ClickerBlogOct-Dec2007

October 2007

Teachers: Stories from the Horses

By Alexandra Kurland

Stories from the Horses

Julie: Thank you for sharing your experience with Cherokee. As you said at the beginning of your post you shared in the hope that others would learn from your experience. It took great courage to share. That is a huge gift you gave to us. And it is also a gift you are giving back to Cherokee. She knows your heart. And she wanted her story told. Perhaps she played more of a role than you know in your decision to take her to the Expo.

When I write about clicker training, there are horses who seems to want their stories told. They pop into my head and the words flow onto the paper. But there are other horses who seem to hide themselves away when it comes time to tell their stories. They are like shy wallflowers. They hide behind the curtains while these other horses rush onto center stage. Some horses want to be Teachers. They have important work they want to share with all of us.

Cherokee wanted her story told. She is one of those Teachers and you are blessed to have her in your life. Teachers often present us with hard lessons, but they give rich rewards in return.

You encountered someone who was caught up in the goal and the drama, who thought results matter more than the means. Or perhaps that is unfair. Perhaps he truly had Cherokee's best interests at heart and thought this "tough love" approach was the best way to reach her.

"When I was young, I did the best I could. When I knew better, I did better." Maya Angelou

Teachers

It is so easy to get hung up in the goal and to want to rush the process. We saw that at the clinic this past weekend even with a group of clicker trainers. One of the regulars had brought her Arab, Troubadour to the clinic. Michelene has only had him for about a year. Just prior to his coming to live with her his previous owners rode him out on a long trail ride in a saddle that rubbed his back raw and left him with many physical and emotional issues. When I saw him for the first time last year, he was an anxious and very disconnected horse.

Michelene has done a wonderful job creating a solid relationship with him. He's not the same horse I first saw, but he still worries. And one of the things Michelene has identified that he worries about is ground poles. She can get him to walk over them, but always reluctantly. Left to his own devices, he will always go around them. Ground poles aren't the only things he's reluctant to cross. She described a small trickle of a stream in his field which he treats with great fear and trepidation. If he has to cross it, he doesn't just step across it. He over jumps it as though it were an enormous chasm.

Ground poles seemed like a great project for the weekend, especially since we had already introduced Troubadour to micro shaping at our last gathering. So we went on a scavenger hunt around the property to find suitable props for the training. We turned up two heavy wooden split rail fence boards, a square fence post and five pool noodles.

We scattered these around the round pen that was set up in the indoor arena. The round pen had a definite scary end. Just outside the back door of the arena was a small pond inhabited by a very alarming goblin - a great blue heron standing guard in the cattails around the pond's edge. Troubadour knows the goblin is back there, but he was very brave about using the entire round pen and not squishing himself up near the gate.

He was not, however, brave about the ground poles. Michelene walked with him to the first ground pole, a purple pool noodle. Troubadour sniffed it. Click and treat. He took a moment to check out the heron and to listen to the horses running in the paddocks on the other side of the arena. Michelene waited. Troubadour sniffed the ground pole again. Click and treat.

But he was also clearly distracted by the horses running. We didn't want them getting too wound up outside, so their owners brought them in. Troubadour liked that better. Now he could concentrate. Michelene moved on to another ground pole. Troubadour followed, not by stepping over the ground pole, but by walking very deliberately around it.

Michelene repeated this scenario. At each ground pole they came to, Troubadour was willing, albeit a little hesitantly, to sniff the ground pole, but each time they moved on, he made a point of walking around the pole, never over it.

It was a beginning. We worked him for just a few minutes and then gave him a break. When he came back in, he was much more interested in the ground poles. He was now actively sniffing them. He seemed particularly interested in the pool noodles. He rocked them forward and back, pushing them around with his nose. When Michelene walked on to the next ground pole, Troubadour deftly shoved the pool noodle out of his way and walked in a direct line to the next ground pole. We all laughed at his cleverness. It was certainly one solution to this vexing problem of how to get past the ground poles.

But now people were offering suggestions. They wanted to get Troubadour over the ground poles. What if we did this? What if we did that? Why aren't you clicking him for this other thing?

The conversations buzzing around the group were as interesting as Troubadour's response to the ground poles.

In an exercise like this, there are many possible strategies we could have used. All of them will get the horse over the ground poles, but what you have to look at is what really is your goal? If the goal was just to get Troubadour over the ground poles, we could have had that done in the first five minutes. He would have walked over them with Michelene. Put a lead rope on him and a target out in front of him, and I don't think it would have taken but a minute or two for him to consent to follow her. He came from a jumper barn. He's gone over fences. He would have gone over these ground poles. But we wouldn't have shifted anything in his spirit. He would still have had the same dislike of ground poles, and his relationship with Michelene would not have rippled to a deeper level of connection.

Tools and Goals

The ground poles were a tool. It's easy to mistake them for a goal. Yes, I wanted him to step over them, but I wanted Troubadour to solve the puzzle for himself. So we took our time. We forced nothing. We used the micro shaping strategy to give him the time he needed to think his way through the puzzle.

Initially he was reinforced for touching the ground pole with his nose. Michelene alternated this with having him touch her hand as a target. In micro shaping, the targeting is not intended as a directional lure. It is a simple, easy behavior that gives the horse a break from the hard work of the real puzzle. The temptation in a situation like this is to hold your hand out so the horse has to stretch over the ground pole to get to it. You certainly could do this, but I wanted Michelene to use her hand target to take all the pressure off of Troubadour. It was to act as a conditioned reinforcer. In other words, she was saying to him: "Interact with the ground pole, and you get to play this easy, familiar game." She was to position her hand so Troubadour didn't have to reach for it.

I could almost feel the tension this created in the spectators. They so wanted to help Troubadour over those ground poles. I had to keep reminding them that the goal was not to get him over the poles. They were a tool only. We needed to be patient and let this process play itself out.

We were lucky in that I had limited the number of horses we had for this clinic. That meant we had time for multiple sessions throughout the day. Troubadour came back for a third session. He was now very willing to walk up to each ground pole and explore it with his nose. He pushed the pool noodles around, back and forth, shoving them aside when he needed to follow Michelene to the next ground pole.

We were clicking him for dropping his head and touching the ground pole. With an almost seamless transition we were now able to shift the focus to his feet. We began by watching him shift his weight ever so slightly off a front foot. Click and treat. He'd been about to more off around the ground pole, but the click kept him stationed in front of it. He knew this foot-lifting game. He'd played it before. And he was comfortable now standing next to the ground pole. The ground pole was suddenly transformed from scary object to be avoided to the place where you got to play this familiar and much enjoyed game.

So now we had him standing in front of the ground pole, lifting a foot and setting it down. Click and treat on the lift. He'd do this two or three times, then Michelene would offer him her hand as a target. Click and treat.

