In defense of trick training.
My Paint mare just loves loves loves clicker tricks. Her face lights up when we go into the arena on Obstacle Play night or into an obstacle ground work clinic. Even before I started clicker she loved standing on the circus box. Sometimes we do little tricks performance for kids (decorating a Christmas tree, going to sleep, waking up to play with her “new” bouncy ball) and she is so happy. She adores our annual open house. Her Pilates yoga ball lives in her runout and some days she greats me .by pushing it into her stall and standing there asking to play.
She has some pushy, pissy, dominant aspects to her personality but as soon as we are in clicker tricks or obstacles she becomes the happiest softest compliant horse. She wants to stop on the trails and smile for children. Or course there are treats involved. But the whole thing makes her so happy.
It’s not just for the tiny treats she gets. She really loves finding out other human beings are smart enough to learn cues and interact with her. She’s always wanted attention and now she has a way to get attention that makes everybody happy with her.
I have not found a way to logically use clicker much under saddle. But if we are having a pissy moment I can break the cycle by doing something like walk halt treat which changes the parameters.
All her tricks including lying down were taught by shaping existing behavior. She will play fetch, go get her bouncy ball with her nose, “dance” with her front feet if you stamp your feet, nod yes, smile and more things. She learns super fast now.
My coach did say this was the horse shed saddle up for the Apocalypse because she’s so brave on the roads and trails. So it’s not mutually exclusive!
Anyhow whether or not Paint mare was bred to be a clicker tricks clown, it’s her super power and she is so obviously happy when we do it. Also it’s helped with being girthy.
Project Lusitano mare had gone kind of feral when I stated working with her. She would run backwards and rear up if you tried to lead her away from other horses, pick up a foot, put on a bridle, or shake a longe whip. I started working with her during COVID when I was at my friend’s barn where I could let the horses into a coveted arena direct from the field. I brought in my mare and project .mare followed.
Project mare just picked up free longeing on voice commands immediately, I’m assuming she’d been longed earlier in life. I think I also longed her on a line a bit too. She loved going down trot poles which helped her be less rushy, and she loved all obstacles, including squeezing between a barrel and the wall. She wasn’t hard to catch or approach, just hard to work with. I taught her to stand on cue then follow me, back up, haunches over. I started taking her into the barn along with Paint mare when I saddles up and leaving her alone there eating while I rode to sort out being alone in the barn. Etc.
All along I wanted to actually ride this horse because she’s very talented. That hasn’t worked out yet. I haven’t given up yet, though. Anyhow, at our current barn I have areas I can free longe her, and again it’s her super power. When I’m.in the arena that borders the main path out of stables, and she’s galloping around me, I can call halt and then call her into the center of the arena to stand quietly when someone rides by, rather than have her spook their horse by running the fence which is what every single other horse there does in that turnout space.
We’ve also learned lateral work at liberty. She’s always trying to get in close to do lateral work (and get a treat).
Anyhow, again she is so engaged and happy and even inventive in liberty work that I have to say she likes it. She has way more energy than Paint mare and all the Iberian expressiveness though not to the extent of the stallions in the videos.
Anyhow with both these horses, I went down these paths because they were so clearly happy, engaged, inventive, and thinking when I worked on the ground. I didn’t have any goals other than experimenting.
As far as whether it’s “natural” I’d say ground work builds on how horses relate to each other, and it comes to them naturally. If you get on the wavelength of that individual horse.
I’d still rather be riding. But this stuff has been enriching when we aren’t riding or as an extra thing to do. And it helps the horses understand they can have a relationship on the ground with people.
Now I do not think that tricks and liberty are magickal. But I do think they are natural, and can add some fun to horse time. I don’t think everybody needs to do them, or indeed can do them. But they are very very helpful for understanding timing and cues. The only reason they look impressive is that most people haven’t figured out how to do this.
And maybe not all horses have the talent. When I look at my two, they have very different aptitude, and different approach to the work. I don’t have extensive experience with other horses. I do find other ammies struggle with timing and body language but I don’t know how much is the person and how much is the horse. If the horse doesn’t engage it would be hard to find the rhythm.
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and while I’ve been around some stallions (lberian as it happens) I’ve never worked them and would be quite cautious if I did. I don’t want a horse at liberty chasing me (following sedately is good) or rearing in my face. Basically I don’t want to instil anything that would make general handling more difficult. But obviously if you want to do performance then you will choose a horse that shows liberty talent and figure out how “dangerous” you want your tricks to appear.
