December 7, 2009

I worked Jackson for about half and hour. Wow! You know what? I am in LOVE with clicker training!   I went out there to have some fun with the clicker training and to practice some of what we did yesterday. So I got him out and started with lunging with the cordeo. He was very light today. I just asked him to trot and watched for something I could shape. I am big into shaping. Well, he starting offer some Ramener at the trot, so I would click for that. Then he starting trot with lots of expression and tossing his head. I would click when it looked like he was moving towards collection. All this time I was just asking him to trot and then waiting for something I could reward. It was lots of fun.

Then he seemed to want to work on rear. So I would wait and he would rear, but I was still looking for him to hold it. I did a couple where he held it. Then I started cueing him to rear. He then offered a very big rear and held for a second. I then decided I would cue him for a big rear, and I would reward that whether or not he held it at all. So I used more energy in my body language and he did a couple of really big rears! The biggest I have ever seen him do.

Then I worked on the front crunch. I cued him to park out and then, using very, very light pressure on the cordeo, asked him to lean back. He did it immediately! I had him do it two more times. Then I just waited to see what he would do. He offered two more just like he had done. Then he offered another one that wasn't as good. So I withheld the click. He then leaned back into the biggest front crunch he has ever done. Did I say I love clicker training?

Then I got on him to do a little riding. We worked on more turning at the walk. He seemed better at that. Then I asked for the trot and it was much better, much more under control. Although at first, he thought when I asked him to trot that I wanted him to toss his head and do what he had been doing at the trot on the lunge. So I stopped him first, click. Then I asked him to trot again and after he had gone a couple of paces, he did a few steps of a nice trot, click. He didn’t try tossing his head any more that day! He did very well at the trot. He was turning much better. I look forward to developing our bridleless work at the walk and trot this winter.