I decided to expand on last month’s column, specifically the bit about training your horse with treats. It’s not necessary to go back and read last month’s column – although it’s jolly interesting stuff, even if I do say it myself – because I’ll touch on the things I’ve already said while expanding on the idea itself.
As I mentioned previously, there’s a woman named Sally who boards her horses at the same stable that houses my lease horse, Bit. Sally has spent a considerable amount of time going to clinics and training under various people who style themselves experts. Whether they actually are or not, I couldn’t say. I do know that Sally has gotten impressive results from her two horses: the Paso Fino, Destiny, who used to be an extremely ill-mannered little shite, is now only a mildly ill-mannered little shite, and the 18-hander, Nick, has learned that he’s expected to remain standing in place without benefit of cross-ties.
This particular element impresses me because if my boy Bit wasn’t restrained, he’d walk off to wherever he damn well pleased. I know this because he’s done it. Fortunately, the “wherever” he wanders off to is always the fence which separates the paddock from the rest of the property, where he can keep an eye on his herd. Once I figured out that Bit wasn’t going to run out into the road, or take off down on the trail, I stopped being quite so careful with him.
When we finish riding, and there’s green grass to be had around the outside of the stable, I’ll unhook his lead rope and let him graze. I’ve noticed that if I walk too far away for his liking, he’ll eventually follow me and graze closer to where I am. While it’s charming that he doesn’t want me to get too far away, he is, in his own way, every bit as ill-mannered as Destiny, and that needed to change. But where to start?
The mounting block was the obvious place to start, given that he rarely stands still when I’m trying to get on. If, on the off chance, he does stand in place, he’ll almost always do a small buck, just to let me know that he doesn’t actually want me on his back. So I’ve spent several weeks working on just that one thing, and I’ve utilized the one training tool that works with Bit: carrots.
Boarder Sally disapproves of such things, and she lets me know it. Sometimes she’ll shake her head, sometimes she’ll start to speak and then stop herself. Whatever she does, I’m aware that she really wants to tell me to stop training with carrots. Evidently, she believes that all horses should be trained the same way, with an expert in natural horsemanship. I’ve got nothing against her approach, I just know that it would never work with Bit; his personality is too strong for such things.
Bit’s training has to be far more quick and to–the-point because Bit hates it when I waste his time. So I cut up a few carrots into small pieces and put them in a waist-pack. I put Bit through his paces, manoeuvring him into the proper position and waiting for him to remain there. This sounds simple enough, but Bit doesn’t actually want to do it, so instead of standing still, he’ll hit his mark and then keep walking. Or he’ll turn his body away so that the part with the saddle on it is too far away for me to reach. Or any number of other tricks that he’s conceived over the years.
Of course, standing still is only one small step in the process, and with Bit, I’ve found that I have to break up any task into small, manageable parts. So, once I get him to stand still, I immediately lead him away from the block, praise him, and give him a piece of carrot. Then I lead him back to the block and repeat the task. I do this same thing three or four times, with a carrot break in between for all his successful attempts. It doesn’t take long for Bit to figure out what’s going to earn him that carrot.
Step two comes once he’s learned that I want him to stand in place. Then, I take hold of his saddle and pull on it a little – just enough to suggest that I’m about to get on. If he maintains his stance, I’ll pull the saddle again, and put one foot in a stirrup for good measure. The idea is to get him to understand that I still expect him to stand still, even if I’m about to mount. If he continues to stand when I pull on the saddle or put a foot in the stirrup, I’ll immediately lead him away, give him a bite of carrot, and praise him lavishly. We’ll do this same exercise two or three times.
Step Three is actually mounting. By this time, he’s learned that I want him to stand still in the spot I’ve directed him to, while I get on his back. If he remains standing in place once I’m on, I’ll immediately dismount and, yes, you guessed it, lead him away from the block, praise him, and give him a bite of carrot. I’ll repeat the whole process two or three times before I stay on and command him to walk off.
That’s how I train Bit, in a nutshell. It may seem laborious to some, and I’m sure it seems overly indulgent to others. I’m o.k. with that; it’s what works with my particular horse. Given that I’ve consistently gotten results with this type of training, though, suggests that I’m on to something. Indeed, carrots are a new element. I used to train him with apples.
For a time, there was a small ditch on the stable property. It wasn’t the yawning chasm of death that Bit thought it was, it was only a narrow thing that the stable owner had dug for the purpose of installing a draining pipe. Bit was convinced otherwise, though, and resolutely refused to cross it. What to do?
I ended up straddling the thing, putting an apple under his nose so that he would know what the reward was, and then holding the apple out on the other side of the ditch. Bit knew immediately what I wanted him to do, and, after a moment or two in which he maintained his resistance, he finally decided that the apple was worth crossing the yawning chasm of death for, and he walked across as though he’d been doing it all along.
I never had a problem with that particular ditch again, suggesting that it’s not so much the bribery that he’s learning, but rather that the frightening task isn’t nearly so frightening when there’s a pleasant element attached to it. I can’t say whether this type of training will work with your horse – every horse is different, and some learn better in other ways. But if you find yourself frustrated by your lack of progress, training-wise, consider using a food reward. Sometimes, you can get a lot of mileage out of a small piece of carrot!