Contents:
Preparation

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Preparation

By Alexandra Kurland

copyright 2007

Note the capture the saddle technique of teaching good mounting block manners is illustrated in the "Capture the Saddle: The Mounting Block Lesson" DVD which will be released in the Fall of 2008.  The training session with Missy described in this post is featured in the "Riding on a Triangle" DVD which will be released in the fall of 2008. 

"Capture the Saddle"
I'm just back from another intense round of clinics, including a wonderful five day course. I do like the longer clinics. With the extra time I can lay a solid foundation in the ground work and still have time for riding! So that's what we did. I got some great video for the DVD series, including video of the mounting block lesson, and the initial single-rein riding lessons. That will be my winter project, getting that video edited for the DVDs.

We had one particularly interesting horse for the mounting block lesson. She had developed a habit of backing as soon as the rider started to get on. That was a fun series of lessons with her. I played "capture the saddle", a variation on the standard mounting block lesson. "Capture the saddle evolves out of the "why would you leave me?" game. If you have WWYLM working well, your horse will walk with you wherever you go without needing you to hold onto the reins. But if he drifts off away from you, you can slide up the inside rein to bring him back to you. (See the "Why would you leave me?" DVD)

That means you can walk to the mounting block, and he'll walk next to you without needing to be led there via the rein. If you have to make a course correction, that's fine, but as you step up on the mounting block, you don't want to be holding on to him. If he doesn't stop with you, you slide down the left rein, disengage his hips, ask him to rock back, release the left rein, pick up the right rein, bring him across the front of the mounting block, swing his hips over, rock him back. He's now repositioned facing the mounting block. As you ask him to step forward, you release the left rein again and try to capture the saddle front and back. Click and treat. Capturing the saddle means you take hold of the pommel and cantle with your hands so your horse feels the contact with the saddle. Even if he's way out of position the first few times you do this, if you can get your hands on the saddle as he approaches the mounting block, you click and treat.

By using the reins to disengage the hips and reposition him, you aren't just getting your horse aligned to the mounting block. Simple targeting could do that. You are making sure that he will soften and yield to the rein before you put your bones on his back. If a horse is going to be frightened by, or resistant to the rein I want to know that before I am sitting on him. This process is another in the pre-ride safety checks. By the time you get on, you'll have a horse who is comfortable with the requests you make via the reins.

In the early learning process, if he overshoots so you can't get the saddle, repeat the process. When your horse has experienced some success, even if he is not aligned very well yet, get down off the mounting block and begin again. What your horse is learning is to bring the saddle to your hands. It's a neat exercise. Once you get the mechanics of the lesson down, most horses learn really fast to bring the saddle to you. It's really fun to step up onto a mounting block and have the horse stop with you and deliver the saddle directly into your hands, all without ever touching the reins. (And don't worry if you didn't follow all the details of the directions. I do have good video now showing the process.)

Once your horse is bringing you the saddle, you can go through a "four second rule" series of questions. (See the "Step-By-Step book.) If you think your horse is going to move in four seconds, click and reinforce him in three.

"Can you stand still while I rock the saddle a little harder?" Yes. Click and treat.

"Can you stand still while I pull down on the stirrup?" Yes. Click and treat.

"Can you stand still while I fiddle with the reins?" Yes. Click and treat.

Etc. etc, until the horse is standing so solidly that you ask the final question. "Can you stand still while I put my foot in the stirrup and get on?" Yes! Absolutely! Click and treat.

I used "capture the saddle" with this clinic horse. I could get Missy lined up perfectly to the mounting block. She delivered the saddle beautifully to me, stopping at just the right distance out from the mounting block to make it easy for me to get on. I could rock the saddle. I could put pressure on it from above. Missy's eye stayed soft and relaxed. She showed no anxiety as the process took me closer and closer to actually getting on. Moving the saddle around on her back appeared to cause no obvious discomfort, nothing that would trigger the backing out from under a rider's weight. I went on with my questions.

She was in a western saddle. I moved the stiff fender, angling it in preparation for putting my foot in the stirrup. She took a step back. She was beautifully light to the signal. It was clear that the movement of the stirrup had evolved into a cue to back.

Telling a Good Story
I do love clicker training and the perspective it gives you. It's so easy to read this as a disobedience. And once you frame the situation in those terms, it makes it much harder to come up with a positively oriented training solution. Saying she's being stubborn, or she's testing you, puts you in an adversarial role. You can't help her. Think of it like a goggle search on the computer. You've just shifted the key words you type in and that alters the files you find. Certain files go to the bottom of the pile, and others rise to the top of the list. And the ones that emerge, are the ones this horse's owner had been trying, all the make-it-happen methods to get her horse to stand still. Only they weren't working. Her horse was still backing up, and she was feeling increasingly frustrated with the daily struggle that getting on involved.

