Learning Curve 2

In my hurry to finish my post yesterday before I left for the dentist, I left out a couple things about the first day.  One was the joy of getting to meet Panda and Ann (above).  For anyone who doesn't know, Panda is a miniature horse trained by Alex to be a guide horse for Ann who is blind.  Ann and Alex have been friends for a long time and are partners in the Clicker Center.  Another partner is Mary who lives at the farm and has her own barn for her horses.  This threesome has indeed built a great facility.  

But back to Panda- of course I've heard lots about her, seen photos and watched videos but it was great fun to meet her in person (that would be my person, her horse).  She and Ann have a great relationship and it's amazing to see them go about together making it look smooth and effortless.  But Panda knows this is "her" barn too so although she spends days and nights with Ann, she comes to the barn in the evenings and has her own stall (full size!) to hang out in while Ann does chores, visits, and works with the other horses (Ann and Alex have two Iceys...not sure who officially owns whom but it doesn't really matter).   

Panda invented her own game, called "Panda Catch" in which she chooses a person from a circle of people and lines herself up with them for which she earns a click and a treat and then runs off to pick her next person.  As my horses were living in the arena, the only place we had to play was in the aisle so she simply went back and forth between Ann and I.  

You can read more about Panda here: http://www.theclickercenter.com/Clicker-Store-Panda-Book.html

The other thing I neglected to include was Alex's stressing the importance of the relationship I was building with Percy by simply staying with him that night.  Having had horses for a lifetime, I am very familiar with the phrase "deal with it".  Horses get put in new environments, living situations, together with unfamiliar horses or training expectations and they get told to "deal with it".  They may be observed long enough to make sure they don't hurt themselves or colic, but often, sooner rather than later, they just get left in the new situation to worry alone.  This is really a form of flooding- something unpleasant until they stop reacting.  Imagine if you are afraid of spiders and are put in a room or closet full of spiders with no way of escape.  You will probably stop reacting to them but it will be a long miserable process and may have unintended fallout...like mistrust of the person who locked you in that closet! 

This issue is the beginning of my learning curve of the week.  More to come.

Learning Curve 1

It's been a month since my visit to Alexandra Kurland's brand new Clicker Center.  I've done a lot of processing, experimenting and practicing since then but not much writing.  I hope to begin to amend that now.  

At the clinic with Alex this past August, she suggested I bring Percy down for a visit.  I was thrilled at this possibility- to see the new facility, to work further with Alex and to get Percy out to more new places where I felt safe with other clicker trainers (in this case the best).  The only glitch was that Alex's busy clinic schedule kept her on the road until November and we usually park our truck and trailer for the winter by October 31 so we keep them out of the salty roads.  And I don't like pulling horses in dicey road conditions which are a very good possibility in November.  As luck would have it, one of her clinics at the end of October had to cancel and she said I could come the last week (weekdays being better for me than weekends).  I scrambled to get ready and how lucky I was- Hurricane Sandy blew in the following week right after we got back home!  I would not have been able to go otherwise.  

Alex had said it was fine to bring Kizzy along to keep Percy company in the trailer and in the new surroundings.  This was a blessing because Kizzy is such a good little traveling companion- loads well, travels well, doesn't take up much room or feed and is usually good at keeping Percy in line even though she's half his size.  I had blanketed him through the fall which I don't usually do but I wanted to try to minimize his coat since I knew he'd get hot in the trailer.  He did get sweaty right off but luckily it was a sunny and mild day so I didn't have to worry about him getting a chill in the breeze.  They traveled well and even though I missed one turn which added 30 minutes to the trip, I arrived before dark.  

