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Riverrose28

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I would like to teach one of my mares to bow. I need someone to teach me so I can teach her. I am assuming there would be some where I would touch as a signal point plus a treat involved. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Terry
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I have taught several of my minis some of the tricks. There are a couple types of bow. One the horse puts his nose between his front knees and leans back so the front legs stretch out and his withers and neck and head lower. The other (I did this one) is the one alot of people see: the one front leg bends and the horse bows his head and bends back, stretching the other front leg til the bent knee touches the ground. The best book I have found (easy to read and pics) is "Trickonometry"-you can find it through alot of horse supply catalogs. It runs around 19.99. Happy trick and treat!!!!
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I was acquainted with a lady that did a lot of tricks with her minis. Some people can and do go overboard. Every time she did something with her horses she would make them bow. She also made one of her minis jump into a kiddie pool. Can you say leg injuries? She had a platform that had a ramp up to it. About 4 feet high. The kiddie pool was just that a plastic, maybe 8" deep, with that slick bottom they get when they have water in them, kiddie pool. I personally am not a fan of horse tricks.
 
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You get idiots in everything out there. I don't think every mini should learn tricks. For one, if you unconsciencely cue them in the show ring and they react; the judge (and you) may not be amused. I think the platform and the pool are unsafe ideas too. Another trick that should be left to the pros and movies is rearing. That one can be dangerous if not trained correctly and used correctly. I choose not to do that. We only taught the gelding to "smile", bow, shake hands, say "yes" and "no" and "hug" me. (He loves to smile to beg treats; and unfortunately that is one that he will do without a cue and in the halter ring!). We did teach one mare to say "yes" and that's it. There are people out there who do a good job trick training and using it correctly; and that's the point.
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I did train one of our stallions to smile when the judge asked to see teeth, It was so cute, the judges got a big kick out of it in the ring. I only want to teach her to bow, not to do any thing dangerous to herself or to me. From the responses, I'm sorry I asked. I'll figure it out on my own. she is my heart horse and we are very attached. thought it might be cute. But never mind! Thank you for the responses.
 
Whoaaaa!!!
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I did not mean my responses to be negative to you!
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Like I said: we have taught some tricks ourselves and see nothing wrong with it! Just be cautious of a few tricks like rearing. I think it's kind of cute about your mini showing the judge her teeth.
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Our boy just smiles when he feels like it-usually alot in the halter ring because the little begger is begging for treats!
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The statement about idiots was meant for the other replies example of the person who was doing something possibly dangerous for her horse. I still say go for it and look up the "Trickonomitry" book. It is a good book.
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I did not mean to offend.
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I am sorry if I did. I have just seen too many horses where the trick trainer didn't use good sense. I was hired to body clip the poor mare that was trained to jump into the pool. She had a different owner and no one knew what her ques were. You may intend to never sell the horse. However, life happens and horses are sold. I am not saying this to scold or make anyone feel bad. Just please, stop and think how this will impact your horse down the road. I also trained a little gelding to drive. The owner allowed him to be bitten by a dog. I could not get him back on the road where dogs barked even in a halter. She later lied to someone so she could sell him. She sold the wrecked cart and the harness months before she sold the horse. She told the people that her 4 year old kid had outgrown the horse. She told the new owner he was trained to drive but she didn't have a cart. I saw the horse on Craigslist. I let that owner know what had happened to the horse. She took him off of craigslist. Sorry I got a bit off topic. But all I am saying is things happen and horses are sold. Just please be careful and have fun with your horse.
 
Although I don't have minis anymore, so take my opinion as you wish, but I personally do not think teaching your mini to bow will have negative effects on her now or down the road. I say go for it! Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
 
I trained my big horse to do the bow several years ago. I just used treats and had her follow the treat. I started moving the treat slowly toward her chest and giving it to her. Then I'd go lower and lower down toward her legs, then eventually between them, while tapping on a spot on her leg. Eventually she got to where I could tap on her leg and offer the treat down between her legs and she'd stretch out/down and bow. It was easy peasy to teach. I've had her since her hooves hit the ground and she's 16 now and has never had an issue from being taught this trick.
 