I think of horse training as a series of stories. We tell stories about our horses all the time. Peregrine spent the first eight years of his life with stifles that lock. That created all kinds of problems in his training. That's a story. I could easily tell a different story, one that left out the physical problems and described him instead as a stubborn, resistant two year old. That would have set us up as adversaries. Telling that story would have made it much harder to find training solutions that protected his body while still advancing his training. When you're dealing with a stubborn, deliberately resistant horse, it is much easier to reach for the "show him who's boss" training methods. When you tell the "there's a physical problem causing this behavior" story, it is much easier to be patient, to take your time, and to increase your expectations one doable step at a time.

I always thought I was lucky with Peregrine. His stifles were so bad there was no missing them. That didn't tell me how to resolve the problem, but at least I knew what I was working with. So many people have horses that exhibit just horrible behavior, but the underlying physical issue is much harder to identify than Peregrine's stifles. When the cause is not obvious, it's easy to revert back to the stubborn, resistant, lazy horse stories.

I want to look beyond those words to find a story that leads to a good training/management solution for both my horse and myself. So I always check to see if the story I am telling is going to lead me to workable solutions for the horse. I don't want to be making up fiction, but I do want to frame things so that I find positively oriented, constructive training solutions.

When you have a horse that starts backing up the instant the rider puts her foot in the stirrup, the most obvious story you want to check is the one that says the horse is in pain. The saddle doesn't fit, or the horse has an injury that makes mounting and or riding uncomfortable. With this mare saddle fit didn't seem to be the issue. Clicker training led me to a different story. It was clear the moving of the fender had become a cue to back. This was a very responsive, very light, very tuned-in horse. However it had happened, the movement of the fender was very much acting as a cue. So I reversed the cue.

I slid down the rein, moved the fender, and she backed - right on cue. But this time instead of letting go of the fender, as her owner had done, I held on. An operant behavior is determined by it's consequences. Here's the horse's perspective: You apply pressure to my sides with the fender. I back up in response to the pressure, you let go. That must be what you wanted. And look you are asking me again. Let me back up even more. That definitely seems to be what you want because you really let go of me now! That's what her owner had been doing. Each time Missy backed up, she let go, got down off the mounting block and repositioned her. Missy was getting better and better at this little sequence. And the more they practiced it together, the further she backed up. No wonder her owner was feeling frustrated.

I changed the outcome. Instead of letting go, I held my position. Missy backed a step or two, encountered the rein, and came forward. Click, treat and release both the rein and the fender. With a few repetitions of this, the movement of the fender became a cue to stand or even to shift her weight forward to bring herself into better alignment with me.

We added more window dressing to the cue. First, it was move the fender, and put pressure on the stirrup. Then it was move the fender and put my foot in the stirrup. Instead of backing away, she aligned herself more solidly with my position. And a few repetitions later, I could raise my foot up and she aligned herself so she was putting the stirrup under my foot. Now that's great targeting! And it came from reframing an annoying situation into a story about cues.

Prepare, Prepare and Let it Happen
We had some other great lessons on cues and the importance of preparation. One of the other horses in the clinic was a young warmblood I had met last summer. Last year he was definitely not ready for his rider to get on. He was reactive, spooky, mildly aggressive towards her. She'd gone through a stage where he had been rearing and striking at her. So the behavior I saw last year was a huge improvement over what it had been, but he was still a far cry from a horse you'd want to get on. We focused on the "why would you leave me?" game and basic ground manners, and I left Clara with homework to do.

Through the winter Clara thought about sending Hal off to an Australian trainer who travels into her area in the summer, but he couldn't get a visa, so that fell through. Then she thought about letting one of the cowboy trainers in her area put a few rides on him, but again that fell through. So finally she realized that if she ever wanted to ride Hal, she would have to start him herself. And that's what she did, with the help of a couple of friends.

Hal came through the winter much more settled than he had been in the past, much more grown up. So when the footing dried up and she had some time to work with him consistently, she had her friends help by clicking and treating as she got on. Hal was good as gold. As one of them said, he seemed very proud to have his person on his back.

When I saw him in July, he'd had about ten rides, all very short and all in a round pen. That's where we continued to work. On the first day Clara put some cones out during his ground work prep. Hal wanted to touch the cones, so he was pulling through the lead to get to them. He was presenting us with a great opportunity to work on emotional control. For every exercise you teach, there is an opposite exercise you must teach to keep things in balance. Hal wanted to go to the cones. We wanted him to wait until we gave him a cue.

