Add a new aspect to a task, e.g. different handler position.
Do tasks in a different order.
Introduce new tasks.
Add trot to some of the tasks.
AIM
This routine links together a finesse back-up, targeting shoulder to hand, sidestepping, counterturn circle, ‘wait’ while the handler walks around the horse plus signaling a back-up from behind the horse.
PREREQUISITES
Smooth ‘Walk on’ and ‘Halt’ Transitions (staying shoulder-to-shoulder). https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 12′ (4m) or longer lead if not working at liberty.
A safe fence line to work alongside.
VIDEO CLIP
Movement Routine 11: Fence as Focus (filmed at liberty)
NOTES
Be sure that you have mastered each task before chaining them together.
Chain pairs of tasks to begin with, then gradually join the pairs together.
Click&treat at a rate that keeps your horse being continually successful. As he learns the routine, ask for a bit more before each click&treat.
TASKS
Walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse nearest the fence.
Smoothly turn to face the horse and ask for a Finesse Back-up. Eventually work up to ten steps back.
Ask the horse to target your hand with his shoulder to turn him 90 degrees so his butt is against the fence.
Ask the horse to sidestep one direction, then in the other direction. You could be facing the horse, at his side asking him to yield away or at his side asking him to step toward you.
Take position alongside the horse’s head/neck so you can ask him to walk a counterturn half-circle with you, then halt. A counterturn has the handler on the outside of the turn.
Put the rope over the horse’s back, take if off, or ground-tie if your horse knows that. Ask the horse to ‘wait’. Walk forward and right around the horse. Click&treat when you return.
Complete the counterturn circle so you are both once again parallel to the fence; the handler will be nearest the fence.
Ask the horse to ‘wait’ with clear voice and gesture signals. Walk backwards and around behind the horse to end up standing beside his hip furthest from the fence.
Ask the horse to back up while you move to remain beside his hip. Alternately, you could keep your feet still and ask the horse to back up until his head is at your shoulder.
Use your ‘end of routine’ routine to let the horse know the routine is finished for now.
If you started walking on the horse’s left side, teach it again walking on his right side. One side may feel harder.
GENERALIZATIONS
Work alongside as many different safe fences as you can find.
When it is super smooth with halter and lead, play at liberty.
Use a line of ground rails instead of a fence.
Do the routine in an open area with no fence or ground rails.
You may have heard the story about a horse called Clever Hans who could add, subtract, multiply and divide. I think it was eventually found that Hans responded to eyebrow signals from his person to let him know when he should start and stop lifting his foot.
My horse, Boots, and I won’t reach such a level of sophistication, but teaching ‘counting’ can be fun. It also forced me to refine and clarify the way I presented my signals, as well as improve the timing of my ‘click’.
Leg lifts without moving are a good way to play with mobilization. Viewing the video clips, I notice that lifting one leg engages her whole body.
‘Counting’ is a game we developed over many months with several starts and stops to focus on other things. It’s an engaging game for a few minutes at a time when the weather is too hot, wet, windy, or cold to be out and about.
The key, as for most of equine clicker training, is to have many short sessions, two or three minutes long, over many, days. By keeping it short, the horse begins to look forward to the new game as a relatively easy way to earn clicks&treats.
NOTE: Items with an asterisk {*} are described in the GLOSSARY which you can access at the top of the home page.
Developing Boots’ Individual Education Program* for ‘Counting’ helped me:
Be more aware of deciding and stabilizing my body orientation, which is a key part of any signal. Horses are super aware of body positioning.
Refine the nature and energy of my signal for this task. We do a lot of different things, so it is tricky to keep all my signals ‘clean’.
Improve the timing for when I turn the signal on and off.
Remember to take up my ‘zero intent*’ position to wait for the horse to tell me when she is ‘ready to repeat’ (Consent Signals*)
Relax when the horse attends to external distractions and wait for her to bring her attention back to me.
This exercise is an extension of tasks we developed to create confidence with standing on three legs for hoof care. Details of this are available in my book, Confident Foot Care using Reward Reinforcement.
Once Boots readily lifted a leg when I pointed to it, it was not a big leap to ask for two lifts in a row before the click&treat*. She is presently on her way to counting to ten. Which lets us have fun doing simple math questions when the grandchildren visit.
Aim
To have the horse understand a signal for lifting a front leg (either one) and able to repeat lifting the leg up to ten times on request (number is optional) before a click&treat.
Prerequisites
Horse and handler are clicker-savvy.
Handler uses clear body language to indicate ‘intent’ and ‘zero intent’. Click here.
Horse is relaxed about foot care and willingly lifts his feet for cleaning/trimming. Or this task can also be part of improving balance on three legs.
Horse has developed one or more ‘Consent Signals*’ to let the handler know when he is ready to go ahead with what we are doing. Click here.
Horse understands touching a target with his nose, his knee, and his foot. #89 HorseGym with Boots: Balance on Three Legs looks at foot targeting. Click here.
Videos
MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
A space where the horse can stand relaxed and confident.
A safe fence (not electrified or wire) or similar barrier.
A target safe for foot targeting and easy to handle. I find a piece of cloth slipped into the leather end loop of an old riding crop makes a nice lightweight target. Bulky things like pool noodles are harder to hold and harder to remove from view to ‘take out of play’.
A rail on the ground may be helpful in some cases.
Notes
Using props when we begin a new task makes it much easier for the horse to understand what to do to earn his next click&treat. Use of well-planned props takes us halfway to achieving our aim.
Once the horse understands the task, we gradually fade out the props.
Pawing is not the same as counting with a discreet signal from the handler for each ‘number’ counted. If pawing becomes an issue, repeated click&treat for ONE lift of the foot may (over many short sessions) may make it clearer for the horse.
I start each session (once we can count more than ONE) with click&treat for ONE, and work up the numbers to our present limit.
I like to encourage the horse to use both front feet for the counting. Boots sometimes uses both and sometimes mostly one foot. Using both gives better distribution of the muscle movement throughout the body.
HANDLER SKILL: Your horse may begin to offer foot lifts once you’ve started this game. Boots does it in the video clips. This ‘offering’ is precious. It shows you that the horse understands the game and is volunteering to start. If I’m ready, I count such an ‘offer’ as ONE and begin to signal for TWO and so on.
HANDLER SKILL: Click as the horse is in the act of lifting his foot. Good timing is not always easy and can always be improved. Don’t worry if you don’t get it exactly right each time. Focus on the upward movement of the foot. Once you are conscious of this, and with practice, your timing will improve.
HANDLER SKILL: Carefully check your body orientation to keep it the same each time you begin to ask for ‘counting’. Horses are super aware of how our body is orientated. Consistent orientation is a large part of signal clarity.
HANDLER SKILL: Ensure that you always use the hand closest to the horse to give the ‘lift foot’ signal. Which hand you use is highly significant to the horse. I use the hand furthest from the horse to give a signal for ‘shoulder away’.
HANDLER SKILL: The signal for each ‘foot lift’ is an ON-OFF signal.
HANDLER SKILL: As you click, remove the target (and later your hand/finger) to behind your body to consciously take it ‘out of play’ – the OFF part of the signal. When you present it again for the next ‘repeat’ it will catch the horse’s attention as your ON signal. Once you are using your finger, make your moving finger the ON signal and learn to tuck your finger way for the OFF signal.
HANDLER SKILL: I begin the task by using a voice signal. I say, “Counting – Fronts” and quietly count each foot lift, exaggerating my voice for the number I will click. Boots has learned that while I say the number softly, she will need to do another one – in other words, she listens for my loud, happy final number plus click. I’m also teaching her to count with the back feet, where I start by saying, “Counting – Rear” and my body orientation is quite different.
HANDLER SKILL: In the clips you will notice that occasionally Boots pauses. She is not being slow or stubborn, she is thinking. Be sure to give your horse ample thinking time and sometimes they like a bit of time to enjoy their last treat before resuming the game.
HANDLER SKILL: Always click before you reach for the treat or the horse will learn to watch your hand rather than focus on what you are teaching. This is especially important for this task because your hand moving slightly forward with a finger wiggling will become the ON signal as you fade out the target prop.
HANDLER SKILL: Feed the treat away from your body. Try to position your treat hand so the horse straightens his head to retrieve the treat.
HANDLER SKILL: If the horse is distracted, wait with ‘zero intent*’ body language until the horse brings his attention back to you – hopefully using a ‘consent’ signal*. Sometimes the waiting feels like a long time, but it is usually only a few seconds. Pay attention to whatever has caught the horse’s attention by looking at it keenly, then breathe out deeply. This shows the horse that you have noticed his concern but are not worried about it.
HANDLER SKILL: Teach everything on either side of the horse. One side may feel more difficult. The horse may be less comfortable with you on one side. We are usually less smooth giving signals when we use the non-dominant side of our body. I like to teach each slice of this task on both sides before moving on to the next slice. While the horse is learning, I am learning to be more particular about everything mentioned in these notes.
HANDLER SKILL: Stay with X-number of leg lifts until it feels like the horse is ho-hum with that number, even if you stay at ONE or TWO for what feels like ages. Nothing derails our training as quickly as going faster than the horse is able to absorb each new slice and put it into deep memory.
HANDLER SKILL: If you get a nice series of ‘counting’, resist the natural urge to ‘do it again to see if we can do it again’. Stop when it feels really nice and wait until your next session.
Slices
If you already have a space where the horse stands comfortably relaxed, start with Slice 2. If not, we first need to establish a place we can use consistently for teaching this task. One way is to ensure your horse is comfortable standing between a safe fence and a rail on the ground. Walk him through the space in both directions. Then halt in the space; click&treat, in both directions. The fence and rail help show the horse that you don’t want him to move sideways. When he is relaxed in the space, start with Slice 2.
Set the scene to let the horse know that ‘targeting’ is the game of the moment by asking him to target his nose, a knee, then the back of a front foot to your target.
Repeat touching the foot to the target ONCE with a click&treat each time. Somewhere between three and five repeats is plenty at one time. (See The Rule of Three. Click here. )
When the horse readily lifts his foot once, ask for twice before the click&treat.
When the horse readily ‘counts’ to TWO, ask for THREE before the click and treat.
And so on, to as high a number as you like, always staying within the horse’s ability and interest level.
As you reach a higher number (over five), the horse may pause more often to think. He may be thinking about which foot to lift next.
When it feels like the horse has a good understanding of the task, gradually introduce a finger wiggle with the hand holding the target. Horse peripheral vision is magic at picking up movement, so they will notice the finger wiggle easily.
Gradually lessen the movement of the target stick toward the horse as you wiggle your finger. Eventually you’ll realize that you no longer need the target stick – that your hand/finger movement has become the signal.
Remember, bringing your hand forward and the wiggling your finger is your ON signal. Put your hand ‘away’ and out of play is your OFF signal. Then when you bring your hand with wiggling finger forward again, the horse will notice it as your ON signal to do another ‘count’.
Generalizations
When the horse is ho-hum about his ‘counting’ task in the familiar spot you have been using, move to different venues. You may want to begin with fence and rail props in a new venue. Horses let us know when the props are no longer needed.
At some point you can begin to mix up the number you ask for – sometimes THREE, sometimes FIVE, occasionally SEVEN, and so on.
This routine presents a novel way to walk ever-decreasing circles. It also includes weaving and 180-degree turns.
AIM
Smoothly carry out a routine walking together in a variety of configurations.
PREREQUISITES
Walking together shoulder-to-shoulder. Smooth ‘Walk On’ and ‘Halt’ Transitions. Click here.
While walking shoulder-to-shoulder, the horse changes direction in response to the handler moving his/her body axis toward the horse or away from the horse. #170 HorseGym with Boots: Body Axis Orientation Signals; Click here.
Weaving. #70 HorseGym with Boots: Only Horse Weaves;Click here.
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and relatively short lead rope (8′).
Rags: I used six rags in this video clip for easier filming and to avoid boring viewers, but you can use as many as you like and make the circle as large as you like.
I like to memorize the sequence of tasks by walking the pattern without the horse and/or with a person standing in for the horse. It also works to visualize the sequence often.
Make the circle a size that suits your horse. We want him to be able to do the weave part easily. As he gets more adepts, you can gradually make the circle smaller to encourage more bend.
I found it a challenge to remember which rag we were going to leave out next as we made the circle smaller. Having different colored rags made it easier.
Boots is now so good about recognizing that the rags are not mats, that I could walk on the rags or inside the rag circle without her stepping on them. If your horse tends to step on the rags, walk on the outside of the rags so he is further away from them.
Use a rate of reinforcement that keeps your horse continually successful. This can be very often when you first introduce the routine. As the horse gets to know the routine, gradually decrease your rate of reinforcement (how often you click&treat).
Be careful not to drill. Multiple short sessions will keep the horse keen to do it again next time.
TASKS
On the horse’s left side, starting from the center of the circle, ask the horse to weave the rags while you remain walking inside the rags.
When you’ve weaved through all the rags, walk a full circle around all the rags.
Walk a second circle leaving out one rag.
Walk a third circle leaving out two rags, and so on, systematically, until you reach your last circle around just one rag.
Walk to the center of the circle for a rest; click&treat.
From the center, walk straight ahead and do a U-turn around the nearest rag and return to the center.
You’re now facing the opposite direction, so choose another rag in front of you, walk toward it and do a U-turn and return to the center.
Use your ‘end of routine’ routine so the horse knows it is the end of the routine. I use a Triple Treat.
Repeat on the horse’s right side. You may want to do something else before you repeat this on the other side because it is such concentrated work.
GENERALIZATIONS
When it feels smooth, work at liberty.
If you are able, set up a big circle and do some of the routine at trot.
Add the task of ever-increasing circles.
Work on a slope if you have one handy.
Use more rags.
Set the rags into a rectangle or a triangle to encourage more variety of movement. Or have one end round and the other end with two right angles.
Hoops are handy obstacles to use for teaching a variety of skills. They are easy to set up and store. We can use them in numerous contexts. They can help us achieve a variety of objectives. For example:
Handler:
Identify prerequisites for each exercise.
Practice thin-slicing the tasks.
Practice writing a training (shaping) plan for each configuration.
Hone our timing of the click.
Make our signals as clear and consistent as possible.
Horse:
Develop foot awareness.
Gives a defined spot to learn the ‘wait’.
Generalize signals (cues) to new situations.
New puzzles to work through – mental stimulation.
Flexion exercises.
Boots and I have played with hoops on and off for quite a while, as in the following video clips. For a 15hh horse hoops about one metre across work well for trotting through, but we also use smaller ones for some of the other activities.
The hoops are made with plastic water pipe with the ends held together either with the right-sized twig pushed into the ends or a stretch of hose either one size smaller to fit inside the ends or one size larger to form a sleeve across the ends. To make them more visible I wound electrical tape around them.
Photo: Our horse walking with us confidently is basic to everything else we want to do.
INTRODUCTION
This is one of my favorite exercises. It is fun to do as a warm-up or a cool-down or if horse time is short. If you are energetic you can eventually do it trotting.
This exercise encourages the horse to walk with us in position beside his neck or shoulder. It is a way of teaching ‘leading’ without the need to put pressure on the lead rope or use a lead rope at all. We can teach this exercise totally at liberty once the horse is clicker-savvy.
The more precise we can be with our body language, the easier it is for the horse to read our intent.
When we invite the horse to walk with us in the ’20 Steps Exercise’ we adjust our pace to the horse’s natural pace, so we can walk ‘in step’ with each other.
When we do this task at liberty, it’s easy for the horse to let us know if he is not in the mood to do things with us because he can peel off in his own direction.
If you have a safe, enclosed area, and protected contact is no longer needed, starting at liberty is ideal.
If the horse is exuberant and protected contact remains a good idea, you can still do this exercise with the horse at liberty by using a reverse round pen (person in the pen, horse moves around the outside of it) or a stretch of paddock fence. If your fencing is electric tape, make sure it is turned off. Lots more about reverse pens here: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-64e
Doing a little at a time keeps this exercise fresh and lively in the repertoire.
If protected contact is a good idea, we can set up a reverse round pen with uprights and fencing tape. The horse moves around the outside of the ‘pen’ while the handler stays inside. We can make it a size that best suits the task we are working with.
AIMS
Handler refines clear ‘walk-on’ and ‘halt’ body language, energy level and voice signals.
Horse willingly mirrors the handler’s energy changes and stays in position with his neck/shoulder area beside the handler.
PREREQUISITES
Handler is aware of using breathing and body energy level to indicate ‘energy up’ before moving off and ‘energy down’ before coming to a halt.
Handler had decided on clear ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ voice signals.
Handler has developed a consistent ‘walk on’ arm gesture.
Handler uses clear preparatory body language before coming to a ‘halt’, e.g. slowing down, breathing out and dropping weight into the hips.
Optional: These prerequisites are nice but not essential. This task is a way of achieving or improving the three skills below.
Horse walks smoothly beside the handler’s shoulder.
Horse understands ‘Whoa’ voice, breathing and body language signals.
Horse willingly responds to ‘Walk On’ voice, breathing, gesture and body language signals.
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
Horse is not hungry.
A safe, enclosed area for working at liberty.
