Clicker Training
Clicker Training 6 year old Boomer
Yesterday I was able to get some videos of me playing games on Boomerang. I’ve been training him to be my mounted games pony since September of 2008 – but until our recent move to Iron Horse Farm we hadn’t been able to get much detailed mounted games training without a ring. So the last few weeks it has been intense mounted games boot camp for Boomer in the hopes that I can have him competeing in his first mounted games competition in the Masters division at the end of August in New Jersey. He’s really taking a liking to it, and I’m amazed at how this once sluggish pony (the hunter show ring will do that to a horse) now has some get-up-and-go. He’s eager to move off my leg and quickly breaks from the walk to a canter. We’ve even perfected a sliding western stop that will come in real handy when I have him going full out.
So anyway, below you will see a video of Boomer and I practicing in an open field. This was filmed in April of 2009 and its a pretty good comparison to the videos I took yesterday. You can see that he trots most of the bending poles (he was very unbalanced) and his spin around the end pole is definitely not great – he has to break to the trot and he makes a wide loop.
Now watching this next video you can see Boomer is much more balanced and able to canter all of the poles. His spin has improved, but he still gets a little stuck and I’d prefer him to sit more on his hind end rather than putting most of his weight on his forehand. He’s definitely much improved though.
Now this final video is of Boomer and I playing 2 Flag. Races like these can be difficult for a young/inexperienced horse because they don’t understand the concept of running in a straight line when they have no fence to guide them. Especially with green horses they tend to wiggle the line and when they approach the cones most tend to drift away from them making it difficult for the rider to reach the equipment. Unfortunately I don’t have a video to compare this to, but in this recent video you can see that Boomer is running a pretty straight line and his canter is pretty balanced, making it easy for me to gauge when to grab the flags. He requires slight corrections to keep him from drifting, but overall he’s doing pretty well.
The clicker training I have been doing with Boomer has really helped him. I usually run the races and when he completes them correctly I click and reward him when we reach the finish line. Sometimes I will choose a specific skill within the game to work on, such as the spin around the end pole. So if Boomer doesn’t do a nice spin for me he won’t get rewarded at the end. An added benefit to rewarding after crossing the finish line is that Boomer slams on the breaks as soon as we cross the line, which is wonderful because if I ever drop a handoff or need to go back I have him poised to slam on the breaks so we can quickly spin to correct our mistakes.
Overall Boomer is a very eager to learn pony, and I can tell he’s also DYING to learn more tricks. He acts so starved for attention sometimes. As soon as I have Minnow’s trip to Chincoteague over I plan to start working on Boomer’s trick training.
Pedestal Work
My weekend was filled with family, horses and dogs – those are always the best kind of weekends. On Saturday I spent time with Minnow working on new tricks – getting him ready for his upcoming performance in Chincoteague. I’m starting to feel the crunch – I have a lot still to teach him and not a ton of time.
I’m determined to teach Minnow to stand on his pedestal with all four feet before pony penning. I think it would be quite impressive, and he’s just about there…hopefully I have enough time to polish the trick. You can watch the video below of me clicker training Minnow to perform this trick.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Minnow goes to Camp
KD pictured on the right riding Niatross during a drill team exhibition at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show
Recently I fell back in contact with my long-time childhood riding coach – an FEI rider specializing in Dressage Training. As a youth I attended camps and lessons at her local farm – where I had help training 2 of my horses, Oopsie Daisy and Niatross. Oopsie was my very first Dressage mount who always seemed to be in the ribbons with his cute fluid gaits until I moved up to my much larger mount, 16.3 hand Nitro. Nitro was a difficult ride, but with the help of my instructor I was able to school him up to 2nd Level. With a local team we pulled together we even competed in the Region I USDF Championships in 2000 and 2001 – earning Reserve Champion Overall. We did extensive drill team work as well, and we were one of the first groups in the area to be involved with drill team demonstrations. Pictured above is a photograph from a drill team exhibition we did at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show several years back. I had to manage riding my handful of a horse, Nitro, while wearing a full daffy duck outfit – complete with giant duck butt – I’m not really sure how I managed to stay on…let alone do a sitting trot.