We all got a huge laugh when he very pointedly set his foot down squarely in the center of one of the pool noodles. The two ends popped up on either side of his leg. Michelene quickly offered him her hand as a target. Click and treat in rapid succession. "Aren't you the smartest horse!" she was saying with her actions. He didn't have time to be afraid of the pool noodle bumping against his legs. He was too busy touching her hand and getting treats.

They moved on to a wooden ground pole. Troubadour tried to balance his front foot on the pole.

"He thinks I want him to stand on the rail!" Michelene exclaimed.

I'm sure that is indeed what Troubadour thought. He was certainly making a good effort to do so. Again people worried. That wasn't what they wanted. Shouldn't they do something active before this idea took root too firmly?

We are in such a hurry to rush in to help. Troubadour was exploring the ground poles. He was discovering what they felt like under his feet. He was learning how they moved, what they sounded like. We needed to give him time to explore all this at his own pace.

We were ready to end this last session of the day. Troubadour had been getting lots of clicks and treats for stepping on pool noodles. Michelene walked towards the gate to get his halter, and Troubadour surprised everyone, including himself, by walking directly over the split rail ground pole to follow her. Lots of treats and laughter for that.

"Watching Paint Dry"

You never know what you have taught. You know what you have presented, but never what the horse has learned. We were all eager to see how Troubadour would process Saturday's lessons. Would he come in and walk right over the ground poles with an I-can-do-anything swagger? Or would he still be cautious and go around them?

The answer Sunday morning was Troubadour was still not ready to walk directly over the ground poles. He could engage with them. He could put a front foot up on the wooden poles, and he could step directly on the pool noodles. But he was clearly still very concerned about stepping over them.

He pawed at the rails as a best effort attempt to stand on them. Sometimes his toe extended just a fraction beyond the pole. Click and treat. That was our new criterion.

After a couple of rounds of this he was no longer trying to stand on the pole. At this stage it looked as though he thought we wanted him to move the heavy wooden rails the way he was able to so easily move the pool noodles. He wasn't at all sure that was a good idea. Moving the rails would have meant getting them tangled up under his feet.

Michelene let him explore a split rail pole for a bit, then moved on to a pool noodle. Troubadour stepped deftly around the rail and stationed himself by the pool noodle. This was much easier to push around with his feet. Every now and then he would bump the pool noodle so it ended up between his feet. Click and treat, then lots of targeting for that. He even managed several times to roll the pool noodle so it ended up under his belly. Click and treat. And more targeting.

This was so clearly part of his concern, having the ground pole under his belly. Seeing this, we could have changed tactics and approached this is a totally different way. We could have taken a more active role in desensitizing him to the ground poles. The pool noodles were easy to hold, easy to move. It would have been a simple matter to design a totally different lesson plan using these same objects but a very different strategy.

Would it have been wrong? No, just different. But I like what we did. It was so fascinating watching Troubadour sort his way through the puzzle the ground poles presented. We gave him the time he needed to think his way through the puzzle, to work through his fears, and to find the answer for himself.

We never shut the door on his escape routes. We never made going around the ground poles a dangerous choice. Running out to the side was never punished as it is for so many horses. He could stand in front of the ground poles playing the click and treat game, and he could also walk around the poles.

That option was always available which made it all the more heart opening when he finally stood in front of one of the split rail poles, paused, clearly in thought, and then stepped over it to join Michelene on the other side.

Life Lessons

Patience and persistence. And understanding that the goal is never the Goal. And knowing that there is no hurry to get things done yesterday. These are such important lessons that our horses teach us. When I was first starting out with horses as a young adult, I discovered these lessons. They were taught to me by Peregrine's mother. They were great gifts she gave me.

Before she was mine, she was forced to submit to a hose bath. She had never seen hoses before and she was afraid. The teenager who had been sent out to give her the bath tried to strong arm her into submitting. She reared up and struck him on his head and shoulders. I'm sure she had a chain over her nose, and I'm sure she was shanked severely for her actions. I don't know if they succeeded in giving her a bath that day, but I do know they created a deep fear of hoses in a very young horse. They labeled her as a witch and afterwards treated her accordingly.

When I first started working with her, I could not lead her down the barn aisle to the gate into the indoor. We would have had to walk over the hose to get there, and that she flatly refused to do. The trainers at the barn could have forced her over the hose. I suppose I could have asked for their help, and they would have man-handled her over it. I knew what they did to get horses over fences. It wouldn't have been any different. Only it's not what I wanted for her. She was my horse now, and we were heading down a different path.

I was greener than green, working with a yearling who had learned some very dangerous responses when people tried to force her to do things she was afraid of. I knew I didn't have the handling skills to get into a confrontation with her. That would have resulted in a wreck. What I had to rely on instead were patience and persistence. Every night I brought her out and groomed her in the barn aisle. When we were done, we turned around and headed out through the back of the barn, away from the hose.

Each night we inched our way a little closer to the hose. I was in no hurry. She was a yearling. I had all the time in the world. Eventually I could groom her right next to the hose. We did that for a few nights. Then one evening I felt as though I could just walk her over the hose. I asked, and she followed without a fuss. Patience and persistence. I learned that they are core tools for horse training. And I learned something even more important. The goal is not the Goal. She followed me over the hose. But more than that, she followed me everywhere I asked after that. We formed a bond that was unbreakable because I did not force her.

The "Goal" Is Not The Goal

I know at times the lessons I present at clinics are like finger nails on a blackboard to some of the people watching. These observers are action oriented. They need to make things happen. Letting a horse paw at a ground pole when they could just make it walk it over is almost more than they can bear to watch.

There are certainly times when action is needed. Over several decades of horse training I have accumulated many more horse handling skills to accompany those core tools of patience and persistence. I do not always have to choose the slow approach. But even now with other options available to me, I still find great value in exploring the slow answer. I love the ripples that flow out from these lessons. We do not have to be in a hurry to get things done. Training is not a race unless we turn it into one. There is no giant clock ticking in the background.

We live in a culture that likes its drama and values fast results. It's easy to get sucked up into this mindset. All the "shoulds" come rushing in. "You should be riding that horse." "You should be cantering that horse." "You should be, you should be." We listen to those voices and not the ones in our hearts saying we are doing just fine, and so are our horses. We get rushed off our course forgetting that horses live in their own time space where our dizzying race isn't important. They don't care about the ribbons on our walls. They care about the love in our hearts.

If we are lucky, we find horses who teach us these amazing life lessons. But it is easy to be derailed by our hurry-up-and-make-it-happen culture. Clicker training can be amazingly fast. We have all been bowled over at times by the speed at which horses learn new skills.

Clicker training also can be grass-growing, paint-drying, agonizingly slow. There are times when you need to remember that the goal is not the Goal. There is no urgency except from the dead lines we ourselves impose. We don't need to get the job done today. Instead we just explore, ask questions, present puzzles, keep our hearts open, and let our horses connect with us in ways many of us would never even dream is possible.

