Hoof handovers.
If you have a horse, pony, donkey or mule who trusts you with hoof lifting but becomes anxious when it comes to someone else doing it, such as your hoof trimmer or farrier, consider doing a “hoof handover”. This very simple manoeuvre can allow your trimmer to continue with their task, minimising the risk of injury to themselves and minimising your horse’s (or pony, donkey or mule) anxiety, and even changing their emotions, about the procedure.
In this video Calpurnia and Luna demonstrate the “hoof handover” with their hoof trimmer, Sydne Pruonto. Luna has come on leaps and bounds with her hoof lifting and often does give permission for Sydne to take them, but on this day there was a lot going on at the yard, along with a sore hoof, that had led to an increase in her anxiety about her feet. She happily gave permission for Calpurnia to pick them up, but not for Sydne.
It’s clear in the video that once Luna’s hoof is handed over to Sydne, Luna remains quite settled even in the full knowledge that Calpurnia is no longer the one holding her hoof.
If you would like help or training with hoof lifting for trims, we now offer a Train to Trim package. Get in touch for more information 😃
Training at liberty on grass
Another question we've been asked: do PETS do liberty training? Yes, we do! In fact, if the facilities where your horse lives are right, we can train at liberty from the very beginning. We don't start off with the horse on a rope or in a pen, so they have no option but to participate. We can train from scratch on grass with no ropes, whips or sticks. We enjoy making working with us a very enjoyable experience for the horse, and they will typically leave grazing to work with us for the reward of a few grass pellets. It's a slightly different approach from "liberty training" you may have seen on social media: it's important to us that the horse is participating because they've opted in, not because we've set things up so that they don't have much of a choice.
We work with you and your horse, because this is the end point of a training process for both of you, it's not something you can learn on a "push button" horse, it's about developing a relationship and mutually understood cues.
If this is something you'd like to learn more about, please drop us a message!
We've been asked if we can help with horses who have issues travelling and loading. The answer is, of course, yes! As with all our training, we like to help work out why the horse is not currently happy with loading and/or travelling (and they're not the same - a horse who loads happily may still travel badly, and a horse who is worried about loading may well be fine travelling).
Our aim is to have a horse who is happy with the loading and travelling process, rather than to put the horse in a situation where loading is their only good option. So we don't do quick fixes, we do real fixes.
If you'd like to know more about how we work or would like to speak to us about issues you and your horse may be experiencing, drop us a message!
Recall with Rio
🐴Calling Rio off grass. Rio has EMS and for the last four years, every attempt to reintroduce grazing has ended in laminitis, so he's lived grass free on a small surfaced track.
🐴Recently, Dorothy has been testing him out grazing for very short periods, so that he gets a chance to graze, run freely and roll. Starting with 30 minutes and building up to 45 minutes, Rio gets the run of the 5 acre field. It's really important that he can come off the grass again after this period of time to prevent the issues he's had previously, so recall needs to be 100%.
🐴This process started in November, but then the weather became very cold and icy and the grass wasn't safe (or, indeed, grazeable!) so it wasn't possible to allow him out. This is his second day out after two weeks in on the surfaced track. After 30 minutes, he will come to call - and he knows that this call means his time on grass is ending.
🐴But in fact, during the whole 30 minute period, Rio wil trot around, and then come over to check in with Dorothy every few minutes. He has a strong positive association with approaching that is enough to overcome the salience (relative importance) of grass and free movement. The reinforcer used in this case were grass nuts in contrast to fresh grass freely available to him.
🐴If you'd like more information on how to create this kind of recall, please do contact us at Positive Equine Training Scotland, we'd love to help!
#positiveequinetrainingscotland #positivereinforcement #equinemetabolicsyndrome #EMS #clickertraininghorses #forcefree
Lovely session with Lisa and Kiki this week. This is Kiki’s first time clicker training, and with Lisa’s guidance she picked it up really quickly! Here she is cone targeting already 🥰
Young Kiki has had a few experiences travelling that have left her worried about loading, so Dorothy and Suzi are supporting Lisa in reintroducing the horse box gradually and at Kiki’s pace.
Playing fun games, like targeting, around the horse box and eventually in the horse box are going to be part of the process of making it a fun, safe place that she’s comfortable entering 😊
#clickertraining #positiveequinetrainingscotland #horsetraining
Stressfree Healthcare Clinic
Last places for our Stressfree Healthcare/Co-operative Care Training clinic on 31st July! We have a couple of places left so if you're hoping to come along but still haven't booked, drop us a message.
We had a lovely planning meeting this weekend and thanks to feedback on the booking forms, we've tailored the content to your preferences and needs.
Here’s what we have in store for you (subject to slight changes based on what the horses decide on the day!).
🐴 We'll have an introduction to Co-operative Care and Positive Reinforcement training.
🐴 Then we'll start off with a section on Desensitisation and Counter-conditioning, with equine volunteers demonstrating how to start working with horses who have worries about things like clippers.
🐴 This will be followed by a section on Shaping Behaviour - we'll look at how to start getting your horse offering the behaviours you want, and this will include behaviours around, for example, worming syringes.