Alex was waiting for us and closed the gates on the drive behind as I drove in so that we were completely enclosed by fence- very reassuring to know that if a horse gets away, he can't get to a road or disappear into the distance!  I parked right next to the arena door so we unloaded and slipped them right into the arena:

First off, it's a beautiful facility.  I had heard Alex explain how the arena was open on one side with a lovely view but it's one of those things you have to see to believe.  Autumn is my favorite time of year so that made it even more impressive for me- to look out over the brilliant countryside and watch the geese starting to head south.  Percy was also fascinated by the view, but very concerned about what kind of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers or lions and tigers and bears might approach from that direction.  He stayed very close to his Kizzy.  We hung hay nets and set out water buckets.  The arena was to be their "stall" for our stay.  The footing is deep shavings on top of stay mat (stone dust, jock sand....different locales have different names for it).  Alex knew exactly how many bags of shavings it had taken...I think it was 108 but I'm not sure!  It was definitely the penthouse suite of pony accommodations.  

That first evening it was a full time job to try to get Percy to settle down.  His hyper vigilance did not allow him to relax. I was amazed to see him herding Kizzy around and pushing her this way and that since she doesn't usually tolerate it...but he used his teeth to insist.  Alex suggested we set up a round pen for her so that she could get a break.  On her recommendation, we set it up in the middle of the arena- nowhere for anyone to get trapped and he could be on any side of her he wanted.  It was large enough that he couldn't reach her if she was in the middle but she wasn't far away nor out of sight.  

Once she was settled in, Percy set up sentry duty at the wall.  He seemed to be settling in so Alex and I had some dinner in the tack room with Ann (of Ann and Panda fame) and her husband.  I heard some noise once or twice and went out to check and reassure him.  After dinner, we settled back in to watch the last presidential debate in her enormous but as yet unfurnished office.   In the photo to the left, you can see the barn end of the arena.  In the corner on the ground floor is the tack room (behind the wall).  To the right is the sliding door which leads to a short aisle to the barn.  Right in the center is the landing of the stairs going up...more on that later!  Under the landing is a wonderful little storage area for cones and mats and other toys!  Behind the wall further to the right is the wash stall and then the bathroom and then the feed room.  You can see the wonderful balcony area which over looks the arena all the way across- plenty big enough for observation, small Tai Chi practice or meals in warmer weather.  Alex's office is upstairs on the left- you can see the sliding glass door if you look closely.  This is where I slept the second two nights and where we watched the debate in folding chairs.  Her office floor is parquet-like....an Alex original.  She took leftover pieces of lumber and patchworked it all together!  The right side upstairs is hayloft.  

Two-thirds of the way through the debate, we heard thundering hooves so I went back down to try to reassure him again.  All I can guess is that the encroaching dark made him more uneasy because he couldn't see into the distance as well.  As a result he increased his speed of sentry duty up and down along the open side.  He hadn't eaten much hay (another reason to separate him from Kizzy as she would eat hay until she popped and I wanted to keep hay in front of him) and would repeatedly break a sweat from anxiety.  By this time he was uninterested in me and I was a bit lost as to how to get his mind back. Finally I began playing targeting games with Kizzy and that brought him over.  As long as I kept targeting and playing with he and Kizzy, he slowly relaxed a little.  This was the theme until 2 AM!  Once he was relaxed, I could leave for a bit but he would slowly creep back up to full on anxious so I'd return and play some more until he calmed again.  Initially I tolerated walking and trotting back and forth but would step in if he began cantering.  As the evening wore on, he stopped escalating that far and I would step in when he began trotting.  Click for targeting, click for head lowering, click for any easy little thing.  

You can see from the photo above that there are shavings bags lined up along the wall and that's where I'd sit and watch.  As the hours wore on, I sagged into lying there but got cold so I hauled some wool coolers out of the trailer to wrap up in.  Once I got tired enough to keel over on the shavings bags, I wasn't sure I wanted to be lying IN the arena with him so I got my air mattress from the trailer and set it up on the landing, along with sleeping bag and all the blankets I could find.  It was cold! This was now my view of P and the arena although I took this the next day in the daylight.  

