This message is from: [email protected]
Okay, along these lines I have a mini "brag" alert. I've been having a tough time loading Tessa this summer. She'd hop on the trailer, two forefeet up, backfeet down, stand there and survey her domain. My trainer said I had two choices: fight her or wait her out. I chose to wait her out. So I got a step stool and a book and waited. An hour and a half later, she'd decide to come home. Fortunately people at the barn where I ride understood what I was trying, so they did not come at us with an "I'll show you" approach or humiliate me. To be honest I had some amazing peaceful time with her. We may well have enjoyed each other's company a little too much. But it was getting old. I got all kinds of suggestions having to do with force. Tessa and me and force don't get along. Just that day I read about broodmares in Texas who hated being loaded in Karen Pryor's Reaching the Animal Mind. A grad student used a target and a clicker and within a few hours had the mares loading happily. They became friendlier to their people and could be trailered. Tessa is not a rogue, though it wouldn't take much to turn her into one as far as trailering goes. You even imply force and she puffs up almost speaking, "Bring it on." Sure I could assert my bossdom, but at what cost? I'd already been seriously dumped because of trainers asserting theirs with her. She's had some negative experiences with the trailer. (I have discovered a key to this horse is that while she is quiet, she is not a made horse. She has a lot of green around the edges, including, trailering.) So I took a Strongid C lid, my clicker, and some oats. I've heard oats get a horse chewing and thinking. We'd played the target game away from the trailer and then took it there. She jumped on. I held the target. She touched her nose. Click. Treat. I held the target a little further in. Nose touch. Click and treat. She stepped forward. If the target was too far away, I'd back up a bit. Tessa would move further in, touch her nose. Now she loads in less than five minutes. And our relationship is even sweeter than it was before. We are free to work on our trot. She is learning how to hold herself up in a steady rhythm. We've begun canter work. And I am deeply grateful for Robin Young, a hunter trainer, who lives five minutes away. Katie in Northern Illinois >>>Subject: Brag Alert, but not what you think. >>>>This message is from: Gail Russell <[email protected]> OK folks. This one I have to post. >>>>Clicker trainer Steffen Peters beat nine-time World Cup Champion Anky Van Grunsven and two-time World Cup winner Isabell Werth at the Rolex FEI World Cup Finals. If you look at the link, you will see the relaxation and beautiful balance that can be produced when you can use a "click" to tell the horse when he's got it! And a food reward to make it worthwhile for the horse to get it! . http://www.examiner.com/x-7431-Clicker-Training-Examiner~y2009m5d6-Steffen-Pe ters-clicked-his-way-to-victory-at-Rolex-FEI-World-Cup-Finals Gail Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