If protected contact is the best choice, use a reverse round pen or use a paddock fence, whichever suits your situation best.
If there are no other options, use halter and lead, keeping a non-influencing drape in the lead rope. A light-weight lead is preferable.
VIDEO CLIPS
December 2017 Obstacle Challenge: 20 Steps Exercise.
#30 HorseGym with Boots illustrates Boots helping Zoë learn the process with halter and lead.
SLICES
Standing beside the horse’s neck/shoulder, do the following pretty much all at the same time:
Raise torso and look ahead.
Breathe in deeply.
Gesture forward with the hand furthest from the horse.
Step off with your outside leg to walk one step using ‘draw energy’ to encourage the horse to move with you. The horse can more easily see movement of your outside leg.
Halt after one step by breathing out and releasing your energy; click&treat when your feet are stopped. If the horse has moved out of position accept that for now – deliver the treat as close as possible to where you want him to be.
We will click&treat for EACH halt.
If the horse is a bit surprised and moves out of position, move YOURSELF back into position beside his neck/shoulder and start again, raising torso breathing in, gesturing and stepping off to walk on. Slow down, breathe out, and drop into your hips to stop. If you are consistent, the horse will begin to take note of your breathing and posture.
If you are on the other side of a barrier or fence from the horse, walk on and click&treat any indication that the horse is willing to come join you, then start again with 1 above.
If you are not in protected contact, it’s ideal to start with the horse between the handler and a safe fence, so the option of swinging the hindquarters away is removed. I didn’t show this part in the video clip.
If protected contact is necessary and the horse is unsure about what you want to do if you try using a reverse round pen or paddock fence, we can use a lane. A lane can work well because it reduces the horse’s options. The horse walks in the lane and the handler walks on the outside of the lane.
Lanes can be set up with fencing tape and uprights next to an existing fence or made with bits and pieces like the one in the photo below.
We can usually make learning easier for the horse by organizing our training environment so that what we will click&treat is easy for the horse to discover. Here ware are using a lane to initiate walking side-by-side together.
Next Slices
When one or two steps together is smooth, take three steps before the halt, click&treat.
When three steps together are smooth, take four steps before the halt, click&treat, and so on.
Each time you walk on, begin counting at ‘one’ again.
Stay with four-five steps until moving off together is smooth and the horse stays in position beside you for the halt.
Adjust how many steps you add before each halt and click&treat. It will depend on how fast the horse catches on to the pattern, the clarity and consistency of your signals, as well as how the horse is feeling that day.
With some horses you can soon add steps in 2’s, 3’s or 5’s to reach the twenty steps.
If the horse gets lost or seems to forget, go back to where he can be successful and work with a smaller number of steps until you gain true confidence.
Gradually work up to 10, 15, then 20 steps before each halt, click&treat.
Asking for 20 steps before the click&treat, carried out on both sides of the horse, is usually plenty at one time. But there is no reason we can’t do several sets of 20 steps if the horse stays keen.
Be sure to teach this walking on either side of the horse. One side may be easier. Start again from the beginning (along a fence or in a lane) for the second side. Some horses easily transfer new learning to the other side. Other horses find everything harder on one side.
Handlers usually must also focus to consciously produce clear, consistent body language with the less dominant side of their body. If the horse’s and handler’s stiffer sides coincide, everything will feel a bit harder at first.
When a task feels equally smooth on either side of the horse, a big milestone has been achieved.
GENERALIZATIONS
If you started with a lane, move from the lane to working alongside a fence.
Play the game in an open area, away from a fence-line.
Teach, then add drawing the horse into arcs and turns with the horse on the outside of the turn. See also: Smooth 90-Degree Turns: Handler on the Inside: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5VM
Teach, then add walking arcs and turns toward the horse (counter-turns). See also: Smooth Counter Turns: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5WK
If you can run, play with it at trot. It’s best to begin this in protected contact in case the horse finds it exciting.
Photo: using the fence around a grazing area as a reverse pen.
A reverse pen is set up so the horse moves along one side of a barrier and the handler moves on the other side. People come up with all sorts of ways to make reverse pens. Larger is better for reverse pens so that the horse is not working on a tight bend. It’s important to change direction often. The video clips coming up show several ways of setting up a reverse pen.
Any fence line that allows delivery of the treat across or through it can be used for reverse pen exercises. In a couple of the video clips I used the fence around the area Boots is grazing so I had nothing extra to set up. If the horse is comfortable working across electric fence materials (not electrified) we can easily set up (and take down as necessary) pens of any size or shape.
Reverse pens are useful for:
Keeping ourselves in protected contact while in motion.
Some horses also feel more secure if the handler is on the other side of a fence at first.
Working without halter and rope.
Discourage the horse moving his shoulder into the handler.
Encourage the horse to develop muscles that help him stay on a circle and not ‘fall in’ with the shoulder or to navigate corners elegantly if we use a rectangular or triangular reverse pen.
Using a hand-held target to encourage walking with us, gradually morphing into a hand gesture.
Creating duration – maintaining a gait for longer.
Playing with transitions: halt to walk to halt; walk to trot to walk; trot to canter to trot.
Often reverse pens are round, as in Connection Training’s ‘Around the Round Pen’ exercises. But they can also be rectangular or triangular, giving the horse the different challenge of organizing his body to negotiate the corners effectively.
Using a Hand-Held Target to Encourage Walking with Us
If we are going to use a hand-held target and a reverse round pen to encourage the horse to walk with us, we want to click&treat for the movement, not the catching up to and putting nose on the target. We don’t want to turn it into a chasing game. We present the target to encourage forward movement, click for the number of steps we decided to take before moving off, put the target down behind us out of sight, then deliver the treat.
Building Duration Walking with Us
#210 HorseGym with Boots: Reverse Pens Clip 4; Duration Walking Together
Details
We must decide how many steps will earn a click&treat before we begin. That is:
We present the target.
Walk ‘X’ number of steps (previously decided – kept within the horse’s present ability)
Click.
Remove the target while we reach for a treat.
Feed the treat.
Start with one step; click&treat. Add one more step at a time as long as the horse shows interest. Stop to do something else if his interest wanes or wait until your next session. Start each session with a few steps and gradually add more.
Keep the sessions short and as you present the target, also use your body language, big breath in, energy raised and your voice ‘walk on’ signal.
Fading out Hand-held Targets
While targets are a great tool to initiate all sort of behaviors, it is important that we teach voice, body language and gesture signals once each behavior is established, so we don’t need to rely on carrying a target.
By consistently using your ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ multi-signals, you will soon be able to fade out using the target, keeping your hands free. Your voice, energy and body language tell the horse what you would like him to do. Voice and body language ‘halt/whoa’ signals (as well as the click) tell him when you would like him to halt.
Using Foot Targets
If the horse has a strong history or reinforcement for putting his front feet on a mat, we can use that to work with a reverse pen. Using a mat target has the advantage of leaving our hands free. This clip looks at using mats after the first minute.
In the following video clip, I began with the horse on a lead because that can be another way to start. Not everyone has the facility to work safely at liberty. The video clip explains the process: #162 HorseGym with Boots: Introduction to Liberty Circles.
Once the horse understands our body language, gesture, voice and breathing signals, we can use them whenever we lead the horse. For walking side-by-side at liberty, we can develop the Twenty Steps Exercise: https://youtu.be/xYYz0JIpZek
The mat idea works with riding as well as with groundwork.
Some More Reverse Pen Clips
In the next two clips I’m using the fence around the area that Boots is grazing, so there nothing extra to set up/take down.
Photo: The first task is to weave the rags together.
INTRODUCTION
Maintaining mobility is an important aspect of keeping horses in captivity. Usually they live without the freedom of movement over large areas with varied terrain. We can take a small step to encourage whole-body movement with short routines done often but never turned into a drill.
AIM
To combine weaving (serpentines) with sidestepping, backing up and recall using rags as markers.
PREREQUISITES
‘Walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. Smooth Walk and Halt transitions: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT
We have established clear mutual signals for weaving obstacles. https://youtu.be/mjBwyDsVX6Y. As well as this clip,there are several more in my playlist called Weave and Tight Turns.
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and a lead long enough so we can keep a nice drape in the rope but not so long it gets in the way. 12′ (4m) is a useful length.
Six rags laid out in a straight line far enough apart to allow comfortable weaving of the rags walking the pattern together. As the horse becomes more supple, the rags can be put closer together.
VIDEO CLIPS
#203 HorseGym with Boots: Routine 8, Rags as Focus: Click here.
#204 HorseGym with Boots: Routine 8 at Liberty: Click here.
NOTES
It helps to memorize the sequence of tasks by walking the pattern without the horse. If you have a willing human friend, take turns being the horse or the handler. Usually, as handler precision improves, horse precision improves.
The aim is to keep the rope with a nice drape or loop as much as possible, so the horse is getting his signals from our body language and signals rather than rope pressure. We want the horse to find his own balance rather than be pushed or held into a certain outline.
Click&treat at a rate that keeps your horse being successful. As a horse learns a pattern through frequent short repetitions, we can gradually ask for a bit more before each click&treat.
TASKS
Handler on the horse’s left side, weave the rags together.
Turn at the end of the rags and weave in the opposite direction.
Walk a circle around the last rag to end up between the last two rags plus several steps beyond them.
Halt, then ask the horse to back up between the rags. If he backs up on his own, go to the horse to deliver a click&treat.
Ask the horse to sidestep to put him in line with the middle of the next two rags.
Ask the horse to ‘wait’ while you walk between the rags to the end of the rope.
Ask the horse to ‘recall’.
Ask the horse to sidestep so he is in line with the middle of the next two rags.
Halt, then ask the horse to back up between the rags. If he backs up on his own go to the horse to deliver a click&treat.
Ask the horse to sidestep so he is in line with the middle of the next two rags.
Ask the horse to ‘wait’ while you back away to the end of the rope.
Ask the horse to ‘recall’.
Ask the horse to do the final sideways so he is in line with the middle of the last two rags if you are using six rags.
Ask the horse to back up.
Do an established ‘end of routine’ celebration. I use a ‘Triple Treat’.
GENERALIZATIONS
Repeat with the handler on the horse’s right side for the weaving.
Practice in different venues.
Use more rags.
Play at liberty.
Have only the horse weave – handler walks a straight line.
Practice on a slope.
Carry out the same sequence of tasks without marker rags.
Horse understands a ‘wait’ signal to stay parked until further notice. Mats: Parking or Stationing and Much More: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5S9
Handler has developed a clear ‘Zero Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. ‘Zero Intent’ and ‘Intent’: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5RO
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and a lead long enough so you can keep a nice drape in it but not so long it gets in the way. Or work at liberty.
I find it easier to memorize the sequence of tasks like this by walking the pattern without the horse and then visualizing the sequence often. If you have a human friend, take turns being the horse or the handler. Usually, as handler precision improves, horse precision improves.
The aim is to keep the rope with a nice drape or loop as much as possible, so the horse is getting his signals from our body language and signals rather than pressure on the halter. Then it will be easy to morph into working at liberty.
Click&treat at a rate that keeps your horse being successful. As the horse learns a pattern through frequent short repetitions, we can gradually ask for a bit more before each click&treat. For this routine I began with click&treat at each halt, then gradually did a bit more before a click&treat.
TASKS
Handler closest to fence, walk along shoulder-to-shoulder and make a U-turn, staying on the same side of the horse, which will put the horse closest to the fence. Walk to your starting point; halt.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse, beside or just behind his withers, ask the horse to back up several steps; halt.
From halt, with the handler on the inside of the turn, make a 90-degree turn and walk 4 or 5 steps, halt. Repeat three more times so that you have walked an entire square with a halt at each corner, ending up where you started.
From halt, walk the first two sides of the square as you did in 3 above, but with no halt at the corner. Halt at the end of the second side. The horse is now parallel to the fence.
Move to face the horse and ask for sidesteps to the fence; halt.
Ask the horse to stay parked with your ‘wait’ signal. Walk up to a couple of meters behind the horse and take up your ‘no intent’ position. Start with only a couple of seconds of ‘wait’ but try to gradually build up to ten seconds. Over multiple sessions gradually increase the distance you move away.
Walk to stand beside the horse’s butt (facing the same way as the horse) and ask for several steps of back-up.
Jackpot on completion of the sequence.
GENERALIZATIONS
Ask for a few more steps during the back-ups (tasks 2 and 7).
Walk a larger square (task 3).
Ask the horse to wait longer when he is parked (task 6).
Walk further away after asking the horse to ‘wait’ (task 6).
Start the exercise with a trot along the fence (task 1).
Ask for the second back-up (task 7) from further and further behind the horse.
Work at liberty or add halter and lead if you started at liberty.
This routine has us alternating frequently between the left and right sides of the horse. The objective is to develop our ‘walk on’, ‘halt’ and ‘turn’ signals to make them as clear and precise as possible.
AIM
To improve handler precision by linking a series of tasks into a sequence.
PREREQUISITES
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (Smooth Walk and Halt transitions: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT)
Handler has developed a clear ‘Zero Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. (‘Zero Intent’ and ‘Intent’: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5RO)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and a lead long enough so we can keep a nice drape in it but not so long it gets in the way.
Six or more rags marking out a roomy circle. Have an even number of rags.
NOTES
For this routine, it helps if the rags are a different color.
Make the circle as large as you like. It is small in the clips for ease of filming.
I like to memorize the sequence of events by walking the pattern without the horse and then visualizing the sequence often (a good substitute for counting sheep to go to sleep!) If you have a human friend, take turns being the horse or the handler. Usually, as handler precision improves, horse precision improves.
Walk should-to-shoulder with the horse for all the tasks except the last two.
The aim is to keep the rope with a nice drape or loop as much as possible, so the horse is getting his signals from our body language and signals rather than rope pressure.
Click&treat at a rate that keeps your horse being successful. As a horse learns a pattern through frequent short repetitions, we can gradually ask for a bit more before each click&treat.
With the handler nearest the rag and on the horse’s left, stand together beside one of the rags.
Walk a full circle around the rags (anticlockwise).
On completing a full circle, turn into the middle of the circle and halt. Move to the horse’s right side.
Vary how long you stay at the halt each time you halt in the circle’s center. Be clear with your ‘no intent’ body language during the standing together, and your ‘intent’ body language when you want to walk on again.
Walk forward and curve around to circle the rags in the opposite direction (clockwise). Handler walks closest to the rags.
On completing one full circle, turn into the middle again, halt and change to the horse’s left side.
Walk forward and curve into an anticlockwise circle, but this time halt at every second rag. Vary how long you stay parked at the rags.
After one circuit halting at every second rag, turn into the center of the circle again and change to the right side.
Repeat 7 (stop at every second rag) but walking a clockwise circle.
On completing the circle, turn into the middle of the circle and halt.
Ask the horse to back up between two rags, halting when his belly is between the rags. In the clips, I face Boots to ask her to back up, but we could back up shoulder-to-shoulder.
Ask the horse to sidestep either right or left so that one of the rags passes under his belly.
Large Celebration on completion of the sequence.
GENERALIZATIONS
Practice in different venues.
Change the size of your circle.
Add more rags to your circle.
Build in walk-trot-walk transitions.
Repeat each task before changing to the next task.
Add walk-trot-walk transitions.
Add halt-trot transitions.
Add trot-halt transitions.
Play with it at liberty.
Carry out the sequence of tasks in an open area without marker rags. For the three halts along the circle (tasks 7 and 9), halt after each quarter circle.
Photo: Task 3: Walking a half-circle away from the fence.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this series of movement routines is to regularly have the horse doing a series of gentle movements that aid his overall flexion and suppleness.
We need to consider both physical suppleness and mental suppleness. Mental suppleness is about the horse’s ability to understand the signals for each task and to move calmly between tasks.
Once the horse is adept with each of the tasks in the routine, this whole routine takes about two minutes. But it might take weeks or months of short daily practices to teach each element of the routine to the proficiency needed to link them all together.
I like to mark the end of a routine such as this with a celebration which in our case is a triple treat (details in Prerequisite 8).
AIM
To link this series of tasks into a sequence:
Walk together.
Recall toward fence.
Walk a half-circle
Yield shoulder to put horse’s butt at 90 degrees to fence.
Back butt against fence.
Two steps forward, one step back.
One step forward, one step back; repeat once.
Yield shoulder so horse faces fence and morph into sidestepping away.
Sidestep in the opposite direction.
PREREQUISITES
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (Smooth Walk and Halt transitions: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT)
Horse can smoothly U-turn into a recall when the handler changes from walking forward to walking backwards. (https://youtu.be/XuBo07q8g24)
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 10′ (3m) or longer lead.
A safe fence or other barrier. For this challenge, we ask the horse to back his butt against the barrier, so something solid like a wooden fence, a wall or a hedge is best. We could also use a line of barrels or a raised rail.
VIDEO CLIP
NOTES
Be sure that the horse is confident with each task before starting to link them together. We never want to make the horse feel wrong. He can’t be wrong because he doesn’t yet know what you want. Do a quiet reset and start again if things don’t go to plan.
It is usually helpful to link pairs of tasks at first, then add the first pair to the second pair, and so on.
