Inspiration
Turn the Spin Cycle on!
Minnow and I during our very last competition as a pair.
So one of the most important skills that a mounted games pony can have is to be able to spin. Not just any spin. A sit on your hind end, light to the touch, high speed spin! Easier said than done, right?
I’ve had the goal of teaching Boomerang an amazing spin from the beginning. I dream of having a pony that my competitors watch and think – thats the pony I wish I had – he’s got it all, looks, personality, speed, agility….sounds like I’m talking about the ideal man! haha.
So here is my plan of attack to teach an amazing spin to my 6 year old Chincteague Pony, Boomerang.
Step one: Teach him to back up
Step two: Teach him to use a specific leg first when backing up
Step three: Teach him to move away from leg pressure
Step four: Teach him to put his weight on his hind end
Step five: Get him to spin with weight on hind end and continually cross his outside front leg over the inside leg when doing so
Step six: Add speed to the spin
Step seven: Polish the spin by using it in competition
Minnow spins around a bucket
Might seem like a tall order, but I can tell you right now that I’m on step 5/6. So now I’ll break it down and discuss how I taught Boomer during each step. Spinning can be a great skill for any horse to learn. Its not just for the speed horses or the western riders – any discipline can take advantage of a nice spin!
Step one: Teach him to back up. I taught Boomer to back up by walking him up to a fence, putting all my weight back and shifting my legs forward. I then applied light rein pressure until I felt his body shift or a leg move, anything that indicated he had the right idea. As soon as he gave me something I would then click and reward him. As he progressed I would ask for a little more each time – until he would back up with just a shift of my seat, some light rein pressure and the verbal cue back.
Step two: Teach him to use a specific leg first when backing up. I accomplished this by asking him to back up just like in step one, but this time using one rein at a time to signify which leg I wanted him to back up with first. Its easiest to do this drill by starting off by asking him to move his leading foot back first. So if Boomer was standing with his right front foot slightly forward I would pull on my right rein and ask him to back up – then the left – then the right – alternating rein pressure. Then clicking and rewarding when he responded to each rein cue. This step is important because I don’t just want a spin, I want a controllable spin. I want to be able to control each of my horse’s legs.
Step three: Teach him to move away from leg pressure. Next I ask Boomer to back up and during the back up I apply my left heel (toe pointing out) right at his girth (this is assuming I want him to turn right). I apply heel pressure and open up my right rein. My left rein is used to try to keep him straight (this exercise is best done along a fence). Any movement on Boomer’s part to go towards my open rein gets a click and a reward.
A western horse performs a spin
Step four: Teach him to put his weight on his hind end. At this point Boomer is successfully spinning away from leg pressure and towards an open hand. But now I want him to only spin with his weight on his hind end. So we go through our step 3 drill again but this time he only gets clicked and rewarded when all of his weight is on his hind end. At any point when my horse gets “stuck” or won’t move its usually because he’s too much on his front end, meaning he will need to be backed up and asked to move away from leg pressure again.
Step five: Get him to spin with weight on hind end and continually cross his outside front leg over the inside leg when doing so. Now I not only want him to spin on his hind end, but I want him to cross his outside front leg over his inside leg each time. In doing this I ensure a more fluid turn – without him getting stuck on his front end instead of using his hind. I accomplish this by asking him to back up and spin away from my leg – when he crosses the outside front over the inside front he is clicked and rewarded.
Step six: Add speed to the spin. To add speed I start with some drills. Keyholes are great for this. I ask him to go inside a box spin and return at the canter. As he progresses we ask for more and more speed – each time rewarding when I am giving the effort I expect from him.
Step seven: Polish the spin by using it in competition. The more I practice the spin in race type settings (while clicking and rewarding) the more Boomer will begin to associate his spin with turning around objects.
