Horses tend not to generalise well, so if you train only in one place they will not be as confident in a new place. Which is why many people don’t understand why their horse is not as good at a show as at home.
So whilst training try to do so in a variety of settings and on both sides of the horse.
I have been teaching Mojo to come to the mounting block and he is now very good, I have moved the block around in the arena. So today I walked him to the end of the school and pulled out a jump block. He was busy being nosey over the fence, so I stood on the block and called him. He immediately came and sidled up to the block, lining himself up. I pulled down the stirrups on the saddle and put weight in the stirrup and he continued to stand next to me. I walked him round a bit more and then went back and stood on the block – he did exactly the same, big fuss and jackpot and we finished there.
I now need to take him outside and do the same – so he knows that when I stand on something and call his name he is to line up next to me. This is so useful when out and about so he lines up to logs or gates or anything else I can use as a mounting block.
Mojo and the dummy body
I made a body for Mojo, I just need to stuff it more and make it heavier. The idea is to desensitise and counter condition him to having someone mounting and being not very balanced about the process. He wasn’t bothered about the “body” after the initial sniffing at it outside the arena, it was on the fence whilst I groomed him.
The plan now is – once the body is heavier and sits better – to walk him round with the body on and get him used to someone wobbling on top.
If a horse feels out of balance with the rider it makes them fearful – just like we are if we feel unbalanced and about to fall. As the sympathetic nervous system takes over the horse may run or he may freeze. Mojo tends to run in these situations.
April 2016 Update
What a difference between today when I fly sprayed Mojo and last year when he tried to jump on me.
He was eating his hay and just stood whilst I sprayed him on the left side. Then he decided the smell was a bit strong, but after a sniff and a few treats he was ok when I went round the other side.
I also long lined him and he is OK on the left but still tried to put himself back on that side when I changed sides. So I got his frisbee and threw that in front of him and he walked forward and forgot all about me being on the “wrong” side.
Then added the legs and he walked round with them on. I took off the lines and pulled the legs off and pushed them off and tapped his rump with the boot. All he did was come a bit closer to the mounting block.
I have been working on leading him from the right side and he is getting better. A few days a go I had him at liberty and we walked round the school but he did try to move to the other side. So I got the frisbee and threw that for him to follow, once he was concentrating on that he was fine and very relaxed going forwards. Yesterday I did it over some poles and he was long and forward over them following the frisbee.
He did leave once to go and see if the people by the fence had anything for him, but he soon came back.
More saddling
Saddled and bridled Mojo with no fuss, fidgeting or moving away. Even though the old bitted bridle has a browband that is a tad too small. He stood whilst I fiddled with it and adjusted the cheekpieces. Then we went for a walk with a headcollar and the saddle in place.
Now it is getting better weather (although not over the weekend as the weather forecast isn’t too good) we can start to do some mini treks in hand.
Then I need to get Liz to ride him again and sit on him myself – I will wait until he is OK with people being clumsy get on and off. I am not as agile as I used to be and sometimes get a little stuck dismounting.
I also cut the dreadlocks out of his feathers – so he looks a bit raggedy now. They grow so quickly it wont be long before they look OK. Roll on the warm weather when I can wash them.
Mojo and the dentist
Mojo had his teeth done this lunchtime, he was very good about the experience. He got a little worried at the new person, but Corrie was extremely patient with him. I was very pleased with him – he did hold it together, he did get a lots of scratches and a treat at the end.
He was however very happy to go out in the sunshine naked afterwards.
Before that we did some weaving round cones, walking over poles and targeting a frisbee that I threw on the ground. I had to keep him occupied whilst waiting for the dentist. He was better today with staying on the mat until cued to come to the mounting block or cued to target a cone. We hadn’t done that recently, I then put out the tarp and he was very keen to go and stand on that.
Mojo being ridden.
Today my daughter Liz came to help me with Mojo. He is still a little unsure of new people and he hasn’t seen Liz for a while. So Liz brought him in and took his rug off and gave him some chaff.
Then we got the tack out and put the mounting block and a mat in the school.
Liz then went to get Mojo out of the stable, he turned his back – as he did with me when I first started with him. Liz stood quietly and reinforced any sign of him turning round and coming to her. Held out the headcollar and let him sniff it a few times, then he let her put it on.
We tied him loosely next to his hay net and let him eat whilst we groomed and Liz cleaned his feet.
Then I saddle him and gradually and gently did up his girth. We then put on his bitless bridle and attached the 12 ft line and took him in the school.
Liz asked him to walk a few circles – he responded very well to voice cues and walked and trotted – a bit hurried at first but he soon relaxed.
We then asked him to stand by the mounting block, I counter conditioned him to Liz mounting – he was slightly tense at first but she sat quietly and he relaxed again. Then she asked him to walk forward, which he did from a voice cue.