I like to memorize the sequence of events by walking the pattern without the horse and then visualizing the sequence often (a good substitute for counting sheep to go to sleep!) If you have a human friend, take turns walking the sequence being both the horse and the handler.
TASKS
Use a rate of reinforcement (how often you click&treat) that keeps your horse being continually successful as much as possible. As he learns the routine, ask for a bit more before the next click&treat but always be prepared to increase the rate of reinforcement again if the horse needs you to clarify your intent.
Walk along shoulder-to-shoulder with the handler nearest the fence.
Gently change to walking backwards, asking the horse to make a U-turn toward the fence, so he is walking toward you.
Stop walking backwards and ask him to halt in front of you.
Move to the side that allows you to easily walk a half-circle together, with you on the inside of the circle.
Halt when you have walked a half-circle away from the fence. Ask the horse to yield his shoulder 90 degrees so his butt is toward the fence.
Ask the horse to back up until his butt (or tail) is against fence.
Ask the horse to take two steps forward toward you, then ask for one step back.
Now ask for one step forward, followed by one step back; repeat once.
Ask the horse to yield his shoulder 180 degrees so he faces the fence and morph that movement into stepping away from you sideways.
Ask the horse to sidestep toward you or move to his other side and ask him to sidestep away from you.
Finish with a big celebration (e.g. a Triple Treat).
Repeat from task 1 walking on the horse’s other side.
GENERALIZATIONS
Practice in different spots and/or different venues.
When it is super smooth with rope and halter, play at liberty.
Move away from the fence to do the routine. Change task 6 to ask for a set number of back-up steps or have a ground rail as a back-up destination.
This time we set the rags to form a continuous ‘rail’ to make it different from the first ‘Rags’ challenge. It is a good arrangement to see if the horse accepts that the rags are not the same as mats for standing on.
The purpose of this series of challenges is to play with communication basics in slightly different contexts. This mixture of familiarity and novelty encourages the handler to work on precision of timing and consistency of signals.
It allows the horse to consolidate behaviors he already knows in slightly different situations and in different sequences.
This routine has five basic tasks. Since we do them on both sides of the horse, the routine has ten parts in total (or more if we do more than one stationary task).
AIM
Smoothly carry out a sequence of tasks using a ‘rag rail’:
Walk a circuit around all the rags.
Halt alongside, parallel to the rags.
Carry out one or more stationary tasks.
Approach the rag rail at 90 degrees, halt, back up several steps.
Approach the rag rail at 90 degrees and step over it with the front feet; halt, pause, then walk forward stepping across cleanly.
PREREQUISITES
We have ‘step on the mat’ strongly ‘on cue’ or ‘on signal’ or ‘under stimulus control’. (Using Mats: Parking or ‘Stationing’ and Much More: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5S9)
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (Smooth Walk and Halt transitions: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT)
Handler has developed a clear ‘Zero Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. (‘Zero Intent’ and ‘Intent’: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5RO)
Horse knows one or more stationary exercises, e.g., head forward, head down, target knee, eye, ear or chin to hand, belly crunch. (There are several ‘stationary’ exercises illustrated here: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5Un.)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 10′ (3m) or longer lead.
A set of chunky rags. In the videos I uses five rags, but we can easily use more.
Lay your rags in a long straight line touching each other, to resemble a rail on the ground.
Ensure that the horse is confident with each prerequisite before you begin to link them together.
I like to memorise the sequence of events by walking the patten without the horse and often visualizing the sequence (a good substitute for counting sheep!).
How often you click&treat depends entirely on where you are with developing each of these skills. To begin with, I opt for too often rather than not often enough. I want the horse to be continually successful as much as possible.
TASKS
On the left side of horse, with the horse closest to the rags (but far enough away from them so he doesn’t step on them), walk a circuit (counter clockwise) around the rags. In this case, we need to do a counter-turn when we reach the end of the rags. Adjust how far the horse is from the rags to ensure that he does not step on them. We want him to be sure that these rags are not the same as mats. Once he understands that they are not mats, have him walk as close to them as he can.
Change to the right side of the horse and repeat 1. This will be a clockwise circuit with a counter-turn.
Still on his right side (and the horse closest to the rags), walk him alongside and parallel to the rags and ask him to halt; click&treat for the halt. Then ask him to carry out one or more stationary exercises that he already knows. Click&treat each exercise. For example: a) Head kept straight forward for ‘x’ number of seconds. b) Head down. c) Target knee, eye, ear, or chin to hand. d) Belly crunch.
Move to the horse’s left side and repeat 3 above (horse closest to rags).
Remaining on his left side, walk away from the rags in an arc to you can directly approach the center of the rag rail at 90 degrees. Halt facing the rags back far enough so the horse doesn’t step on them. Pause up to three seconds, then ask for three – five steps of back-up; either shoulder-to-shoulder or a finesse back-up (turning to face the horse).
Change to his right side, walk a loop and repeat 5 above.
Staying on his right side, approach the rags at 90 degrees again, but his time ask the horse to step his front feet over them and halt with the rags under his belly; pause.
Ask him to walk forward across the rags.
Finish with a jackpot or triple treat.
Repeat 7 and 8 on the horse’s left side.
GENERALIZATIONS
Vary how long you remain at ‘halt’ while standing in front of or across the rags.
Vary which stationary exercise(s) you ask for as party of task 3 above.
Set up your ‘rag rail’ in different places.
When if all feels smooth, play with it at liberty.
Do all the tasks on one side of the horse, then switch to the other side.
Change the sequence of the tasks.
Repeat using a solid rail instead of rags.
If you have a large tarp, use that laid out instead of a rag rail.
Photo: Walking concentric circles is part of this routine.
INTRODUCTION
For Movement Routine 3 we are back to using a fence as a focal point to initially build the routine. A fence helps the horse maintain straight movement. It also makes it easy to establish beginning and end points for each circle in this sequence of tasks.
AIMS
Transitions from walking forward into finesse back-ups.
Walking concentric circles.
Stay and Wait.
PREREQUISITES
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (See Related Resources 1 at the end of this post.)
We have taught the finesse back-up. (See Related Resources 2 at the end of this post.)
Handler has developed a clear ‘Zero Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. (See Related Resources 3 at the end of this post.)
While walking shoulder-to-shoulder, the horse follows the movement of the handler’s body axis away from the horse to move into a circle. (See Related Resources 4 at the end of this post.)
We have taught the horse to ground-tie. (See Related Resources 5 at the end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 10′ (3m) or longer lead.
A safe fence or similar. A safe fence or barrier is one the horse can’t put his foot/leg through if he suddenly steps back. Tape fences can work well with some horses – NOT electrified.
Memorize the sequence of tasks by walking the pattern without the horse and then visualizing the sequence often.
The number of steps you take walking forward is not important. I tend to not take many steps when making the video clips to keep the viewing time short. I sometimes suggest a number of steps, but please suit that to your horse and your environment.
However, the number of steps I suggest for moving backwards is significant. Horses don’t naturally do a lot of stepping backwards. We want to stay with only 2-3 steps at first, and gradually, over many short sessions, build it up one or two additional steps at a time. We want to avoid making the horse sore.
While teaching this routine, or revisiting it after a long time, I generally click&treat for each part of each task. When the routine feels familiar, I move the click point along so we are doing more before a click&treat. Each horse will be different and each time doing the pattern will be different. I like to move the click points around a bit to stop the horse anticipating a treat at a specific point every time.
The key to all these tasks is to keep a continuous drape in the lead rope, using halter pressure via the rope only momentarily for additional guidance. Most of our guided shaping comes via our body position, gestures, breathing, energy level and voice signals.
TASKS
On the horse’s left side, with the horse nearest the fence, walk forward maybe ten steps, halt for a second or two, then turn into a finesse back-up – asking for 2-3 steps back. Repeat two more times (three times in total).
Walk a large circle (handler on the inside). At the point along the fence where you began the large circle, switch to walk a medium-sized circle. Reaching the same spot again, carry on walking a small circle. The circle sizes will depend on the space you have and how flexible your horse is. Start with large circles and gradually make them smaller as indicated by the increasing suppleness of the horse.
Ask the horse to HALT alongside the fence, either ground-tied or put the rope over his neck/back. Then ask him to WAIT while you walk away about ten steps with your back to the horse. Turn to partly face the horse and take up your ‘Zero Intent’ body position for x number of seconds. Then walk back to the horse; click&treat. Gradually (over lots of short sessions with this routine) work up to a WAIT of ten seconds or more.
Walk forward shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse, then turn into a finesse back-up without a halt first. With practice this can get lovely and fluid.
Repeat the whole sequence of tasks walking on the horse’s right side.
GENERALIZATIONS
Practice alongside different fences/walls/hedges if you can.
Once the horse shows that he knows the pattern, play with it at liberty along a fence using the same signals you have used all along.
Once the routine is smooth along the fence, play with it out in the open first with a lead rope, then at liberty. Alternate on which side of the horse you begin the routine.
Note that during backing up, horses usually push harder with one hind leg, so their hind end tends to veer away from the stronger leg. You may want to teach a gesture signal that allows you to regain straightness.
Experiment with how your position to the right or the left of the horse’s head affects his backing up.
We don’t need fancy or specialized gear to initiate conversations with our horse(s) about foot awareness, signal clarity, precision, synchronization and flexion. We can use a set of rags.
This routine uses a collection of rags. Rags are great to use because they are so easy to carry around and set out in different places and in different configurations. My rags are chunky pieces of old clothing. It’s a great way to use clothes that are no longer favorites to wear and too worn to pass on to other people. Chunky pieces are best if there is wind about.
If your horse loves mats (as I hope he does), our first challenge is teaching that our rags are not the same as mats. The rags take the place of cones, barrels, rails or other items we might use to set out a pattern.
The purpose of this series of ‘Routines’ is to provide a platform that encourages handlers to refine their intent via body language, gesture signals and a clear ‘no intent’ posture. What usually happens is that as the handler’s movements become clearer and more consistent, the horse magically improves.
The more we can take the ‘noise’ out of our communication, the easier it is for the horse to understand our intent. Once they understand our request, most horses are keen to comply to reach the next pause, click&treat, or time of relaxation.
The more time we spend playing with this sort of exercise, which look relatively simple on the surface, the more positive spin-off we’ll notice with other things we do with the horse.
Clicker savvy horses seem to enjoy short routines like this because they quickly work out the order of tasks and know when the last one is finished. If we use a jackpot or triple treat on completion of the little chain of tasks, they are usually keen to follow through the pattern or routine. It’s another form of ‘destination training’. The horse knows the destination (the end of the final task).
With Boots I often do routines we’ve learned in the past, and she seems to remember how each one flows (her memory is probably better than mine!). We vary which ones we do over the days. Sometimes we do two of them separated by other activities.
This morning I was short on time, so I checked to see if Boots wanted to walk with me at liberty. She did, so I decided to play with our May Challenge routine. We’ve done it a few times with halter and lead. To my delight, she remembered all of it and was setting herself up for each task with minimal gestures from me. It probably went well mostly because I had no expectations and I wasn’t filming.
AIM
Smooth execution of the routine walking on either side of the horse: Routine: Walk a circuit around all the rags; circle each rag in turn; halt together beside each rag.
PREREQUISITES
We have stepping on a mat strongly ‘on cue’ or ‘on signal’ or ‘under stimulus control’. (See Related Resources 1 at the end of this post.)
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (See Related Resources 2 at the end of this post.)
Handler has developed a clear ‘Zero Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. (See Related Resources 3 at the end of this post.)
Change of direction plus changing side of horse the handler on, is smooth. (See Related Resources 4 at the end of this post.
While walking shoulder-to-shoulder, the horse responds to the handler moving his/her body axis toward the horse or away from the horse. (See Related Resources 5 at the end of this post.)
Have a familiar ‘jackpot’ or ‘triple treat’ procedure for the end of the chain of tasks. (See Related Resources 6 at the end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 10′ (3 m) or longer lead. The idea is to strive to keep the rope draped at all times.
A set of chunky rags. I use 5 rags and 3 rags in the video clips for easier filming and to avoid boring viewers to death, but you can use as many as you like.
VIDEO CLIPS
#179 HorseGym with Boots: ROUTINE 2 – Rags with halter & lead.
#180 HorseGym with Boots: ROUTINE 2 – Rags at liberty.
NOTES
I like to memorize the sequence of events by walking the pattern without the horse and then visualizing the sequence often (a good substitute for counting sheep to go to sleep!).
At the beginning, have your rags much further apart than shown on the video. We want the tasks to be easy to accomplish. Once the horse knows that rags are not the same as mats, put the rags closer together to increase the skill level.
How often you click&treat depends on where you are with each skill. I always begin with click&treat for each portion of each task. As the horse gets the hang of what we are doing, I move the click point along so the horse does more for each click&treat. I work toward being able to do the whole sequence with one click point at the end, but it doesn’t really matter.
As with everything, I keep the sessions short, tucked in among other things we are doing. I often do it just once, sometimes twice and rarely three times in a row.
Be aware that your body language and gestures may be less clear when you are using the non-dominant side of your body. Think brushing teeth or raking with your non-dominant side.
There is no need to rush through the sequence of tasks. Walk slowly. Give the horse time put the pattern into his mind and from there into his muscle memory.
To begin with, I like to change sides after each segment of this routine because it creates a natural click point. As the horse enjoys his treat, we can move to his other side to organize ourselves for the next part of the task.
To change which side of the horse we are on, we can simply halt a little distance away from the rags and move ourselves to the other side of the horse, or we can do a change of direction and sides in motion as in Related Resources 4 at the end of the post.
Later we can generalize to doing the whole routine first on one side, then again on the other side.
Work on each prerequisite on its own until it feels smooth.
Lay out the rags in a straight line with enough space between them to make it easy for the horse to circle each one. Use as many rags as you like. Three can be good to start with. To extend the routine, add more rags one at a time. Seven rags give a pretty good workout without asking too much. If you listen, the horse will tell you if you’re asking too much too soon.
TASKS
With the handler nearest the rags and on the left side of the horse, walk a circuit around the rags, staying as close to the rags as you can without the horse thinking he needs to stand on them. Make a U-turn at the far end.
Repeat 1) above walking on the right side of the horse (handler closest to rags).
Walk a circle around each rag on the left side of horse. As you come out of the circle from the first rag, move forward to get into position to circle the second rag, and so on.
Repeat 5) above on the right side of horse.
Handler nearest the rags: ‘walk on’ beside the row of rags, as you did in 1), but this time come to ‘halt’ beside each rag. Do one length of the rags walking on the right side of the horse [where you were for 6 above], then change to the left side for the other direction. Stay far enough from each rag to avoid the horse thinking they are mat targets. Once he realizes they are not foot targets, halt right beside each rag or even stand on it yourself for the halt. In the video clip with halter and lead, I did all this task on the horse’s right side.
Finish off with a jackpot or triple treat on completion of the final task in the routine..
GENERALIZATIONS
Generalize by doing more of the routine on one side of the horse until you can do all of it on the horse’s left, and all of it on the horse’s right. Be sure to give both sides attention and spend extra time on the side that feels harder.
Lay out your line of rags in as many different venues as you can find. If you have a route between barn and turn-out, you could lay them out and use them coming from or returning to the paddock.
Once the horse shows that he knows the pattern done on a totally loose lead, play with it at liberty if you have a safe area. Be careful to use the same signals you have used all along. Sometimes I add a neck rope to make it easy to give extra momentary guidance, but if the routine does not stay smooth, I go back to halter and lead (lead kept loose except as used for momentary guidance).
If you find it hard to wean yourself off a lead rope, start with wrapping it around the horse’s neck or draping it over his back. It might be that the handler is more dependent on the rope than the horse is. They key is too keep all body language and gestures the same.
Photo: Standing with ‘no intent’ at halt is part of these five chained tasks.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first of a series of movement routines we can do with only a fence and an open working area. The routines put together many of the individual skills and movements that my resources have looked at so far.
The key purpose of these routines is to encourage handlers to work on the precision of their signals in a relaxed manner. The routines require the handler to pay close attention to refining his/her signals to improve timing, clarity and softness. A horse can only be as precise as we are precise. A horse can only be as soft as we are soft.
Each routine has five elements that are chained together into a pattern of movement. Horses are pattern learners and, like all of us, like to know what will happen before it happens. We tend to forget that horses living natural lives in the wild are totally in control of all their actions.
We can increase the positive feeling of ‘certainty’ by teaching these routines in a light-hearted but methodical way. Boots usually picks up a new pattern after three-six repeats over three days. Some horses will be quicker, and some will take longer.
Other reasons for playing with these routines:
They are a way to keep skills we have already taught current in our repertoire.
They give a way of interacting with our horse when time is short, we don’t have time to set up objects and obstacles, we don’t have access to objects and obstacles, or we are past the point of lugging around heavy rails and other objects.
They include movement tasks we can do between working on stationary tasks, so giving the horse a good mix of activities.
They make excellent cool-down routines after energetic riding or groundwork.
I’ve called them ‘routines’ because gymnasts first learn the individual elements of a performance and then form the elements into a ‘routine’. First each element is mastered emotionally, intellectually and physically. Then the routine is put into brain memory. Then it is practiced until it is also in muscle memory.