Often at clinics, and at home, training is about the small "g" goals. It really is about getting the saddle on the horse, getting the foot safely in the stirrup. But when training shifts its focus and we remember the larger Goals, training enriches our spirit in a way that pursuit of those smaller goals never can. They are tools, markers, stepping stones we use to measure progress. When they become the end in itself, the warning flags from our horses appear. With enough life lessons behind us we learn to listen to those flags.

Julie, the world is full of people who want to get the job done fast. Your intentions were good when you signed Cherokee up for the Expo. You wanted to help her. You were taking her to someone you thought could peel away some of the old layers of her fear. You discovered instead someone who was in a hurry to make things happen. Life's lessons can be hard. But the strength of your bond with Cherokee remains intact, and of that you should be very proud. Thank you for sharing. It took courage and it is hugely appreciated by all of us on this list.

Alexandra Kurland

theclickercenter.com

Ears: More on the Foundation Lessons

by Alexandra Kurland

I've been traveling so I'm behind, as usual, with the list, but the discussion about ears caught my attention as I was reading emails on the flight home. I thought I'd weigh in with a post of my own because I'm one of those who thinks clicking horses for putting their ears forward is a useful exercise. In fact it is so useful, I regard it as one of the foundation behaviors of clicker training.

Foundation Lessons

When I first produced my "Getting Started" video back in 2000, I regarded three behaviors as foundation lessons. They were targeting, backing, and head lowering. I've now added three more: standing on a mat, grown-ups are talking, and ears forward. I was certainly teaching these behaviors at that time, but I didn't yet think of them as foundation behaviors. I do now.

This doesn't mean that there aren't many other behaviors that are essential in the early stages of training a horse. If you are working with a youngster who is just being socialized to people, there are many lessons that are of utmost importance. You need to teach that horse to accept handling, to stand for grooming, to pick up its feet, to allow itself to be haltered and led, to stand tied, etc., but all of these lessons can be taught more easily if they are built on a solid clicker foundation.

Clicker training is great fun, and that's especially true of free shaping. In fact it's so much fun, it's easy in the early stages to get carried away and to teach a hodgepodge of behaviors. In one sense this isn't really a problem. Horses always tell us what they need to work on next. If you get an over-eager, over achiever who is throwing behaviors at you - smiling, bowing, rearing, doing Spanish walk, fetching everything in sight, and also mugging you whenever you aren't clicking, crowding into your space, pinning his ears when he can't figure out which trick is the one you want - you'll realize that maybe it's time to put a little order into your training. You'll start learning about stimulus control.

You'll add some rules to the game which allow it to remain fun and still be very reinforcing for your horse, while at the same time creating some safety checks for you. If you were to start off clicker training whatever strikes your fancy without giving any thought to an overall system of training, you could still salvage this mishmash of behaviors and turn it into something quite wonderful. The only problem you might encounter is that horses very often latch onto the first behaviors they learn with the clicker and use them as security blankets. When in doubt, these are the behaviors they will offer. Under stress this horse is going to start popping out his original versions of Spanish Walk, smiling, bowing, and, of course, that all time favorite - rearing.

Given this, I want to choose the first things I teach my horse with care. I want them to be behaviors that are going to serve me well, and which aren't going to cause problems if they pop out off cue. I also want these foundation lessons to fit together. I don't want isolated lessons. The behaviors I've selected as foundation lessons all mesh well together. While the horse is learning good manners, the handler is learning the fundamentals of how clicker training works. What emerges is a balanced, organized training program. This post is about teaching horses to put their ears forward, but you can't really understand why I include that behavior in the foundation lessons unless you also look at all six lessons. So I might as well tell you right now: this is a long post.

Targeting

Targeting is a great starting behavior for many reasons. It's an easy way to introduce the horse to the clicker, and it's very easy to control. If you don't want your horse touching a target, you can just take the target away. When I first started experimenting with clicker training, I thought of targeting as nothing more than a cute trick. I now know it to be a powerful training tool.

Targeting is an essential tool in my clicker training tool box. I would not want to be without it. It can get frightened horses onto trailers, over unsure footing, standing still for medical treatments, grooming, mounting, etc., the list goes on and on. Essentially all leading is a form of targeting, so the sooner we introduce the concept, the better. What I have seen, though, is that people who use some other way to introduce clicker training to their horses often end up skipping targeting altogether. They don't appreciate all that targeting can do for them, so they never return to once they get past basic training.

Backing

Backing is an obvious foundation lesson. We need to be able to move horses out of our space. Backing can be taught using targeting, and free shaping. But it can also be taught with pressure and release of pressure so it introduces the handler to the concept of clicker compatible rope handling skills. Backing raises the question: How do we use pressure and release of pressure without undermining the clicker training experience for the horse? For many of us that means reshaping how we use lead ropes and pressure. The opposite of positive reinforcement is no reinforcement, not correction. Many people have used backing as a correction, not as an incompatible behavior. It may sound like semantics, but there is a difference. So part of this foundation lesson may be not so much teaching the horse to back, but shifting his emotional response to the request.

Head Lowering

Head lowering is another obvious foundation lesson. Emotional control is an important component of any training program. A horse who is nervous and afraid of "tigers" lurking in the bushes is going to be reluctant to lower his head to graze. He may drop his head, grab a bite, and then be on guard again, but that serene picture of horses grazing together all with their heads down is only gong to be taking place if those horses feels relatively safe and relaxed.

When a horse has his head up, he can scan the horizon line more effectively for movement. So picture what your horse looks like when he's feeling anxious. He's going to be on the alert with his head up. When he's satisfied that the danger has passed, then and only then will he feel comfortable dropping his head down to graze.

Think about the number of hours your horse spends grazing, and you'll begin to understand the powerful conditioning that creates. A lowered head position becomes linked to feelings of calmness. If you can get your horse to lower his head, you can begin to trigger an emotional shift into this calmer state. But even if this link were not there, head lowering would still be useful. A horse that has his nose to the ground cannot at the same time be mugging your pockets. Asking for head lowering gives you a way of filling your horse's dance card so you aren't drawn into the drama of actively correcting unwanted behavior.

Head lowering has the additional benefit of teaching the handler more about the fundamentals of clicker training. You learn how to build duration so you don't end up with a horse that yo yos up and down between dropping his head and getting his treat. You learn more about rope handling, free shaping and targeting. And with the other two foundation behaviors, you learn how to balance one behavior with another. You can ask your horse to back up, and then use targeting to bring him forward. Click and treat. And to keep him from getting overly wound up by the fun of this new game, you can then balance these two behaviors by asking him to drop his head.

Emotional Links

What I've just described is a simple process, and for most horses it is. You ask them to drop their head and, as soon as they understand what you are after, they willingly, and easily oblige. The head goes down, the eyes gets soft. Calmness is the immediate result.

