hobbyhorse23
Well-Known Member
I really should be formally blogging this stuff but just can't seem to keep up my motivation.
So instead I'm being a pest and sharing here! Hope ya'll don't mind.
So I had the boys out on Thursday just before dark and was looking around for something fun to work with them on. Spotting the metal easy entry in the cart shed I pulled it out with much "help" from my little friends and started rolling it down the fenced driveway. Turbo thought this was awesome and started trying to herd the cart, nipping at the wheels and the seat back and the shafts and generally being studdy. (He was frustrated because I'd been gone four days and then rained out for a few when I got back so he hadn't been out.) After a few minutes he settled down to work walking calmly beside the cart, stopping and starting when I did. I set the shafts down on the ground and found with some amusement that Turbo was perfectly happy to immediately step over them to investigate the cart in detail so I started walking around the cart with him following me. This got pretty funny in a hurry as he would actually trot around the cart trying to catch up to me and when I'd manage to get on the other side of it from him and suddenly change directions he was leaping back and forth like a cutting horse trying to guess which way I'd go!
There was no studdiness in this, his ears were up and he was having as much fun as I was.
Since he's been taught to go over ground poles off voice commands and body signals (properly, with his head down and stepping cleanly over the poles,) I followed the spirit of play we were engaged in and asked him to step over the resting shafts like elevated poles. He thought this was awesome and learned that sometimes the cart would move if he bumped the shaft with a foot and not to worry about it. (No, I don't recommend doing this with your driving horse. It's not good for the cart, potential for injury, blah blah blah. I knew the risks and was being careful!) Anyway, he did great with that and was looking at me like "What next?" I lifted the cart shafts and asked him to walk forward between them, which he did quite calmly. We worked in small stages until he'd not only line up on the shafts and walk into them but walk all the way up to the singletree and stand there with his head over it, then back out on command. He tried once or twice to turn around and face me to get his goodie and hit the shafts which caused some momentary irritation but he froze when I told him to and never got scared. He just figured out that he wasn't supposed to be going sideways when Mom said "back up" and that was the end of it.
I eyed him speculatively at that point and thought, "Oh, what the heck." I asked him to walk on and simultaneously rolled the cart forward a little, at which point my youngster promptly walked off between the shafts and "pushed" the cart all the way down the driveway!
He thought that was great fun and stopped and started nicely off voice commands.
We quit there and I asked Kody if he wanted to play. I was a little taken aback to discover that to him the cart was clearly an object of some reluctance and he really didn't want to have anything to do with it. This is my horse who loves to drive and can't wait to be harnessed, mind you! I dropped my own ambitions for the day and focused 100% on coaxing him into little steps that I could praise him for and raise his level of enjoyment. He figured out walking over the shafts and chasing me around it and such but that's about as far as we got. I sat down on the cart seat at the end and both Kody and Turbo approached me, one on each side. Turbo recently learned about putting his foot up on a pedestal or on or in a bucket so he looked at me, looked at the shafts and quite calmly put a foot over the shaft and rested his ankle there! Kody, the king of Step Up and not to be outdone, promptly matched him on the other side. It was quite funny- I have pictures. I sat there feeding them goodies and watching them touch noses over my knees and thought that life was good.
So yesterday I got out there again and this time let Kody out first by himself. I grabbed the cart and clicked him for coming over to see it, then took off running and laughed and praised him for following at a canter. He thought that was fun and began to view the whole thing with much more interest. I spent a good 20 minutes with the attitude of "Hey, can you do...this? Good job! What about this? Or this? Yay, Kody!!" until he was practically beaming at his own success and up for any challenge. The things he'd been really reluctant about the previous day he was doing quite happily by the time we were done and Turbo was going nuts in the paddock watching him. He wanted so badly to be part of things! I ignored him though and kept my focus 100% on Kody, which is what he needed right then.
I took that attitude of pride he'd developed and asked him to do his Spanish Walk steps, lifting one foreleg at a time in a big upward motion. He does that quite well but hadn't yet figured out how to do it when moving, something I wanted him to learn before next spring. He was really feeling the pride right at that moment though and was up on his toes and forward and dancing after me so I followed my instincts and gave him the cue to lift his leg at the same time. He got it! I made a HUGE fuss and told him what a smart wonderful pony he was and asked him to do it again. In moments he was walking after me, doing a Spanish Walk step with his left foreleg every other stride.
I told him he was the most wonderful pony in the world and drowned him in praise as he marched up the fenceline flashing that forefoot. Turbo, of course, was following us and I noticed with amusement he was lifting his forelegs too trying to get my attention.
I switched horses at that point, tossing Kody some hay to keep him busy. Long story short, Turbo remembered everything we'd done the day before and within just a couple of minutes was walking up and down the hill in between the shafts like he was pulling the cart. Keep in mind I don't have any tack at all on my horses during this stuff; they're just loose in a fenced area and doing whatever they find interesting. Thankfully, they find me and their training very interesting indeed!