From here, I was able to lie under all my warm covers and if P got too active, I could by now call him over and do several fist targets right through these bars without even sitting up.  He would then stay close for a while, wander off and come back when I called him.  Each time he stayed calm longer and longer.  Then I began asking for head lowering from there and he would stay with his head down right next to me.  At one point, I started scritching his cheek.  After a minute or so he leaned forward so that I was scratching behind his ears, then leaned forward a little more so I was scritching his neck.  Then he took a tiny step forward so I was scritching a little further back.  He proceeded ever so slowly so that he got a head to tail scratching and I never moved- my hand stayed right there between the same two bars and I drifted off to sleep.  

I'm off to the dentist- more tomorrow!

Chapter 2 in which I float balloons at 3: am and Alex hugs my horse

Saturday night I went to sleep easily but woke up at 3: am with thoughts buzzing in my head.  I was thinking about the way I approached the situation of Percy being frightened of the chicken.  I realized I had made a mistake to try to approach with him because, unlike other situations in which I approached scary things with him, I had no control over the chicken.  While I did not really think that the chicken would harm him, it could have naively approached us (in search of a tasty morsel in the grass) and that might have caused Percy to think I wasn't doing a very good job of keeping him safe.  I really need him to trust me and I can't give him any reason to think he'd be better off leaving me behind and saving himself.

I wanted to have some clear facts with which to proceed and so I sorted through my thoughts and came up with the following.  I called them Percy's balloons because I was afraid that after staying awake thinking about this for an hour and a half, I'd forget it all as soon as I fell asleep again, the thoughts floating off like Winnie-the-Pooh to the honey tree.  I used my phone in the dark, so as not to wake my roommate Sarah, and jotted down these thoughts:

1. Knowing Percy's mother, she does not hit the end of a rope even when explosive.  Neither does she run into you.  Percy seems to be as body aware as she is but I am not yet sure he is as careful as she is.  
2. If allowed rope freedom, Percy has never gotten away or even tried to pull away from me.  He is polite even when excited.  
3. If you try to restrain him,  he will fight.  He's been that way since he was a foal.  A combination of my respect for his athletic abilities and respect for his nature has prevented me from trying to force him to accept restraint.  Through clicker training, I have been able to train him to accept various kinds of restraint, from a halter to hoof trimming to a firm grip on his head to examine his teeth.  
4. Clicker work calms him, as it had done the previous day.  Leaving him alone to settle down does not.  When my husband had to repair the sheep barn roof last winter and was climbing up and down a ladder and walking around on the roof, Percy watched in horror.  I left him, assuming he'd get over it, but when I returned hours later, he was still staring, giraffe like.  Another time I had tied a tarp to the round pen on a windy day and his initial reaction was the same but we approached it together, one step at a time, only advancing when his head was below his withers and for a click and treat of each step.  The closer we got, the calmer he became.   He'd done lots with tarps previously but never when they were flapping and snapping in the wind.  But all that work with the tarp was at liberty- I was not forcing him to approach, I was reinforcing when he did and he was free to leave at any time. 

I had hoped that work like this would make him more trusting, exposing him to more things in life and he'd continue to stay with me in scary situations.  But then there was the ostrich potential.  So I had questions- should I do more tai chi wall work with him so it became a comforting thing rather than a forced control?  Should I have "put him to work" to distract him from the chicken rather than facing it? 

When Alex arrived the next morning, she found me cleaning Percy's stall.  Now that she has her own barn and home base, she seemed to be like the rest of us, enjoying a morning mucking.  She picked up a fork and cleaned Kizzy's stall while I shared Percy's balloons.  At the end, she was even more convinced he needed hugging.  

