Today I am taking a day off to drive to Houston and help my sister move. The horses went a little wild last night with the fireworks and I intended on getting outside before dark to feed them and put them up, but I didn't. I felt bad because when I got out there they had been running and were shaken a bit. I fed them and even gave them all some hay and stayed out there with them until most of them were over. I noticed that my two nervous ones are Spencer and Claire. Poco could care less and was more interested in stealing Annie's food, and Annie wasn't concerned at all-- except how to get her food back! Poor Annie! I usually keep them apart, but I was tired and didn't do anything to keep Poco from stealing the rest of what Annie had not eaten. They graze all day and all gloriously fat, so the hay was an extra bonus.
More about Clicker training!
I am very excited to start this the more I read about it. Basically clicker training works on positive reinforcement all the time and gives the horse something to work for and figure out. It is literally a way to speak to your horse.
First you target train by getting an orange cone (soccer) or some other object and you make it very easy for the horse to touch it with his nose. As soon as he does, you 'click' the clicker and then give a treat. The treat is giving away from your body to encourage the horse not to come close to look for treats. You do this several times and probably over several ten minute sessions until the horse figures out that his behavior (touching the cone) is related to the clicker, which leads to a treat. You move the cone all over until you have the horse leaving you to touch the cone and then he hears the 'click' and come backs for the treat.
After you have established target training, you start using the clicker to teach movement, head lowering, ground tying, canter departures, -- any number of things that you can say 'yes' to your horse at the exact moment he does the behavior-- you 'click' and then reward with a treat.
It turns your horse into a learning and asking machine and works totally on positivie reinforcement. I hope this goes well. I think my first plan for Claire is to reward with a 'click' when she drops her head when I ask for the 'calm down cue.' After that I will work on trotting with dropped head and then maybe canter departures.
We will see. I will be glad when my 'clickers' arrive.
Happy weekend to all!
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