Category Archives: Training Plans

Leading Position 4 – Beside Ribs

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If we have first taught and consolidated and generalized Leading Position 3 (beside neck/shoulder), it’s usually easy to move from LP3 into LP4 (beside ribs).

This leading position encourages the horse to move with us with his shoulder well out in front. The handler is where he or she would be when riding. In fact, riding is Leading Position 4 sitting on the horse rather than walking on the ground with him.

I sometimes use a body extension to clarify the task for the horse from a distance. A light touch signal just behind the withers for ‘walk on’, (as well as all the ‘walk on’ body language – big breath in & raised energy, step off with outside leg, voice cue) helps to make our intent clear – ie. we want to stay beside the horse’s ribs while we walk along together. The other use of a body extension is to indicate, by bringing it forward, that we don’t want the horse to turn toward us, but to walk on straight.

We also ensure walking straight by using a lane (horse in the lane, handler outside the lane) and by walking in straight lines between a series of targets. Once the horse understands the task, a small finger tap behind the withers and our voice signal, are usually all that is needed.

to summarise, if we have taught the horse that a tap behind the withers (with our fingers, eventually phasing out the body extension), the tap, a deep breath in and a voice ‘walk on’ – are all signals to move forward, these will continue to make sense to the horse when we mount up if we intend to ride.

The main concern for the horse when we ride is that most of our body language suddenly becomes invisible to him. Here Boots is intent on targeting the body extension which I’ve left on the ground.

The rider suddenly disappearing from view is a big deal for horses because horses are, by nature, strongly tuned in to visual body language. Body language plays a key role in equine culture. An empathetic trainer will give the horse ample time and opportunity to adjust to the new touch and weight shift signals, plus the many balance adjustments that the horse has to learn.

Riding has us in Leading Position 4, behind the horse’s withers. If we teach moving forward in this position on the ground, we are building the horse’s confidence in having half his body out in front of us. For timid horses, this can be challenging. The cues/signals we teach on the ground will stand us in good stead if we intend to ride. If we are working with a young horse which will be ridden, this training gives him a major head start with the ridden experience.

Training Plan 18

Aim:

To have the horse comfortable walking along with the handler when the handler’s position is behind the horse’s withers, alonside the horse’s ribs.

Environment:

  • Horse in an area where he is usually relaxed and confident.
  • Herd buddies not able to interfere but in view if possible.
  • Horse in a learning frame of mind.
  • A safe stretch of fence or a waist-high lane.
  • Series of destination mats or nose targets for the teaching phase, .
  • Body extension to clarify signal as necessary.
  • Halter and lead.

Slices:

See clips #55 and #56 in my HorseGym with Boots playlist. Clip 55 also looks ahead to when we want to walk alongside the hindquarters, which is the topic of the next blog.

Click here for Clip #55.

Click here for Clip #56

  1. Ensure the horse is comfortable walking between you and a safe fence (or in a lane) in LP3 (beside neck/shoulder).
  2. When the horse is relaxed in LP3, glide back so you are walking just behind his withers. After a step or two, relax (click&treat). Be sure to let the lead rope flow out to keep a float (smile) in it as you drift back, so you don’t give him a ‘slow down’ text message up the rope without realizing it. Move promptly up to the horse’s head to deliver the treat so he is not tempted to turn toward you. Walk on again in LP3 and glide back into LP4. It can be quite difficult for us to remain in LP4. For some reason, most people, including me, have a tendency to creep up toward the horse’s neck and shoulders.
  3. This smooth letting out of the rope is another skill it’s good to practice first with another person standing in as the horse.
  4. Repeat 2, adding a few more steps in LP4 each time before you relax (click&treat).
  5. If we are working along a fence rather than in a lane, using a body extension makes it easier to keep our position behind the withers because we can bring the body extension forward to gently block any tendency to turn toward us. The instant he goes straight, put the body extension back in neutral by your side or lying lightly behind the horse’s withers.
  6. It can help to keep our hand behind lying gently behind the withers as we walk with the horse, as Bridget is doing in the final photo of the blog. This might not be an option if the horse is very small or very tall.
  7. If you use mat or nose targets, set these out and ask the horse to walk between them, stopping for a click&treat as he reaches each one. Return to LP4 after delivering each treat and ask for the ‘walk on’ with a gentle tap behind the withers.
  8. If the horse tends to move his shoulder toward you rather than stay straight along the fence, use your body extension to disturb the air alongside his neck.
  9. If the horse has a habit of moving his shoulders into you, create an Individual Education Program to address just this issue. It would include a release (click&treat) the instant the horse responds to the signal pressure from the body extension swung forward in the air next to his neck, inhibiting his shoulder movement toward you. Once he realizes that the release/click point is when he stays straight, you can begin to gradually add more steps forward before you relax (click&treat).

LP4 asks the horse to have his eyes, nose and shoulders well out ahead of us. That can be worrying for an anxious type horse who is more comfortable following than being out in front. Bolder, more confident horses will may find it easier. If you are developing a riding horse, it is important to understand this lack of confidence to ‘be out in front’.

By setting up mats or nose targets, we can make this a much more interesting game. The horse will begin to look for the next target so he can earn his next click&treat.

For horses who are anxious about leaving their home area or their herd mates, this is a great exercise to give them a brand new focus for going out and about with their handler.

We can collect plastic drink bottles for nose targets and hang them around our training area. Then we can devise different walking patterns between the various targets, including turns and weaves. A series of rags hung on fences or shrubbery can also make interesting targets (be aware of horses who may try to eat them).

The activity of walking along together with the hand or stick behind the withers needs to become comfortable and ho-hum for the handler and the horse.

If we want to ride out or walk out, setting up a series of nose targets along the way gives the horse something to seek out. His mind will be engaged in the next target rather than the fact that he is moving further away from his friends or barn area.

At first we’d have the targets close together. As the horse gets keen on the game, we can gradually spread them further and further apart. It also works to use something like a Frisbee or a ball as a target. We can throw it out ahead of us, move to target it, throw it again, and so on.

If the horse is very barn or buddy sweet, we can lay out the target destinations in an arc. The arc will first guide the horse away from where he sees his ‘safety’, and then closer again. Over days and weeks, we can gradually set the top of the arc further and further away. One day the horse’s desire to seek out his targets will eclipse his need to get back to the barn or his buddies.

If the horse has developed the habit of rushing home or rushing to the field, we can slow the rushing by having him seek out targets on the way home or on the way to the field.

Summary of LP4

Leading Position 4 became important to me when I was preparing my horse for riding. When I came to teach long-reining, it was an excellent intermediate position to having the horse comfortable with me walking right behind.

Mat or nose destinations enable us to play the nose or mat target game, which gives the horse an incentive to move smoothly from halt into walk (or trot) and back to halt at the next destination. Since ‘go’ and ‘whoa’ signals are the backbone of all of our communication with horses, the targeting games have many positive outcomes.

When we move the horse around us on a long line (lunging), our position usually moves between LP3, LP4 along with LP8 when we face the horse’s side.

Walking out and about on the road in LP4.

Leading Position 2

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Leading Position 2 (LP2) has the handler in front but to one side of the horse; the horse keeps his eye/nose at or behind the handler’s shoulder. We walk in parallel tracks. Note that I use a body extension to make my intent clearer for the horse, but this soon morphs into an arm signal.

In the photo above, I’m about to step forward. In LP2, we want the horse to remain just at or slightly behind our shoulder and walking in his own track beside our track, not right behind us.

Clip #47 in my HorseGym with Boots playlist looks at LP2.

Leading Position 2, in some ways, resembles the position in which a mare often keeps her foal when the herd is moving. She wants it close beside her and keeping its nose behind hers. So in a way it is a position of safety for the horse. He is not out in front.

Training Plan

Aim:

To teach signals that indicate we want the horse to walk, in a relaxed manner, keeping his nose/eye at or behind our shoulder. We want the horse to stay close beside us on his own track, not edging behind us into LP1 or moving forward to bring his neck/shoulder into LP3.

Environment:

  • Horse in an area where he is usually relaxed and confident.
  • Herd buddies not able to interfere but in view if possible.
  • Horse in a learning frame of mind.
  • Safe fence-line (not a wire fence).
  • Body extension can be an aid for initial teaching.
  • Halter and lead.
  • This plan is written for a clicker savvy horse.

Slices:

  1. Begin in LP3 (beside neck/shoulder). Ensure the horse is confident walking with you in LP3 along the fence. The horse is between you and the fence.
  2. Work out a signal that lets the horse know you want him to keep his nose/eye behind your shoulder. It might be the same signal used to teach Leading Position 1 – i.e. stepping in front of the horse and staying in front. For some horses, an arm held out in front of his nose is enough of an indicator. For other horses, a swishy body extension is useful to disturb the air in front of the horse to let him know you want him to remain behind your shoulder. Think of a mare letting her foal know it needs to stay close and keep its nose behind her nose. Once the horse understands the concept, the initial larger signal can morph into a small hand gesture and your body language. It may take a while to sort out your exact signal. It can help to try things out with another person standing in as the horse.
  3. Walk along in LP3, then increase your pace slightly while at the same time giving your signal to let the horse know you want his nose/eye to stay behind your shoulder or elbow. Walk a step or two in the desired position, slow to a halt; click&teat. A clicker savvy horse will stop when he hears the click – turn to deliver the treat. It may be a rough approximation at first, but each time you do the movement, it will get a bit more accurate as the horse learns that staying back earns the click and treat.
  4. Once 3 above is smooth, walk a bit further, repeating your signal to stay in LP2 if necessary, before you click&treat.
  5. Once 4 above is smooth, gradually walk even further each time before you click&treat. Using destinations makes it easier because you can put them a little further apart each session. Destinations allow the horse to know when the next click&treat stop will be, no matter what leading position you are asking for.
  6. Once 5 above is smooth, build in halt duration with the horse remaining in LP2. At first turn toward him as you click&treat to reinforce the idea that staying in LP2 was the right thing to do. Then build up duration at the halt (before turning and the click&treat) one second at a time.
  7. Teach it all from the beginning on the horse’s other side.

Generalization

  1. When it is very good along a fence, use LP2 walking along a track or the road and in open areas.
  2. Play with it doing serpentines or weaves and walking a circle.
  3. Play with it at the trot.

Summary of LP2

LP2 is a nice position to use at times for companionable walking together. The horse can easily read our body language from his position just behind our shoulder.

In some situations we don’t want the horse’s eye and nose ahead of ours, as it is using LP3, and we don’t want him right behind us in LP1.

Using a safe fence. Horse and I in parallel tracks. Building ‘wait time’ in LP2.

Leading Position 1

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Leading Position 1 (LP1) has the handler in front of the horse, facing the same way as the horse.

Bridget is walking right in front of Smokey with a nice loop or ‘smile’ in the lead rope.

This concept of ‘Walking Away’ can also be useful whenever we want to get our horse used to something new. Horses have a tendency to follow anything moving away, and move away from anything coming toward them.

Leading a horse on a narrow track or road, spooky things can happen behind, so having the horse walk a meter or so behind you on a loose lead means the horse can spook right or left without running into you. For casual walking out, this can be a useful position.

However, Leading Position 1 is especially interesting because horses have two ways of looking at it.

Concept One: the horse is happy to mosey along behind.

We can cruise along together like horses following each other on their way to water or new grazing. The horse in front watches for snakes or other dangers, allowing the horse or horses filing behind to relax their guard a little bit.

Boots is happy to mosey along behind me knowing I will keep a lookout for dangers ahead.

Concept Two: The horse is ‘driving’ us from behind.

The second concept the is that horse sees it as an opportunity to haze (drive) the person along. Horses often haze each other from behind. Stallions use hazing to gather up and move their mares if they feel the need to shift them, and mares do the same with their foals.

Horses higher in the social order do it to move a horse lower in the social order if it is in their way or being annoying – something that is very noticeable in domestic horse situations.

When we taught Smoky to walk behind us through the S-bend for Horse Agility, we had to be watchful because he loved to catch up with us and give us a solid nudge with his nose to ‘move us along’.

It’s definitely best if the horse is happy to work with the first concept – follow behind in a relaxed mode. We’d also like the horse to know signals for slowing down or stopping when we are walking in front of him. It’s quite different from when we ride or long-rein, and are guiding from behind.

So: We can teach the horse clear signals to indicate when we intend to walk out in front of him, and that we’d like him to maintain a polite distance behind us, slow when we slow, and stop when we stop.

The following Training Plan looks at a possible way of teaching clear boundaries with Leading Position 1.

TRAINING PLAN

Aims:

  1. To develop a signal that lets the horse know when we are going to move from LP3 (beside neck) into LP1 (in front facing away from him).
  2. To have the horse comfortable with us in front and moving in single file.
  3. To develop clear signals while in Leading Position 1, to let the horse know when we are slowing into a halt and when he needs to halt or back up.

Environment:

  • Horse in an area where he is usually relaxed and confident.
  • Herd buddies not able to interfere but in view if possible.
  • Horse in a learning frame of mind.
  • Body extension during the teaching/learning phase if we need to emphasize a signal.
  • Halter and lead.
  • Lane 10-12 feet long with one high side (e.g., a safe fence) and one side a rail on the ground which the handler can easily step over.
  • If using destinations, set a mat or nose target destination several meters beyond each end of the lane.
  • Prerequisite: horse is confident with various ways of backing up in a lane. https://youtu.be/XcKSrz8feN8,
  • https://youtu.be/rMN5jWSn-HU
  • Consciously look for signs which indicate that the horse is reaching the limit of his ability to keep trying. Aim to stop while he is still engaged and willing. You can stop at any time on any slice of the process.

Slices of the Plan: 

For each slice, begin walking with the horse in LP3 – beside neck. Move on when each slice is smooth and ho-hum for the horse.

  1. Refresh the three basic lane tasks using LP3 – beside neck: a) walk through; b) walk in, halt and walk on out; c) walk in, halt and back out. Make sure these are all smooth when you are leading the horse on his left side and on his right side.
  2. Walk the horse into the beginning of the lane, halt, and step over the rail into the lane, pivoting into LP7 which is facing the horse. Give him an arm’s length of space. Turn off your body energy; relax (click&treat). Check for any signs of anxiety (looking away, shifting feet, backing away, stepping toward you, nudging you or stepping over the rail out of the lane). Stay with this slice until the horse can remain totally relaxed as you move into position and stand facing him (which is Leading Position 7), with your energy turned off, for a few seconds before the click&treat. Gradually work up to about ten seconds.
  3. When 2 is good, repeat but now step in front of the horse facing away from him after the halt. Give him a couple of feet of space behind you as you step into the lane to stand in front of him; relax (click&treat – turn to deliver the treat, then turn away again), pause.
  4. Ask the horse to walk forward out of the lane while you stay in the single file facing away position in front of him. You may need to create a new ‘walk on’ signal for this context. Hopefully you have already established a strong vocal ‘walk on’ cue. Walk to your destination; relax (click&treat). Walk a loop in LP3 (beside neck) to return to the lane.
  5. Repeat 3-4 until it is ho-hum for the horse.
  6. Repeat 3-4 but gradually stand in front of him (facing away) a bit longer before walking on. Increase the time in one second intervals. Ten seconds is a good time to aim for.  When he can do ten seconds before a click&treat, vary how long you wait facing forward before walking out of the lane.
  7. Once the horse is cool about having you step in front of him into the lane, decide on a clear signal you can use in motion to let the horse know you are about to step in front of him. I used a raised outside arm because that seemed easiest for the horse to see. The signal Boots and I eventually developed is more like a half halt in my body, change in breathing and a small hand gesture. Each horse and handler will work out and refine something that makes sense to them.
  8. First use your new signal to let him know you are going to step in front of him when he is halted in the lane.
  9. Then walk alongside his neck/ears and step in front of him while he is still in motion, using the signal you worked out in 8. above. After stepping in front of the horse, keep walking along in LP1 (facing forward) all the way to your destination mat or nose target; relax (click&treat).
  10. When 9. is smooth, we can start to build in the back-up. Check that the back-up is in good shape by asking for it first while you remain outside the lane.

Building in the Back Up

Step into the lane into LP1, then gently turn and ask the horse to back-up. Ideally the horse will quietly step back as you make the request; relax (click&treat).

11. When 10. is smooth, you can begin to teach the horse to back up while you remain facing away in LP1. First, refresh 8 above: as you approach the lane, move from LP3 into LP1 and walk right through the lane in LP1 to the destination mat for a release plus (click&treat).

12. When 11. is smooth (over however many sessions, this is not something to rush) gently slow down your walking pace in the middle of the lane for a few steps, then pick up your original pace. This should give you feedback about whether your horse easily keeps a safe distance behind you, or might barge into you. You might need your body extension to wave behind you to remind him to keep a nice space between you when you slow down. Safety is always first.

If you are unsure, it is smart to carry a body extension in neutral. You may or may not need to activate it. Having it there allows you to be clear for the horse the first instance he needs clarification. You don’t want him to nudge you, push through you, step out of the lane or push past you.

13. The most straightforward body language signal I’ve found, to let the horse know I am slowing down, halting and backing up from LP1, is flapping my elbows sideways. It’s possible to flap elbows and wave a body extension toward the horse’s legs or chest at the same time. If we can be crystal clear right from the beginning, that he needs to keep space between us, the horse usually picks this up easily.

14. Introduce your flapping elbow signal as you slow down, then pick up pace and walk to your destination; relax (click&treat). Repeat until smooth and ho-hum.

15. When the horse easily keeps his distance during 14 above, slow down gradually into a halt in the middle of the lane. If the slices have been taught carefully, the horse will also slow down and halt; relax (click&treat – turn around to deliver the treat). Repeat until smooth and ho-hum. Also use your ‘whoa’ verbal cue.

