Clicker training is based on principles not equipment. You don't need to spend a lot of money on equipment to clicker train. Use your imagination to find the targets and other props you'll need.
For leading and other exercises where you want to direct the horse out away from your body, you can also use target sticks. To make a target stick, put an empty water bottle on the end of an old dressage whip. Wrap the bottle in duct tape to secure it to the end. Another easy target stick can be made from the foam pool noodles children use as floating toys in swimming pools. Cut off a section about a foot long and stick it onto a whip.
Shop the aisles of your favorite department or hardware store for other handy target stick ideas. One of my favorites was made from a telescoping golf ball picker-upper.
Putting The Steps into Actions
You’re ready for your first clicker training session with your horse. You know what you want to teach, and you’ve got yourself organized. That’s important. You don’t want to offer your horse a target to touch, and suddenly realize that you’ve left your clicker in the house, or your treats are still in the tack room. That’s a sure way to frustrate an eager student. So the first steps before you begin any training session are to collect your thoughts, your clicker, and your treats. Now you’re ready for some fun!
Here’s an easy step-by-step checklist to follow to help you with your first clicker training lesson:
* For safety put your horse in a stall with a stall guard across the door. If a stall isn’t available, use a small paddock. (1.)
* Hold a cone or some other small object up in front of your horse. Horses tend to be curious about such things. Your horse will probably sniff the cone. (2.)
* The instant he touches it, click, and give him a treat. Take the target down out of sight. Reach into your pocket and hand your horse his treat. (3.)
* As soon as he’s taken the food from you, hold the target back up for him to touch. Make sure it is within easy reach so he can be successful. (4.)
* If he tries to mug your pockets, step back out of range, but continue to hold the target out where he’s likely to touch it. (5.)
* When he does, click and reinforce him. (6a and b.)
Remember the order in which events occur. The click is the bridge between the behavior you like and the reward. Be certain to click BEFORE you reach into your pocket for the treat. Reaching for the treat too soon dilutes the power of the clicker. If you are in too much of a hurry to get to the treat, the “click” becomes the premature movement of your hand, not the sound of the clicker.
Mouthy Horses and Hand Feeding
Your horse may start mugging your hands as soon as he realizes that food is involved. Keep yourself safe, but let your horse explore. This is the reason why we start with the horse in a stall. We want him to be free to experiment: to discover what works and what doesn’t. If your horse gets too pushy, just step back out of range. He’s going to discover that nudging your pockets never earns him treats, but bumping the target does. That’s his first step towards becoming a clicker-wise horse.
When you feed your horse, be certain to control the food delivery. Do not offer him the treat in close to you body. That will only encourage more mugging. Instead keep your hand closed over the treat until you’ve extended your arm out away from your body.
1.) A good rule of thumb is to keep your hand closed over the food until your hand is where you want his head to be.
2.) If your horse has his chest pressed up against the stall guard keep your hand closed over the treat. Don’t give it to him right where he’s reaching for it.
3.) Instead move your hand towards his chest. He’ll have to take a step back to get his treat. You aren’t teasing him with the food, or keeping him from it. You are simply delivering it where you want him to be.
4.) Click and treat! This is a little detail, but it makes a huge difference. Control the food delivery, and you control the pace of the lesson.
If your horse is already mouthy, you may be worried that all this hand feeding will only make him worse. That’s what many of us have been taught. We’ve been warned over and over again never to hand feed our horses. Hand feeding, we’ve been told, turns horses into biters.
Training Tip
The clicker is a gate keeper. It creates rules around the food so we can use treats in training. Take your time to establish these rules well. That’s what turns a pushy, in-your-face horse into a polite student.
The clicker negates this concern. It tells the horse when he can expect food, and when he can’t. If you click, that means a treat is coming. In the absence of a click, the horse can nuzzle your pockets all he wants, but you aren’t going to feed him. If he wants the treat, he’s going to have to learn polite manners. Rather than making horses more mouthy, the clicker can actually eliminate this behavior. Reinforce what you want, and that’s what you’ll get more of.
How Long Can I Train?
When you first start with the clicker, you are generally better off doing several short sessions rather than long one training session. You can target train for five minutes, do some barn chores, and then do another short session. In just a couple of sessions you'll have an eager, clicker-wise horse!
Training Session: Day 1
6:30-6:35 p.m. Bring your horse into his stall. Put a stall guard across the door and introduce him to the clicker. Click and reinforce him for bumping the target.
6:35-6:40 Clean and fill his water bucket.
6:40-6:45 Offer him another opportunity to touch his target. Begin moving the target to different positions.
6:45-6:50 Sweep the barn aisle.
6:50-6:55 Repeat the targeting. Have him track the target towards the ground.
6:55-7:30 Groom him.
7:30-7:35 Put him back in his stall and repeat the targeting. Continue to lower the target to the ground. If he is catching on fast to the clicker, put the target on the ground. If he looses track of the target, go back to kindergarten, and start over with an easier step.
7:35-8:15 Ride him.
8:15-8:20 Repeat the targeting. When you are ready to leave, make a fuss over him and end the evening with a jackpot.
