Duration Immersion

I am a resister of duration exercises even though I know how good and helpful they are. I guess I am just too impatient. So when I DO duration and have success, it makes me very happy. Today I did a bit with each youngster.

First, with Rumer, we went for a walk in her new harness. Choosing, ordering, receiving and putting together her new harness was a saga that took about six months. I'll spare you the details. The old one that I had ground driven her in was deemed to be unsafe for pulling by a very experienced (advanced marathoner) friend of mine. The new one of course feels different to her. It's wider, heavier, with lots of padding and more buckles. But she let me put it on entirely today- she'd only worn the saddle/surcingle earlier in the week. She also wore the bridle earlier in the week- first time with blinkers!! She was not concerned about them at all. So today she had it all draped all over her and I was clicking randomly while assembling it and fitting it- if she had four feet still for a length of time, I would click. When she fidgeted, I ignored it but kept working.

After it was all on, I led her out of the barn but went immediately to duration walking. She had been kicking at her belly a lot and I wasn't sure if she was kicking at flies or at the harness so I decided that was my criteria. I did not care about where her head was or her pace or her ears. She just had to go step by step without kicking at herself. I also interspersed a piece of the passenger lesson I'm doing with Ande by asking her to stand still for the same count as the walk steps. So we'd walk 3 steps, click/treat. Then she had to stand for a count of 3 (no unrequested forward and no kicking), C/T. Then walk four steps, C/T, then stand for a count of 4, C/T. The standing was harder for her but boy was it a successful session. She understands the duration game well enough that you could see her little 2 yr old brain working very hard to hang on as long as I was still counting. Sarah was absolutely right- duration for youngsters is a VERY valuable asset! The combination of forward and standing was perfect. Standing still was hard but when she reached the goal, she got C/T'd and was allowed to walk off. Walking was distracting because all that new harness was dangling so when she reached her target, she got C/T'd and could stop. We continued until my pockets were emptied. We reached a target of 25 for each and she was spot-on perfect for that- much more settled and focused that when we started out!

Next was Percy and the clippers. I'd worked with him a little bit and he is very much of the opinion that if scary things come to him, it's a concern. If he goes to the scary thing, then it's OK. So, just as with the bitting, I made my own tag point, "elbows at sides". That prevented me from approaching him with the clippers. He had to come to the clippers. I left them running and just waited until he touched them with his nose. As soon as he touched, I started counting. As long as he left any part of his nose in contact with the clippers, I kept counting and we went up in duration from a count of one, with a C/T with each new count. If his nose left the clippers, I stopped counting and waited until he touched them again. After we got to a count of about five, I began moving them around his nose a bit. I still had my tag point of elbows at sides, so I couldn't move much, but I could rotate my wrist around so the different parts of his nose were getting clipped. At one point, he decided he was going to EAT those clippers. Rather a successful step in the mind game, but not what I was after. So I stopped counting and pulled the clippers away when he tried to eat them. Then I held them out again for him to touch. By the time we got to a count of 10, he was whisker-free, but still very kissable!!

Last but not least was Ande. I took him out to the arena where he was absolutely wonderful for a longeing session: transitions on voice commands, moving away from me and the whip, trotting and cantering over a rail on the ground. Just perfect. So I pushed the envelope and on the way back to the barn, across the field with ankle deep clover, through the scary barnyard where we'd had bolting issues early this spring, and back to his shed where his buddies were waiting, I did WWYLM. The reins were over his neck and I let go and just walked. One step through the grass and clicked quick with a carrot piece for a treat. Stand for count of one without putting his head down for a bite and another quick click and a carrot piece. Then on we went increasing our count. He did try to reach for a bite once, but I just re-set him by taking the rein before he could get the grass and started the count over....this does not mean I started again at one. Otherwise he would learn that if he cheated, he could make the exercise easier. Instead, the count re-set at one and he had to go the full count that we were at previously. So cheating means it takes LONGER to get a C/T. Once we got to the barnyard, it took more resets because he kept wandering off to check out the tractor bucket etc that he had been clicked for touching through the summer :) But absolutely no sign of bolting, spooking, running for the barn, even though he was completely loose and was expected to stay at my side as I walked. Once we got close to his paddock, I let him drop his head into the deep deep grass and just graze for a grand jackpot of a terrific day.

