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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Chrome's New Pedestal

My husband made a pedestal for me out of an old tractor tire and a piece of plywood. Chrome makes it look tiny in the picture above, but it's actually pretty big. It has middle supports underneath too so it'll safely hold his weight. When we finished making it I called the horses up so I could see what Chrome did with it. He eyed it warily because it was something new, but quickly approached it to eat treats off of it. I wanted to see what he would do on his own, but it was really hot and dinnertime and he couldn't care less, so I started trying to lure him onto it with treats. I didn't bring my clicker because I was worried I'd be mobbed by the others.

I spent ten minutes (don't worry I didn't leave the full ten minutes in the video) trying to get him on it with just treats and it was going nowhere fast. We were both getting hot, tired and frustrated so I went to get the clicker. In less than two minutes he was pawing at it. I also included footage from our second session (which is where the picture came from) at the end. Here's the video.


I'm so proud of him. :)

8 comments:

  1. How fun! I once trained my horse to stand on one (or two) cement blocks.

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  2. Gah! I watched that entire video and right at the end the phone rang, so I had to go back and watch the end again to see how he made up his mind to get up there. I love how he stood there even after you left.

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  3. That was sooo cool! There is no doubt he knows what he did. When he just stood there after you left, I could tell he was quite pleased with himself. Neat stuff!

    I'm lovin' little Leddy more and more every day.

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  4. I love it! Good boy Chrome! Loved it when he put is hoof up there for the first time, then turned and looked at the camera like, "Did you get that Dad?". I bet you are going to step out of the house one day and find him just standing on it with all 4 feet. Misty had a bridge in her paddock for awhile and I used to find her standing on it all the time, like being 6 inches taller made a world of difference.

    Clever pedestal. What did you use to secure the plywood to the tire. And what did you use underneath for extra support? Is the extra support in the center? Or also in the tire. Would love to see a demo of how to make one. I need to point my husband to this for his next honey-do project.

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  5. I love your pedestal!!!

    You are going to have SO much fun with it. :)

    I've been catching up on your blogs. Thanks for all the comments this morning on my blog. :)

    ~Mary

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  6. Hiiiii! I just found your blog last week while looking for some clicker training videos (just got my first clicker last week). I have to say that your videos are some of my favorites because you show the progress of the horses (and donkey!) learning...a lot of videos just show the awesome end products. Thanks for your videos!

    I love your patience with the horses too!

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  7. Cool you've done so well with him and he looks really pleased with himself up there, great work :)

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  8. Good for Chrome. But I think the real star was Zep. Look at the little guy. "I hear clicking, where is my cookie?"

    Mango Momma

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