I’ve been working with Fool’r since the very end of April. I’ve needed to have a rotation of behaviors to select from so I wasn’t drilling any one thing, in order to keep him calm and engaged. We have worked on SS/FF (stand still, face forward), but it was initially a challenge as he can sometimes be a somewhat anxious horse. Now that we’ve had some time to learn the game from different perspectives doing different things, we can begin to refine all the things we’ve started in our time together.
This brings up the question of whether you have to have a behavior solid and “finished” before moving on to another one, especially one that’s related - standing still is related to movement as they are essentially opposites. As with all things, I think it depends on several variables, including the temperament of the horse, the tasks you’re looking to do, how long you’ve been working together and how comfortable and confident the horse is with the training, and the gap between what that horse is initially comfortable with vs their comfort level with where you’re taking the training.
For example, Fool’r is pretty comfortable, I could even say he finds it necessary, to be really close to the human. He was not initially comfortable putting his feet on novel objects like the blue mat. If I had drilled SS/FF in the beginning, insisting on him stationing on the mat and looking for distance and duration away from the human, it would have been really challenging for him and may not have worked at all. But now we’ve been working together long enough that he’s much more comfortable with me moving away from him while he hangs out on the mat.
Of course there are benefits to having a horse that can stay in one place for a length of time and be content to do so, but this skill will have a knock-on effect for all the other skills. The overall effect is building the meta skill of being comfortable and confident - something every horse (and human!) can use
A few weeks ago I was honored to be invited back to Trudi Dempsey: Equine Trainer and Behaviour Consultant's Lead a Horse to Water podcast, and as I’ve mentioned, we talked about bridleless riding. One of the points we talked about was the opportunity for exploration, on a number of levels. I won’t spoil the podcast for you (do go have a listen!), but some of the opportunities include being able to explore rider balance without the use of reins as “handles” (because we’re wired to use hands that way), the horse exploring balance and posture without the restriction of reins, and I’m not sure we talked specifically about this but there is an opportunity to allow the horse to make choices about direction and even speed, especially when negotiating obstacles. Now, does this mean you should go find the nearest string with which to make a neckrope, and head out on the trails? For the love of all that’s holy, please don’t do that. Bridleless work, just like work with any kind of headgear, takes some training. Please do at least some of that first. However, you can do little bits of it in your regular training, and there are eleventeen million ways to do that. Let me know if you’re interested in giving it a try!
This video is some of a short ride I did outside on my horses’ track, mostly letting Siri go where she wanted and at the speed she wanted, though I asked questions here and there. Like most of my work, it’s not overly exciting, but to be able to trust a horse in an outdoor setting with just a saddle pad and a neckrope is a wonderful thing. Maybe it gives you an idea of what’s possible when you literally let go of the reins.
If nothing else, it gave me a small opportunity to do some video editing, which is something I really enjoy and want to do more of. Though I admit, shooting and riding is something I need more practice at.
Listen to the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2wFyQXG2PiSD4dxkkSRYpK?si=VJH-Rt3uRqaj4UgvoyU7pQ
#br
Relationship matters
Sometimes modeling can be a really effective way to show a horse what we’d like, and that it’s safe to do. During the previous session where we introduced the mats, we had an unfortunate incident where the wind caught the mat and blew it towards this lovely mare. We managed to get things sorted and she was able to approach again, but was understandably hesitant this next time. I asked my client to stand on the mat herself, and this was the difference that made the difference for her horse! The mare was able to approach and stand quietly on the mat to be fed “open bar” style. We were able to do this a few times, and now we’re well on our way to using the mats for groundwork and starting the riding process.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #matwork #groundwork #experientialequitation #mustang #relationshipbasedhorsemanship #basicskills
Keep it in perspective
Well! The “quadrants” post I made earlier did not include the video! Here is my rant on that.
