Positive Reinforcement in a Lesson Program: Part 2 Who are the Human Learners?

“There are many things to consider when beginning a R+ lesson program. One is the ages and experience of your human learners. Are you teaching kids? If so, are they 6 years old or 16? Are you teaching adults? Are they beginners or are you transitioning them to positive reinforcement as well?  Is it a choice they have made to come because of your R+ program or because they don't know any difference? Are these people resistant at all to this "new" approach?”

So, why do the age and experience of the human learners matter when considering how to run a lesson program with positive reinforcement? Simply put, as positive reinforcement trainers, most of us consider many things beyond what we can train. We consider the environment, the husbandry, and the overall opinions of the horse (ok, from here on out, I’m going to try to swap “horse” and “pony” since both are used in lessons and I don’t want to exclude either). 

This means we need to prepare our ponies for the behavior of who may be working with them.  Small children

can be unpredictable, moving quickly or dropping

things. I am extremely safety conscious and all my students know that their first lessons will have very little time in the saddle while they learn about leading, grooming, and equine body language. Picking up feet can be scary for any age. One of my ponies will lift a foot when I simply bend over next to him, but not for students. He has experienced the squeals and dropped feet enough times that he just does not trust others enough to shift his weight and hold his foot up for them. When working with him, I “fill in” until the person is ready to hold a foot confidently and even then, I will treat at the head when he picks up a foot.

We also need to prepare our horses for the behavior of people who will be riding them. We need to prepare our lesson plans in a way that our human learners will learn, while at the same time ensuring that our horses, who are really our assistant instructors, will have an enjoyable experience. In the plethora of choice and consent conversations in the positive reinforcement world these days, don’t forget that daily training and/or exercise sessions should also be the horse’s choice and what we do with them should be with their consent. I doubt you’d find many (ok, any) lesson horses in traditional programs who would choose to go out and take part in a lesson if they were given the choice to graze instead. 

The experiences that ridden lesson horses will have probably include poor balance from the rider. Lesson horses will certainly get muddled cues whether under saddle or on the ground (using horses to teach others about R+ or about simple care such as grooming). How will we prepare our horses for this so they are not aversive experiences? We can ride the horses ourselves, exploring being off balance and clicking and treating the horse for maintaining a straight course even with a wobbly rider.  Cues are harder, especially because they become mixed up with poor balance. A rider struggling to hold on may have legs that swing or grip. If the horse learns to ignore that, they may also ignore the leg movements which are supposed to indicate a cue to go forward. Thus, the dead-sided or hard-mouthed lesson horse who needs to be thumped to go forward and hauled on to turn or stop. 

The solution which my ponies and I came up with for this problem during riding lessons is that I give the salient cues, and the ponies pretty much ignore the rider. All my students begin on a longe line, with no reins. By desensitizing the pony to various movements from the rider, and reinforcing them for responding to my voice and body cues, I can work on that with or without a rider.  I do give treats during lessons. I also use props, such as targets and mats, to guide the pony’s direction if we are working on things which preclude being on a longe line, such as changes of direction. The ponies learn the patterns I use, and know where treats will be delivered. The rider is learning to steer, and gets the reinforcement of the pony going where they wanted. 

The downside of this solution is when the riders are ready to give cues/aids themselves. The horse has learned to ignore the rider, and continues to do so. If you are teaching on the rider’s own horse, you can do a simple cue transfer, and proceed from there. To do this, the rider gives the aid and you follow up immediately with your cue, then click and treat the response.  Soon the horse will respond to the rider's aid before you get a chance to give your own cue. The horse transitions from taking cues from the person in the middle to the person on its back. But in my situation, with multiple riders for one pony, it got messy because the pony didn’t know whether to listen to me or the rider on any given day. And they could get quite irritated at the rider for making noise (with any body part) when they were trying to listen to me. 

I think the simplest solution for this is an environmental cue. I do have a round pen, and I think if beginners ride in that, rather than the arena, I could teach my ponies that “in the round pen, you take cues from me standing in the middle, but if you are in the arena, you take cues from the person on your back”. As I say, I have few riding students for my ponies these days, but it’s an idea going forward. To transition them to that, I will sit somewhere on the outside of the arena while people ride, rather than standing in the middle. It goes without saying that before the riders graduate to the arena, they will have decent balance, I will be able to see that they have the skills to give ridden aids appropriately, and they have practiced them in the round pen, even if the pony ignored it. 

