Chrome Learns Manners

I remembered watching a video somewhere on YouTube about Carolyn Resnick working with a stallion on respect and manners around food. I've always admired Carolyn Resnick's ways, but I've never used her methods before because I can't afford to pay for her books/DVDs. I finally found her blog here (http://www.carolynresnickblog.com/) that has a lot of really good information on it.

So anyway, I don't remember where the video is, but if you search YouTube you can probably find it. On Monday I decided to try it with Chrome since he can be a bit of a brat about food. I've also been making him back up before he can eat his breakfast and dinner. Once I have the barn fixed and a stall I'm going to teach him to put his ears forward before he can eat. It's just hard to do it right now because the other two interfere.

First we played Chase the Tiger because it had been a while and I figured we've been working on hard stuff (backing with head down; will get video later) and he deserved some play time.



Then I locked the other two out of the round pen, sat a bucket of feed down and got to work. I popped him a little hard the first time with the whip by accident, but I'm telling you he has no fear or respect for whips lol. I'll work with him on that (using another Resnick method and yes I'll get video) so I don't have to hit him next time.



I was proud of him! He still sometimes tried to go for it, but a vocal "eh eh" was enough to keep him from eating the feed. With a little more practice I doubt he'll even look at it. :D There are a couple more things regarding feed that I'm going to try because I've finally learned that what we're lacking in our relationship is respect (I know duh right). He knows I can't move him if he doesn't want to (hence having to smack him so hard) and he thinks that he can have whatever he wants, so he's about to learn that I own his resources and I give them to him because I'm a kind leader. Someday we can go back to being best friends, but right now he has to learn that I'm the one in control and he can't keep trying to boss me around. So things are about to start getting interesting around here so keep coming back. :D I know I sound disorganized right now, but I promise I have a whole training plan figured out. Things are going to be a million times better before May using these methods. And don't worry, not a single one of them ever involves even touching him. I'm not going to beat him into submission because I just don't believe in that and it's not the way I train. Trust me I'll be explaining things better soon.

P.S. After going back over this I realized I'm making Chrome sound like a bully, but he totally isn't!! The things he does are very mild and subtle. Things like pinned ears (keep in mind he does pin them during play and that's not being aggressive or anything, just playing) or not moving very fast when I ask him to or stepping into my path. He's not ugly, but the subtle signs he shows are that he thinks he controls the show. So we're going to work on that.

Stills From Video Posted Yesterday

Here are the stills from the video I posted yesterday. Since I'm taking the snapshots from a video they aren't great quality, but he's handsome in them anyway hehe.

Chasing the Tiger (trot)

The goal with having him trot with his head down is for long and low work at liberty. It's the beginning work done for dressage to teach them to lift and use their backs while stretching the topline. This is especially important with breeds that have a naturally high set like the Friesian (imagine that) and the Arabian (double dose for Chrome). Eventually this will be taught on a longe line as well, but since he's young I'm trying to keep him off of repetitive circles.

This one he's almost in dressage frame. He needs a little more impulsion to finish rounding his back and bringing up his shoulders. At least I know he can do it. :D I can't wait to start dressage lessons! I probably won't put him into formal lessons until he's four though since arena work can sour them if they aren't mature enough.

Chasing the Tiger (canter)

Look how high he brought his rear leg up to kick/stomp the Tiger.
This is where he stepped on it, accidentally ripping it from my hands in the video.

Beginnings of Spanish Walk (or stomp lol)

I love this shot. You can't see the whip or "Tiger" so it looks like he's about to charge me lol.

Playing with the whip & Lateral Flexion

Shoulder Yields

I love when he steps across so well. :)

Goofing Off

Smile!

He dropped the treat so I reached down to grab it. I LOVE that neck!

A hug. In the video you'll see he tried a lateral flex to his left and then tried a shoulder yield.
He wasn't ready to stop training hehe.

I love my pretty boy.

Chrome checking out the camera.

One last smile. I hope all of you who can't view videos enjoyed the pictures. :D

Chrome Unedited Training Video - Fun!

We had a short training session on the twenty sixth, but Chrome was being a bit of a butt so we ended just playing around on the pedestal.

Today however went fantastic! And I got it all on video! We had so much fun playing Chase the Tiger, messing around with the beginnings of the Spanish Walk and working on our shoulder yields. Check it out (completely unedited).



