I have written before about the difference between being taught TO stand versus being taught NOT to move. I think horses are more solid in their behaviors when they are taught to do a behavior, rather than just being taught to endure anything we do to them. Training this approach means I allow the horses to initiate as much behavior as possible, and reinforce them for what I want, ignoring what I don't want...a process known as free-shaping. So when I introduced the young ones to clippers, I simply held the clippers while they were completely loose and allowed their own curiosity to encourage them to approach them and then clicked when they did. This, in turn, made them want to explore them more and we proceeded from there (you can read it in more detail in this post).
I think Percy has had this approach exclusively. I can't guarantee it because my background certainly wasn't in this approach and I may have slipped over the line without realizing it. The reasons I'm pretty sure, however, are that he is the youngest, so I had more practice by the time he came along; and his temperament definitely is not suited to being forced to do things. There have been several occasions when I tried to make him do something and he said, "nope". So I would change my approach and ask him if he'd like to do something, and he'd reply, "why, sure, I'll give that a try if there's something in it for me". To non-clicker trainers, this may sound like he's spoiled, to which I reply, how many of you would go to work every day if you weren't getting a pay check for it?
But I'll admit there are times when our horses do need to allow us to take over and do things to them. If you know any good clicker trainers, you know these instances are few and far between. Clicker trained horses will happily volunteer for trailering, worming, approaching frightening objects, standing on a block for x-rays or in a tub of water for soaking a foot, etc. I think really, it is in an emergency situation that we need them to just plain trust us and let us do something to them. If they are bleeding badly, we need to deal with it without having to go through a training process of allowing a tourniquet to be applied. In an accident, we need them to follow us or stand still, depending on the situation, without taking time to adjust to the scenario. Now a lot of this will be done without a hitch if the horse and handler have a good clicker-based relationship. That automatically builds trust. But sometimes we have to bring in another person- a vet, emergency personnel, etc. So it's good if we can express to our horses that they just need to stand still and endure because we tell them to.
So today, for the first time in his life (I think), I said to Percy, "you stand there on the cross ties and let me do this". "This" was letting me measure him with a T measuring stick. It's metal and plastic, telescopes in the longer part and the T part flips out to the side and snaps in place. It was very scary. And it wasn't enough to sniff it, he had to let me approach his side and have the top slide down and rest on his withers...all the while he couldn't see it well because of it being almost out of his line of vision (especially on the cross ties where he couldn't turn his head). I've seen mature seasoned horses who didn't want this done.
I did start with him loose at noontime and outside. But he decided that was a Very Dangerous Weapon I was carrying and left the scene. Rumer stepped up and I was able to free-shape her to stand for it.....12.2 h. That was when I decided this was not-an-option for Percy. I came back later in the day and put him on the cross ties and groomed him first. Then I brought the stick out in its compact position. I let him sniff it and clicked him for that, which I know I couldn't have done if he was loose because then he would have thought it was about putting his nose on it and pretty soon he'd have been carrying it around and trying to measure me! (He loves to carry the longe whip around- I think I could do a pretty good comedy sketch of horse-chasing-person with whip). After he'd snorted and blown at it, I was able to click for just a quiet expression and head position- low on the cross ties but obviously he wasn't able to put his nose on the ground. Then I slowly telescoped it out little by little, clicking him after each move when he lowered his head on the ties. He was not relaxed- his neck was pretty tight but he knew that a low head position was asked for. His eyes watched that stick very closely. I moved to the front of him and moved it from horizontal to vertical and back a couple times. He did not like to see that it was bigger than him and his head went way up! Then I approached him with it again, clicking for him keeping his feet still...again, this is something he knows is a good thing to do...stand still rather than wiggle around. Head down and feet still are default behaviors by this time so he knows that they'll probably get reinforced. I don't disappoint him!
At this point I could tell he was pretty tense even though he was being very good. I leaned the measuring stick up against the wall (being sure that it wouldn't slip over and scare the bananas out of him) and then unclipped the ties and took him for a little walk around the paddock to just allow him to shake off the tension. I also gave him some easy clicks- targeting my hand, backing up, etc. Then we went back in the barn and I did a little test run without him being on the ties. He let me get just as far as I had earlier and he stood stock still. When he's worried and I ask him to put his head down, he reminds me of when I first try to drink from a steaming cup of tea or coffee and I don't want to burn myself. He puts his nose down quivering very slowly as if he's ready to leap back up having burned his lips. Once I saw that he passed this test, I put the cross ties back on and carefully flipped the T out. I let him sniff that and then approached his side cautiously, again clicking as I went for keeping his feet still and his head as low as possible on the ties. Before resting the T on his withers, I placed my hand there several times so the feel wasn't new.