To change gears from teaching beginners to teaching more experienced riders on their own horses, it is as much about changing the rider’s mindset as anything. How easy this will be depends on how much traditional training the rider has had, how successful it has been for them, and if there is a problem which I can help them solve with positive reinforcement that they couldn’t otherwise. Sadly, they may want you to solve that problem, but go on using negative reinforcement or punishment for everything else.  But I don’t know anyone who has made that transition in an instant.  It takes all of us time to see, experience, open our eyes and then learn how to do it correctly! 

In the meantime, I work to make lessons as pleasant as possible, pointing out ways for the rider to reinforce without using food if necessary.  Many horses like a rest so time those rests to function as reinforcers (using it as an excuse to explain something to the rider if necessary). Explain how to use releases appropriately, rather than just constantly nagging the horse with leg or rein. Bring in the TAGteach! If students can experience how helpful timely markers and reinforcers can be in the learning process, they may be more sympathetic to the idea of using it with their horse. 

The job will be easier with people who embrace the notion of using positive reinforcement. What I often run into with those people is excessive self-consciousness.  They want so badly to be kind to their horse and “not to mess up” that I need to use all my teaching and training tools thoughtfully. People are bound to make mistakes in timing and execution so break it down carefully.  This minimizes the cringe moments which make compassionate riders feel awful. I must take responsibility for their errors! It’s my job as the teacher to set tasks they can accomplish and to reinforce them for successful completion.  Finding different ways to phrase things and different exercises to get to your goal is helpful to turn to when the first effort doesn’t succeed.

Now, about those clicker training lessons. My horses and ponies love to see people arrive for those. To be honest, my ponies don’t get the attention from me that they deserve.  I have limited time in which to train and that time is spent on my two horses.  Then I need to go out and make money to buy hay and pay the vet so my ponies get really happy when other people come to train them. 

Muddled cues are still a problem. My ponies will try hard to interpret various iterations of cues they know. They are less tolerant of poor mechanics, whether it be rope or feeding. In this case, it is my job to introduce people to human horses and get those cues and mechanics clean with me (or a fellow human learner) as the “horse” to minimize stress on the real equine. Video can be very helpful here as well. Most of us have the ability to video with our cell phones and do instant playback right there in the barn aisle. That can help people see how they are executing skills, and that may be different to how they thought they were executing them.

Next time- are your lesson horses crossover horses with a traditional background or individuals who have been trained with positive reinforcement from the start?

Using Positive Reinforcement in a Lesson Program- Part 1, Introduction

using antecedent arrangements in teaching a young rider to train a pony about turn on the forehand

Recently I have received many inquiries about how to incorporate positive reinforcement in a lesson program. I have been teaching for over twenty years and in that time, I transitioned to positive reinforcement from a traditional (negative reinforcement and punishment based) approach. I don't have the solutions yet, but I have learned some things which may help others.  I am so glad to see so many inquiries because it means we have lots of people starting to teach others about positive reinforcement. And that is a very good thing.
There are many things to consider when beginning a R+ lesson program. One is the ages and experience of your human learners. Are you teaching kids? If so, are they 6 years old or 16? Are you teaching adults? Are they beginners or are you transitioning them to positive reinforcement as well?  Is it a choice they have made to come because of your R+ program or because they don't know any difference? Are these people resistant at all to this "new" approach? 

Then of course we also need to consider what the histories of the horses and ponies are. If these saintly individuals have only known a more traditional approach, you will have a very different experience than if you are starting an equine in a program with positive reinforcement from the get-go. Again, I have done both. I currently have four lesson individuals.  Two were purchased at an older age and had histories with traditional training. The other two are homebreds who were started with R+ as babies. They are very different to teach on.

young kids can be far more compassionate with training than adults

Third, what are the goals of the human learners?  The primary job of my lesson ponies currently is to teach people about positive reinforcement.  Most of my lessons are now lessons on the ground, to adults, so they can practice with R+ on experienced learners and then take their skills home to their own horses. But I also teach some riding lessons, and did much more of that previously. In all honesty, I have pulled further away from the riding lessons on my own ponies because of the stress of trying to convince people of a different approach. Traditional riding is heavily ingrained in our society due to the visibility of everything from cowboy movies to watching the current competitive scene. As someone who used to partake in that competitive scene every other weekend throughout the riding season, it has been a long road to where I am now. I enjoy working with others with the same mindset and so I have gravitated to more of that teaching.  But we need to preach not just to the choir, so I don't turn people away if they want riding lessons. I know that I will need to be tactful and patient with my human learners, just as I must be with my equine learners. 

