Clicker Training Under Saddle
I found this neat video about training horses under saddle using clicker training. I love how it addresses the “scary goblins” horses typically find while out on the trail – luckily for me my Boomer is unflappable when it comes to “goblins”. He’s never once batted an eye at anything, quite impressive considering he’s only 5 and doesn’t have many miles on him yet. He’d never been trail ridden when I got him either, and the very day I bought him I took him out on a trail to “test” him before I made the big purchase. Boomer very calmly went through the woods with me where he crossed a bridge, went through a horse “car wash” and galloped up a dirt road – all with a rider he barely knew. If that doesn’t make you buy a horse, what will? It was quite a contrast from my start with Minnow who was terrified of everything I encountered with him, but if it wasn’t for Minnow I would have never discovered clicker training in the first place. Minnow is the pony I credit for teaching me how to teach horses.
Anyway, watching this video makes me scheme more about all the things I want to work on with Boomer using clicker training. I’m sort of waiting until our big move to Iron Horse Farm to get officially started, because a lot of what I would like to work on would be easier to accomplish once I have a ring to use. I can picture it all in my head though, a pony very light on his forehand that moves gracefully off of slight leg pressure only, very collected without much rein pressure, amazing turns and spins, a killer stop, and FAST! I know its all possible with the help from my trusty clicker, I’ll just have to be patient and take it one small step at a time.
Me giving Blitz a kiss for a job well done
As I think about my “ideal mounted games pony” I can’t help but think about many of the horses that we compete against on a regular basis. In a sport that has such parallels to horse racing I see a lot of pulling and pushing on the ponies (not that they are all like this). Some people seem to run their horses into the ground all for the sake of crossing the finish line first and the answer to my “my pony won’t stop” is to always bit it up. I have been slowly seeing a shift in “horse humanity” lately though. Rulebooks are eliminating teams for any sort of hitting of their pony (even with the flat of a hand), whips are most certainly not allowed as well as spurs, bits are slowly moving towards bitless as many riders are now in favor of the hackamoore. These changes are all great, but I still rarely see any of the “top” horses in the sport brake to a stop without rein pressure – something that seems so basic to me. Not to be critical of everyone but it seems in a sport where stop and go is so critical, that trainers/riders should have that AMAZING stop with just a shift of the seat before speed is ever factored into it. Deep down I sort of hope that by training Boomer the right way (basics before speed) that I can show some of my competitors what can be achieved when a horse is started on games correctly. Maybe I can start a movement within this very young sport about the importance of proper training for our mounts. I’m excited to be “starting all over” again with Boomer, after I trained Minnow for 5 years when he was suddenly diagnosed with ringbone I definitely did not want to start over. But now I see this opportunity as a way to do it right from the beginning, Minnow was such a learning experience for me and I’m so glad he found me and I was able to learn from him, but now I have a better understanding of the proper way to train Boomer. I’m very excited to create my “dream” horse. 🙂
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