I put the cart down at that point and Turbo tried to do his habitual turn-around-and-back-compulsively-into-Mom thing which I've been trying to break him of for over a year. He's gotten pretty good at turning around to face me instead but has never mastered the command to move forward off of me. If you try to insist with a whip he gets defensive and nails your kneecap (which REALLY gets him whipped, but that's another subject!) Anyway, just like with Kody and his Spanish Walk it felt like the right moment to ask him so I said "Ahht, walk on!" and to my immense delight he did! He got a major click-and-treat and I had him do it again. He finally GOT it, and quickly learned to hustle into position ahead of me when told to and walked in line with his ears forward, back swinging and head bobbing like a proper little driving pony. He's not that solid on "whoa" when leading yet so I was surprised when he stopped immediately upon hearing it from ahead of me. After some resultant praise, I asked him to walk off and whoa again which he did perfectly. Getting excited now, I had him turn right at the end of the lane and walk halfway back, then stop, then walk and then trot. He stayed right ahead of me the entire time and maintained his distance no matter what speed I went, neither anxious and waiting for me nor speeding off without me. I was so pleased! Learning to move forward instead of only back when having his butt to me really flipped a switch in his head and for the first time he was able to stand calmly in front of me without wanting to back up or do anything stupid.
Happy, happy, happy....
We played that game for a few more minutes with Kody watching us benevolently from the paddock (also unusual) and I finally had Turbo whoa then turned my back on him and walked over to Kody to give him a treat. Turbo did break but only after I had fed Kody and turned back to him so I reset his position, said "Whoa, Stand" again and repeated my trip to Kody without the goodie. This time he froze without even looking at me, totally relaxed, and waited while I came back and walked all the way around him before giving him his click. What a good pony! That's the first time I've done the true "walk away and forget about him, expect him to still be there" thing that I can do with Kody and I was really proud that he lived up to it. He also then allowed me to walk away, go up the side of the compost heap, walk along above his head, then slip down the side of the heap ahead of him and not move. I can really see my driving horse taking shape!
So that's where we're at and I appreciate anyone who's taken the time to read this far. I write this stuff more for me than for you to be honest but once written I might as well share it.
Pix to come if anyone wants them! I'm out there by myself so it's just the view from the seat of the boys with their legs resting on opposite shafts, but it's pretty cute.
Leia
P.S.- I hate having to do this disclaimer stuff, but yes I know that having their legs hooked over the shafts is very dangerous and stupid. Kody did slip a foot down between the shaft brace and the shaft at one point and pulled back, carefully dragging me a foot or two before he got free. Both horses have been worked through progressive levels of difficulty putting their feet on or in various objects and learned not to panic when they get a little stuck. They generally wait for Mom to get them free or think their way out of the problem. While I'm not in any way saying that makes this stunt okay, it wasn't something they did out of the blue that I thought was cute or recommend anyone else to try.
So I had the boys out on Thursday just before dark and was looking around for something fun to work with them on. Spotting the metal easy entry in the cart shed I pulled it out with much "help" from my little friends and started rolling it down the fenced driveway. Turbo thought this was awesome and started trying to herd the cart, nipping at the wheels and the seat back and the shafts and generally being studdy. (He was frustrated because I'd been gone four days and then rained out for a few when I got back so he hadn't been out.) After a few minutes he settled down to work walking calmly beside the cart, stopping and starting when I did. I set the shafts down on the ground and found with some amusement that Turbo was perfectly happy to immediately step over them to investigate the cart in detail so I started walking around the cart with him following me. This got pretty funny in a hurry as he would actually trot around the cart trying to catch up to me and when I'd manage to get on the other side of it from him and suddenly change directions he was leaping back and forth like a cutting horse trying to guess which way I'd go!
Since he's been taught to go over ground poles off voice commands and body signals (properly, with his head down and stepping cleanly over the poles,) I followed the spirit of play we were engaged in and asked him to step over the resting shafts like elevated poles. He thought this was awesome and learned that sometimes the cart would move if he bumped the shaft with a foot and not to worry about it. (No, I don't recommend doing this with your driving horse. It's not good for the cart, potential for injury, blah blah blah. I knew the risks and was being careful!) Anyway, he did great with that and was looking at me like "What next?" I lifted the cart shafts and asked him to walk forward between them, which he did quite calmly. We worked in small stages until he'd not only line up on the shafts and walk into them but walk all the way up to the singletree and stand there with his head over it, then back out on command. He tried once or twice to turn around and face me to get his goodie and hit the shafts which caused some momentary irritation but he froze when I told him to and never got scared. He just figured out that he wasn't supposed to be going sideways when Mom said "back up" and that was the end of it.
