May clicker clinic

It's been an interesting time over here and I've been falling behind on posts. First Blogger went down, then my home computer kicked the bucket, and then I went to a clicker training clinic with Alexandra Kurland last weekend. So I've been away a bit, but now I'm back.

I can't quite explain how lucky I feel that I found clicker training which led me to Alex who just happens to come to my backyard three times a year. Last weekend was my third clinic with her and it most definitely won't be my last (someday I may even find a way to get Coriander to one, that would be fun). It's not just that she's such a wealth of information (because she is), it's also the community that you become a part of by going to her clinics, plus it's just plain neat to see how people's horses develop from clinic to clinic.

There was one horse that the owner was trying to help achieve balance and self carriage, through using simple rein mechanics she picked his inside shoulder up and produced some of the most amazing trot I've ever seen in person. There is something to be said for straightness!

There was another horse there that was absolutely lovely on the ground but once his owner got on his back he didn't know how to stop.After spending two days trying to find the stop, Alex helped the owner to discover that the whole issue stemmed from the horse being sticky about disengaging his hips and backing up smoothly. So interesting.

There was an adorable morgan mare that I totally tried to steal and the sweetest arabian mare in existence who really showed her owner that she needed to be aware of what her body was doing.

There was also a giant rescued saddlebred who came to his new owner with aggression and fear issues who showed us all the power of consistent, patient work.

And then there was Kate G., who's been helping me quite a bit, who brought her own horse that drags himself around on the forehand. It was amazing that through simple turning exercises combined with single steps forward and back she was able to get him to rock back, free up his shoulders, and raise the base of his neck.

One of the best things about these clinics is that I always leave them with a plan and an arsenal of new tools. I went into the clinic looking for ways to help Coriander build muscle in his topline and help him be more balanced with better body carriage. With Gwen my goal was to find more techniques to help her become a safe riding horse. I got what I was looking for and more, here's my updated plan for the Quarters:

Plan for Coriander:

• pose
• lateral work via Why Would You Leave Me? and 3 Flip 3
• backing
• jaw flexions via single rein
• picking up the shoulder via single rein

Plan for Gwen

• matwork
• lateral work via Why Would You Leave Me? and 3 Flip 3
• pose
• hip/shoulder/shoulder
• left and right/ color game

I'm not going to go into detail about what all these things are, those will be the subjects of later posts once I really start integrating the exercises, but I did want to give you a visual on why I'm introducing a pose. Take a gander at the video below:

This mare is posing: Notice that she's raising the base of her neck, engaging her abdominals, raising her back, and tucking her pelvis. This is collection in a nutshell and it was made by free-shaping her posture. I started Coriander with this yesterday  by waving my hand under his nose- thinking that there was something in my hand he arched his neck by raising it at the base and shifted his weight backwards, click/treat. It didn't take long before I could see out of the corner of my eye that he'd started engaging his abs too. That was pretty exciting, it's like pilates for equines. I'll have to see if I can get some video of my guy doing these, it'd be cool to compare the beginning steps with how he'll look in a few months.

I'm very excited and ready to get to work!

I love clicker training!

I went to another clicker clinic last weekend. It kind of snuck up on me so I didn't post beforehand that I was going. I had a great time once again. I met a dressage instructor who does distance learning that I think I'm going to take some lessons with and I met a fantastic barefoot trimmer from Canada (All Natural Horse Care) that we convinced to trek back down to NY and put on a trimming clinic. Alex was great, she's so enthusiastic about how much the horses improve even in just the tiny little things that it's infectious.

Once again I want to encourage anyone interested in clicker training to try to attend a clinic. It's not just trick training or teaching your horse to pick up their feet, Alex's program really concentrates on making horses into balanced, supple athletes that are happy to work with their humans. She has a strong background in classical dressage and also incorporates a lot of John Lyon's work into her program. It's really an entire training philosophy.