Are you planning on teaching groups or individuals? Regardless of the above considerations, teaching groups requires a different skill set than teaching individuals. This is especially true of teaching groups of kids.  You really do need eyes in the back of your head and the ability to juggle flaming swords to teach groups of kids. If you have a lineup of "broke" lesson ponies, who just follow each other around the arena, the job is easier.  But if you have creative equines, looking to find ways to earn reinforcement, the job of the instructor needs to become very creative as well!

having horses who understand basic clicker skills under saddle is a bonus

Are you teaching people on your own horses/ponies or on theirs? If you are teaching on yours, then you can train them to fit in with your teaching program.  If people are taking lessons on their own horse, then you have to consider whether the animal has any experience with R+. If not, again, creativity comes in to find ways of making the lesson reinforcing for them, how to incorporate markers and food treats, and not be too depressed knowing that will only be a small part of their lives. 

Finally, do have any experience with TAGteach?  If not, get it.  Now. www.tagteach.com 

In coming posts, I will address each of these situations in more detail. 

Helping Others to be Brave: Component Parts

A year after beginning the project, Percy
 continues to demonstrate a higher level
 of confidence in his outings.

In my last post, I wrote about a lengthy project I worked on helping my Percy horse to be brave going away from the barnyard area and his friends. I got many lovely responses telling me I had struck a chord with others in similar positions.  I also received some questions about specific things I did and why, and if a certain variation would be ok to use. 

I also mentioned that I used this same approach to get Percy more comfortable in the arena, as well as with a couple dogs I was working with (and their people). Some people wanted to know more about those possibilities. 

I know that in my previous post, as well as in the Equiosity podcasts during which I discussed this with Alexandra Kurland and Dominique Day, I made a lot assumptions about the component parts of this whole project.  So now I'd like to delve a little deeper, specifically why I chose the pieces I did and how I think that benefitted the result.

Exploration day, which included the opportunity to graze, was the first day in each series. I came upon this as the initial experience in each new zone while watching Percy.  He was the one who gave me the idea to use this as part of the strategy.  I had let him loose in the barn, the doors closed against the winter chill, and he did what he always does when he has the chance.  He explored. I keep a cart in the wash stall with a bale or two of hay in it and while he usually goes there for part of the time, he doesn't spend a lot of time standing there and eating.  Instead he wanders around sniffing the ground like a big red dog. He looks out the windows of the aisle doors, he goes into the other horses' stalls and looks out their windows. He goes back into the aisle and pokes his nose into places to see what he can find.  When he is "confined" in any way, such as in his stall or on a lead rope, he loves to grab stuff with his lips or teeth: halters come off hooks, blankets come off racks, etc.  But when he's loose he doesn't do that.  He explores.  During the exploration he "grazes".  I use quotes because in the barn, he isn't eating grass. We often use the word "vacuuming" to describe it. He walks along slowly, using his whiskers and lips to hoover up any hay on the barn floor. Since this floor and environmental exploration is something he does by choice, as opposed to standing and eating at the hay cart, I believed it was something he liked to do. 

And this leads me to an underlying goal I had for this project. I wanted him happy. I knew I was going to be taking him places he might not be comfortable but I aimed to do it in a way that kept him as happy as I possibly could.  During the Equiosity interview, Dominique expressed some confusion and perhaps dismay that I was not always giving him choice to return to the barn. I acknowledged also that he was not always under threshold as we otherwise want a learner to be in a desensitization protocol. That concern of hers is hugely important and should be seriously considered. The success of this project has not changed my mind about animals having choices and keeping them under threshold whenever possible.  As Alex said, Percy is on the very outside of a bell curve and so maybe this approach is similarly on the fringes of a training bell curve. But it sounds like there are others out there.

By starting each zone with this freedom to eat or wander, I felt I was giving him choice, but within a set of parameters. You can do whatever you want, as long as you stay with me. I followed him, my only request that he not leave the zone. And as I mentioned, we know that grazing is exhibited by horses who are in a relaxed state and that grazing can help an anxious horse to become more relaxed. So not only was I choosing this based on his choices and expression, but I was also going on ethological foundations. Could someone do this project without that grazing and exploring piece? I don't know.  A different trainer with a different horse might. But I would suggest that they observe and think carefully about what they choose to do instead, if they want it to be an initial day of a happy and relaxed horse. 

Rope cues were another assumed behavior in Percy's backpack. Rope cues, for anyone unfamiliar with the term, are just what they sound like. I simply used contact on the rope to ask him to stop or turn. I would encourage you to check out Alexandra Kurland's work for more detail on the subtleties of using them for flexions and more. What is critical about this is that his rope cues were taught and maintained with positive reinforcement. That is such an important part of this entire project that I am going to repeat it. 

His rope cues were taught and maintained with positive reinforcement.

