy!

What I like is that they come over to the fence and pick me up. They could just decide not to play, but they want to work so they pick me up. I feel loved.

Later this week, I want to set up a line of markers to weave in and out of (all the riding animals) and I want to see if JD can trot in the roundpen without freaking out. Riding bareback makes it easy to slide off and I do that frequently to show them something from the ground or to solve some minor problem for them, like they dropped their cookie. They are used to me just popping off. Of course baling out will be on my mind when the mustang gets his feet moving.... but then again we might go back to that training I did where I was jumping out of the saddle and rewarding him for coming back to me where I was laying or sitting on the ground.

Let's cross our fingers for good weather.
Yrs,
JRW