I was very happy that he allowed me to do all this. I technically could have free-shaped it like I did with Rumer but I think it's good that we have one experience like this under our belts. And at 20 months old, he's 15 h., although I confess I didn't take the time to make sure the little bubble indicating level was in the right place! It will be interesting to see how big he gets. This photo was taken last October. His mane's even longer now- ugh.
My stint as primary farmer is over...for a while. My husband returned on Friday and boy were the horses and I (and Jack Russell) relieved. We were unbelievably lucky with the weather while he was gone. The country seemed to tip upside down and while snowstorms were pounding the central and southern states (and even southern New England), northern Vermont was enjoying the earliest Spring in a long time. Last Saturday we actually broke records for warm weather. Snow was long gone (except in the deepest woods) and the grass has already started to turn green. I took this picture while watering the sheep one day...they were all lined up along the barn and I couldn't figure out what they were doing. Turns out, this grass was struggling to grow up behind the bottom board and they were eating the tops off just as fast as it could grow!
Luckily, the horses haven't started to push through fences yet. I have taken turns turning them out in the round pen to chew off anything that might try to grow in there. Rumer especially seems to enjoy pulling it up by the roots so she may get a job in the garden this summer! With the clocks being turned ahead, I am now leaving everyone out until after dinner. I always have them out from sunup to sundown in all seasons so they can get as much moving around as possible (not to mention saving on bedding). While my husband was gone, I was turning them out before it was light and one morning Percy alerted me to a group of coyotes lurking just down the hill. I slept a lot better at night knowing our Livestock Guardian Dogs were on duty.
As far as training, I did what little I could in the last three weeks. In addition to being very busy, very tired and very short on time, I was dealing with a couple injuries that made me want to just sit down in the little available time I had so I didn't do anything major. One of the most exciting things to me was that I have been able to free shape Stowaway to both turn away and back up when I approach his feed tub with grain. This is major success in my opinion because he has been so difficult to explain clicker training to. I did not spend special time with him or focus on it, but each night as I fed, I just shaped him a tiny bit further and he now turns his head completely away and takes a full step back each night. I did nothing to "ask" him to do this- it was strictly shaping.
Percy is now exceptional at walking next to me, with his nose to the ground, at least a foot away from me when I walk through his paddock. For a boy of his age (not 2 until July 1), this is a good way for him to behave around people as a default behavior (a default behavior is a reliable behavior that has been strongly and repeatedly reinforced that he turns to when he's not sure what else to do). It keeps him quiet and calm with his head down, no temptation to bite anything or anyone and not too close to be in the way.
I also had to extinguish a behavior with him. One afternoon when I put him in his stall at feeding time, he had a complete temper tantrum. He bucked and squealed and stood up and spun around and at first I could not figure out WHAT the problem was. Then I realized that I usually did not shut his door during chores- I just put his stall guard up. The ponies all scooted underneath stall guards but Percy is big enough and polite enough to respect it so I was happy to leave his door open so he could hang his head out and watch and interact as I did chores. On that day, I had absent-mindedly shut his door and he was furious! I don't think I would have figured it out if I didn't know his mummy so well. But it is precisely something she would have done. Rather an opinionated bunch.
I knew I couldn't open his door at that point- that would have reinforced his tantrumming behavior. Instead I had to ignore it so that it extinguished. And I had to repeat that several more nights. Luckily I was confident in the structure of his stall! Now he is fine whether I leave his door open or closed.
We're back to more typical Spring weather now- temperatures in the 30's and 40's with some mixed rain and snow. This week I'm focusing on preparing for the TAGteach seminar that I am co-hosting this weekend (see www.TAGteach.com/events for more details- there is still room if anyone is interested. Feel free to email me with questions at bookendsfarm@gmail.com ). And then we'll get back to more focused training!
This post is an attempt at an explanation for my lack of recent posts. In addition to my equine pursuits, our farm also includes sheep, cattle, dogs, and a cat on a regular basis plus chickens and pigs at times. February is our biggest lambing season- when we have the most lambs and the most intense time for assistance due to the cold temperatures. We also lamb in June and October but then the weather is pleasant and newborns don't need to be tended to as quickly as on the nights it's 20 below zero!
So I'm including some photos here of what our lambing barn looks like right now. 
Although I haven't counted recently, I think we have about 90 new lambs which have been born in the last 3 weeks. We're almost done...just about half a dozen ewes left to lamb. It would be nice to think that the hard part is over but now we have to take care of them all and watch them for problems.