One of the best ways to work on cues is to work on pairs of behavior. In this case we paired walking past the cone in "why would you leave me?" with going to the cone. Actually wwylm had evolved into a beautiful lateral flexion, so Clara was really working on three-flip-three.

Clara asked Hal to stay with her as she walked past the cone. When he focused on her, click, she stopped, gave him a treat, and then gave him permission to go touch the next cone. The lesson showed me just how much Hal had changed. Last summer he would have been throwing a temper tantrum because he wasn't being allowed to touch every cone. His toddler emotions would have been ruling his reactions. This year he was the responsible teenager who can be left safely in charge. What a change!

He was clearly settled enough to ride. The pre-ride, are-you-with-me? can-you-be-responsible-for-my-bones?, safety check list had been passed. So Clara took Hal across to the far side of the round pen and unclipped his reins. Then she backed away from him a step or two telling him with a hand gesture to stay. He hesitated. Click and treat. She backed a little further away. Again he waited. Click and treat. A little further still, then all the way to the mounting block which was about twenty feet away. He stood still with his focus entirely on Clara. Click and treat. Finally, Clara climbed up on the mounting block and called over to Hal, "Help me up, Hal, help me up."

Hal left his stay position and walked straight to the mounting block, swung around broadside to it and positioned himself for Clara to get on. I do love clicker training.

But Clara had to put the reins back on, plus pull down the stirrups on her English saddle. She was a bit clumsy with the reins. It was hard to reach Hal's bit. He was standing perfectly aligned to the mounting block which meant his head was a long reach away. Clara fumbled with the reins. She got them tangled, twisted, had to redo them. Hal swung sideways thinking that's what was wanted, then immediately corrected himself and got himself reoriented to the block. Clara pulled the stirrups down. I found myself holding my breath. I was remembering the Hal of last year, a horse who was most definitely not ready to ride.

Clara put her foot in the stirrup and settled herself gently in the saddle. Hal waited for his click and a treat. He waited for Clara to get herself organized. He waited for her to lift the reins slightly and ask him to walk off on the buckle. And that's what he did. Click and treat.

They had a beautiful ride. Hal didn't look like a youngster just starting out under saddle. He had the Hallmark balance that comes from lateral flexions. He was soft. He was round. He stayed focused on Clara and what she was asking him to do. Last year he would have been reacting to every little movement going on around him. This year he ignored everything but the conversation he was having with Clara. It was a beautiful ride to watch.

Prepare, prepare, and let it happen. Wise words indeed.

Separation Anxiety
We had another young horse at the clinic, a four year old thoroughbred. He was a fairly new team with his owner. He was pushy, not as light as she would like him, but his major issue was separation anxiety. He was okay going out and leaving his pasture buddy behind, but his Stephanie couldn't take her other horse out for a ride without Dan screaming and fretting the entire time they were away. She was afraid she'd start getting calls from her neighbors the screaming was so intense.

At the clinic Dan was staying in a small corral, one of three set up at a distance from the resident horses. One of the other clinic horses was staying next to him, but we couldn't very well say to that horse's owner, sorry, you can't take your horse out, she has to stay and keep Dan company.
So Stephanie's clinic became about separation anxiety. I set her up with micro shaping. We began with the standard beginning, pairing backing with targeting. It was a fairly unremarkable session. We got consistent rock backs which is what I was after and left him to process what had just occurred.

When we were ready to work with his neighbor, we brought another horse over so he wouldn't be alone, and Stephanie stayed with him, working some more on the micro-shaping. She stayed with him through the rest of the afternoon even after we brought his neighbor back. She kept him focused and relaxed with the micro-shaping, as we brought horses in and took horses out. When we checked in with them at the end of the afternoon, they had made significant progress. Dan was keyed into the game, offering her a strong back up as she slouched against a tree outside the pen.

Stephanie repeated this process the next day. When we worked horses, she stayed with Dan. She missed seeing what the others were doing, but the trade off was well worth it. She had a huge grin on her face every time we saw her. This micro-shaping was fun! She was seeing huge shifts in Dan. And we weren't bringing the second horse over anymore. When his neighbor went out, Dan was left by himself. We were working out of sight behind a stand of trees in an outdoor arena. I think we heard only one whinny from him the entire time his neighbor was away.