Liz walked and trotted him around the arena, he was quite stiff round the corners but he didn’t seem anxious. We only did about 4 minutes – 2 on each rein, then Liz asked him to “whoa” and he stopped and stood queitly.
I need to do more with his fear of strangers, so he gets used to anyone handling him.
Also do some long lining to get him bending more and continue with his stretching exercises.
Mojo at the mounting block.
A bit slow at adding new posts but over the last week we have been refining the cue to come to the mounting block.
It was very windy in this clip, the barn seems to funnel the wind. So I only showed Mojo the saddle.
We did some work at coming to the mounting block, I sent him to a cone and then stood on the mounting block and called “taxi’ he comes to stand next to me but sometimes over shoots and bumps in to me. I have to be careful not to reinforce his swinging out again too. This is little snippet, the cone is just out of shot – I must be better at siting the video camera.
A few days earlier I went back to getting more impluse control round the cone square – when I am further away he gets frustrated. So I went back to working on getting Mojo walking calmly round the pole and cone square. He was still a but frustrated at times but better than when I am further away. I also tried to use a variety of reinforcers – scratches and treats.
Not really sure it all went to plan as he did try to bite the target.
A longer video this time – warts and all.
The saddling didn’t go too well as he decided to walk off before I fastened the girth, I just held the saddle and walked with him then said ‘whoa’ – he stopped and I gave him a lip curling scratch and removed the saddle.
Today I saddled him with no problems at all, and put on his bridle. Didn’t do anything else so he learns that tack doesn’t always mean he has to do anything.
Reinforcement Spectrum
If we look at the use of negative and positive reinforcement as a spectrum we are all on this spectrum, whether we know it or not.
Some are at the extreme ends of the spectrum, so they only use positive reinforcement or only negative reinforcement.
My personal view is that we can be anywhere along this line as long as we aren’t extreme, as long as we don’t make people who are moving along in their horsemanship journey feel guilty.
Many extremists do make me feel uncomfortable. No-one knows our horse better than we do, what suits one may not suit another. We must tailor how we train to individual horses.
Positive reinforcement is not the choice of many because they lack understanding at this moment in time. So please be understanding of where other people are on the reinforcement spectrum and don’t be an extremist or a pedant.
If we only use one aspect of operant conditioning we may do so due to not understanding how to use all four quadrants correctly.
We do need to be mindful of the emotions involved with negative versus positive reinforcement and learn to read our horses reactions as we train.
Lets us embrace our fellow horse trainers (we are all training every time we interact with the horse). It is up to us to watch what we are reinforcing – if you get unwanted behaviours look at what reinforced the behaviour.
If you need to go to the extreme end of the spectrum using negative reinforcement then ask yourself why? What has fallen apart? How can I retrain this without being extreme?
If we go too far to the positive end our horses may get over aroused and that is not good either.
Moderation in everything is good.
We must look at the whole horse and our husbandry as well, set them up for success.
Just as Iife is never just black or white using the principles of learning theory is not either.
Often when we are young we look at life as idealists and become fixed on things being good or bad. As we mature we mellow in our understanding and reactions and become more rounded and accepting of other peoples points of view.
Please let us be mature in our acceptance of everyone on their path of learning. Whether we totally agree with them or not others often have valuable experiences to share.
Punishment is another spectrum that I may explore on another day.
Short and Long reining.
I have been desensitising Mojo to the feather lines in preparation for long reining. We have done a little short reining with shorter lines but today was the first time walking with both feather lines attached. I was very unco-ordinated but Mojo was a star, targeting the cones on the circle and not being stressed by the lines on his back or even round his hocks at the end.
We did it on a small circle as the school had been watered a little too much and there was a big puddle at one end.
Mojo Trotting a Circle
I bought a long lunge type whip, more like a stick though and then tied a bag on the end. This I used to get Mojo trotting round me – he loves to chase the bag so a longer one was easier for me to get him to trot a circle.
I now have a saddle but haven’t tried it on him yet. Will do that tomorrow and then take some photos for the saddler – it is the same size as the one he wore last week.
We had a bit of a disaster whilst foot trimming, he kicked out and somehow got his leg caught over the lead rope, and as he was tied up he panicked and broke both the head collar and the lead rope clips.
We let him settle and reassured him with lots of scratches. Then I held him so it wouldn’t happen again and he was very good with his hind feet. We do think he was a little shocked by it all and it took a while for the adrenaline to dissipate.
He seemed fine once it was all done, the other horses were being fed during the final foot being rasped. He looked but made no attempt to pull away even though he could see his tea.
He went out to the field once he had eaten his well earned tea.
Positive Horsemanship. 