For those of you who can't watch videos, or if you just want to know more about what's happening in the video, read on. :) I started out playing Chase the Tiger because we haven't messed with it outside of the round pen and it's been a while. It's fun to play the game to help me relax and not worry so much about being perfect (yep I'm a perfectionist sigh).

We had fun and he looks so gorgeous when he's trying to kill the "Tiger". The video is well worth watching if you can just to watch him prance around. I'll try to get snapshots off of it later and post them tomorrow for everyone who can't watch.

While playing Chase the Tiger I started swinging the Tiger left and right in front of Chrome and he was striking at it with alternating front hooves. It actually looked a little like a Spanish Walk (well the beginnings of one). The only problem is he's stomping pretty hard so I don't really want to teach the real Spanish Walk using this method, but it's fun to mess around with. I'm excited to try it out someday.

After he got tired of the game I worked on shoulder yields. He did a perfect three step yield moving left which is the direction he learned first. He doesn't know how to twist on his rear legs without stepping forward and I'm worried about him putting too much torque on his young joints so I probably won't do more than three steps for now.

On his new side he's consistently getting one step and I'm now only using the shoulder cue. I do still have to hold my left hand up by his neck to keep him from turning his head to me, but I'm not touching him with it. I got two steps once, but it wasn't very good. We'll keep working on it.

Funny that my original intention for the session was to work on whoa . . . hehe. I want him to have a really solid whoa and right now it's about 50% so I'm going to focus on that tomorrow, but I'll have him on a halter and lead. He needs the support right now. Once he's listening to the voice cue I'll work on it again at liberty (just not in the same session as Tiger because he gets too excited lol).

Well, that's all for now. I was just super excited and had to share.

Disappointed

I had plans to take Chrome to his first horse show, just to walk around and experience the sights and sounds of a boarding barn, but we didn't get to go. We made the necessary repairs to the trailer yesterday and got up early this morning to take him. He loaded perfectly onto the trailer (I was so PROUD) and stood still while my husband raised the ramp and secured it. I fed him treats while my husband went to get the doors that we forgot to put back on the top. I don't have a halter that's safe for tying so I normally haul Chrome loose and he's acted like he wants to jump out so we always haul with the top doors closed. I'm going to get a safe halter (can't tie in a rope halter) and one of those quick release bungee ties so we can start teaching him to haul tied. I'm just worried because it doesn't have a center divider so he can easily set back against it and panic. If there was a center divider his butt would hit the back of the trailer and he wouldn't be able to sit back against the halter . . . we will just have to see.

Anyway as soon as the doors went up and closed Chrome turned around to see what was going on (yes he still fits to turn around in a two horse straight load). He turned back around because I was at the front of the trailer with the door open. Then he proceeded to poop in the trailer, which he's never done before. He pooped three more times before we left the driveway. As we were driving we could feel him turn around two more times which made me really nervous. What if he tripped and fell? We remembered that we forgot to check the air pressure in the tires so we stopped at a gas station when we got to town. When I went to check on Chrome he was drenched in sweat. I'm talking about it looked like someone had poured a bucket of water over him. It was early in the morning, but already very, very muggy. So I decided to take him home. I figured it was a decent hauling experience, he didn't get hurt, who cares if we didn't get to go to the show. I was glad later that we didn't get to go when I found out the high for today was 103F with a heat index of 115F because of the humidity. Good grief!!!!

So we took him home and I unloaded him. There was not a dry spot on the floor of the trailer. I can't believe how much he sweated and pooped. Poor guy. As soon as it cools off, since we have a truck with an automatic transmission, I'm going to learn to pull the trailer and start taking him on short trips to get him used to hauling so he isn't so nervous. I hosed him off twice and let him graze a bit. I was happy that he even let me run water over his muzzle and cheeks. I didn't get his eyes or ears because I don't want to teach him to pull his head back. I'm disappointed that we didn't get to go, but so proud of how well my boy did. I think the difference, aside from the insane heat, is that Faran was neighing at him and that got him excited. Normally there isn't anyone neighing so he's cool going for a ride. I hope he calms down again. He'd also been playing with Faran and Zep all morning while we prepped so he was already a little hot.

