Early Morning post in *** response (see below) to someone’s comment about one of my ‘training’ videos: (She didn’t see the phobia associated with the horse in this video: Lesson with Halflinger  (click on link to view video)

*** “I didn’t see a phobic haffie, in fact I saw a willing fellow who got quite a few treats for little effort. I would be more interested in seeing a horse or pony that was more of a challenge …”

“D … you express something that I think alot see … and that is actually something they don’t see with CT (clicker training horses) … they see little to no drama. You saw a ‘willing fellow’ who got quite a few treats for little effort.” And that’s pretty much what people *ARE* going to see with CT until the foundation is built and things can move on. That haffie was phobic and would not let anyone near his 1:30 position on the off side. If pressed, he would escalate into nasty behavior. (I didn’t press and that was the entire point!) Plus, as you saw, he was rude, pushy to start, and regularly caused quite an issue with his handlers at the barn where he was as he would run through them and take off. But see — he never had the holes in his foundation laid down properly to begin with. And to start doing that one starts at the beginning and builds. All it takes for the building to start to crumble is a crack in the foundation; doesn’t take a huge sinkhole. So while it looked pretty benign, it was a huge thing to have him stand quietly, calmly, accepting someone on his off side. So, … done without fanfare and we moved on. He doesn’t get Ct’d for allowing ppl on his right side now — he accepts it as stnd. practice. He does multiple things now that he never could do when he was first acquired. His owner has done a great job with this guy.

That’s one of the things I REALLY like about CT is the lack of drama. No fear caused. No running around in circles endlessly chasing the horse. No theatrics. As I said in an earlier post to Bill — I’m too damn old to be chasing horses around. And why would I want to anyway — that’s what predators do and predators are enemies of horses. *grin*

I’ve been there, done that … done the ‘breaking’ of horses, the ‘training’ of horses in traditional methods. Then on to early ‘natural’ methods and now back to the way I started out basically, as a kid – Little by little; step by step; ‘taming’, ‘teaching’ and making ‘friends’ with horses. By far the best way IMO and only love to share the experiences. Once horses start to get nervous for any reason then the lesson is lost. The horse can little of anything else but getting away from the person and situation causing him to feel uncomfortable. So, I figure hey — let’s not let him get to that point to begin with and then he can learn faster and we both can have fun with it together. After all, what’s the sense if its not “fun”? For human AND the horse? (Granted it makes for a pretty boring show but hey — I don’t care about the ‘show’ to others; I care about helping horses and their owners learn to have fun together! Safely and WITHOUT the fanfare.)

In reviewing the video again, I noticed a huge thing for this Haffie … first notice that when he was feeling overwhelmed, instead of attacking me (as in biting, or throwing head/body at me, etc. as he would ‘normally’ do with others while on line) he was able to simply walk away and gather himself together again cause he was at liberty. He then returned when he was ready and we resumed the lesson. Towards the end, he learned not only to allow someone at his off side at the 1;30 position but in order to do that he coupled that with self-calming. Putting his head down. So every time he started to feel nervous, he’d put his head down to calm himself instead of moving his body or walking away. The other thing that I was looking for at the end, and this is very important, was the ‘exhale’ … that exhale that will allow him to release whatever it was that was keeping him uptight with someone on his offside. I was rewarding the ‘exhales’; the ‘releases’. So alot more was going on here than ‘what meets the eye’ for this horse. Alot of mental/emotional changes and shifting. This was the first time I’d worked with him at liberty and I think one of the first times he was ever in this indoor. (If I remember correctly.) So, I was very pleased with him and he was very pleased with himself! *LOL* There’s a whole lot more to teaching horses than just the mechanics. All sorts of ‘stuff’ go on in their heads and that’s more important than what one sees in behaviors (but ya gotta be able to read the slightest behaviors – the switch of the tail, the tweak of an ear, the flash of an eye, the wrinkle of the nostril etc. cause that tells ya what is going on in the thinking) So, not all drama. Don’t want drama. Don’t like drama.

 “Not all scars are visible to the human eye. It’s what we choose to do with these battle wounds that makes the difference.” –author unknown