All this is a little bit tricky because doing a routine with a horse involves two brains and two sets of muscles.
After jotting down a plan for a possible routine, I try it out with Boots multiple times. The feedback I get from Boots and myself always shows that the initial plan needs a lot of changes. Most of the changes concern my body position plus when and how I give the signal for each part of the action.
AIM
Smooth execution of a series of five individual tasks chained together:
‘Walk on’ and ‘halt’ repeated three times;
Change of direction and side of horse (so horse remains nearest the fence);
‘Stay’ while handler backs away from the horse to the end of rope (keeping a drape in the rope);
Horse Waits for ___ seconds;
Recall.
PREREQUISITES
Smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions staying shoulder-to-shoulder. (See Related Resources 1 at the end of this post.)
Handler has developed a clear ‘No Intent’ signal so the horse knows when standing quietly is what is wanted. (See Related Resources 2 at the end of this post.)
Change of direction plus changing side of horse the handler is on. (See Related Resources 3 at the end of this post.
Horse and handler agree on clear ‘stay’ signals. (See Related Resources 4 at the end of this post.)
Horse has learned to ‘wait’ until handler gives a new signal or clicks&treats. (See Related Resources 5 at the end of this post.)
Handler and horse agree on a clear ‘recall’ signal. (See Related Resources 6 at the end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and 10′ (3 m) or longer lead.
A safe fence line to work alongside. It can be straight, curved or the inside or outside of a round pen fence.
Since I don’t find memorizing a sequence of tasks easy, I use a ruler as a fence and practice the movements with my small toy hippopotamus. Then I walk the sequence outside by myself, practicing the signals I will use, accompanied by an invisible unicorn.
While working out the plan with Boots’ help, I’ve usually managed to confuse her to some extent, so once the plan feels right, I wait a few days before starting to do the final version with her. Meanwhile we have been practicing the tasks separately.
For the first task, walk as few or many steps as you like. I walked only a few steps in the video to make it easier to film. Vary how long you stand at halt before asking for the next walk transition. Work to get the ‘walk on’ transition with raising your chest, breathing in deeply plus your voice signal. Work on refining your body language and voice signal for each halt.
How often you click&treat depends on where you are with each skill. I always begin with click&treat for each portion of each task. As the horse gets the hang of what we are doing, I move the click point along so the horse does more for each click&treat. I like to eventually be able to do the whole chain with one click point at the end.
As with everything, we keep the sessions short in among other things we are doing. I often do it just once, sometimes twice and rarely three times in a row.
There is no need to rush through the chain of tasks. Walk slowly. Give the horse time put the pattern into his mind and from there into his muscle memory.
Stay’ means that the horse understands that you can walk away while he stays put. ‘Wait’ means that the horse is able to keep standing still for a specific length of time until you click&treat or give another signal. They may appear to be the same at first glance, but teaching/learning ‘Wait’ with duration is a skill set that goes beyond the idea of ‘stay’ for a short period.
For the ‘wait’ task, gradually work up to ten seconds, but be sure to stay well within the time the horse is comfortable with. Better to recall sooner rather than after the horse moves. If he moves, go back to working on the ‘wait’ task by itself for several days. In the video clip, you will note that on the day we filmed at liberty, Boots found it hard to relax into the ‘wait’. There was a lot of commotion including a huge noisy hedge clipping machine working close by.
The more time we spend playing with exercises like this, which look relatively simple on the surface, the more positive spin-offs there will be to the other things we do with the horse.
SLICES
Memorize the sequence of tasks.
Play with each of the skills separately until you and the horse feel fluent. This might take one session or a long time if some of the tasks are new to you.
Walking with the horse nearest the fence, chain the first two tasks together (3 x walk & halt plus change of direction and sides).
When 3 is smooth, chain the last three mini-tasks together (stay plus wait plus recall).
When both 3 and 4 are going well, chain it all together.
Always adjust your rate of reinforcement (how often you click&treat) to what the horse is able to offer on the day. If he seems unsure, click&treat more of the slices. If he is showing keenness and understanding about what comes next, use your voice to praise and move the click&treat further along the chain.
We can’t expect our horse to be the same every day, just as we are not the same every day. Good training adjusts what we do to what the horse is telling us. Some days it will feel very smooth. Other days parts will feel sticky. This is normal ebb and flow.
The day will come when you do it all with one click and treat at the end, but it may not happen again the day after that. Horses read our tension or relaxation in a nanosecond. Often what is happening with the horse relates to ourselves, our emotional state, and how the horse perceives us that day.
Other times, the horse may be tired or anxious due to rough weather or other changes in his external and/or internal environment.
GENERALIZATIONS
If you usually start walking on the horse’s left side, start instead walking on his right side. Be aware of keeping your signals equally clear on the side you use less often.
Practice alongside as many different fences as you can.
Once the horse shows that he knows the pattern, play with it at liberty along fences using the same signals you have used all along.
Once the routine is smooth along the fence, play with it out in the open, first with the lead rope and then at liberty. Alternate on which side of the horse you begin the routine.
Photo above: Boots gained the confidence to step up on this balance beam by being rewarded for venturing one step at a time. After many short, successful sessions, she felt secure enough to target individual legs to my hand.
INTRODUCTION
The skill of being able to ask your horse to move one specific foot at a time is worthy of time and attention. It is a task that can be used and refined when riding or doing groundwork, including Horse Agility competition. It starts with being able to visualize the pattern in which horses move their feet.
Carefully observe the footfall sequences when horses walk, back-up, trot and canter. Reviewing slow motion video is best. Learn the footfall (foot-rise) for walk and trot, one gait at a time. When they are clear in your mind, add the canter.
Get down on all fours so you can mimic the pattern with your limbs. That helps put the patterns into your deep memory. Once you can easily replay the memory tape for each gait in your mind, you can give your horse much clearer signals.
Perfecting this helps to build the feel you need in order to time your riding or leading signals to the horse’s feet.
This is a great task for teaching us to carefully note the horse’s intent and time our click&treat to the moment a foot is lifting. The ability to see and feel footfall (foot-rise) is a huge bonus in a horse training kit.
It is actually the moment of foot-rise that we need to learn because it is only when the foot is lifted that we can influence where it goes next. Therefore during this exercise we want to click&treat as the foot is lifting.
Directing our horse’s feet one at a time has many uses. For example:
Cleaning/trimming feet.
Positioning for mounting.
Backing into stalls/wash bays.
Breed and showmanship classes .
Leading through narrow spaces.
Trailer loading and unloading.
Precision riding or long-reining/driving.
Placing a foot for an x-ray.
Precise mat or hoop work.
Pedestals.
Bridges.
Water obstacles.
Horse Agility obstacles
Getting out of tricky situations on the trail.
Stepping up and down a pedestal or balance beam or bridge.
PREREQUISITES
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
The horse responds willingly to light pressure on the halter via the lead rope. (See ‘Related Resource’ 1 at the end of this post.)
We have taught the ‘finesse back up’. (See ‘Related Resource’ 2 at the end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT AND MATERIALS
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and lead. A shorter lead is easier to use for this task.
AIM
To create signals for asking the horse to move either front foot one step at a time, both back and forward.
Keep each session working with short – three minutes is plenty. Three minutes of focused work over many sessions will get you the result without lapsing into human or horse frustration.
To lift and move a front foot, the horse must first shift his balance to take the weight off that foot.
Unless the horse is pacing, the hind feet move in unison with the diagonal front foot.
I’m not good with left/right or 3-dimensional thinking so it took me a long time to get these moves firmly into my muscle memory. I had to learn to carefully note where the horse’s feet were and how he was balanced before I asked a foot to move. Then I could decide which way I needed to tilt the horse’s head to move a particular foot.
Remember to click&treat the moment the foot is lifting during this exercise.
SLICES
One Step Back
In order to lift his right front foot, the horse must shift his weight to his left shoulder and slightly back.
Face the horse, slightly to the right side of his head and orientate your belly button toward his nose (when his head is straight).
Hold the rope about an arm’s length from the halter, lightly draped, in the hand nearest the horse’s shoulder (rope hand).
Reach across with the other hand (sliding hand) and slide it gently up the rope toward the halter. If you’ve taught a ‘back’ voice signal, use it as well.
At some stage, you will reach a point of contact to which the horse responds.
When you reach the point of contact tilt his nose/neck slightly to the left and put a bit of backward pressure on the halter. Release immediately when you feel his intent to move back (click&treat). Relax, then ask again.
When you get a whole step, release (click&treat), relax. Maybe rub him if you are not using Clicker Training and he likes to be touched. If you get more than one step, accept it, reward it, and then adjust your signal so it has less energy.
Some horses may at first respond by leaning forward into the backward pressure you are putting on the halter. They are not ‘wrong’ because moving into pressure is a natural horse response. They are also not wrong because they don’t yet understand what you want.
If your horse leans into the pressure:
Take up a power position (feet shoulder-width apart, one slightly ahead, hips dropped).
Hold the rope in the hand nearest the horse, about 2’-3’ from the halter with a bit of slack in it.
Reach across with your other hand and softly run it up the rope toward the halter until you meet resistance from the horse.
At that point, simply ‘hold’ just strongly enough to make the horse feel unbalanced.
The moment he shows the slightest tendency to shift backwards to regain his balance, release the pressure (click&treat).
Repeat. If you are clear and consistent and release (click&treat) promptly, the horse will soon read your body language energy and intent and step back before you can even slide your fingers up the rope.
During multiple short practices, also introduce a voice ‘back’ signal.
When you reach a reliable response as in 6 above, you have created a gesture signal you can use at liberty to ask the horse to step back. Keep the gesture exactly as it was, i.e. running your hand up an imaginary rope.
When you have one step back at a light signal, ask for two steps back. It’s important to ‘release’ the halter pressure slightly after the first step, then increase the pressure slightly to ask again for the second step before a bigger release (click&treat).
Once that is smooth, ask for three steps, then four, and so on until you have as many individual steps as you like. Release the pressure at each step, then apply it again lightly to ask for another step. The horse will soon read the intent in your body language and will step back by reading your ‘intent’.
Pressure on the rope will no longer be necessary except maybe in unusual situations of high stress. In such situations the horse will have an advantage over horses who don’t understand this part of the task because he will remember what the rope pressure means and how to respond to it.
To move his left front foot back, tilt his nose/neck slightly to the right, i.e. always tilt the nose away from the foot you want him to move.
If the horse tends to push forward into the handler, it can help to have a rail in front of the horse or start in a blocked-off lane, so that stepping back is the easiest and common-sense thing to do.
When backing from the halt feels easy, we can expand and generalize the task by walking along beside the horse, halting and smoothly pivoting into position to face the horse and ask him to back up. Teach this first along a safe fence to encourage the horse to back up in a straight line.
One Step Forward
To move one step forward, tilt his nose slightly away from the foot you want to move (to take the weight off it) and put gentle forward pressure on the halter.
GENERALIZATIONS
Be sure to teach ‘one step at a time’ standing on the horse’s left side and on his right side. If he finds one side harder, work at bit more on that side.
Most people find giving signals with their less dominant hand harder as well. When each side feels the same, you’ve reached a big milestone.
When we can use a light signal to ask the horse to glide from walk into a halt, then as we turn to face him, we can ask for an individual step back or forward, we have achieved our task.
Eventually, get him to put a specific front foot on things. Start with a largish item like a doormat or a piece of carpet. Work toward smaller things like paper plates, Frisbees and leaves, then higher things like stumps, steps, pedestals, ramps, balance beams, hoof stands if he doesn’t already know all these things.
Be aware that once the horse is close to the object, he can’t see it, but is working from memory. The area directly under his head/neck is a blind spot.
Be particular but not critical. Always relax, pause and reset if the horse gets confused. After a good effort, go away from the site and do other things the horse already knows.
Then come back to moving one foot until you get another good effort. Don’t drill. After you’ve had two or three good attempts, stop and come back to it another time.
The essence of this teaching is that you create mutually-understood signals that communicate to the horse about moving individual feet.
This flexion activity follows on from teaching the 90 and 180-degree turns when the handler is on the inside of the turn. Now we want to develop a smooth turn when the handler is on the outside of the turn; counter turns.
When we are on the inside of a turn, we teach ourselves to slow down but maintain energy to give the horse time to organize his longer body and four legs to negotiate the larger arc of the turn without losing forward motion.
When we are on the outside of the turn, we have to travel a bigger arc than the horse to get around the turn. If we ‘hurry’ our strides it can cause the horse to hurry around the corner too, leaving us behind. Or our ‘hurrying’ may block the horse and he halts or moves away.
Ideally, we want the horse to slow his turn so we can negotiate our wider arc without stress.
Boots and I did a lot of experimentation to get this flowing smoothly. I have new knees, so it is hard for me to hurry myself around the turn. When we started the task in the shoulder-to-shoulder position, I ended up beside her butt after the corner.
It was time to re-think and play with possibilities. Eventually it became obvious that adjusting our leading position, so the horse’s nose was beside my shoulder, made the whole thing much more manageable.
In my book, Walking with Horses, I did a detailed exploration of the eight basic body positions or orientations we use when communicating with our horse. Each of these of course has many nuances of angle. Here are the eight positions:
Walking directly in front of the horse, with our back to the horse.
The horse is beside us with his head at our shoulder.
Shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse.
Walking beside the ribs, just behind the withers, where we would be if riding.
Walking or standing alongside the horse’s rump, as for tending hind feet or brushing tail.
Walking behind the horse as in long-reining.
In front of the horse, facing him.
Facing the horse’s ribs, as in saddling or lunging.
Eventually Boots and I worked out that the first slice we needed for counter turns was to review our signal for staying in Leading Position 2 – where my shoulder stays beside the horse’s head.
Much of our recent work has been using Leading Position 3 – shoulder-to-shoulder, but it didn’t take long to review and update the gesture signal we used for walking together with my head beside her ears.
PREREQUISITES
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals while keeping his head next to the handler’s shoulder. (See ‘Related Resources’ at end of this post.)
Handler understands the skill of shifting his/her body axis toward the horse as a signal for turning when the horse is on the inside of the turn. Practice this first without the horse. If you have a willing human helper, have them be the horse so they can give you feedback about the clarity of your body orientation signal just prior to navigating each corner. (See ‘Related Resource’.)
Handler understands the skill of navigating the bigger arc of the turn without raising his/her energy so much that it influences the horse to either speed up or stall out. This can also be practiced with another person standing in for the horse.
MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and lead (kept draped as much as possible, as we want to use orientation and body language for communication, not rope pressure).
Safe stretches of fence along which you can walk in position beside the ears, keeping the horse between the fence and the handler to encourage straightness.
Four markers. The markers can be anything safe. In the beginning, it’s easiest if the markers are relatively large, so the horse sees the sense in walking around them rather than across or through them. Barrels, tall cones, tread-in posts if working on grass, or if these are not available, cardboard boxes can do the job.
Four rails to set up in a square or rectangular shape with one of the large markers set into each corner.
AIMS
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth counter turns when the horse is on the inside of the turn; handler on the LEFT side of the horse.
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth counter turns when the horse is on the inside of the turn; handler on the RIGHT side of the horse.
VIDEO CLIPS
Clip 1:
Clip 2:
NOTES
What you see Boots doing in the video clips is a result of many very short sessions over a long time. I always strive to improve the timing of my body axis turned toward the horse as a signal for the counter turn.
If the horse has been resting or contained, it is important to walk around for a general overall body warm-up before asking for this sort of flexion. A relaxed road walk or moving over rails and weaving obstacles make great warm-up exercises.
It’s important to teach each slice on both the left and right sides of the horse.
Quite often it is harder for the horse and/or the handler when they are using the non-dominant side of their body. With patience and extra practice on the harder side, it will start to feel more equal.
Signals given with the handler’s non-dominant side are often not as fluid or well-timed as signals given on the dominant side. Once we become aware of this, we can focus on it as necessary.
As with most things, progress without causing soreness is best made by doing a few counter turns every session; never turning it into drilling.
SLICES
Stay with each slice until if feels easy for both handler and horse.
Walk along a safe fence with the horse between the handler and the fence. Keep a nice drape in the lead rope. For this slice, we are not yet focusing on keeping a position beside the ears. Our focus is the horse walking calmly and willingly along the fence. Occasionally ask for a halt; click&treat.
When 1 feels smooth, put yourself into position beside the horse’s ears while you are at the halt; click&treat (still halted). Then ask for ‘walk on’ and see how well you can maintain the shoulder/ear position (I’ll refer to this as just the ‘ear position’ from now on).
If the horse tends to want to walk behind you, he may have been taught to lead mainly by staying behind, so treat this gently. Slow down with him to stay by his ear; click&treat when you achieve the position. Ask for only a couple of steps in ‘ear position’ before you halt; click&treat. We want to gradually have him realize that being in the ‘ear position’ is what elicits the click&treat.
If the horse tends to forge ahead, it makes more sense to me to use a body extension to block the forward surge, rather than to ‘correct’ with pressure on the rope.
A horse with the habit of cutting in front of the person leading is not in a good place in terms of getting along with people. If the horse has been taught to lead by following a hand-held target or walking calmly between stationary targets, this problem may never arise. You may want to go back and work on these skills before continuing with this exercise.