16. Now that the horse knows that flapping elbows means ‘slow down’ and possibly halt, we want to add a back-up while remaining in LP1. As you approach the lane, step into LP1 (using your signal). Walk into the lane, slow down, halt, and then energetically flap your elbows to ask the horse to move back a step or two before you halt. Drop your elbows; relax (click&treat – turn to deliver the treat). In the beginning, reward any indication that the horse is thinking ‘back’. Then use your voice and body languate ‘walk on’ signals to walk on out to your treat destination.

17. When 16. is smooth, ask for a few more steps of back-up before you relax (click&treat).

18. When you are smoothly getting several steps of back-up, work up to a series of ‘walk forward, slow to halt, back-up’ sequences before you walk to your relaxation and click&treat destination.

By now you may not need the rail on the ground but it is a good idea to work along a fence for a bit longer, to put the ideas into deep memory.

Ideally you can now signal the horse that you would like him to ‘follow you’ and he will slot in behind you. He will stay in LP1, slow as you slow and step back when you step back.

Generalization

Generalization often requires us to go back to early slices in order to build the horse’s confidence in new situations.

A horse’s confidence is highly dependent on context. He may do something perfectly ‘at home’ or in his initial training environment but be totally thrown by the same request in a different environment.

For generalization of LP1 we can play with:

  1. Different safe fence lines
  2. Away from fences
  3. New places
  4. Following us through narrow spaces
  5. Following us over water and unusual surfaces
  6. Following us through a pattern such as a weave, a U-bend, Z-bend or S-bend
  7. Following us in a circle
  8. Following us at liberty
  9. Following us at trot
  10.  Halt – walk – trot – walk – halt – back up transitions

I’m flapping my elbows to indicate to Boots that I would like her to back up.

Using LP1 to teach a new skill. She learned this quickly when coming through the curtain earned a click&treat.

Do let me know if you decided to take up this big piece of training or have already trained something similar.

Leading Position Seven

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I’m going to focus on Leading Position 7 next because Leading Positions 1 and 2 require us to be in front of the horse, facing away from him.

Leading Position 7 (LP7) has the handler face to face with the horse, either directly in front or a bit to the right or left of the horse’s head.

Remember that horses have a blind spot right in front of them for about 3 feet or a meter, due to the way their eyes are positioned at the side of the head. You can check this out for yourself by cupping your hands in around and in front of your nose to imitate a horse’s long nose. You will notice that you can no longer see right in front of yourself.

In order to feel safe in front of the horse facing away, we want to know that the horse backs up easily whenever we ask him to do so.

Face to face interactions include:

  • Greeting (horseman’s handshake).
  • Teaching the horse to put his nose on a hand-held target often has us standing facing. him, maybe at a bit of an angle.
  • Recall, e.g., asking the horse to come to us from the paddock.
  • Recall across unusual surfaces, and in a variety of other situations.
  • Rope Relaxation: tossing the rope around the horse’s head left to right and right to left.
  • Asking for back-up.
  • Protecting our personal space bubble while sharing time and space.
  • Backing up over a rail and recall over a rail.
  • Teaching sideways with the mirroring technique which can grow into a ‘square dance’ when it is paired with back-up and recall.
  • Teaching poll relaxation and flexion.
  • Tummy crunches

Greeting

When horses approach each other front-on, they usually greet by sniffing noses. If they don’t know each other, a sparring match might follow. If there is a sparring match, typically, one horse will strike out with a front leg. The other horse then retaliates or backs away.

Eventually one will capitulate and move out of range of the other. They may play a chasing game. Or they might both tire of the game and go back to eating or snoozing.

Two horses carefully checking each other out.

So it appears that a face-on approach from the front can be recognized as a greeting or a challenge/confrontation. If the horses belong to the same ‘in-group’, the approach from the front is usually a friendly greeting showing recognition. It resembles the smile and nod we exchange with colleagues at work. 

Once we have established a positive relationship with our horse, we can maintain the bond by offering the standard ‘Greeting’ every time we approach. We extend the back of our hand – which stands in for another horse’s nose. We allow the horse to close the last inch of the gap to touch our hand, then we carry on with our business, as would another horse in the herd.   

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We must let the horse close the final gap between his nose and the back of our hand.

If the horse is not interested in closing the gap to touch our hand, we have powerful feedback. For some reason, at that moment, the horse is not in the mood to greet us. The horse has spoken, but are we listening? We have an opportunity to reflect on why this might be.

We want to develop this into a habit for each time we visit with the horse. To teach the horse, we use the Greet & Go procedure. This seems deceptively simple, but it is extremely powerful to both establish and maintain the connection between the horse and the person.

Generally, horses are not comfortable with having people’s hands all over their faces to ‘say hello’. Horses don’t go around patting each other on the head. Getting people to stop doing this is quite a challenge.

This desire that people have to rub on a horsse’s face is a factor in the biting urge that some horses exhibit around people.

This is sometimes called “The Horseman’s Handshake”. As soon as Boots touched the back of Ada’s hand, Ada walked away. She is using the “Greet and Go” procedure. A greeting like this is the polite way to approach any horse. Once the “Greet and Go” procedure is well established, we can “Greet”, then carry on with what we plan to do with the horse.

Targeting: Teaching the horse to put his nose on a hand-held target often has us standing facing him, maybe at a bit of an angle.

We need to remember that horses have a blind spot right in front of them for about 3 feet or a meter, due to the way their eyes are positioned at the side of the head.

Teaching Back-Up Signals

Straight body with raised fingers tapping the air, plus a voice signal are our cues for backing up while in front of the horse. Here we are working on a straight back-up between two rails.

The following four short video clips show the many ways we can play with Leading Position 7. Be aware that sometimes I use a body extension to help amplify my signal to make it clearer for the horse. Once the horseunderstands what I am asking, the body extension is no longer needed. Eventually we can do most things at liberty with gesture and voice cues.

The body extension is never a ‘punishment’. It merely makes it easier for the horse to understand what behaviour will both remove the signal presssure (negative reinforcement) and earn the click&treat (positive reinforcement). It’s easy to use both methods of reinforcement at the same time. For some tasks, it makes out intention much clearer for the horse. Horses thrive an clarity. I know some people in the clicker training world find this highly problematic, but it doesn’t need to be. It depends on how much finesse, and how many different moves, we want to build into our training program.

Recall

Once the horse knows that a ‘recall’ signal (my rounded open arm position, leaning forward slightly, and voice cue) will result in a treat, we can practice from further and further away. For paddock recall, I use a whistle and reward the coming with an ample treat.

Boots likes to show off her ‘bow’ because she knows it always results in a treat .

Be sure to check out my blog number 13 (see the ‘Blog Contents Quick Links’ at the top of the page) for using thin-slicing to plan a Training Program. Each task or move you want to teach your horse needs careful consideration of how you will make it easy for the horse to understand what you want – you need to design a Training Plan for each task.

I’d love to hear which move you have chosen and how it is going.

How Clicker Training Influences our Training

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Clicker training teaches both the handler and the horse important things.

  1. The horse learns that the click means ‘Yes’ that’s right. That’s what I’m asking you to do.

Here I used click&treat to show Boots that what I want is for her to halt with her back feet in the square of squashed bottles.

2. The handler learns to look for and click&treat the slightest try in the direction of the desired behavior.

When first teaching about mats, we click&treat the slightest interest in the mat, even looking at it or approaching it or sniffing the edge of it.

Clicker training allows us to shape* behavior by ensuring that the horse can be continually successful. We do this by putting the following points into place.

[Terms with an asterisk (*) are further explained in the GLOSSARY section. The link to this is at the tip of the page.]

  1. We start with an end goal clear in our mind.
  2. We note what the horse is able to offer already.
  3. We work toward our goal through a series of ‘successive approximations’* which in plain English means gradual tiny changes toward our end goal.
  4. Each tiny change becomes the horse’s decision. He then ‘owns’ that change because he understands that he made a good choice because it earned him a click&treat.
  5. Unwanted behavior is ignored or re-directed. If we feel unsafe, we return to having a barrier between us and the horse.
  6. If the horse’s behavior makes us feel unsafe or frustrated, it is essential to go back to the place in our training where both horse and handler feel confident and comfortable. Then work forward again from there. If we feel unsafe or annoyed, the horse will pick up our feeling and also feel unsafe and want to leave (if he is in anxious mode) or take over (if he is in confident mode).
  7. It is important to thin-slice* end goals into the tiniest clickable moves that we can think of. It helps a great deal to create a written ‘Individual Education Program’ (IEP)* for each horse. We make revisions as we go along and learn via the feedback from each interaction with the horse. A written plan allows us to look back and review how well (or not) a particular horse responded to each slice of our Program. Being able to look back gives us more feedback so we can adjust the Individual Education Program (IEP).

As a thin-slicing example, let’s look at Pool Noodle Task we did for Horse Agility

The various ‘slices’ of this task build the horse’s confidence to walk through an overlapping horizontal pool noodle arrangement, so the horse is comfortable pushing through them with his chest. Each slice* could take a minute or a day, week, month of short, fun sessions. How long each ‘slice’ takes depends on many factors.

We know we can move on when the horse tells us, through his body language, that he is OK with each slice. Boots is already familiar with this sort of work because she was taught to pull a cart using positive reinforcement. A horse new to these concepts will probably need multiple short sessions for each slice*.

SLICES: The video that follows illustrates the slices* for this task.

1. Investigate the pool noodle (PN) in her own time with nose and feet.

2. Comfortable with PN rubbed all over her body, both sides.

3. Confidently pushes her chest into the PN, held by the handler, as they walk along together.

4. Confidently walks over the PN on the ground.

5. Confidently walks over the PN between the gap created by the uprights for the eventual task set-up of the pool noodles.

6. Confidently walks through the gap with one PN in place at chest height — in both directions.

7. Confidently walks through two PNs in place (slightly overlapping).

8. Waits when asked, while handler walks through the PN, then follows on request.

9. As 8, at liberty.

10. Add more pairs of PN, one at a time, until we have 5 pairs.

11. Trot through.

Every change we make is relevant to the horse. If we change something, we have changed a parameter*, and need to be aware of how the horse might perceive the change.  A parameter is something we keep constant during our interactions with the horse. It becomes a condition or action that the horse can depend on because it stays the same. When we change a parameter, we have to carefully teach the horse what the change means.

Number 8 in the Blog Contents List goes into more detail about parameters.

The parameter here is that when I stand doing nothing, looking nowhere and with my hands crossed across my belly, the horse is required to stand quietly, and hopefully relaxed, waiting for the click – this is DURATION at the halt..

That parameter can be changed/extended to include when I’m in a sitting position.

Confidence with Unusual Surfaces

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The key prerequisite for all the tasks shown in the clips below about UNUSUAL SURFACES is having first mastered smooth ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ transitions. If we have to first work on this prerequisite, we can do it using target destinations and training ourselves to be really clear when we are requesting ‘walk on’ and when we are requesting ‘halt’. Blog Number 16 in my Blog Contents Quick Links demonstrates. Below is a quick revision.

Walk-on Body Language

These four things are done all together – a ‘multi-signal’.

  1. Breathe in deeply (horses hear this) plus raise your torso and body anergy.
  2. Forward gesture with your outside hand. If you are using a hand-held target to first teach this, as in the video below, the action of moving the target forward into play will soon morph into just an arm signal.
  3. Step off with your ouside foot. It’s easier for the horse to see your outside foot moving forward.
  4. Use your chosen voice signal for ‘walk-on’.

Halt Body Language

These four things are done together – again, a multi-signal.

  1. Drain the energy from your body while you –
  2. Drop your weight down into your butt (as we want the horse to do when he halts)
  3. Breathe out loudly (horses hear this)
  4. Use your ‘halt’ or ‘whoa’ voice signal

The following clip was made to support relaxed foot care, so there is a bit at the very end about backing up to shift the horse’s weight

When ‘walk-on’ and ‘halt’ are solidly in place, we can carry on with unusual surfaces.

Thin-Slicing the 1m Board

Thin-Slicing Walking on Plastic Bottles

More About Unusual Surfaces and Backing Up

Other related blogs: You can find the links easily on my Blog Contents Quick Links page.

  • No. 9: Mats: Parking or Stationing and Much More
  • No. 10: ‘Zero Intent’ and ‘Intent’
  • No. 17: Destination Training
  • No. 26: Getting a Smooth Halt in Many Situations
  • No. 33: Willing Response to a Halt Voice Signal
  • No. 51: Reverse Pens
  • No. 68: 20 Steps Exercise
  • No. 101: Precision Leading

Also, all the routines in my book, Companion Horse Training Using Positive Reinforcement, refine the skills of walking with a handler. The book works through a series of activities that require minimal equipment (set of rags and a fence). They are designed to make the horse ‘handy’ and happy following our clear body language including turns and backing up.

Moving Away From Touch or Gesture

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In the photo above, Boots is lifting her foot in response to Bridget’s arm signal gesture and the intent of her body language. It makes hoof care so much easier.

Shaping with Touch Guidance

Research on dopamine release shows that knowing how to avoid or decrease a stimulus we don’t like gives a ‘reward hit’ to the brain, similar to how achieving something desirable feels rewarding. For example; stopping in time for a red light gives an instant feeling of relief and accomplishment.

This is why the training system made popular by Pat and Linda Parelli gave such ‘good’ results in teaching horses how to respond to human requests. People who have been considered ‘good’ horsemen over the years have used the same principle for millenia.

The principle is basically this: Use a consistent touch/gesture signal and remove the touch/gesture the instant the horse complies even just a little bit. Build from there with repeats until the horse responds readily because it understands the cue and the system. This is negative reinforcement – called negative because the touch or gesture energy is removed when the horse responds. The term ‘negative’ is here used in the mathematical sense. It is not related to it’s other common meaning of something ‘bad’.

BUT: It takes considerable skill in reading horses – to know when the horse remains in the learning zone, i.e. under threshold (see Number 107 in the Blog Quick Links for more about this) or has been pushed beyond threshold. Is the horse responding or reacting? If the handler is not sensitive and/or lacks experience helped by a good teacher, it can end up with a confused and unhappy horse. Also, the touch or gesture signal needs to be totally consistent so the horse can depend on it being the same each time.

Pressure is not a dirty word. Horses understand pressure. They use it with each other all the time. It is the nature of the pressure, plus when it is removed, that makes or breaks good training to create a horse confident with people.

Using touch/gesture pressure followed by a click&treat immediately the horse responds, is an essential step in teaching a horse to be resilient in a variety of human environments. We can’t know the future, If our personal situation changes, the horse may have to go elsewhere. If confronted by flood, fire, earthquake, the horse may need to be moved quickly.

Such teaching with negative reinforcement, backed instantly by positive reinforcment, is often called ‘combined reinforcement’. Some people refer to it as negative reinforcement ‘with a cherry on top’, as a way of discounting it. Yet, if we use a neck rope or headgear or our legs for riding, we usually want the horse to move away from our touch. It’s convenient to be able to touch the horse’s chest lightly to get a back up. Or to touch his leg for a lift if we want to tend the hoofs.

Gesture

Horses interacting with each other use gesture as a first communication. If the annoying horse does not move away, the gesture escalates gradually via touch with nose, teeth or hooves. The first suggestion might be a just a ‘look’ or an ear/tail flick. Play between youngsters is full of touch and gesture.

Because horse are super sensitive to movement, they easily pick up the meaning of a specific gesture if we use it with total consistency.

Once a horse understands our meaning:

  • Reaching down to his foot will have him lift a leg.
  • Fingers raised in front of him (far enough back to be out of his blind spot) and tapping the air at his eye level will have him back up.
  • A light touch or gesture to his shoulder will have him move it into a turn on the haunches.
  • A light touch or gesture (or even a focussed look) to the side of his rump will have him move it away into a turn on the forehand.
  • A light touch at (or gesture toward) his ribs will have him sidestep.
  • A light touch to his chest or nose will have him back up.

I taught moving the front end away into a turn on the haunches with touch to the neck and shoulder, but eventually only my focus and a gesture were enough of a cue.

Likewise, I used touch to teach a signal for moving the hind end away from me, but after a while my body orientation. intent and gesture, even from quite a distance, was enough of a cue, even when her front feet were on a pedestal.

A simple arm/hand gesture is enought to tell Boots that she will earn a click&treat for backing off the pedestal.

We spent several weeks perfecting backing between two tall objects at greater and greater distances. In the first photo I am looking toward her right butt to get it to straighten out so she doesn’t knock the barrel. No doubt this one earned a triple treat or a jackpot.

If you have an interest in seeing how we reached this stage in the photo above, I filmed most of the days we worked on this. We did a few repeats over many, many days. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHJTeGrtF98Pjy3zvmPhgBxBP6V3lwhkh

First we learned sidestepping along a rail with touch to shoulder and butt in rhythm. Once she had the idea, a light touch to the ribs became the cue. Eventually it only needed a gesture and my focus toward her ribs.

Eventually we didn’t need a rail to do side-stepping, which is a good suppling exercise.

Here I’m using a gesture as well as the idea of ‘follow the feel of the rope’ to teach a twirl. (See Blog Number 116 in the Quick Links.) Confidence with ropes touching the legs is another essential skill we should teach in a gradual, nuanced way. (Not starting with the above photo!). Before long, a voice and gesture signal were enough information for her and she would happily insert a couple of twirls into a recall. It became one of her favorite things to show off. Ample click&treat during the teaching process made it a favorite.

Here we are both doing a twirl or spin during our dancing routine. We are both turning to our right and seem to be in step. As she comes around I will click&treat. What began as a ‘follow the feel of the rope’ exercise morphed into just a combined hand and voice signal at liberty. It’s easiest for the horse if they are already in motion in a recall.

All these skills take time to develop, but are so much fun.

Guided Shaping of Voluntary Touch

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Guided shaping is when we set up the environment in a way that encourages the horse to offer a behaviour we would like to develop – in this case putting his nose on an object. We may have the horse on a halter and lead and give him a few ‘pointers’ along the way. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for the horse to figure out what will earn the clcik&treat (i.e., the behaviour we want.)