If he had been taught with escalating pressure ("if you don't respond, I'm going to pull harder"), putting pressure on the rope would have been associated with fear of escalating pressure.  Instead, the association with slight rope pressure is a happy one because when he learned about it, he was clicked and treated for responding. 

If Percy spooked at something during this process and that resulted in the rope being straightened (our default is for there to be slack in the rope at all times), I didn't want him to feel trapped, but instead to automatically yield and take the slack out of the rope on his own, and to do so happily.

Likewise, if he was exploring and tried to leave the zone we were working in, I could redirect him back in my direction with a light rope cue. If I had ever had to put real pressure on the rope, I think that would have increased the tension in the overall emotions he exhibited. And I can tell you that if you try to stop him when he doesn't want to stop, he has a very effective twist of his head and neck that make it quite clear who is stronger. It's not me. 

Building chains of behaviors is another component I used. To use this, again, the behaviors must have been taught and maintained with positive reinforcement. Chains (which are referred to as sequences by some) are built by cueing another behavior at the moment that one would normally click the previous behavior. I have been chaining behaviors with Percy for about seven years and he can happily do quite lengthy behavior chains. On day 3 of this project I asked for very short chains and they were simply a slight progression in his focus from the previous day's Foundation Lessons in which he was clicked and treated for each behavior.  

A horse with no history of behavior chains should be introduced to them in a calm environment, and be allowed to explore them for some time before ever using them in a situation which might otherwise be stressful, such as a taking them out in potentially scary places. 

So, could you do this project without using chained behaviors?  I think I can more easily say yes to this than to skipping the grazing and exploration day. The chained behaviors were a way for me to ask for just a little bit more focus. It was also a way for me to assess if cueing behaviors in this environment was still reinforcing. If he was stressed to the point that responding to behaviors was not in and of itself reinforcing, then the chain would fall apart and that would tell me something about his emotional status. 

A trainer could substitute some other cue/response for chained behaviors if their horse is unfamiliar with behavior chains. To stick with my approach of making each day just a little more challenging, the trainer would pick a cue/behavior that fits that description. One might go straight to newer behaviors. Or one might try different cues for well known behaviors.  If a behavior is initially trained with body cues, and a verbal cue is added later, one could see if the horse responds as well (accurate and low latency) to a verbal cue as a body cue. 

The way the treat was offered is something I described in the blog post but we didn't discuss on the podcast. There are many ways to present a treat to a horse. As any student of Alex's knows, one should at the very least keep one's own balance and one's horse's balance in high regard for this process. Emotional balance and physical balance are inter-related. A trainer can choose to present the treat in a location that affects the training in various ways. Offering a treat in a slightly lower position can bring an anxious horse's head down in an effort to tap into the physiological/emotional response similar to grazing. One can turn to face the horse in a way that asks the horse to either rock back or step back in an effort to help the horse's balance or teach them not to push into our space looking for food. One can also offer food in a place that sets them up for the next repetition. 

I did none of these. 

As a component part already in place, Percy has a very reliable square halt. I did not want to fuss about his being square at any point in the process but we have worked on it so much in the past, that I did not feel that his balance was going to negatively affect his emotional state. In contrast, a horse who falls on his forehand is going to have a harder time stopping (for Grownups or the mat) and will be more likely to speed up just to try to catch up with his own balance. For a horse without that understanding and practice of halting in balance, the emotional success of this project could be jeopardized.

Remember that my goal was to increase Percy's trust in me when we went places. To build that trust I wanted to be reliably consistent. I wanted to offer the treat in the exact same way each time. If he was keeping an eye out for monsters as I clicked, I didn't want him to turn quickly and have to look for the treat, which could have resulted in frantic grabbing or frustration. Neither did I want to be shoving treats in his mouth wherever it happened to be when I clicked. I wanted to establish a norm in which I was responsible for putting the treat where he knew to find it and he was responsible for receiving the treat politely.  

While it might take some brain work, I hope describing these component parts helps with adapting this to other situations, whether it is other species or other places. I'll walk through one example to try to help further. It's a concrete example as I used it for Percy again to teach him to be more comfortable in the arena. My arena, like all arenas, has a scary end. When we built our current farm, I set it up specifically so my paddocks surrounded my arena.  Therefore, the horses were turned out on all sides, my hope being that would eliminate a scary end since all surrounding space was happy turnout space.  It seemed to work on days that they were turned out in that specific paddock at the far end but for Percy, if he hadn't checked for monsters in the last 12-24 hours, they might have returned. 

