I decided that Shyloh needed a little break from line driving, pulling, and the harness in general, since we had been going at it pretty hard core. This week has been devoted to clicker training, stand, and some fun stuff.
Shy got her hooves trimmed earlier in the week. She is always so good for the farrier. While we were waiting for him to get to the barn, I took Shy for a trail walk on one of the trails. I really think she is going to be a good trail horse. Heck, she probably is already a good trail horse, I just need to get my butt up there and go! And get a saddle. . .
Shy is very relaxed in the woods. Leaf sounds, branches scraping her, logs on the path. . .nothing is a bother. She had no problem walking over two pretty big sized fallen trees (yet when round penning her over ground pulls, she tried everything to avoid them).
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| She loves to eat leaves |
We even found a turkey feather! But no sign of the turkey.
Another day, we worked on standing. I stood next to her and made her keep her head straight. Click and treat. Then I kept moving back until I could go all around her without her moving. And then I switched to doing the whole thing again on the other side. We have done this exercise before, so Shy just needed a refresher.
After that I worked on having her stand while I increased my distance from her. Click and treat. This worked well until she discovered some other horses poop that she desperately needed to smell. When I got a good stand, I let her smell it until she was satisfied. Then I had her attention back.
We also worked on smile since Shy had been getting lazy with this trick. And we continued to work on clicking and treating for picking up each hoof when asked. All in all, I am happy with how Shy is doing.
Another variant of the stand command was using it while walking together. So instead of asking Shy to stand and I walk away from her, I lead her, ask her to whoa, then ask her to stand. We did this around the property and Shy was pretty much perfect with it. Which shows she knows the command, she is just being a brat.
I probably will go over these again and then start back with the line driving. It never hurts to go through some refreshers!
I probably will go over these again and then start back with the line driving. It never hurts to go through some refreshers!
My guys spend a lot of time whiffling through leaves. I don't think they are eating the leaves, I think they are looking to see is there anything better underneath. With the warm spell we had up to a week ago, there was a little bit of growth so there were tiny shoots of grass popping up here and there.
ReplyDeleteShy is eating them. She is a weirdo!
DeleteWhat a good pony you are! We like our refresher training too, our human forgets how clever we are so we get lots of praise for doing all the old stuff, easy treats!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Good idea, whenever you feel like you are not getting enough treats, pretend you forgot how to do stuff. Then, when you go over it again, lots of treats for easy stuff! :)
DeleteMy Mom better get with it. I want/need more clicker time. She's been a slacker of late.
ReplyDeleteHeck yeah! You guys are the clicker champs!
DeleteIt' funny how much horses seem to appreciate us switching gears. Shy is doing so great!! She coudl be a circus pony.
ReplyDeleteThey must get bored, too.
DeleteCircus pony, ha! That would be too funny!