Posts Tagged ‘rearing
The Mounted Rear
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Minnow is one of the smartest ponies I have ever met. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he’s really cued into my body language – and I’m good at using my body to over-exaggerate what I want.
A few days ago I again was working on Minnow’s rear a little bit and I decided to mount up and see if he might do it for me while I was on his back. I imagined gathering my energy into my lap, I then tapped my toes a few times on his legs and lifted up into the air. After a few initial paws to the ground Minnow hoisted himself up into the air.
**sorry about the cry baby pup in the background – Trooper couldn’t stand to not be involved with this trick, but for safety I made him wait outside the ring.
I captured it with the click and that was that. I now had a pony that will rear from a hand signal on the ground and the verbal cue up and a squeeze and gentle pull motion in the saddle. Pretty cool.
I know a lot of people have negative thoughts about teaching a horse to rear. So I thought I would explain why I decided to teach Minnow to rear. #1 he’s retired, which means no one should ever be riding him again except for the occasional bareback stint I do with him. #2 I’ve been working with him since 20o2 so I know that he knows the difference between trick time and not. #3 I handle him nearly everyday and aside from the small group of people at our farm around him I never let anyone else handle him unless I am there to supervise. #4 He will live with me for the rest of his life, so I know that I have no fear of him going to someone who would find this trick dangerous. So that being said I was confident in teaching Minnow this trick. As you have seen I haven’t at all attempted to teach the younger boys, Boomer and Blitz. Because I know that since they are young they would more likely offer this behavior when I don’t want it, and it could just turn into a dangerous situation. I probably won’t ever teach them to rear unless they are retired like Minnow or I have much more confidence in them, or when I am certain they will be living with me forever.
First Ride in Months
I haven’t ridden a horse in 3 months…there I said it. Christmas happened, then the EVEN colder weather set in, and with my mom and sister injured – I have no one to ride with. And honestly, I just didn’t feel like riding. So after 3 months I finally decided to saddle back up – even though there is still snow on the ground.
I thought that with the warm (when I say warm I mean 40 Degrees) would soften the snow enough to ride – I was wrong. So I ended up riding up and down our small private road. I decided to ride Blitz first, because he’s the most laid back….sometimes. He actually hadn’t been ridden since my mom had her accident on him. So when I took him back to the scene of the crime I could tell he had some naughty thoughts in his head. But, he didn’t try anything and I made sure to click and reward him when he did as asked.
I then got Boomerang out of the pasture and attempted to pony him off of Blitz. Boomer can be a bit mouthy and likes to bite the saddle and leadrope – so ponying him was good practice for him to “keep his hands to himself”. I was actually kind of surprised at how well he did – I’m hoping with more practice I can take them out by myself. My mom tagged along on foot to make sure none of the ponies acted up.
When I got back from my short ride I worked with Boomer a little bit on ground manners. Asking him to move away from my hand pressure on his chest and neck. He’s really picked it up quickly and I put it into effect when I asked him to move away from the gate so that I could get Minnow out.
Minnow got to work on his rear after a few weeks off. And I can say he was more then enthusiastic – he really got pretty high! My little rogue pony!~
Hopefully I can keep up with the riding – it just better get warm soon!
The Wild Stallion
Here are some photos taken on January 31, 2010 of Minnow and I. Minnow is showing off his wild stallion rear. With each day he’s getting higher and higher – as he’s building more muscle and getting stronger. Enjoy!
Training my Horse like a Dog
I finally was able to capture some video footage of Minnow working on his rear yesterday. I’m so proud of him. He has really been able to tune into my body language and just figure out what I wanted.
Here are some shots from yesterday morning:
And here are some videos from yesterday night:
Yesterday morning I started off working in the ring, and my original plan was to back him into the corner of the fence in order to get him to get his hind end under him some more. But (as I already knew) Minnow has confinement issues, and I had a feeling he wouldn’t like feeling trapped. I tried it once and after he casually wriggled his way around me I decided this wasn’t the best method for him. So instead we worked out in the open like before. If you notice my method was to just basically rev him up with excitement – sort of like you would to a dog if you wanted them to play fetch or something like that. I danced around a bit, called his name, and got myself really enthusiastic. My energy transferred over to Minnow and he offered several nice steps of the rear. I also used the end of my target stick to get him to push his weight back on his rear instead of resting on his front end.