But for a nervous, reactive horse the opposite can actually happen. This horse sees lions and tigers behind every bush. When you ask him to drop his head, it makes him more anxious, not less. He wants his head up where he can more effectively scan the horizon line. With his head down he cannot be as watchful. A worried horse has his head up, not down in the grass.

He doesn't yet trust you, a not very observant human, to keep him safe. You know there aren't any tigers in the bushes, but he doesn't believe you. So he'll drop his head down, but then he wants it right back up again. Down for a quick click and a treat is one thing, but leaving his head down to build duration is quite another. So with this horse head lowering isn't just a behavior, it's a process. You don't run quickly through the six foundation lessons, checking each one off the list as you go. "Yes, I can do that one. Got that one. Got that one. Good I've got all those, now tell me how to teach flying changes." These foundation lessons take some time. They are interconnected. Each one builds on and strengthens the others. By the time you have figured them out and seen how the layers fit together, you will have built a truly solid foundation, one that can support not just a ramshackle "shack", but a magnificent "mansion".

There's so much more to be said about head lowering, but this is a post about ears, so I need to move on or I'll never get there.

"The Grown-Ups Are Talking, Please Don't Interrupt"

So far you've taught your horse three of the foundation behaviors: targeting, backing and head lowering. This gives you a great start for clicker training, but your horse may still be mugging your pockets looking for treats, so clearly "the grown-ups are talking, please don't interrupt" is an important lesson to introduce early on. " Grown-ups" teaches emotional self control to both the horse and the handler. The horse learns that he can't just help himself to the goody pouch, but if he moves out of your space, click, he gets a treat. And the handler is learning to be non-reactive to unwanted behavior. He is exploring one of the key elements of clicker training: the opposite of positive reinforcement is no reinforcement. It is not correction.

Twenty Treats

When people are first starting out, I recommend that they start with the horse behind a barrier. We put the horse in a stall with a stall guard across the door, or a small paddock with a safe fence. I also don't have them fill their treat pouch full of goodies. Instead I have them count out twenty treats - twenty hay stretcher pellets, twenty carrot slices, a quarter cup of pelleted grain, if that's what they're using.

They get their treats, their clicker, and a plan. The plan may be to use up that first round of twenty treats working on targeting. When the goodies are gone, they step away to count out twenty more treats. While they are counting out their treats, I want them to be assessing what just occurred. How did the horse do? Did he touch the target? How consistent was it? Is he ready to move on to something else? Can you start moving the target around, or perhaps work on a different behavior next time? Or was he hesitant, worried, reluctant? How could you make the game easier for him so he can be more successful? You want a high rate of reinforcement in the early stages. What could you do to increase the rate of reinforcement? Did he grab at your pouch and try to mug you? Maybe in the next round you need to focus on "grown up are talking" instead of targeting. And here is the key question: was there anything about his behavior that would suggest to you that it would be unsafe to go into his stall with him with your pockets full of goodies?

Usually the answer to that question is he looks fine, and the handler goes right in with the horse, but sometimes the answer is well, we're not sure. He's still a little pushy, and he looks pretty grumpy. He makes faces at his neighbor. He's resource guarding, telling the horse in the adjacent stall to stay away from this game. And when he gets frustrated, he grabs the food just a little too hard. These are all behaviors I want to make note of, but not become reactive to. Instead, with this reactive, grumpy, or just generally emotionally immature horse I'll take my time, keeping the barrier between us to teach him more about how clicker training works.

Think about the child in school who can barely read. He's the one acting out, becoming disruptive, aggressive, or withdrawing altogether. But show him how to be successful and his behavior changes. It must be so frustrating to be caught in a system where you never know any of the answers. You don't know how to solve the puzzles that are put to you. It's all a confusing muddle, so you try to protect yourself as best you can. You feel trapped and threatened in a system that you cannot escape.

"Happy Faces": Ears Forward

I don't want my horse to feel that way ever, so I want to take my time in the beginning stages to make sure he understands how the game is played. Ears forward gives me a great opportunity to explain a bit more about clicker training. I can stand safely out of range and watch my horse's ears. When even one of them flickers forward, click and treat. At this point, ears forward is not about changing the internal emotional state of the horse. It is simply about free shaping a behavior and giving my horse more experience solving simple puzzles. Ears pricking forward is an easy action for me to see and for my horse to become aware of. It generally doesn't take very many clicks before my horse is aware that flicking his ears causes me to give him goodies. "Hmm. Interesting. Let me try this again. " Ears flick forward. "That worked! What fun. I can control my person! Flick ears, get treat. Not bad!"

So back to our novice horse and handler. You run through your treats and go back for more. But now your grumpy horse is eager to play. The game is becoming much more interesting. With this next set of treats you might work again on ears forward, or you might switch back and focus on targeting or maybe backing. You are slowly weaving these behaviors together to create a balanced picture.

Why Ears?

I suppose I could have chosen some other behavior for the handler to free shape besides ears. So why in particular do I focus on ears? Again there are many reasons for this. One is because it is a fairly simple, easily observed behavior. At this stage in the process it isn't just the horse who is learning the game. The handler is, as well. That means her timing isn't as sharp as it's going to be later. And she's more of a lumper than a splitter when it comes to criteria.

When you play the training game (see the books for a description of the game), you can see the effects of splitting versus lumping on rates of reinforcement. A splitter will have her training partner on a high rate of reinforcement and the game will go smoothly. But a lumper will be asking for too much, too fast. The rates of reinforcement will drop. Her partner will feel confused, frustrated, angry, anxious, defeated - all the emotions we don't want our horses to feel, at least not in large doses.

I want people to practice shaping, to experience the power of it. And I want the horse to gain experience as well, but I want it to be a fun, successful experience for him. I want to start out with simple puzzles so he gains confidence and becomes progressively better and better at solving more difficult puzzles. If all you do with clicker training is use it in conjunction with pressure and release of pressure, you will get improved performance, but you won't get the sparkle in the eye, that eager what-can-I-do-for-you enthusiasm that I so dearly love in a clicker-trained horse. So I want people to gain experience with free shaping, but I want them to do it within a systematic, structured framework so neither they nor the horse become either frustrated or overwhelmed by the process.

Free shaping is fun, and it does create enthusiasm, but if you have only known shut down horses who we think are "behaving" because they are actually offering no behavior, all that enthusiasm can be overwhelming.

Body Language

There is another reason ears forward is one of the foundation lessons and not just a side bar. I want people to become aware of their horse's body language. It's easy in the early stages to become a little overwhelmed by all the details. Even very experienced horse handlers can feel clumsy when they first start clicker training. They have to manage the target and the clicker and keep track of their timing, and then there's the food delivery. It all sounds so simple, but in actual practice it's a lot of new skills to manage. Something has to give, and that something is noticing not just that your horse touched the target but all the other things that were going on at the same time. It's easy to be so focused on getting your timing right and keeping your hand out of the treat pouch before you click that you completely don't notice that your horse is pinning his ears every time he touches the target. He's resource guarding, protecting the game from his neighbors in the adjoining stalls.