Here I’ve set up the environment for teaching relaxation in tight spaces – essential as a prerequisite for trailer loading. She is wearing a halter and lead, as we’ll usually have to do when trailer-loading. I’ve asked Boots to walk into the ‘dead end’ space where there is a nose target (white bottle) and given her a ‘wait’ signal. Then I walk behind her, then forward to her front again, before a click&treat. I want to be able to walk to the back and forward again at least three times without her wanting to back out, before I ask her to back out. When we load into most trailers we have to walk to the back (and out of the horse’s view) to shut the tailgate.

Shaping ‘Touch’ with Your Nose’

Targeting many different things to earn a click&treat does a lot to build a horse’s confidence. We usually start as in the fourth photo above, with a handheld target, and teach a ‘touch’ voice signal once the horse understands that putting his nose on an object will earn a click&treat.

Teaching confident touching of the nose to unusual objects and obstacles at our suggestion, is a good way to begin building confidence with new things. The more different positive ‘touch’ experiences the horse has, (built up with a little bit each session) the bolder he becomes.

If the horse is wary about putting his nose on the object you’ve chosen as your first target, It can help to rub fresh grass juices on it, or a wet peppermint, or a slice of apple, in order to increase their curiosity.

Once the horse understand the ‘touch’ voice signal using his nose, we can expland to touching other body parts to a target.

Teaching TOUCH with Other Body Parts

The goal behaviour here is to raise her knee to a target. This is an excellent skill to teach to develop the horse’s ability to shift his weight to achieve confident balance on three legs. It is a game changer when it comes to hoof care, because lack of balance on three legs training like this is the root cause of many horses’ struggle with hoof care.

The task in the photo above was begun by touching the target to the horse’s knee, click&treat. After a while, I held the target a fraction above the knee and the horse quickly learned to lift her leg to make the touch connection: click&treat. Then I could hold the target further up and she quickly learned to raise her leg higher. After a while I added our verbal signal (touch) to the action, and could simply use my hand as the target.

Eye to Hand

Boots targetting my hand with her eye. Very useful if we ever have to treat eye infection or injury. She also learned to target her ear so my hand, for the same reason. Some process as described above: touch eye/ear gently – click&treat. After a while, hold your hand a tiny distance away and wait for the horse to make the contact – click&treat.

Chin to Hand

Targetting her chin to my hand. Same process as above.

Using the process described, we can teach lifting the hind feet to a target (front feet = Number 59 in the Blog Contents Quick Links, and hind feet = Number 74) , moving the shoulder toward our hand (Number 27 in the Blog Contents Quick Links) , moving the hindquarters toward our hand (Number 28 in the Blog Contents Quick Links). Stepping back to touch our hand with his withers or his rump.

Stretching the neck to touch a target.

Neck Bending: I started by asking for just a slight bend to touch the target. Then as she understood the task, I gradually asked for a bit more.

Butt Bingo

Backing the butt to touch a solid upright: We started with safe fences, walls and hedges, then graduated to barrels, big cones, trees and things like this 4×4 post. It’s an important exercise if we want to put our horse in a trailer and close up behind. Here she looks rather proud of herself while she waits for me to deliver the treat after the click. We did one or two repeats of this, often, over a long time. It was a prerequisite for backing between the shafts of a cart, as in the photo below.

If we want to teach backing between shafts in preparation to teaching driving, we can use simulations like this that will come apart if the horse gets startled. I taught backing butt against many safe solid objects before adding the pretend shafts.

Months of preparation, with many stages, which started with just targeting all parts of the cart, allowed hitching up to be a relaxed process.

What will your horse voluntarily touch?

Have you taught ‘voluntary touch’ with any of his body parts other than his nose?

The blog below looks at Seeking the Horse’s Consent Signal, (also often called a Start Buttons or similar), which can fascilitate confident touching of various body parts to our hand.

Seeking the Horse’s Consent Signals

Following the Feel of a Touch Signal

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Application

In the photo above, we are doing a long-reining ‘change direction’ exercise. Because Boots knows how to ‘follow the feel’ of the slightest touch on the halter, we can long-rein a cloverleaf pattern using four rails. I only need to change my hand position slightly to give her the directional signals.

In the photo we’ve started at rail 2, will wallk across rail 4, arc right to walk over rail 1 followed by rail 3 (plus the other two rails lying there); arc right to walk over rail 4 followed by rail 2. Then arc right over rails 3 and 1; then arc right again and we’ve done the last leaf of the pattern and are in front of rail 2 ready to repeat turning to the left this time.

Following the feel of a touch signal is an essential skill the horse needs for leading with a rope and for using reins either riding or long-reining. And it is especially important if we go places where we have to tie up the horse.

Since we have no control of what the future may bring, for ourselves or the horse, it’s a skill we must teach early and to a high standard, so that in a situation of stress, or new ownership, the horse knows this response well.

With Positive Reinforcement

Ideally we teach a horse at liberty with targets, using body language, gesture and voice signals. This is what is shown in the four short video clips that follow.

When the horse shows us that he is ready, we add halter with rope and repeat the exact same exercises. In this way we teach that rope or rein pressure means move toward the pressure, so releasing it. The voice and hand gesture signals are excellent aids if we want to eventually ride bridle-less.

Teaching Soft Rope or Rein Response.

These clips look at teaching soft rope/rein response with the horse standing still. Once he understands this well, we introduce walking toward stationary targets at liberty, adding gesture and voice signals for ‘walk on’ and ‘whoa’, and changes of direction. Then we add the rope. By using our body language and voice signals, the rope basically stays slack most of the time. When we do use it to indicate change of direction, it takes just the hint of a touch.

It’s important to stay with each step of the training until the horse is comfortable with it, and responding ‘correctly’ each time. Be aware that external distractions can take his attention. If that happens, simply wait until his attention turns back to you. Boots, in the clips, was very focussed on what was earning each treat, and hightly experienced with clicker training.

Prerequisites

  1. If you don’t already have your horse loving to target mats with his feet, you start with targeting mats first (Number 9 in the Blog Contents Quick Links).
  2. if you have been using a long-handled target, get the horse hooked on a short, hand-held target.
  3. You may need to first spend time getting the horse comfortable standing in a corner by using your hand-held target. Standing in a corner makes it easier for the horse to understand the option (turning just his head toward you) that you want him to choose.
  4. The Anchor Task: in this case the the anchor task is horse standing beside you with his head forward. It is the key part of this exercise. It has to be solid before you begin asking for the ‘turn head’ request. It must be kept solid throughout the teaching exercises. Later, once you are moving with the horse, it’s no longer needed as much.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 4

Let me know if you have a go at teaching this, and how it is going. You can do it with a horse that already leads well, or with a horse new to training.

Free-Shaping

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Free-shaping means clicking and treating the moment the horse naturally displays a behaviour you want to encourage. The click&treat encourages the horse to repeat the behaviour that earned the treat.

The first free-shaping exercise most handers use is to hold (or set) out a target and wait for the horse to investigate it with his his nose = Click&Treat. Most horses pick this up quite readily. Many equine clicker trainers use it to teach their horse the meaning of the ‘click’ or whatever marker sound they are using. My older mare (with a chequered background before I got her) took nine short sessions over a week before she made the connection between her nose touching the target, the click, and the treat that followed.

Because it is the horse’s choice to do the task, they learn it readly because it was their idea in the first place. It gives them a sense of ‘agency’ – being in control. Like us, horses like to be in control of their lives.

Boots has to her nose on a stationary target. I clicked as her nose touched it and I walked to her to deliver the treat. Once the horse loves to do this for a click and treat, we can put such objects all around our training area and walk or trot between them to earn a click&treat at eachone. Also useful for ‘destinations’ when we begin leaving home. We can use destinations for groundwork and riding.

Using a hand-held target, It’s always wise to start out with ‘protected contact‘, i.e., the horse on the other side of a barrier. Until we begin clicker training, we have no idea how the horse will react to food treats from our hand. This is also the time to try out different treats .

Here I’ve created a barrier in a corner, which is another option if you don’t have a suitable fence handy, but with a new horse – maybe make the person’s space a bit bigger!

Your safety barrier for PROTECTED CONTACT does not necessarily have to be fancy.

If you can use electic fence tape for training, make sure the power is turned off during training time.

In this clip, I’m free-shaping head lowering.

Eventually we added a verbal signal, and a body language signal, so when I bowed, she bowed.

The following clip shows an alternative to hand-feeding while teaching the TARGET = CLICK = TREAT process.

In the next clip, I free-shaped step aerobics.

It’s also a possible way to build confidence with any tight space or a trailer.

In the next clip we are doing the 20 Steps Exercise. Depending on your starting point, it could take a few or many short sessions to get 20 smooth steps with one click&treat at the end. All you need is for the horse to willingly walk one step with you, click&treat, and work forward from that.

The next clip is a very early lesson in free-shaping Boots’ confidence moving along with a bicycle.

The following clip with the bicycle is much later.

The next clip is a demo of tummy crunches.

I learned this from Alex Kurland.

1. I began with the horse behind a low barrier. I stood at neutral (zero intent = Number 10 in the Blog Contents Quick Links) and watched casually (not staring at the horse) with a relaxed stance, watching to click&treat any upward or backward shift of weight.

2. I did this IN THE SAME SPOT for a minute or two once or twice a day, mainly right before afternoon feeding time. And as a ‘last thing’ at the end of a play session. Having usual times in the same place seems to make the horse look forward to having ‘another go’.

3. Once we were getting a purposeful weight shift back because she realized that’s what earned the click&treat, I sat down to bring the horse’s head a bit lower. Previously we had ignored head position as the horse was experimenting with different possibilities. When I sat down, she lowered her head position because the treats were offered lower. This developed over months and months.

4. At some point, the crunches became a part of her personal repertoire because she would offer them if she wanted to initiate an interaction. At this point I added a verbal signal/cue.

5. I’d never do more than about what is on this clip at one time.

6. Eventually I could ask for the crunches standing her shoulder, her butt and behind her, using the verbal signal (zzzip) plus my body language of leaning backwards. We had such a long and strong history of reinforcement that she readily adjusted to my different positions. She happily did it with a rider aboard as well.

Free-Shaping Boots doing a STRETCH:

Once Boots realized that her ‘downward dog’ stretch earned a click&treat every time she did it, she offered it frequently. I initially free-shaped it by noticing that she often stretched like this after getting up from a nap. I managed to ‘capture’ the behavior two days in a row, and she then began to offer it often enough so I could put a verbal cue to it – ‘Stretch’.

What sort of things have you free-shaped?

Part 2 of Relaxed Foot Care – the Hind Feet

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When the horse is comfortable picking up the front feet on request, we can proceed in a similar way with the hind feet.  We start as usual with the horse willingly targeting a familiar mat and able to stay parked on it.

Then we make sure the horse is comfortable being rubbed all over with a body extension, paying special attention to the belly and hind legs.

If the horse expresses concern about being touched with a body extension or with having a rope swung lightly around his hind legs, we’ve found a big training hole. It’s essential to go back and build the horse’s confidence about standing still while we do things around him.

Before we proceed with picking up feet, we need the horse calm and relaxed having his legs brushed with a soft brush right down to his feet. We want him to remain calm and relaxed when we rub and massage his legs all the way down.

To develop the idea of lifting a hind leg on signal, we can touch the hock gently with a target such as a pool noodle or a tomato stake with bubble wrap taped around it. Click&treat as we touch the hock. Repeat until we can hold the target a little above the hock and the horse lifts his leg to touch the target because he’s figured out that’s what causes the click&treat. Be careful to click as the leg is coming up, not on its way down.

The hock is a convenient point at which to teach a touch signal for lifting the hind feet. Bridget has asked Boots to target her hock to the body extension which is bubble wrap taped to a tomato stake.

Eventually we just have to point to the hind leg we want lifted.

Once leg lifting is well established, we generally use touch when we want to do foot care, like a farrier or hoof trimmer would expect. We always start with our hand at the withers, and run it across the horse’s back and down to his hock. This gives the horse time to shift his weight so he CAN pick up the leg on that side.

Bridget is running her hand down to the hock. Touching the hock is our signal to ask for a foot lift.

By the time Bridget reaches the hock, Boots has already taken her weight off that leg so she can pick it up and stay balanced.

Lifting feet is all about weight shifts. It needs to be taught carefully and systematically, making sure that the horse understands each slice of the process. By teaching targeting a body extension first, the horse figures out how to shift his weight and balance on three legs without other complications thrown in – like the foot being held, cleaned, trimmed.

Bridget has a willing hind leg lift and the horse looks balanced. Gradually, one second at a time, we built duration of keeping the foot up so we can clean, inspect, rasp, spray it.

Teaching relaxation with a hoof stand is the next set of slices. It can be helpful to have a calm helper to deliver the treats when you click.

Here I’m working on duration having the foot up and forward. For hoof officianados, you might notice how much better Boots’ heel buttresses are compared to earlier pictures.

Teaching the foot to lie backwards on the hoofjack. Note she is not standing squarely in front, which makes it harder for her.

It can be helpful, timewise, to be able to clean all the feet from one side. We draw the far foot, once offered, across behind the near leg.

Checklist

No.DETAILSTick
Prerequisites
1Handler & horse are clicker-savvy 
2Leads easily, halts promptly & backs up readily 
3Horse can park & be rubbed all over 
4Foot awareness with mats & other exercises 
5Brush legs 
6Rub legs with hands 
7Comfortable ‘foot care’ spot sorted 
8Stand squarely 
Major Slices for Building Front Foot Behaviors
1Lift knee to target an object: click for foot rising 
2Lifts knee to hand 
3Add in consistent voice signal 
4Handler faces tail to ask for knee to target hand 
5Catch & hold foot briefly: click before releasing 
6Hold foot for one second 
7Hold foot for two seconds 
8Gradually hold foot longer, one second at a time 
9Clean foot with stiff brush 
10Clean foot with hoof pick 
11Teach spray bottle confidence 
12Set foot in sling (or on knee) 
13Build duration of foot in sling or on knee 
14Bring foot forward onto a hoof stand or stump 
15Build duration of hoof brought forward 
16Back foot off hoof stand (no click&treat, just praise) 
Major Slices for Building Hind Foot Behaviors
1Confident with body extension rubbed over legs 
2Confident with brush and hands rubbing legs 
3Touch cap of hock with body extension for lift 
4Add voice signal 
5Lift hind foot with pointing 
6Run hand from withers to cap of hock – relaxed 
7Lifts foot with tap on hock & voice signal 
8Hold foot briefly; click; go to head to give treat 
9Hold foot one second; click; go to head to treat 
10Hold foot two seconds; click; go to head to treat 
11Gradually hold foot longer one second at a time 
12Clean hoof with brush 
13Clean hoof with hoof pick 
14Spray hoof 
15Clean both hind feet from one side 
16Rest hind foot in a sling 
17Bring hind foot forward onto a hoof stand 
18Build duration on the hoof stand 
19Teach ‘back’ signal for foot off stand (no click&treat) 
Generalizations
1Familiar mat in new spots 
2Familiar spot without mat 
3New spots without mat 
4Away from home 

Number 74 in the Blog Contents Quick Links (at the top of the page) takes you to the blog about ‘Counting with the Hind Feet’, which goes into detail. Here is the video from that blog, which is a quick summary of a year’s work.

Part 1 of Relaxed Foot Care: Front Feet

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In the photo above, Boots noticed that Bridget has the hoofpick and spray bottle in her hand, so she knows it is foot care time, and offers her foot.

‘All behaviors rest on an emotional ediface.’ I don’t know the source of this quote, but it underpins just about everything.

Our aim is to have the horse confidently lift each foot on signal and keep it up for as long as we need it.

Environment:

  • Work in a space familiar to the horse, where he is usually relaxed; buddies in view but not able to interfere. Horse is not hungry.
  • Horse at liberty or wearing halter and lead (not tied up). Halter and lead allow us to help him stand square. If the horse can’t stand quietly without being tied, that is a skill to work on first. A familiar mat gives the horse a destination spot for standing quietly. See Number 9 in the Blog Contents Quick Links ( at top of page) if you need to establish confident parking on a mat first.
  • Ensure the horse is warmed up a bit so it is easier for him to stand on three legs.
  • Ensure the horse is in a learning frame of mind. If not, encourage activity to use up adrenalin or do relaxing activities he knows well before starting.

It pays to remember that if you are nervous about picking up a horse’s foot, your anxiety pales into insignificance compared with how worried a horse might be if he has not been introduced to foot care with thought to his feelings.  

Some horses may have had a bad experience with a particular leg. Be aware that a reluctance to lift a foot, or keep it up, can be due to pain from an old injury, current sore muscles/joints and/or arthritis. 

Horses know that if their feet are compromised, they are close to death. It pays to teach ‘picking up feet’ carefully and thoroughly and not leave it to other people. By going through all the steps outlined below, we can also overcome our own natural fear and anxiety about getting hurt.

Our first job is to make sure we can rub and massage the front legs down to the heel with the horse able to stand still in a relaxed manner, totally confident that we are not going to hurt him. With some horses, to keep everything safe and low key, it’s a good idea to use a body extension to rub the legs. We can keep our body erect, stay relaxed, and use a high rate of reinforcement. If we are tense, the horse will be tense.

I’m using a pool noodle to get the horse used to having things rubbed on her legs, the back and front of each leg as well as up and down.

The rate of reinforcement must allow the horse to be continually successful. At first it might be a barely touch of the body extension to a front leg. We start where the horse is, and work forward from that point. See Number 5 in the Blog Contents Quick Links (link at the top of the page) for The Four Stages of Learning.

Use advance and retreat. That means start up high and move down a leg until one of you feels uncomfortable. When you reach either you or the horse’s threshold of comfort, retreat by moving back up to the withers, relax, then advance again. This is called a re-set. You know you have reached a threshold if you feel tension in the horse’s body or you begin to feel anxious or uncomfortable.