"The Recipe"

1. Start where the horse is comfortable. 
2. Build a succession of behaviors to build on in that space.
1. each successive approximation should require a little more from the animal
3. Once complete, move to a slightly more challenging zone.
4. Repeat the same succession in the new zone

Applied to the arena- 

1. started at the gate, envision a zone that I think he can remain calm in
2. day one- remaining in that zone, allow him to sniff, graze the edges, roll in the sand, weed the arena.
3. day two- 
1. stand by the gate and do one of the foundation lessons 5-10 times, followed by
2.  walking in a circle on the edge of the zone, returning to the gate facing the opposite direction
3. do that foundation lesson another 5-10 times,
4. walk around the edge of the zone and back to the gate
5. do another foundation lesson 5-10 times
6. repeat through the foundation lessons
4. day three- I used the mounting block as the "marker" of where each day's work would be. So before going out with Percy, I placed the mounting block in the next zone.  I used dressage letters as a way to advance.  So my gate is in the corner by the letter F.  The next day I put the mounting block at C and that is where we did our foundation lessons, walking off in a slightly larger area which now included the zone by the gate and the new zone around C. After 5-10 reps of a foundation lesson, we walked off around the edges of the zone, returning to face the opposite direction and do some more.
5. day four- now I put the mounting block in the corner by K. We did our lessons there, and now the walk could include the entire close end of the arena.  In previous years he  has been fine for the most part at this end of the arena.  But I was developing a routine he could count on in a comfortable space before pushing on. 

Percy standing and waiting for me at the mounting block, head down was his choice.

And so on we went around the arena. Each day we were in there (I was doing every other day walking out around the farm still), I moved the mounting block to the next dressage letter and repeating our pattern. I also added in other fun things he liked to do.  I put ground rails and cross rails out that we could go over on our walks around. I changed them up to add variety, while still being things he reliably liked to do. 

You could do this in hand or under saddle. I progressed to partly under saddle through the summer. In that case the zones were mental, not physical. After we'd gone through the process all the way around the arena, he was completely relaxed at the scary end now. I added the mental challenge (for us both), of getting on him, first by the gate and then over time all around the arena. Some days were windy. Some days there were "things going on" that he could see or hear at a distance.  But we stuck to our pattern. 

So I hope that gives you some idea of the flexibility that is possible while still following the critical piece of the recipe that I laid out above. 

Epilogue-
While there is still about three feet of snow in the arena, I was able to get Percy out down the driveway a few times in Febuary and March this year. I did not progress slowly, but went as far as I could to assess whether the training had "held" with many months off. He kept a steady pace with my, although his head was high and looking.  Amazingly, for the first time, he did not switch sides behind me at the scary corner as he did all last year. He stayed on my right going out and back.  He did foundations lessons and chains beautifully out there over a week or so, on days we could get out.  The last time, I took the boat bumper out for stationing and he stood quietly while I walked away. 

Then I had a funny idea.  I wondered what would happen if I let him walk back to the barn at liberty.  I assessed the dangers. I knew he wouldn't turn toward the road, since it was the opposite direction of the barn.  The snowbanks were well over both our heads so he would be funneled back to the barn if he did decide to race back.  Walter was calling to him from the barn, but he'd been able to stand quietly as I walked away.  I decided to try it. I unclipped the lead rope and started walking back. 

And I was thrilled with the results. 

Learning to Be Brave

It has been almost a year since I began an ongoing project with Percy.  This was actually phase two of something I had worked on in 2017, which I wrote about in a post called Desensitization Continues. But this year I am taking Percy out into the world more. His world has been limited to the barn, the arena, and the turnout fields.  With the rotational grazing, the turnout changed regularly but did not go beyond consistent boundaries.  Last year when my daughter visited, she took a pony and I took Percy (in hand) and we went for a little walk beyond the fringes.  We all survived, he stayed with me, but neither he nor I were relaxed. Having the new horse Walter has reminded me how nice it is to have a horse who is blasé about things. Of course the ponies are but one expects ponies to be.  Walter is a big TB and he can get high headed and spook…but it’s rare. He’s given me something to shoot for. 

Many years ago I developed my own theory comparing working with dogs and horses. I differentiated between horse distractions and dog distractions by saying that with dogs, one usually just needs to be more interesting than the distraction because so often the distraction is something they want to get TO.  They want to chase the cat, eat what just landed on the floor, run to go meet that person or dog, etc.  So we can increase the value of the reinforcers to show them that staying with us and focusing on us is even better than a given distraction. But for horses, the distraction is so often something they fear. As prey animals who evolved as horizon scanners, with long legs for fleeing, horses see things in the far distance and immediately begin assessing whether they should run in the other direction. They want the safety of a herd to hide in the middle of, which means if they are given the chance, they are going to run away from the handler and back to the barn, field, or wherever they feel safe.  I fully admit that this is generalizing and that there are dogs who are fearful and horses who pull toward grass, but overall, I feel this is a significant generalization to work with.