This is a longer video going through a training plan for teaching a cue involving tapping on the shoulder to ask the horse to turn his head to receive food. It's deliberately and unapologetically boring in that it's not sliding stops or jumping huge fences or canter pirouettes, but it is a horse saying "yes" to me asking if he's comfortable with me over his back when he has the option to say "no." This is the foundational training that starts with teaching him a way to get reinforcement, which will come in handy with a rider later on, but it's also him being able to make decisions about what happens to him. If I do the "boring" work of not only trying to make him comfortable, but learning when he’s not, his confidence in saying “no” will make his “yes” mean something.
Plus it’s just super fun when you’ve got a horse that’s fairly new to R+ and you can communicate and teach a new skill in about ten minutes!
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #targettraining #cuetransfer #experientialequitation #bridleless #bitless #bareback #lettherebelightness #choice #horse #goslowtogofast
The following is a breathing exercise developed to help you connect more deeply with your body and with your horse. It can be done sitting in a chair, standing or sitting on your horse. The more places you try it, the better!
Once you have this basic pattern, and you start to get an idea of what sorts of things come up for you, try just sitting on your horse for a few minutes (not so long you strain their back), and see if you can continue the flow of the breath into your horse's back. Note any changes that happen, both in yourself and in your horse.
As with anything related to horses, please use caution and be mindful of yourself and your horse. Stop the exercise if you feel faint, light-headed, or otherwise uncomfortable or if your horse becomes unsafe to handle.
More information on my approach to riding can be found here: https://equusintegratus.com/services/riding/index.php
#brainsnotreins #breathing #experientialequitation #metaphor #riding
Bridleless giggling
Yesterday I had the privilege of being invited back to Trudi Dempsey: Equine Trainer and Behaviour Consultant's Lead A Horse To Water podcast, and we talked about bridleless riding. This year, I’ve mostly been focusing on riding outside with my horses, since this is the first year they’ve truly felt comfortable being outside in an area they don’t normally have access to. But I was so inspired by my chat with Trudi that I thought I’d do a little video of some bridless work, both to show the beginnings of it, and a little more advanced work like leg yields and shoulder-in. Fi was really game, and almost too enthusiastic! However there was a lot of giggling on my part as she offered me some surprises. This is one of those moments, and underscores the reason I love working bridleless so much - all the things you learn from what the horse will offer when tack is not a constraint. I don’t know what I was laughing at the first time, but the second time was the start of an offer for a passage-like trot she likes to do when I on the ground, but has never offered it during riding. Sound on for best effect!
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsestraining #experientialequitation #bridleless #bridlelessriding #bitless #bitlessriding #bareback #barebackriding #lettherebelightness
#brainsnotreins
I followed my intuition rather than my extensive training plan and hopped on a horse I’m restarting for riding for a client. Was it technically the correct thing to do? Nope! But his response was so nonchalant, which was so balanced with his willingness to move forward without tension that I feel pretty good about taking the chance. I’d still like to see where he’s at with more direction, since I let him take me where he wanted to go and stop where he wanted to, but that’s also part of the training process because he’s not accustomed to making choices and was worried about doing so when I first started working with him. So, not a “clean” or “traditional” way to go about it this time, but it does say something about seeing the learner in front of you and not the plans you’ve made. At some point I’ll do a more in-depth review of this client and her horse, but for now I just wanted to celebrate this.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #barebackriding #bitless #bitlessriding #experientialequitation #thepathisthepath #newstart #modernhorsetraining #trustyourintuition #arabianhorse
Track RRP
Using the track as a reverse round (rectangle) pen. Siri gave up this time, but she was previously game. I love the fact that it’s on a hill so all movement options are fairplay.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #reverseroundpen #intrinzeninspired #movementscience #thepathisthepath #movementvariability #antifragility #tracklife #horsetracksystem
Using the track as a reverse round (rectangle) pen. Siri gave up this time, but she was previously game. I love the fact that it’s on a hill so all movement options are fairplay. #brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #reverseroundpen #intrinzeninspired #movementscience #thepathisthepath #movementvariability #antifragility #tracklife #horsetracksystem
Most of the riding Fi and I have done has been largely led by her, with me reinforcing the things I liked. Trot has been something I’ve heavily reinforced, because a) it’s fun and b) she could use the exercise. Fi takes reinforcement pretty seriously, so after a while, we mostly only had TROT or STOP, which has been mostly fine by me because the only things on my agenda had been fun and play. However, she’s really starting to feel like she can handle a bit of refinement, so I figured I could start trying for a walk somewhere in there.