When we finished with all the other horses, we went back to Dan. In addition to the separation anxiety, he tended to pull against the lead, so I started Stephanie on some basic ground work. The obvious exercise to work on was backing in a square around the perimeter of his pen. We went through rope handling basics, then I had her try it with Dan. Backing in a square can sometimes be a clumsy lesson for the horse. The handler gets the horse in the corner too soon, the horse feels crowded, gets stiff, has trouble turning, and ends up pushing into the handler. But when you've done the kind of prep Stephanie had, backing in a square flows effortlessly. In a fraction of the time that is normally needed Dan understood exactly what was wanted. Click and treats for both of them!

Clicker training is both slow and fast. It is slow because we find so many more steps to work on. And it is fast because once you've done a bit of foundation work, each one of those steps can be mastered very quickly by the horse. That's what makes clicker training so exciting to watch. We see the learning occurring and the horse being successful at each little step.

The next day Stephanie continued to work on Dan's separation anxiety. She watched some of the horses, but she mostly she stayed with Dan, especially when his neighbor went out.

The extra time she spent with him meant he was ready to move another stair step forward in the process each time the whole group focused on him. We added another behavior, head lowering which we also free shaped.

People always ask, when do I get to add a cue. Cues evolve out of the shaping process. Horses are so body aware. You may think you aren't giving any cues, but they will find something that acts as a predictor for what is wanted. Rather than fight this, I use it. If slouching against a tree becomes a cue to back, great. Let that be the cue, then transfer the cue a working cue, one that can be detached from the structure of micro-shaping and used in other contexts.

Once we had three active behaviors, targeting, backing, and head lowering, I showed Stephanie how to transfer cues: new cue - old cue => behavior. Repeat this a couple of times, then fade the old cue out. Offer the new cue, hesitate slightly. If the horse doesn't offer the behavior, give the old cue. But what is more likely to happen is the horse will go ahead and offer the behavior in response to the new cue.

Stephanie used verbals: "Back" , "down", and "touch". We all watched in delight as Dan sorted through this next layer in the game, offering not guesses, but consistent responses to the cues.

Next came the creative part where the handler takes the basic format of a lesson and begins to see possibilities and connections. That's when it becomes exciting. Dan tended to crowd gates and to try to push his way out. Stephanie used the concept of the transferring of cues to teach Dan to back away from the gate. She used the rattling of the chain as the new cue. Rattle chain (new cue), verbal "back" (old cue) => backing.

It didn't take but a couple of repetitions before just the rattling of the chain caused Dan to back away from the gate. Stephanie began to delay the click so he backed further and further from the gate. What fun!

And on the last day, she stayed with him for just the first few minutes when his neighbor went out. He was settled, relaxed, able to eat hay. So she left him alone and joined us in the outdoor arena. We never heard so much as a nicker from him. He was quiet the entire time!

Prepare, prepare and let it happen!

Training Choices
Now it may not sound like much. Stephanie essentially spent the entire clinic baby sitting her horse. But we had Hal as our example. Prepare, prepare and let it happen. These stair steps are just that. Steps leading on. If you are thorough, if you take your time to see your horse solidly through each layer, what evolves is more than a solid citizen. What evolves is the horse of your dreams.

I stayed with Panda when we first got her. On one of the DVDs, probably the Intro DVD, I show her first clicker training lesson, touching a target. In the foreground you can see my temporary office set up outside her stall. I have my computer, the phone, everything I need so that I can stay with her through the day. We are working with social animals. This time spent with them pays huge dividends. In Panda's case part of what makes her such an outstanding guide horse is the time I spent in the beginning being her constant companion and shadow.

Stephanie understood this. The conflict is we are also social animals. It's hard separating yourself from the group to spend time working alone with your horse, but when you do, the rewards are huge.

There are other hard training choices we face. When your horse is being a bully, when he's pushing through you, threatening you, intimidating you, it can be hard to keep going out to the barn. Clara knows this. She could have sent Hal off to the local trainers for an "attitude adjustment", but she knew she wouldn't like the horse that came back to her. She loves Hal not just because he is a beautiful horse with gorgeous gates. She loves him for who he is, and she didn't want to lose his personality. The local trainers, with their years of experience and their stand-no-nonsense training tactics, might have been able to get on him faster, but then Clara would have missed out on the huge accomplishment of starting her horse herself. She wouldn't have a horse who brings himself to the mounting block, and, in spite of all her clumsiness with the equipment, lines himself up and waits patiently for her to get on. And she wouldn't have a horse who is so obviously proud and delighted to have his person on his back.

Prepare, prepare, and let it happen. The rewards are huge.

Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com