I don't want this grumpy looking faced to become attached to targeting. By making "happy faces" one of the foundation lessons, my intent is to broaden people's attention so they begin to notice not just the ears but other important details about their horse's body language. Clicker trainers become very good observers. As they become training "junkies", they learn to look at the tiniest if tiny details in a behavior. They are looking for things to reinforce. And the process of clicker training informs them about their horses internal emotional state.

Karen Pryor talks about this in "Lads Before the Wind". With dolphins, she writes, a researcher may have to spend hundreds of hours watching dolphins in the wild before he could come to any conclusion about why dolphins breach, that is rise out of the water and slap themselves back down into the water. But a trainer may need only a couple of sessions before he can make some pretty solid statements about that behavior. If that trainer has jumped a bit too far ahead, if he's withholding the click trying to build a behavior too quickly, the rates of reinforcement will drop. The dolphin performs the task at the previous level expecting to earn a fish, but gets nothing. He tries again, gets nothing, and now he breaches out of the water and lands so he soaks the trainer from head to foot. It is not too much of a stretch to say that that behavior is an expression of frustration and has an element of aggression linked to it. We can learn a lot about the meaning behind certain behaviors by observing the context in which we see them used.

Anyway I digress. By directing a handler's attention to ears in those early lessons, my hope is the handler will become more aware of body language in general and more sensitive to the horse's emotional needs. When people start clicker training, they begin to realize how much they have not been listening to their horses, how much they have not understood how anxious, worried, or needy their horse was. This is something I hear so often in clinics as people explore clicker training. Shaping ears forward is a starting point for learning how to listen really and truly to our horses.

This doesn't mean that we are going to force a horse to put it's ears forward, or that we are going to be instantly creating happy horses. Again, like head lowering, putting the ears forward is more than a behavior, it is a process. A generally content horse will pop his ears forward and be delighted to play this game. But other horses may struggle with this behavior. The handler will start to notice that her horse has his ears back a lot - when he's groomed, when he's saddled, when anyone approaches him, when he's ridden. What is this about? Focusing twenty treats worth of attention on ears forward sets up a cascade of questions and causes the handler to check saddle fit, hoof care, nutrition, dental care, Lyme disease, ulcers, etc. etc.

Safety Nets

And this brings me to another reason for shaping ears forward - it's a safety net for the horse. Aggression comes from a place of fear. That's a statement I encountered early on as I was learning about horse training. That's true not just for horses, but for people as well. So how does this relate to ears?

We're hard wired to read some expressions as friendly, others as aggressive. Ears forward, ears back, they could have no link to a horse's internal emotional state, and we would still respond to them as if they did. Ears forward to us is a happy horse. Ears back is an angry, grumpy horse. That's our programming. That's how we read faces. And so people in general tend to treat horses who have their ears forward a little differently than would a horse who habitually has his ears back. When you walk up up to a horse who has its ears forward, its much easier to be relaxed and at ease than when you walk up to a horse that has its ears pinned. And of course the horse who has his ears pinned senses this guardedness and is more likely to feel worried than the horse who has his ears forward. So ears forward or back becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The handler begins to relate ears back with guarded, more aggressive behavior, and responds accordingly. He may be a little rougher with this horse, which just confirms for the horse that he was right to grump. What a vicious cycle. It's one we can interrupt in part by reinforcing our horses for ears forward.

If you are horse shopping, you may walk right past the grumpy horse to chose the one with what we humans would read as a pleasant expression, so again happy faces is a safety net. I learned this years ago when I brought two llamas to the farm where I board my horses. I thought people would love having the llamas there, but oh no, llamas, I was told, spit. That's all I heard, that is until I taught the llamas to give me llama "kisses". In other words, I reinforced the llamas for putting their noses gently against my cheek. Now I heard, "Those llamas love you." I knew it had nothing to do with love. It was a shaped behavior, nothing more, but people began to respond to the llamas differently. Now they welcomed them into the farm because the llamas gave "kisses".

So ears forward especially for the grumpy horses, is a safety net. We tend to treat the horse that greets us with his ears forward just a little bit better than we do the one that pins his ears and turns his back on us. We're more likely to champion that sweet-faced horse and make the extra effort to figure out why he swishes his tail when the saddle comes out, or is reluctant to pick up his feet for the farrier, or seems so uncomfortable after he's eaten. Many of our horses need good champions. They need to learn to put their ears forward so we feel more welcomed into their space. If they really don't want us there, they'll still be able to tell us. Those ears won't be forward with a soft look until they do feel comfortable with us nearby.

Standing on a Mat

So far I've covered five of the foundation lessons. This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the sixth: standing on a mat. These six behaviors are not linear. You don't teach them in a set order. You generally start with targeting, but one horse may need you to introduce head lowering after that while his neighbor needs "grown ups are talking" or "happy faces". So instead of a linear order, you want to think of a cluster of interrelated behaviors, each one building on and strengthening the others. The exception is standing on a mat. That is a more complex behavior, and I generally introduce it after I have worked on the other foundation lessons.

Standing on a mat does many things for a horse. It addresses fear issues, shoulder barging, emotional self-control, patience, the list goes on and on. Mat work helps the handler improve her rope handling skills, and it refines her ability to balance one behavior with another. It certainly brings into focus the principle that for every behavior you teach there is an opposite behavior you must teach to keep things in balance. If you spend too much time reinforcing your horse for standing on the mat, you may find he doesn't want to leave it. The mat is where all the goodies are. It's the right answer, and he's not leaving. So what do you do?

You rely on another fundamental principle: you can't ask for something and expect to get it unless you have gone through a teaching process to teach it to your horse. You ask yourself what tools have you already activated that will help you get your horse off the mat? You have two: targeting and backing. Get out your target, or hold your hand out as a target just an inch or two from his nose. When he stretches out to touch it, click and treat. Hold it a little further out, and he'll very quickly be walking off the mat. Click and treat.

But he may also be dragging you back onto the mat as soon as you've walked around and its back on his radar screen. So now what do you do? You ask for backing. Click and treat. Then "grown-ups" or maybe head down. When he can walk forward keeping slack in the line, you'll let him go to the mat. Emotional control and good manners are growing out of these simple lessons.

Duration

You don't want to glue your horse onto the mat, but you do want to build some duration. So you'll get him on the mat, click and treat. Then you'll begin to withhold the click ever so slightly. if his feet stay on the mat, click and treat. You'll repeat this a few times, then you'll walk him off the mat again - just to be sure that you can, and also so that leaving the mat is your idea, not his.