What is the point of this? When horses are fearful of distractions, no higher level of reinforcement is going to make them focus on me. Which brings me to my underlying principal

Horses need to trust the person more than they fear the environment.

Thinking about this, I wanted to know just what more I could do with Percy so that he didn’t feel like he needed to be on alert if we went anywhere new. I felt that a 10 year old who’d been clicker trained all his life should have resulted in more trust. I did a lot of thinking. And then some more. I listened to Hannah Branigan’s interview with Susan Friedman where Hannah refers to one of her dogs needing to “file a lot of papers” in a new environment or something like that.  And I thought what a great analogy.  Look at EVERYTHING and figure out where to file it. And in my mind Percy’s files have different colors for different levels of dangers and many are flagged and many are cross filed in multiple places! 

As I listened to that interview, a plan started to form in my head. The thing that always blows my mind about Susan is that I listen to her and nod along, agreeing with everything and then I get hit with something that makes me come to full attention.  It’s not a sentence or an idea but somehow all of a sudden I get an aha! that I would have said I should have already known but…now I see it more clearly. 

What I decided to try was to be more predictable and reliable. Because Percy is so busy, and easily responds to any cue from me while still filing papers, I always tried to keep him focused and moving, both physically and mentally. I did this in an effort to keep things interesting and new and fresh in hopes that would serve to keep his focus on me. He never knew what to expect from me…but maybe that was hurting a lot more than helping.

My new plan would be to start from a place of success (success in this situation defined as relaxed) and we would build from there. I took into consideration the environment, activities and me. I drew out “zones” on the farm (the environment); a progression of activities that he was comfortable with; and decided on some rules of behavior for myself.

The procession of activities were as follows:

Day 1 was exploration day- he was on halter and lead but I followed, rather than directing. I did this because he loves to explore and I know that hand grazing is a good activity for allowing a horse to settle in.  I realized this as he “grazed” scraps of hay in the aisle (the first zone) while walking around. Now I started this project in February. Living in northern Vermont, there were no hand grazing possibilities mid-winter. 

In the following zones I filled a hay pillow on exploration day and that became a cue that he was the leader and could do whatever he wanted…as long as he stayed in that zone. In future zones, he was not allowed to retreat to an easier zone…we had just spent a full five days in the previous zone during which he could certainly see, hear and smell the next one so I thought that was a fair rule. Interestingly, he never ate from the hay pillow! The first time I put it outside, he used it as a mat. haha!!!  After that, he just wandered around with his nose to the ground or head up looking around. 

February- Percy using the hay pillow as a mat

Once grass came, he grazed! But I still used the (empty) hay pillow as his cue that he’s the leader on this exploration day. The amount of time I spent depended a lot on how cold it was those first months. I tried to do a minimum of 10-15 minutes.  Once we got to grazing weather, it often extended to 20. 

March- stationing at a boat bumper while I walk away

I also developed a weather rule.  If the weather was such that I didn’t want to be out in it, we skipped that day. Those were the cold, raw, or rainy days. But if I found myself hesitating because I didn’t think HE would like the weather, we went anyway.  Because those were days involving wind which made for scary noises. We live in a windy, breezy place and if we didn’t venture out in the breezes, we’d be severely limited. He needed to learn to trust me through the wind. 

On exploration day there were no treats. I asked for no behaviors. This was HIS day. He got to just explore.

Day 2 in each zone was Alexandra Kurland’s Foundation Lessons. I did 10 reps of each foundation lesson with half of them facing away from the barn…and the other half of them with his butt to the scary world. Anything which could involve duration, I went up by 5 seconds each rep. So the first head down was clicked and treated for just nose to the ground, the next was a count of 5 seconds, then 10, etc, so that by the end of mats, grownups and head down, he was up to 20-30 seconds (if his head came up a bit or he moved a foot, I’d restart the count even though he re-set the behavior on his own). 

Day three I chained Foundation Lesson behaviors. I asked for one to four behaviors before a click/treat. I varied what and how many so this was less prescribed, but I stuck to Foundation Lessons only and ignored any environmental input.  Just because his head shot up did not mean I asked for head down.  I just asked for a variety of things.

Day four I called “new” behaviors. These were not brand new things but things I knew he liked to do (step over rails) or I felt were important (my stepping onto a mounting block stool). I had a list of about 6 things that I pulled from but only did one in a given day.  I felt like that made me more reliable. "Rails are out, we’re doing rails today” etc.

