I was playing around in photoshop with one of Chrome's pictures way too late last night... what do you think?
Well, we had our first shot at a longe lesson and although it wasn't horrible, it wasn't great either. I think instead of calling it a lesson we will call it . . . testing the waters to see what he remembers (and to see if I'm coordinated enough to hold a line, whip, clicker and treats lol)? I've only worked on longeing one other time almost a year ago when he was gelded (has it really been that long??) because he had to be trotted twenty minutes a few days to keep his incision from closing.
So he definitely seems to remember walking around me in a circle, but wasn't too thrilled about trotting. I think he was just being lazy because the ground was sloped and wet (we don't have any flat spots for longeing) and the flies were bothering him horribly!! So we will try again with copious amounts of fly spray next time lol. I don't think I'm going to ask him to trot next time since we need to work on relaxation and voice cues. The only reason I want to do any longeing is to teach him to ground drive and we won't be trotting in long lines for a while so we don't have to worry about that right now. :)
So any suggestions on what we need to work on (besides me not nagging? and being more prepared and coordinated?)? He finds loneging so boring and tedious, so I don't want to work on it too long. I just want to practice whoa some and then try ground driving again so we won't be stuck on circles (and bored!). :) Here's the video:
Here are some pictures for the people who can't view videos.
Thanks for watching. We look forward to your comments. :D
P.S. We did work in the other direction too. :) I just didn't get video of it. Oh and we worked on it for less than ten minutes.
I don't have any experience with clicker training a horse (we had a Lab that we clicker trained though!), so to me, the clicker sound and your clucking sound similar to me. Also, we teach our horses to not walk in to us when on the longe line - when they are halted, we walk to them to change direction.
ReplyDeleteMy only advice would be to ask once, then tell - maybe touch with the whip if command is not obeyed the first time. I like that you changed it up frequently with transitions!
Actually, I think he did pretty good. One thing that will help you a lot--chilly weather. That made all the difference with Cole when it came to lounging. Otherwise, he thought it was dumb. It might be a clicker horse, thing. They need more interesting things to learn.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, once you get the transistion good (which takes a lot of reinforcement in the beginning) then you start clicking for duration and quality. That's when Cole would get creative--trying all different styles of trotting.
I'm interested in the placement of the rope. It's on a ring up high on his nose, so the hardware and rope bump against his nostril, which is soft and sensitive. I've only seen long rope hooked up to either the cheek ring or the chin ring. He didn't seem to mind it much. The flies occupied most of his attention.
ReplyDeleteNuzMuz, using the top ring on the caves-son is pretty popular in some areas because you can change directions without switching the rope to different sides. I've also read that it can encourage long and low because they like to play with it. :) Like you said, he was too distracted by the flies to care about much.
ReplyDeleteHmm. How long is your rope? Sometimes starting with a shorter rope helps. We did that with Oberon. I also never make him do endless lunge circles. I also have him disengage and face me. I also mobile lunge. I will video tape my girls doing this as soon as the weather dries ... with short and long rope. We also flex him.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of lunging for long periods of time... it is boring (for the horse and the person) and well, that is just my opinion. There are many approaches and way to ground work a horse. I think it is also important to make sure your horse is bending into the circle... something Oberon isn't the best at yet. He likes to keep his nose pointed out... he can be a bit defiant. But James has showed me some techniques to use the stick and string and encourage him to bend.