Target Training!

Today I trained Spencer, our 15 year old gelding to the target, to introduce that a certain behavior will produce a 'click' which leads to a treat. Here I am explaining the target, the clicker and the treat. I also worked with Annie on Target training-- her third time. She definitely remembered the 'target' and immediately touched it to get her treat. I worked with her on the lunge line-- working on the trot to walk transition. I have a video here of her doing it, but actually she got tons better after I worked with her some more-- getting her to stay in the walk longer before I rewarded with a treat. I love 'clicker training" because the horse is always searching for the right answer and is highly motivated by the 'reward' to do what you want. It took Annie a little bit to figure out that I wanted her to break from a trot to walk, when I said 'walk.' I could always get her to do it before if I pulled hard enough on the lunge line, but I wanted her to do it immediately without even a slight tug, and to trot and listen to me at the same time. I could tell she wasn't really listening to me when I trained her before the clicker-- and she was extra wound up. Using the clicker taught her to really listen to me. An important thing to remember when 'clicker' training is to work on very, very small increments of behavior. I read that the 'long way' in training is always the 'short way' in learning. She has had minimal lunge line training before today-- maybe a couple of times.