If your horse has been traumatized by stick objects in the past, the prerequisite task now becomes to build his confidence with body extensions before proceeding any further. (See ‘Related Resource’ 6 at the end of this chapter.)
Note: I am a fan of using targets for many things, but they can become a problem when the training does not progress to developing the relevant skills so a target is no longer needed.
In the first video clip, I use my arm to indicate a halt. Eventually this arm signal will no longer mean halt; it will instead be our signal for communicating that we are about to do a counter turn.
If the horse has the habit of surging ahead and is not traumatized by sticks, simply use a stick to put motion energy out in front of him to block his surge, followed by click&treat when he stops surging / stays beside you. This is an example of ‘combined reinforcement’. We use negative reinforcement to help the horse quickly understand the answer we need. The instant he finds the answer, we click&treat. There is no need to touch the horse with the body extension. We only use it to disturb the air in front of the horse by moving it up and down.
If the horse is full of energy, for whatever reason, the way forward is to give him opportunity to run off the energy so he can regain focus on the quieter work you want to do. Every horse is different and every training situation is a new combination of environment and events.
He will learn to keep the ‘ear position’ both while moving and when you ask for the halt. Eventually your raised arm will be enough and the body extension becomes redundant. If you feel your ‘halt’ could be improved, see Getting a Smooth Halt in Many Situations: https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5R9
5. Work with ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ in the ‘ear position’ until it feels fluid in a variety of places and with the handler walking on either side of the horse.
6. When 5 is smooth, set up your rectangle of ground rails with a bulky object at each corner. Make the square/rectangle as large as you like. The one in the video clip is small for easier filming. As you approach a corner of the rectangle, turn your body axis toward the horse and raise your outside arm as you did previously for the halt.
The horse will feel your energy as you continue to step the arc around the corner and realize you are not stopping. Click&treat as soon as you come around the corner. If the horse does halt when you raise your arm, use some of your ‘walk on’ multi-signals to let him know that you are not stopping.
7. At first, click&treat after each corner. Gradually change to every second corner, and so on. Eventually vary the number of corners done before the click&treat. I don’t often ask for more than four corners in a row before the click&treat.
8. Change direction (and therefore side of the horse) often. This is a fairly concentrated flexion exercise and we don’t want to make the horse stiff.
9. When 7 is going well, remove the rails and use just the corner markers.
10. When 9 is going well, put markers at random throughout the training area Walk toward one and adjust your position so you can ask for a counter turn around it. I couldn’t fit this into the video clip, but it is an easy way to include a few counter turns in any training session.
GENERALIZATIONS
Set out a row of markers to weave for practicing your ‘drive’ and ‘draw’ body axis changes to really consolidate the idea for both of you. (See ‘Related Resources’ 2 and 3 at the end of this post.)
Set out markers around which you can do figure eight patterns, which combines the counter turn with the turn where you are on the inside. (See ‘Related Resource’ 4 and 5 at the end of this post.)
When everything is going smoothly, we can increase the challenge by asking for 180-degree counter turns (U-turns). We achieve this by keeping our body axis turned toward the horse for longer.
These are fairly extreme flexion tasks, so be gentle and only ask for a couple at a time at first. A few done often will certainly increase suppleness but be careful if your horse has (or might have) joint, stifle or arthritis issues. Always make sure the horse is well warmed up.
4. Eventually, we can ask for 360-degree counter turns around a marker. At first, a barrel or cluster of markers may make it easier because the turn is wider. With practice, the horse will get adept with tighter turns, but please note the cautions in 3 above.
5. Freestyle Counter turns: When it feels right, begin to ask for 90-degree counter turns without markers. If these fall apart, you have feedback about which slice to return to in order to regain the horse’s confidence and willingness. Usually we have to ask for less or in other words, raise the rate of reinforcement.
6. Morph the freestyle counter turns into a quiet, relaxed circle with the handler on the outside, then gradually change that into a tidy turn on the haunches. It may look messy at first, but with practice can become lovely and fluent.
7. Back-Up Counter Turns: Ask the horse to back up with you for a few steps, then ask for a counter turn; click&treat. These may also feel messy at first, but once you and the horse get synchronized via many mini-practices, they will become more and more exact. When one of these feels good, ask for two in a row before the click&treat.
Then do three in a row and finally four in a row so you have backed a complete square. I count our steps back and usually do the turn after every third or fourth step. If you are consistent with the number of the steps back before you ask for the turn, you will find that horses are excellent at counting. Teach again on the horse’s other side, which will probably feel quite different due to handler and horse asymmetry.
Horses have an inbuilt action pattern for moving in synchronization with each other. One way to play with this wonderful ability is to devise an exercise where the ‘walk on’ signal balances rhythmically with the ‘back up’ signal.
First, we ensure that our ‘walk on’ and ‘back up’ signals, used individually, give us fluid movement together staying shoulder-to-shoulder. Then we link these two tasks together to form a sequence of dance-like steps.
While walking forward, we pause momentarily before shifting our energy to step backward. The pause gives the horse time to re-organize his body to step back with us. The message to shift gears must travel a lot further in a horse than in our smaller body. Also, the horse has four legs to organize, so it is important to build in a pause long enough for the horse to accomplish the change.
It can look and feel rough at first, but by spending a short time with this exercise often, the shift from forward to reverse gear can become fluid and polished. The two video clips below show the stages of training that Boots and I went through.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ signals and walks in a relaxed manner with the handler beside his neck/shoulder. (See ‘Related Resources’ 1 at end of this post.)
Horse responds easily to ‘back-up’ signals and walks backward willingly with the handler staying in position beside his neck/shoulder. (See ‘Related Resources’ 2 at end of this post.)
Horse and handler understand the ‘Zero Intent’ dynamic. (See ‘Related Resources’ 3 at end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry; he’s had ample time to graze or eat hay right before the training session.
Halter and lead (kept draped as much as possible, as we want to use body language for communication, not rope pressure). If the horse already backs up easily with the handler in the shoulder-to-shoulder position, you can teach this task at liberty.
A selection of barriers which we walk toward and ask for a ‘halt’.
A safe fence or similar to work alongside.
Supports and rails to build a dead-end lane.
AIM:
To smoothly change from walking forward ten steps to backing up ten steps in a straight line, staying together in the shoulder-to-shoulder position.
VIDEO CLIPS:
Balancera Clip 1 of 2: #173 HorseGym with Boots
Balancera Clip 2 of 2. #174 HorseGym with Boots
NOTES:
The slice numbers on the clips don’t correspond to the slice numbers below.
Boots’ demonstration on the video is the sum of many short sessions over a long time. When teaching something new, we stay with each slice of the task over as many short sessions as necessary until it feels ho-hum (easy and smooth). Then we move on to the next slice.
SLICES:
Ensure that you can ‘walk on’ together fluidly toward a destination, staying in position shoulder-to-shoulder (as for this whole exercise).
Ensure that you can ‘halt’ together fluidly, staying in position shoulder-to-shoulder.
Set up a lane and walk the horse through it in both directions. The horse walks inside the lane, handler walks on the outside.
When 3 is ho-hum, walk the horse into the lane and ask for a halt about halfway along; click&treat. Do this in both directions.
Repeat 4 above, asking the horse to wait a second longer before the click&treat, until he can comfortably wait 4 or 5 seconds while you relax with Zero Intent.
Block off one end of the lane with a barrier placed about half a horse’s length inside the lane. Walk the horse into the lane and halt at the barrier; click&treat.
Hold the rope in the hand nearest the horse. Lift your rope hand straight up and jiggle the rope lightly to put a distinctive touch signal on the halter. If your horse already understands a voice ‘back’ signal, use this as well. Watch for any movement backwards, even a body shift back; click&treat. If your horse already responds reliably to a back-up gesture and/or voice signal, you can probably teach this at liberty.
Walk the horse into the lane again, to halt at the barrier; click&treat. Repeat 7 above, gradually building up to several steps back.
Block off the lane a little further along so the horse is halting with his whole body inside the lane. Repeat backing out, aiming for a fluid, confident back-up of 5-6 steps. Make sure the handler remains shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse during the backing steps.
Now we want to switch the halter jiggle signal to a hand signal. As you lift the rope-hand straight up to jiggle the rope, also lift your outside hand to the horse’s eye level and make a backward gesture with it. And use your voice signal. Click&treat for any stepping back.
When 10 is good, repeat, using the outside hand and voice signal BEFORE you lift your rope-hand to put jiggle energy into the halter. The moment the horse begins to step back, stop jiggling the rope but ask for another step or two with the outside hand and voice signals.
When the horse moves back readily with your outside hand gesture and voice signal, fade out the rope-jiggle. You have taught what it means, and it is there as a reminding-signal in times of need.
Now we want to combine walk forward, pause, back-up with one click&treat after the whole task. This is the Balancera. Walk into the lane, halt at the barrier, signal for the back-up; click&treat for any back-up that is offered. Because we are introducing new complexity, we relax our criteria for number of steps back.
Gradually, over many very short sessions that always end on a good note, ask for more steps back after the halt before you click&treat. 5-6 steps are good during the learning process.
Practice with a lane of ground rails. Most horses will tend to veer right or left when they back up, due to the natural asymmetry of their bodies. One hind leg pushes off harder, so their hind end veers away from the stronger leg. By frequent backing through a lane of ground rails or between barrels, we help the horse organize his body to stay straighter. I often practice this slice as part of our regular gymnastic work.
Practice with one barrier on the far side of the horse but still halting at a barrier. This gives you another opportunity to note which way his hind end tends to veer.
Work on all the above on both sides of the horse. Each slice has two parts – handler in the left eye and handler in the right eye.
When you feel the time is right, repeat 15 and 16 without a barrier at the end of the lane or along the fence.
Play with halting facing a fence followed by a back-up without the prop of a lane or rails.
When you feel the time is right, ask for a halt away from any barriers, followed by a back-up. Celebrate hugely when you get this. Done with finesse, the horse becomes light and keeps his full attention on your body language so he can maintain the synchronization. I always click&treat after this task.
Gradually build up to 10 steps forward and 10 steps back but vary the number of steps each time you do it. He will be listening for your click to know when he can stop backing.
Whenever it feels ‘broken’, go back to whatever slice the horse feels confident with and work forward from there.
Ask for two ‘forward & back’ repeats before the click&treat.
Ask for three ‘forward & back’ repeats before the click&treat.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Adopt doing the Balancera between two ground rails as a regular part of your gymnastic warm-up and cool-down routines.
Play with this in new venues.
Play with it around new distractions.
Play at liberty.
Play with it to and from paddocks or while out on a walk.
Play with it on slopes, both backing down and backing up the slope.
Play with it long-reining using your voice and hand signal from behind the horse rather than beside him.
If you ride, play with it ridden. You can use the straight upward jiggle of your rope or rein to remind the horse about what you want, along with your voice signal and your body weight shift signal. If you use a cordeo (neck rope) while riding, you have probably already taught a touch signal with that for the back-up. If you begin by riding into a corner, it will easily make sense to the horse that you want him to back up.
This is a superb flexion exercise because it causes the horse to become super aware of what his feet are doing. It also encourages the horse to pick up his feet and stretch his stride, so it aids muscle lengthening and hock flexion.
It is also an example of how we can gradually build the complexity of a task until eventually the whole task is done with one click&treat at the end.
Sadly, not all horses are aware of exactly where their feet are and what their feet are doing. Horses raised in flat paddocks or those who spend much of their life stabled have not had opportunity to develop good proprioception. Horses who can move freely in rugged country will have a much stronger sense of where their feet are.
We can purposefully teach tasks that encourage foot awareness. See ‘Related Resources’ 8 at the end of this post.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals when the handler is beside his neck/shoulder. (See ‘Related Resources’ 1 at end of this post.)
Horse knows about nose and/or foot targets as destinations where a click&treat occurs each time. (See ‘Related Resources’ 2 at end of this post.)
Horse confidently steps over rails, ropes, logs or similar. (See ‘Related Resources’ 4 and 5 at end of this post.)
Horse confidently walks onto and over unusual surfaces such as tarps, boards, and so on. (See ‘Related Resources’ 6 at end of this post.)
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Five or six hoops. Make hoops with ropes laid into circles or make hoops using plastic water pipe pieces held together with a strip of large or smaller diameter pipe so the hoop can come apart if the horse gets in a muddle.
A destination where the horse will receive a click&treat after negotiating the hoop(s). Put the destination, either a mat or a nose target, at a spot an equal distance from either end of your (eventual) line of hoops so it works in either direction of travel.
Halter and lead kept loose as much as possible, as we want to use body language for communication as much as possible, rather than rope pressure.
AIM:
To smoothly walk (and maybe jog) across a series of five (or more) hoops staying together in the shoulder-to-shoulder position.
VIDEO CLIP:
#172 HorseGym with Boots: Building Task Complexity using Hoops
Boots’ demonstration on the video is the sum of many short training sessions over a long time. During the teaching or acquisition phase, we played with one hoop for a long time before adding the second hoop. As she gained confidence, we added more hoops one at a time.
It’s good to first build confident stepping over things such as rails and as many other safe objects that you can find.
Remember to keep each session short. We don’t want to drill this. We want the horse to learn that stepping through the hoops cleanly earns him a bonus click&treat.
When we have accomplished the task fully, we will be able to cross a series of hoops cleanly in either direction with the handler on either side of the horse.
Some people like to teach everything on both sides from the beginning. Others prefer to get it all smooth staying on one side of the horse and then teach it again from the beginning on the other side of the horse.
Be careful to keep the shoulder-to-shoulder position intact so you are consistently moving in a synchronized way.
SLICES:
Lay out one hoop and set up your destination (mat or nose target) a good distance away from the hoop so it is not immediately distracting.
Approach the hoop with the horse; click&treat for any interest he shows in the hoop. Allow him to sniff it and paw at it for as long as he wants. Click&treat when he finishes sniffing and/or pawing, walk away from the hoop to the mat or nose target destination; click&treat at the destination.
When the horse is ho-hum about the hoop, ask him to step his front feet into the hoop and halt; click&treat. Walk on to your destination; click&treat.
Ignore any clipping of the hoop with his feet as he steps into it or out of it. Most horse will correct themselves with practice. It is addressed in 8 below.
When 3 above is smooth, ask him to walk through the hoop with his front feet and halt with his hind feet in the hoop; click&treat. Walk on to your destination; click&treat.
Alternate between 3 and 5 above, walking on to your destination each time for a second click&treat.
When the horse feels confident about halting with either his front feet or his hind feet in the hoop, begin to ask him to walk right through the hoop and on to your destination.
At this point, ignore any clipping of the hoop with his feet, BUT when he walks right through CLEANLY, CLICK right after he has cleanly exited the hoop, and deliver the treat. When he does clip the hoop, there is no extra click&treat. You simply move on to your destination; click&treat.
Repeat 7 and 8 until the horse can walk across the hoop smoothly without touching it most of the time. The first time he walks through without touching the hoop, celebrate hugely with a bonus click&treat or a jackpot before walking on to your destination for another click&treat.
When the horse walks across the hoop cleanly almost every time, add a second hoop. Allow him time to investigate if he wants to.
Repeat as above with two hoops, then three hoops, then four hoops, then five hoops, then more if you want.
Be sure to stay with each number of hoops until the horse is super confident and moving across them cleanly almost every time. The easiest way to make it all fall apart is to go too fast or to try to do too much during one session.
By keeping the sessions short and fun, he will be keen to do it again next time.
Ensure that the horse is confident working in both directions.
Ensure the horse is confident with you on his left side or his right side.
When it feels ho-hum to walk across five or more hoops, start the whole process again with one hoop and ask him to jog or trot across it.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Set up hoops in new venues; slopes can make it more challenging.
Set up hoops where there are different distractions.
If you have a friend that trains in the same way, ask them to do the exercise with your horse.
Use the exercise regularly as part of your warm-up or cool-down gymnastics.
See ‘Related Resources’ 7 below for more ways to play with hoops.
Targeting body parts is fun to do when we are short on time or it’s too hot, wet, cold, or muddy to be out and about, which is often the case in January.
I’ve started with targeting chin to hand, because it is probably the easiest one to establish the IDEA of targeting a body part to our hand. It gives us a simple task to practice good timing of the click, plus consistent treat-delivery that keeps or returns the horse’s head to facing forward.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse confidently touches his nose to a variety of different targets held in a variety of positions. In other words, he seeks out the target.
Horse confidently touches his nose to our outstretched fist in a variety of positions and with us standing beside him or in front of him.
Handler has developed a clear ‘zero intent’ body language stance. (See Related Resources 1.)
Horse understands the handler’s ‘zero intent’ position, by remaining calmly facing forward for several seconds, rather than turning toward the treat pouch or pocket when the handler stands beside the horse’s neck. There are training plans for these prerequisite skills in my book: “How to Begin Equine Clicker Training” (See the link to BOOKS at the top of the screen).
I have to presume that everyone is already familiar with the basics of clicker training, since the new shaping plans I share here build on those basics. If you are not familiar, the information in the book is a great place to start.
