Noodle or Dachshund?
Just a fun video of the Dachshund and his antics. Enjoy!
At Liberty
Here’s a neat video of trick horse trainer, Tommie Turvey, and his two horses Joker and Ace, performing a liberty act.
I don’t believe in everything Tommie Turvey does in his training, but I do think he generally cares about his horses and their well-being. I also think we can learn something from every type of horse trainer out there – adapting it to your views and ways of teaching.
Chincoteague Minnow
This video made me long to do a liberty act with the trick ponies. Alas, Chincoteague Minnow will probably never be able to do a truly noteworthy liberty performance due to his arthritis. Perhaps someday Blitz and Boomer will be advanced enough to perform at liberty with me – but we are a long way from that. Minnow certainly could do it now, but watching him limp around isn’t exactly beautiful – it mostly looks cruel. I always struggle with asking Minnow to perform (which he absolutely loves) and having him look uncomfortable as he limps even at the walk. But the fact is Minnow lives with this pain everyday, if I never asked him to move I would be faced with an even bigger blimp of a pony that would undoubtedly face even more health problems due to his weight. But to an onlooker it can look as if I am “forcing” (which if anyone knows me they know I would NEVER force my horses to do anything) this limping pony to perform. The truth is he performs because he wants to not because he has to.
By Golly, I think you have it
After much anticipation I finally have some videos to share of Chincoteague Minnow learning his Spanish Walk. I started teaching this by asking him target a knee to his target stick, I then asked him to alternate legs – eventually asking him to do the left leg, then the right all while moving forward slowly. I used a neck rope to gently ask him to walk forward. Sometimes I think Minnow can just read my mind. These videos are after two 10 minute sessions. I am in awe at how fast he’s catching on.
Chincoteague Minnow
The very best part about this is that after I was done working on his Spanish Walk I was explaining to my mom how it originally was started as an attempt to get him to rear. I was sort of goofing around and showed her that eventually I wanted to be able to lift my hands (and target stick) into the air and Minnow would rear. When I did this movement and took a step forward Minnow lifted a front let into the air. Immediately noticing what he had done I clicked him.
My mom walked back into the barn to mess with the horses (or perhaps I would have had a video of this as well) and curiosity began to get me. Minnow obviously had leg lifting on his mind because we were just working on it…but there was something I could use here. I remembered something my trainer always says to me. She’s always telling me that if you think of the action you want from the horse – your body will give off that energy even if you don’t know it. The trainer I use is very much into Parelli but she also loves working and learning with me about the clicker training.
Giving my best friend a kiss. By Photographer Kali Wallace
So I pondered this for a moment. I stood directly infront of Minnow with my hands at my sides. I imagined gathering up all of my energy into a big ball infront of me – and I took a powerful step forward and thrust my hands into the air – I thought rear. Instantly Minnow rocked back on his hindend – lifted one leg and then the other. Click! I gave him a huge reward – Minnow is big on rewarding, he knows that if I get really enthusiastic and energetic (like you would with a dog) that he’s really catching on.
Obviously I had discovered something here with him. I tried this a few more times with the same result, then suddenly it happened. On about the fourth try Minnow lifted both legs off the ground at the same time. It wasn’t very high – but it was a AIR! I was so excited. I thrust my arms around his fuzzy neck, gave him several “jack-pot” treats and scratched his favorite spot.
I stopped right after that one because I knew I had to be careful how far I went with this. See Minnow has Ringbone (equine arthritis) in his front left ankle and if I work him too much he tends to get sore – especially in the winter. Its good for him to use his ankle but to much and I’m afraid he will start to resent the tricks due to pain. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to (and I would never make him) but I know his signs of its time to call it quits for the day.
So his next Rearing/Spanish Walk session will have to wait for another day. I think the next time I attempt this rear method I might have Minnow positioned with his butt to the corner of the fence, that way it will guide him to rock back on his hind end more.
So that’s my exciting tale that I’ve been dying to post about. Has anyone else ever tried this method of teaching the rear? Or has anyone else used energy and mental envisioning to help succeed in teaching an animal a skill? I’d love to hear of any other experiences that are related. Or maybe you just think I’m a total nut! 🙂
Spanish Walk Miss-step
So I really contemplated posting this video for the world to see – because I know I’m going to get a whole bunch of flack for it. I guess its to be expected. But I finally decided I should just post it anyway – because if anything maybe it will stop people from doing what I did.
Yesterday I decided to start working on the steps to teach Chincoteague Minnow to rear. After mucking 9 stalls and blanketing/turning out horses – I got a little lazy and rather than bring Minnow into the arena I decided to work with him in his pasture. His pasture that he shares with the two younger Chincoteagues, Blitz and Boomer. I sort of knew it was a bad idea, but I rationalized it with – I just gave the others three HUGE Piles of hay, Minnow is the boss – they will respect his space, and I have worked with one before while the rest were in the arena. What I didn’t anticipate was #1 its winter, there is no grass and grain is a heck of a lot more enticing than hay, #2 Boomer especially really hasn’t learned boundaries when it comes to the other ponies yet, #3 horses vie for their position in the herd everyday – its constantly changing, and #4 I hadn’t “done” anything with any of them in such a long time that they all wanted attention from me. So after saying all that I will first let you watch the video.
2005
Ok, so rather than dwell on the “bad” parts of this video I’m going to talk a little about what did happen that was positive. Minnow picked up that I wanted him to target his legs to the stick almost immediately (I worked with him a little bit before I shot this video – hence why it seems like I started asking for the second leg so quickly – he already had down that I wanted him to target a leg to the wand). Before Boomer goes after Minnow – you might notice that he started mimicking Minnow in an effort to get a treat by lifting his front leg. An interesting concept that I might have to apply to his training later on.
After I shot this video the camera battery died or you would have seen that I immediately removed Minnow from the situation. I re-entered the pasture (without food this time) and took Boomer on a little “space respecting lesson” by leading him around the pasture, asking him to back away from me, and basically respect my area.
Chincoteague Minnow
I then took Minnow into the ring and began working on his leg lifting again. The intent was to develop this into the rear, but as Minnow began walking AND leg lifting I realized he was really beginning to offer me the Spanish Walk. So instead I switched tactics and began asking Minnow to walk forward while alternating legs. We successfully got several nice steps of the Spanish walk and today I’m hoping to fine tune it a little more.
Anyway that was my little adventure in Spanish Walk training – I’m sure I’m not the only one to have a few miss-steps in the world of horse training. Everyday my horses teach me something new.
Minnow Caught on Film
I really am on this “looking back” kick. Can’t help it!
I decided to check out some of my REALLY old videos on my Youtube account, so I went back to the very first video I ever posted onto Youtube. And of course it was a video of Minnow painting – published on February 21, 2007.
I had filmed this video for a class I was taking at Kutztown University. Now I must disclaimer first I am not a videographer, in fact I really suck at making videos. My brother is the videographer – and I’m dying to have him make me another video of all three of the Trick Ponies. But alas he is living in North Carolina right now (if you are in North Carolina and need a Videographer/Editor contact my little brother!), so it looks like I may have to reach my 2010 goal of making a new film of the ponies myself. I know it won’t be pretty.
But speaking of stinky videos of mine. Here are a few more I had done for the class I took in college. My downfall is music choice, I really can’t choose a good song if my life depended on it. So when it comes to making my new videos I may just have to enlist everyone’s help out in blog land!
I’ll be waiting until the Spring/Summer to start my new film project – as the ponies will look much prettier without their fuzzy winter coats. So I have until then to really work on some new exciting tricks for the new video.