You'll gradually build up the length of time before you click. You'll build your duration around averages. On average he stands on the mat for two seconds, then on average for three seconds. That means that sometimes you are clicking after two seconds, sometimes after four or five, but over your twenty treat trials the average is three seconds. By the time you've built up to an average of four to five seconds, you'll be noticing that there is quite a lot of variability in his overall behavior. His head is in different positions, sometimes his ears are forward, sometimes back, etc.

Shaping By Priority

So now you are going to learn how to train by priority. You are going to stack one criterion on top of another. The most important thing is that the horse keeps his feet on the mat, but now you are going to wait until his head is in the grown ups are talking position. This will probably be very easy for him because you've spent so much time reinforcing him for this polite, space-managing behavior. So now he is standing with his feet on the mat and his head in the "grown-ups are talking" position. Instead of waiting four or five or six seconds before he gets himself to the clickable moment, he's consistently nailing it in one second. Time to stack another criterion on top of these others.

Ears forward is a great one to add again because you have already worked on it, so he will be likely to offer it. I won't have ears forward on a specific cue at this point. I want my horse to have the experience of not getting clicked immediately and having to experiment a bit to find the right answer. There's a huge difference between waiting to be told what to do, and having to figure out the answer for yourself. The later helps build up what in the horse world we refer to as "heart", that wonderful try-again attitude that creates great horses. Stimulus control is evolving through the process of learning the foundation lessons, but even if I had an ears forward on cue, I wouldn't use it here. I want to use my shaping skills to connect ears forward with mat work.

This is where training by priority comes into play. When I first shaped ears, the horse was behind a barrier and ears were the only thing I focused on. He was obviously doing many other things at the same time that he was popping his ears forward, but my focus was on his ears. I was globally aware of the rest, but the timing of the click was focused on the specific action of his ears. With the mat that scenario changes. Now if my horse pops his ears forward, but at the same instant he takes a step forward off the mat, I won't click him. The most important thing is that his feet remain on the mat. So I'll replace his feet on the mat. Click and treat. Then I'll shift my focus again to my stack of behaviors. I'm learning a skill I'm going to need later under saddle where stacking criteria becomes even more important and also more complex and subtle.

Happy Horses

So including ears forward in the foundation helps both the horse and the handler in a myriad of ways. Does it create a happy horse? Who knows. If we could do a brain scan, we might be able to see which parts of the brain were being activated so we could more accurately state which emotions a horse was experiencing at any given moment. Without that who can really say what someone else is feeling? But we do know from our own behavior that physical postures and actions trigger or become linked to specific emotional states.

It may well be in the beginning stages of the work, ears forward does not trigger a calm, relaxed emotional state. The horse puts his ears forward because that's what gets you to click. But as you work through the foundation lessons and he becomes fully engaged in the game, those behaviors do become linked to emotional states that reflect a calm, happy, contented, and also eager-to-please, eager-to-be-with-you horse. Popping the ears forward when he sees you triggers the same good feelings in him that hearing the voice of a loved one triggers in you. It's a conditioned response.

Lessons and Layers

The foundation lessons deliberately use very basic behaviors, so it is easy to dismiss them as simple, "see Spot run" kindergarten lessons. But within these lessons are layers and layers of important learning both for the horse and the handler. You can choose to skip over one of these lessons because it just doesn't seem important or relevant to your horse, but you may discover later that you have left out an important part of the foundation. You end up with Swiss cheese and lots of holes instead of a solid structure. So, if for some reason, you do decide to take out one of these behaviors, do consider all the many things it gives you, and be sure to include something else that serves the same purpose.

Everything is everything else, and you can never do one thing. Those are also good principles to keep in mind as you are constructing a solid foundation upon which to build your clicker training experience. We are all pioneers in this, so there is always room for experimentation. And each horse needs a training plan tailored to his specific needs. But, while we are all pioneers, at least for the beginning steps of clicker training we are now traveling over a well worn path, one that becomes more interesting with each horse that travels down it.

Have fun!

Alexandra Kurland

theclickercenter.com

November 2007

Holiday Greetings!

by Alexandra Kurland

Happy Holidays Everyone!

There's so much to catch up on. First, my thanks to everyone who wrote to The Perfect Horse" Magazine. I've barely had a chance to sit down and look at the November issue with the second article in it. And now in today's mail here's the December issue with two great letters to the editor about clicker training. Thank you Melissa, and thank you Kathy for your great letters. Yes, you are both famous! And thank you to everyone else who wrote in. I know "The Perfect Horse" received a lot of letters. Editors do respond to their mail. I've been asked to write Part Three of the article! Now that's something to celebrate in this Holiday season. So keep sending in your letters. The more they hear about clicker training, the more eager they will be to print more articles.

That's in part why I've been absent for so long from the list. I've been preparing several articles for the editor to choose from. And I've also been traveling pretty much non-stop. October was packed with clinics and then there was the Equine Affaire in November. This Holiday weekend marks the end of another great year of clinics. I've learned so much. As I jokingly say, I've been to all my clinics. Except that it's not really a joke. The more I explore this work, the more I discover in it. I like to end the clinics by asking participants what stood out for them, what were the "ah ha" discoveries that popped out for them? If I started listing all my "ah ha" moments from this year's clinics, I could fill a book!

This year's clinic season began with micro-shaping which evolved into Advanced Equine Pilates. Keri posted recently with a question about Oliver and bits. I wish you could all see Keri's Oliver. He's absolutely gorgeous. Watching him grow up through the clinics has been a staggering experience. Did I say he's gorgeous? Elegant doesn't begin to describe him. Fred Astaire grace in an equine package, that gets closer to the mark. And to think he was a PMU foal, a throwaway horse. Keri, you must smile every time you look at him.

I mention Oliver, not to single him out, but because I've gotten to watch him grow up through a series of clinics. He's changed so much over this past year, growing up both physically and mentally. I wish you all could travel with me from clinic to clinic to meet the horses I am so privileged to get to work with.

If I started to describe them all, the horses that stood out for me, the ones that showed me some new detail, or explained more clearly some step in the training, I really would be writing a book, and I'd end up leaving somebody out which wouldn't do at all. So let me just go over some of the highlights from the October clinics. We covered some major concepts that are worth reviewing here. This will also address some questions that came up on the list in October that I couldn't respond to at the time.

The October clinics began with one in Groton New York where we revisited yet again the triangle of the reins. We looked at the difference between a soggy triangle versus a solid triangle.

The triangle is related to the t'ai chi wall. I first described the t'ai chi wall in the Lesson Three: Head Lowering DVD. I think most of you are familiar with the term. It refers to a specific rein handling technique. But I know many people have skipped over this lesson, either because they have horses who aren't very reactive and head lowering didn't seem very important, or because they can get their horses to drop their head through other means and the t'ai chi wall approach seems overly complicated to them. But by skipping this lesson, they miss out on a key building block mechanical skill for single-rein riding. Often times the horses who are the most difficult, the most reactive end up being the best teachers simply because they don't let us skip any steps.

