Challenging activities and puzzles for clever youngster

[Landcruiser]

My young mare is a very bright spark. She picks things up quickly and seems to enjoy new things. Does anyone have any ideas for "puzzles" I could set her, to get her to develop her cognitive ability? I've done lots of despooking, playing with objects, rope work, just started long reining, lots of freeschooling..but I'm thinking of more problem solving type things. Googling didn't get me very far (no I do not want a jigsaw puzzle picture of a horse

 

[ihatework]

How old is she?

 

[Landcruiser]

How old is she?

She was 3 in April

 

[JumpTheMoon1]

Try her on the Wordle ! You cannot really teach horses to " solve " problems.They usually work things out themselves like opening the bolt on a stable door - not teached but they soon work it out themselves.
Carry on with all things that might spook her - show her an umbrella and open it in front of her - most young horses go mad.
Get 3 cups and put something under one and ask her to tap the cup with the object under it !!! you just cant do things like this with horses.De spook and de sensitize is the way to go with a youngster.She will benefit from all that all her life.

 

[ihatework]

She was 3 in April

Personally, and I’m sure others will disagree, but you can overdo the stimulation thing and you risk turning a young horse into an overconfident annoying brat.

She is at the age where she can do short spells of structured learning. interspersed with downtime being a horse and continuing to learn proproception/strengthening/social interaction out in a group.

If she is ready, I’d back her. That will give her something to think about ?

 

[Landcruiser]

Try her on the Wordle ! You cannot really teach horses to " solve " problems.They usually work things out themselves like opening the bolt on a stable door - not teached but they soon work it out themselves.
Carry on with all things that might spook her - show her an umbrella and open it in front of her - most young horses go mad.
Get 3 cups and put something under one and ask her to tap the cup with the object under it !!! you just cant do things like this with horses.De spook and de sensitize is the way to go with a youngster.She will benefit from all that all her life.

She's fine with umbrellas, can be led happily while having one over her head. Ditto tarps, bubble wrap (can walk on it as it pops), stuff thrown over the top of her, under her - all that stuff. I'm not looking to "teach" her to solve problems, it's more "discovery and exploration" type problem solving I'm trying to come up with.

 

[Cortez]

IME, "clever" horses are a pain in the ar$e.

 

[Landcruiser]

Personally, and I’m sure others will disagree, but you can overdo the stimulation thing and you risk turning a young horse into an overconfident annoying brat.

She is at the age where she can do short spells of structured learning. interspersed with downtime being a horse and continuing to learn proproception/strengthening/social interaction out in a group.

If she is ready, I’d back her. That will give her something to think about ?[/QUOTE

I take your point and I'm aware of it. She does very short sessions of this sort of stuff plus more mainstream pre backing stuff, and I am very clear on boundaries/personal space. She also does a nice walk out in hand (now wearing a saddle) once a week when my friend comes to ride my other horse as "nanny". She has the whole rest of her time out, with my two older geldings.
She WAS bargy, nappy and bad mannered when she arrived, she's massively improved now and is a pleasure to work with, and she seems to enjoy it too. I won't back her till next summer, she's very bum high and has some growing to do.
My reason for wanting brain work for her is that she is incredibly nosy, sticks her nose into everything new, follows people around to see what they are doing, and investigates every new thing. This has resulted in bits of random vandalism by her, which are clearly exploratory...hence wanting to put that brain to work. The devil makes work for idle hooves!

 

[Landcruiser]

IME, "clever" horses are a pain in the ar$e.

I love 'em. They keep you on your toes.

 

[TheMule]

Personally, and I’m sure others will disagree, but you can overdo the stimulation thing and you risk turning a young horse into an overconfident annoying brat.

She is at the age where she can do short spells of structured learning. interspersed with downtime being a horse and continuing to learn proproception/strengthening/social interaction out in a group.

If she is ready, I’d back her. That will give her something to think about ?

I agree- the most useful thing I did with my 3 year old was to ride and lead him everywhere I could off a really good, non-spooky horse (his mother, actually!). He saw the whole world in a relaxed way and gradually built muscle structure

 

[SEL]

Can you walk her out in hand a lot? That gets them used to seeing the world and can be quite mentally tiring. If there's places they can browse then even better

Walking through mazes of poles is good too - but don't over do it.