Some short notes on how I’m going about it:
- I’m using posting to differentiate between go, and think about slowing down. Posting was previously completely baffling and slightly upsetting to her, but seems to be more acceptable now.
- My goal is for her to be bridleless. I’m not using reins to stop, mostly not to steer (though she does know those cues), and certainly not to affect head and neck carriage. She’s quite sensitive to my weight and position changes, so I can make suggestions with regard to speed, direction, tempo, and to try to use terrain (moreso outside) to set her up to self-organize using her own proprioception and nervous system. How she carries me is her business, she knows better than I do how to organize herself.
- To request a down transition, I’m using a seat (increased muscle tone overall, slight “holding” with thighs) and breath (long, slow exhale with increased muscle tone in diaphragm) cue, releasing those things as she comes down into the walk.
- Up transitions are still mostly her idea.
I’m super proud of her - this is only the second time I’ve really focused on this, the previous time was maybe a month ago (the last time I rode).
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #bitless #bitlessdressage #itsalllearning #experientialequitation #thepathisthepath #lettherebelightness
Tango is a delightfully game horse, which is perfect for her job as an equestrian mount in the SCA. However, she has some sensory issues when it comes to sound, and specifically things like bells and metal-on-metal. This doesn’t work well in a setting where many of the participants have bells on their garb, or wear armor and chainmail, and clang swords together. We found that we needed to introduce Erin’s helmet as one element, suspecting that the shininess was also an issue for Tango. After being able to get her comfortable with approaching and touching the helmet on her own, as well as working on picking it up and moving it around with her standing there, we also wanted to see how much of her sensory issue with sound was a negative association with the sound, or the sound itself. We first set up the chainmail on its own, and counter conditioned it both by having it in our hands at a distance, and by having her approach it on her own. Then, we set the chainmail on the helmet to approximate the metal-on-metal sound she will encounter at an SCA event. In the process of that, I wanted to see if she would touch the chainmail herself, and thus make the sound herself, to see if that would give her some control over the stimulus. She was able to touch it, and to make sound with it! However, Erin had also gotten some ear plugs, and we trained those in a separate session before Erin took her horses to a large event. Tango did so much better with the ear plugs that we’ve concluded her sensitivity is truly a sensory issue, and further training, while it could be moderately helpful in some situations, isn’t the best course of action, particularly for bells, which she seems especially sensitive to. The takeaway from this is that while training can solve any number of problems, management has to solve the rest. You can’t train through excessive pain or fear - as determined by the horse, not the human - and therefore you must make management changes, or even the best tr
We wanted to try something new with Princess Buttercup, and one of the things I always do with a horse is a target of some sort. It's always been a visual target - some sort of object, or a hand - but obviously that doesn't work, here. So, I took one of the targets I use for clients and put a Christmas bell on it. Voila! An auditory target! At first she was very unsure, or found it aversive, but after a much slower introduction (that I sadly don't have on camera) with literally one tiny jungle at a time, she got the idea and is now doing really well with it. We've since gone on walks outside of her paddock, and I've been able to use the bell target to get her to stop eating grass, and to walk off with me down the path. I'm excited to see what other things we can explore.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #basicskills #groundwork #blindhorse #thepathisthepath #targettraining #adaptation #creativeequitation
Twista, injection update
In Twista's previous injection training video (https://youtu.be/rh3wdK66pyg), Erin was doing the "injecting," and Twista was in her stall, with a stall guard as "protective contact" so Twista could retreat if she wanted to. We did one practice round out in the barn area prior to the real deal with the vet, and here is the vet actually giving the injections. She also had to draw a Coggins, which is something we hadn't worked on, so you can sort of see the difference between the two types of injections, as well as a little bit of an indication of what Twista's behavior was prior to training. Here, Twista does pretty much exactly what she'd done in training, despite the kitten chaos happening in the hay loft in front of her.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #husbandrytraining #cooperativecaretraining #veterinary #cooperativecare #cooperativecaretraining #sciencebasedhorsetraining #sciencebasedhorsemanship
Anything can be used as a target! Marcy Waelti, a long-time horse owner and horsemanship teacher, has asked me for some ideas on helping Whisper become confident at the mounting block. We're just beginning this process, so we're starting with the basic skill of targeting. Whisper has had some trouble standing still for longer than a few seconds at a time, so we're using the target in motion as well as while standing, and alternating between the two behaviors to support both Whisper's desire to move, and the concept of the target. Here, Marcy is using a child's plastic garden tool, because that's what was handy.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #targettraining #groundwork #basicskills #experientialequitation
Impromptu oral syringe training.