One of the horses I used in the head lowering video was our Icelandic stallion, Sindri. Sindri is the most amiable and easy going of horses. You are seeing on that video the extent of his head lowering education. If he were my only horse, I probably would never have stumbled across the t'ai chi wall because I would not have needed it. I would not understand it's power or it's significance. I would not understand how it is connected to the triangle of single-rein riding, and I would not understand what all the fuss was about. If you are blessed with a similar easy-going equine companion, you may be wondering the same things. But if your horse is the complete opposite of Sindri - contrary about everything, overly reactive, afraid of his own shadow, quick to take offense - you may be struggling to make the t'ai chi wall work for you. In either case a great way to learn what it does for you is to practice with a friend.

Have your friend hold the lead in her outstretched hands. Her hands represent the horse's head, her arms the horse's neck. Stand slightly to her side facing her left shoulder as though you were standing in front of your horse facing the point of his left shoulder.

Step 1 for preparing for the t'ai chi wall is to simply slide down the lead with your left hand. Practice sliding down the lead - letting go; sliding down the lead - letting go. You want this to become a fluid, easy movement. You want to involve your whole body in the slide. In clinics what I often see is someone sliding up the lead with their hand only. Their torso, their feet are not involved in the action. The "four points on the bottom of your feet" is very much a part of this. (Refer to the riding book, Ch. 22.) It's also why I refer to this as the t'ai chi wall. It is a reminder to involve your whole body in the action.

Slide up the rope using just your hand. Keep the rest of your body stiff. Now slide up the rope using your whole body. Your partner will tell you how different the rope feels to her when you involve your whole body, how much lighter and softer it is.

When you can slide up the rope beginning the action from your feet, you are ready for step two. Adjust the distance you are standing from your partner so you are just an arm's length from her. Now slide up the lead so you end up in what should be by now a familiar upside down, little-finger-to-the-sky position, AND your little finger is in contact with your partner's little finger. The Tag point for this is: little finger to little finger. (See page 37 of the riding book for pictures of this position.)

Repeat this until you are consistently able to slide down the rein and connect little finger to little finger.

Step 2a is to move out to the tail end of the rope and practice sliding down it so that no matter how close, or how far you are away from your partner when you start, you always end up in that last slide with just the right amount of lead. You are neither just shy of your mark, nor over-running your horse. It's a bit like adjusting your horse's stride before a fence. At first you can't judge distances at all, but with a little experience you know exactly how many strides you need between fences.

Depending upon how much lead there is between you and your horse when you start, you can't always go up in even increments and have it come out right. You'll need to take a little half step adjustment before the final slide to the snap. This takes practice. You may find that it's helpful to tie your lead to a fence rail so you can slide over and over again until the distance comes out right every time without your even having to think about it.

So now you're ready for step 3. Slide up your lead little finger to little finger, and in one smooth movement rotate your arm so your thumb is now pushing up to the sky. But note: DO NOT push into your human "horse's" space. When you rotate your arm, you are not at the same time trying to force your horse back. Instead find your neutral balance. That means you are balanced over the "bubbling spring", the balance point of your foot. You aren't leaning into your partner, nor are you letting her push you back. You are standing in a rooted, grounded balance that will form the basis of the structure of your tai chi wall.

This is so important. When I first gave the t'ai chi wall a name, I didn't know how much life you give something by naming it. Instead of being just one out of many rein effects that I use, suddenly it became an entity unto itself. At first, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, especially as I watched people trying to learn how to use it. With some people their horses melted back right away. It was the perfect solution for their bargey horses. But for others the horses became even more annoyed with their people. They acted as though someone was shouting at them with a megaphone. And indeed that was very much what was happening.

The t'ai chi wall is meant to be used with the power of your bone rotations, not the strength of your muscles. When you add make-it-happen force on top of the bone rotations you end up shouting your requests instead of whispering them. The question for me was how do you teach someone to let go of all that make-it-happen muscle, particularly when they are working with a pushy horse?

Part of the answer is in having them experience this step-by-step process of sliding down the lead and remembering that when you get to step three you find neutral balance BEFORE you send your intent down the line. This was one of those details that popped out so clearly in this year's clinics. Earlier this spring I was going through these rope handling steps with one of the participants. Her mare had presented us with an interesting puzzle. She was very snarly and grouchy when her owner worked her, but totally accepting when I asked for the same thing. What was the difference?

Finding neutral was one of the keys. We reviewed the steps just as I am describing here, first without the horse. That was a fun lesson. I let her feel the contrast. First I slid down the rope and pushed into her as I rotated. I wasn't pushing hard, just skipping over the step where I first established my balance. She wasn't as fussy as her mare. She did what I wanted which was to back up, but she staggered back in unbalanced steps. She didn't exactly grump at me as her mare would have, but she was clearly not all that pleased with her loss of balance.

Next I slid up the lead, and rotated without sending my energy into her space. As I stepped up to support my elbow with my hip in a triangulated, structured position, I was first establishing my neutral balance. In this position, if she pushed into me, I was grounded, but I was not pushing into her. I could then press my toes slightly into the dirt, and she glided back. It was very neat.

I took my foot out of my shoe, so she could see her how little I was doing. Literally just a slight shift into my toes sent her back. But if I stiffened or tensed up, I could wiggle my toes all I liked and she felt nothing.

I had her try. It took a few attempts, but then she had it. We asked her horse, and she agreed. This was much better. This mare didn't like being pushed around, but ask her nicely and she was more than happy to oblige.

The more you find breath - not breathe. You can be tight and breathe. Breath is something other, something deeper. It is the letting go of force and the finding of your true power deep in your core. The more you find breath, the softer you can whisper and the clearer you will be heard. That was a huge learning that emerged again and again throughout the clinics. It is a core element in clicker training. We want our whisper to be heard around the planet.

So how is this related to triangles, solid or otherwise?

The t'ai chi wall is an extension of this slide up the lead. Suppose you are working with a pushy horse. Sliding up the lead with just your left hand won't give you enough stability. You need a more triangulated position. With your human partner try this. Slide up the lead as before, but now anchor your right hand on her left shoulder. In this part of the experiment, put some slack in the lead between your two hands. You're in position to ask her to back up, and you're also in a great position to prevent her from barging past you. (See page 37 of the riding book for pictures of this position. Also refer to the T'ai Chi Rope Handling DVD.)

Have your friend push into you. If you've both been hefting hay bales, you'll both be able to hold your ground, and it will feel like a crude pushing contest.

Now throw all that away and begin again. This time when you anchor your right hand on her left shoulder make sure that there is no slack in the lead rope between your two hands. Now when she pushes into you, you may have a very different experience. The rope will ricochet her energy right back at her. It's almost as though she's bouncing off a trampoline. Instead of a pushing contest, you'll easily be able to deflect her out of your space. That's the t'ai chi wall.

