Finally! Clicker Training!

I went out to take Chrome for a walk and was going to use one of the gates on the lease land instead of walking all the way back to the house, but I completely forgot we put a padlock on it and I didn't have the keys with me. Feeling lazy I decided not to walk back to the house so I worked with him out in the pasture. I clicked him a few times for walking at my shoulder then decided to work on "Grownups are Talking" (I hope you don't mind me linking to your video Mary) and head lowering, so I wrapped the lead around his neck (that way I didn't have to carry it and it wasn't dragging the ground).

He did grownups perfectly, then I started withholding the click and he started lowering his head. I was so excited! He did great! I got him to about six inches from the ground. :) Eventually I got bored and decided to move on so I worked on getting him to trot.

I started walking and clicked him for being at my shoulder. Then I started trotting. I got ahead of him, then he trotted, I clicked, stopped, he caught up and I gave him the treat. It was so cute how he trotted all the way to me and skidded to a stop with his head tucked to get his treat. :) I wish I had it on video.

He quickly caught on to this game (and LOVED it) and started trotting in place waiting for me to trot. We did that for a bit, but he was going too fast so I worked on halts. He didn't do very well with those at all! I need to get those down really well before I work on trotting again because he gets too excited. I'm still proud of him though considering it's our first session in months.

After I ran out of treats I was running around with him just letting him get some exercise. He would gallop past me then turn and sort of hop around in place (no where near me). It was so cute. When I got too far he finally got bored, turned and charged at Zep. They fought (played) a bit then Zep ran away. Poor guy. I can't tell if Chrome is starting to bully him a bit. As long as Chrome will leave him alone when he trots away I'll leave them alone. Chrome isn't a mean horse so I don't think it should be a problem. I'll just keep an eye on them.