Every time we do a re-set, we have a new opportunity to clarify our signal and our intent.

The mindmap below looks at the the tasks involved with front foot hoof care. Note that the first stage, rubbing the length of the leg, is omitted – my mistake.

Stand Square: the prerequisite task of stepping forward and backward, one step at a time, ensures that the horse understands our request to stand squarely. It helps if we routinely ask for square halts in a variety of situations. Each square or almost square halt, on request, earns a click&treat.

Using a mat makes it easier because, as the mat-savvy horse approaches the mat, he knows he will halt with his front feet on the mat. In other words, he has time to mentally and physically prepare himself and often halts squarely to earn his click&treat. Remember, he has four limbs to organize!

When asking the horse to square up, slightly tilt his head away from the front foot you want him to move. Moving his head away frees up the shoulder so he can move the leg.

Knee-Lifts to Touch a Target

Always start by asking the horse to stand squarely. This will help him remain balanced when he lifts a leg.

If we touch a target item gently to the front of the horse’s knee, accompanied by a click&treat, most clicker-savvy horses will quickly learn to raise the knee to touch the target. First, touch it to his knee, click& treat. When that is well established, hold the target a little tiny bit above the knee. He will work out that raising his knee touches the target and earns a click&treat. If he doesn’t, go back to touching the knee gently, click&treat until he makes the connection.

A pool noodle, a plastic bottle attached to a light stick (e.g. bamboo), or a light stick with bubble wrap taped around it, are the sorts of items we can use for knee targets.

#89 HorseGym with Boots demonstrates. Work with just the front feet until you are both totally solid with them. More detail about hind feet will be in the next blog.

Front Feet

If you’ve taught your horse to target his knee to your hand when you stand near him, facing him, he will have already shifted his weight so he can lift his foot, and you can catch hold of his foot while it is in the air.

Some people choose to touch the chestnut as a signal for lifting the foot. If you start with your hand at the withers each time, the horse will most likely soon learn to shift his weight and be already lifting his foot when you reach the chestnut.

It can be handy to teach a concurrent verbal signal such as, ‘Lift’. This is also helpful when we ask the horse to step cleanly over a rail, forwards and backwards.

Before we can gain the horse’s confidence about trusting his foot to our care, we must build up our own confidence. The best way is to do it in short, 3-minute segments, working through a series of thin-sliced questions that might look like the list below for the front feet.

As you play with the slices listed below, you will be collecting feedback on how you feel about each slice, and how your horse feels about each slice. You stay with each slice until the answer to the question is, ‘Yes.’

It could take five minutes to get all ‘yes’ answers with one horse. With another horse, it could take a week or a month of brief 3-minute sessions to get all ‘yes’ answers.

Remember, warmed up muscles will find the strain of standing on three legs and holding up a leg easier.

The rate of reinforcement must allow the horse to be continually successful with what you are asking.

  1. Can I: gently & confidently rub his leg & foot all over with my body extension (stick, pool noodle)? If you can, practice on an experienced horse (or practice on a person) to get the feel for it, if this is new to you.
  2. Will my horse: let me rub his leg and foot with my body extensions? Make sure he is already comfortable with being rubbed over the rest of his body.
  3. Can I: confidently rub his leg & foot with my hand? Start at his withers and rub down only as far as you feel comfortable at that time. Over many tiny sessions, you will get the confidence to rub all the way down.
  4. Will my horse: let me rub his leg and foot with my hand?
  5. Can I: get him to stand so he is balanced before I want to pick up a foot? Have I taught him how to line up squarely to target his front feet to a mat, and/ormove forward and back one step at a time? If not, you want to teach that first.
  6. Will my horse pick up a foot when I ask him to target my hand with his knee … OR slices 7.-9.
  7. Will my horse: take the weight off his right front leg when I run my hand from his withers and down his leg?
  8. Can I: confidently ask him to pick up his foot by touching his chestnut?
  9. Will my horse: pick up his foot when I touch the the chestnut?
  10. Can my horse: keep his balance okay standing on three legs?
  11. Will my horse: let me hold his foot for one second before I release it back to the ground? (Click just before you release, then move to his head to deliver the treat.)
  12. Can I: let my hand and arm holding the foot swing freely with any movement the horse makes with his leg until it stops swinging, at which point I click, gently release the foot and move forward to deliver the treat? (I do this only if I’m feeling safe.) If you feel whole body tension in the horse wanting his foot back, I would release the foot and work on earlier steps. The horse has an emotional block somewhere and we need to winkle it out. (All behaviors rest on an emotional ediface.)
  13. Will my horse: gradually let me hold the foot longer and longer (one second at a time) and stay relaxed until I click&treat?
  14. Will my horse:  hold his foot up in a relaxed way for as long as I need it up, waiting for the click&treat?

Boots is targeting her knee to my hand. For the next slice, I would change my body orientation to stand beside her shoulder so when she lifts her foot it is easy for me to ‘catch’ it in my hand.

I build duration of keeping the foot up one second at a time, before I release it gently, followed by a click&treat.

It’s also possible to build duration by reaching back to deliver the treat while holding up the foot. Some people set up a raised tub into which they can toss the treat.

To Make Your Job Much Easier…..

Check out Number 59 in the Blog Contents Quick Links (see top of page), for Counting with the Front Feet. This exercise has the added benefit of developing the horse’s skill of organising his weight to stand on three legs, to a high level.

ROPE RELAXATION

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ROPES: It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of educating our horses to be totally comfortable with ropes. Our main enjoyment may be to play with our horse at liberty and teach everything using targeting, voice and gesture signals. But sadly, horses in captivity are totally dependent on people for their well-being. Other people may regularly handle our horse or something may happen so that help from other people is needed. In case of fire, flood, or if you are hurt, or your horse must be moved, he will need a solid foundation of rope confidence. If he is sold, we want him to be comfortable with ropes.

If we take our horse out into public places we need him to be relaxed on a lead rope. If we tie our horse up, we have to get him comfortable with that. Rope Confidence includes ropes moving around him, ropes constricting him and ropes touching all parts of his body. The same is necessary if you want to teach your horse long-reining and maybe driving. Sooner or later we are going to drop a rope or rein and it is better if the horse does not see this as a reason to panic, which can lead to running into or over fences, or danger on a road.

#121 HorseGym with Boots in clip called Stick and Rope Confidence shows a way to begin. https://youtu.be/WIpsT4PPiXo

We don’t have to begin with a rope.

There are several elements to Rope Relaxation. #22 HorseGym with Boots in a clip called Rope Relaxation shows some of the elements mentioned in the list coming up. https://youtu.be/6Y34VlUk0Iw

The last part of this clip shows building confidence with dragging ropes.

We want to gain the horse’s confidence to remain parked while we do the following activities.

  1. Swing a second rope (not attached to the horse) near him.
  2. Gently toss the end of a soft rope all over his body, including around behind, under the belly and around the legs. It should feel like horses standing tail to nose swishing flies off each other with their tails. Start with a second rope not attached to the horse, then graduate to using the end of a long lead rope.
  3. When the rope is attached to the horse, make sure you keep a constant drape in the part attached to his halter while you toss the other end around his body. You want to avoid putting touch pressure on the halter.
  4. Toss a coiled rope (not attached to the horse) in the air across him.
  5. Randomly drop a coil of rope (not attached to the horse) onto the ground in various positions around him.

We also want to continue building his confidence with the rope when we:

  • drag a second rope while we walk along with the horse on a loose lead as in the second video above.
  • attach a second rope to the horse’s halter which he drags while we walk with him on a loose lead, including walking curves and corners where the dragging rope may touch the horse’s feet or legs, as in the second video above.
  • If the horse has reason to move when his rope is attached and dragging, we want him to be calm about it.
  • And eventually, with careful shaping, we can leave the horse ground-tied in different situations.

I’ve created a reason for Boots to walk forward dragging her rope on her own, so if she is ever in that situation, it is not unfamiliar.

Eventually we can practice ground-tying in different situations. The dropped rope and the gesture/verbal WAIT signals tell her that staying in place will eventually earn her a treat.

Here is the link to the complete ‘Ground Tying‘ BLOG: https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2019/10/31/ground-tying/

The Importance of Pause and Wait

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In the photo above, Bridget and Boots are at ‘pause and wait’ while I explain the next part of their task.

How does our horse know when we want him to stand relaxed beside us or when we want him to do something?

It is essential that we learn to manage our body langue to make it crystal clear to the horse when we are asking him to do something and when are in pause/no intent/ relaxed mode.

Horse sensitivity to the body language and intent of others is much more refined than ours because it is their primary language. In humans this ‘reading of body language’ has been dulled because we talk so much.

But we can stop talking and become aware of what our body language is saying to the horse. Body Language includes our orientation to the horse, our energy level, our breathing rate, our heart rate, our body temperature – these all communicate our level of calmness or agitation to the horse. To that we add the intent we hold in our mind.

Once we have a good awareness of our body language, we can begin to use its different aspects to communicate more clearly with our horse.

No Intent

In the photo above I am standing at ‘pause’. My orientation is not directed at the horse, my energy is down. I’m looking nowhere. My hands are quiet laid across my belly. My shoulders are relaxed. My breathing is slowed down, which also lowers my heart rate. My mind is quiet, not thinking of the next thing to do. This posture shows the horse I have no ‘intent’, allowing her to also relax into the ‘wait’ time.

Intent

In the photo above, my body language expresses clear intent that I would like Boots to step across the barrels. My focus is where I want her to go. I’m indicating ‘walk on’ with my outside arm and I’m stepping along with her.

Emotion Exercise

Find a stick and an inanimate object you can hit hard with the stick.

First, hit the object as hard as you can three times. Channel a time when you were angry or frustrated and put those feelings into thrashing the object. Your breathing, blood pressure and temperature will go up.

Second, kneel down beside the object and caress it lovingly. Channel your soft feelings for your horse or any other living creature. When you feel nicely relaxed, go back to hitting the object violently three times. Then kneel down and caress it lovingly.

Repeat a few times. Be sure to do this where it won’t upset your horse, dog, chooks, children, friends, partners, passer-byes or and other farm animal in the vicinity.

Take note of how your emotions mirror your actions. Keep this awareness. Horses need us to be calm and collected, especially when things go awry. If we are not calm and collected then the horse has no chance of being so.

No Intent

We can express ‘pause’ or ‘no intent’ sitting down.

Intent

My energy is up, I’ve asked her to walk with me and and while I maintain the increased energy and keep moving, she will move with me. When I come to a halt, I first drop my energy, release a long breath out and drop my weight down into my butt. And because I’m human, I also say, “Whoa”.

Strongly Reward the Pause or Wait Time

It makes sense to click&treat when the horse moves in the way we are asking. It makes equal sense to reward when the horse can relax into a pause/wait. We are not doing nothing. We are teaching active inaction. It can be difficult for horses to learn when most of their interactions with people caused movement or pain or restriction.

If you have already taught your horse to enjoy putting his front feet on a mat to earn a click&treat, use the mat to start building duration of the pause/wait.

Eventually we can incorporate ‘parking spots’ and have the horse WAIT while we stand in different positions around him. I am in my ‘no intent’ pose in a position where she can see me in her peripheral vision. It takes time to build up the duration. In each new spot start again with a few seconds and work forward from that.

Use a High Rate of Reinforcement

If the horse can stand still for 1 seconds, click&treat. Pay attention to your own body language. Start with whatever time the horse can offer, adding one second at a time before a prompt click&treat. Make sure the horse is not hungry and not needing to move to release pent-up energy.

Keep sessions short enough to maintain calm (you and the horse). Do some ‘pause and wait’ every time you are with the horse.

This video clip looks at using a mat to build duration. Number 9 in the Blog Contents List (link at the top of the page) has a number of detailed videos about using mats.

This video looks at staying parked while the handler moves further away.

A couple of more recent clips.

Precision Leading

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Synchronicity is a fundamental horse behavior. Horses living naturally stay in visual contact and move together. A warning snort by one horse will immediately alert all other horses within hearing. One horse startled into action will immediately be joined by the rest of his group. The body awareness of horses, like that of schooling fish and flocking birds is so acute that even at top speed on uneven terrain they don’t run into each other.

Horse body awareness is so well developed that even in full flight they do not run into each other.
Photo by Gigi on Unsplash

It’s possible for us to become part of this incredible sensitivity if we train ourselves to become clear and totally consistent with our body language. Once a horse realizes that our body language is significant and reliable, he tends to watch it closely. If we systematically strive to improve our body language, we will reap the benefits when we lead our horse.

We inevitably need to lead our horses from A to B. We might be leading our horse:

  • Between paddocks.
  • Between stable and paddock.
  • Into and out of stalls.
  • To and from our training area.
  • Along a road or track for a walk.
  • Alongside other horses.
  • On the uneven road verge or ditch if large or unusual traffic comes along.
  • Through gates of varying width.
  • Through a narrow space.
  • In a new area the horse has not seen before.
  • Into a familiar area which suddenly has new things in it.
  • Up and down slopes.
  • Around obstacles.
  • Through water.
  • Across ditches or gullies.
  • Into and out of a truck or trailer.
  • Around a vet facility.
  • Between cars and horse trailers.
  • Past or among strange horses and strange people.
  • Past pigs or donkeys or other animals unfamiliar to the horse.
  • Past loud or aggressive dogs.
  • Near children.
  • If we take our horse for walks, we may be in bush or forest with logs to step over, water to cross, other trail users to meet and pass.
  • If we trail ride, we may have reason to dismount and lead the horse in narrow, unusual and sometimes dangerous places with poor footing.

I’m sure this is not an exhaustive list, but it makes the point that it is definitely in our interest, and in the horse’s interest, to make precision leading part of our horse’s repertoire.

The ‘gates’ in this exercise are pairs of markers set up in a random pattern. The task is to organize the approach to each gate, so the horse can navigate it fluidly. We start with the gates well spread out and roomy to walk through.

I’m using a variety of markers to create a series of ‘gates’. The direction of our body axis is essential information for the horse to know whether he will be going straight, turning toward us or making a counterturn to head toward the next gate (as in video below).

This first short video looks at how we can use clear, consistent changes of our body’s axis as a major signal for the horse.

As always, there are quite a few PREREQUISITES. If you want/need to review any of the key prerequisites, I’ve put direct links to them at the end of this blog.

PREREQUISITES:

  • Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals in a relaxed manner.
  • Horse responds to soft rope signals.
  • Horse backs up willingly with the ‘finesse back-up’ and/or ‘shoulder-to-shoulder back-up‘
  • The horse understands the significance of the handler clearly changing his/her body axis to indicate direction.

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. A shorter 8-foot lead makes it easier to keep a soft drape in the rope.
  • A series of five or more gates made with pairs of markers such as cones, tread-in posts, pieces of firewood, rocks, containers of water (5-liter plastic containers of water are especially useful), barrels, jump stands, rags – anything that is safe to use.
  • Each time we set up this exercise, we can put the gates in a different configuration. The number of gates is only limited by the size of the training area.
  • Once well established at home, we can expand the idea to new venues.

AIMS:

  1. Handler uses clear, consistent orientation, gesture, voice and halter-touch signals that allow the horse to smoothly navigate through each gate.
  2. Horse begins to seek out the next gate by reading the handler’s body language and gesture signals.
  3. Clear communication for:
  • Walk on through the gate.
  • Halt between the ‘gate’ markers.
  • Halt and back through the gate.

VIDEO CLIP:

#158 HorseGym with Boots: PRECISION LEADING

NOTES and SLICES:

  • Very short frequent sessions work best. Stay with each slice until it feels ho-hum to both of you.
  • Before asking the horse to negotiate the gates, walk through them yourself and visualize the order in which you will ask the horse to do them. Also explore the best way to approach each gate from various directions. The less hesitancy in your actions, the easier it will be for the horse to read your intent*. It’s fun, and hugely helpful, to have a second person be your pretend horse. Even better is for you to be the horse and have a friend guide you through the gates using body language only.
  • Set out five or more gates well spread out, with a good-sized gap for each gate so it’s easy for the horse to walk through.
  1. Walk to each gate in turn and ask the horse to halt between the markers; click&treat each halt. If he wants to stop to sniff and investigate any of the markers, allow him all the time he needs to satisfy his curiosity. Wait with zero intent* for an ‘okay to proceed*’ signal. [Terms with an Asterix (*) are defined in the glossary which you can access through the link at the top of the page.] In this situation, the ‘okay’ signal is when the horse brings his attention back to you. He may also sigh or breath out audibly.
  2. When 1 is smooth, halt in every second gate you come to; click&treat.
  3. When 2 is smooth, halt in every third gate you come to: click&treat.
  4. As the horse shows he is ready to do more, carry on adding one more gate before the halt followed by click&treat, until you can do a whole series with one click&treat at the end of the series.
  5. When 4 is good on one side of the horse, start again with slice 1 on the other side of the horse.
  6. When 4 and 5 feel smooth and light, ask the horse to back up two or three steps after a halt in a gate. Work up to a series of occasional ‘halts followed by a back-up’, in-between walking forward through the gates.
  7. Mix up:
    • Walking straight through gates.
    • Halting in a gate and walking on.
    • Halting in a gate and backing up.
    • Trotting through some or all the gates.
    • Put gates in different venues and/or use different markers.
  8. We can also use the gate as a stopping place to practice the WAIT.
Pausing in a ‘gate’ to play with increasing the duration of the WAIT GAME.

