Different Strokes for Different Folks

Today Donna and I worked with the young mustangs and then set up "grooming clinic" in an empty stall. The young mustangs have to allow themselves to be haltered and led to a different pen for each meal or they could go hungry. This is the second day and already they are a lot more interested in having their halters put on. They lead better than most broke horses, following on a slack lead, matching their pace to mine. On the trip back to the Ox Pen after lunch, we stopped on the patio to work on hoof handling. I asked for hooves and Donna handed out rewards. Chaco Bay knows the drill of offering up his hooves and is happy to comply, but Sparky did something very interesting in terms of how he reacts to life.

A few days ago we let Sparky out to kibitz with the big mustangs since he was being a little bit cheeky with us. He weighs about 750lbs and each of them weighs about 1250lbs. We expected him to have some arrogance kicked out of him, but instead he and Jemez Dancing were soon playing stallion games rearing and biting at each others forelegs, then rocking back to a kneeling stance to protect their own forelegs. Pretty soon they were both wandering around together like old friends. On the other hand, Chaco high-tailed it to the forest where he hid behind the compost pile.

So what Sparky did today was respond to me as if I was playing the leg-biting game. He nipped me on my backside and kneeled down in that playful/aggressive gesture. Of the two of the little mustangs, Sparky is the most clear about humans being dominant as a result of a small session of roundpenning when he tried to kick me off his feed bucket one day. Since then he has been totally respectful, waiting until I give him permission to eat. Today I responded to his challenge by shortening my hold on the lead rope and putting a rope around his foot so I didn't have to bend down. He quit his game and tried harder to please me.

I have this theory that training with positive reinforcement totally messes up the equine innate sense of social relationships. They believe that I wouldn't be giving out treats if I was a dominant animal, would I?? I believe it takes a long time of interaction to build a new sense of social relationship that allows for food gifting from the dominant animal.

Sparky responds better to pressure/release training than to positive reinforcement just because his cheeky personality. Chaco Bay, on the other hand, is naturally a very shy animal (though he is the only fully functional male on the property and the mares are quite enamored of him). He is easiest to train using positive reinforcement. I can get him to do most anything with little trouble if he thinks I will reward him. He has learned the meaning of the bridge signal (me saying "X!") and I can use it to tell him he is doing right even when I don't have a treat.

Is this just personalities at work?? Or does it have something to do with me starting Chaco with positive reinforcement and starting Sparky with pressure/release? What is really clear to me is that training them both using the same methods would be the least efficient choice I could make.

We finished our training session by currying and cleaning the feet of the other 9 animals. They crowded around the gate for their turns in the grooming parlor. I pay them for holding their hooves up for me. Then we gave each one a dollop of molasses from a worming syringe, and an alfalfa cube as an unhaltering gift. Lightening Bug, the visiting gray mare, is the only one that showed any confusion (pinning her ears) about the significance of human benevolence. In time, I am sure she will sort it out.

A little secret about equines

I know that some of you will refuse to believe this, but ....

Two years in a row, with dead elk being butchered in my yard, when the horses and mules are turned loose they lick up the blood and eat bits of meat. I have personally observed all of the equines do this. This year the hunters left a skinned elk head that had the cranium sawed off to detach the antlers.... Paisley, the Canadian warmblood, was chewing on its muzzle. They pay little attention to the elk leg bones the dogs have scattered around the place.

You can hold on to the fallacy that horses are strictly herbivorous, but just as a dog eats grass sometimes, a horse will eat flesh.

The equines are not afraid of the bodies, the hides, the meat, etc. The equines don't have any assumptions about being next in line for the butchers knife. They get excited about the smell at first, but it is nothing like fear or panic. After two years, maybe they are anticipating an exotic meal?

Yrs,
Patricia

Clicker Training

I've spent a good part of my training time recently with a tin can full of horse treats in my pocket and a clicker between my fingers. The clicker is just a little metal thing that makes a little snapping sound. You use it to signal the animal that it just did what you wanted it to do. You make it a positive experience for the animal by pairing the click with a reward. In effect the clicker sound comes to mean "Yes!".

All the horses have been getting clicker trained. Today it was clicker reinforcement for them letting me walk around them, lifting and cleaning each hoof, while they were unhaltered or otherwise restrained. Chester seems to learn by watching the other animals as he usually has it figured out before we even start.

The donkeys are much harder to motivate. I need some oatmeal cookies to get their interest.

What I don't like about clicker training is that it makes any nipping problems worse, at least for a while. I've been combining it with a little bit of respect training, where if they are disrespectful, they might have to run around the round pen for a few minutes. I used it yesterday to get them to practice loading in the horsetrailer. They were rewarded for their progressive efforts to get in the trailer, but I also tapped them on the hips with the whip to encourage them to try and I whacked them with the whip if they came into my space (shoving me up against the trailer). They all got in, despite initial reservations.

Special Clicker Projects:

• Loretta: to let her hooves be handled, to yield her feet to me, and leave them where I ask her to put them (like in a bucket or on a shoeing stand);
• Paisley: to yield in the four directions and whoa by standing with her front hooves together and unmoving;
• Chester: to yield in the four directions from cues on the ground or in the saddle;
• JD: to disengage his hindquarters and bend his neck, both necessary for a one-rein stop.

The tin can I have found is very good to keep them from spending much effort at trying to snatch the reward. I use one that is too small for their muzzles and keep it in the leg pocket of my military style pants.