Stay Pony
One of my plans this month is to teach Boomerang to ground tie, or in my case, to stay like a dog. I’ve never really taught a horse to ground tie – I guess mostly because I didn’t specifically have a need for it. In my sport of choice, mounted games, you are never allowed to break contact with your horse (at least on purpose) and we train our horses to follow us everywhere we go.
However, I DO think teaching to ground tie is an excellent idea, it has just mostly been pushed to the back burner – until now.
The more I thought about the idea of ground tieing, the more I began to equate it to the “stay” I taught my dog. Why couldn’t I just use the same method on my pony? Seems simple enough, so I decided to try it.
The way I taught my dog to stay was to give him a verbal “stay” walk away one step, return, then reward him & give him a release cue – I used the word “ok”. As we progressed I would add more distance and then eventually I added more time. The key was though, to add distance OR time – never both at the same time, at least until he had mastered each.
For example. I might walk 10 steps away, then immediately walk right back to him and reward. If I wanted to then work on my duration I’d start back at one step away and maybe count to 5 then return and reward.
As you can see from the above videos, right now we’re working on distance. I decided to use the verbal cue stay as well as the visual dropping of the lead rope. If Boomer didn’t stay, I return to him, back him into the space I had asked him to stay, and ask again.
These videos were shot during our first session. My hope is that I will eventually be able to use a verbal stay, a rope toss, or both together to cue him for his stay.
And thus is the beginning to me teaching my pony to stay like a dog.
**oh and who else thinks the Dachshund‘s cameo is HILARIOUS in the videos? He’s so sneaky!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Yep Ammo had to inspect the area for dropped treats lol. He’s so cute in his coat.
Boomer is doing so well for his first session!! He’s so cute! I think it’s a great idea to train him stay just like you would a dog. I’m definitely planning to teach it to Chrome as well. Imagine teaching Stay and Ears . . . that would make for PERFECT photo shoots lol! 😀
thanks!
ammom is sSOOOOO cute! I just wanna give him a big hug. I love his jackets! I used to have a dachshund and she looked exactly like him, makes me miss her. Also, you have a nice barn! and a smart pony 🙂
ammo*
Ammo wants to steal the show!!