Reinforcing Me

On Friday, I had a very reinforcing experience regarding clicker training. So much of the training itself is reinforcing, but sometimes it's nice to get feedback from others. Clicker training is still not very mainstream and more often than not raises eyebrows with many people. The most defensive, of course, are those with a long history of training with other methods. Many of us who clicker train, come from those same backgrounds so it's easy to understand their resistance since we had those ourselves....but it's frustrating to see them discount it without really considering it fully.

Elly's owners came to visit her on Friday. I have written about Elly in previous blogs: mat exercises, WWYLM, and single rein riding. I have been very happy with her progress but no one has really asked her to do much in the way of "dressage". When I ride her, my goals are Alex Kurland's exercises; when my student rides her, my goal is the student's position, confidence and control, as well as developing a feel for the horse.

Elly's owners are wonderful people who adore her but outgrew her and wanted a place she could live happily, with attention from kids, preferably one "special" kid. I had a student who was ready for a more able mount so it seemed like a great match. The owners' opinion of Elly was that she didn't love flatwork and might have some discomfort in her body somewhere that prevented her from cooperating when asked to carry herself much. She would stop and begin backing up in earnest. They were aware of her training background which included quite a bit of pressure and "gear" and were happy to hear that I was not a fan of that approach. They had her checked thoroughly by vets and chiropractor who found nothing so they decided that just being a beginner horse was what she wanted to do.

On Friday, her teenaged owner just wanted to get on her bareback for a bit and go for a little hack. I told her my challenges with lesson ponies wanting to roll in the new sand I put down in the arena and asked if she'd mind taking Elly out there for a minute or two first to give her another "no rolling allowed!" ride as I had done the day before. She was happy to do so and when she got in the arena, she picked up the reins and began to walk around. A look of astonishment crossed her face and her mom said, "Look at her, she looks great!". I don't even remember what the girl said, but it was something about how light or soft or easy she was. I had to admit, Elly had immediately responded to the reins being picked up by gathering herself into a lovely little frame. I said the girl must have learned a lot riding her new horse and she said, "no, she was never like this before!".

What a great thing to hear. I had told them the things I was doing with her, and the mom said repeatedly how happy she was- that she had tried previously to get the trainers to keep the excess gear off her and "just let her find it herself!" but were either over-ruled or it was done subversively. Elly made no attempts to roll, so they went off down the road as they had when in previous years, daughter riding and mom walking alongside. When they returned the mom said that her daughter expressed how happy Elly seemed. I was very glad to have them see it and believe it and VERY glad to have the opportunity to work with this horse with the approval and support of her owners.

Flipping on down the road

Earlier this week I took Elly down our dirt road for the first time this Spring. I have ridden her in the round pen several times and been very pleased with how the single rein riding is going. I set up cones and focus on softening her to one direction as we cross the round pen, then when we arrive at a cone, I slide down the rein further, look back at her inside hip, and release the rein when I feel her step under herself. I need a lot of practice at this so that I can feel the subtle differences in how far she steps under.

I've gotten a bit of a chuckle out of her as I warm her up with the same exercise on the ground as well as some WWYLM, and some mat work. A couple times she has spied the mat in the center of the round pen when I am riding and in a very determined fashion, marches over and plunks her front feet firmly on it. The first time, she caught me off guard and her effort was so genuine, her stomp stomp of each foot so confident, that I had to Click/Treat. But then she did not want to leave the mat. She figured she ought to be able to stand there and get rewarded for it. Luckily, having watched Keri and Oliver on the "Shaping on a Point of Contact" DVD, I had a good model to follow, although Keri had been working in hand at the time. I closed my leg and asked her walk off and although she was not happy about it, she did eventually step forward and I immediately C/T'd for that. As Alex says, for everything you teach, you also have to teach the opposite. So she had been taught to stand on a mat, now she had to be taught to leave it as well. One might think she should already know that since she knows to move off from a leg aid, but this is new territory and she might have thought that she should stand regardless of how much I tried to "distract" her with my leg! So I did reward her for leaving it, and worked some on riding past it without letting her pull me to it, and then rode her directly to it, rewarded her for standing and then again for leaving.