I worked with him tonight on yielding his forequarters and he did great!! The first couple of times he still moved his rear legs, so it was more of a sidepass, but I was clicking before a rear hoof actually moved so by the end of the session he was stepping over with just his front hoof. We've only got one step so far, but he does it off of such light pressure! I barely use any pressure at all. I'll slowly fade out the right hand until he's moving his shoulders with just my left hand on his ribs, then I'll ask for more steps. When he's doing that in a full circle I'm going to teach him to move his haunches over with pressure where my heel would be instead of on his hip. When he's doing both really well separately (on both sides) I'll press both places at once for a sidepass. Then when he's under saddle he'll already know the cues from knee or heel pressure, or both. :D It's going to be a long process, but totally worth it. I love how maneuverable he is considering the pony I grew up with had no clue how to move body parts under saddle (or even her shoulders on the ground). Chrome is so smart!

I also did Chase the Tiger again and he did great. He was so full of himself this evening. He was even bronco bucking when he galloped up from the pasture. He's really understanding that I want him to play and is offering GORGEOUS trots and pretty canters easily. He likes to strike at it with his front hooves too. The only weird thing I'm going to have to work on is that when I click and stop moving the handkerchief (Tiger) he runs over it, stops and gives an impressive kick with one hind leg . . . every time. I'm not even rewarding that part, but it's becoming a habit already. I think instead of leaving the Tiger on the ground when I click I'm going to raise the whip so it lifts off the ground. Then maybe he'll quit kicking. I don't want him to learn that it's a good thing.

I also tried working on having him put his hoof on a hoof stand, but he was being uncooperative so I let it go. I think I'm going to build a pedestal out of an old tractor tire and work with that first. He just doesn't understand putting his hoof on something. I did accidentally teach him to paw though lol! I don't really want him to do it right now though because the ground is so hard and he stomps his hoof hard. I don't want to damage his hooves or joints so I'll move on to something else and come back to that when it rains (which we haven't had in a couple of months). It'll be easy to teach him to count at least. :D

Well, sorry this got so long. If you made it to the end, thanks for reading!!

Chrome playing Chase the Tiger video!

I played Chase the Tiger with Chrome again and got it on video. All I can say is I can't wait to play this game when it's cooler and he's more energetic. He's so beautiful. :D


When they say a camera adds ten pounds they aren't kidding lol. I hate posting videos with me in them, but hopefully you're too busy staring at gorgeous Chrome to pay attention to me lol.

I'm sure you noticed at one point he was kicking at the handkerchief, but it was in my direction. I clicked before he kicked and he didn't even hear it so I know he was completely focused on the target. He was not kicking at me! And he really wasn't anywhere near close enough for me to be in danger. I will be watching out for this though and try not to reward kicks out with the hind feet. Picking his hind feet up toward his body is great because that can eventually lead to collected moves like the Piaffe, but not out! I don't think we're going to be doing the Capriole any time soon lol. Anyway let me know what you think. It's a lot of fun and great exercise. :)

Almost forgot, at the end of the video I was working on yielding his shoulder. This is only our second time practicing it and he's already figuring it out. It's funny because he picked up his right front and held it in the air a second before he realized he was supposed to step across. I was using really light pressure to start out with and increasing it very gradually. I still never had to shove him or anything. I don't want to have to push him around for him to respond to me so I try to keep the cues light. When he figures it out I'll drop my right hand and only cue from where my knee would be in a dressage saddle. :)

Also after we put the camera up and fed the horses I had my husband give me a leg up so I could lay across Chrome's back and fed him treats. He loved it. :D I wish we could have gotten it on tape. I'll set up the tripod next time. My husband worked with Faran too, but I'll do his post tomorrow. I have to get up at 5am so off to bed for me.

A Break & Chase the Tiger

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I hurt my arm playing basketball so I had to take a break from training. I couldn't lift my arm away from my body at all so that makes it difficult to hold a target stick lol. I picked training back up yesterday and today though and we had fun. My husband worked with Faran on targeting my orange cone and leading at liberty. He picked both up quickly.

At first he was very hesitant to touch the cone for some reason, but eventually figured it out. When he was touching it while my husband held it he put it on the ground and backed away from the cone. It was so funny because Faran would walk to the cone, stop with his toes next to it and then reach over it to sniff at my husband, then he would resign himself to working for his treat. He would deliberately touch the cone and raise his head back up for his treat. :)

On the leading it didn't take him long to figure out that walking up next to my husband's shoulder got him a click/treat. Then he started following at my husband's shoulder. They made it a full circuit around the round pen (where we work him so Chrome can't interfere) and then he ended it on a good note so that Faran decides working is fun. :)

With Chrome I worked briefly on yielding his shoulders. I want his cue to be pressure where my knee will be in the dressage saddle, but pressure right there caused him to yield his hindquarters so I put my other hand on his neck. I was using only light pressure. It took him a minute, but he finally figured out he had to step over with his front feet instead of his rear feet. He crossed one front hoof in front of the other about four or five times and I left it at that. I'll let it sink in a while.