During the morning discussion, she explained an exercise she had developed at another clinic earlier in the season.  This was for a mare who did not want her girth area approached  (and she was quite adamant about keeping people away).  She adapted the exercise with Percy thusly: we set up two lawn chairs as large cones.  Alex stood on one side and I on the other side.  We were probably about 20 feet apart- each 10 feet from the invisible line drawn between the chairs (with the mare, who was an event horse, the chairs had been jump standards and they built up a jump for her to go over each way).  We each had a target stick.  I think we began by having me "send" Percy to Alex who was holding out her target stick.  He needed to investigate the chairs a bit first (not minding when he knocked one over) but then went and touched her target for a c/t.  Alex then took firm hold of his halter, wrapped her left arm over his nose where the noseband of his halter went and gave him a squeeze.  The moment he relaxed a tiny bit, she clicked and released.  She repeated this process several times, turning him in a small half circle after a few so that he was headed back toward me and hugged him some more.  Then using her left hand on his halter and right at his shoulder, she gently sent him back to me so I could do the same.  

Over that session and another one the next day, we made progress from Percy's nose, to his head, his poll, his neck, his withers and finally his girth area.  I feel conflicted writing this because I don't want it to sound as though we were physically restraining him while he fought to get away.  There were times he resisted but we certainly couldn't hug a 1200 pound horse to us when he didn't want it.   

Alex did state that we should take hold of his halter and not allow him to leave.  This was about him learning that pressure was ok and it was also not optional.   In his past, I had gone just to the point of contact with him, waited for a release from him and then released myself.  This was about going to the point of contact and pulling him to us, c/ting when he relaxed to the contact.  It wasn't a surrender, it was a relaxing.  I could feel it when he relaxed into my arms and I could see the expression in his eyes soften when he relaxed to Alex's hugs.  

Now, Alex being Alex, there were many other things going on at the same time below the surface.  These weren't just random hugs.  These were progressive flexions.  She was precise in how we held his head and neck, where our arms, and then hips, were placed so that we supported correct body mechanics.  He was not to wrap down and around but maintain a more correct alignment.  She felt a kink in his neck when she got halfway down.  I did not feel it but did feel him make a big step toward relaxation after she sent him back to me the next time.  Once we got to his chest and wither, she showed me how she used her hip at his shoulder in a lifting position, rather than pulling down on his withers- it reminded me of the way a chiropractor uses their body to manipulate a patient.  I need to review my anatomy.  

Caroline asked if a chiropractor or massage therapist would be helpful in that kink.  Alex was firm in saying that professionals can be very helpful but also that we can do a lot for our horses ourselves with the exercises we use.  This rang true for me because a daily morning yoga ritual keeps me putting one foot in front of the other each day without pain and vertigo.  We know our horses bodies- daily careful grooming ingrains the feel of their legs in our brains so that we sense the slightest heat or swelling- why not carry that over to the rest of the body?  Grooming him at home yesterday, I changed the feel of my currying with the grooming mitt so that I was feeling muscles and looking for potential tight spots, rather than just massaging the skin.  

I seem to have a very snuggly horse now.  I have previously worked on getting him to relax and lower his head when I comb his forelock- yesterday he voluntarily buried his head in my chest and with a wing and prayer, I wrapped his head in my arms, squished his ears and hugged tight- he didn't move a muscle. When I was picking out his run-in, he came over and instead of begging to play games (backing away, pricking his ears, trying to steal the pitchfork), he just wrapped his neck around me in a hug.  

Chapter One, in which Kizzy goes to Lilliput and Percy becomes undone by a chicken

This past weekend was the long-awaited yearly clinic with Alexandra Kurland.  I must start off by saying that the host, Caroline Albert, gets the Energizer Bunny award of the year from me.  With two school-aged children, four dogs in various stages of training, 8 horses, and a startup bustling dog training and daycare business, somehow she invited us into her home and barn and even cooked fabulous meals for us for three and a half days.  Her businesses are Click for Confidence (equine) and The Grateful Dog (canine).  A year and a half ago, she and her family (kids plus husband Wayne who is a farrier extraordinare) rescued a weanling colt.  The photos were heartbreaking: emaciated, barely strength to stand, covered in rain rot which came off in chunks, structurally unsound, one could only wonder what kind of future this poor thing could have.  Below, a photo of him this past weekend.

Smitten- now the picture of health and fitness

Amazing, isn't it?