As if my mind isn't preoccupied enough, my husband has to go away for job training for 3 weeks in the beginning of March so I will get to do this all by myself. I'm feeling rather whiny these days. I feel like all I do is tell people they can't count on me for the next month. In reality I am very fortunate...just busy at the time being!
I haven't clicker trained any of the sheep, but I have found the principles of Operant Conditioning to be very useful when working with the livestock. I am much more sucessful (and relaxed) when moving the cattle or sheep because I know what I am doing as far as reinforcing or punishing their movements and I can use that to my advantage!
The weather has been deceivingly mild recently- almost 40 degrees today. While the mid-Atlantic states have been getting buried in snow, up here we're not getting any. We still have barely a ground cover from snows that came weeks ago but as far as working horses goes, it's been pretty nice. My hands don't freeze when I take gloves off to treat! I'm still working on my winter projects with each of the ponies- making great progress and now putting refinements on them. Kizzy and I are learning more about cues- distinguishing from one cue and behavior to another. I'm seeing just how insecure she still is. I'm very thankful for learning about cues with her because Percy's "trick" for the winter was learning how to pick things up and he has learned it well. He now offers to pick up just about anything- buckets, gloves, pitchforks, etc. In addition, he found he can zip up my coat for me and tug on my hood string. Needless to say, these last two are not really things I want him doing so I am now working on putting a cue on "take it" so that we can only have him pick up things that I want him to!
Rumer and I continue to work on ground driving without tack. I'm learning as we go- while I've seen others do it, I have no book or video to follow as to HOW to do it so I'm making it up as I go along. In addition, she and Percy are both learning about hopping. I'm hopping; they are learning to deal with it. Ande didn't care at all when I hopped as a prep to mount, but Percy and Rumer both thought I shouldn't be doing that. So I hop and click them for head down and relaxing while I do it. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in my barn!
Stowaway will now pick up his front feet with just a light touch on the back of his knee. I really haven't worked with him much- he and Ande are in the run-in shed and it's a much less fun place to work. Plus no lights so I can't play in the evenings. Ande is being a champ about stationing while I go in with hay. His food manners are miles better and I feel much safer when I go through the gate with an armload of hay in the dark on the ice. Even though he wants to attack Stowaway, he knows there is a routine which will be reinforced and he reliably follows it.
One more photo- a set of triplets napping together (those lambs do know how to pile up to keep warm!). 
While teaching yesterday, the subject of distractions came up for two horses. They were very different personalities: one was an Off-the-Track-Thoroughbred (OTTB) and the other was a Canadian Horse- a little known breed similar to a rugged Morgan or Cob. So even though they were on opposite ends of hot/cold spectrum, both these individuals were more interested in "watching the movie" on the outside of the arena, than focusing on the job at hand.
The TB is not newly off the track and has had some amazing owners who have done wonders with him such that he is a real sweetheart...but he is still a TB. So he could see reflections in the windows of horses outside (we were in an indoor), he could hear conversations going on in the barn aisle and he could hear the wind blowing along the indoor walls. He thought all of these were worthy of his attention just in case he should need to go into full alarm mode and leave the scene...which he never did thanks to the patience and base that his rider has given him. Nonetheless, he rarely or never gave his full attention to his owner.
The little Canadian, on the other hand, did not seem in the least worried. Just busy! While the TB's ears swiveled around to listen in all directions, the Canadian's whole head and neck swung as he checked things out. He had been trucked in for the lesson so this was his first time at that facility and in that arena. There were lots of things to investigate- mirrors, doors, a hole in the kickboard etc. and especially that gate leading back to the barn where all those potential friends were hanging out!
So the challenge for both of these riders was and is how to get and keep your horse's attention. Every rider shares this challenge. How do we keep our horses' attention? Some people like to give a horse some time to look around first so they can then settle down and focus. Others like to "put them right to work" so that they don't have a chance to get worked up about something.
But regardless of which of these is best for each individual horse, we can use Positive Reinforcement in order to BE the distraction which the horse turns to instead of all that going on outside the arena (or off the trail or wherever). If the horse is truly worried about something (which I believe TBs often are), then we can be reassuring to them by inviting them into a positively reinforcing game or exercise. It helps to start out with a familiar exercise which you know they enjoy and then depending on the horse, you can introduce something new or keep them comfortable with what they know.
