Category: Horsemanship
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Wed 12/27/23 I’ve had 5 days with Sprinx so far. Today was the first day that I did any substantial clicker training with her; we began with food manners and progressed quickly to simple targeting. Safe to say she loves it. The first few days, I either spent time cleaning up her field and saying hi…
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Here’s a new twist on a perennial horse problem: Finn the 4 year old Fjord gelding refuses to get out of his trailer. You’ve read in these posts how target training helped Mr. Ed, a horse who refused to load up. His trailer issue is much more common. And while I’ve seen plenty of horses…
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I introduced Cowboy a few days ago, my latest clicker project who needs to resolve issues of crowding his humans. Another concerning behavior has been kicking at horses or people during group rides. Overall I’d sum up Cowboy’s issues as one of spatial awareness; he needs a more consistent and confident sense of where his…
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“…all of this trailer training was done at liberty. Ed was bound to participate only by his choice.“ –Kath Mertens, DVM … continued from a previous post We left the previous Mr. Ed installment with him stepping both front feet into the trailer to reach his feed tub. But come hell or high water, Ed…
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I am one of a growing army of people trying to bring positive reinforcement training to the horse world. The most familiar picture of positive reinforcement training is that of clicker training. Many people have heard of clicker training with dogs; what’s less well known is how useful clicker training is with horses. One reason…
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Mr. Ed is a black quarter horse gelding of indeterminate age, although his teeth (or lack thereof) declare that he’s close to 30. He’s been living in my back field all summer, awaiting the preparation of his winter home, which is to be his forever home. His Dad cared for him as a solo horse…
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I’ve been playing with some liberty leading with Luna recently, working off of some techniques I learned from my friend Jaya Erkkila. Jaya talks about her method as one of “playing” with the horse, and indeed it is all about having a willing dance between horse and human, no hardware or tack involved. From a…
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Using complete freedom, a few well-timed treats, and within the space of 4 weeks, we showed that horse there was nothing to be scared of. –Kath Mertens, DVM Red has his farrier appointment yesterday–his first one since beginning clicker training 4 weeks ago. I’ve worked with him and his owner, Olivia, one day a week…
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5/19/18 I’m coming to the keyboard having just watched an Elisa Wallace vlog of her working with a Kiger mustang and an OTTB for the first time at an obstacle course. The OTTB reacted to new puzzles in very much the same way Luna does, so it was really interesting to watch how Elisa handles…