When we arrived at the farm on Friday late afternoon, we were a truck and trailerful:  Percy, Kizzy-as-companion-to Percy, Eloise the Jack Russell, Sarah Memmi who traveled down with us for wonderful conversation and support, and myself.  I unloaded Percy who couldn't figure out which way to look first and Sarah unloaded Kizzy who saw there was grass so all was well in her world.  Percy has an amazing ability to turn into a giraffe when he needs to see all the world at once and so with head held high, we proceeded toward the paddock which Caroline had waiting for us.  As we approached, a small head and body appeared around the corner of the barn.  One of the farm minis had snuck between some rails and ended up in assigned paddock.  Had Percy been able to raise his head even higher at this astonishing sight, he would have.  Caroline's daughter grabbed a lead rope, lassoed the escapee and returned him to his own paddock.  We opened the gate and entered with Percy and Kizzy.  The mini returned.  With reinforcements.  And attitude.  We now had two minis in the paddock with us and they seemed rather incensed by the visitors so they skirted Caroline's daughter who was trying to catch them again and presented themselves front and center.  At 12 hands (which may be generous) Kizzy has never towered over anything before.  A bit concerned at what Percy was going to do about this situation, I nonetheless had to giggle at the Lilliputians.  Sarah handed over Kizzy's lead rope and the minis were once again captured and led off to their stalls.  Relieved that Percy hadn't ended up splayed out and staked to the ground by a miniature race, we proceeded to settle everyone in.  

Saturday was Day 1 of the clinic, a day which Alex sets aside for data collection.  She observes horses and handlers and begins to lay her plans for the work to come.  Our assignment is to work our horses as we would at home and see if the behaviors are all in order.  We could either proceed or back up as warranted.  The previous evening I had said that my goal, if Percy was Percy, would be to work on some emotional control.  All in all I had been pleased with how he had handled the Advance of the Minis and was drooling over the lovely flat sand arena, unlike anything we had at home.  What fun it would be to work in there.  Alex later quoted John Lyons saying that we can have all the training in the world, but horses being horses, things happen and what are you going to do when an ostrich walks up the drive?  Well, in our case, the ostrich was a chicken.  A rather attractive laying hen had ventured from her pen to graze in the grass next to the paddock which Percy and Kizzy were in.  Percy was alarmed.  

He stared, he blew, he retreated and advanced.  He clung to Kizzy.  He did his giraffe imitation.  The chicken was unconcerned.  She did her little chicken walk around in the grass, searching for bugs seemingly without any knowledge of the large horse she was intimidating.  Percy was a farm boy but our chickens were in the other barn and he'd never seen them.  Alex watched from the barn door as I put his halter on.  He obligingly lowered his head into his halter but shot it back up when I opened the gate and went onto the grass where the chicken was.  She had puttered over to the other side of the lawn.  I told Alex that if I was at home, the first thing I would do would be to address the chicken.  Not in a formal commencement speech sort of way, but in a more casual introduction of "Percy this is a little red hen.  Little Red Hen this is Percy".  Alex was concerned for my safety and sent us back into the paddock.  She didn't like me being on the side of Percy that would be leapt upon if he leapt.  She gave us a mat and a circle of cones in the paddock...a slightly stony, slightly side hill- just like home.   And so we went to work.  Percy settled with the familiar exercises.  He wasn't quite focused enough to show off left and right error-free but he could do his foundation exercises.  He gets fussy about just how to perfect his feet on a mat and was true-to-form there.  But he targeted, head lowered, backed (even on voice), stood for Grownups and his ears were mannerly.  His "stretch" command was only half quality (at home his nose is right at the ground as he walks).  

Alex observed and made helpful suggestions.  She commented something about spending the weekend hugging him...

Is Positive Reinforcement Bribery?

No.  There are distinct differences between the two.  Whether you are clicker training an animal or TAG teaching a person (of any age), you are using a scientifically researched and proven method of teaching or training which involves the pupil learning something new.  This might be a completely new behavior or a new way of performing a previously known behavior.  Good teaching or training also involves a plan.  A key element in Clicker Training and TAGteach is breaking the behavior down into manageable steps (which will be different for each learner) and reinforcing each step along the way.  