Later that day I was showing my mom and sister Minnow’s progress and I just happened to place him on a slight slope outside the barn. This seemed to really help Minnow rock back on his hindend and he got much higher. I think this spot might be good to keep trying to help build his hind quarters up so that he can get even higher off the ground in the future.
I think Minnow is really enjoying the rearing and Spanish Walk training. When I turn him out in the pasture after our sessions he goes bucking and carrying on with excitement. I think the other ponies are really jealous. I’m definitely going to have to get back to their training soon!
With my mom and sister still recovering from their knee injuries and surgeries I have 3 rideable ponies to choose from (Jet, Blitz and Boomer). Yet I haven’t ridden since mid-December, because I would much rather teach Chincoteague Minnow new tricks! I’m really going to have to start kicking myself into gear if I want to reach some more of my 2010 goals like taking Blitz to a Dressage competition and moving Boomer up to the Masters division in mounted games. I also wanted to buy an equestrian lifestyle subscription box. There is still so much more to accomplish this year!
The Rear
Minnow rears during competition
So one of my 2010 Goals is to teach Minnow to rear. And by golly, I’m going to do it! So since its blistery cold here right now, and I’m sort of a weenie, I haven’t actually started any training yet. Do you blame me? I am sort of ashamed.
Anyway, since I haven’t actually started working on my goal yet, I thought I would share with you how I prepare to teach one of the ponies a new trick. There is a lot of thought and preparation that I do before I even begin to shape a new trick. Ok I lied a little bit there – sometimes I just head out to the farm with clicker in my hand and see what happens. Some of the best tricks I have taught the boys happened that way.
For example, Minnow’s shovel trick. I saw a sand shovel and bucket at the store, brought it to the barn, showed it to Minnow, and let him decide what to do with it. He decided to dig in the sand with it, I liked it, clicked it, and viola a new trick was born.
But for the more complicated tricks I usually like to do a bit more research. Most of the time I start out on Youtube, mostly because I am a very visual learner. In the case of the rear I searched “clicker training rear”. And this is what I came up with:
I spared you most of the not-so-great videos (many of which were a little too harsh for me). But from this collection I’ve gathered a few options for training the rear.
Minnow on his pedestal
Option 1: Teach the rear through mimicking. I lift a leg, Minnow lifts a leg, I jump, Minnow jumps. I’ve never done mimicking with Minnow, but could be a good time to try it.
Option 2: Teach Minnow to target his knees to a target stick, start with one knee, then add two, then add height to it. Minnow loves to target, but it might take some coaxing to get him to not target with his nose, but I’m sure he could do it.
Option 3: Teach the rear on the pedestal. Reward for upward movements of the legs instead of getting onto the pedestal. Could end up with a neat trick of rearing onto the pedestal, but this requires a lot more coordination on the horse’s part.
Option 4: Capture the behavior naturally. Catch him playing out in the field and click/reward him for the rear. Capturing hasn’t worked well for Minnow (on bigger skills). I once tried capturing the lay down, but as soon as I approach Minnow to give the reward he panics and gets up. This wild born pony still has trust issues when it comes to his most vulnerable position. This option would work better with Blitz and Boomer.
I might do a bit more research before I commit (checking my clicker training books, checking the clicker training yahoo group archives), but from just these options I came up with I think I am going to start off with Option 2 – teaching Minnow to target his knees to a stick. I chose this option because I think it will work best for MY pony. I know how he prefers to learn and I think this option will produce the best results with the least amount of stress for Minnow. If I was going to train one of my other ponies this trick I might go for a different method. Training is about tailoring everything to the specific horse you are working with. Maybe your horse is deathly afraid of whips, asking him to target a dressage whip is probably not a good idea (not to mention I probably wouldn’t even think about teaching this trick if I knew my horse had underlying issues to be worked on).
And as a side note – for now I only plan to teach Minnow how to rear. Minnow is retired from riding due to a diagnosis or ringbone (equine arthritis) in 2008, so I run no risk of having a rearing pony when I stick someone else on to ride him. I believe at 6 and 7 years old, Blitz and Boomer are still too young and immature to learn this trick. I’m sure they would take advantage of their new and fun skill and I would end up with a problem. My equine sport of Mounted games is an emotionally intense sport for horses that is prone to bring on rearing due to the adrenaline horses experience – I definitely don’t want to advocate this trick during competition. So that being said, Minnow will be the only rearing pony, atleast for a while. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Please do not attempt any of these tasks at home without the help of a professional. I am not responsible for any harm or injury that may occur.