We quit there and I asked Kody if he wanted to play. I was a little taken aback to discover that to him the cart was clearly an object of some reluctance and he really didn't want to have anything to do with it. This is my horse who loves to drive and can't wait to be harnessed, mind you! I dropped my own ambitions for the day and focused 100% on coaxing him into little steps that I could praise him for and raise his level of enjoyment. He figured out walking over the shafts and chasing me around it and such but that's about as far as we got. I sat down on the cart seat at the end and both Kody and Turbo approached me, one on each side. Turbo recently learned about putting his foot up on a pedestal or on or in a bucket so he looked at me, looked at the shafts and quite calmly put a foot over the shaft and rested his ankle there! Kody, the king of Step Up and not to be outdone, promptly matched him on the other side. It was quite funny- I have pictures. I sat there feeding them goodies and watching them touch noses over my knees and thought that life was good.
So yesterday I got out there again and this time let Kody out first by himself. I grabbed the cart and clicked him for coming over to see it, then took off running and laughed and praised him for following at a canter. He thought that was fun and began to view the whole thing with much more interest. I spent a good 20 minutes with the attitude of "Hey, can you do...this? Good job! What about this? Or this? Yay, Kody!!" until he was practically beaming at his own success and up for any challenge. The things he'd been really reluctant about the previous day he was doing quite happily by the time we were done and Turbo was going nuts in the paddock watching him. He wanted so badly to be part of things! I ignored him though and kept my focus 100% on Kody, which is what he needed right then.
I switched horses at that point, tossing Kody some hay to keep him busy. Long story short, Turbo remembered everything we'd done the day before and within just a couple of minutes was walking up and down the hill in between the shafts like he was pulling the cart. Keep in mind I don't have any tack at all on my horses during this stuff; they're just loose in a fenced area and doing whatever they find interesting. Thankfully, they find me and their training very interesting indeed!
I put the cart down at that point and Turbo tried to do his habitual turn-around-and-back-compulsively-into-Mom thing which I've been trying to break him of for over a year. He's gotten pretty good at turning around to face me instead but has never mastered the command to move forward off of me. If you try to insist with a whip he gets defensive and nails your kneecap (which REALLY gets him whipped, but that's another subject!) Anyway, just like with Kody and his Spanish Walk it felt like the right moment to ask him so I said "Ahht, walk on!" and to my immense delight he did! He got a major click-and-treat and I had him do it again. He finally GOT it, and quickly learned to hustle into position ahead of me when told to and walked in line with his ears forward, back swinging and head bobbing like a proper little driving pony. He's not that solid on "whoa" when leading yet so I was surprised when he stopped immediately upon hearing it from ahead of me. After some resultant praise, I asked him to walk off and whoa again which he did perfectly. Getting excited now, I had him turn right at the end of the lane and walk halfway back, then stop, then walk and then trot. He stayed right ahead of me the entire time and maintained his distance no matter what speed I went, neither anxious and waiting for me nor speeding off without me. I was so pleased! Learning to move forward instead of only back when having his butt to me really flipped a switch in his head and for the first time he was able to stand calmly in front of me without wanting to back up or do anything stupid.
Happy, happy, happy....
We played that game for a few more minutes with Kody watching us benevolently from the paddock (also unusual) and I finally had Turbo whoa then turned my back on him and walked over to Kody to give him a treat. Turbo did break but only after I had fed Kody and turned back to him so I reset his position, said "Whoa, Stand" again and repeated my trip to Kody without the goodie. This time he froze without even looking at me, totally relaxed, and waited while I came back and walked all the way around him before giving him his click. What a good pony! That's the first time I've done the true "walk away and forget about him, expect him to still be there" thing that I can do with Kody and I was really proud that he lived up to it. He also then allowed me to walk away, go up the side of the compost heap, walk along above his head, then slip down the side of the heap ahead of him and not move. I can really see my driving horse taking shape!
So that's where we're at and I appreciate anyone who's taken the time to read this far. I write this stuff more for me than for you to be honest but once written I might as well share it.
Pix to come if anyone wants them! I'm out there by myself so it's just the view from the seat of the boys with their legs resting on opposite shafts, but it's pretty cute.
Leia
P.S.- I hate having to do this disclaimer stuff, but yes I know that having their legs hooked over the shafts is very dangerous and stupid. Kody did slip a foot down between the shaft brace and the shaft at one point and pulled back, carefully dragging me a foot or two before he got free. Both horses have been worked through progressive levels of difficulty putting their feet on or in various objects and learned not to panic when they get a little stuck. They generally wait for Mom to get them free or think their way out of the problem. While I'm not in any way saying that makes this stunt okay, it wasn't something they did out of the blue that I thought was cute or recommend anyone else to try.
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