I want people to discover the connection between their two hands. Once you become aware of this connection and truly own it, whenever you slide up a lead, it will be there, whether you go into the full t'ai chi wall or not. This connection turns up in so many different places. Even at liberty where there are no leads, you can engage the energy connection that runs from hand to hand.

Everything is everything else. You need this connection in the pick of the reins. Without it your horse will have more of a tendency to drift through his outside shoulder and to drop his weight forward onto his front end. The connection from hand to hand through the triangle helps to shift his balance into his hind end and keeps his shoulders in drill team alignment with his hindquarters.

There was the interesting clinic earlier this fall where we were working on the mechanics of single rein riding. The horses were left to doze in their stalls while we put saddles on saddle racks. When people are first learning about single-rein riding everything feels very mechanical. Nothing yet is fluid or feels very connected to riding. They pick up the buckle, but they don't use bone rotations, and they don't connect it to anything else. They end up with slack between their two hands. If you add pressure to the inside rein, you'll see them compensate by becoming unlevel in their seat. They may even collapse to the inside through their ribs.

That's what happened with this rider. When her triangle was soggy, she collapsed through her ribs and her seat was easily unbalanced. However, when she picked up the buckle using bone rotations, everything changed. The lifted buckle hand was working in concert with the inside hand. Essentially it become a vertical t'ai chi wall. Now when I added pressure to the inside rein, she remained rooted in her seat. Adding in the rotation of the outside hand created a balanced, structured rider. It opened the front of the heart and allowed her shoulder blades to drop which gave her a stability that she lacked with the soggy triangle.

The outside rein from hand to bit can be slack. It is the connection between the rider's hands that matter. We had a wonderful demonstration of this at one of the WA clinics. We were working a horse on a lunge line. She had a very pretty trot but lacked impulsion. When I slid down the line thinking about the connection between my two hands, she went up several notches in energy and produced a gorgeous, ground covering trot. I wasn't holding a whip. All I did was slide my two hands apart thinking about the connection I have in the t'ai chi wall, and she gave me all this wonderful extra energy.

At the fall Groton clinic we explored the difference between soggy triangles and solid triangles. Katie wrote one of her excellent posts about this. At the clinics that followed we continued to look at the difference and some new images emerged. I've often used the image of tug of war in describing the t'ai chi wall. If you were playing tug of war with a toddler, you could hold the rope with one hand and easily keep yourself from being pulled off your feet. But if the toddler's teenage cousin who is on the high school football team came out to help, you might need two hands to hold onto the rope.

Here are some other images that help you to connect to the opening stretch across your torso that the t'ai chi slide down the lead creates. The first is the tango. I've written before about the fully extended arm (see the "Why Would You Leave Me?" and the "T'ai chi Rope Handling DVDs). Think about the exercise where I have one person stand near another with one arm lifted and stretched to the side so she can just barely touch the other person. If she now rotates her bones, she'll be able to touch her friend's shoulder. Rotating her arm extends her reach.

Now stand next to your friend with your arm outstretched, but not rotated. Have her lean in against your outstretched hand. You'll feel your balance shift over into your opposite foot.

Repeat, but this time rotate your arm. Instead of being shifted in your balance, you'll feel solid, and you'll actually deflect her back into her own space. Now that's an interesting result to take to your horses.

Where might you use this. Suppose you are standing at your horse's left shoulder and you would like him to go forward. You're going to slide down the lead so your left hand extends out in front of you in that fully extended arm position. You're thinking t'ai chi wall connection, so both hands are involved in the slide down the lead. Your left hand extends out in front while your right hand slides into position at your horse's shoulder. Tango! You're dancing with your horse. When he steps forward to meet your extended, go-forward point of contact, release!

The second image is very similar to this. Think of archery and drawing a bow. There's a wonderful old, actually ancient, New Yorker cover of a very Edwardian lady drawing back on a bow that I always think of when I refer to this image. She is aiming at a very large, round practice target. In the background is a tea service - an irrelevant detail for this discussion.

When you draw an imaginary bow back, there's a real connection between your two hands. I remember in gym class at one point we had to take an archery class. I was horrible at it. I could never hit the target. In fact the arrow usually fizzled out just a few feet from my feet. The gym teacher had no idea how to teach this t'ai chi connection across your torso. You either had a natural knack for archery or you spent the class pulling your arrows out of the grass. I think now I could probably draw a bow and have the arrow, if not hit its mark, at least land somewhere on the target. Amazing what horses teach us!

They certainly tell us that these images help them. Find the connection between your hands, and you find a connection into core. Have a friend help you find the connection so your triangle is solid, not soggy and see what your horse thinks. When you find right the connection, you'll love the feel!

The Equine Affaire marked the end of the travel season. It also in a back handed sort of a way confirmed for me the importance of all these details. My booth was near one of the demo rings, so I got to watch one version after another of hip yields and single-rein riding. The clinicians were all skilled horsemen. I saw them take anxious horses and get them to listen to them. What I didn't see was the connection into the triangle. The horses were indeed doing what was being asked of them, but when they yielded their hips, when they circled or turned, when they stepped laterally, they were all on their front end, putting extra pressure on their inside front leg. It was for me an interesting confirmation of the importance of this piece of the puzzle. Overload the front end like that over time, and you risk compromising long-term soundness.

This is why I fuss these details. I am sure I drive some people crazy. "Why does it matter if my hand is here rather that there? Why does it matter if I take the slack out or not?"

It matters - not because I say it does - but because our horses tell us this is what gives them the clearest communication, and the best balance. This is what keeps them comfortable, and sound.

These details matter because they let me function more as a clicker trainer - or rather a clicker teacher - asking and explaining, not as a horse trainer telling and demanding.

Clicker training is all about splitting small steps down into even smaller steps. That's how all these details that makes such a difference to our horses are revealed. It's like those Russian dolls - open the doll and you find another hidden inside - and yet another even smaller doll hidden inside that one. On and on, smaller and smaller, but each one even more beautiful than the one that contained it. Each layer we reveal gives us new treasures, new ways of communicating even more clearly with our horses.

When you work with the same horses over time, you see progress, but sometimes that progress is based on a growing relationship, not necessarily improved handling skills. But in clinics I see new horses every weekend. They are telling me they are liking the discoveries we've been making.

At this year's clinics I peeled many new layers, clarified more points, found better ways to describe and teach exercises, met great people, met great horses, had a wonderful time. Thank you everyone who participated. I learned so much from each and everyone of you. It has been a pleasure to be able to share all of this with you, and I hope to see you again in the coming year. My calendar is posted, though it is not yet complete. I know I am certainly looking forward to attending all of my clinics in 2008!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Alexandra Kurland

theclickercenter.com