Clicker training

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becca114

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Does anyone do clicker training with their horse? What sort of things do you teach him to do?
Also do you find that your horse is more focused on the food than yourself and do you get any funny business caused by the food(e.g: ears back, throwing the head around, having a tantrum, biting)?
 
Not with my orse, but use it with the puppy with great effect
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I've used it with my horse, primarily ridden to encourage forward movement....had some success...my mare understood exactly what the click and treat meant within a few minutes so that avoided any over concentration on the food as she knew that she needed to do what I asked her in order to hear the click....
When she was on box rest, I also started teaching a few tricks...such has 'head low'...useful for calming if hossies head shoots up in the air and you loose concentration...
She is extremely food orientated, and I worried initially that it would cause funny business as you posted, however, its just not happened! I think because she understands that she only get the treat if she hears the click...I found it quite strange that she picked this up almost immediately.
Hope this is ok, had to do a rushed reply as am at work!
 
Yes I've done some basic stuff and am currently doing more tricks etc with my mare as she is also off work and bored on paddock rest - am hoping that I can then transfer to more advanced in hand stuff and ridden work once we are back in action.

My mare is a dominant so and so and can be aggressive and yes I did get an increase in this behaviour initially after teaching her the basics. However, by ignoring this mugging type behaviour and teaching her an "away" command with her head - ie she has to tilt/turn her head away from me, to gain the treat, this has stopped and actually doing the clicker stuff calms her aggressiveness and engages her brain/enthusiasm better than anything else.

I do find it hard work myself and a bit brain draining
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, as you do have to be very precise in your reactions and clicks - one of the reasons I stopped doing it before, I found it hard to keep up with my mare!!! Plus riding and general stuff got in the way - its only now that we have nothing else to do but wait for the next scan on her leg, that I have gone back to it and I have to say her enthusiasm and enjoyment of just playing around with it, is really lovely to see and something I would love to transfer to ridden work, as she is a difficult mare to motivate when ridden and I feel that often our dressage marks reflect the fact she is going through the motions, rather than showing the flare and personality that is very much there.

A good forum for clicker information is www.enlightenedequitation.com, although you do have to be a member to post.
 
I use it. I was taught by Alex Kurland (http://www.theclickercenter.com) so the first thing we taught was to be polite around food - but it does definitely take some practise - I need to be smooth and fast with my delivery if I'm not going to have her wiggling her upper lip in frustration.

I have a youngster and no saddle at the moment so we're teaching the basics of emotional control and lateral movements, also moving forward to the leg or a voice command.

basics (as per alex) are: 'Head lowering' (for emotional control -it's an almost miraculous calmer - when used in those 'emotional melt down' moments, it can bring them back into quiet focus faster than anything I know.

backing quietly and softly (to engage the hock/hind leg) - backing in a square comes next

standing quietly while I'm there with a pocket full of treats and NOT mugging me

targeting (useful for other things)

I'm also teaching the beginnings of lateral work using what Alex calls 3-flip-3 and various other ways of helping her to engage her inside hind leg on a circle.

I'm learning lunging and long-reining (and heck am I cack-handed at them both when we move up to 24' lines) and so we're doing lots of long, low long-reining in circles and straight lines. It's changed her back and neck muscles to an amazing degree. Her mane all falls to one side now

so - to answer your question. Yes, I use it. Yes, it requires a quite astonishing amount of focus on my part. Yes, I think it's a lot, lot more complicated than when i first started - the clicker list I'm part of is full of people who do this for a living and it's fascinating, but quite scary - and yes, she's entirely focused, a lot softer (she was a tanking shark when I got her - a typical welsh C who thought she could walk through walls, and certainly did walk through doors) and, most importantly, she's engage, interested and, as far as I can tell by every criterion I understand, she's relaxed and not under pressure.

Alex is coming over this summer to do some clinics - details on her web site.

E
 
Drop the holiday! It's worth it, really and truly.
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She's the only clicker trainer I know who's at two removes from Nuno Olivero! (She trained with Bettina Drummond who was his primary pupil - Bettina's mother was his sponsor.)

so - intelligent use of science coupled with astounding horsemanship

well worth seeing

if not, try one of the others and do B&B?

E
 
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