My favorite thing about clicker training is how much it trains us humans to really pay attention to our horses. I mean really pay attention. When you start into microshaping and begin looking for tiny weight shifts or muscle contractions you really start to see your horse in a whole new way. You also learn how to spot when your horse is actively making a decision, more on that in a bit.

Anyway, fresh out of the clinic I was inspired to do some more groundwork with the quarters. Using cones as markers, we'd circle halfway around them and then back for a step or two. The goal of this exercise is to improve their balance and to get them to listen to a very light touch on the lead rope. Coriander was excellent, of course, he's already very light from our riding work. But when it came time to work with Gwen the most interesting moment to me came before I even got her to the cones.

I had set them up in the top part of the pasture and the herd was grazing in the bottom of the pasture, meaning the herd would be out of sight while we worked with the cones- a tough proposition for a herd bound horse like Gwen. As I was leading her up to the cones she stopped about halfway up the hill and debated leaving the herd. I stood in front of her with the slack out of the rope and waited for her decision. It took about a minute but she finally decided to go with me and we had a great session. She was a bit sticky at first but it wasn't because she was upset about leaving the herd. I don't know if I would have known to let her make that decision before I started clicker training, but it was obviously the right thing to do.

Another thing I really like about clicker training is how it brings out the playful side of horses. As I was walking out of the pasture for the night Coriander started following me- he still wanted to play. I took the opportunity to see if he would mimic me: I took one step forward and clicked when he moved forward, I took a step back and clicked when he stepped back. He caught on really quickly and soon we were doing a little two-step together. So much fun!

The wrong side of the fence

Poor Gwen got stuck on the wrong side of the fence yesterday. The big pasture is bisected by a piece of fence that was left behind when their pasture was enlarged. It extends almost 3/4 of the length of the field, leaving an opening next to the smaller pasture where the run-in is. Somehow Gwen managed to be on the opposite side of the fence than the herd.

I had walked out to the pasture with just my bag of treats and a brush because I like to groom them both before I take Coriander out to ride. I could see three horses when I got out there but Gwen was missing. I finally saw her moving on the other side of the fence and had a little panic attack. All the times I can remember Gwen being on the wrong side of the fence it hasn't ended well.

I went over to her and tried to get her to follow me around the fenceline using the treats. She'd follow me until the rest of the herd got out of sight and then she'd wheel around and book it back to them, giving me a heart attack as my mind imagined her ripping through the wire. I finally just ran up to barn and grabbed her halter (That was interesting, ankle still doesn't want to do that. I swore at it a little and made it run anyway.). I brought the halter back and she threw her head into it without issue, but leading her around the fence was a little bit hairy. I had to pull out the tai-chi wall that Alexandra Kurland teaches to keep her from wheeling away from me and charging back at the fence. When I finally got her around it, she stood very nicely while I unclipped the leadrope and gave her a treat, then she took off running to reunite with the herd.

I gave her a few minutes to get sorted out before I walked back over to her and checked her for wounds. Not a mark on her, thank heavens! I think that the work we've been doing helping her gain confidence away from the herd had something to do with her not getting hurt in that situation. Well, I hope it has anyway.

I wanted to work with her but I decided that she had had enough emotional turmoil that day, so after I rode her brother I brought my mounting block/stepladder into the field and did some liberty work with her. We did some free-shaping- I leaned over her back and wrapped my arms around her barrel, when she lowered her head I stood up and rewarded her. She's pretty good at this on the left, the right needs a little more time.

I keep working with her with the intention of riding her but I have to admit I'm scared to try it. When I came off of her and broke my ankle she shot out from under me so fast that I didn't even touch her hindquarters on her way past. She's very fast, very powerful, and very emotional, i.e. a spook machine. This is why I haven't gotten back on her yet and why I'm asking her to lower her head at the mounting block. The more emotional control and relaxation I can get from her now the better. I'm not going to throw a leg back over her until I know for sure that she is beyond ready for it. If that doesn't happen until next year, so be it.

