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ALEXANDRA KURLAND - Colo. Clicker Clinic - Part 2
by Nancy Oly    

WHAT YOU CLICK IS WHAT YOU GET

Simple words which became my mantra (I like simple). In practice, it's difficult for some of us "timing challenged folks".  When we brought the homes to the inside arena, I paired up with Pat, who has the scared, herdbound Saddlebred mare. As an auditor, I was a coach and clicker person and later, we could switch roles.

During the two days, we worked on backing, head Iowering and hindquarters over (one unit at a time).  In doing backing for instance, it's important to click the horse WHILE they are moving, NOT after the horse has stopped backward motion, otherwise you are rewarding the stop, not what we wanted at this point.

But we eventually got the timing and basics right on Saturday, which was good because on Sunday, Pat left Ruby's closest herdmate, Twister, outside. We resumed work in the indoor arena with Ruby on Sunday and she was losing it. Her head was way up, neighing, ignoring Pat, circling her, trying to get away. Alexandra was there to guide Pat. This was so stressful - anyone else would have quit, not Pat. The groundwork from the previous day paid off.

I wish I had a video camera for Pat to look at later, the changes coming over Ruby were incredible.  We combined the headlowenng, backed up by the backing if Ruby got excited. Ruby was standing still, she was paying attention, she was keeping her head lower and lower for longer and longer periods of time. Pat was able to work with a sane, under control horse. Periodically, Ruby would start to lose it, but Pat was right there, able to work her thru it. Pat definitely had her hands full and it wasn't going to get cured just in 2 days, but boy, she stuck with it and she was doing great. Had Pat not had such a good relationship with this mare and had she not had the additional tools of CT and Alexandra's training tips, this could have been real ugly.

I need to emphasize that this "backing" is NOT done with the mindset that the horse will see that STANDING STILL is a better option (popular training notion out there). Totally different view here.

There were some basic skills involved which are very difficult to explain - such as hand position on the lead rope end horse which effectively block the horse from forward movement (it was one of the things we practiced on each other), being a POST ( a much better clarification from Alexandra follows) and also the backing the horse in the semi circle which Alexandra said calmed the horse (another one of those things you have to see/experience to believe it really works).

From Alexandra Kurland:  "By the way, to understand posts better, go tie a leadrope to a stout one and pull on it. No matter how hard you pull, or how obnoxious you get, the post will not pull back, get flustered, distracted, or angry. It will just be a post. Keep pulling on that post, and you'll very quickly discover that you'd rather just quit and stand quietly. From the horse's point of view your hand needs to feel like a post. But with a horse like Chewy as you saw sometimes the post does have to move or it will get plowed down. The trick is to remain post-like, even when you are being run-over, and that can be a hard concept to grasp. It's all about focus and intent. That's what Pat was able to do so well with Ruby Sat. alt. She stayed focused on what she wanted - head lowering -and didn't let Ruby's frantic behavior distract her from being a post. As you work through these foundations steps, you'll begin to feel the difference between pulling, being a post, and letting the horse take charge .... "

GAMES TO PLAY

As I mentioned previously, I was very excited to play games with my horse when I got home. Now you may be saying like my mother did after I told her I taught him to kick the beach ball; "Well, why would you do that?" Like it needed a practical application or something! Yes, this is a riding horse we're talking about, not a trick circus pony. But what if you have a horse that is out of work, maybe because of injury or you want him to get used to stuff under/between his legs. The practical applications become endless.

There are lots of ideas for games on the various websites devoted to Clicker Training and also in Alexandra's book. Personally, I hadn't got much beyond fetching with my horse - so when I saw videos of Alexandra's client's horse and also of Peregrine, I wanted to try out new things! What we saw was the horse picking up a toy basketball and dropping it into a 4 ft hoop, moving a big beach ball around the arena with his nose, then kicking the ball around and across the arena adding trot and canter, picking up a cone with his mouth and standing on a box, shaking hands while standing other front hoof on box. This last, Alexandra mentioned was wise - only do the shaking hands when balanced on box - wouldn't want this behavior on the ground. Peregrine took the bit up into his mouth (almost bridling himself), canters in hand on an invisible lead rope, free sidepasses. I know reading about it just doesn't have the same pizazz - hopefully, Alexandra will have her Horse Clicker Training video out soon.
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