Clicker training, liberty work, and pressure and release.

This post isn't about any one horse really. It more has to do with my stance on training. Years ago only one way of horse training was known. It was harsh, and all to often you hear the reasoning it has to be so harsh is because they are big animals so you have to be harsh in order to be safe. And in some cases I won't dispute that reasoning. They are big animals with the ability to hurt you, but in most cases you don't have to be harsh to get good results.

Back when I got Pixie she was flighty, not trusting, and had no confidence.  It took me a while to find that out though. I had already ridden her and it wasn't until I did new things I figure out instead of her looking to me for safety she thought she had to leave. She wanted nothing to do with me when things got scary. So I turned to traditional natural horsemanship methods to try and find the answers. Some worked, and other days we were running around the round pen for hours and she was out of her mind with fright. It was one of those days I decided this wasn't working there had to be another way. So I started looking into my ways of training dogs and reading up on positive reward training for horses.

I started by just hanging out with her, no more riding until we got trust.  We introduced her to the clicker and food rewards. I used a combination of pressure and release with rewards to teach her the important things like not bolting when something scary happened. Then I started to teach her to think things through by using the clicker to start target training. We started with easy things like touch the mounting block and get rewarded. I wanted her to learn how to learn. We spend months on ground work alone. During that time most of it was spend off line in the round pen. Not running, but just hanging out. I wanted to know how far I could push before she left me. Haltering her and forcing her to stay was a band aid approach for her. She needed learn on her own that I was the safe place, but without force.  I had set a goal of in one year we would be able to trail ride. We did meet that goal :)

I prefer to work at liberty with my horses, it gives them the chance to say no and for me to figure out why they are saying no. Does this mean they get to do what ever they want, nope it does not. I set rules and boundaries just like with positive reward dog training. Do I still use traditional tack? Yes, I do. We use halters, bridles, bits, saddles, etc... I am not an against the use of tack, I just don't like to use it as a band aid. Does it have its place to teach new things...yes, I recently switch bits with Pixie to try and help her collect better. It worked. But now I mix it up ride with just the halter one day and the bit the next. I will always try to find the least forceful way to teach something first. I have no time limit with my horses, so I can take as long as I need to train new things.

I made mistakes with Pixie and learned from them. Jess didn't have to learn anything new, and Willow we have used our new ways of training and she has grown so much in the last few months. Navi will be trained using a combination of pressure and release and clicker training.  

Good rides and Navi has first lesson

Yesterday was perfect weather for a nice ride outside. So after we tended to Navi in the morning and did our errands we caught Pixie and Willow for a relaxing ride. The girls were super excited to leave the arena and get moving out. I love it when they enjoy the rides as much as we do. We ended up riding for a hour or so. The girls were perfect! After riding we supplemented them and Jess. Then it was already time for a late lunch.

After lunch it was time to get Navi back out for exercise and some feet handling. Our first order of business with her is to get her really really long feet trimmed. I had handled her front feet, but not back feet yet. So I started with a rope. Asking her to picked up all four feet with the rope...success! Not one kick out! After that I decided to just pick them all up once before we called it a day. Success again! She let me picked up each foot without fuss. I am so grateful since the farrier with be here on the 8th and she has to have them trimmed. We will spend the next week making sure she is more than ready so there won't be any issues hopefully.

Along with feet handling we are starting work on flexing and giving to pressure. So we started asking for right and left flexing and not leaning. She picked up on it right away and we ended on a great note!! I don't expect all training to go this well, but so far we are off to a good start! 

Skip N Navajo #246

This is an older picture of her from the website she was listed for sale on before going to auction.

She was the last baby to be auctioned off during the big one day sale on Nov 24,2012. I knew nothing about her except where she had come from and her pedigree. She was part of an entire herd dispersal sale from where I had adopted Pixie Dust from. I went to the auction as I had done many times before just to watch with no plans on buying (always managed before not to buy). This time was different in the sense that I knew where more than 20 of these horses came from.

I got to the auction at 7am to walk around and then watch the loose horse sale. My friend met me there later in the morning so we ate, walked and then parked ourselves for the main horse sale. Later in the afternoon my partner met us there. We talked and then got a number to buy if we wanted. At this time we still had no intentions. But then we went out to look at the foals...we decided to bid on one. Crazy, yes, but it seemed right. Well I lost the bid on the first saddlebred I bid on. That was okay, it wasn't meant to be. My partner left after that and my friend and I stayed to watch the rest of the herd dispersal go later. That is when I decided to try for the last yearling. She had seemed sweet in the pens earlier in the day. We had spend time with them all, and really liked her. With that she was in the ring and not five minutes later and one bid I had won. It all happened so fast I looked at my friend and said "Did I win her". I jumped up and we headed down to pay. On the way out I ran into the person selling her and I told her I won #246. And with that she was mine and I had to figure out when to bring her home since it was after 7 pm and I didn't have my trailer with me.