The horse you want vs. the horse you need

I remember when I was telling Alexandra Kurland about Gwen she said that I would learn more from this horse than I could ever imagine, but it wouldn't be easy. Boy is that ever true.

I fell in love with Gwen the first time I saw her. I saw her sweet little face with that kissable nose and fell head over heels. I just had to have her. Of course I had no idea that she would be the most sensitive, excitable, and difficult horse that I have ever handled. I also didn't know that she would be exactly the horse I needed.

Like most people I have issues. I rush through things and pay only lip service to details. I tend to get over-excited and anxious very quickly, often blowing situations out of proportion and making things worse than they would be if I'd just chilled out. I also have a nasty aggressive streak and use a lot more force than I should, especially if I get upset- which, as I just mentioned, happens often. I am also really hard on myself, regular readers may have picked up on that by now.

This is why Gwen is good for me: Every time I let go of my self control and get upset or angry, Gwen flips out. Every time. But if I approach her with a calm and stable demeanor she can be very soft and loving. She's the ultimate 1000 lbs. life coach. Working with her forced me to evaluate not only my training regimen, but also my state of being.

Now she's in a new environment, once again freaked out by the entire world, and I need to do some serious self-examination to figure out the best way to help her without alienating her. I've taken her all the way back to basics. We walk to just out of sight of the other horses and then graze, with some targeting thrown in when she gets nervous. I concentrate on staying calm, breathing, and over all keeping a soft connection through the lead rope. And it's working, she's relaxing and I think she's even starting to enjoy our little treks out of the pasture.

I'd like to throw it out to you now: Was there ever a horse (or other animal) that you felt was in your life to help you grow as a person? That wasn't the horse you wanted but ended up being the horse you needed?

Clicker training lesson

One of the ladies I met at the clicker training clinic gives lessons so I asked her to come out yesterday morning to work with Gwen and me. Her name is Kate; here she is at the clinic with a 5 year old gelding that she picked up after he was abandoned at a boarding barn.

I like this picture because you can tell that she's smiling, which is pretty good since that gelding was being a bit of a handful. Kate and one of her other horses, Lucky, have been so successful with clicker training that they've been featured in at least one Alexandra Kurland book. Kate told me Lucky's story and there were a lot of parallels to my time with Gwen. Lucky was half-wild, aggressive and completely unruly under saddle. In fact he tossed her off the first time she rode him and broke her ankle. Now Lucky is a shining example of how well-behaved and cooperative a clicker trained horse can be. Between her success with her difficult horse and her cheery disposition, I knew that she was just the person I needed to help me with Gwen.

We worked on leading first, adding in some backing before I gave her a treat to make Gwen concentrate on her balance (and stop surging ahead of me after I stopped). We did a little fine-tuning of my rope mechanics, mainly to make sure I didn't put more tension on the rope than I needed. I have been unconsciously holding onto the rope under the snap, putting weight on the rope that Gwen could learn to ignore, making it harder to get her to respond to the lightest cues. We finished up with Kate giving me pointers on how to build duration with Gwen's head lowering.

For me the best part of the lesson was seeing my one-person mare working so nicely with Kate when she took the lead to do demonstrations. Kate was also quite impressed with how soft Gwen was being and how smart she is. That made me feel really good about all the hard work we've put in together. We're going to try to meet up bi-weekly from now on, doing more with leading and eventually adding in lateral work. Kate has also agreed to be my ground person when I try to start Gwen under saddle again in a few months. Whoohoo!

Today I lunged Coriander for the first time since March. The gimpy foot held up! I'm starting him out nice and easy again, 8 minutes of walking and 2 minutes of trotting. I want to try getting into the saddle again in a week or two and I want to make sure he's gotten any naughtiness out first. Poor boy is mega stiff going to the right, he actually threw in a buck going in that direction. I see circles in his future.

