Month: April 2020

Odin's obstacle course

The trails are closed and so are most arenas.  We cannot go anywhere to train or ride and frankly I frequently do not have time to go very far anyway because I have an old dog.  Sure the old dog can be in her crate, in the truck for a few hours, but I would rather not leave her unattended for that long.  She will not live forever so figuring out how to train with what I have right now has been good practice for Training during the Time of Covid-19.

Numerous times I have mentioned that when I get stuck for training ideas I turn to Alexandra Kurland's book on clicker training.  She explains why clicker training can safely work for anyone, what tools you need and likely have available, i.e. your tongue to make the clicking noise, grain or carrot pieces for rewards, pockets for storage, and anything can be used as a target.  I use empty plastic grain bags, rain barrels, old bath mats or towels, a bucket lid, an old lacrosse stick, dog toys that old dog does not use any more — just make sure the item does not have sharp or pointy edges.  Pretend the toy is for your precious 6-month old niece or nephew — too big to swallow, lots of holes to prevent suffocation, and too blunt poke themselves.  The book has a lot of pictures and step-by-step procedures, as well as what to do if things go wrong.

This book has helped me take goals I have with Odin (ride him long and far and fast some day, maybe herd cows, maybe shoot bow and arrow at stationary targets, maybe go drag hunting and jump over logs) and break the steps down into the tiniest pieces.

The first step is obvious: get on horse.  What do I have to do to accomplish that?  A million things: catch him, lead him nicely, ask him to go into the barn where the saddle is, ask him to stand still while I brush his coat and remain standing while I pick his feet, put on the blanket and saddle, accept a bit and bridle over his ears, lead to to the mounting block, stand still while I get on, move off nicely when I ask, be brave when he sees a scary plastic bag or garbage can or another goblin, ask him to be reasonable if I make a mistake, like let the lead rope drag over his butt or between his hooves.  Riders ask a lot of horses and it continues to amaze me that horses are willing to do all these things that are against their instincts and have little benefit to themselves, except earning that paycheck of regular feed, water, and shelter.

That list did not seem like it amounted to a million; however, when you break down each step into the tiniest of steps it seems like a million.

For instance, the first thing on the list is catch him.  What if he does not want to be caught because he would rather continue his nap or he simply is not ready for you to be in his space?  How do you catch a horse that does not want to be caught?  Let him catch you!  Walk toward him until he looks at you.  Then stop, maybe back away.  If he looks away as soon as you enter, he may be telling you that he is not ready for you to be in his space.  Be polite, stop, and give him a moment.  When he looks at you back away.  Pretty soon he will take a step toward you. Click with your tongue and offer him a treat.  This is the beginning. Do this repeatedly over the next several days or week and soon he will walk up to you when you come in.

Break down the rest of the steps and then this happens:

So handsome in his English tack.

And then this:

Odin aiming for the next target, duct-taped lacrosse stick, with me on board.

What is next for us?  Maybe some trotting to each obstacle after the mud dries out.  Neither of us need our confidence shaken by him slipping in mud. Eventually we will get to his nemesis, the horse trailer but we are not in a hurry.  We can do a lot of preparation here and still take care of the old dog in the manner that she deserves.

Odin looking very dapper in his English saddle.  Bragi in the background.

Having my horses at home for the first time in more than 25 years has given me the opportunity (and frustration) of trying to develop my own style of horsemanship.  I've said before that I grew up in the "traditional" style of horsemanship where horses were considered dumb beasts that needed to dominated.  I cringe writing those words.

I've always known there was more, an actual connection, the kind of connection little girls, I dreamed about, where the horse is your partner and is smart, wise, and willing.

Until I moved my horses home, one impossible Thoroughbred (Beege) who is no longer with us but taught me almost everything I know about non-verbal communication and trust with a flight animal who outweighs me by an order of magnitude, and one very green Mustang who lived the first 6 years of his life on the range, making life or death decisions for himself and his band of mares, I was in a trainer's program with a trained horse.  While I was challenged as a rider, I felt like I was missing the secret of horsemanship, that connection.

I did not leave a trainer's program willingly, at first.  My impossible Thoroughbred needed to be retired and there was no reason to keep him in training so he went to live in a pasture with a Kiger Mustang.  My trainer gave me the basics of positive  reinforcement(R+), which over time taught me a lot about setting goals then abandoning them when Beege wasn't up to whatever challenge I presented to him.

Of course I dreamed of riding but riding Beege was dangerous because when he wasn't sound, he was very reactive, dangerously reactive. And it was no fun for either of us.  What I wanted was for riding to be fun.

Because I simply must rescue an animal (hence, the off-the track Thoroughbred) rather than buy from a breeder I adopted a Mustang.  A Cold Spring Herd Management Area (HMA)  Mustang that was part of a 100-day makeover challenge.  His name was Thor when I won him in auction but I renamed him Odin because he seemed like a wise soul.  And he is.  He's very thoughtful but also very opinionated.  While he's way easier than Beege ever was, what I learned from Beege I learned to apply to Odin to figure out where the gaps are and answer my question about how we are going to get to riding with both of us enjoying it.

My go-to tool is a book by Alexandra Kurland about R+ called The Click that Teaches (revised edition).  Every time I get stuck on how to move forward, which is a lot, I go to the book and pick out a lesson that I think will help.  The gaps get filled, I feel successful as a horseman when Odin (and now Bragi, my new little baby Warm Springs HMA Mustang) responds to my request.  I've learned to break my asks down to the most miniscule steps and to stop when we're successful.

My goal for today was the mounting block lesson in the R+ book.  The gap was putting on the saddle as Odin generally says "no thanks", not really for any particular reason but he has opinions.  How can I tell that it's for no particular reason?  Because when I break down the steps and reward him for each successful step, he's fine with the saddle.  I think he likes a reward for every little thing, not due to poor confidence but he likes acknowledgement that he's being a partner.  Since he was a stallion with his own band of mares until he was 6, he thinks he should be in charge.  Since I pay for his food and housing I think I should be in charge.  Sometimes we have to agree on that every day.

Our session was successful.  Once O understood that he gets rewarded for standing still to have the saddle put on, the girth tightened incrementally, for standing still in the right position at the mounting block, for letting me rattle the saddle, for letting me get on, and for moving forward, he's willing.  When I think of where we were when I first brought him home, we've made miles and miles of progress.  He wouldn't go in his stall, even with dinner in there.  He had a hard time walking through the barn. It's been fun helping him turn into a partner without any guilt of inflicting pain and the reward of gaining trust.

Below is the view from my front porch.  I bring Odin up to the front and turn him loose to graze the lawn.  He's also getting a lesson in desensitization with the sprinkler as he has opinions about hoses and water spraying.  The cars on the road behind him don't bother him at all, not even the big noisy trailers but the sprinkler in the garden is super scary. Or just not tolerable.  Except he gets to graze and the sprinkler didn't even touch him so it's okay after all.  And Bragi is having a lesson in being by himself, which he protests loudly.  We can hear him whinnying in the round pen back by the barn.  Eventually he'll learn that he's not by himself for long but since I don't separate them every day it'll take a while and that's fine.  Bragi has nothing but time.