The mentally quick horses love a new challenge and with Positive Reinforcement, we know that it's the SEEKING mechanism that entices them (read about SEEKING here). So if we work on a relaxing behavior like head down in the barn and in hand until they are rock solid, they will happily respond when asked to. Then when going into a scary indoor, we can ask for head down and that behavior will have been conditioned to relax the horse. From there we can transition into perhaps walking forward with head down, building duration for the head down behavior. We need to keep the reinforcements rate high at this time in order to keep the horse's focus on us instead of the howling wind. Then we can move on to some lateral flexing exercises (the head down is a wonderful longitudinal stretch), with lots of reinforcing for nice flexions. By now, we should have the horse's attention. We have become more distracting than the noises outside. Who wants to listen to the wind when somebody keeps offering peppermints?
For the busy and curious horse, you can sometimes bypass the relaxing exercises and go straight to the fun stuff. But it's always good for a horse's anatomy and physiology to get that stretching in the neck and over the back as a warmup. But perhaps that horse would find it fun to target cones on the ground with his nose as he went around the arena. If he's focused on cones and getting clicked for touching them, he won't be looking in the mirrors or out windows. And that type of horse usually can't wait for you to tell him what the next game is going to be once you get started. All else is forgotten!
Many riders use distractions to get a horse's attention- but not necessarily in a positive way. Some use negative reinforcement- more and more pressure to make that horse pay attention...but that does not help a horse relax. Instead it can add tension to the situation. Far better to build a reputation with our horses of being far more interesting and FUN than anything else. We've already seen that horses will leave food in order to play the Clicker Game. Now we need to build trust so that they will also leave their worries behind and join us in work.
Photo above is TB mare Zoe, near and dear to our hearts, showing all the physiological signs of tension and distraction! One ear up, one cocked to the side. Tight neck, wide eye, jaw tense. This was her first time back under saddle after foaling. She hadn't been in the arena in over a year. Clicker training doesn't eliminate a horse's instincts and fears, but it does give us a way to deal with them....Zoe is doing wonderfully 6 months after this photo was taken, learning lots of new games and ways to deal with her tension.
Energy is an interesting concept to think about when working with horses. Many riders and trainers talk about "building energy", "creating energy", "bringing up the energy", etc. While some people like a nice quiet horse, others like to see "expression" of gaits, impulsion, etc which all imply a degree of energy expended more than the quiet trail horse.
Like everything else with horses, there are as many ways to create energy as there are horsepeople. I have a vivid recollection of riding in an indoor at a barn which trained saddle seat horses while I was in college. They used all kinds of noisy, banging, rattly, eye-popping paraphernalia to get the horses energized. Most people would agree that this method inspires some fear in the horse in order to get that expressive response. Personally, I think the rest of us need to examine whether we are also inspiring a fear response in order to build energy in our horses.
I have heard the recommendation that handlers bring their own energy up in order to encourage the same in our horses. But how do we do that? Many times I see people being very expressive themselves but that tends to inspire a response in the horse which then gets a little too expressive when the horse bolts off or spooks left and right.
Considering that horses are prey animals, it makes sense that energy is associated with fear. When things are safe, horses graze quietly or rest. When startled, they raise their heads with eyes wide and then move quickly, covering lots of ground with each step in any gait. When we watch horses play in the pasture, frequently they will stop, heads lifted high, give one of those snorting noises and then tear off again. This is contagious as other horses in the pasture or neighboring pastures (or unfortunately under saddle in a nearby arena) also pick up on the energy and begin acting the same way. So we can certainly incite this in our horses...but is that what we really want considering all the other "baggage" that comes along with a fear response?
When I taught Percy to trot in hand (which I wrote about in this post), I used my own energy to entice him to trot. Simply by jogging next to him, I was able to transfer that extra energy into him. I could have made a noise, waved something at him or tapped him with a whip, but those would all have been negative reinforcement which would have meant introducing something that he wanted me to stop doing. Instead, my jogging steps were more of an invitation to him to join me.
I guess one way to look at it is the difference between dogs and horses. Dogs, as predators, love to see us act loony so they can join in. But horses, I think, are more apt to worry when we get wound up- and their energy is in trying to get away from us, not join us. I'd be interested to hear how others create energy without creating fear- and encourage you to really observe your horses to be sure you aren't scaring them into behaviors.
For many years, other clicker trainers have been telling me of the benefits of teaching tricks with clicker training, but quite honestly I turned a deaf ear. In my opinion, tricks were silly, useless and quite frankly, demeaning. It made me think of a circus dog and I liked to think of my horses as noble, elegant and athletic. So I focused my clicker training on handling, manners and problem areas (spookiness, etc). Then I found the benefits of clicking under saddle and using Alexandra Kurland's many exercises to develop a balanced, happy athlete and my mind expanded.