After I brought him in I took Gwen out to practice what we'd done with Kate. Note to self: When working with Gwen after taking her brother out, begin with head lowering. I tried it the other way and she was way too worked up for it. She did eventually calm down and started automatically backing up when I put the treat out, good for her!

Plan for tomorrow: more of the same. Plus, physical therapy for me starts tomorrow, I'm dying to get the range of motion back in my ankle.

So you want to be a horse trainer

I'm sure we've all heard the saying that everyone who interacts with a horse is a horse trainer because every interaction we have with a horse teaches them something, good or bad. I'm reminded of this every time I go to put Gwen's halter on after my barn owner has handled her. Instead of eagerly pushing her muzzle into the halter she hesitates for a moment, double checking that it's me. My barn owner unwittingly teaches Gwen to avoid being haltered just a little bit every time she interacts with her. This is why I do my own horse handling as much as possible (For clarification my barn owner is not mean or aggressive but she uses a chain on my girl and Gwen doesn't like that one bit.).

Knowing that, how do we become good horse trainers? To paraphrase Alexandra Kurland, "be creative." Think you are creatively challenged? Guess what, there's help for that.

Epstein's Four Competencies to Improve Creativity

1. Capturing = When you get an idea write it down immediately. There are no stupid ideas that don't merit being written down. The point is to capture the idea as it comes to you and evaluate it later.
2. Challenging = Put yourself in situations where you may fail. Failure forces you to change tactics and you need to be creative to do that. (If only the American school system would embrace that, anyway...)
3. Broadening = Expand your knowledge base. Don't be afraid to look for helpful information in a place that may seem completely unrelated to what you are trying to accomplish. (My husband found out how to fix his knees by watching a Deb Bennett horse conformation video with me, true story.)
4. Surrounding = Let your environment influence your creativity. Ever feel like you can't do this, that or the other because you don't have the perfect indoor or the world's most beautiful stalls? Take it as an opportunity to "think outside of the box." 

 Think in terms of puzzles and riddles. Start as simple as possible, easier for your horse- easier for you, and gradually increase the difficulty as both of you get "smarter." And you will literally get smarter. That's the cool thing about brains: the more you challenge them, the better they get.

PS- I realize that the orange is kind of hard to read, Blogger won't let me change the color for some reason. Grrrrr...

A little structure

The first concept I got out of the clinic was structure and direction for my training.

Alex outlines six foundation lessons for creating a good equine citizen. I'm going to be intentionally vague about them, if you want more information go to her website, The Clicker Center, and purchase one of the books or videos (If you're really nice I'll email you some more info, I just don't want to splash it all over the internet on her.).

1. Targeting = teaching your horse to touch their nose to a target. This is a great lesson because there is so much you can do with it.
2. Head Lowering = I've mentioned this before, it teaches the horse emotional control.
3. Backing = teaches the horse to respect your space.
4. Grownups are Talking = essentially teaches the horse to stop mugging you for treats; is the first lesson for ground tying.
5. Why Would You Leave Me? = teaches respectful leading skills.
6. Happy Faces = rewards the horse for looking pleasant (like having their ears forward), important because people react positively to horses that look pleasant.

So now I have some short term training goals. I had already started Gwen on 1, 2 and 3, now I just need to add 4 and 5. To be honest, number 6 doesn't really apply to my horses, I can't remember the last time I saw them pin their ears and look nasty. They are both very pleasant characters.

I've already started incorporating lesson 4 with both the quarters. After I groom them I take them off the cross ties and we work on Grownups are Talking. Gwen has picked up on this much faster than Coriander, but she was never as much of a mugger as him anyway. I plan on making this a regular addition to grooming time.

For the next week and a half I'm going to concentrate on teaching Coriander targeting and getting Gwen really good at head lowering. This already involves backing so we'll have that one covered too.

After my screws come out on June 1 we can start working on Why Would You Leave Me. I'm very excited about that one, I hope it creates a significant difference in how Gwen leads.

