The following weekend, this 3-year-old wild-born colt (gelding) who was barely halter-broke was taken from the farm he was brought to after the swim (Chincoteague Pony Penning Day in VA) and spent the next 2-1/2 plus years. He'd never left the pasture before, never was out on the 'other' side of the barn, never down the lane (driveway) and never - seriously - asked to load into a horse trailer.
As I lead him, letting him look around, when he slowed - I would ask him to 'walk up' and click/treat the slight movement forward. The light bulb went off & he remembered our little session before. We got all the way from the pasture to the trailer in a good time. The colt had never seen a trailer before (okay - he had when he was 8 weeks old, loaded and driven to this place from VA). Took him just 10 minutes to load using 'walk up' and C/T.
Six months later when the same colt caught his hoof under his metal stall door -- Walk Up / click / treat helped the boy load into another trailer (this time, at midnight, and with a ramp) with one well-wrapped leg. This time - he stopped only once, when he had to put 'full' weight on his injured leg.
On his trip home from New Bolton - he had his 3rd experience with a trailer, and a 3rd type of trailer, and loaded with only a single, 'walk up' cue - as if he'd been doing this for years.
With the clicker - you're marking (with a click) every little movement towards your goal. Sometimes, even a deep sigh will get a click & treat as it's important your horse (dog, goat, etc) exhales. Instead of pushing the horse into a even more fearful situation - the clicker shows him 'there's something in it for me' when he hears the click sound.
As Always,
Beth in DE - getting more snow even as I type!
====================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Cynthia Eliason
To: haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [haflingerfriends] Day 1 & 2 clicking Camryn
On Tuesday 02 February 2010 1:58:04 pm Liz Farley wrote:
> I clicker train my horses and honestly, it is SO MUCH FUN! There is no end
> to the things you can do - help them with their confidence, get them to do
> things they are otherwise really leery of - they really learn to trust you
> - good luck! It's a blast!
Can you give an example of how you'd use the clicker to get a horse to do
something he's otherwise leery of? If you're clicking for the correct
behavior, you have to get the behavior before you can click, so how do you
get the behavior in the first place if he's too worried to do it?
Cindy Eliason
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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