Here is a short video of Boomer working on the keyhole drill with me. As you can see he doesn’t actually cross his left front leg infront of his right – he sort of shuffles them. Also near the end of the spin he put a little too much weight in his front end. He got some good boys from me, but he didn’t get clicked and rewarded this specific time because he didn’t cross/spin like I wanted him to. When getting to the crossing over legs part its helpful to have someone watch you and tell you exactly when your horse crosses its legs – that or use a mirror.
Some horses have a tendency to be more on their hind end than others. Minnow was easy to teach to spin because he naturally kept his weight on his hind end. Boomer has taken a lot longer to teach to spin because he naturally wants to put all of his weight on his front end. He has improved greatly though!
Below is an awesome video of a horse doing a reining spin at liberty. Obviously taught with clicker training and I love it! Maybe someday my boy will be this good! Watch how he crosses his outside front over the inside leg.
And here is one more video of someone who used clicker training to teach the spin as well. She started by teaching her horse to spin on the ground first then transferred it to the saddle. I chose a different approach because as you saw from my post yesterday Boomer likes to bite me when I lead him – and while we are working on this, he wasn’t ready to learn to spin from the ground first. I think I’d have a swollen arm if I did that. So since we’re currently actively competing in the training division for mounted games I really needed to keep moving with my spin goal – so I opted to teach him under saddle first.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
I am by no means an expert in horse training. I simply use techniques that I have discovered work best for me and my horses. Use my techniques at your own risk.
Follow Me
So I’ve mentioned before that one of the things that Boomerang really needs to work on is his leading skills. For some reason when I try to lead him (this mostly only happens when he is under saddle) he tries to bite me. Not only that but he will resist my rein pressure when I try to direct him from the ground. This can be a real problem in mounted games especially, because I need him to match my strides when I lead him so that I can easily vault on and off of him.
Ok, so how do I fix it? I had a lesson with the trainer I’ve had since I was 10 years old a few weeks ago. She’s very much into the Parelli method, but has been able to adapt what she knows into my clicker training. We devised a plan to work on Boomer’s bad habit.
The first part of the training is to teach Boomer to match my stride. My goal is to keep myself right at his shoulder – if I do this he is unable to bite me without getting me to move ahead of his shoulder because he can’t physically reach me. So in order to do this – if he doesn’t at first respond to my body cues (a cluck to move forward or a change in my body’s energy) then I use the end of my lead rope to give him a gentle tap on his hind end. And if he tries to dislodge me from his shoulder – I back up to keep in line with his shoulder.
Meanwhile I am also clicking and rewarding Boomer everytime he puts his ears forward during our “session”. Below you can watch a video of our first practice session.
As you can see near the end of the video we have a little battle as Boomer tries to back up in order to dislodge me from his shoulder so that he can bite me. He is unsuccessful and I keep him moving forward until I can reward him for ears forward.
Later the same day after more practice I took this video. As you can see he is no longer trying to dislodge me in order to bite me, but he still has a nasty look on his face. However, he is quicker to put his ears forward and he is matching my stride mostly with the change of my energy rather than me having to use the leadrope on his rump.
Since these videos were taken I have practiced with him several other times and he continues to progress. I haven’t been bitten since we started and he is now consistently matching my stride. My hope is that I can eventually keep his ears forward the entire time as well as teach him that when I place my hands on his neck in a certain position (the position I put them in in order to vault on) he will move quickly forward at a trot or canter. We still have a lot more work to do, but for now I am happy that I don’t have to ice my arms from horse bites. Aren’t ponies wonderful?
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Bridge to the Future
Blitz on the bridge with my mom
Just had to share a few photos of Blitz today. A few days ago Blitz mastered the “Bridge”. Its just a simple walking bridge that by dad had built for the horses and for part of our skillathon. Blitz has always been a bit cautious when it comes to strange objects – as most horses would be. But in the last few weeks he’s really changed. I think he’s finally made a connection with my mom (who now owns and rides him). They have been working together since I sold Blitz to my mom in September 2008.
In the past year Blitz has taken to our clicker training method tremendously. From the very beginning I knew he was a food oriented horse (thats part of the reason I bought him). In fact, Blitz loves food so much that I think it helps his ability to learn skills faster.
