This message is from: "Karen Keith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Another way to teach a horse to stand quietly is to use clicker training and
teach your horse to put his front feet on a "target". This can be a piece
of plywood on the ground or a doormat.
I decided to teach my gelding to stand both front feet on a cinderblock,
just as a stupid pet trick. What ended up happening is he will go to his
block, step up on it, and check to see if I'm looking. He'll even stay up
on his block when I run out of treats and have to go out of sight to get
some more. Gee, I didn't even know I was teaching his to stand still! :^)
Mark, I taught my mare to lift her own darn feet, again using the clicker.
This mare would automatically lean into whichever foot I was asking for, and
there I would be bent over, tugging at her leg. Nonsense! So, started with
baby steps. Touch her right forearm, maybe tap a couple of times, just
until I got some response. As soon as she shifted the weight slightly off
that foot -- CLICK!REWARD!. Wow, she liked that game. It took a bit of
time and a couple of sessions, but I shaped her behaviour from just a shift
of weight, to lift your foot and hold it in the air. Life is much easier
now, especially since I have since started using Old Mac boots and they take
a couple of minutes of foot-in-the-air to put on.
Each foot must be taught separately, as horses' brains don't seem able to
take learning from one side and transfer the concept to the other side.
When I switched to the left front leg, I'd tap the forearm and, yup, up
would come that RIGHT front foot. But since there are no "wrong" answers in
clicker training, I just waited her out until I got a shift of weight off
the left leg and CLICK!REWARD! and the behaviour came much quicker this
time.
I've also taught both hind feet by just touching or tapping her stifle area
-- no point in bending over until that foot is up. :^)
I try to teach as light a cue as possible, so even if I start with a tap, I
continue to lighten up the cue to a touch or even just point at the forearm.
At this point, the foot lifting is well established, but I do try to
periodically REWARD it to keep her interested in cooperating. Especially in
the putting on and taking off of the boots.
Karen
Mark Skeels wrote:
">The only thing I have had a problem with his methods on the Fjord, is
pinching the leg and getting the horse to lift their foot, it seems I could
>squeeze with vise grips the location and method shown, and it don't phase
>our horses. So I just pick them up, the old fashioned way."
http://music.ninemsn.com.au/OD2redirect.asp?URL=http://sib1.od2.com/common/config.asp?shop=52&associd=2
