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The Click That Teaches
Clinics & Clicker Challenges
Clicker Review
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A Review of the 2002 Clicker Challenge
By Margaret Leach
The last clinic of the year at Groton was a surprise and wonderful fun. Alexandra Kurland outdid herself with creative effort as she introduced elements of playful competition and team effort into the clinic format. Participants were divided into two teams with each of the teams vying for top score of individual "competitions" as well as a final "grand total".
Alexandra used the 10 principles of clicker training to set the format for the individual competitions. For example, to illustrate the first principle which is safety first for horse and trainer, trainers were asked to have their horses back away from a stall door to the back wall when cued from the doorway. The concept was that at some point we as trainers might need to work with horses from outside of a stall for our own personal safety, or we might like to have horses that parked themselves at the back of the stall while we fed grain. The exercise was designed to get us thinking about how to train from a more distant position. We had to know how to shape behavior and attach a cue to it.
Trainers had thirty minutes to train their horse to back to the opposite wall when cued from a doorway. We could use pens set up in the arena or the stalls where the horses were kept. All of us had experience teaching backing and our horses were trained to back away from us. But we were accustomed to moving with the horse or touching the horse or cueing it through a lead rope.
We quickly discovered a glass ceiling at two steps . . . horses were only willing to back two steps before they wanted to stop. So we had to get creative to convince the horses to take the necessary 3 or 4 steps away from us. Promoting the idea of team effort, team members were allowed to coach each other or brainstorm.
I can't begin to describe all the laughter, fun and good spirits that were engendered as we progressed through the various "competitions". They included the training game, mat exercises, charades with horses participating, and a spelling bee to name a few.
In the midst of all this playful effort, the horses were learning to deal with new stimuli, to work quietly with other horses in the arena and ignore background distractions. Their trainers were exercising their own skills to demonstrate what their horse had learned and, in some situations, were using clicker principles to introduce new learning to their horses.
Alex and Sarah Stuurman kept us all in stitches with their wonderful imitations of television sportscasters. Horses and trainers were rewarded for their performances with all kinds of goodies, including everyone's favorite . . . chocolates!
During the last day of the clinic each participant got to work on specific skills or aspects of training/riding so new learning was incorporated into the format as well. Thank you to Alexandra Kurland for another wonderful clinic and to Lin Sweeney for hosting us at her Irish Spring Farm in Groton.
Margaret Leach
 Part Three: Clinics
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