horse eating sled. . .

. . .turns out to be not so scary. Yay! 

Don't get me wrong, the horse eating sled was super scary at first. But only once at the first encounter did Shy back away quickly from it. I came prepared for this reaction though. . . 

Touch it!

Click and treat. Touch, click and treat. Then I moved the sled around. No backwards movement got clicks and treats. When I got no more high head and wide eyes, I walked Shy around the sled in both directions. Walking close to it got clicks and treats. 

I felt we were sufficiently prepared for the next step. . .dragging the sled. I try not to make the same mistake twice, so I knew enough not to hook the sled to Shy. I was going to drag it just in case she flipped out. That way, I could release the sled and it would not be dragging behind her in case she got away from me. 

I also opted to walk her around in her halter and not the blinders. I think she felt better being able to see that the sled was not turning into a horse eating monster as it followed up. This barn is great for different surfaces. There is grass, sand, hard dirt, leaves and gravel. All these different surfaces make different noises under the sled, which could cause it to want to eat horses, right?

As we walked around the barn, Shy was a bit leery at first, She kept and ear and an eye on the horse eating sled at all times. When we stopped then started, she got a bit jumpy, but not bad at all. Of course, I got all kinds of looks and stopped by a bunch of people asking questions. I don't mind answering questions at all and I love talking about Shy, so it was fun! I got a ton of questions about the G and H on her butt, what I was doing, Haflingers in general and some compliments on my harness and Shy. All the stopping gave Shy practice on her stand and when we started again and the sled started dragging, She was not jumpy after a couple times doing this. Eventually, she put her head down and just walked along next to me, still had an ear to the sled though. Good pony! 

Then I switched to walking on the off side of Shy. I wanted her to experience the sled on both sides. As any horse person knows, what is fine on one side may not be fine on the other! After the first few seconds, Shy conceded to the fact that the sled would not eat her and I just had to battle with being on the wrong side. Shy is a stickler for the "rules" and I really have to convince her it is okay for me to be on that side of her while we walk.

I was clicking and treating throughout our whole sled walk.  

I am very happy with how Shy is doing with her drive training! I feel like we are actually accomplishing something!

the toboggan that wasn't

It only took three days of attempts, a lot of treats, and even more patience, but I think Shyloh finally realizes that the toboggan is NOT a mountain lion ready to attack. 

Today I got to the barn ready to conquer the toboggan/mountain lion. I took  our driving training a step back and did not put Shy in her harness. Sometimes I just need to simplify things for Shy in order for her to really get it.

Shy starts toward the evil predator. . .

She stops to rethink her decision. . .

Shy decided to keep moving forward. . .

And touch!

Amazingly, much to Shy's astonishment, the toboggan did not morph into the feared mountain lion. I played the touch game and did a ton of clicking and treating. Before I knew it, Shy was touching all over the toboggan! She was walking on it, playing with it, stepping over it, and sniffing it from end to end. Success!

Touching the middle

Stepping on the mountain lion

Pawing the toboggan

Grabbing the padding, so scary at first (mountain lions babies could be underneath!)

Making sure there is just toboggan under the padding

Playing with the toboggan some more

Now that Shy had come to the conclusion that the toboggan was indeed just a toboggan, it was time to make it move. And when it moves in the arena sand, it makes a noise! That is scary and elicited this response:

Whoa. . .not so sure about the movement

The good thing is that she does not bolt when she is scared, she just starts and stands in place. If she is really scared, she will either slowly back away or turn around and walk away. To get Shyloh used to the sound of the toboggan moving and to get her not to move away or back up while it is moving closer to her, I did the only logical think that makes sense. . . at least when working with Shy.

Hear the terrifying sound? The next step is to get the toboggan behind her! These carrot pieces on the toboggan was the only way I was able to get her close to the moving sled and to make it not mountain lion scary. Before I thought of the carrots, every time I moved the toboggan near her, she moved off in the opposite direction. Success!

