Does anybody have any good resources that aren’t too hippy dippy for clicker training? Not trying to offend anyone but I’m sure some resources are better quality than others!
We do dressage, if that matters at all (probably not!)
Ah that makes a lot of sense. He has learned one set of cues for behaving on the ground. He’s like a child who has learned sit down shut up and don’t ask questions in some horrible elementary school and has been moved to a modern experimental child focused school. It’s going to take him a while to feel teacher is his friend.
I find using obstacles is helpful too. It gives you something to both focus on and you can repeatedly show him the relationship you want.
I also really like liberty work. I like teaching a sequence for whoa stand still, stay standing still while I walk away, then come when I whistle. If there is no lead rope there is nothing to chew. If there is no halter the handler can’t get impatient and start tugging. You can’t nag or micromanage as much with no halter on. You have to macromanage, like whoa but I don’t care if horse stands square. Walk but horse can think about it for 20 seconds.
1 Like
I like Alexandra Kurland’s book, ‘Clicker Training For Your Horse’. It is very simple, no mumbo-jumbo, and anyone can read it and be better off for it.
2 Likes
Yeah he just doesn’t totally understand. He’s actually gone the other direction and is the over friendly horse that can get a little pushy. He definitely isn’t scared of me raising my hand towards him that’s for sure ha ha. But now he’s learning how to actually think through things. And that’s harder.
And it’s taken me a little bit to realize this because he kind of did all the things but again it was more in a reactionary way than actually understanding things. Now he’s not as reactive but now he needs to learn.
He’s been in training the whole time I’ve had him too but riding has been more the focus. I tend to do a lot of groundwork although I’ll admit I’ve done less with him since he didn’t seem to enjoy it. I’m trying to do more now but it is a fine line between not drilling him.
I look forward to experimenting with him though. I just need to be aware of myself a lot.
Try the RideIQ “Pre ride warmup for a Fizzy Horse” by Kathy Baar. Even if your horse isn’t fizzy its a good one to start feeling out how they are reading your body language. There is a video to follow too.
1 Like
Will check it out thank you. I kind of hope they add some different type of groundwork from different schools of thought too. I’m not a big parelli fan. But I’m sure some of her stuff is still useful of course.
He loves obstacles. Every once in a while the barn sets up a working equation course. We just play with it on the ground not exactly as it’s always intended. But he definitely loves that.
He’s kind of a spooky horse but not when he feels like he can actually look and explore things. It’s really good for his confidence overall.
I have been thinking about trying some Liberty stuff. Our barn can be kind of busy so it’s not always the easiest to do that type of thing but there is quiet times.
Even though this has been difficult for me I really welcome the new learning experiences that it brings. I love how as horse people we can always learn and grow in so many ways.
1 Like
I don’t think this one was parelli, I’ve never done Parelli myself. Might have been similar type of handling but no carrot stick involved.
1 Like
Cool. I watched a few of her first videos and they were definitely parelli centric, which I believe she’s the certified instructor so that makes sense. There is some good stuff in that method It’s just the way they dress it up gets kind of weird imo lol.
If you are interested in horse behavior in training I recommend Dr Andrew McClean books but I don’t think he has a step by step clicker guide.
IME most clicker promoters don’t tend to be off in hippy Lala land like some other branches of liberty work. Quite the opposite. Clicker is rooted in behaviorist animal research and is absolutely results oriented. If anything it can get a bit prescriptive and technical. My experience has been that I need to achieve a kind of dance and flow with that particular horse and transcend the purely analytical.
More diffuse humans have trouble being consistent or results oriented.
You can also start training or retraining lateral on the ground. With a halter at first then at liberty. You want to get a controlled turn on the forehand building up from a few steps then shoulder in circle, straight, and then half pass. You can do spirals too.
This is useful to build the balance and carriage he will need for dressage and also to move past any panicked sloppy “disengage your hind quarters now or you die” cowboy training in his repertoire. You want a horse that listens to your cue and moves quietly on cue not a Bronc leaping away and falling on the forehand. You can do this long before it’s needed under saddle.
1 Like
Interesting, that was the first one I tried so I missed that haha Im not a Parelli fan either.
Alexandra Kurland is solid. She follows, or followed, the one click equals one treat methodology.
Shawna Karrash is another good one and she moves quickly to intermittent reinforcement. Not always a treat for a click.
I like both. I think Shawna has a different perspective coming from orca training that’s pretty valuable
2 Likes
Avoid Parelli in general.
You don’t need an arena for liberty work. You can do it in a turnout paddock or round pen, anywhere he is safely contained. You can do liberty work at the walk. It doesn’t need to be Cavallia time.
2 Likes
Yeah I was definitely like let’s play the friendly game and the porcupine game and all that. Lol It’s not even that what they’re doing is necessarily awful It’s just hard for me to get down with the cutesy names. But I’ve used a few things that I’ve seen in the few sessions I’ve watched.
Yeah I’ve never been a fan. I went to a demo once.
I’m not keen on following one method too closely. I think the most important thing is to listen to my horse and pay attention to what I’m doing with my own body. But of course learning from other people and watching is helpful. I’ve never been one to be too rigid in any aspects of my training though.
I used to be a big Warrick Schiller fan. I like some of the new stuff he’s doing but the delivery gets a little woohoo for my brain. It’s hard to explain but I’m already very attuned to horse body language and that type of stuff. But my brain tends to work very logically as well, So I don’t know if it gets too woo woo or over explains things, it doesn’t work as well for me. Basically I like matter of fact type people that are very aware.
I’m not a huge buck b fan. And absolutely never a Clinton Anderson fan. So I guess I am veering into Liberty/clicker training territory but need to find the right person! I like what I’ve seen from the dressage trainer online, her name is Olivia. I can’t for the life of me remember her last name but I believe she used to train with Carl Hester. Someone like that would be great.
Very often the best riding trainers don’t have a lot of explicit groundwork skills because they are good enough at basic horsemanship that they can handle the horses. Plus often they are not involved in actual colt starting. However some of the inhand dressage work with a bit is very useful but you can’t do that until the horse is relaxed about training.
I react negatively to anything too woo because I actually feel like I can get on an intuitive level with my horses that I don’t care to mystify or even explain. And the aggressively woo stuff is annoying, simplified, and gets in the way of my own perception. Same reason I dont like animal communicators. I can listen to my horses just fine.
2 Likes
Check out featherlite (featherlight?) horsemanship on Insta.
1 Like
Yep, exactly. My trainers are amazing but not fine tuned in teaching the ground work anyway.
And your second paragraph about the woo woo stuff is exactly how I feel and what I’ve experienced! I have a funny story to share later about an experience I had.