ENVIRONMENT:
Horse is not hungry, so he can focus on what we are teaching, rather than the treats.
Horse at liberty in an area he finds comfortable.
Ideally, herd mates in view but not able to interfere.
AIMS:
The horse willingly moves his chin to touch our hand held toward his chest from his chin.
The handler becomes more confident with slipping into and out of a ‘zero intent’ posture. (See Related Resources 1 at the end of this post.)
NOTES:
Play with this in very short sessions. Stop when it feels good. Sessions can be before or between other things that you are doing.
Have the short sessions as frequent as possible. Every day is good, twice a day is even better.
Stick with one body part until you and horse are totally ho-hum with it.
When you are ready to introduce a second body part, the PROCESS is exactly the same as the one outlined below for the chin.
To introduce another body part, begin each session with the one(s) you have already taught, then suggest the new spot by touching it: click&treat, and progress through the same thin-sliced process.
VIDEO CLIP:
SLICES:
Touch the flat palm of your hand to the horse’s chin; click&treat.
Repeat several times so the horse can make the connection between the ‘touch’ and the click&treat.
Hold your hand a tiny distance back from the chin (toward the horse’s chest) and wait for the horse to close the distance so he touches your hand: click the instant you feel the touch & treat plus celebrate largely (happy praise and a triple treat or jackpot).
If you do slice 3 above, and the horse does not make the connection, resume with slice 2.
Once the horse is making the connection over a tiny distance, gradually increase the distance one millimeter at a time.
Early on in your teaching program, start each new session with a touch to the chin, to remind the horse about which task you are doing.
Once the horse clearly understands the task, take up the ‘zero intent’ position between repeats, to build a bit of ‘wait duration’ between your requests. Build up the ‘wait time’ in one second increments.
Some horses will develop a little signal to tell you when they have finished chewing and are ready for a repeat. (See Related Resource 6.) Watch out for these and value them by doing a repeat. Boots illustrates this in the video clip.
GENERALIZATION:
We can use how the chin (lower lip) feels to our touch to estimate the horse’s relaxation level. It’s easier to feel the chin (lower lip) tension than to see it when we are actively doing things with the horse.
While interacting with the horse, occasionally pause and feel his chin (lower lip). A soft, floppy lower lip suggests a horse relaxed about what is going on.
With increasing anxiety, the lip tightens, so it might be:
Very Loose
Moderately loose
A little bit tight
Quite tight
Very hard indeed.
Likewise, as anxiety reduces and relaxation returns, a tight lip will loosen up.
Add Pics of chin
A very relaxed, loose chin/lower lip.
A tighter chin/lower lip. When with the horse, it is easier to feel the difference than to see it.
This activity makes a nice warm-up or cool-down exercise. It also does wonders for maintaining horizontal flexibility. The bone structure of the horse limits flexion to only three points along the body. They simply are not as sinuous as a cat or even a dog.
A horse’s three flexion points are:
Head alone flexes right and left a little bit.
Base of the neck is the main area of flexion.
A small degree of flexion is possible between the end of the ribs and the hip.
This exercise encourages maintenance of flexion for 2 and 3 above. To make a nice clean 90-degree (right-angle) turn, the horse must flex a little bit at the shoulder and step the inside hind foot forward and under the belly to navigate the turn as elegantly as possible.
It’s a good exercise to note the degree of stiffness or flexibility that a horse has in his body.
If we have a stiff horse, we can set up this exercise so it is relatively easy to accomplish at first. If we consistently do a few repeats of this exercise several times each session, we’ll note that it gradually gets easier for the horse (unless he is incapacitated due to past injury).
As the horse gets smooth with one level of bend, we can gradually ask for a tighter bend.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals when the handler is beside his neck/shoulder. (See ‘Linked Resources’ at end of this post.)
Handler understands the skill of shifting his/her body axis away from the horse as a signal for turning when the horse is on the outside of the turn. Practice this first without the horse. If you have a willing human helper, have them be the horse so they can give you feedback about the clarity of your body orientation signal just prior to navigating each corner. (See the ‘Linked Resource’ about 180-Degree Turns. I teach this before these 90-degree turns.)
Handler understands the skill of maintaining ‘forward energy’ at the same time as slowing down to give the horse time to scribe the bigger arc of the turn. This is also improved by practice with another person standing in for the horse.
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and lead (kept loose as much as possible, as we want to use orientation and body language for communication, not rope pressure).
Four rails (or similar) that clearly outline the shape of a square or rectangle.
Four markers to place beyond the corners of our square or rectangle.
AIMS:
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth 90-degree (right-angle) turns when the horse is on the outside of the handler; handler on the LEFT side of the horse.
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth 90-degree (right-angle) turns when the horse is on the outside of the handler; handler on the RIGHT side of the horse.
VIDEO CLIP:
#171 HorseGym with Boots: SMOOTH 90-DEGREE TURNS.
NOTES:
What you see Boots doing in the video clip is a result of many very short sessions over a long time. I strive to improve the timing of my body axis turned away from the horse as a signal for the right-angle turn.
If you use ‘right’ and ‘left’ turn voice signals, add the relevant one at the same moment as you shift the angle of your body axis away from the horse
If the horse has been resting or contained, it is important to walk around for a general overall body warm-up before asking for these types of flexion. Walking over rails and weaving obstacles make great warm-up exercises.
SLICES:
Ask the horse to walk with you around the shape (box or rectangle), with you walking on the inside of the turn. At first be content with fairly wide, flowing corners. At first, click&treat after each corner. Eventually begin to click&treat only especially well done corners.
Focus on three things;
One: turn your body axis away from the horse just as you approach each corner.
Two: slow down slightly around the corner but keeping your body energy up as you turn in order to give the horse plenty of time to organize his much longer body and four legs. Raising your knees to ‘march on the spot’ is one way to maintain the energy with less forward movement. If you pause your energy through the turn, the horse may also fade out, as he is taking his cues from your energy.
Three: note how efficiently or elegantly your horse is bringing his body around each corner; click&treat turns that seem extra efficient or elegant. Offer the click&treat just after the corner has been navigated, not during the turn.
After a few times around with you on the horse’s left side, change direction so you are on his right side. You may notice that the horse is less flexible on one side. You may notice that you are less flexible and less clear with your body language in one direction.
If you have previously taught voice signals for going ‘around’ something or for ‘left turn’ and ‘right turn’, you can use them here at the same moment you are turning your body axis away from the horse.
When 2 and 3 above feel relaxed and easy, set four markers out from each corner of the square or rectangle as in the photo below. At first, make the gap between the rail and the marker much wider than in the photo. Also note that I’v begun walking inside the square, giving the horse more space to navigate the turn.
Repeat from the beginning with the horse walking inside each corner marker. As you note his suppleness improving day by day, gradually move the markers closer. In the photo above you can see the tracks of our first easy wide turns when I was also walking outside the square. Now Boots is making the tracks close to the rails.
A little bit of this exercise done often, but never ‘drilled’, encourages the horse to flex because a nice turn earns a click&treat. When all the turns feel nice and tight, be sure to still click&treat often – sometimes after 1, 2, 3 or 4 corners and mix up the number of corners done before the click&treat. If you always do the same, the horse will expect you to always do the same. By varying how many corners before the click&treat, he will listen for the click rather than count the turns. Change direction frequently.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Set up more than one rectangle and do a few circuits of each one.
Set rectangles up in different venues, if possible, or change the spot in the same general venue.
Set up rectangles of different sizes.
Set up rectangles using different props, such as tread-in posts or tall cones and tape.
Use parallel rails as your rectangle so you can change which rails you decide to walk between so the horse watches more carefully for the change in your body axis.
Set up a rectangle on a slope.
Eventually you may only need four corner markers as a baseline.
Walk a square or rectangle without any props to see how well you have established the change in body axis orientation to communicate with your horse. Vary the size of these – maybe by counting your steps.
Use your body axis orientation change consistently when doing other exercises such as weaving.
Walk a circle rather than a square, by keeping your body axis turned slightly from the horse as the signal.
Play with it all at liberty if you didn’t already train it all at liberty.
These activities are all based on equine clicker training. Please see my book, How to Begin Equine Clicker Training: Improve Horse-Human Communication if you would like to investigate clicker training with horses. Details of my books are on the ‘BOOKS’ page link above. The books are all available via Amazon.com. Topics in the books contain free links to relevant YouTube video clips.
I keep the clips short – most are under five minutes. Each relates to a specific skill. Keeping them short makes them easier to find and review.
Each of the activities listed below has one or more accompanying video clips. Depending on the reason a horse is on stall rest, some tasks may be a more useful than others.
Nose to Target
This is fully discussed and explained in the book mentioned above. It is usually one of the first tasks when we introduce clicker training with horses.
Once the horse understands that touching his nose to a target held out by the handler earns him a click&treat, and he has a strong history of reinforcement for the task, we can use it to gradually develop flexion.
This clip shows a way to introduce the ‘nose to target’ task with the handler in protected contact (i.e. on the other side of a barrier). It’s good to use protected contact until we know how the horse responds to food being part of the training process. https://youtu.be/Rat3P1pGKjU
Head Lowering (and Head Up)
This illustrates the process of free-shaping a behavior. Free-shaping means that we wait for the horse to do something it naturally does (e.g. lower the head) and ‘mark’ that behavior with a click&treat. It’s important to accurately ‘mark’ and treat each little approximation toward the final behavior we want, so timing of the click and smooth treat delivery are necessary. It’s helpful to work on these away from the horse by asking another person to stand in for the horse.
This clip shows an overview. Each body part would be taught separately following the outline for targeting chin or shoulder to our hand, as in items 7 and 8 above. https://youtu.be/tFGvmRRYdHQ
This clip shows the final task. It was thin-sliced to first teach it. Be aware that some horses might generalize this bit of fun to pulling off their saddle pads unless you put it on cue or ‘on signal’. https://youtu.be/M8vzn1JsR_k
Bursting Balloons
This clip shows Smoky after a few sessions when he is just beginning to get the hang of it. https://youtu.be/Md7ui1DejaI
I learned this exercise from Alex Kurland. It seems simple but is enormously useful in maintaining both physical and mental suppleness for the horse and handler.
It also serves to practice our ‘walk on’ signals and allows us to consolidate our ‘halt’ signals each time we approach the mat, with special emphasis on our voice ‘whoa’ signal.
It is a super exercise to check the flexibility of our horse and we may also gain insight into the flexibility of our own body as we improve the timing of shifting our body axis on the approach to each marker. We are usually more flexible bending either right or left, just like horses are.
If we consistently do short bursts of this exercise over many sessions, we’ll notice that it gets easier and easier to do tighter, elegant 180-degree turns (unless horse or handler are restricted due to past injury or arthritis).
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse willingly moves to target his front feet on a mat. (There is a relevant link under ‘Addition Resources’ at the end of this post.)
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals when the handler is beside his neck/shoulder. (There is a relevant link under ‘Addition Resources’ at the end of this post.)
Handler understands the skill of maintaining ‘forward energy’ at the same time as slowing down to give the horse time to scribe the bigger arc of the turn. This can be improved by practice with another person standing in for the horse. We have to remember that the horse has four legs to organize and a long body that more resembles an ocean-liner than a ballerina.
Handler is aware of using the orientation of his/her body axis as a key body language signal for the horse.
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and lead (lead kept loose as much as possible. We want to use orientation and body language for communication, not touch signals via the rope, but we may use these when we first teach teach this pattern).
6 or 8 markers set out in a relatively large circle. The markers can be anything safe: cones, stones, pieces of firewood, tread-in posts if working on grass, jump stands, barrels, 5-liter containers of water, cardboard boxes, rags. In the beginning, it’s easiest if the markers are relatively large, so the horse sees the sense in walking around them rather than across or through them.
Different-colored markers make it easier to keep track of where we are heading and where we have been. If they are the same size and shape, they give continuity to the development of the horse’s fluidity since it needs the same body adjustment around each marker. Therefore, identical markers are best to first teach this exercise.
Different-sized markers encourage the horse to vary his body adjustment to navigate each one, so they are a good generalization.
A familiar mat placed in the center of the circle.
AIMS:
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth 180-degree turns (U-turns) with the horse on the outside of the turn; handler on the LEFT side of the horse.
To have the horse and handler execute fluid, smooth U-turns – horse on the outside of the turn, handler on the RIGHT side of the horse.
Handler becomes super conscious of the position and timing of his/her body axis orientation to signal the turn coming up.
VIDEO CLIP:
NOTES:
What you see Boots doing in the video clip is a result many very short sessions over a long time. I’m always striving to improve the timing of my body axis turned away from the horse as a signal for the turn.
If the horse has been resting or contained, it’s important to walk around for a general overall body warm-up before asking for this sort of flexion. A companionable walk or moving over rails and weaving obstacles are good warm-up exercises.
SLICES:
Walk on the left side of the horse to target the mat in the middle of the circle; click&treat.
Focus on one of the markers ahead of you of the circle and ‘walk on’ toward it. Ensure that you walk off together by using all your ‘walk on’ multi-signals. We don’t want the horse surprised and left behind.
Walk around the marker and back to the mat; click&treat.
Did you manage to keep up your energy while walking the inner curve around the marker? If we let our energy drop, the horse can fade out too. In the learning phase, it can help to raise our knees as in ‘marching on the spot’ to keep our energy up, as demonstrated in the video clip.
Not only does the horse have further to travel, he must organize two pairs of legs and a non-bendy torso to navigate the corner, so we have to give him time.
At first the U-turns might be wide and/or sloppy. Don’t worry, you will both gradually improve if you stick with the task over many short sessions.
The horse will soon work out that each time you go around a marker, you head straight back to the mat where he will earn another click&treat. This realization motivates him to begin making his U-turns more efficient and elegant.
As you begin the change of direction at each marker, turn the axis of your body away from the horse. This will become a body language signal you can eventually use later in many different situations and to communicate at liberty.
Add a voice signal at some point. I use “Round”. Choose a word that is short, clear, and not used in other contexts.
As you notice improvement in his flexion during the turns, you can begin to selectively click&treat nice tight ones as he comes out of the turn, then carry on for another click&treat at the mat.
After each return to the mat (click&treat), choose a different marker and repeat.
After navigating all the markers walking on the left side of the horse, repeat walking on his right side. Once around each marker on each side of the horse is usually enough of this exercise during one session.
Often it is harder for the horse and/or the handler when they are using the non-dominant sides of their bodies. With patience and extra practice on the harder side(s), it will start to feel more equal.
Signals given with the handler’s non-dominant side are often not as fluid or well timed as signals given on the dominant side. Once we become aware of this, we can focus on it as necessary.
GENERALIZATION:
The first generalization is to repeat walking on the horse’s right side.
Begin to focus on using body axis orientation in other contexts such as weaving obstacles
The clip below demonstrates how Boots and I use my body axis orientation to work on flexion during our walks down the road.
Sharing Time and Space — Communicating Zero Intent
‘Zero Intent’ is being in our horse’s presence without asking him to do anything. As long as he remains polite and we feel safe, we just want to hang out with the horse in the same way that horses hang out with each other.
Building a Connection Involves Relaxing Together
Learning something new and meaningful always requires a lot of mental, physical and emotional energy, especially when first getting started. Sharing of Time and Space becomes something we can do with our horse forever, whenever we can fit in a few minutes of quiet time.
To help with the nuts and bolts of starting this exercise, I’ve created three checklists.
If this is new to you, be sure to go through the detail of all three checklists before you begin.
This clip, #75 HorseGym with Boots, gives an overview of the process. I’ve edited the footage to show key points, leaving out the actual relaxed ‘chilling out together’ time or it would be like watching paint drying.
There are three older but quite interesting clips in the “Additional Resources” at the end of this post.
Checklist 1: INTELLECTUAL – Getting your head ready to do this
It’s up to you to decide how much close contact you are comfortable with. As long as you don’t feel intimidated, it’s fine to let a polite horse get up close and personal. Be aware if nudging might turn into nipping, as it does with this horse.
The purpose of Quiet Sharing of Time and Space is to get the person accepted as part of the horse’s in-group. Horses perceive people either as something to be wary of, or as part of their social group.
Wary horses will remain poised on the edge of fear and flight. They feel unsafe around people and they will be unsafe around people.
Horses that see you as part of their in-group will relate to you as they relate to other horses as long as you consistently use body language they understand and remain within the boundaries of their understanding.
The purpose of all training or educating of domestic horses is obviously to enlarge their boundaries of understanding in order to make them more comfortable in their strange life captive to humans.
Quiet Sharing of Time and Space allows you to become more like a horse. It puts you in the zone where time by the clock doesn’t exist, where life follows the natural rhythms of day and night, of seasons, of looking for food, of being constantly aware of danger, of interacting with group members. This can be a big stretch for some people. Other people find it hugely relaxing and life-enhancing.
Bridget is enjoying the winter sun while Boots grazes. How long we spend sitting with our horse depends on what we can fit into our lifestyle. Frequent short dates with our horse are more effective than longer dates.
Quiet Sharing of Time and Space allows time for the horse to accept our relaxed presence in his space. This can be a huge stretch for some horses who have only had demanding forced interactions with people. Other horses may be all over a person like a rash and need to be shown how to stand back politely.