In the beginning we struggled with keeping him from mugging us for food, as well as warding off his aggressive attitude in an effort to get his reward. We spent a long time working on keeping his ears forward when we work with him, and teaching him that grabbing for food would not get him anything. He has improved with this greatly, but he still tends to get a little aggressive when other horses get too close to “his” food. Funny because he’s not the “head horse”. Minnow is. And what is odd about that is that Minnow is the LEAST aggressive when it comes to the food – he would patiently wait his turn for a treat no matter how long I make him wait. I really don’t know how Minnow ended up as the boss pony. Before Blitz and Boomer he was always the lowest horse in the herd. But somehow when the two youngsters came along he took on the role of leader – a nice leader. I never see him kick or bite – and I’m really not sure how he bosses the other two around – he just does.
Anyway so back to the bridge. It took Blitz 2 days to get up enough courage to walk on the bridge. 2 days is a tremendous achievement for my mom too, because she has struggled with being patient with Blitz. My mom is a recently converted clicker trainer. I’ve been using the clicker since 2005 but my mom was always just happy to watch me work with the ponies and my clicker system. It wasn’t until 6 months ago that I really convinced her that it was the right tool for working with Blitz. See she hasn’t really had a horse of her own for several years. The last horse she had was her home-bred Throughbred Cross who passed away in 2002. Since then she just rode my sister and mine’s hand me down horses or exercised ours while we were in school – no real “training” involved. So taking the leap into owning a horse again was a big change for my mom.
I watched as she struggled to work with Blitz in her traditional methods. I knew from the beginning it wasn’t the path for Blitz. So I would work with clicker training Blitz on the ground, and occasionally I would ride him. Finally one day after my mom was getting frustrated with Blitz’s desire to jig home after our cross country runs I convinced her to try the clicker on him. After we galloped the horses up a big hill I told her to ask Blitz to stand. When he stopped moving his feet I had her click and reward him. Instantly Blitz relaxed and became a completely different horse. Thats all it took to convince my mom that clicker training was something special – I thought it was cute that she told everyone she talked to that this clicker made her jigging horse walk quietly home. I think it was her aha moment.
So to see my mom patiently take her time and allow Blitz to choose when he was ready for the bridge was really neat. My mom is not one to take her time and wait for the horse (and she will admit this)- this is partially due to the way she was trained to ride. She grew up through the old school pony club teachings (as did I but I chose to take it with a grain of salt) and she spend much of her youth galloping race horses. Racetracks especially have a go go go mentality – which my mom developed as well. Makes me proud to see that she is finally breaking free from this, and I love seeing her being able to take her time now and enjoy learning with Blitz.
I can’t wait to see what the future brings for both of them. I knew Blitz was a special pony from the beginning – thats why I brought him home.
-Kd
www.ponypaintings.com
Clicker Carnival #1
Check out this Month’s Clicker Training Blog Carnival. The first edition was published over the weekend. (If you’re unfamiliar with blog carnivals, it’s basically a collection of links to interesting blog articles on a topic from the past month.)
You can read all of this month’s neat articles by clicking here.
The Wedding Guest
Our Wedding
On Sunday (October 4th) marks the 1 year anniversary for my husband and I. 1 year ago I married my high school sweetheart of 7 years and my best friend. From the very beginning we knew we’d be married someday. We spent our senior year of high school together and continued on to college together- both obtaining art degrees. And when the day came that I knew we would finally be married…..there was only one guest that I absolutely had to have at my wedding (well aside from my family).
Me and the girls
And that was Chincoteague Minnow. Minnow has been with me nearly as long as my husband has. My husband was there the day that I brought Minnow home to live with me – as a free lease from a family friend. And for 6 years Minnow has tagged along with my husband and I as we graduated high school, left for college (Minnow came with us), and then started our lives together. Minnow taught my husband to ride and appreciate horses and he taught me more than I ever could have imagined. I’ve always said that Minnow is a once in a lifetime horse, and it was only fitting that he should attend our wedding.