The downfall of bribery is that each bribe only gets you one behavior.  There has been no learning involved, therefore, no long term change will occur.  The bribe is offered before the behavior: “do this and I’ll give you this”.  Without the bribe, the behavior doesn’t happen.  This frequently leads to the pupil demanding the bribe before repeating the behavior.  They think, “well, last time I got a cookie for getting into my car seat.  I want to be sure I get one this time too!”.  This is a one-time deal.  

With animals, we don’t have the ability to tell the animal, “if you get on the trailer, I’ll give you a carrot”.  So those using bribery stand on the trailer with a bucket of grain, shaking the bucket and trying to lure the animal in.  They might give a bite now and then, but there is rarely a plan for how this training is taking place.   Without an understanding of the other things affecting the horse’s behavior, those bucket-shakers don’t change the long term behavior of the horse.  They may get the horse on the trailer, but the next time they need to load, they will be back there shaking that bucket. 

With clicker training, no treat is offered ahead of time.  The animal does not know what will earn a click, or if it will earn a click.  Therefore, he must think.  He must try different things to see what works.  The animal becomes actively engaged with using his brain to figure out this puzzle.  Engaging him in this way changes the training picture entirely.  In addition, we don’t click and treat the same behavior, differentiating Clicker Training from luring and bribing.  The animal must keep working, keep thinking, keep trying in order to continue getting clicked.  Standing still on the trailer ramp doesn’t work.  Backing off and then putting the front feet on again over and over doesn’t work.  Clicker trainers use measurable criteria to determine when progress is being made and they mark that with a click.  Once it is trained, as long as nothing else changes that training (such as a bad experience), you have a well-trained loader.

With people, we have the advantage of language to be able to communicate exactly what will earn a tag.  We aren’t bribing a person for a finished behavior.  One doesn’t tag for “good position” or “a clean room”.  One breaks the position down into manageable steps.  The tags occur when that step is achieved- our bodies need to experiment to find that right spot and then TAG!  The brain processes that and tries it again- TAG!  Once we have been tagged several times, we know the feel of the correct position.  We can repeat it.  At that point the teacher goes on (using the training plan) to another piece of the position.  Through this gradual process and understanding that one piece may slip when a new one is introduced, we can help a student achieve that final position we are looking for.  Through this process, we have also helped the student to feel good about the position.  Therefore, no bribery is necessary to maintain it.  

In case you are wondering, you can devise a plan to TAGteach for a clean room :)  

Accomplice

Today, I wanted to try to transition to my giving the "walk on" cue from his back- something I hadn't been able to get him to understand when I worked alone.  He would move, but felt this awkward weight on his back (me) and found it easier to go backward or sideways.  Because he is so sensitive, there wasn't anyone I felt comfortable asking to lead me.  But now I had an accomplice.

Before we could do that, I needed to teach Anna my routine.  She had participated yesterday, but as the rider, not the handler.  I sent her off around the cone circle with him, but there was something (can't remember what now) I wanted to demonstrate to her so I approached them.  Percy pinned his ears when I got close.  Aha- I was confusing him again.  I am his person, and here I was approaching but Anna was a perfectly good vending machine so now what was he to do?  We decided to take turns being his handler and Anna came up with a wonderful "transition" exercise.  When we switched handlers, the new handler would offer a fist target a couple times as the other person left, and then the new handler took over.  That person would do a circle or two and then we'd swap again.  He could look forward to the new person approaching because that person would offer a fist target he could interact with, and then he'd get to work with them.

It worked quite wonderfully.  And I was able to get on, swing my legs a bit, feel my wonderful boy and take some steps.  Because we had done so much before getting me on, we didn't do too much after that.  But she'll be here tomorrow too!