LINKS TO PREREQUISITES

Zero Intent and Intent: https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2018/11/30/dec-2018-challenge-no-intent-and-intent/

20-Steps Exercise: [#68 in the Blog Contents List] https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2020/09/05/20-steps-exercise/

Smooth Walk-on and Halt Transitions: [#16 in the Blog Contents List.] https://wp.me/p4VYHH-5TT

Soft Response to Rope Signals exercise: [#86in the Blog Contents List.] https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2022/01/03/developing-soft-response-to-rope-rein-pressure/

Smooth 90-degree Turns: [#31 in the Blog Contents List.] https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2019/06/29/smooth-90-degree-turns-handler-on-the-inside/

Smooth Counter Turns: [#35 in the Blog Contents List.] https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2019/09/30/smooth-counter-turns/

Weave Prep – more detail about using our body axis orientation. [My YouTube playlist called Weave and Tight Turns contains more clips about how I gradually developed these skills]: https://youtu.be/dQ4Qkz74pcQ

Finesse Back-Up: [#40 in the Blog Contents List.] https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2020/02/02/finesse-back-up/

Mat Madness

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In the photo above, I’ve asked Boots to put all four feet onto our plywood mat.

With so many new people taking up equine clicker training, I will find some of my favorite blogs from years ago when I started sharing them. The first video clip below demonstrates 22 different tasks we can play using a mat as a focal point. A mat allows us to have a specific conversation with our horse. If we have an exact idea of what we’d like, it is easier to shape the horse toward our goal and reinforce him for each small slice toward the goal behavior. Some further relevant YouTube clips are listed at the end.

Different types of mats are best suited to particular tasks. In this clip we use a plywood board, an old bath mat and pool flotation mat. Rubber door mats are good in that they don’t bunch up like the bath mat does.

The challenge for you is to choose one task and create a training plan to teach the horse as seamlessly as possible. When your first task is mastered, choose another one. Some tasks are much more complex than others. Most of them (but not all) require the horse to know the task before adding the mat into the picture.

Hints: Start with what the horse can already offer. Work in multiple mini-sessions. Three attempts are often ample for one mini-session. Stop when you get a good response or ‘try’. Maybe you can fit several mini-sessions into one longer session when you are doing chores other things with the horse. Work on new tasks one at a time.

Experiment until you and your horse agree on a clear signal for each task. Pay attention to your consistency using the signal. I struggle with staying consistent, but when I achieve it, things suddenly get much better.

Some people life to teach everything at liberty. I like to start most things with halter and lead so I can easily give the horse more clues about what will earn the click&treat, causing less frustration.

List of 22 Tasks: The list below is in the same order as shown on the clip.

1. Horse targets mat as his own idea, at liberty. https://youtu.be/xMaZWt5gK2o

2. Use a gesture to send the horse to a mat.

3. Walk together around the mat before asking the horse to target the mat.

4. Person asks horse to wait, goes to stand on the mat, then returns to the horse.

5. Person asks horse to wait, walks to stand on the mat, then asks horse to recall to the mat.

6. Mat moved to a different venue, encourage horse to target the mat at liberty.

7. Short recall to the mat, handler facing the horse but not standing on the mat.

8. Short back off the mat; handler facing the horse.

9. Back off the mat; handler shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse.

10. Back off the mat; handler behind the horse.

11. Handler on the mat, horse circles to the right and left and halt on the circle.

12. Front feet stay on the mat, yield the hindquarters, from right and left sides.

13. Walk across mat and halt with hind feet on the mat.

14. Yield hindquarters off the mat, from right and left sides.

15. Yield hindquarters onto the mat, from right and left sides.

16. Yield forequarters off the mat, from right and left sides.

17. Yield forequarters onto the mat, from right and left sides.

18. Left front foot onto a mat.

19. Right front foot onto a mat.

20. Right hind foot onto a mat.

21. Left hind foot onto a mat.

22. Handler in front of the horse, ask horse to back both hind feet onto the mat.

These clips may also be helpful or interesting.

#9 HorseGym with Boots, Putting the Mat Target on Cue (on Signal). https://youtu.be/eEGayCdECeQ

#10 HorseGym with Boots, Generalizing Mats. https://youtu.be/wdptBQ0EtK4

#11 HorseGym with Boots, Mat-a-thons. https://youtu.be/Lj9xrwVtRUQ

#15 HorseGym with Boots, Parking with Duration & Distance. https://youtu.be/CYJwu-CyIVE

Starting with a Shy or Timid Horse

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Introduction

It’s tempting to think of horses as big, strong creatures – which they are. But in reality they are just giant squirrels, constantly on the lookout for danger and aware that flight is their best response to anything unusual. So building confidence with every new situation is everything.

Eternal vigilance is what keeps prey animals alive.

A Familiar Feed Dish

Using a familiar feed dish can help if we are working with a shy or timid horse, or one unused to humans. We can use free-shaping to capture the behavior of taking a treat from the feed bucket. If he is not yet interested in eating carrot or apple strips, use handfuls of soaked chaff or whatever bucket-food he is getting, or twists of good quality hay, or freshly plucked long-stemmed grass if you have access to this.

Here is the Thin-slicing for a Possible Training Plan.

  1. Place the feed dish between you and the horse. The horse’s response will show you how close you can be without causing him to move further away. 
  2. While watching the horse, be careful not to stare directly at him, but to turn a bit sideways to him and observe him discretely with your peripheral vision.
  3. Wait in a relaxed manner until the horse looks at the feed dish – click and quietly move to the feed dish and toss in a treat. Then immediately move twice as far away as your former position, giving the horse more than the personal bubble size he needs to feel safe enough to approach the feed dish. It’s good if the treat makes a sound when it hits the dish. If the wait time is quite long, take a chair. Sometimes a person sitting in a chair is less threatening than a standing person.
  4. Wait for the horse to retrieve the treat. If he can’t do it yet, move further away or go do something else and come back later. He’ll usually check the dish while you are away.
  5. Approach the feed dish until the horse moves away (if he hasn’t already). As soon as the horse stops moving away, stop as well and shift your body sideways so you are not directly facing him. Watch for him (without staring at him) to look at the feed dish – click as soon as he does and quietly move to the food dish and toss in a treat, then glide away again to a distance that respects the horse’s current personal bubble.
  6. Repeat 10-20 times or as long as the horse shows interest. He will gradually begin to connect the click with the food treat about to be tossed into his dish.
  7. Each horse is different. Some horses easily shrink the size of the space they need to feel safe and soon approach the dish readily. Others will find it harder to build confidence.
  8. It’s possible to do this procedure on the other side of a fence from the horse. This is protected contact for us, but it can also make the horse feel safer from his point of view.
  9. Gradually we can shift the ‘click point’ to wait for a step toward the food dish, then sniffing the food dish. At the same time, we may be able to gradually decrease the distance we have to move away before the horse will retrieve the treat.
  10. Eventually we can sit in a chair with the bucket near us, then right beside us, then on our lap and the horse will come to retrieve his treat from the bucket.
  11. From there, we can introduce our hand into the bucket and get him used to the idea that he can pick food off our hand.
  12. Eventually we can dispense with the bucket.
  13. It’s essential to work with each horse’s timeline, no matter how long it takes. Each horse is unique. If we give him the time it takes to make up his own mind that approaching the dish (and eventually us) results in good things, he will have a positive outlook to our presence.

The treat has been dropped into the green bowl and now the person will move away just a step or two because the horse is confident enough to come to the bucket as soon as he knows a treat has been put into it.

Putting Slow Dancing Together, plus Extras

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When I teach these maneuvers, I teach them one at a time. Then we begin to link two of them together. For example, I do the Do-Si-Do so I can repeat the Line Dancing in Position with the Front Feet on the other side of the horse. But doing the line dancing on the other side could easily fit in after one of the Recalls to Heel, presuming we remember which side we did the first time – something I tend to forget.

Most days I practice a few of the tasks, or some aspects of a task, but I’m careful not to do too much of one thing. Now and then I put a lot of them together.

By regularly returning to each task on its own, as well as to different combinations of two or three of the tasks, we keep the whole thing fresh.

We can put the slow-dance routine together in any order that we like. We want to keep it fun for us, as well as keep our horse supple and interested.

Perfection is Not in the Equation

Perfection is never part of the equation. Some days things will go smoothly, other days they won’t. People and horses have good days and less good days.

Simple Bow

We developed the Simple Bow which gives us a consistent way to begin a series of Slow Dancing movements and a way to let the horse know that we’ve come to the end of a sequence.

The Simple Bow – fun to use as a start and finish for our Slow Dancing routines.

SUMMARY OF THE TASKS

This is a review of the ten Slow Dancing tasks we developed over the year. I’m sure there are others you can also incorporate.

This video clip shows an example of the whole routine. #282 HorseGym with Boots: Whole Slow Dance Routine at Liberty.

Accurate Placing of Feet

We started with a review of placing the feet accurately using a rail on the ground. As well as make the horse more aware of what each foot is doing, it is a nuanced exercise that helps the handler become more aware of their orientation to the horse as well as their body language, energy level, gesture, voice and touch signals.

We have halted with one front foot over the rail.

Line Dancing in Position with the Front Feet

Next we looked at Line Dancing in Position with the Front Feet. In moderation, this a good exercise to keep suppleness in the horse’s amazing shoulder musculature.

Line Dancing in position with the front feet. Doing it regularly on both sides gains and maintains symmetry.

Do-Si-Do

We then looked at the Do-Si-Do, which is a yield of the hindquarters, then bringing the front of the horse past us so we end up on his other side, followed with a yield of the forequarters. I often fit it in as our second task because it allows us to do Line Dancing in Position with the Front Feet on the horse’s other side.

It can take a while to get this flowing nicely but once it does, it’s a great stretching exercise. And it helps handlers develop super awareness of their body position and timing.

Do-si-do: This is hard to show with still shots. I’m asking for a hindquarter yield on the horse’s right side. As she comes around, I step back (third photo) so she she can bring her head in front of me and put me in her left eye, at which point I will ask for a forequarter yield. In this case we would finish up facing the cows.

From our position shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse, we can ask for half a hindquarter yield so we end up face-to-face with the horse, which sets us up for the Recall and Back-Up In Rhythm or any of the face-to-face tasks.

Recall and Back-Up in Rhythm

Once we have established a back-up signal while face-to-face with the horse, we add the recall. It is a fairly sophisticated exercise. It is valuable because it asks the horse to shift his weight and balance backwards and forwards in a quiet, no-stress context. Once the horse is adept at this, it’s fun to do a few of these whenever we have the horse warmed up.

We teach the ‘wait plus recall’ and the ‘back-up’ separately, then put them together.

Sidestepping Face-to-Face

While we are face-to-face with the horse, it is easy to morph from Back-Up and Recall into Sidestepping Face-To-Face. First we carefully teach the horse how to smoothly move sideways keeping his body straight while we are in position beside his ribs. Once the horse understands the concept and a voice signal, it is not hard to teach the same movement while we are facing him.

This exercise helps suppleness of the hip as well as the shoulders. If the horse finds it difficult in either direction (or both), it usually indicates chronic stiffness or possibly new or residual soreness. A little bit often (if the horse is not showing soreness) is a good idea, but only if the horse is already warmed up with straight-line walking and trotting.

You can see by her tail that this is demanding physical and mental work. She is doing such a good job of keeping her body straight. I only ask for a few steps each direction before a click&treat.

Recall to Heel

We ask the horse to WAIT and walk a short distance away. From WAIT, we Recall the horse who walks to us, then past us on one side, makes a U-turn behind us so he ends up standing beside our shoulder on the other side (‘at heel’).

Boots walked toward me, moved past my right shoulder, turned 180 degrees behind me to end up alongside my left shoulder.

We also sometimes play with making the U-turn staying on the same side. When the horse is standing beside our shoulder, we can easily move into The Spiral.

The Spiral

The Spiral is a task my horse Boots made up for us and for some reason she seems to like it a lot. We had spent quite a bit of time walking spiral circles, making each time round the circle either larger or smaller.

Just for fun one day I wanted to see how small we could get the circle. We ended up with my back tight against her shoulder, turning on the spot while she curved around me as much as a horse is able to curve. The big celebration and triple treats telling her how clever she was probably set it up as a future favorite exercise.

As long as we stay within the horse’s ability to bend comfortably at the hip area, and ensure that the horse is already warmed up, it is a fun task to do often.

We start with a large circle and gradually make the circle smaller until we can turn on the spot with the horse moving tightly around us. If the horse is not able to keep his hind end on the arc of the circle, we are asking more than he is able to do at the moment. Done regularly, flexion usually improves if pain or past injury is not a factor.

Balancera

The Balancera exercise is another of our favorites. We built it up slowly with many short practices over the years. It is physically the same as the Back-Up and Recall except that the handler is at the horse’s shoulder. The main difference is that we start with several steps forward (I use between 3 and 10) followed immediately by the same number of steps backing up.

To turn it into the Balancera task, we repeat with one less step forward and backward each time until we are rocking forward one step and rocking back one step. It is another unique ‘balance shift exercise’ done in the context of quiet concentration. I count the steps out loud and the horse seems to hone in on the sound of the numbers.

Here we are in the process of shifting our balance from walking forward to walking backwards. I have dropped my weight into my hips and am raising my outside hand to signal for backing up. We do one less step each time until we are doing one step forward and one step back. This exercise helps the horse become a master at reading our body language and intent. Start with a high rate of reinforcement and only a few steps.

Line Dancing Shoulder-to-Shoulder

The Balancera has us in position beside the horse’s shoulder, which is where we need to be to do Line Dancing Shoulder-To-Shoulder. Our usual body orientation when asking the horse to sidestep is probably facing his ribs.

It’s not too hard to stay shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse instead. We have to adjust the way we give the signal to let the horse know our intent. We need the signal different from the signal we use for Line Dancing in Position with the Front Feet.

In this frame, with the very interested cattle, Boots is sidestepping toward me. I found staying shoulder-to-shoulder for this part harder because our signal is my raised hand for her to target. It can get smoother once a voice signal is well established. We often practice this with a rail under the horse’s belly, which gives the horse a destination – i.e. click and treat once past the rail.

The Twirl

This brings us to the tenth Slow Dancing task, which is The Twirl. For this we leave the horse in a Wait and walk away so we can face the front of the horse with space between us (as we do for the Recall to Heel).

When Boots first learned this, it remained one of her favorites for a long time and she is always happy to do it. When we play the ‘Send Out at Trot, then Recall‘ game, she will easily do three twirls on the way back to me.

For the Slow Dance routine, we do The Twirl slowly. As she does her turn I also turn 360 degrees and we end up face-to-face again; click&treat. The task can be generalized across a longer distance and at trot.

Boots is doing a turn on the forehand (twirl) while I also spin around. Note how carefully she keeps her ear and eye on where I am. As she comes around we celebrate the effort with a click&treat. This became one of her favorites when we first learned it and I had to promptly put it ‘on signal only’, so she didn’t randomly show it off to people and startle them.

Extras

The Twirl and the Whole Sequence

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INTRODUCTION

In the photo above I am doing my twirl at the same time as Boots is doing her twirl. She is always careful to keep an eye and ear back so she knows where I am. As soon as she comes around to face me again she earns a click&treat.

The ‘twirl’ in this context is a turn on the forequarters. A ‘spin’ usually describes a turn on the hindquarters.

It’s great fun to recall our horse and ask him to do a twirl as he comes in. Once Boots knew this task, she enjoyed showing it off, at walk and trot.

The Twirl is the last task of the dance sequence we worked on for the year. Now we can chain all the tasks together. At first we did the tasks in the same order each time. Eventually we could mix them up.

AIMS

  1. To have the horse able to remain calm and connected when we touch a rope to his legs and wrap a rope around his body.
  2. As the horse recalls at liberty, we have a signal for the horse to do one or more twirls during his approach.

PREREQUISITES

  1. As usual, we must have each of the prerequisites in excellent shape so we can smoothly build this multi-part task.
  2. Horse is relaxed with a long rope moved along and wrapped around his body and tossed over his head. #22 HorseGym with Boots: Rope Relaxation. https://youtu.be/6Y34VlUk0Iw. And #121 HorseGym with Boots: Stick & String Confidence. https://youtu.be/WIpsT4PPiXo
  3. Horse and handler have developed a good WAIT. Number 65 in my Blog Contents List. (The link to this is at the top of the page).
  4. Horse responds readily to handler’s ‘recall’ signal. Number 90 in my Blog Contents List. This training plan details mainly teaching the recall. https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2022/05/01/recall-back-up-in-rhythm/. Also: Simple Recall Part 1 at https://youtu.be/XuBo07q8g24. And #240 HorseGym with Boots: Wait and Recall. https://youtu.be/_gxXZ7J7eAE

VIDEOS

#256 HorseGym with Boots: Teaching the Twirl. https://youtu.be/tenhwp6tQmI

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT for THE TWIRL

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed and ideally can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.
  • Horse and Handler are clicker savvy.
  • Horse in a learning frame of mind.
  • Handler is relaxed.
  • Halter and long lunge line or similar, long enough to wrap right around the horse.

NOTES

  1. As with all our training, this is a task to build up slowly over time, so the horse looks forward to it because it results in a click&treat that he enjoys.
  2. Two or three repeats each training session is plenty. Over weeks and months, it will become a solid part of your repertoire.
  3. If things don’t go well, work out which of the prerequisites needs more development. Complex interactions with our horse simply consist of the basics done really well.
  4. The beginning of video #256 shows a fun way of doing a twirl using a food lure. But I don’t recommend this. To teach a twirl while the horse is moving toward us, or even from a halt standing in front of us, it is much easier for the horse to understand if food only appears at the end of the twirl via a regular click&treat.
  5. Often the most recent thing we are working with becomes the horse’s favorite thing to show off. Be aware that your horse may want to show off his twirl when you are not prepared for it, especially if other people are nearby. He can run his butt into you without meaning to. Also, other people might be threatened when the horse offers to move his butt this way. In other words, be prompt about putting the twirl ‘on signal’ or ‘on cue’. Don’t reward it unless you’ve asked for it.