The Boys
So in May of last year I started the daunting task of searching for a wedding venue. No easy task when you want to have a horse as a guest. My mom was thrilled with the idea and we schemed about what Minnow would do/be in the wedding. My mother-in-law was a bit on the fence about the idea, but she willingly went along. I’m probably known as the horse crazy daughter-in-law. Many places laughed in my face when I said I wanted my horse IN the wedding, while others seemed quite willing to accommodate. I finally settled on a place that happened to be right across the street from where Minnow was living at the time – a nature conservancy that had an old mansion to accompany it. And then came the task of figuring what Minnow would do in the wedding.
Minnow walks down the isle with my sister
My mom jokingly told me that I should have Minnow be the flower girl – I don’t think she had any idea that I would take the idea seriously. I decided that I would train Minnow to throw flowers out of a basket as he walked down the isle. I knew that if I could teach Minnow to paint that it would be totally plausible for him to learn this. In fact he picked it up after 2 days of training. Below is a video of the training process that my husband filmed.
My husband tolerates the love that Minnow and I share
Once friends and family began to hear rumors that there would be a “Flower Pony” at the wedding I was met with much skepticism. In their minds it was one thing to have a horse at the wedding (I’m sure they were thinking horse drawn carriage) but to have him actually walk down the isle – and throw flowers? Most people asked me – what will you do if he leaves a stinky surprise behind? and won’t the crowd scare him? what if he runs into the audience? I usually responded with none of that will happen – I know Minnow. And I really did.
My sister and Minnow
If I had thought about having him attend 2 years earlier I would have said there is absolutely no way that he’ll be calm. Infact 2 years earlier Minnow was terrified of almost everything – I could barely even handle him at a horse show. So to think that only 2 years after his trick training and all around clicker training began that I would be having him walk down a wedding isle with hundreds of people was kinda crazy. But Minnow and I pulled it off – as I knew we would. I think he knew that this was important to me.
The Flower Pony
October 4th, 2008 came and I was so excited! Not just to marry my high school sweetheart – but also to prove my friends and family wrong as my little Minnow walked down my wedding isle. I also think I was proving to myself, that I knew this pony, and I knew that he would make me proud. It was sort of a culmination of what Minnow and I had learned together over the years. Clicker training completely changed our relationship – but would it be enough to ward off a horse’s natural instincts and the desire to run from anything frightening. Not only that but I was not going to be the one walking Minnow down the isle – my little sister would. And as much as I try to impress my teaching methods on my sister – she has little patience for the training techniques I use, and she’s not “connected” to Minnow the way that I am.
So as I peeked through the trees that day, I watched as Minnow stepped up onto the stone ledge infront of my guests. I watched as he marched infront of them dropping flowers as he passed. And I watched as he walked up the steps. No stinky surprise, no freak out, nothing. I was so proud.
(sorry I don’t actually have the real wedding video to show you – I still haven’t seen it! If you are reading dad….is it ready YET?)
The wedding party
What made the day even better (well other than the fact that I got married) was that as an EXTREMELY generous wedding gift, Minnow’s owners decided to give him to me. I was so happy. I knew that they would probably never ask for him back, but in the back of my mind I always worried that one day they would want him again. Knowing that he would be with me forever was one of the most wonderful things I could have ever asked for. I found out that he was to be mine while I was on my honeymoon in Nicaragua. So when I returned home the first thing I did was rush to the barn so that I could whisper in Minnow’s ear that he would always be with me.
So thus ends my enchanting wedding story. Does anyone else have a story about a horse in a wedding? Am I the only crazy person to teach their horse to throw flowers down the isle? Do tell.
If this isn’t a convincing enough story as to why you should try clicker training with your horse, I don’t know what is.
Photography courtsey of Daniel Williams Photography. Aren’t they amazing? Hire him!