Thank you Flat broke! I'll give it a try.

I did sort of over reacte last night, had a bad day, we put up 100 bales of hay, plus all the yearling training that we do a dailey basis. It did hurt my feelings alittle cause I thought that some of you assummed I would go on to teach my baby something that might hurt her, NEVER! What other people do is their business, I would never teach any of my horses to rear up, it is too dangerous, or put them in any situation that may harm them in any way. I have been showing for years, also do at least three demos a year to promote the breed. We do demos for the local 4-H clubs, two animal rescue leagues, and some times for a local equine organization, thought it might be cute if I could teach this mare to bow at the end. Kids love to come out of the stands and pet, lead and hug all the horses we take.Thank you for all the advice!
 
Riverrose28 said:
I did train one of our stallions to smile when the judge asked to see teeth, It was so cute, the judges got a big kick out of it in the ring. I only want to teach her to bow, not to do any thing dangerous to herself or to me. From the responses, I'm sorry I asked. I'll figure it out on my own. she is my heart horse and we are very attached. thought it might be cute. But never mind! Thank you for the responses.
I'm sorry you had such a bad day!
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No one here meant to make you feel bad, only offered sound advice on things to watch for when teaching tricks. I'm very careful what cues I use because I've got a lot of "buttons" installed on my gelding at this point and I don't want him accidentally doing something at the wrong time. If I stand in a certain position and happen to glance at his foreleg he'll either bow, lay down or start to Spanish Walk.
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Thankfully he only does this for me and only when I let him know we're doing a trick work session but it would be very inconvenient if he decided to, say, lay down when I tightened his girth in harness or Spanish Walked when I want him to set up for halter.
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He's hyper-alert to my body language when we're working as I am to his, so it's easy to stop him if I don't want him to do something because I see it coming and tell him to knock it off.

I did teach this horse to rear because my vet/chiropractor thought it might strengthen his stifles but I knew the horse extremely well, introduced it as just another sort of movement (we already moved forward, backwards, sideways, down, and we simply added "up") and was extremely firm that he was only to do it when clearly asked for the behavior. The only problem we had was instead of strengthening his stifles, overdoing it in the name of PT ruined his already-weak back and I will bear the guilt of that for the rest of my life.
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But what you are asking for is a completely different matter and, as someone else said, easy-peasy to teach!
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I actually haven't had much luck with that trick yet but that's because Kody doesn't like going to his knees and I made the mistake of teaching "lay down" before bow and now he won't stop halfway.
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(See? Dumb Human Tricks! Hehe) It's the only one my elderly Arab ever learned and he could bring me to tears by offering his arthritic version of it in his last several years.
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It was the only trick he knew so when he'd see me doing all this stuff with Kody and praising him so much, he'd look at me with hope in his eyes and point that stiff old foreleg and duck his head behind his knee and then look at me all bright-eyed and ask for his goodie. Who could resist??

I taught him by having him follow a carrot down and frankly that works very well as long as you're always going to have a carrot handy when you ask. Kody I taught to lean back off a hand cue without moving his feet, taught him to pick up one foreleg, then combined those cues so he'd lean back with one foreleg up. He's simply never gotten that last step of putting the knee on the ground but frankly I haven't worked very hard at it. Same deal with Turbo. I think for your purposes I'd just use the carrot and touch her foreleg with a whip to ask her to pick it up.

Try the Trickonometry book- it's got some pretty good ideas on how to break things down into small steps!

Leia
 
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Clicker training is a good way to teach tricks......or other things. There is someone on this list who does clicker training, she mightnot have read your post yet.
 
Helicopter said:
Clicker training is a good way to teach tricks......or other things. There is someone on this list who does clicker training, she mightnot have read your post yet.
Many of us clicker train. You're probably thinking of ClickMini, who lives about 30 minutes from me.

Leia
 

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