Day 5 I used Foundation Behaviors to reinforce a “new” (as above) behavior. Not necessarily (in fact rarely) the one I’d worked on the previous day. They were just two unit chains followed by c/t. 

one day this area was all grass, and the next day my husband had created this scary diversion

note- even though I was consistent spending five days in each zone before moving on, the world was not always consistent. The weather changed day to day which not only was a different feel, but sometimes meant the world looked different- from snow to mud and back to snow again, or leaves busting out on the trees. In some zones, our sheep were pastured nearby one day when they hadn't been the day before. When we got to the road, there was sometimes traffic that went by (something which surprised me in that it fazed him not at all). But I didn't change my plan. That was part of this process.  We are going to proceed regardless of what the world throws at us but we are going to proceed in a manner that is predictable and you can count on me not to throw something unexpected at you. 

the quonset hut door was open, ready to eat horses

After going through the five days in one zone, I moved further from the barn to a new zone and started over again with exploration day. My zones were small. I wanted to increase incrementally.  I'd say most zones averaged about 20 yards in length. We all know horses who willingly march forward to investigate, only to wheel and tear off in retreat. Wheeling and retreating was not part of my plan.  Staying under threshold was. 

February, March and April were slow going.  The cold and snow and wind kept coming, the driveway was icy and I skipped many days but we made progress. I never repeated a day and never backed up in the progression. I wanted slow and steady progress toward the rest of the world. Finally grass came and his exploration days were something he really looked forward to. I'd go out early in the morning and we'd go exploring before chores. The weather varied but there was always grass. 

As we progressed, I developed some rules for him and this was really important as in the past I always let him be who he is. If that meant he wanted to move, we moved. If that meant he wanted to retreat, we retreated.  I felt I was respecting his concerns and giving him choices. But we seemed to be stuck in that routine and I started wondering just how much I was enabling his reactivity, rather than helping him through it. Sometimes I tried to help him through his worries by asking him to put his head down or reinforcing low. He never knew how I’d respond and I wanted to change that so that my response would be one less unknown. I traded interesting for reliable.

One rule is that when we are going to the zone of the day, we maintain a casual but steady pace. I do not break my gait. If he's dragging his feet from worry, I don't creep along slowly, I just walk casually. As soon as the slack is out of the rope, he comes along (it’s a short rope). Some days that happened several times; some days not at all. My pace was part of my predictability. If he gets nervous and gets ahead of me, I do not speed up. Only a couple times did I need a Tai Chi wall to prevent him from circling when he got out in front of me. Circling is not allowed. I am aiming for a horse who walks along with me rather than a whirling dervish. He can look at whatever he wants but he must keep walking at a steady pace. Initially I tried to keep him on one side of me but there are places where he really feels safer on one side than the other so he may lag behind and swap sides if he wants as long as we don’t break pace.

As far as rules for ME: in addition to what I ask for, I feed predictably.  It’s been hard! I feed in the same place every time.  I do not lower my hand to keep him quiet or feed where he is just to get the food in. I do not ask him to back.  I had a very reliable food delivery protocol. I clicked, turned to be perpendicular, and my outside hand went full arm’s length slightly lower than shoulder height. 

And I stuck to the plan of the day. No creative problem solving.  No surprises.  We just did what was on the plan. I like to think he knows the plan as well as I do by now.

May- grass to graze but keep an eye on what might come out of the quonset hut

June 5- he is concerned on our first day on the road about what might come up behind him

June 9- progress. Curious, but not worried in this zone. He has chosen to graze, lifting his head occasionally to look into the woods. 

Once we reached the road, I chose to make a big leap in our zones. There's 100 yard stretch where the woods and ditches made it impossible for us to get off the road if a car came. We don't get a lot of traffic on our road but there's a blind corner near the driveway and what traffic does come, comes far too fast for my liking. I didn't have anywhere to place a mat other than in the road. Instead, I decided to continue walking until we got to where the trees ended and opened to fields so I could step off the road for grazing and had room to do our Foundation lessons. By this time, Percy was familiar with the routine and content near the road. His head was high and ears swiveling as we walked down the road, but he maintained a steady pace with no spooking. When we stepped off the road to graze, just look at the grass he found.

June 13- just days after reaching comfort on the road, we were able to get this far from the barn and other horses.

In describing this to others, people always wanted to know, “but what are you going to do when (insert problem, lack of response, here)”.  Miraculously, problems did not arise. He never had a meltdown- he never yanked the rope. He never got so worked up that I was worried for our safety. I never wondered how I was going to get back to the barn with a nervous horse jigging alongside.  I guess instead of saying miraculously, I should say the training worked.  The reliability served its purpose. That is not to say he always remained under threshold.  This horse LIVES on his threshold.  He'll spook out at pasture and spin in his stall if the moment calls for it. My goal was keep pushing the threshold he lives with further out, rather than tipping him over it.