I guess there were two things which convinced me to try teaching a trick or two. One was ponies who are so darn cute and the fun of showing their tricks to kids. I also approached a "trick" originally as a training tool. I taught Kizzy to target a cone for the purpose of using it in my lessons to direct her. The giggles from kids as a result was addicting.
The other was young horses in need of attention and entertainment. They were going to entertain themselves anyway by chewing on the barn, pulling up fence posts, using their teeth to explore the world (me, my clothes, and light switches that were supposedly horse-proof) and doing run-by spookings. I decided I might as well put all that energy and interest to good use. I decided if puppies get chew toys, why not young horses? I taught Percy last winter, as a weanling, to pick up his loopy toy and hand it to me. That gave him something to grab onto with his teeth and a way to interact with me.
This winter, I have expanded the list of "tricks" I am teaching and I'm seeing all the advantages to which I previously turned a deaf ear. First of all, winters in northern Vermont are long! I might as well use this time to train something rather than just hunkering down in the house with tea all day (while the horses find entertainment of their own). I've had that intention other winters but this year having some serious goals greatly increased the times I followed through with my good intentions. It will be interesting to see how things differ in the spring, when I simply transition to more riding/schooling from tricks as opposed to transitioning from nothing to training. I expect I'll have more attentive subjects than previously.
Secondly, because tricks are "useless", it takes the pressure off me. So what if Percy doesn't drop the toy in the basket? It's not going to affect his future as a performance horse! So I approach it lightheartedly and can truly enjoy spending the time with him and as a result he enjoys our time together also. That improves our relationship. He likes to see me coming and tries hard to do what I want. That is the kind of performance horse I want in the future!
Third, and this is the one that others really stressed, it really makes me a better trainer. It forces me to look outside the box. How do you get a horse on the bit? Well, I've been taught that in lessons, books, articles, clinics, etc. But to get a horse on the bit via positive reinforcement turns my mind into knots. I am so conditioned to the classical negative reinforcement of traditional training that it is difficult for me to come at standard expectations from a different direction. Or to throw the standard expectations out the window entirely. Because I am new to tricks, it's wide open and I can brainstorm different ways to approach training these things. This helps me to see all the different approaches that exist and hopefully will expand my options for teaching more traditional lessons. For example, I hope to have a video clip soon of my winter's work with ground driving Rumer. I have ground driven horses before and used that method for starting young horses, including Ande. But....with Rumer I am doing it without any harness or tack at all :) This isn't original of me. I sat with jaw hanging open as I watched Alex do it with horses on her videos and thought that would be an impossible feat for me to achieve. We're a long way from the smooth performance on the videos, but Rumer is so much more in tune with me already as a result that even if I never get any further, it will be well worth the time spent.
In addition to opening my mind to training possibilities, teaching tricks has really sharpened my observational skills as a trainer. I'm not exactly sure how things are going to go on any given day or what the results will be, so my eyes and mind are open to seeing what is really happening rather than what "should" be happening. When beginning to teach lateral work under saddle, we apply our aids and think the horse "should" respond by stepping over. If they don't, riders frequently just repeat the aids or increase their strength. Good trainers will observe what reaction the horse does have, and use that to refine their future training. I'll take all the practice I can get teaching a pony to stand on a silly mat to learn that lesson better. So many times, horses respond to cues we don't even know we are giving. An obvious example of that is the work I've done with Kizzy on the mat. I'll try to get that video posted soon. While I thought she had learned to stand on the mat, instead she had learned to stand in a certain way right next to me. When I moved, it didn't matter where the mat was, she lined herself up next to me. Then I had to untrain that! And I'm still working on it.
As humans, we have our way of communicating. But animals do it differently and we can be much more successful with them if we learn to engage them in the process and try to become more aware of what cues they are really picking up on as opposed to the ones we are delivering.
And now for a stupid dog trick- Beetle the dog waves goodbye.
Here's a video of the results of one of my challenges for the Facebook Clicker Challenge. I wanted to teach Percy to pick up some other things besides his little loopy toy. I thought it would be fun to teach him to pick up and carry a bucket by the handle. He had offered to pick up a supplement bucket that I had perched on top of the wheelbarrow one day so we were off to a good start. My initial attempts showed that he had trouble with the feel of the bucket handle in his mouth. Whether it was a little too sharp (thin plastic) or too small, or baby tooth issues, I'm not sure. Regardless, I decided to leave that for a while and teach him to lift a little jolly ball. He did well with that, so I moved on to having him drop it into a feed tub. After he was good at that, I returned to the bucket but I wrapped the handle with vetrap as you'll see. We had great fun with this and I plan to continue with this as a good way to channel his love of mouthing things at this age and his sharp little brain.
