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The Click That Teaches
Clinics & Clicker Challenges
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Clicker Challenges
I have said many times that in ten years time, as clicker training becomes more widespread, we won’t recognize the horse world. Having horses that move beautifully at liberty; who fetch, play basketball, deliver the mail, etc.; who perform outstandingly under saddle, etc. is only the beginning. Each new success we have with clicker training opens the door to the next discovery. We’ll be routinely asking for things we can’t even imagine yet.
The Clicker Challenges are an important part of this creative process. They are an opportunity for experienced clicker trainers to share their skills and to expand their own creative training.
So what exactly is a Clicker Challenge? It’s a competition for clicker trainers and their horses: one that makes use of the unique talents of clicker-trained horses.
At the 2002 First Annual Clicker Challenge participants were divided into two teams of four horses. None of the players knew in advance what the tasks were they would be asked to perform with their horses, but they were all based on the foundation exercises we’d been developing through the Advanced Trainings.
The players were given ten primary tasks, each of which had levels of difficulty built into them. The theme for this year’s challenge could easily have been “Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.” For example, one task was getting your horse to stand quietly next to a mounting block. That’s pretty straight forward. The added clicker twist was to have the handler stand on the mounting block, call her horse to her from ten feet away, and have the horse align itself to the mounting block without the handler touching the horse.
The “Olympic Level” degree of difficulty for this challenge, which none of this year’s horses were ready for, was to have the horse come from a distance past a food distraction. So one of the great values of the Clicker Challenge is to expand our expectations and to literally challenge each participant to go beyond “good enough” to be more creative and to ask more of themselves and their horses.
The 2003 Second Annual Clicker Challenge will be held Oct. 25 in the Albany NY area. I will be designing a new puzzle for the teams to solve based on the material we cover through the 2003 clinic season. To participate with a horse, horses must be clicker trained, and it is recommended that handlers be familiar with the material covered in “The Click That Teaches” Video Lesson series.
Spectators are encouraged to attend. Clicker Challenges are tremendous fun, and a great way to learn about clicker training.
The organizer for the 2003 clinic is Dolores Arste.
To read a review of the 2002 Clicker Challenge, click here
 Part Three: Clinics
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