I also introduced Chrome to Chase the Tiger. Chase the Tiger is a game that was invented by some of the members of the Art of Natural Dressage forum (http://www.artofnaturaldressage.com). You can read all about Chase the Tiger here (http://www.artofnaturaldressage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=475), but I'll also quote their explanation here.

"Chasing the tiger is nothing more or less than letting your horse chase a plastic bag/piece of clothing or something else that you hold in your hand or have tied to a stick/whip/pole. A lot of traditional trainers also use sticks/whips with plastic tied to it, but then in order to let the horse flee away from it in order to make them run. You can compare it to the rope that is flung to the horse in a join-up, or even a lungeing-whip that is cracked in the air in order to 'scare' the horse so that he becomes faster. These training methods reinforce to the horse that the human is the hunter and the horse is the prey, and therefore subordinate to the human.

Training
We do it the other way round. First you teach your horse through rewards that he can put his nose against a plastic bag that you're holding in front of him - and reward a lot for that! Then you just walk a step away from your horse and ask your horse if he wants to follow you and touch the bag again. Then slowly take longer distances, or let your horse touch the bag longer while walking, before you reward. If that's all okay, you can tie the bag on to the end of a whip and start running away from your horse, animating him into a trot or canter while holding the bag in front of him. When you tie the bag to a longer driving/lungeing whip, you can lunge your horse around you like this, let him do the more energetic moving while you're in a safe distance (and a bit less tired ).

Why
The most important reason to do this, is that most horses just love it. They love the fact that they're the hunter instead of the hunted and that they can chase instead of be chased. Because for horses, chasing each other is very natural too, only a lot of horses never chase others because the others always chase them. So giving them the opportunity to change place really can give them a boost of self-confidence.

Chasing the tiger is also a very good way to conquer fears. Clickertrainers already know that targeting a scary object with the nose easily convinces horses that that object isn't that scary after all. Chasing it makes it even more harmless, as obviously the previous scary object is now running away, and therefore scared of the horse. So let the horse be as wild as he wants to be with the bag (or other object) and reward him for that behavior. Touching the bag with the nose is very good, but stamping on it with a front foot is even better, as it means that your horse dares to come closer to it with his body.

Another reason why Chasing the Tiger is a great game, is that it teaches horses to move freely and at higher speeds eventually, even the more timid horses. It also offers a wonderful opportunity to 'make' horses more independent of you, especially those horses who don't play wild games on their own because they don't like to leave you.

The last reason is that lungeing in Chasing the Tiger-style, with the horse following the bag with his nose stretched out down and forwards, is a very good way to loosen the back. With horses who tend to lean a bit too much on the frontlegs when moving, you can also hold the whip with your targetbag more at knee-or breast-height.

Essentially you can play Chase the Tiger with anything: with wooden planks that you drag through the sand, or a jacket tied to a rope so that you can drag it behind you, or a tennis ball or piece of cotton tied to the end of the whip. Start easy, with an object that isn't that scary according to your horse, and gradually you can make the game more interesting by taking more scary materials (plastic, wild colors) and by asking your horse to follow it at higher speed. Experiment!"

I love this forum by the way, so check it out if you want to learn more. They have videos of Chase the Tiger at the link above and a whole lot of other interesting content. I used a whip with a handkerchief tied to the lash. I started with him targeting it in my hand and then on the ground. It didn't take him long to follow it around. He seemed a little hesitant and possibly a bit skittish of it, because if he came near his hooves he'd jump away. It was actually kind of funny. :D After our first session I did some targeting to make sure he was still willing to trot and that there wasn't anything wrong. He was fine.

Today during our second session of Chase the Tiger he did fantastic!! I started with the target to get him moving around and energetic. I also didn't feed him beforehand. Normally I feed first so he isn't so grabby at the treats, but he was just too sluggish. This time he wasn't. He trotted after it and was doing his pretty stallion stomp on it. It was so cute and he was so gorgeous! I'll have to get it on video because it was a lot of fun. :) I'm glad he did so well.

Well, sorry the post got to long. I'll try so get a video tomorrow. :)