🐴 Lunch and chat next! We’ll provide hot drinks and snacks, but please bring a packed lunch.
🐴 Afternoon sessions will start with The Many Uses of Targeting - this will include some equine volunteers helping us demonstrate starting body part targeting, including its use for learning to wear a muzzle.
🐴 Final session will be on the use of Start Button training - where the horse becomes a fully engaged participant in their own care.
🐴 We'll end up with a brief demo from two of the wonderful resident horses of how the simple start out behaviours can develop into complex communication between horse and handler.
Hope you can join us, we're really looking forward to it!
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Introducing a Grazing muzzle without frustration.
🦄Fat Cob Slim🦄
Today, PETS Trainer Dorothy is going to talk about the training she did with her cob Mal to get him happy wearing a grazing muzzle to aid weight loss. For some horses, grazing muzzles used carefully can be an aid to weight loss when other ways of reducing calorie intake/increasing calorie usage isn't easy. However it's really important that the process isn't one that means the horse loses out on the opportunity to fulfil key behavioural needs or that they are so stressed by muzzle wearing that their health or wellbeing is compromised. A careful approach to training can help avoid that. To find out more, read on!
🦄Last year, I was dealing with the challenge of creating an appropriate lifestyle for a pony with EMS and laminitis who couldn't eat grass, a large and increasingly elderly sports horse with no top front teeth who couldn't eat hay from nets (turns out he can 😉 ) and two cobs who seemed to have an ability to get fat on celery and water. The last statement may be an exaggeration, but it's true to say that little Mal the cob put on a phenomenal amount of weight while I was trying to help Rio, the New Forest pony, lose weight on a soaked hay diet.
🦄Mal's background isn't fully known, but he came to me uncatchable and unhandleable - he was terrified of people, head collars, ropes, confined spaces, sudden movements - and Rio. Which did make things a little tricky, because he would have been an ideal weight loss partner for Rio. After several years of work, I had got him to the stage where he *loved* his head collar, could be led, have his feet done and we'd managed to overcome the challenge of needing to extract an abscessed cheek tooth while he was still pretty wary of everybody but me.
🦄However as Rio got thinner, Mal got progressively fatter and fatter. I needed to do something urgently (I've since solved the issue by soaking hay for everyone). Since Mal couldn't be exercised conventionally, reducing the speed an
Following on from Calpurnia and Luna's hoof lifting training...
I did one more piece of training in preparation for a visit from our hoof trimmer, Sydne Pruonto from Footloose Barefoot Hooves, and that was to have my assistant put on the chaps that Sydne wears, and to carry a hoof stand and a bag of 'gear' into the training area before moving onto start button hoof lifts and rasping. I really wanted Luna set up for success. The chaps and attending paraphernalia alter the shape of a person as well as sending a direct message of intent and this could change everything from Luna's point of view.
Thankfully the practice trim was highly successful and we were ready for Luna's first full professional trim.
Here's the video of Sydne trimming and nipping Luna's hooves. It still gives me goosebumps of joy 🙂
If you want to learn more about the methods I have used with Luna then check out our upcoming clinic https://www.facebook.com/events/1050925685535913/
If you want to learn more about Calpurnia's work find her on Facebook at Withywoods Track Livery
Today we're sharing the journey of Calpurnia's horse, Luna, who went from being untouchable at her hind end and with her feet, to voluntarily offering her feet at liberty for trimming (2m 40s on video).
This is Luna. She came to me in October 2021 at 3 year's old. She has sarcoids, most noticeably the one on her belly.
Luna was so protective of this sarcoid that if I tried to go near her back end she kicked out with her back feet. If I tried to run a hand down her front legs she would bite and kick out.
If I stood on her left hand side she moved so I was on her right.
It was evident that there were a few things to work through with her to help her feel safe enough with me to pick up her hooves, let alone have them picked out or trimmed.
I began by teaching her the basics of clicker training, then taught her to stand at a target. On her more comfortable side I taught her to neck target, then to shoulder target - where she would move each body part to my hand. The body targeting was to build her confidence in touching *me* rather than me moving into her space and touching her. As she learnt that my standing away from her head - her head being where she preferred me - brought pleasurable things in the form of food I transferred to her less favoured side and repeated the process. Throughout this time (months) I didn't go near her hind quarters, I really wanted that trust.
Once she was really confident with neck and shoulder targeting on both sides I then moved on to hip targeting. This part of her body, where she was most fearful, was where I really wanted to give her power and confidence in the exchange of information between us. "I won't touch your hind end unless you touch my hand first. If you touch my hand with your hind end I promise it will be rewarded". It turned out that Luna loves butt scratches, so that became an additional reward for hip targeting.
By now she was no longer kicking out when I moved around her body. However, I discovered that if a second p
🐴Keeping fit using positive reinforcement 🐴
Do you ever struggle because you need to help your pony lose weight and stay fit, but they can’t be ridden and you don’t want to exercise them by driving them away from you?
Using a “reverse round pen” is a great option for helping your equine to stay fit whilst having fun together!
The premise of the reverse round pen is that instead of being trapped in a pen with you, your equine is outside the pen and has the option to leave at any time. This helps to create a more relaxed and fun experience for them, whilst still getting their steps in!