SLICES

  1. Once the horse is comfortable with a rope touching him all over his body (Prerequisite 1), attach one end to his halter and bring the rope around behind him and along his other side as shown in the video clip.
  2. Ask the horse to wait with the rope around him. Click&treat staying at zero intent, starting with one second and building up to about five seconds.
  3. Face the horse and introduce an arm/hand gesture and a voice signal as you apply a halter touch signal via the rope to cause the horse to turn away from you and turn on the forehand until he faces you again. Click&teat (major celebration).
  4. Each session with the horse, repeat 3 above two or three times. As the horse begins to recognize your arm/hand and voice signals, ease off on the halter pressure via the rope until you no longer need to use it.
  5. Ensure that your basic RECALL is smooth (Prerequisite 3).
  6. When 4 above is smooth, play without the lead rope and slot in a little recall before you ask for the twirl. If it falls apart, simply and quietly reset to using the wraparound lead rope again, as lightly as possible. Horses learn at different rates and handler skills are variable. Usually if we strive hard to perfect our own skill with giving clear, consistent signals, the horse magically improves.

GENERALIZATIONS

  1. Play in different venues.
  2. Play on a slope.
  3. If the horse keenly recalls at a trot, ask for a twirl before he reaches you. Boots would happily fit in two or three twirls, one after the other, before reaching me.
  4. Do half a twirl and morph it into a back-up. This was an interesting Horse Agility challenge from www.thehorseagilityclub.com. Here is the clip:

The Whole Sequence Clip

#281 HorseGym with Boots: All the Slow Dancing Tasks https://youtu.be/mDjUAH6jzbA

The Balancera Exercise

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INTRODUCTION

In the photo above, Boots and I are walking a few steps forward shoulder-to-shoulder. We will then pause forward movement and step backwards an equal number of steps remaining shoulder-to-shoulder.

Horses have an inherent ability to move in synchronization with each other. We can play with this wonderful ability. One way is to devise an exercise where the ‘walk on’ signal balances smoothly with the ‘back up’ signal.

This is fun to work with once both our ‘walk on’ signals and our ‘back up’ signals individually result in fluid moving together shoulder-to-shoulder. We simply bring those two tasks together to form a sequence of dance steps.

We pause forward movement momentarily, so the horse’s body has time to organize itself to step backwards. It can look and feel rough at first, but by spending a short time with it often, the change-over can become calm and polished.

AIM

To fluidly change from walking forward to backing up, staying together in the shoulder-to-shoulder position.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse responds willingly to ‘walk on’ signals when the handler is beside his neck/shoulder. See Number 16 in my Blog Contents List: Smooth Walk-On and Halt Transitions. (Access my Blog Contents List via the tab at the top of the page.)
  2. Horse understands touch, voice and gesture ‘back-up’ signals. See Number 40 in my Blog Contents List: Finesse Back-Up.
  3. My Playlist: Backing-up (in my YouTube channel: Hertha Muddyhorse), has further clips which show teaching the back-up in a variety of ways. Click here.

VIDEOS

There is a third video at the very end of the blog.

#173 HorseGym with Boots: Balancera Clip 1 of 2.

#174 HorseGym with Boots: Balancera Clip 2 of 2.

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 8-foot lead (kept loose as much as possible, as we want to use body language for communication, not rope pressure).
  • A selection of barriers toward which we can walk the horse and ask for ‘halt’.
  • A safe fence or similar to work beside.
  • Materials to build a simple dead-end lane. You may have a corner or a fence and an open gate to use as two of the three sides of a dead-end lane.

NOTES

  1. * Boots’ demonstrations on the videos is the sum of many short sessions over a long time. When teaching something new, we stay with each slice of the task until it feels easy and smooth, then move on to add in the next slice.
  2. * Whenever anything feels ‘broken’, go back to the slice where both the horse and the handler feel confident, and work forward from there again. Click&treat at a rate that keeps the horse continuously successful at earning his next click&treat.
  3. * Teach everything again (from the beginning) on the other side of the horse. You can do this with each slice, or you can get it all good on one side and then repeat all the slices on the other side.

SLICES

  1. Check you can ‘walk on’ together fluidly, staying in position shoulder-to-shoulder.
  2. Check you can ‘halt’ together fluidly, staying in position shoulder-to-shoulder.
  3. Set up a lane and walk the horse through it in both directions. Horse is in the lane, handler on the outside.
  4. When 3 above is ho-hum, walk the horse into the lane and ask for a halt about halfway along; click&treat.
  5. Repeat 4 above, asking the horse to wait a second longer before the click&treat, until he comfortably waits up to 4 or 5 seconds.
  6. Block off the lane with a barrier about half a horse’s length inside the lane. Walk the horse into the lane and halt at the barrier; click&treat.
  7. 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 you have taught a voice ‘back’ signal, use that as well. At first, watch for any movement backwards, even a body shift back, to click&treat. Since the way forward is blocked off, it will make sense to the horse to step back.
  8. Repeat 6 and 7 above, gradually building up to several steps back.
  9. Once 8 above is good, block off the lane a little further along in stages until the horse is halting right inside the lane. Repeat 6 and 7 above aiming for a fluid, confident back-up out of the lane.
  10. Now we want to switch the halter-jiggle signal to a hand signal. At the same time as you lift the rope hand (nearest the horse) straight up to jiggle the rope, lift your outside hand to the horse’s eye level and make a backward gesture with it. Also use your “back-up” voice signal. Click&treat for stepping back. Return to click&treat for just one or a few steps at first, then gradually all the steps needed to exit the lane.
  11. Repeat, using the outside hand and voice signals 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.
  12. When the horse moves back readily with just your outside hand gesture and voice signal, fade out the rope-jiggle. It’s there to be used in times of need.
  13. Now we want to combine the steps forward, pause, steps backward with one click&treat after doing both. 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 (changing a parameter), we relax our criteria for number of steps back.
  14. 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. Work up to about 10 steps.
  15. When 14 above is in good shape, practice with a lane of ground rails. Still have a barrier at the front (e.g., a fence). Most horses usually 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 will veer away from the stronger leg.
  16. By frequent backing through a lane of ground rails, we help the horse organize his body to stay straighter. I regularly use this task as part of our gymnastic work.
  17. Practice with a barrier only on the far side of the horse. This gives you another opportunity to note which way his hind end tends to veer.
  18. Generalize by halting facing a fence or any free-standing barrier, then backing up without the prop of a lane.
  19. 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.
  20. Gradually build up to 10 steps forward (click&treat) and 10 steps back (click&treat) but vary the number of steps each time you do it. Work toward this over many short sessions.
  21. Once 20 above is smooth, begin the actual Balancera exercise. We’re changing a parameter, so start with about 3 steps. Ask for 3 steps forward, then three steps back before the click&treat.
  22.  When 21 above is good, ask for 3 steps, 2 steps, then 1 step forward and back before the click&treat. This is the Balancera. With frequent short practices, the horse becomes more adept at shifting his weight from forward to backing up. This takes considerable energy and effort, so treat it gently. The horse will soon realize that the click&treat happens after the 1 step forward and back, even when you start with ten steps.
  23. When 22 above is smooth, gradually ask for more steps to begin with, then reducing by one step until you are doing one step forward and one step back; click&treat.
  24. Most of all, keep it fun. Stay within the horse’s ability that day.

The Spiral

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INTRODUCTION

Horses on their own tend to move in straight lines unless they are engaged in play or disputes. But they move a lot as they graze and to access water. A study of wild horses in Australia found that mostly they walked. Sometimes they trotted. Occasionally, they cantered or galloped.

Horses in captivity often have restricted freedom of movement. Anything we can do to encourage movement adds color to a horse’s day. This spiral exercise is an interesting task we can make part of our repertoire. It encourages and maintains flexibility.

Horse can only bend laterally (to the side) in three places on their body. (1) from the junction of head and neck and along the neck muscle. (2) at the base of the neck. (3) Between the final lumbar vertebra and the sacrum which consists of five fused vertebrae. Bend in this last area is extremely limited.

The bending sites.
Bending mainly the head.
Extreme bending of neck .
The ‘haunches in’ exercise develops the little bend possible between the last lumbar vertebra and the sacrum by the horse learning to stretch a hind leg to step well under the belly as in the next photo.
Horse doing her best to keep her whole body on the arc of the tiny circle she is walking around me. She is placing her right hind leg as far under her belly as she can.

As with all the other tasks that we teach, the key is to do a little bit often. Over weeks and months, the horse’s suppleness will gradually improve and can easily be maintained with frequent short repeats of a variety of stretching tasks.

AIM

The horse moves in a tight curve around the handler who turns on the spot.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse and handler smoothly walk together in the shoulder-to-shoulder position with the handler on either the right or left side of the horse. See numbers 16 and 68 in my Blog Contents List at the top of this page.
  2. ‘Rule of Three’, which is a way to organize training sessions to maintain high interest and motivation. See Number 46 in my Blog Contents List.

VIDEO

#273 HorseGym with Boots: The Spiral. https://youtu.be/sQ-ELVlIzZA

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed and ideally can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.
  • Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
  • Horse and handler in a relaxed frame of mind.
  • Halter and lead for the teaching phase.
  • An object to mark the center of a circle.

NOTES

  1. * Start with as large a circle as the horse finds comfortable. If he starts to swing his hindquarters out of the arc of the circle, the circle is too tight for the horse’s current ability to flex laterally.
  2. * Short sessions as often as possible, as well as exercises such as weaving obstacles, figure 8’s, 90-degree turns (Number 31 in my Blog Contents List) all help with lateral flexion.
  3. * Playing with 180-degree turns also helps (Number 23 in my Blog Contents List).
  4. * Click&treat as often as you need in order to keep the horse interested and engaged.
  5. * The horse may be much stiffer in one direction. If one side seems especially difficult for him, check out the possibility of current soreness or historical injuries.

SLICES

  1. Set a marker (not a mat that the horse expects to stand on) into the center of your training area.
  2. Walk the horse in a large circle around the marker with you on his left side, which means your circle will be walking anti-clockwise.
  3. Very gradually reduce the size of the circle each time you come around, in a gradual spiral fashion.
  4. Watch carefully for the point at which the horse’s hind end is no longer following the arc of the circle. That tells you when he is beginning to find it too hard. We don’t want him to develop the habit of swinging his hind end out, so when you reach this point, spiral your circle outwards again.
  5. With frequent short repeats, done amongst other things you are doing with your horse (see Rule of Three – Prerequisite 2), you will be able to gradually achieve tighter circles with the horse keeping his whole body aligned on the curve.
  6. Remember, horses have extremely limited bending at the hip area. In the video you can see how Boots moves her outside leg way to the side so she can draw her inside leg well under her belly to keep herself on the curve of the circle.
  7. When you can turn on the spot beside the marker with your back against the horse’s shoulder, while the horse curves around you, you have achieved the task.
  8. Repeat from the beginning on the horse’s right side. As mentioned in the Notes, you may find one side much stiffer.

GENERALIZATIONS

  1. Play without a marker but in the same area.
  2. Play at liberty.
  3. Play with it in novel venues.
  4. Play on a slope.

Recall to Heel

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INTRODUCTION

This is a fun task we often teach our dogs. We call the horse toward us, then ask him to walk past our side, turn 180 degrees behind us and slot into the ‘heel’ position on our opposite side.

In the photo above, Boots has walked toward me, passed my left shoulder and is about to slot herself into position standing beside my right shoulder.

In the photo below, Boots has walked toward me, passed my right shoulder and is about to slot herself into position standing beside my left shoulder.

Boots is about to step into position beside my left shoulder where she will earn her click&treat. To make it easier for her I can move forward a step or two.

AIM

The horse walks to us, then past us, turning behind us to end up standing beside our shoulder.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse and handler have developed a good WAIT. Number 65 in my Blog Contents List which you reach via the tab at the top of the home page.
  2. Horse responds readily to handler’s ‘recall’ signal. See Number 90 in my Blog Contents List: Recall and Back Up in Rhythm.
  3. Horse understands ‘walk on’ voice and gesture signals. See Number 16: Smooth ‘Walk On’ and ‘Halt’ Transitions and Number 68 in my Blog Contents List: 20 Steps Exercise. We want this in place so we can ask the horse to walk past us and around, rather than coming to halt in front of us.
  4. Horse has perfected the 180-degree turn. See Number 23 in my Blog Contents List: 180 Degree Turns.
  5. Horse and handler have developed clear WHOA signals in a variety of situations. See Number 33 in my Blog Contents List: Willing Response to a Voice Halt Signal.

VIDEO

#274 HorseGym with Boots: Recall to Heel. https://youtu.be/Giut6wim9KE

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed and ideally can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.
  • Horse and Handler are clicker savvy.
  • Horse in a learning frame of mind.
  • Halter and 12′ (4m) light lead-rope to start with.

NOTES

  1. * Have the horse warmed up before asking for 180-degree turns.
  2. * You can also teach this using a target, but as is often the case, phasing out the target can present its own challenges if the horse’s mind is fixated on following the target. I prefer to teach with gesture, body language and voice signals, helped at first with a lead rope.
  3. * Check that your WAIT is in good shape.
  4. * Check that your RECALL is in good shape.
  5. * Check that your WALK ON gesture and voice signals are in good shape.
  6. * Check that your WHOA is in good shape.
  7. * Check that your 180-degree turns are in good shape and the horse knows your voice signal for turning (I use “Around”).
  8. * Devise a signal for asking the horse to walk on past you rather than halt in front of you. Practice this with another person standing in for the horse so you can get it fluent. I adapt my WALK ON arm/hand gesture that I use for walking on when we are shoulder-to-shoulder and that seems to work okay.
  9. * I use a halter and lead to initially teach things like this. I can use the lead rope to indicate that I want the horse to walk past me and then turn behind me. That means he never gets confused about what will earn his next click&treat. Once the horse realizes that the click&treat happens when he shows up on my other side, the lead rope is no longer necessary.

SLICES

  1. Halter and light lead on the horse.
  2. Ask the horse to WAIT while you walk a few steps away in front of him. Turn, pause, then ask for a RECALL.
  3. Before the horse reaches you, signal with gesture and voice that you’d like him to walk on past you. As he does, step forward so it is easy for him to make a U-turn behind you. Then walk a couple of steps forward to draw him into a nice position alongside your opposite shoulder: click&treat.
  4. Teach it consistently on one side and when that is smooth, teach again from the beginning on the other side.
  5. As the horse gets fluid with this task, you can gradually not step forward as he comes around. But if he gets lost, always resume stepping forward so he is not ‘wrong’.

GENERALIZATIONS

  1. Work at liberty.
  2. Work in new venues.
  3. Work on a slope.
  4. Recall across rails or through a gap/tunnel or over a tarp.
  5. Teach moving into the heel position after a recall without stepping around behind the handler.

Belly Crunches

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In the photo above Boots is doing a belly crunch to target her withers to my hand.

I first learned about belly crunches from Alex Kurland’s work.

1. We began with the horse behind a low barrier. I stood nearby at neutral (zero intent) and watched casually, with click&treat for any upward or backward shift of weight.

2. I did this IN THE SAME SPOT for a minute or two once or twice a day. Usually as a ‘last thing’ at the end of a session and just before afternoon feeding time. Having ‘usual times’ seems to make the horse look forward to having ‘another go’.

3. Once we were getting a strong weight shift back, I began to sit down to bring the horse’s head a bit lower. Previously we had ignored head position as the horse was experimenting with different possibilities. Her head position lowered when I sat down because the treats were offered lower.

4. At some point, the crunches became a part of her personal repertoire because she would offer them if she wanted to initiate an interaction. I usually click&treat each such offer and it became one of our safe default behaviors that she could easily offer at will.

5. I’d never do more than about what is on this clip at one time.

6. From the Intrinzen group, I learned to ask for the crunches standing beside the horse’s shoulder, butt and behind. We already had such a long and strong history of reinforcement that she readily adjusted to my different positions.

In the video I am using fairly subtle body language to ask for each crunch. I put my arms down and stiffen my torso and lean slightly toward her.

Belly Crunch to target her butt to my hand.

Line Dance Face-to-Face

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INTRODUCTION

Horses move sideways by crossing one pair of feet while the other pair is spread. 

The hind feet cross over while the front feet are apart.

Moving sideways in rhythm is not something horses do much in their everyday life. It may therefore take the horse a while to get his legs organized smoothly when we first teach this movement.

You can get a sense of how it feels if you step sideways crossing your legs. While your legs are crossed, spread out your arms. While your legs are apart for the next step, cross your arms. If you’ve never done this before, it is tricky to synchronize at first. Horses have to adjust four legs. I’ve seen horses needing to think hard to get this sorted, so be especially patient and celebrate small successes.

We usually first teach sidestepping in position beside the horse, facing his ribs and asking the front and rear ends to move over independently. We gradually build up this skill until we can ask the horse to move first hind end and then front end – in rhythm, ideally keeping his body in one plane (Prerequisite 1).

Moving sideways encourages suppleness via gymnastic stretching of the muscles. It helps develop the horse’s spatial awareness, his foot awareness and his body awareness.

Sidestepping is useful for safe maneuvering on the ground – negotiating gates and for asking the horse to line up with a mounting block for mounting and dismounting.

It is also a fun maneuver to add into our slow-dancing routine.

AIM

Sidestepping to the left and right with the handler in front of and facing the horse.

PREREQUISITES

Usually we first teach sidestepping facing the side of the horse. For sidestepping away we teach touch and gesture signals at the girth area.
  1. In case you have not yet taught basic sidestepping, Number 29 in my Blog Contents List (link at top of page) presents a detailed training plan for teaching sidestepping with the handler beside the horse as in the photo above.
  2. Horse is relaxed with touch signals given with our hand or a body extension (stick). See #87 HorseGym with Boots: Relaxation with Body Extensions. https://youtu.be/nkwxYwtCP_Y

VIDEO CLIPS

This clip demonstrates a way to teach sidestepping while face-to-face with the handler. #276 HorseGym with Boots: Line Dancing Face to Face. https://youtu.be/wc53IZfUBkc

This next clip puts together the first five tasks of the Slow Dancing routine.

