Visiting Horsetrainers

Denise, owner of Equine Paradigm, is visiting this week. We have had so much fun messing around with the critters. We built a giant labyrinth out of 20 railroad ties and trained the mules to go through them nicely, drove Ms. Paisley down the road and back, watched some horse videos, bridge and target trained the mustang. I want to learn to ride from her.... she has so much style and softness on Chester, the hard headed mule, that he just melted in her hands.

Denise works at Apache Springs Ranch where she teaches people and trains horses for the Epona Center. I feel so lucky to have her visiting this week!

Clay has been riding Jemez Dancing. Yesterday, while Denise and I were riding the mules, JD tried a little bolting around the yard, but Clay just patiently rode it out and started from where ever they ended up. Today Clay and Jemez followed the All Female Driving Team (me, Denise, and Paisley) on our canyon tour. On the way back, Jemez looked totally pleased with himself.

Flying Above Ice Canyon

The roads finally dried out enough to take my equines out for their Outward Bound lessons, so the plan is to tack them up and take them for walks until it is normal and natural to trek around. When we are the maximum distance away from the school, we will stop for a bit of target training, which they like well enough that I can use it as a reward. The training location of the day was across the bridge and down into the sands of Ice Canyon. Chester, Cracker Joe, and Tobiah all got to go before lunch, then in the afternoon, I started with the horses.

Paisley has never been across the bridge, so this was a big deal for her. Normally when she is out, she loves to run around like a wild nut and frolic in the sand - we always let her follow along last year at liberty. She goes totally jubilant, but I am trying to get her to realize she can't be so frisky when she is on a lead rope. She did great on the way over and then when we got to the sand, I had her lay down a couple of times. I thought things were going well, so we ventured a few hundred yards farther to the gas well pad nearby. There were cows on the far side of the pad. Cows with large thick horns! Paisley got really excited, but I tried to distract her with some targeting requests and then head back to the sand. When we got back to the wash she started galloping around me on the end of her rope. She wasn't pulling, just tearing around in a circle, then suddenly she lifted herself in the air like a Pegasus. It was incredible! The photo I have borrowed here shows the movement. Imagine that the horse is a black and white pinto, and the human is me, imagine that we are in the middle of nowhere. Yep, you've got the idea now. I think she just was being joyful because she quickly got back to work and we had no trouble on the way home. I hope that flying leap will remain forever etched into my minds eye. She could be trained for the Spanish Riding School if she wasn't a big pinto.

I did not take Cisco out of the gate, however..... we walked the perimeter of the property, including the still-snowy trail on the hill. He did great, following on the sweetest soft feel. I would like someone else to be with me when I finally get brave enough to go off property. I really do not want him to get away and run home EVER. He has really settled down though, so I really expect it to be a non-event.

In other news, I posted something about the Hinny Whisperer's Bookstore on ImagineAHorse forum. A very trollish person challenged me for having books on it that I haven't read... trolls go around discussion groups and try to start fights, for those of you who don't know. He said that I "didn't deserve it", but he gave me a link to a very interesting resource, archive.org. They have old books available to be read online. There are a few under the keyword HORSEMANSHIP. Here is the link.
ARCHIVE.ORG

In the fairy tales, trolls would do stuff like give you a treasure, wouldn't they?

BiDirectionality

You could get really creative and target away from you using a helper or a stationary target, but, realistically you need to teach yielding like yielding gets taught... pressure to move away, even if its just a wagging finger, then release, or release plus reward.

I teach my horses to yield with positive reinforcement more than negative reinforcement (release). Here is how....

Decide what the cue is that makes intuitive sense to you. For me, it is a combination verbal and hand signal. For example, I want the hip to move away. I use the term "around" to mean turn by moving your back legs, or I could use "hips away", then my hand signal is a waving hand pushing toward the hip. The first time the animal even leans away, bridge and reward. It won't be long before the animal will swing it's hips around. To get the animal to move toward me, my cues are the v-sign target and the verbal cue "target hips".

I have found that moving the hips away on command is one of the best things I can do to maintain control of my animal when things get dicey, so we spend a lot of time on this issue. If I can get them to face me, I can control panic. I want that to be second nature to them. The targeting of the hips to move toward me is not something I want them to feel so good about since it is the prelude to a kick. Not that my animals kick at me, but hips swinging around makes me a tish nervous, especially if I am not directing it.