Alexandra Kurland Clinic

I'm back from the three day clinic jam-packed with information!

Here are some logistics in case you want to attend one of Alex's clinics:

1. You can't audit it. You either sign up as a horse participant or a non-horse participant. Alex actually prefers that first timers don't bring a horse.
2. Half the day is spent over round table discussion, the other half is watching  handlers work their own horses (with Alex occasionally stepping in).
3. Bring a notebook, you are going to want to takes TONS of notes.
4. Expect to be asked to think and contribute to the discussions.

 First I have to say that my experience at this clinic will probably be different than most. All but one of the other participants have been doing this clinic with Alex three times a year for about 10 years now. Since they are all quite advanced, a lot of time was spent discussing animal behavior theory. I felt a bit like I was sitting in a college lecture hall, it was fascinating but probably beyond most newbies.

There were even some (internet) famous people there.  I met Marjorie, who is the mastermind behind http://barefoothorse.com/; and Katie, who has some great information on clicker training at http://www.equineclickertraining.com/.

I'm going to break up what I learned into a string of posts- I don't want to slam all of it up at once, it would get REALLY long. You'll have to bear with me.

My overall impression of the clinic was that it was an excellent use of my time and money. Alex is very approachable and she really knows her stuff. If you think that clicker training is something you want to pursue then I strongly suggest you try to attend a clinic. The schedule is here.

The demand to calm down cue

In anticipation of next weekend's clicker training clinic (YAY) I've started working with Gwen on the "demand to calm down cue." Theoretically, once I teach her this cue I'll be able to get her to calm down quickly in stressful situations.

Fortunately I got to the barn today before the rush so I was able to work with her in relatively quiet conditions.  I took her just outside the barn door and kept to the concrete pad where there isn't any grass to pull her attention away from me and where she can still see her brother. I'm going to wait until she's got it down before I take her away from the barn (by then I shouldn't be gimping anymore either).

A little background on this lesson: The demand to calm down cue is a training tool from John Lyons.  It essentially teaches the horse to give to pressure, with the side benefit of helping the horse achieve a state of relaxation (from the endorphins released when the head drops).  You can read an in-depth explanation of how to train for it here. Alexandra Kurland takes that lesson and refines it through the use of the clicker.

It's pretty darn simple to do once you get the concept.  You ask the horse to back up as if they were inside a box (or a stall), by pushing their head to the right so they turn their hindquarters to the left and back in a circle.  Meanwhile you're holding the lead rope in a "tai-chi wall," your left hand is at the snap while your right hand pulls the slack out of the rope by the horse's shoulder.  This helps with bargy horses (like Gwen) that like to try to push through you with their shoulder, the wall keeps them off you.  Since backing up is hard work, the horse will eventually lower its head because it's easier that way.  As soon as the head drops you click and release. (Backing up is key for this exercise.)

Keep going like this until the horse learns that all they have to do is drop their head to get rewarded, they won't be backing up anymore.  Then you have to refine the cue.  Keep asking the horse to lower its head every time s/he goes to pick it up by putting tension on the rope.  After this you eventually ask the horse to lower their head all the way down until their muzzle is on the ground.  You can then ask them to move forward at the walk and trot with their head down.  After the horse has this lesson down pat you can start using the cue while you're in the saddle.

Sounds pretty good, eh?  You can use this to teach your horse to stand while tied, to lower their head for bridling, to stop freaking out when they're separated from their brother... Lots of things.

I worked on this with Gwen for about 5-10 minutes today.  Unfortunately I ran out of treats just as she was starting to get to the point where she was dropping her head almost as soon as I picked up the rope.  She's a little smarty though, it won't take long to get back to that point next time.

I'm hoping that Alexandra Kurland demonstrates this lesson at the clinic.  I watched the video (available through Giddyup Flix), but I'm sure she'll have more pointers in person.