I ran into my old instructor at the Devon Horse Show this year – where she mentioned she had heard of my trick ponies and was interested in bringing a group of her campers to see them. We have since organized two dates where the campers will come to watch the ponies perform, and then afterward Minnow will paint each of them a t-shirt. I plan to go over a little bit about clicker training as well – I always jump at the oppertunity to teach new people about this amazing training method. It should be a fun time, and I know the ponies will love it – they love to perform, Minnow always becomes such a ham infront of crowds.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Gathering of the Clickers
Katie Bartlett and her horse Rosie
So on Sunday I went to my first group get-together of some local clicker trainers. I brought Minnow along as well so we could show the group what we were doing and have some fun with him. The first hour or so Katie Bartlett (owner of the farm we were at) showed us some of her horses and what she had worked on with them. Most of her horses did fun tricks, but she had also done a lot of ground work with them. Her one mare actually cantered collected on the bit while Katie walked next to her – it was pretty impressive.
Katie's horse Willy learning Spanish Walk
I then brought Minnow out and went through his little repitoire of tricks. I got some helpful suggestions from a lot of people. One suggestion was about Minnow’s trick involving rolling out the blanket. He’s really good about rolling it out all the way, but when it gets to the last little part he tends to leave it folded over. So Katie suggested I work backwards (which I had never thought about before), start with the hardest part of the trick (unroll the blanket and leave the last bit folded) – ask him to unroll that part and then when he has that mastered move onto unolling the whole thing instead of just the end piece. It was a neat concept I had never thought about before.
The other thing I learned was about cues. It was suggested that you don’t add a cue to your trick (or exercise) until your horse has given you that final product you want. So if for example I am trying to teach Minnow how to bow…as I go through the stages I would not be saying “BOW” at all (which is what I want my final cue to be) I would only add the verbal cue BOW when he successfully placed his knee on the ground like I wanted. If had said bow all along then Minnow may end up giving me different versions of the bow that he had done while he was learning it instead of that final polished bow that I wanted. I had never thought about it this way, and I admit I think when I taught Minnow to bow all along I continued to say it. Anyway now I know and I can put this to use with everything I do from now on.
Katie and her miniature horse, Buster
The final tidbit I took away was that it may be beneficial for me to teach Minnow a cue to do “nothing”. Katie told me about another trainer that taught her horse the “grownups are talking” cue (taken from Alexandra Kurland’s training methods). Where the horse learned when she folded her arms that it was to stand there quietly and still. This is a great cue for performance work because if I need a minute to gather my props I could give Minnow the cue so that he knows to stand still and not “perform” on his own while I get ready. Minnow has a tendency of offering tricks when I don’t ask for them because he gets over excited.
Later I brought out my big tuff ball so that Katie’s horses could play with it. I found it really interesting that they were willing to go up and touch it, but all of her horses opted to push it with their noses. In contrast, when I first introduced the ball to my ponies their first reaction was to kick it with their front feet. I’m not sure why, but it was neat to see the different reaction her horses had to it.
Overall it was a fun day and I hope that I can attend another monthly meeting in the hopes to learn more.
Photos courtesy of Katie Bartlett
Clicks for Tricks
My video for the day is of Minnow and I goofing around at the farm last weekend. I was teaching him to kick the ball while standing on his pedestal. This video reminded me of how difficult Minnow was when he first came to live with me. If I had brought out the ball 6 years ago Minnow would have had his typical reaction – which was to pretend it didn’t exist and he couldn’t see it – mostly he would turn his head all the way around so that he didn’t have to look at it. This was extremely frustrating because if I wanted to show him something (games equipment, a scary rock, etc) I couldn’t even get him to acknowledge its existence. That is until I began clicker training him – then suddenly everything was of interest to him. He wanted to touch everything! In the hopes that it would get him a treat.
Now I love showing him new things because I’m always amazed at how he decides to react to it. Sometimes he bites it, sometimes he licks it, sometimes he kicks it, and so on. In the case of the ball (as you can see) he decided that kicking it is the most fun.
Tomorrow I am taking Minnow to my first meeting with a local clicker training horse group. I’m very excited to meet everyone – as I’m sure Minnow will be too. Minnow loves to travel, especially if he gets to do tricks when he gets there. It should be fun, and I look forward to posting how it went on Tuesday!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