The reason I am duplicating the commands "around" and "hips away" is that I am teaching the command "away". She originally learned it as "around", but teaching her "nose away", "shoulder away", and "away" in general is going to help her tendency to be pushy with me.

Targeting

With all the snow and ice everywhere, I've opted for more sedentary training this week. We've been studying the names of body parts. The speed the animals learn this is just amazing.

First I have to provide a target. My fingers held in a victory sign (or peace sign) are the target. I start teaching a body part by touching it firmly and saying it's name. I do that three times. Then I hold my finger-target near and say "Target ______" where the body part goes in the blank. For example today I was teaching chin, so the cue was "target chin". At first my fingers are so close that almost any movement will bring them into contact with the body part, then gradually I increase the distance that the animal has to move to get contact. It's not long before the animal gets it.

Paisley is most consistent about chin, but she's adding to shoulder, hip, ribs, hoof, knee, nose, jaw, and ear. Using shoulder and hip in quick succession we have gotten a sidepass. She can sidepass away too.... I find it bidirectional control quite remarkable!

Cisco is a real targeting enthusiast. He loves it so much that he has stopped acting like a wild mustang, but comes running when I call. He knows nose, ear, jaw, shoulder, knee, hoof, hip, and chin (a little). His specialty is shoulder, but the speed he turns his hip suggests he may have some interesting possibilities.

Cracker Joe is my most advanced targeter. He will extend his hoof to a target held infront of him (spanish walk soon). He will target his jaw when we are walking around the arena, replacing any need for a lead line. He does nose, ear, jaw, shoulder, knee, and hoof. He is ever so delicate about his ears, just barely tipping them to gently brush my fingers.

Chester will play dumb at first, as if he can't remember anything. Then you just have to let him think you are giving up and going away and suddenly he is an anatomical genius. The only thing about Chester is that he sometimes let you know he would be willing to "target penis". Yikes!!!

Hopefully the weather will change. JD will get his last four rides and get to come home so he can learn some targeting too.

Towards the goals

Writing down those goals yesterday made it easy to know what to do today. Before lunch, I started out with Paisley and Cracker. I put the surcingle on Paisley, ran some lines to the side rings of her halter and started driving her around. There are some big feed troughs scattered around the lot. I put a hand full of grain in one while she was still tied up, then drove her to it. At first it was very hard for her to go straight and I to keep correcting her with tugs on the lines with "gee" and "haw" commands, but she finally arrived at the first trough where she found her reward.

I am not sure how much slack to keep in the reins. On one hand, a little guidance might help her, on the other hand, I would like the default direction to always be straight ahead. While she was eating, I would run to another feeder and put in the grain. We drove around the small pen and then out into the yard. I was mostly hopping through fences to put grain in feeders that were close as the crow flies, but required walking around things and through gates. She started getting the idea quickly. After about 6 trough stops we were done. She was hopping we would go again when I pulled off her tack and told her what a good girl she is.

Cracker was leaning up against the fence in his best "The Fonz" imitation, when I called him to come out of the pen. He trotted around to the gate and we hurried to get him haltered before Chester (the Molester) got there to bug us. Once out of the gate, I curried the mud off and we headed to the sandpile. Cracker is getting to where he really loves to be brushed, he will stand quietly and glaze over, but when you head to the sandpile, he knows there is a game afoot. His eyes get big and he is rarin' to go.

It wasn't the leading game we sometimes play, it was the learn to lay down game. I picked up a foot and put a tiny bit of down-and-backwards pressure on the halter. When he rocked back on his other foot just a twinge, I released him and rewarded him. It took a pocket full of horsecookies to get his rocking back to almost put his foot I was holding down to the ground. I am sure I will have him bowing the next time we work on it as he almost did it several times, but I stopped him short of touching the ground. I may not actually train him to lay down. The intent is to make it really easy to get on him, so we might just go for a kneel. That might keep my saddles cleaner. I have to decide on that later.

This post is a test of the new JustBlogIt add-on to my Firefox browser. If it works with the new Blogger, I will be pleased as it has not been easy to log on and post lately.

This afternoon, I hope to get Mr. Cisco to wear the surcingle. I haven't had it on him because I didn't have a long enough girth, but I pulled one off an Australian saddle that will fit the biggest of the big. I will try to take a picture and post it here.

Oh, one other thing. I had Chica sitting on Tobiah and then on Soloman. You can see where were are going with this.....

Yrs,
Patricia