#277 HorseGym with Boots: First Five Dance Moves. https://youtu.be/UW_oE85ZhsM

ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS

  • Work area where the horse is relaxed.
  • Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.
  • Handler in a relaxed frame of mind.
  • Low barrier between horse and handler, a few meters long.
  • Halter and lead.
  • Stick to act as a body extension.
  • Horse well warmed up before asking for these yields.

NOTES

  1. Some people may prefer to have the horse target ribs to a body extension rather than move away from a touch signal given by a body extension. I use the ‘moving away from a touch signal’ because it is easier to give the horse a clear signal while maintaining the position in front of the horse. As well, it’s usually the signal taught as a riding signal for moving sideways.

2. It is also much easier to morph the stick gesture into an arm gesture rather than try to fade out a long hand-held target. I soon didn’t need the stick. I then gradually toned down my arm gesture as the horse learned to tune in to my intent and my body language of crossing over my own feet plus a voice signal, “Across” and the direction of my body moving.

3. I like to begin new tasks with a rope and halter but use touch on the halter via the rope as little as possible. The halter and lead are there in case the horse needs clarity about what I am expecting him to do. After a while I lay the rope over the horse and when that is all smooth I work at liberty.

4. Most horses will find this easier on one side. Aim to eventually become equally smooth on both sides. Check out Right-Side Neglect* and Right-Side Anxiety* in the Glossary.

5. At first, be happy if he can only sidestep with his body at a 45-degree angle to the barrier. With frequent short practices, he will develop the muscles and flexion to be straighter. What you see Boots doing in the video clips has been built up over many years with frequent flexion practice in different guises.

6. It’s important to warm the horse up with general activity before asking for yields like this.

7. If the horse shows resistance to a specific move, it is essential to get muscles and joints checked out. Arthritis and/or past injuries may restrict or severely limit certain movements.

8. As we gradually develop and then maintain these sidestepping exercises, our horse’s flexibility will gradually improve.

9. Doing a little bit often gives the most reliable results. As usual, we are teaching a habit in response to a signal. We never want to make the horse sore or reluctant.

SLICES

  1. Find or set up a low barrier a few meters long. In the video I used a long plank, but a low fence or a rope/tape between two tall cones or other uprights would do the job.
  2. The handler is face-to-face with the horse, with the low barrier between them. Gently use a long stick to create a touch/gesture signal at the girth area to ask the horse to sidestep from left to right, away from the touch/gesture signal.

At first, click&treat for any inclination to step sideways. As the horse catches on to the idea, gradually ask for more until you are able to click&treat every time the horse reaches the end of the barrier or markers you’ve set up. The end of the barrier gives the horse two ‘destinations’ where he knows he will stop and get his click&treat. Like us, horses like to know what is going to happen before it happens.

  • 3. Repeat 2 above going from right to left.
  • 4. Repeat 2 and 3 above until the horse is smoothly sidestepping a few meters to both the right and left. As mentioned in the notes above, he may find one side harder. Accept what he is able to do and work gradually from there.
  • 5. When 4 above is ho-hum, use ground rails as a barrier between you and the horse. The purpose of the barrier is to let the horse know that stepping forward is not part of the task.
  • 6. When 5 is good, ask the horse to step the front feet across the ground rails and ask him to sidestep along the ground rails. This will help him stay straight rather than inch forward or backwards.
  • 7. When 6 is smooth, ask for sidestepping face-to-face with no barrier between you.
  • 8. When communication is excellent, play in different venues.
  • 9. When it all feels ho-hum, play at liberty.

GENERALIZATIONS

  • Play at liberty
  • Play in different venues
  • Play on a slope

Develop ‘the box’ exercise as in this clip. The clip was made a while ago when I first taught Boots about sidestepping with me while I was facing her: #275 HorseGym with Boots: Thin Slicing ‘The Box’ Movement. https://youtu.be/1CiUBJQf-JM

RECALL & BACK UP IN RHYTHM

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INTRODUCTION

Having smooth ways of asking a horse to back away from us and to come toward us on request is worth its weight in gold. We teach each of these separately and then meld them together into rhythmic dance steps to use as a suppling exercise.

AIM

The horse distinguishes clearly between our signals for backing up and coming toward us (recall) and readily repeats a few steps of each in a rhythmic fashion.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse has learned a solid WAIT. See Number 65 in my Blog Contents List at https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2020/12/16/the-wait-game/
  2. Handler has developed clear, consistent back-up signals so the horse backs up readily when face-to-face with the handler. See Number 40 in my Blog Contents List for details about teaching backing up. https://herthamuddyhorse.com/2020/02/02/finesse-back-up/

VIDEO

#271 HorseGym with Boots: Recall & Back with Rhythm. https://youtu.be/7TVgr6_oXlI

The next clip puts together the first four slow-dancing moves we’ve worked on: Bow, Line Dance in position, Do-si-do to change sides, Rhythmic back-up and recall.

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • Handler in a relaxed frame of mind.
  • Two or more rails. Low markers at the ends of the rails can be helpful at the beginning. A safe fence is also helpful to keep the horse straight.
  • Halter 12′ (4m) long, light lead during the teaching process.

NOTES

  1. Before starting this task, we need a solid WAIT (Prerequisite 1).
  2. We first teach a solid face-to-face back-up in a variety of situations using a high rate of reinforcement, so it becomes a favorite task for the horse. Ideally, we do a little bit every time we are with the horse (Prerequisite 2).
  3. The slices in this training plan outline teaching the recall and then putting the recall and back-up together in a rhythmic way.
  4. Teach everything on both sides of the horse.
  5. Use a rate of reinforcement that keeps the horse continually successful.
  6. Essential to keep a float (smile) in the rope unless using it momentarily to clarify our intent for the horse.
  7. Keep sessions short in among other things you are doing with the horse.

SLICES

  1. Set up your rails (or hose or rope) as in the photo in the Introduction. Use a fence on one side if you can.
  2. Walk the horse parallel to the ground rails furthest from the fence, while you walk between the rails and the fence. At the end of the rails, ask him to make a U-turn toward the fence and step into the lane created by the fence and rails. Walk backwards to draw the horse to you. Click&treat when he reaches you. The fence will encourage him to make a precise U-turn rather than a loose and sloppy one. Set the width of the gap to suit the horse’s current flexibility.
  3. Gradually send him around the end of the rail from further away, as illustrated in the video clip, until you can stay with your feet stationary at one end of a rail.
  4. As he makes each U-turn, add a consistent voice signal. I say “Around” for the turn.
  5. As he begins to come toward you, develop a clear, consistent body language signal and a voice signal. I say “Come In” for the recall and bring both arms forward and down to make a round shape with my arms.
  6. When it all feels smooth, use a pair of rails away from a fence.
  7. When 6 is ho-hum, use just one rail.
  8. When 7 is ho-hum, use just a low marker to send the horse ‘around’.
  9. Now we want to tidy up our WAIT task so we can ask the horse to stay parked while we walk away – so we can recall him (Prerequisite 1).
  10. Once the recall is solid in lots of situations, we want to either teach or polish our back-up while we are face-to-face with the horse (Prerequisite 2).
  11. Once we have clear, consistent back-up body language and voice signals established, and the horse responds willingly, we can begin to put the back-up and the recall together in a rhythmic fashion.
  12. Set up two parallel rails about a meter apart. Ask the horse to wait at one end of the rails; click&treat. Then ask him to recall between the rails; click&treat. Walk a loop together and repeat a couple of times.
  13. Ask the horse to walk between the rails and halt between the rails. Then ask him to back up a step or two; click&treat. Then another step or two; click&treat. Then recall him forward again, between the rails. Walk a loop and reset a couple of times.
  14. When it feels right, ask for a recall; click&treat, then ask for a back-up; click&treat. Work with just a few steps at first. As the horse becomes more adept, gradually increase the number of steps, but stay within the horse’s ability.
  15. Ask the horse to walk with you almost all the way through the lane of rails so you can ask for the back-up first; click&treat. Then recall; click&treat.
  16. Once 15 is smooth, chain together one back-up and one recall before the click&treat (or one recall and one back-up).
  17. Work toward chaining two repeats of back and recall. Then maybe three repeats before the click&treat. But always stay within the horse’s capability. Rushing will wreck things.
  18. When it is ho-hum using the parallel rails, do the task without them. Go back to Slice 14 and work forward from there.

GENERALIZATION

  1. Play with it in different venues.
  2. Play on a slope.
  3. Add one or more rails which the horse crosses during the recall and back-up.

Dancing the Do Si Do

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INTRODUCTION

Once the horse and handler have mastered smooth forequarter yields and smooth hindquarter yields, we can build the DO SI DO. It consists of asking for a hindquarter yield first. Then, as the horse’s hind end is moving away, we stand upright and move back slightly so the horse brings his head through, and we end up in his other eye.

It is a way of changing sides by the horse doing the moving. Once that is achieved, we add a yield of the forequarters.

If the horse’s lifestyle keeps him supple, this series of movements is a good stretching and bending exercise. If the horse finds it hard, we have useful feedback to use in our planning.

AIM

The horse is able to execute a smooth 360-degree hindquarter yield followed immediately by a smooth 360-degree forequarter yield.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse and handler agree on signals to yield the hindquarters. See Number 83 in my Blog Contents List.
  2. Horse and handler agree on signals to yield the forequarters. See Number 84 in my Blog Contents List.

VIDEOS

#270 HorseGym with Boots: Do Si Do. https://youtu.be/EJ2w_sX_uOk

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed and ideally can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.

NOTES

  1. Use a rate of reinforcement (how often you click&treat) that allows the horse to easily work out exactly what he has to do to earn his next click&treat.
  2. As the horse begins to understand the sequence of movements, gradually move the click point along until eventually there is one at the end of the whole series of movements.
  3. Whenever the horse gets ‘lost’, immediately return to click&treat for what he can do and work forward gradually from that spot.
  4. Do a little bit often, as this is hard work for the horse.
  5. Be aware that when we give signals with the non-dominant side of our body, they may not be as clear and precise as when we use the dominant side of our body. We can improve this once we are aware of it. In the same way, the horse may find yielding in one direction more difficult. If you notice a difference, begin teaching using the direction he finds easier. Later, do a few extra repeats on the difficult side.

SLICES

  1. Ask the horse to yield is hindquarters with body language, energy and a gesture signal (and voice if you like – I use the word “Away”) about a meter out from his side. Move along with him, keeping your relative position and using ‘constant on’ signals (body orientation, arm gesture and energy) until you want him to stop (at which point you stand up straight and stop all signals). Click&treat.
  2. Click&treat each single step away at first, then gradually work toward click&treat for a full 360 turn. How long it all takes to get smooth with this part of the task depends on previous training and how clear our signals are.
  3. At some point, stop following the hindquarters around, stand upright in one spot and move back a bit so that the horse can bring his head through the space in front of you, which puts you on his other side – in his other eye. Click&treat. Spend the time (via many short sessions) to get this part smooth.
  4. Teach 1-3 above from the beginning on the horse’s other side. He may find one direction harder.
  5. When 1-3 above are in good shape, gently build and consolidate your forequarter yield by itself until you have a smooth 360-degree turn on the haunches. Start with click&treat for one good step and build from there.
  6. Repeat 5 above on the horse’s other side. Again, he may find one direction harder.
  7. When all the above are going well, after completing slice 3 (and click&treat on completion of slice 3), ask for the forequarter yield. Just a step or two at first, before a click&treat, but gradually work toward the full turn on the haunches.
  8. Work toward a 360-degree hindquarter yield (turn on the forehand) followed immediately by a 360-degree forequarter yield without a click&treat stop in the middle. We can call it achieved when a full 360-degree yield in both directions is ho-hum.
  9. Work with 8 above starting on the other side of the horse.

GENERALIZATION

  1. Practice in many different places.
  2. Practice on a slope.
  3. Start with forequarter yield and morph into hindquarter yield.
  4. Once we have the simple bow, line dancing in place with the front feet, and the do si do mastered, we can chain the three tasks together.

The Simple Bow

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INTRODUCTION

It’s fun to teach a simple bow to use at the beginning and end of a movement routine. The bow itself becomes a clue for the horse that a chain of tasks is about to begin and equally it tells him when the chain of tasks is finished.

We can teach the simple bow by capturing any downward movement of the head with a click&treat. Or we could use ‘luring’ while changing our posture as we put a treat on the ground, plus add a voice signal.

AIM

The horse mimics the handler’s bow from the waist by lowering his head, then raising it again.

PREREQUISITE

Horse and handler are clicker savvy.

VIDEOS

This clip uses the process of luring, which is detailed in the thin-slicing steps below.

#269 HorseGym with Boots: Simple Bow. https://youtu.be/vwtxTdWaRRQ

These two clips show the process of free-shaping.

#257 HorseGym with Boots Head Lowering 1. https://youtu.be/AoqtJj2X1bU

#258 HorseGym with Boots: Head Lowering 2. Putting it on signal. https://youtu.be/Ol-BHB1QCnw

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed and ideally can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • It can help to park the horse on a mat, if he knows about mats, to let him know that moving his feet is not required. 

NOTE

When we use the luring with food system, we will be placing a treat on the ground and we don’t want to put it on sand or loose dirt. If that is all you have available, perhaps use a mat or similar on which to put the treat.

SLICES (for teaching with luring)

  1. Stand the horse in a spot where he feels comfortable; click&treat. Maybe have his front feet parked on a mat.
  2. Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the horse; click&treat.
  3. Practice a bit of duration standing quietly together at zero intent with head forward; click&treat for x number of seconds, depending on where you are with developing this task.
  4. Quietly remove a treat from your pouch or pocket, ideally during a moment the horse is busy eating his previous treat, so he doesn’t notice you getting the treat.
  5. Show the horse the treat in your hand then bow from the waist to put the treat on the ground for the horse to find.
  6. Wait until he lifts his head and has eaten the treat. Repeat, adding a voice signal to go with your body language. If you’ve previously taught head-lowering you may already have a voice signal.
  7. Once the horse responds to your body language and voice signals, click as the head goes down, but feed the treat as the head comes up again as you straighten your body. For this we don’t want ‘duration’ of keeping the head down.
  8. Teach on both sides of the horse.

GENERALIZATION

  1. Practice in many different places.
  2. Practice around different distractions.
  3. Incorporate into any routines you do as ‘begin’ and ‘end’ points.

Placing the Feet using a Single Rail

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INTRODUCTION

In the photo above we are using a line of 5-liter containers as our ‘rail’.

This is another exercise that helps a horse with proprioception – knowing where his feet are, what they are doing, and how much energy is required.

Equally, it is a superb exercise for the handler to refine communication skills. All training with a horse is about building a mutual language. If we are consistent with our body language and energy changes, the horse will use these as his main cues for following our lead. For further refinement we add gesture signals and perhaps voice signals.

Sometimes people think, “Oh, I’ll try that”. They do an exercise once or twice and think that it’s ‘done’. They totally miss the point that exercises like this are little workouts for both handler and horse that need to be done often, always stiving for more refinement of handler communication until it feels like magic with the horse at liberty.

For this exercise there are five different basic tasks, but since we do them in the horse’s left and right eyes, we have ten tasks. Then we consolidate the tasks by doing them in two directions for each eye, giving us a total of 20 tasks.

Once the five basic tasks are mastered, there are eight refinements we can add. Doing these on either side of the horse gives a total of 16 refinements.

This series of tasks also makes a good warm-up or cool-down exercise. And they can be stretching and accuracy exercises if time is short to do other things.

AIMS:  

  1. Handler works on using clear, smooth ‘walk on’, ‘halt’, ‘wait’ and ‘back up’ signals using a single rail as a focal point.
  2. Handler uses ‘Intent and Zero Intent’ body language to create short WAIT times between requests.
  3. Horse develops confidence with walking across a rail (or similar).
  4. Horse gains confidence standing with a rail (or similar) under his belly.
  5. Horse practices placing his feet carefully in response to handler signals.

PREREQUISITES:

  1. Horse leads smoothly beside the handler’s shoulder. See Number 68 in my Blog Contents List. The link for my Blog Contents List is at the top of the page.
  2. Handler and horse agree on ‘Intent and Zero Intent’ signals. See Number 10 in my Blog Contents List.
  3. Handler and horse agree on clear ‘walk on’ and ‘halt’ signals. See Number 16 in my Blog Contents List.
  4. Handler is aware of The Rule of Three. See number 46 in my Blog Contents List.
  5. Horse and handler agree on a back-up signal, either with the handler turning to face the horse – See Number 40 in my Blog Contents List, or the handler staying in the shoulder-to-shoulder position – See the first clip in Number 32 in my Blog Contents List.
  6. Handler knows to stay with each small task until it is ho-hum, before asking for a different task.

VIDEOS: 

#267 HorseGym with Boots: One Rail Basics. https://youtu.be/wMwBqiaBruI

#268 HorseGym with Boots: One Rail Refinements. https://youtu.be/L1fdlegEHFo

ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:

  • A work area where the horse is relaxed and confident.
  • Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • A single rail or several single rails (or similar) laid out a good distance apart.
  • Halter and lead or liberty. A light, shorter lead is easier to manage.