IME, "clever" horses are a pain in the ar$e.

Yes - they are harder to train and make their own entertainment. My new baby cob is delightfully thick and much, much easier to train!

 

[Bonnie Allie]

I love the fact that you have used the word “puzzle”. Hubbys youngster is also a bright and inquisitive type and loves his pole exercises which we describe as his puzzles.

He genuinely seems to enjoy the variably spaced poles, the ones set on an arc, the raised poles and even the little bounce grid.

He has been introduced to them slowly, given clear direction and praised fir his success.

My horse when my hubby backed her, he hacked her out a lot and used her inquisitive nature to teach her to draw toward and investigate new objects. As a result she “processes” new situations or scary things swiftly and without fuss. She has never spooked, she slaps her feet on the ground if she gets startled by something, but will not spook.

 

[Landcruiser]

I love the fact that you have used the word “puzzle”. Hubbys youngster is also a bright and inquisitive type and loves his pole exercises which we describe as his puzzles.

He genuinely seems to enjoy the variably spaced poles, the ones set on an arc, the raised poles and even the little bounce grid.

He has been introduced to them slowly, given clear direction and praised fir his success.

My horse when my hubby backed her, he hacked her out a lot and used her inquisitive nature to teach her to draw toward and investigate new objects. As a result she “processes” new situations or scary things swiftly and without fuss. She has never spooked, she slaps her feet on the ground if she gets startled by something, but will not spook.

Exactly this. My retired gelding is another clever one. His reaction to anything scary is to edge up to it until close enough to sniff it. I discovered this early in our relationship when we were solo hacking and met a big bright pink heart shaped helium balloon with its string caught in a hedge, bouncing up and down. He froze, goggled at it, then edged closer and closer. I was expecting a full on spin and leg it away, but not a bit of it. I never knew him to spook, even when pheasants went up under him. He'd startle, but not as much as I did! My new girl reminds me of him very much indeed, except she's less cantankerous than him.

 

[Landcruiser]

I agree- the most useful thing I did with my 3 year old was to ride and lead him everywhere I could off a really good, non-spooky horse (his mother, actually!). He saw the whole world in a relaxed way and gradually built muscle structure

I'd love to do this - she refuses to be led off my other horse though, she plants. I can do it easily in the arena where I can manoever, but after a few attempts where she's planted out on the road (always had someone on foot to take over, knowing this is a probability), I am sticking to in hand leading. She does a few miles of this a week, including into the local village with all its delights of bins, traffic, people and dogs, etc etc.

 

[dorsetladette]

IME, "clever" horses are a pain in the ar$e.

Yep - I have one. He's into everything. He's 3 in April, but by xmas I will have done all the backing ground work with him to be in a position to get on in the new year.

He's to clever and if not stimulated will cause chaos entertaining himself. Our poor Turkeys usually get the brunt of it. I dread to think what he'll be like once he's schooled nicely, guess I'm going to be constantly learning new things to in order to stay a step ahead of him.

 

[maya2008]

Hacking in-hand or led off another horse. Then backing and you can go out ridden. Exploring the world is what young horses are wired to do - keeps them happy and out of trouble.

 

[Gloi]

IME, "clever" horses are a pain in the ar$e.

,"Clever" ponies are even worse ?

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Feeling your pain OP: I took my current pony to a TREC workshop thinking it would stimulate her when she was a 6yo; she was bored to death within 10 mins as the pace of it was way way too slow for her agile brain. There was too much hanging around, too much repetition, and the course just wasn't stimulating enough for her. Was disappointed.

In our yard we've put some old logs down with bits of tarp; we've also "borrowed" some Cones and put flags in them, horses have to walk over the tarp and between the flags - even better if its windy! Gets 'em used to stuff they see outside. We do stuff like pick up old bits of silage bags if they're blowing up in the road and bring them home to use for our "obstacle course". We keep changing it too, that's important.

Have a look at some Horse Agility obstacles as they might give you some inspiration for things you could perhaps put up at home.