Hide-and-Seek Flagging

I had guests throughout the end of the winter. Sure, we played with the ponies and made some youtube videos, but I could never find the time to sit down and attend to my blog.

WELL, I AM ALONE AT LAST!!!

Today I started a new training module that has a lot of promise. In a nutshell, you train them to target strands of flagging, which you can put anywhere and turn your equine outing to a game of hide-and-seek, which they seem to enjoy. You can do it with animals at any level of training, so I did mustangs, mules, and horses all with good result today.

The equipment is several clothespins and some 18 inch strands of flagging. Tie a strand to each clothespin. Put an extra strand in your pocket with no clothespin. Go around the yard and pin up the flagging in random spots that will be easy to stand near and have your horse see. Not on anything scary at first.

Get your horse/mule/donkey on a leadrope and take the extra bit of flagging out of your pocket. Show it to them and tell them to "target flag", when they touch it reward them. If they have been taught to target things in general, this will take only a few seconds. Hold the flagging farther away so they have to step to reach it. When they step to touch it consistently, then you are ready to visit the pinned flags.

At each pinned flag, ask them to target the flag. At first you will have to touch the flagging, but they will soon figure it out and reach for the flag by them selves. When they touch it, reward them, back them up a bit, and move to their other side. At each pinned flag, have them target while you stand on both sides. You can do more than two sets, but be sure to do each side.

By the third pinned flag, they will be pretty at ease with the idea. Mine were very enthusiastic about this simple game. We did 7 pinned flags for the first day. Chester, the mule, got overly stimulated and tried to get me to do something else, which earned him a quick return to the paddock (not what he wanted) which is why I don't want to be doing this at liberty. Everyone else seemed to be relishing the opportunity to earn treats.

Tomorrow the flagging will be much farther apart and start to be in hard to find spots. The flagging will migrate further afield in the days to come and soon be scattered in the rabbit brush along our country road, or pinned in the sagebrush flats where its like being in a giant labyrinth. They will have a positive reason to go where I ask.

What I like about this exercise is it gets the animals to really think about what I want them to do. They are reinforced for going with me, for paying attention to where I point, and for ignoring any scary things the flags might be pinned to.

Also since I live in a wild area where there is oil and gas production, flagging is common. Almost every intersection has a piece of flagging tied to a bush. I expect this to be useful when we are out trailriding and they get nervous. We will have a good game to play.