At this point I decided we were ready to enjoy some of the lovely weather with a walk down our dirt road. Lessons will be starting up soon and if there were going to be any problems with heading out this Spring, I wanted to see them while I was on board, not a student. Elly came with the reputation of being a fantastic trail horse but I've seen a fair bit of wiggly, not wanting to go forward from her, as well as a "I'll just drag this kid off into the puckerbrush and find myself some sustenance". I did allow her to stop a couple times as we went through the barnyard to look at flapping plastic, different pieces of equipment here and there, etc. She never spooked but did want to take a good look. The end of the driveway is always a bit challenging because we have young cattle across the road and the noise, smell, and odd movements seem to be reason for alarm for the horses. We got past that but as we headed off down the road (which is literally down as it goes downhill), her wiggliness appeared.

Having just been using the single rein riding, I decided to continue. When she veered left to try to turn around and go back to the barn, I slid down the right rein and asked for a give of the hip. This redirected her but she over corrected and headed off to the right in an effort to turn back that way. I slid down the left rein and asked for a give of the hip in that direction. And so on we went, in a many-looped serpentine. I focused on the stepping under of that inside hind and as soon as I felt it, I was sure to release the rein, regardless of whether she really felt like the front end was going in the right direction. I knew I could always ask again if she didn't completely give. But I don't think I ever had to. Instead, I could catch her sooner before she got perpendicular in the road and redirect her. And she softened and didn't require as much of a slide down before yielding her hip. As a result, our tight serpentine gradually flattened out until we were doing a very shallow serpentine down the center of the road. I kept "straight" in my mind and did not allow her to wander, but neither did I insist on absolute straightness. Before long, I decided to be happy with the progress we'd made and did ask for a big step under in order to turn around.

Then I had a bit of a surprise because instead of hustling back up the hill to the barn, she was very relaxed, looking around at the surroundings and walked calmly home. I'm quite sure that if I had "gotten after her" to make her go down the road and go straight, I would have also have had to get after her to walk slowly up the hill. Now we shall see how well I can convey that to her younger riders!!!

Ande at almost 3

Ande is the last one to be introduced and he has the biggest goal for the year! Ande will be three years old on May 23rd and so this year he becomes a riding horse. He has had lots of work in hand since birth, and late last year I introduced him to long lining. Late this winter I have been able to do a little more long lining with him and I've been thrilled at how much he has remembered and how brave he is. Last fall I also sat on him with the help of a friend at his head. This friend has done a lot more clicker training than I have so she made sure I took baby steps all the way and clicked and treated him as we went. He was great about it. A week or so later, I got on him again by myself- she had led me a couple steps on him but I did not try to do that on my own. At this point, he has no idea what leg aids mean.

One of my projects while I long line him has been to get him consistent on a voice cue for walk from a halt so that I have a way to get him to walk forward once I am on him and can then transition him over to leg aids. Normally I would use a "cluck" to get him to go forward but my history has taught me how to escalate the clucking too easily and that leads to my losing my patience. So instead I am using a kissing noise. I have used that to get his attention and to get him to come to me and it is a sound he likes and associates with paying attention and moving. So that is what I have used while long lining him. I try to click and reward frequently when he responds quickly to it, which of course means that he stops to get his treat...but that is a good excuse to practice it again!

I am also trying to fine tune some of the "Why Would You Leave Me?" (WWYLM) game that we have been doing for a while. This is how flexions are introduced on the ground and lead to lateral movement on the ground. I am very excited to get on a horse for the first time who already knows how to flex and move laterally...the babies I've ridden before have certainly not had those basics! It is challenging right now to find an area of ground the size of a decent circle that is not icy or muddy to practice this in. But on these nice warm days, we'll deal with the footing!