Be mentally prepared to move your chair if the horse gets too overbearing. There is a fine line between friendly exploration with nose and lips and seeing if you can be pushed around. Moving your chair tells your overbearing horse that you don’t want to be near him right now. It is what horses do. They just move away to give the message that they don’t want to interact right now. In this situation moving away is a neutral action. If he follows you and continues to be overbearing, you’ll use your body language and swishies to ask him to back out of your space as described shortly in items 3 – 11 of Checklist 2).
When you move your chair, position it side-on to the horse, not facing him. We don’t want to stare at the horse or send energy toward him from our front. Horses are extremely sensitive to orientation.
Sit outside the enclosure fence if you feel unsafe inside it.
Realize you will need to experiment with understanding when your horse is investigating you, when he is pushing on you, when you should move your chair or ask him to back off.
It’s by experimenting that you start to get the feeling for the whole exercise. No one can give you a recipe. Every horse-human relationship is different. You’ll begin to feel what is probably the best thing to do next.
Understand the powerful effect of the swishies to expand your bubble and make the horse back off or move away any time you feel intimidated.
Pushing the horse away too strongly at first is better than not being strong enough. If you are not strong enough, you are teaching the horse that he doesn’t have to pay attention. Your signals turn into nagging. If you are too strong at first, you can always get lighter next time.
If the horse is being overbearing, define your personal space strongly enough so he doesn’t want to come back right away. In other words, avoid nagging him back repeatedly. Be sure in your mind show him clearly that you don’t want him around for a while. Make being near you a bit of a privilege. You could lay a rail at a distance you find comfortable and ask him to stay behind it. If you and the horse are clicker-savvy, you can reward the standing away by going to the horse to deliver a click&treat.
Use assertive (not aggressive) body language. Horses higher in the group’s social order use their energy to enlarge their personal space as necessary to re-direct the behavior of others. Self-assertion is different from striking out at the horse in fear or anger. Horses understand the difference clearly as long as the handler is consistent.
It may seem counter-intuitive to ask the horse to stand back in this way, but it is signal language used between horses and adds to creating mutual understanding with a horse who readily moves into a person’s space without invitation. The last section of this post looks at horses who are wary or afraid of approaching people.
Checklist Two: PHYSICAL – Keeping you both safe and comfortable
Bridget is using her swishies to ask Boots to step back after she got a bit overbearing and intimidating. Note the energy is directed at the horse’s feet.
You need a safe, secure place to hang out together, e.g. a roomy corral or a small paddock. It may be possible to separate a corner of an arena or a big paddock or a nice shady area under a tree by using electric fence tape and standards (not electrified).
Allocate ‘date time’ as frequently as possible. Shorter frequent dates are better than long infrequent dates.
Sort out two swishies — supple willow twigs, bamboo canes or dressage whips about 130 cm long. These let you to enlarge your personal bubble for your own safety. They allow you to disturb the air at the edge of the horse’s bubble if you want to move him away. We usually don’t need to touch the horse with the swishies.
Sadly, statistics indicate that many people get hurt interacting with horses. Despite the best intent in the world, unexpected situations arise. The sheer size, power and split-second reaction rate of horses cause injury or death, with no direct fault to either horse or human. While many more horses are hurt by people than horses hurt people, it’s important to have the risk radar on all the time people and horses are in proximity.
It is not surprising that horses can make us nervous. If we feel even the slightest nervous tension close to our horse, the horse will instantly be aware of our tension and read it as a reason to be wary and aware, just as they read the body language and energy field of another horse.
By knowing that we can, at any time, move the horse out of our personal space, we are able to relax into the moment. If we can relax, the horse has a chance to relax.
Get another person to use the swishies on your bubble. Ask them to start swishing at ground level right and left (not up and down), then move up (still swishing right to left) until they are swishing above your head. Note your physical and emotional reactions.
Use the swishies on other people and get both their physical, emotional and verbal responses.
Horses are so sensitive to the moving air created by this swishing motion that we seldom need to do more than direct it toward their feet and legs.
Always bring up your body into an assertive posture before you activate the swishies. The horse will soon learn to recognize the significance of your posture.
Use as much assertive body and swishy energy as you need to move a pushy horse, but, once he understands, don’t use more than you need to make your point that he must move out of your personal space.
Have carrot strips (or treats of your choice) to reward polite behavior. For a timid horse, keep the treats under your chair to act as a draw card for him to come and see you. For a pushy horse, keep them outside the enclosure in screw top plastic containers, but you can also have them under your chair if you want the horse to push on you so you can teach him to be polite by rewarding him when he stands back and relaxes. If you use clicker training all the time, your normal treat pouch may be fine.
Comfortable chair.
Something to read or write with or just relax into the moment.
Grazing or hay for the horse is optional at this point. Ideally you want your horse feeling well fed before your date. To learn the procedure, it’s easier to be in a grass-less or well-grazed area.
With little or nothing to eat in your ‘dating’ enclosure, he will pay more attention to you, which is what you want at the beginning. It makes it easier to read his intentions and relate to him. Being in a non-grazing area allows you to either entice him with carrots (shy horse) or teach him to stand back politely to receive a treat (pushy horse).
For some sessions, you could put out several piles of hay. If you don’t want hay on an arena surface you could use big tubs, carpets, tarps, sheets or blankets.
Eventually, once the horse is confident and polite, it’s nice to do Sharing of Time and Space in the horse’s usual grazing environment.
Checklist Three: EMOTIONAL – Getting your heart ready to do this
Boots is spending time with Bridget without needing to push on her. They are able to relax in each other’s company and enjoy the sunny afternoon.
Let go of expectations, goals, presumptions, worry and anxiety.
Just start and know it will improve each time you get out there.
Nothing will be perfect; learning is a messy business.
No one cares except you and your horse (and other people studying this).
Others may laugh at you and think you are peculiar. That’s their privilege.
Others may be really interested. It’s up to you how much (or little) you want to tell them.
Observe what your horse does without staring directly at him.
Observe (without making value judgements) what your horse is actually doing.
For a session or two, you could record exactly what your horse is doing at regular time intervals (e.g., every two minutes or every five minutes). If this interests you, it is a great study, especially if you can also do it when the horse is in a paddock interacting with other horses. You may begin to see interesting patterns.
Appreciate that everything the horse does is FEEDBACK. Feedback can be positive, negative or neutral and all of it has the same value.
For this exercise of becoming more horse-like, you need to let go of all your horsemanship aims, goals, desires and dreams. I doubt that horses dream positively of people on their backs, driving them forward over, through and into things for no reason the horse can see (other than to get it over with).
You can retrieve your goals when you need them and play with making your goals your horse’s goals. But first you need to understand his goals by observing and listening to his body language.
Bridget is moving her chair because Boots became a bit too overbearing. Moving our chair resembles another horse walking away to gain more personal space. It is an alternative to asking the horse to step back using the swishies.
Be prepared to move your chair if the horse gets overbearing.
When you sit down, put your chair side-on to the horse. Try to not stare directly at him.
Be ready to defend your bubble with your assertive (not aggressive striking out) body language and your swishies as necessary to stay safe. Being with a horse requires that our risk management radar is always on.
Be ready to notice when your pushy horse is standing back politely. Casually stand up, get a treat from where you stashed them and walk over to him to give it to him, then go sit down again. He might follow you right back to your chair and give you another opportunity to ask him to stand back politely.
At first expect only a few seconds of politeness, then gradually ask him to wait longer and longer before you fetch the treat (or click&treat if you are a clicker trainer). Watch for signs that he is relaxing while standing away from you (sighing, licking, chewing, head shaking, head lowering, cocked hind leg, relaxed tail, relaxed ears, soft eyes).
The Shy, Anxious, Flighty, Timid or Suspicious Horse
Sharing time and space while the horse eats hay. This distance may be too close for some horses, so we need to experiment to find the distance at which the horse can eat without anxiety. Gradually, over time, we reduce the distance. At first, we may need to sit on the far side of the fence.
If you feed hay, sit (on a raised surface is safer than sitting on the ground) in the horse’s vicinity – far enough away so he is able to eat his hay without anxiety. Alternatively, if the horse is grazing, take a chair to sit at a distance he finds acceptable.
Once the horse can relax while you share his space, put out a familiar feed dish at a distance that the horse seems to feel comfortable with.
When you notice him glancing at you, walk to his dish and drop in a bit of something he especially likes to eat. Then return to your chair and wait for him to make the discovery in the dish. Watch him without staring at him. If you run out of time, leave the dish and food there for him to eventually find, unless, or course, another horse will gobble it up first.
As the horse becomes more confident over multiple sessions, put the feed dish closer and closer to your chair. Look for signs of relaxation (sighing, licking, chewing, head shaking, head lowering, cocked hind leg, relaxed tail, relaxed ears, soft eyes) that let you know he is feeling okay with the situation.
Success for both of you is when he will come and accept food out of the dish in your lap and eventually out of your hand. It could happen in a day or two or it could take a long series of short, frequent sessions.
If the horse acts fearfully when his nose contacts a hand, you will need to put in extra thin slices such as hands resting on the side of the bucket, one hand in the bucket under the feed, hand full of feed raised up a bit inside the bucket, until eventually the horse becomes confident about eating from your hand.
Going through the slices too fast is more of a problem than going a bit too slow. Stay with each increase in confident behavior for at least three, maybe up to ten repeated mini-sessions before asking for more.
A horse training area without obstacles is like a playroom without toys. When we have a collection of obstacles, each one allows us to have a conversation with our horse.
It’s much easier if our horse lives with us and we can set up and change obstacles as convenient, as opposed to having to book time to use a training area.
However, we can amass a collection that is relatively easy to set out, pick up, transport and store. Rags make excellent markers and can be set out to weave or act as a rail or delineate a lane. Smaller cones are easy to set out, collect and store.
Tarps can be folded to different sizes or rolled up to stand in for a rail. If you have use of an indoor arena or it is not a windy day, a collection of cardboard boxes that can be nested for easy storage are useful to act as destinations, create novel gaps, outline lanes or act as rails.
Ropes can take the place of rails to create lanes. Hoops are light and easy to move and store. I prefer hoops made of hose and joined with doweling (or a twig the correct size).
If your horse is boarded, there may be available gear that is not too heavy to move to create a circuit. If you have a grazed area for training, tread-in posts have many uses and can be paired with tape to create reverse round pens or high-sided lanes. Some people may have trees, banks, ditches, bridges, stumps, slopes and/or natural water to incorporate into circuits.
Circuit activities like this are great as warm-up or cool-down exercises, or just to give our horse a stretch of continuous movement and a bit of mental stimulation.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals when the handler is beside his neck/shoulder, on both sides of the horse. (See LINKED RESOURCE 1. at the end of the post.)
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
Halter and lead (kept loose as much as possible, as we want to use body language for communication, not rope pressure).
A circuit of objects and obstacles. Ideally some to step over for hock flexion, lanes to walk through, gaps to negotiate, unusual surfaces to walk across, slopes if possible, hoops to step into, markers to weave, pedestals to put one or two front feet on, and so on. If your horse likes to pick things up, add that as an element of your circuit.
AIMS:
To have the horse and handler and horse fluidly navigate a circuit of objects and obstacles at the walk with the handler on the LEFT side of the horse.
To have the horse and handler and horse fluidly navigate a circuit of objects and obstacles at the walk with the handler on the RIGHT side of the horse.
VIDEO CLIP:
NOTES:
The horse in the video clip is an old hand at negotiating circuits and the circuit in the clip is a basic one.
This activity refines ‘walking together shoulder-to-shoulder’ with a draped lead rope or no lead rope. A key is to first establish solid, mutually understood, ‘walk on’ signals that ensure you step off together. It is a common habit for the handler to begin walking without ensuring that the horse is stepping off at the same time. (See LINKED RESOURCE 1. at the end of the post.)
SLICES:
Make a list of obstacles available and draw a diagram of where you might put them in your training area.
Experiment gently to find your horse’s response to each obstacle: Either one a day or a couple each session, whatever suits your time and facility.
For horses new to this sort of activity, introduce one obstacle at a time and add a new one when he his totally confident with the previous ones.
If the horse is an old hand at this sort of activity, set up your designed circuit. Move on to generalizations once walking around the basic circuit is fluid on both sides of the horse.
Sometimes I use three, four or five obstacles and do various things with each one, or sometimes I set up a longer circuit like the one in the clip which has twelve obstacles.
If new to the activity, stay with each new obstacle until the horse is ho-hum with it. For example, if it takes one session for the horse to be comfortable with a new object or obstacle, and you add a new one each session, you can have a circuit of twelve obstacles after twelve sessions. Or you can do two different things with six obstacles.
But: some obstacles will be harder and take longer than one session to establish comfort and willingness. As long as we always start where the horse shows confidence, and we proceed in small slices when he shows he is ready to do more, things usually progress well.
Success breeds success. Over-facing and going too fast destroy confidence and the willingness to try again. If you notice you’ve done this, simply relax and go back however far you need to go to where the horse is confident and slowly work forward again.
When it all flows smoothly while you are on the horse’s left side, start again on his right side.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Add in the occasional halt, either between obstacles, in a lane, across a rail, on a pedestal, in front of a rail, just after stepping across a rail, between uprights, with front or back feet in a hoop. Decide beforehand how long your halts will be. Start with one second and work up gradually to five or ten seconds. Once you have duration, ask the horse to ‘wait’ while you move away and/or around him. (See LINKED RESOURCE 4. at the end of the post.)
Add in the occasional back-up between uprights, through a lane, before reaching the next obstacle, backing front feet over a rail, backing all four feet over a rail. (See the LINKED RESOURCES 5. and 6. at the end of this post for training plans relating to backing up.)
Ask for sidestepping away from you or toward you along a rail. (See LINKED RESOURCE 1. at the end of the post.)
Walk a small circle to do the same obstacle twice.
Change your leading position so you are in front of the horse and he walks behind you. See the LINKED RESOURCES 8. at the end of this post
Add the occasional trot between or over selected obstacles.
Long-rein the circuit. (See my Long-Reining book on the ‘Books’ page.)
If you lunge, ask for continuous trot through a series of obstacles set up so your rope doesn’t catch on them. I like to trot an obstacle, then have horse trot a circle around me while I move into position for trotting over or through the next obstacle. This is an exercise that allows continuous sustained movement without being dead boring or stressing the horse’s joints and dulling his brain with continuous small circles.
‘Walk On’ and ‘Halt’ are the foundation of pretty much everything we want a horse to do with us. Even teaching ‘parking’ starts with a solid, confident ‘halt’.
Teaching the basic ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ is most easily done in position beside the horse’s neck or shoulder. I like to teach these with a ‘multi-signal’ or ‘signal bundle’. In the science literature multi-signals are referred to as “a compound stimulus”.
Using the multi-signals consistently from the beginning means that once the horse knows them well, I can use any one of them, or any combination of them, depending on what best suits the situation. It makes it easier for the horse to recognize the signals when I am walking beside his ribs or behind him (outside his blind spot).
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker-savvy.
Horse readily targets stationary objects with his nose and/or feet. (See ADDITIONAL RESOURCE 5. at the end of this post.)
Horse is comfortable wearing a halter and lead rope.
It’s highly recommended to practice the rope handling mechanical skills to signal ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ first with a person standing in for the horse. Simulations are a wonderful way to get our body language and rope handling skills organized and smooth before we inflict ourselves on the horse.
MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT:
Horse in a familiar area where he is comfortable.
Other horse buddies in view, but not able to interfere.
Horse is not hungry and in a relaxed frame of mind.
Halter and lead. A relatively short lead rope is easier to manage.
Destination objects. These can be a series of stationary nose targets, mats as foot targets. Alternatively, we can use a Frisbee or old cap thrown out ahead for the horse to target, then thrown forward again.
AIM:
Elegant ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions with the horse and handler staying shoulder-to-shoulder, with the handler on either side of the horse.
VIDEO CLIPS:
‘Walk on’ signals are illustrated in HorseGym with Boots clip #129.
‘Halt’ signals are illustrated in HorseGym with Boots clip #131.
NOTES:
What you see Boots doing in the video clip is a result many short sessions over a long time.
We can aid the horse’s understanding if we begin teaching this along a safe fence to remove the horse’s option of swinging the hindquarters away from the handler.
We want to strive for consistently staying in the area alongside the horse’s neck and shoulder.
Photo to illustrate Slice 3 below. A ‘halt’ signal without pulling on the halter: hold the rope straight up into the air and jiggle it lightly. We can use this as part of our ‘halt’ multi-signal if necessary. We can also use it during the process of teaching backing up with a hand gesture signal staying shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse. Teach it as a ‘halt’ signal by using it as the horse approaches a fence or other dead-end where it makes total sense for him to halt .
SLICES:
Hold the rope in the hand nearest the horse with no pressure on the halter. If you need to send a ‘halt’ signal with the rope, hold the rope straight upwards and jiggle it. The instant the horse responds, stop jiggling, breathe out and lower your hand.
Halt: Ask the horse to walk beside you toward a familiar mat. As you approach the mat, use the following multi-signals almost simultaneously:
Visibly drop your weight down into your hips (like we want the horse to do).