Impromptu oral syringe training.
Impromptu oral syringe session with Fi. Siri declined today (which is fine. She gets pellets either way). This time I didn’t ask for a face target in my hand (like I did for a previous mouth handling video), as the syringe was enough of a cue for her to get the game. I haven’t tried putting any liquid in the syringe yet, but Fi was so spot on with saying she was ready (turning her head toward me when I present the syringe), and with being chill with me putting it in the corner of her mouth, so I ran and got some water from the waterer (and I moved the camera to try to get a better angle). Although the water sprayed wet bits of mashed up pellets all over, she was somewhat undisturbed by this, or at least gave a reaction I would expect from the surprise, and was happy to do it a few times. Also to drool some of that water back onto my sleeve. 😆
This just goes to show that you can do a tiny bit of training, in an informal way and in an informal place, and be successful. Go in with an idea (or even a plan, if you want!), and see what happens. It *can* be a production, but it doesn’t have to be.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #cooperativecaretraining #husbandrytraining #fiveminutetraining
Savannah and Stormy! This was our first attempt at a loose version of a counting game I first saw from Leslie McDevitt. Savannah is very new to R+ (this was our first lesson), and Stormy has had a fair amount of time off. So, I wanted to do a few things:
- Work on timing of the clicker. The first exercise I teach everyone is stand still, face forward. But timing the clicker can be challenging when what you’re clicking for is “nothing.” This exercise gives a more definite clickable moment. Right after this, Savannah counted for herself, and absolutely nailed the mechanics and timing.
- Increase Stormy’s ability to focus on staying with Savannah while walking back to the pasture. Stormy, like most horses, has some anxiety about leaving the herd to come to the barn. It was too much for her to focus on the way to the barn, so we just took our time, there. However, on the way back, we had more opportunity to play with a pattern that, when established in a lower stress context, can be tried in a more challenging situation, which can help Stormy focus on what we’re asking, as well as make incremental progress rather than try to push the issue all at once. This gives us an opportunity to start to build in a pause, or if it hadn’t worked, see where we needed to go next to help Stormy be more comfortable.
- Further develop Savannah’s feel. For someone new to horses, Savannah has great natural feel on the ground. So, I want to build on that there, and then take it to ridden work where she’s a little less familiar. Feeling and counting strides will carry over to timing of cues in ridden work.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #experientialequitation #basicskills #groundwork #lettherebelightness #clickertraininghorses
A client and I talked yesterday about ways to help her horse feel more comfortable with hoof handling, especially on the right side. Training was going okay, but he just isn’t emotionally confident enough to allow us to ask for cooperation. So, I took a risk and mentioned the @pantherflows work I’ve done with my horses, especially the crunches and matwork. She’s curious, and we may start exploring some non-traditional proprioception work to help her young horse feel more confident in his body and develop his body map. I sent her this video as an example of the crunch while riding, to help build topline awareness, which should also translate to better body control both on the ground and eventually under saddle.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #proprioception #experientialequitation #bridlelessriding