Here is Lisa Cleeton’s Pixie beginning to learn about the reverse round pen with PETS trainer Suzi. This is Pixie’s first time doing this activity!
To begin, when Pixie took a step forward Suzi marked and reinforced it. Pixie has then quickly built up to doing 6 steps at a time, and together they will be working to increase this over the next few sessions, eventually introducing trot too.
Watch how in the video Suzi isn’t luring Pixie with food, or running away from her so that she has to chase her to get food, as this would be really frustrating for Pixie. Instead, they are walking together and Pixie is being reinforced for this at regular intervals.
Pixie is a partially sighted rescue pony who was previously terrified of humans and wouldn’t let anyone near her to catch her for over 4 years. Positive reinforcement has truly transformed her! Now that she’s building up her exercise options it’s going to be so much easier to help her stay fit and healthy this spring 😊
Other ways of setting up a reverse round pen could involve using a target stick, or moving between cones - it’s a flexible activity that is fun to play with as you work out what suits you and your equine best ❤️
Here is Fionna grooming her foal, Reva. Check out how she’s making the process as fun as possible and listening to what Reva wants.
Here are some important things to think about while you watch:
🐴 Reva is not yet weaned, but is gradually spending more and more time away from her Mum, Clara. In this video Reva is in a stable next to her Mum (stable door open and can get back to her at any time) and is learning that nice things can happen even when Clara isn’t there with her. This helps to build her trust in Fionna, as a source of safety and security, as well as to build self confidence.
🐴 For grooming to be classed as a ‘nice thing’ the horse must be enjoying it - Notice that Fionna is grooming in a way that is pleasant for a hairy, dirty, itchy foal. By grooming in this way, Reva learns that she can stand still or continue to calmly eat her hay… rather than to avoid being brushed by moving away or kicking/biting.
🐴 Consent and start buttons - You may notice that Fionna waits for Reva’s attention and then allows her to sniff the brush (or move back towards it) before brushing her. Using approaches like this, we can make sure that we have our horses consent, build in some start buttons, and enjoy their active participation in anything we do with them.
** Here is an interesting piece of research regarding how to groom in a way that your horse finds enjoyable: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32993-z **
What type of grooming does your horse enjoy? Let us know in the comments 😁
Cooperative rugging!
It's a bit wild and windy here at the moment, and I asked Jackson if he'd like to wear his rug - unusually, he said yes! It reminded me to share the little video I made earlier in the year showing how I do rugging. What do you think? Would this be a useful skill for your horse to learn? It's certainly VERY helpful when you need to rug your horse outside in windy weather!
Feel free to share any of our posts :)
Here’s an update on how Chequers from Seton Sands Community Ponies is getting on with his inhaler training. We’re always aiming to make it fun and stress free for him.
He’s now getting confident with offering a voluntary nose hold, which then initiates the inhaler being touched to his nostril.
We’ve been working on these components separately, teaching him to:
1️⃣ Touch his nostril to the inhaler, building positive associations and become accustomed to the feeling.
2️⃣ Offer a voluntary nose target, which is then extended into a “nose hold” that he can leave at any time.
In this video, both elements are starting to come together nicely. Go Chequers! 🥳
Have you had to overcome any medication challenges with your equine friend?
When we teach horses about things like clippers, we don't just teach them to tolerate something that might be uncomfortable or scary, we teach them that working with us can be interesting and enjoyable.
Fionna has been working away with lovely Spud, teaching him that clippers don’t have to be scary and allowing him complete freedom to engage and disengage as he chooses. Whilst Spud was having his second training session, the camera captured an unexpected, yet amusing, Shetland pony video-bomb.
Little Holly was clipped only a couple of weeks ago (for comfort in the warm weather) - photo of cute, velvety, clipped, Holly in the comments 🐴❤️
Can you guess what kind of experience she had? What kind of association has Holly made with the clippers?
We train not just for today, but for tomorrow and every day after that.
#clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #poniesofinstagram #horsesofinstagram #donkeysofinstagram #mulesofinstagram #equinesofinstagram #positiveequinetrainingscotland #horseclipping
Here we show Rowan and Calpurnia using Start/Stop Buttons to treat a giant and very painful wound on Rowan's chest.
The injury was so painful that using Start/Stop Buttons was the easiest way to carry out the treatment. It empowered Rowan to maintain control at all times of the process and to stay below threshold.
The treatment had to be done twice a day and involved cleaning out the wound, then drying the wound, and finally applying an ointment.
Rowan uses a flex of his chest muscle with a slight lean forward as his Start Button, and a lean back as his Stop Button.
With Start/Stop Buttons we mark (click) and reward the Start Button and we also reward the Stop Button but without a marker.
🐴 Marking the Start Button makes it clear that that particular behaviour will begin the treatment.
🐴 Rewarding the Stop Button makes it clear that it's okay to Stop, that no punishment (withdrawal of food) is forthcoming.
🐴Both options are equal but one begins a process (the one marked by the click).
When they started this process it took up to an hour. Over the course of the two weeks it became a 15 minute session 😀
We hope you find the video helpful.