Breathe out audibly.
Say ‘whoa’ or whatever halt voice signal you decided.
Only if necessary, raise the inside hand holding the rope straight up into the air and jiggle the rope. If the horse is initially taught the ‘rope jiggle’ halt signal using a fence or a blocked-off lane, there will be little need to jiggle the rope. As the horse halts on the mat, immediately relax your body language; breathe out; click&treat.
At first, pause briefly before walking on to the next mat; click&treat. Gradually, over many sessions, teach the horse to wait confidently for up to 10 seconds.
Walk On: Ensure you are holding the rope in the hand nearest the horse with no pressure on the halter. To send a ‘walk on’ signal along the rope, reach across with your outside hand and run it gently up the rope toward the halter. As soon as the horse moves, take away your outside hand.
We use our ‘walk on’ multi-signals almost simultaneously:
Look up toward the next destination.
Breathe in audibly and raise your body energy. Horses are very conscious about our breathing, so this can become an important signal if we use it consistently.
Run your outside hand gently up the rope toward halter to a point to which the horse responds by shifting his weight to step forward. This will eventually become a simple arm gesture without needing to touch the rope.
Step off with your outside leg (easier for horse to see).
Say ‘walk-on’ (or whatever voice signal you’ve decided). A voice signal is useful later when working at liberty, exercising on a long line, or guiding from behind, as in long-reining.
Our aim is to initiate the first intention of movement, then move in synchronization with the horse. It’s important not to move off without the horse, so losing our position beside the horse’s neck or shoulder.
People often tend to start walking without first inviting the horse to move in sync with them. The whole point of this exercise is to move forward together companionably, staying shoulder-to-shoulder.
Each time you halt, you have another opportunity to practice the ‘walk on’ multi-signals. Each time you ‘walk on’, you have another opportunity to practice your ‘halt’ multi-signals.
Every time you come to a destination marker, drop your hips and your energy, breathe out, say your voice signal and relax; click&treat. Pause, then politely use your ‘walk on’ multi-signal to ask the horse to walk forward with you to the next destination marker.
It won’t take the horse long to realize that each destination marker is a ‘click point’. He will soon begin to look forward to reaching each destination. He will also begin to organize his body to halt efficiently. Horses love to know what will happen before it happens. Remember, they have four legs and a long body to organize, so begin your ‘halt’ signals well before you reach the destination.
Many short sessions will show improvement in suppleness and body management more quickly than occasional long sessions.
Be sure to teach this in both directions and on each side of the horse. Spending a little time on this, over many sessions, will build a lovely habit of walking with you on a loose rope.
In a way, although you have the horse on a rope, you are allowing him to self-shape the most efficient way to set himself up to halt at the next marker ready for his click/treat. Because the horse has worked out his way of halting for himself, he has more ‘ownership’ of the task.
Over time, walking together companionably will become a strongly established habit. As mentioned in Generalization 2. below, we can gradually introduce the ‘whoa’ as our click point, which means we can phase out using destination targets. The horse will comfortably walk with us until we signal for a ‘halt’. Of course, we must reliably reinforce each halt request with a click&treat.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Gradually increase distances between destinations.
Gradually introduce ‘whoa’ as the click&treat indicator to replace nose or foot targets. Start by asking for ‘whoa’ between destinations. (See ADDITIONAL RESOURCE 2. below.)
Add objects and obstacles to your training spaces to walk through, across, over, weave among. (See ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 3. & 4. below.)
Walk together at liberty. (See ADDITIONAL RESOURCE 1. below.)
Walk together in different venues including public places with slopes, water, trees.
As purposeful gymnastics to help our horse keep flexible.
When it is too cold, hot, wet or windy to be out and about.
As a ‘stall rest’ activity as much as the recuperation allows.
When we feel low energy but want to do something with our horse.
The knee and hock targeting, done regularly, ensure adequate balance when we ask the horse to stand on three legs for foot care.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse is comfortable standing ‘parked’ with the handler standing and moving around the horse. A link to a post about relaxed ‘Parking’ is added at the end of this post.
Handler has developed his/her ‘zero intent’ and ‘intent’ body language. Links are added at the end of this post.
Horse confidently touches a variety of targets with his nose.
We can teach targeting with the knees and hocks in the same way as outlined in the Targeting the Hindquarters to our Hand post. See the link at the end of this post.
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
A safe, enclosed area for working at liberty, if possible. Otherwise, halter and lead (kept loose or the rope safely draped over the horse’s neck).
A hand-held target on a long stick and a short target like a plastic bottle.
A familiar mat to park on when first teaching this.
AIMS:
The horse moves his nose to touch a target held in different positions while keeping his feet still.
Horse lifts his knees to touch a target.
Horse lifts his hocks to touch a target.
VIDEO CLIP: #166 HorseGym with Boots TARGET FLEXION
Notes:
What you see Boots doing in the video clip is a result of lots of very short sessions over a long time. I had to consciously improve the consistency of my body orientation and how I presented the target to make what I wanted as clear as possible for the horse.
If the horse has been resting or contained, we must do a general overall body warm-up before asking for these flexions. Walking over rails and weaving obstacles make great warm-up exercises. If this is not possible, adjust your flexion expectations accordingly.
SLICES:
Neck Flexion High and Low
As per prerequisite 2, ensure that the horse is totally comfortable standing parked while you move and stand in a variety of positions around his body.
Ask the horse to stand squarely with his front feet on a familiar mat; click&treat.
Let him know what game you are about to play by having him touch a familiar long-handled target held near his nose; click&treat.
Gradually, making sure to stay within the boundary of the horse’s comfort zone for this type of activity, hold the target progressively a little higher while you stand facing him slightly to the left side of his nose; click&treat every time he touches the target.
Ideally, do three or four repeats on each side of the horse, before moving to the other side.
Repeat 4 holding the target progressively a little higher while you stand facing him slightly to the right side of his nose.
You may not get a full upward stretch as Boots shows on the video clip until you’ve done it for several sessions, but on the other hand, you may get it quickly.
Stay with 4, 5 and 6 until the horse is ho-hum with them.
Then move on to progressively hold the target a bit lower to the ground; click&treat for each touch standing slightly to the left of his nose, then stretch out your arm so the horse’s nose stays straight in front is he lowers it.
Repeat 9 standing slightly to the right of the horse’s nose.
For each new session, begin with the upward stretches done previously, then add the downward stretches until the horse is ho-hum with them also
Lateral (Sideways) Neck Flexion
Have the horse stand as squarely as possible.
Present the target so the horse must bend his neck a little bit to the left toward his ribs to put his nose on it; click&treat. Repeat two or three times.
Repeat 2 on the right side.
Present the target so the horse must bend his neck to the left a little further to touch the target; click&treat. Repeat two or three times.
Repeat 4 on the right side.
Present the target so the horse must bend his neck to the left as far as he comfortably can to touch the target; click&treat. Repeat two or three times.
Repeat 6 to the right.
How far a horse can bend his neck laterally will depend on a variety of factors such as age, health, overall fitness, frequency and type of flexion exercises, breed conformation, past injuries, arthritis, and so on. Healthy horses can reach around to scratch an itch on a lifted hock with their teeth. Observe carefully to find out how far the horse you are working with can reach in comparative comfort.
You may find considerable difference between the right and left sides if the horse has not been trained to accomplish a variety of exercises with either side of his body leading. Most horses have right or left dominance, just as people do.
If you adopt these flexion exercises and do them several times a week, or a few daily, you may notice increased suppleness in your horse if restrictions due to past injury or chronic conditions such as arthritis are not limiting factors.
Once the extreme bend (however far that is for a particular horse) is going well on either side, ask for a bend to the left, then step behind the horse to his right side and ask for the extreme bend to the right before the click&treat.
Knee and Hock Flexion
1. At the start of each session of flexion work with a target, I ask the horse to put his nose on the target; click&treat. This lets him know what game we are playing.
2. Teach ‘knee-to-target’ by touching the target gently above the horse’s knee; click&treat. Repeat several times.
If the horse thinks you want his nose on the target when it touches his leg above the knee, don’t click&treat. Remove the target out of sight behind you and take up the ‘no intent’ position for about three seconds. Then begin again. Repeat until the horse realizes that you are not asking for nose to target in this situation. The lack of click&treat gives him this information.
It may help the horse if you use a different, shorter target to teach ‘knee to target’.
3. After several successful mini-sessions with 2 above, hold the target just a tiny bit above the horse’s knee and see if the horse will lift his knee to make the contact; click&treat the instant he does. The basic technique is the same as in my clip, Targeting the Hindquarters to our Hand to which there is a link at the end of this post. Some horses will pick up the idea quickly and some will need many days of quiet, relaxed, short repeats. A clip about teaching ‘Target Chin to Hand‘ posted at the end, may also be helpful.
4. Repeat on the horse’s other side.
5. Once 3 and 4 above are ho-hum, teach ‘hock-to-target’ in the same way, using your long-handled target. Mixing up knee and hock too soon can lead to confusion, so keep the daily focus on the knee targeting only (on both sides of the horse) until your orientation and signals are truly consistent and the horse shows he is truly confident by being 99% accurate with his responses. Then change your focus to hock-targeting and stick with only that until it is ho-hum. Then you can begin to ask them in random order.
Head Between Legs Flexion
For this, a shorter target like the plastic bottle I use in the video clip is easier to use than a long-handled target.
Ask the horse to stand squarely.
Ask him to touch the target with his nose while you hold it down and straight in front of him; click&treat when he touches it. Be sure to keep your head to the side of the horse’s head so you don’t get knocked in case he brings his head up quickly.
When 2 is good, switch to holding the target forward between his front legs. You may need to wiggle it a bit to get his attention. Click&treat the moment he puts his nose or whiskers on the target.
Present the target between his front legs standing on either side of the horse. Two or three of these per session is plenty.
Links to other resources:
This video clip looks at making the horse feel comfortable staying parked on a mat while we move into different orientations around him: Challenge: Park and Wait: https://youtu.be/UvjKr9_U0ys
This video clip looks at teaching targeting the chin to our hand, which is a nice way to introduce the whole idea of targeting body parts to our hand or a target. https://youtu.be/Fsigp8wB0LU
Once the horse understands targeting his shoulder to our hand, we might like to teach targeting his hindquarters to our hand. If we can ask for ‘shoulder to hand’ and ‘hip to hand’ we have a way of asking the horse to bring his whole body toward us.
It’s a useful maneuver when we would like him to line up at a mounting block, fence or bank and he’s not quite close enough. It is also a gymnastic exercise and one that encourages handlers to develop their timing plus clear, consistent body language.
PREREQUISITES:
Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
Horse is comfortable standing ‘parked’ with the handler standing alongside facing behind the horse.
Handler has developed his/her ‘zero intent’ and ‘intent’ body language. To review, see the clip or blog link at the end of this post.
Signals for moving the hip away from the handler are well established. There are various ways to teaching this. A clip demonstrating one way is also added at the end of this post.
ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
The horse is not hungry.
A safe, enclosed area for working at liberty, if possible. Otherwise, halter and lead (kept loose or the rope safely draped over the horse’s neck).
A hand-held target on a long stick, a mid-length target and a short target.
For generalizations, pedestal, mounting block or similar, hoop.
My current collection of targets. In the video below, I used the three on the right-hand side of the photo. The others come in handy in various contexts.
AIM:
Horse confidently moves his hindquarters toward the handler’s ‘outstretched hand’ signal.
Note: When we request the horse to yield his hip away from us, we project energy toward the horse’s hindquarters from our body’s core at the belly-button, which causes our posture to be upright.
When we request the horse to move toward us, it’s important to pull our belly-button back so that we shrink back and create a ‘draw toward me’ energy with our whole body.
Horses are so sensitive to advancing and receding energy from another body, that they easily read the intent of our posture as long as we are consistent and not sloppy.
SLICES:
Stay with each slice until it feels ho-hum and smooth for both of you.
Make each session extremely short, a few minutes. The magic is not in the final result as much as it is in the process of helping the horse figure it out.
Choose a spot where you can easily stand the horse alongside a safe fence, wall, or similar with the barrier on the horse’s far side. The barrier discourages the option of moving the hindquarters away, which is something you have hopefully taught previously.
Ask the horse to stand squarely beside the fence; click&treat.
Take up a ‘zero intent’ position standing beside the horse’s neck, facing behind the horse, holding the target down by your side ‘out of play’ and relax; click&treat. Work up to standing together quietly like this for three or four seconds before the click&treat, on either side of the horse. Have the space between you and the horse’s neck at a distance comfortable for both of you. Close is usually safer than standing away, but it depends.
Stretch your arm to gently touch the long-handled target to the side of the horse’s hindquarters. Click just as the target makes contact; deliver the treat.
Move the target down behind your leg to take it ‘out of play’ and resume the ‘zero intent’ body position. Observe to see if the horse is okay for you to carry on. If he continues to stand in a relaxed manner, he is probably okay to carry on, or you may have sorted out one or more ‘okay to proceed’ signals. A link to information about these is at the end of this post.
Repeat 4 and 5 above, watching for any weight shift the horse might make toward the target as you move it toward his hindquarters. If he does, celebrate hugely with happy words and a jackpot or triple treat. Maybe ask for one or two repeats, then wait until your next session to do more.
When you feel the time is right, hold the target a tiny distance away from touching the hindquarters and WAIT for the horse to shift his weight to make the contact; click&treat. Some horses may step over to make the contact right away. For either a weight shift or a whole step toward the target, celebrate hugely again. Maybe repeat the request once or twice more to consolidate the idea. If you have waited 3-4 seconds and nothing happens, simply return to slices 4, 5, 6 above.
It took Boots a good number of daily mini-sessions before she a) consistently leaned toward the target and b) consistently moved a tiny distance toward the target to make the contact. Then it took more days before she confidently stepped toward the target when I held it further away.
Decide whether you want to continue teaching on the side you started with, or if you want to teach slices 1-7 on the other side of the horse before proceeding.
When 7 is ho-hum, gradually hold your target a little bit further away so the horse must take a full step to contact the target; click&treat.
Whenever the response seems slow or unsure (or is missing), go back to touch the target to the hindquarters; click&treat. Then work forward again at a rate that keeps the horse being continually successful as much as possible.
This willingness to back up in the teaching is sometimes hard, but we always must go where the horse tell us he is, not where we want him to be.
When starting a new session, always introduce the task with a touch of the target (and eventually your hand) to the hindquarters; click&treat, to let the horse know which game you are playing.
Work to having the response equally smooth on either side of the horse.
You may want to introduce a voice signal to go along with your body language and orientation signals.
When all is smooth using your long-handled hand-held target, repeat the slices using a shorter target. The one I use in the clip is a soft plastic toy sword.
When all is smooth with the mid-length target, reach out with an even shorter target. You may have to move from beside his neck to beside his shoulder or ribs, depending on the size of the horse.
When 16 and 17 are smooth on either side of the horse, ask for the hindquarters over using just your arm lifted up in the same way you did when holding a target. Most horses will respond readily to the arm movement. I personally hold my hand open with my palm facing the horse. Handler body position is upright. By pulling back our belly-button area we create a ‘draw toward me’ energy.
When we ask for hindquarters to yield away, we send energy toward the horse and look down and gesture toward his hocks, so it is a very different body orientation and energy. Plus, we may have added distinct and different voice signals for each one.
It’s good to frequently practice ‘hip away’ and ‘hip toward’ as a little sequence to make sure our signals stay true and the horse easily responds to either one without confusion.
Left photo: ‘hip toward me’ signal and body language. Right photo: ‘hip away please’ signal and body language.
GENERALIZATIONS:
Clip: #165 HorseGym with Boots TARGET BUTT TO HAND:
Generalizations:
Stand the horse so his shoulder is near a mounting block, but his hindquarters are angled away. Ask him to bring his butt (hip) toward your hand. If he gets confused, return to using your long, medium and short targets, fading out each one as his confidence returns, until your outstretched arm and hand are sufficient.
Generalize the ‘bring your hip over’ skill to different venues and different mounting situations, e.g. fences, gates, stumps, banks – especially if you ride out in wider and varied environments. Before my hips gave up riding, I would often have been totally grounded after dismounting if Boots wasn’t 100% confident about lining up quietly alongside a gate or any other raised surface in the vicinity.
If you have a pedestal on which the horse puts his front feet, you can ask him to bring his hindquarters toward you in a circle while his front feet stay on the pedestal.
Alternately, if you have a soft rubber tub, ask the horse to put his front feet into the tub and repeat 3 above.
To increase the expertise required (by horse and handler) ask the horse to place his front feet into a hoop and keep them in the hoop while moving his butt to target the handler’s arm (or a target) moving in a circular pattern, both clockwise and anti-clockwise. Start with one step and a high rate of reinforcement.
Be careful not to ask too much at first. A frequent minute or two of exercises such as these is enough to have a worthwhile gymnastic effect.
Whenever you do ‘hip toward me’, balance it with ‘hip away please’.
BACKGROUND CLIPS FOR QUICK REVIEW:
Clip: #153 HorseGym with Boots: ZERO INTENT AND INTENT
herthamuddyhorse 