Cues as Reinforcers

As I head into the last month of my KPA course, I find myself extremely grateful for a better understanding of Cues as Reinforcers.  Attending Clicker Expo for the first time in the midst of my KPA course was a wonderful immersion in all thing clickerly.  I saw and heard many examples of cues as reinforcers there as well.  When I returned home, I decided to put this into action and had an "aha" moment in my first attempt.


It was early Spring and I was longeing Ande over a little jump.  We're still working on combining all the preferred criteria over fences: a nice forward approach but not rushing, good form over the jump, and a polite, clean landing.  The landing was giving me the most trouble.  If the jump was nice and I clicked at any point over it, he landed with the brakes on to receive his treat.  If I clicked when he landed, he screeched to a halt.  If I did not click until several strides after he landed (trying to reinforce a polite landing), he would either hesitate as if wondering why I did not click or the quality of the jump would deteriorate.  


I can't remember now if I went out with the intention of using a cue as reinforcer or if it came to me in the moment.  Ande has been reinforced oodles for trotting on voice cue- for years and whether in an up transition or a down transition.  Therefore, "trrrottt" fit the description for a cue that could be used as a reinforcer: it had been taught and maintained with +R, had a solid reinforcement history and was a fluent behavior.  


So this time when Ande approached the jump in a forward active trot, rocked back and was clean with his knees, instead of clicking, I said "trrrottt" as he went over.  It was magic.  He landed with his ears up and trotted cleanly off with no hesitation, no question, no frustration, no structure-jarring halts.  I let him trot 5-6 steps and then clicked.  Voila.  It was so easy it was ridiculous.  All this mystery of how to fade clicks and treats disappeared.  Not only was I the cookie, behaviors themselves had become the cookies.  


This opened up all kinds of opportunities for me to utilize cues as reinforcers more often.  Over the years I have built up quite a little treasure trove of individual behaviors.  Now I can link them together with an understanding of how cues work and how chains work.  Certainly all the foundation lessons are useful as reinforcing cues.  Instead of viewing all my requests as more demands on the horses, I now see them as welcome cues.  They know this stuff- they enjoy it (obvious by their willingness to offer them to me even without asking sometimes).  It isn't a burden to them to comply- it's an opportunity to interact and earn more reinforcement.  By mixing them up, I gain more attention and interest from the horses.   I can balance them in ways that enrich each session. 


Standing still for grooming is now so reinforcing that I was able to finally get Percy to hold a quiet mouth with a bit in it.  When I focused on the bit, so did he (chew, chew, chew, tongue rolling, head twisting).  When we focused on the grooming, the bit became a part of the pleasant process.  I spent years working with him on allowing me to touch and groom different parts of his body so that he really enjoys it rather than tolerates it.  Just this week I realized how much better he is about being groomed than his mother is (sorry Zoe).  She loves parts of it but hates other parts of it.  There are days she enjoys it, days she tolerates it and days you wish you'd stayed in the house.  Percy happily stands in the barn aisle for grooming.  He is not tied, he has access to both his paddock and a hay pile but instead he stands.  He has worn his bridle and practiced his new yawning behavior while I go over every inch of him with all the different brushes.  When I stop, he reaches into his grooming box and hands me another brush (he likes the rubber ones).  Actually, he just keeps handing me brushes whether I stop or not.  Handing me things is a fun behavior- I can use that to reinforce other things.  


I have now taught him to back on voice cue.  I've tested it in several situations but next want to expand my experimentation to see if he'll do it when I'm somewhere other than in front of him (can I stand behind him and get him to back to me?).  Since retrieving is such fun, I can use that as a reinforcer.  I'll just hold his little toy, ask him to back and then toss it for him, clicking and treating when he hands it to me.  


I'll need to be sure that all these behaviors stay reinforcing- with a background in traditional training, it's easy to get caught up in the riding and forget that.  If my flexions are reinforcing, then I can use them to reinforce a nice transition.  If transitions are reinforcing, I can use them to reinforce flexions.  Either way, I get a happy balanced horse.