Total Clicker Training Sessions: Five
Training Session: Day 2
6:30-6:35 p.m. Bring your horse into his stall. Repeat the targeting excercises from the day before. If he is tracking the target well, you can begin to teach him to hand the target to you.
6:35-6:40 Clean and fill his water bucket.
6:40-6:45 Repeat the targetting.
6:45-6:50 Sweep the barn aisle.
6:50-6:55 In his stall use the cliker to teach him to back.
6:55-7:00 Do some barn chores.
7:00-7:05 Continue to work on backing.
7:05-7:10 If your horse is mugging you for treats, click him for looking away from your pockets.
7:10-7:40 Groom him. Look for opportunities to click him. If he normally fidgets, click him for standing still. When you need him to move over, click him for yielding to pressure.
7:40-8:20 Ride him.
8:20-8:30 Turn cooling out into a training session. Ask him to stop and back. Click and reinforce correct responses.
8:30-8:45 Continue to work on his retrieving skills in his stall. End the evening with a jackpot.
Total Clicker Training Sessions: Eight
Training Session: Day 3
6:30-6:35 p.m. Bring your horse into his stall. Repeat the targeting from the day before
6:35-6:40 Clean and fill his water bucket.
6:40-6:45 Repeat the targeting.
6:45-6:50 Sweep the barn aisle.
6:55-7:00 Do some barn chores.
7:00-7:05 Continue to work on backing.
7:05-7:10 If your horse is mugging you , click him for looking away from your pockets and showing emotional control.
7:05-7:40 Groom him. Look for opportunities to click him. If he normally fidgets, click him for standing still. When you need him to move over, click him for yielding to pressure.
7:40-8:20 Ride him. Look for opportunities to click and reinforce him.
8:20-8:30 Turn cooling out into a training session. Ask him to stop and back. Click and reinforce correct responses.
8:30-8:45 Continue to work on his retrieving skills in his stall. End the evening with a jackpot.
Total Clicker Training Sessions: The entire evening was one long session broken up into small lessons in which you worked on a variety of skills. You are discovering that when you are with your horse you ARE ALWAYS training him. Now with the clicker, you are just being more deliberate about it. You are also discovering that training is LOTS OF FUN!!
Training Tip
Your horse is always learning. That means whenever you are with your horse you are training, whether you mean to be or not. Clicker training becomes a communication tool, not just something you do now and then.
Clicker Fundamentals
Safety should always be the number one concern of ANY training system, both for us and for our horses. For this reason I build three behaviors into the foundation of every clicker-trained horse I work with. I begin with targeting because targeting is a simple way to teach the horse what the clicker means.
Targeting is the first step in the clicker process. The next step is to show your horse that even though your pockets are full of food, you are NEVER an “open buffet”. Teaching him to back moves him away from your pockets and shows him that the best way to get treats is to respect your space. So we use clicker training to teach the horse to move away from pressure.
A calm attitude is another key element you need in your training. Fear is a distraction to learning. When your horse is worried about goblins hiding in the bushes, he’s not focused on the lessons you’re trying to teach him. To help him relax you’re going to teach him to drop his head to the ground.
When you use the clicker to teach head lowering, it becomes linked to these feelings of relaxation. Now it doesn’t just mean treats are coming. It also means “you’re safe”. That’s an important message of trust that you are building into the foundation of your training.
Three Foundation Lessons for a Clicker-Trained Horse
Targeting: Introduces the horse to the clicker game.
Refer to "The Click That Teaches: Lesson 1: Getting Started with the Clicker" video.
Backing: Teaches respect of space.
Refer to "The Click That Teaches: Lesson 2: Ground Manners" video.
Head Lowering: Develops a calm attitude.
Refer to "The Click That Teaches: Head Lowering" video.
Training Tip
Just as a house depends upon the strength of its foundation, so to does a horse. Take your time establishing these early lessons. They are the building blocks for the rest of your training.
Clicker Solutions
So what can you do with clicker training?
What do you want to do? That's the real question.
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Training Tip
With clicker training there are no limits. If you can dream it, you can train it!!
Clicker Training turns the ordinary into the EXTRAORDINARY!!
1. Bridling 2. Accepting clippers & shots 3. Standing still for mounting 4. Trailer loading
5-7. Overcoming fear issues 8. Leave your buddy and other good trail manners
9. Liberty work 10-11. Tricks 12. Polite ground manners 13 - 19. Performance
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This is the last page in the Training Guide. Please remember this is not intended as a comprehensive introduction. For more detailed instructions I'll refer you to "The Click That Teaches" book and DVD lesson series. Click here to visit the Clicker Bookstore.
Setting the Standard for Horse-Friendly Training
Getting Started: Targets
If you look around your barn, you’ll spot lots of things you can use as targets. Lids off of supplement containers, plastic water bottles, dog toys, small buckets, all work great. Just be sure to choose items that are sturdy enough to be “horse-safe”.
When I first started clicker training, I used whips as targets, but I’ve since found that many horses have trouble seeing them. They learn faster if you use larger objects. My favorite targets are the small orange cones that I also use as markers when I ride.
2. Accepting clippers & shots 