NOTES:

  1. A little bit of these tasks during one training session is plenty. If it’s all done quietly with no fuss or drilling, the horse will think on it and remember what behaviors earn a click&treat. The Rule of Three can be useful.
  2. Asking a horse to lift a front foot to back across a rail means that he is moving it back against the pressure of his whole body which is not easy. Ignore any touching of the rail at this stage as the horse draws a leg back. Frequent short practices will strengthen the muscles and ligaments so lifting the foot up and back becomes easier for the horse.
  3. To help the horse strengthen, and maintain the strength, to lift his feet easily, we can lay a raised rail or similar in a gateway that the horse uses regularly during his everyday life. I’ve done this with two gates, and it seems to do a good job at helping to maintain suppleness. I leave a small gap for my wheelbarrow to squeeze through.
  4. When confusion arises, it is because we are not clear enough or are going faster than the horse is able to absorb the new learning. Horses working for a food reward are usually super-observant of all our body language as well as carefully taught and executed voice and gesture signals. We must continually strive to ‘speak’ clearly with our body language, orientation and gestures every time we request an action (or inaction). Otherwise, the horse will only ‘hear’ a mumble and be confused, just as a person mumbling to us is frustrating and makes us give up trying to understand.
  5. Once all the tasks are going smoothly, we can mix them up in any order, which teaches us to be crystal clear for the horse and has the horse watch us carefully to pick up the next signal that will lead to a click&treat.
  6. When we use the less dominant side of our body, our body language and gesture signals tend to be less clear until we become super conscious of what we are doing. If you are right-handed and haven’t usually done much on your horse’s right side, there will be a lot of learning going on for both of you.
  7. I find it useful to take written memo cards out with me when first doing a series of moves like this.
  8. In-between moving, build it WAIT time before asking for the next movement. I.e., MOVEMENT – WAIT (x number of seconds) – MOVEMENT.
  9. In the video clips I only show each request once to keep the clip short. When in the teaching (acquisition*) phase, three repeats in a row is usually a good number to work with.
  10. If the horse finds one of the slices difficult, spend as many short sessions as necessary to build his confidence before asking for anything new.

SLICES:

  1. Walk right over the rail, halt a few paces beyond the rail, click&treat. Walk a loop and repeat a couple more times. Or you could have more than one rail laid out in your training area and walk to each rail in turn to get the repeats. I used one rail in the video clips for ease of filming with a set camera.
  2. Halt with the rail under the horse’s belly, click&treat; pause for a WAIT, walk on forward over the rail, walk a loop (or move to next rail) so you can repeat a couple of times.
  3. Halt and WAIT before stepping over the rail, click&treat; pause and WAIT, walk on over the rail and into your loop or on to the next rail.
  4. Halt immediately after all four feet have stepped over the rail, click&treat; pause and WAIT, walk on into your loop or to the next rail.
  5. Halt with the rail under the horse’s belly, click&treat. Pause and WAIT, ask the horse to back his front feet across the rail, click&treat; pause, walk on forward over the rail. Be gentle teaching this. If you have taught a ‘Lift’ voice signal for foot care it can be useful here.
  6. Repeat 1-5 above but this time approach the rail(s) from the opposite direction.
  7. Repeat 1-5 above walking on the horse’s right side.
  8. Repeat 7 above (on his right side) in the opposite direction.

GENERALIZATIONS:

  1. Work in different venues.
  2. Repeat slices 1-5 trotting.
  3. Play at liberty once you’ve built up good communication for each task.
  4. Work on a slope.

ONE RAIL REFINEMENTS

  1. Walk all four feet over the rail and halt. Back only the hind feet over the rail; wait; walk forward again.
  2. Walk all four feet over the rail and halt. Ask the hind feet to back over the rail, then the front feet.
  3. Approach the rail but turn in front of the rail to set up the horse to halt/wait with his hind feet at the rail but not over it.
  4. As 3 above, then ask the horse to back all four feet across the rail.
  5. If you’ve taught sidestepping (see Number 29 in by Blog Contents List), ask the horse to step his front feet over the rail at one end and sidestep along the rail. If you are facing the horse’s ribs ask him to sidestep away from you. You can also ask him to sidestep toward you if you’ve taught this previously. You can also build a signal for sidestepping along a rail while you are face-to-face with the horse.
  6. Straddle the rail. See Number 67 in my Blog Contents List.
  7. Ask one front foot to stand across the rail and WAIT. See if you can do it with either foot. Then either ask the horse to lift the foot back over the rail or walk on forward.
  8. Back one hind foot over the rail and wait in that position; walk forward. Work to be able to do this with either hind foot.

Mainly, HAVE FUN developing your communication skills.

Developing Soft Response to Rope/Rein Pressure

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Photo above shows how we started teaching voice signals for turning right and left using a target. When the voice signals were established, I added a light rope touch – creating a multi-signal.

INTRODUCTION:

It’s not uncommon for a horse to have bad feelings or mixed emotions about halters and ropes. My book, WALKING WITH HORSES has a detailed section about developing a horse’s willingness to put his nose into a halter. This is a task that needs thoughtful teaching.

Confidence with halter and lead rope is critical to help horses deal well with life in captivity. Essentially, we want putting a halter and rope on our horse similar to putting on our ‘work clothes’ – an outfit or uniform suitable for the type of work we do. When we work for an organization or with other people, we adjust our behavior to what is appropriate at our job.

In the same way, a horse carefully educated about halters and ropes will recognize that he is wearing his ‘uniform’ and relate it to certain ways of behaving. Mainly, it limits his behavior choices. Ideally it also encourages him to pay careful attention to requests made via messages send along the rope.

We can use the rope to send text messages. But, obviously, we must first carefully teach the horse what the ‘letters’ of our text mean. The lighter the pressure of our ‘texting’, the lighter the horse’s responses can be. In other words, the horse can only be as light in his responses to rope messages as we are light in sending them.

A rope is a way of ‘holding hands’ with our horse, not a tether kept tight to stop the horse escaping our influence. There is nothing so heartbreaking as see a gasping dog at the end of a tight leash or a horse struggling to understand why the tightness of the rope won’t go away, no matter what he does.

The key to lead rope handling is that the rope is always slack except for the brief moments it is sending a message to the horse. The instant the horse complies with our request, the slack is returned to the rope. It is the instant release of rope pressure plus the simultaneous click (and the accompanying treat) that enables the horse to understand which task we are requesting.

AIMS:

  1. To have the horse comfortable standing in a safe corner.
  2. To teach a ‘head straight’ anchor task that precedes our request to turn the head.
  3. Use a target to teach head flexion to right and left; no rope.
  4. Add ‘right’ and ‘left’ voice signals to the task.
  5. Teach soft lateral flexion (turning the head right or left) using gentle touch on the halter via a rope until it feels equally smooth to the right and the left.
  6. Generalize the task to different places and situations.

PREREQUISITES:

  1. Horse is comfortable wearing a halter. (See Number 7 in my Blog Contents List. The link is at the top of the page.)
  2. Horse is comfortable with a lead rope.
  3. Horse and handler are clicker savvy.
  4. Horse understands standing on a mat with duration. (See Number 9 in my Blog Contents List.)
  5. For the early sessions, it’s helpful to have the horse standing with his butt in a safe corner so that backing up and swinging the hind end away are not options. The first slices will therefore involve making sure the horse is comfortable and relaxed standing in a corner.

ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:

  • A work area where the horse is relaxed.
  • Ideally, the horse can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • A safe corner the horse can stand in confidently. A safe corner is one where there is no chance of the horse putting a leg through wire or rails if he steps back or sideways. Hedges, sides of buildings or a corner made with barrels or jump stands plus rails tend to be safest. Even a raised rail or a log behind the horse with a small barrier on the far side of the horse might be enough of a corner.
  • A familiar mat to ‘station’ or ‘park’ the horse.
  • A familiar hand-held target.

GENERAL NOTES

  1. When eventually using the touch signal via the rope or rein, be ready to click&treat for even the tiniest turn of the head at first. If we miss the horse’s first attempt to solve a puzzle, he can think his idea was wrong, and it can take a while for him to try it again.
  2. When we lead, long-rein or ride a horse, it does not take much movement of the head to cause the horse to change direction. What we are doing here is not an extreme flexion exercise. It is an exercise to see how softly we can give what will become our ‘please change direction’ signals once the horse is moving.

SLICES:

A: STANDING COMFORTABLY IN A CORNER

  1. Introduce the horse to each corner in small, easy steps. Thin-slice the process to what your horse needs. Use a familiar mat to indicate where you would like his front feet to be. Three kinds of corners are shown in the videos clips.
  2. If the horse readily yields hindquarters and forequarters we can use these to adjust his position (see Numbers 83 and 84 in my Blog Contents List).
  3. Or we can lead him through the corner and back him into it.
  4. If using a rail, we can walk him over the rail and halt with the rail behind him.
  5. Play with as many safe corners as you can find or set up, to generalize the ‘corner task’ to different situations.

B: TEACH AN ANCHOR TASK

Video clips

Clip 1: on right side of horse

Clip 2: on left side of horse

NOTES:

In the same way that music is made up of notes and the pauses between the notes, we must have pauses between asking the horse to repeat the same task. Because the horse is at halt for this challenge, the anchor task creates the pauses between our requests.

We begin teaching the anchor task once the horse is comfortable standing in a corner, on a mat, with reasonable duration.

An anchor task is what we do to ‘set the stage’ for what we will do next. For example, when I play with targeting body parts to my hand with Boots, our anchor task is lifting a front knee to my hand. It tells her what game we are about to play. Another ‘stand quietly waiting’ anchor task might be to always hang a special nose target in the spot you would like the horse to stand (park) while you tack up.

As an anchor task for this behavior, I’ve chosen to rest my nearest hand lightly on Boots’ withers while she keeps her head forward. It is the position my hand would be if I were to lift the reins in preparation to giving a signal while riding. You might prefer a different anchor task.

In our case, this is a bit tricky because I use the same anchor position I use when we do belly crunches while standing beside the horse. The handler’s body orientation is often a large part of an anchor task.

I decided that Boots is far enough along in her training to learn to pause in this anchor position and wait for the next signal to find out whether a crunch or head flexion is the hot topic of the moment. You’ll see that we have a couple of conversations about this.

SLICES:

  • Stand beside horse’s withers.
  • Lightly rest your near hand on the withers.
  • Click&treat when the horse’s head is straight, or he is in the process of moving his head into the ‘straight’ position.
  • Step forward to deliver the treat so the horse keeps his head straight, then step back into position beside the withers.
  • Repeat until the horse confidently stays facing forward until you click&treat for 3-4 seconds.

C: LATERAL FLEXION TO A TARGET and D. THE VOICE SIGNAL

Covered in video clips 1 & 2 as above. Clip 2 is on the left side of horse.

  1. Hold the target out of sight behind your back and review the anchor task.
  2. When the horse stands reliably with his head forward in the anchor position, bring the target forward so he has to turn his head a little bit to touch it: click&treat & step forward so the horse straightens his head to receive the treat, putting the target out of sight behind your back.
  3. Step back beside the withers and put your hand back on his withers: click&treat for head forward until that is firmly established again (3-4 seconds). Be patient about establishing (and frequently re-establishing) this step because clever horses will want to skip straight from your anchor (hand on withers) to telling you that they know what to do – turn toward you (as Boots does in Clip Two).
  4. Repeat 2 and 3 above until the horse reliably waits for you to produce the target before turning his head. If he turns without your signal, spend more click&treat on facing forward. Make sure you keep the target out of view behind your back. If bending is harder, spend more click&treat on asking for the bend.

D. ADD VOICE SIGNAL

NOTES:

You will obviously want different voice signals for right and left. Voice signals need to be short, clear, and sound different from other voice signals you use. I use “and Gee” for right. I use “and Left” for left. “Haw” for left sounds too much like “Whoa” which we use a lot. The “and” in front of the key word is a bit of a preparatory signal that lets the horse know a request is coming. My voice emphasis is on the key word.

  • Some horses do better if you teach something thoroughly on one side, then repeat from the beginning on the other side.
  • Some horses may cope well with doing a little bit on each side from the beginning.
  • Some handlers do better when teaching the task thoroughly on one side first.

E. RESPONSE TO ROPE OR REIN SIGNALS

Video Clip 3 introduces the rope:

  1. Stand beside the horse’s ribs just behind the withers, facing forward, rope in the hand closest to the horse. Keep a drape or ‘smile’ in the rope. Ensure that the horse can stay facing forward with relaxed body language for 3-4 seconds in the presence of the rope: (click&treat).
  2. When 1 above is ho-hum, say your voice signal and gently use both hands to ‘milk’ the rope, putting light pressure on the halter, looking for the slightest ‘give’ of the horse’s nose toward you. Release (click&treat). Step forward to deliver the treat in a way that has the horse straighten his head again.
  3. Work with 1 and 2 above until the horse waits for the touch signal on the halter and willingly yields his nose. If he turns before you give the rope signal, spend more click&treat time on keeping the nose forward.
  4. If he begins to turn his head as soon as you move back into position behind his withers, also go back to click&treat for a straight head.
  5. Some horses catch on very quickly. Others may need multiple short sessions.
  6. Teaching a horse with no rope experience is usually easier than teaching a horse who has had rough treatment with ropes. In the second case, you must adjust your training plan to help overcome any anxiety the horse carries from previous handling.

GENERALIZATION

Video Clip 4 includes generalizations:

  1. Once the whole task is smooth and ho-hum on both sides of the horse, move away from the corner but still use a mat. Do the task in a variety of different places.
  2. Once 1 above is good in a variety of places, omit the mat and again work in a variety of places and spaces.
  3. Replace the rope/halter touch signal with a distinctive hand signal that can be used to draw the horse right or left at liberty.
  4. Once the horse understands the halter touch signal via the rope, plus the voice signal, the anchor task can morph into just standing quietly together.
  5. Use the touch and voice signals while in motion to change direction, keeping the pressure on the rope as light as possible.
  6. Building a strong history of response to directional voice signals is most helpful if you are planning to teach long-reining and if you take part in Horse Agility.
  7. These five short clips called Soft Rein Response give further ideas about how we can generalize the task further using reins but without being mounted.

Line Dancing with the Front Feet

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Introduction

An interesting aspect of horse anatomy is that their shoulder blades are not linked to each other with bone. Horse shoulder blades are embedded in muscles, tendons and ligaments. The spine passes between them. In other words, horses have no equivalent to our collar bone.

This ‘line-dancing’ exercise helps keep the muscles and ligaments in the shoulder area supple.

We can introduce this task once our horse knows the tasks of yielding the forequarters on request and targeting the shoulder to our hand. We ask for one movement yielding the near front leg away from us and a second movement bringing the near front leg back into its normal position.

AIM

When we cross our leg toward the horse we’d like him to move his near front leg across in front of his far front leg. When we uncross our leg and draw away from him, we would like him to bring his leg back into normal position.

PREREQUISITES

  1. Horse and handler understand ‘Intent and Zero Intent’ body language. See Number 10 in my Blog Contents List – the link is at the top of the screen.
  2. Handler and horse have worked out Consent Signals so the horse can tell the handler when he is ready to repeat the task. See Number 11 in my Blog Contents List.
  3. Horse and handler agree on a signal to yielding the forequarters. See Number 85 in my Blog Contents List.
  4. Horse and handler agree on a signal for asking the horse to target his shoulder to our hand. See Number 27 in my Blog Contents List.
  5. Handler is aware of the Rule of Three to help set up training sessions that don’t turn into drilling. See Number 46 in my Blog Contents List.

VIDEO

#262 HorseGym with Boots; Line Dance Front Feet.

MATERIALS AND ENVIRONMENT

  • A training area where the horse is relaxed.
  • Ideally he can see his buddies, but they can’t interfere.
  • Horse is not hungry.
  • Handler in a relaxed frame of mind.

NOTES

  1. When first teaching a task like, this it helps to always do it in the same place until our signals are consistently smooth and the horse is fluent with the task. I started in our open-fronted shelter because it meant that we could do a short daily practice even when the weather was unpleasant.
  2. Ensure the prerequisites above are all well established.
  3. Once the horse understands the concept, I introduce the voice signal “Across” for moving away and “Return” for bringing the leg back.
  4. Be aware that when we give signals with the non-dominant side of our body, we tend to be stiffer, less precise, and therefore less clear. Awareness of this means we can work on improvement.
  5. It’s important to only do a few of each of these per training session. The Rule of Three, as in Prerequisite 5, is a useful guideline. The brain consolidates new nerve pathways during times of rest. We never want training to become drilling. We want the horse keen to try something new we are teaching because he is keen to earn his next click&treat. If he loses interest we have gone too fast or for too long.

SLICES

  1. Do a few repeats of click&treat for standing quietly together in your chosen area, using your ‘no intent’ body language during the ‘wait’ time. We need to remember to include this task in every session with our horse, no matter what we are doing.
  2. Cross your feet to model the behavior you want and gently touch the horse’s shoulder to ask him to move his shoulder over, so his near front leg crosses in front of his far leg. Click&treat this movement and at the same time uncross your legs and lean away from the horse to encourage the horse to return his leg to its starting position – feed the treat.
  3. If the horse steps away with both front legs or goes straight into a full turn on the haunches, we probably need to reduce the energy of our signal and time our click exactly to when the near leg lifts and begins moving in front of the far leg.
  4. Once the horse has the idea, shift the timing of your click to when the horse returns his leg into the start position – two behaviors chained to become the complete movement we want.
  5. Pause at zero intent for a little while before asking again. We can click&treat for standing quietly at zero intent any time it seems helpful.
  6. Repeat 2 above. If you get two or three good repeats. Pause. Then teach it again from the beginning standing on the horse’s other side. To maintain suppleness in both shoulders we must work hard to get both sides moving equally freely. If one side is stiffer, it is valuable information for us. Do a few more repeats on that side. And be aware of Note 4 above.
  7. When our signal is smooth and the horse is responding easily most of the time, ask for two ‘Across & Returns’ before the click&treat. Stay with two until it feels ho-hum.
  8. When two is easy, ask for three. You can gradually ask for more if you want to. I tend to stick with three or four on each side as our daily shoulder-stretching exercise.

GENERALIZATIONS

  1. Do the task in different places.
  2. Work on a slope, standing either uphill or downhill.
  3. Add another element such as standing across a rail.