I know some people are really opposed to using food when working with their horse, but so far it has worked wonders for Shyloh. She is not pushy or in my space and as long as she remains respectful, I will continue to use food. I am also able to wean the food out pretty quickly once she gets something, so using food is not something that is constantly necessary to get her to do something that is asked of her.

I think a few more sessions like this and with the harness on and we will be ready to pull it!

the big scary

Stick. Look at it. It reeks evilness. It was clearly about to transform into a mountain lion, or worse, the minute a horse gets within feet of the stick. It was purely wicked. How any horse could let that stick come near them was beyond Shyloh, it was the scariest thing in the whole arena! 

Could be a magic wand? No. . .

I held this stick in my hand and said touch. I had my clicker and a cut up carrot at the ready. Shy had been great about touching anything. But this stick was the exception. I said touch again. Shy walked around the arena and touched everything we previously touched in previous days. It was cute and quite smart of her, but not what I was asking.

Shy would not touch the stick. I tossed it on the ground. Shy tentatively walked up to it and touched it. Click and treat. After a few touches with the stick on the ground, it became clear that this was the only way she would touch it.  I tried various ways to get her to touch the stick while I was holding it. 

Shy can shake her halter and lead rope, but not touch the stick.

I put it on the ground and said touch. She did, so I clicked. As I was treating I bent down to pick up the stick and Shy trotted away. I dropped the stick and tried again. Next time, she touched the stick, I clicked, and she didn't even wait for the carrot. She was off! I tried following her with the stick to give her the carrot. No luck. I tried for a while to get her to touch this stick. She would circle me. She would stand behind me. She went off and touched things that she has gotten treats for touching before. Shy refused to touch the stick if I had it in my hand, even if it was pointed to the ground.

Not coming any closer.

So I went to my last resort and put her halter back on and attached the lead. We worked on getting closer and closer to the stick. I picked it up. Shy tried to walk off, but couldn't. She didn't fight it, though. I could tell she was scared, but she was trusting me to not let her get hurt. I held the stick out. I said touch. Very very gently, Shy lengthened her neck and stretched her lips all the way out to the big scary stick. She barely grazed it, but I clicked and treated. We did this a few times until she was comfortable with the stick and even put it in her mouth. 

Whew. We overcame the stick! It was not evil after all. It was just a simple stick. Not magical in any way. Not about to shapeshift into a ferocious velociraptor. Not evil. Just a stick that a horse, who is much bigger than it, can over take with a little patience and some treats.

As a plus, Shy finished her Hanging Ball. I was able to get most of the sticky off her face with some warm water and paper towel. I think she was relieved that it was coming off because she let scrub her face. It might have been pulling on her beard hairs, but if not, it was still cemented in there pretty good. I think the next Hanging Ball will have to wait until summertime, when I can give her a bath!

Brown nose is gone!

monday musings by shyloh #21

I got to spend a lot of time outside in the fresh snow over the weekend! It was magical. I was the first horse to make tracks in the snow, too. When I used my nose to clear the snow to get grass, it cleaned it! So the end of my nose is sticky-free from my ball of goodness.  I love being outside! Except when there is snow on the ground and I go back inside, I have so much snow packed under my hooves that they don't even touch the ground! I have to walk so so so carefully until I get to my stall and Allie picks the snow out of my hooves. I slipped once and it was not fun!

It's all mine!

I met a new friend this weekend! Her name is Dulce. She has been at the barn for longer than me, but we never hung out. Until Sunday. Dulce came out into my pasture and we got  along great! It is so nice to have a mare friend. Now we can talk about all the goings on in the barn and gossip about the geldings and the size of of their. . .hooves. . .We went for a run together. I had to be quick to keep up with her, even though she is not a tall Quarter Horse. I was running so fast, I slipped right on my butt! I got up real quick though, kept running, and pretended it never happened. I'm glad Allie didn't see, I would have been embarrassed. 

Bodacious babes of the barn!

New friends!

I also got to hang out with Casi and Ryleigh.  And I met a new boy. His name is Zaylen and he is a 3 year old Paint. He is new to my barn, but I really like him. I just met him while he was in his stall, but he made me go YOWZAH (if you know what I mean, wink wink)!