Navi came home the next day after I got off work. I went to the barn to get a end stall prepared. She has to be isolated from the other horses for a month just in case. Better to be safe. I don't know much about her yet, other than she seems like she loves attention and is really calm. Oh and she doesn't know what a carrot is yet...but that will change soon enough :)

A Windstorm (Willow)

Willow

Willow in front, Pixie in back

Willow came to us June 2012. After Jess hurt his shoulder in May we decided we would find another trail horse and let him retire. The funny thing about how Willow came to us was that we had seen her for the past two years at the barns we boarded at. She was a broad mare at my first barn and a fellow boarder bought her from the BO (Barn owner) there. Then we moved barns and this other boarder did too. So Willow was kept next to my horses for almost a year. I had talked to her and see her ridden but never thought I would one day buy her. Again she really didn't fit what we were looking for in a horse. We had decided this time around we would get a draft cross. My partner wanted something bigger than average. Willow is tall at 16h, but she is a Tennessee Walker so she is far from big boned. But then my fellow boarder offered to let me ride her Walkers to see what it was like to ride a gaited horse...I fell in love with the gait. How could you not, no posting required! Then next she was amazing and told me we could ride her during our search for another horse and while Jess was recovering. She said she never rode her and she wanted her to get used. So for the next month we had free access to her. And of course that was the beginning of the end. At the end of the month we offered to buy her and she said yes.

Willow was our first registered horse. She was born in April 2001. Making her the same age as Pixie. It was perfect now both our trail horses were the same age and fitness level. Willow competed in the big Celebration TWH show in Tennessee as a yearling and 2 year old. She won multiple blue ribbons as a young filly both in hand and under saddle. Of course none of that matters really and she is no longer going to show or breed. But its always fun to think of her winning :)

Willow has been a perfect trail horse this year. She has gained confidence and taken care of us. We look forward to many more great trail rides with her.

Jess 1991- Jan 24th 2018

This morning we laid Jess to rest at the ranch where we board at. I can't think well enough right now to write a worthy post about him, so for now I will leave it at his background story below. Our hearts are hurting, but we know he is at peace in no longer in pain. Run free buddy. We miss you.

Jess came to us in January 2011. We started looking for a horse for my partner as Pixie was proving to be too much horse for a green rider. So after taking lessons on Jess for a few months it was decided that we would buy him. He is a grade older Quarter horse. He has his cranky old man ways, but he is safe and that was the most important thing to us. It was his job to teach her how to ride and safely take her out on trail rides. And that is just what he has done. He even was a trooper when we got lost out on the trails in May of 2012, well not lost really, but farther out then we wanted. What was supposed to be a hour to two hour ride turned into five hours of up and down steep hills! He safely carried her without a bad step the entire time. Even though we knew at the end he had to be in pain from his arthritis.  Unfortunately a few weeks after that ride he hurt his shoulder some how and that would marked his retirement from trail riding. We had a over a year of enjoying the trails with him and that was enough. He had done his job he was the safe teacher that we needed at the time. He had earned his retirement. We rode him some lightly around the barn this last spring and summer, but this fall we decided to pull his shoes and give him true retirement. Many people wonder why we keep him, he is older, lame, and not pretty. But he earned every bit of his easy life now. Before us he was a hard working rodeo/rope horse. He is worth his weight in gold!

Pixie Dust

In June of 2010 I decided it was time for me to enter the world of horse ownership again. I wanted to rescue more than buy. I looked at ads everyday so excited to find a horse. I saw Pixie's ad she was stunning! But nothing that I was looking for in a horse. I always like loud colors and she is plain chestnut. I wanted a big stout horse, she fine boned, but I had to go see her. The ad said she hated her ears touched and was a nice mare, but needed miles. No problem I thought! So we went for a few visits and decided yes we wanted to adopt her. We signed the papers and on July 10 she came home. I now owned a 2001 Saddlebred Mare! She had previously been starved when the person I got her from had rescued her. Her true history unknown, but the picture proves with a little love and work any horse has potential!

I have now had her for over 2 years and she is my heart and soul. In the beginning she bolted while riding, threw my partner off of her, and had me in tears and ready to give up more than once. But then I decided to take my positive reward dog training skills and try them on her. It worked! We started to gain trust and see improvements. She is now the most amazing trail horse and best friend I could ask for. Over the past two years we have had our setbacks but more important we have had amazing accomplishments.