Successes?  

I ALWAYS have a calmer horse walking back than going out. Every single day. And significantly.  Even when we were in uncharted (incompletely filed?) territory.

Sniffing along the roadside as we return from a session far from the barn

Places he would previously have been alert in, he is now able to walk through calmly. We kept pushing the envelope and the safe environment is expanding. 

I kept track of body language. I logged looks, startles and spooks and defined them as:

a “look” is head high and ears forward, a “startle” is one of those spooks in place- muscles tense but the feet don’t move…or at least land where they left the ground! and a “spook” is movement of feet or change of gait).  I did not see an increase in any of these over time and they decreased within each new zone from day to day, and rarely happened in a previous zone.

Once the arena dried out in late Spring, I began working Percy in there every other day so our outings were less frequent. One day we'd be in the arena, the next day we went for a walk. Sometime in mid-summer, I had to change my route. Our sheep were now grazing the zones Percy and I were headed for. My goal had been to continue on around the perimeter of the fields and back to the barn.  Instead, we began in the other direction. This meant going down below the house which now blocked the view of his buddies at the barn. It was fascinating to see that he was more relaxed further from the barn when he could see the others, than closer to the barn if they were out of sight.

At this time I also had to add another strategy. When we went below the house, we were near the woods where real life predators lived. Ever since we moved here 5 years ago, we were often alerted to wildlife coming out of the woods when we saw Percy in his paddock standing on high alert, nostrils flaring, body stiff and you could almost see his heart pounding at a distance. Bear, deer, moose and coyote lived in those woods and came out to graze or hunt. And now I was asking him to leave his buddies behind and approach those dangerous woods. What I found was that he was willing and able to maintain our progress closer and closer, but when we turned to go back to the barn, he would suddenly leap forward at some point. Having the woods behind him was too much. I have no idea what he'd hear that would suddenly cause him to leap (still never pulling on the rope but a definite over threshold situation). I decided to try grazing our way back to the barn.  With so much grass available, it seemed silly not to take advantage of it.  So regardless of what we were working on that day, when we turned for home, I'd stop frequently to let him graze.  I started with stopping every 5 steps and letting him have 20 bites of grass. That seemed to help immensely and the spooking stopped. I progressed to going 10 steps between grazing, then 15, and so on, until we could go all the way back to the barn, only stopping once. Again, the routine, the permission to look but progressing to fewer breaks, all served my long term purpose.

August- lifting his head from grazing to look into the woods on our return

One day I tried taking a buddy out with him when I had a working student at the farm to help. Surprisingly, he was more nervous that day than he'd been in a long time. He felt he had to keep an eye on the surroundings AND the pony (you know, so he could warn him if a bear was sneaking up behind him).  So much for the quiet pony being a calming influence.

September- taking Stowaway along for company

At some point, the grazing sheep got in our way again and we had to turn around and go back to our original travels.  Happily, I was able to start where I'd left off. Then, in October, it snowed.  A lot.  Winter came way too early and I was not acclimated and unwilling to wade through deep snow to our current zone. Then came the holidays and in January I told myself I had to get back to work. I wasn't exactly sure what to do for our adventures. Last year we were still working close to the barn and were able to stay in the plowed driveway. Now what will I do? Just to see what a couple months off had done, I took Percy out down the driveway. No treats and we hadn't been out there in months.  His head was high and watching but he never stopped. He passed the quonset hut, doing his usual swapping of sides as we went around the corner in the driveway. It was getting dark and below zero degrees but he walked along with me without so much as a startle. We didn't go out on the icy road in the half dark, but turned around before I froze. He quickened a little, but slowed when he felt the slack go out of the rope. I was probably walking more slowly than usual due to the footing but he accommodated me. 

I am looking forward to using this technique with Percy going forward. There is no doubt that keeping things interesting is an important part of working with him.  But so is being predictable and reliable in both my requests and my responses.  It's like balancing on the edge of a knife with this boy sometimes. He continues to teach me so very much. 

Bonus!  A couple weeks ago, I had a conversation about this project with Alexandra Kurland and Dominique Day on their Equiosity podcast. It was a long conversation and so Alex broke it up into several parts.  The first part is more of my personal history and how I came clicker training.  The second part is Percy's history and the "why" behind this project.  Part three we finally get to this, and in part four, we talk about the desensitization project I did in 2017.  To hear our conversation, go to Equiosity. 

To listen to Hannah Branigan's interview with Dr Friedman which inspired this project: https://wonderpupstraining.com/podcast/39/