Hey there good looking!

When I was not ogling the geldings or making new friends or trying to find grass under the snow, me and Allie have been playing this game together. It is fun! All I have to do is touch things and I get grain! Grain! How I love grain! I'd probably do a cartwheeel for some grain if Allie asked me too. . .only if she asked real nice. And if she stopped making me doing circles on the rope again. Boring. Even if it does keep me warmer, being forced to walk and trot and walk and stop and walk and trot, then switch directions and repeat is a real drag.

Not having a good hair day, it happens to the best of us

In other news. . .I overheard someone calling me short! Humph! So to prove them wrong, I have only been drinking out of my bucket that is higher. I used to only drink out of the lower bucket, but now I won't touch it, even when Allie put an apple in the water for me. Short. I'll show them.

I CAN reach!!

And in my efforts to forever befuddle Allie, I laid down to eat my hay. Ha! You should have seen her face when she saw me! I win againnnnn!!

touch game

I read about a mentally stimulating game from Laz and his owner, Kristen at sweet horse's breath. This seemed to be just what Shyloh and I needed! After a couple of emails back and forth on how to play this game, I headed out to the barn. But first, I grabbed my clicker.

I decided to try clicker training with Shy. I thought she would do very well with it. She is smart and she is able to quickly make associations, as evidenced by her waving whenever she feels she needs a treat, even without being asked.

Trying out a wave to see if that gets her a treat.

When I got to the barn, I loaded up on treats and got Shy out of her stall. I worked on getting her accustomed to the clicker and what it means. I would click and treat, click and treat. My first thought was that I need to find some smaller treats that have less calories and sugar for clicker training.  

When I felt Shy may have started to make the association between clicking and the treat, I waited until she was not paying attention to me. Then I clicked. Shy immediately looked at me, expecting a treat. Smart pony! I did this a few times until I was satisfied, then I moved on to the next step.

Touch it!

I used a Jollyball for the object to touch. I held out the ball and said "touch." It took a minute for Shy to get interested in the ball enough to touch it with her lips, but eventually she did and I clicked.

Whoa! Shy was not expecting that and ran off! I approached her and gave her the treat. Then I repeated the same steps and got the same results. By the third time, Shy realized what was going on and was not startled by the click any more. We worked on touching the ball while I was holding it in the same place until I felt she understood.

Got it!

Next I asked her to "touch" when the ball was held out to my side. This was a whole new concept! Shy walked around me, but then approached and touched. Click and treat. I held the ball in a few different locations around me and each time Shy touched it. Click and treat!

Shy seemed to be enjoying herself. She was engaging with me, so I pushed on. I put the ball on the ground, asked her to touch and she did! Click and treat. Shy was really using her noggin! We ended on a positive note and before Shy got bored with the game.

Fun and easy!

We worked on touch again a few days later. She remembered what I was asking and touched the ball. Click and treat. Kristen provided a valuable suggestion of cutting a carrot into thin slices or using grain, a few pieces at a time instead of treats. I used grain. 

I discovered that Shy will touch the ball in any position, except up high (which really isn't high, it is just barely above her eye level). Not sure why, but we will work on it later. I can even roll the ball away, say touch ball, and Shy will go and touch it! Pretty cool! We worked on touching different objects in the arena; cones, a muck bucket, a hose, the walls of the arena, and poles. 

Shy can touch this, too!

Shy stayed engaged and interested the whole time, even though I pulled her from her stall while she still had hay left. She had free reign of the arena and only went to the doors twice, and that was when I was asking her to touch the ball when it was held high. When I lowered it, she came right to me and touched the ball.

On our third day of working on touch, Shy recalled it right away. I then tried a new word, "take." It took her a while to open her mouth and take the handle of the Jollyball, but eventually we got there. My next step will be to get her to keep the ball in her mouth for a longer time. The click and treat is very effective for Shy. We are building our bond and spending some time together having fun.

Shy is learning so much!

I am open to any other mentally stimulating games for me and Shy to try!