Clicks for Trots

Wednesday morning of last week, I was running late from the start of the day. It's one of my 10am meeting days, so I tend to not have much time at the barn anyway, and this just made it worse.

By the time I got to the barn, I had about an hour. Not enough to ride. But things had gone so well over the weekend (clean changes!) and on Monday (super connection!), that I wasn't too worried about him having a light day. So I decided to long line him.

Last time I tried long lining him, I got ran away with and dragged around the arena for a while as he galloped frantically in circles. When I finally stopped him, I took him to the round pen and really worked on installing the whoa aid with the long lines. Then I went to two back to back conferences and the horse was slightly neglected.

Oh no so neglected :(

Wednesday morning I decided to tackle it again. May as well. It's on my list.

I've been talking to Nicole and Kate a lot about clicker training, and you know that this has been working out well for us with the spooking and making the whoa aid more effective. One thing that Kate needs to revive her blog and write about is how she's training her horses to go better undersaddle with clicker training. The idea is really simple- click when they offer a response that is desirable, then give them a treat.

I decided to try this out on the long lines because 1) TC sucks at long lining and has a crappy teacher, 2) I could see the effects vs just feeling them undersaddle, and 3) if any major problems happened, I was on the ground and safer (theoretically).

TC is pretty tight on the long lines, he likes to retract his neck, drop his back, and generally impersonate a cart horse. I know people have good luck with long lining, but I'm not that great at it. I could long line Rico super well, but he was a combined driving horse before I got him and therefore was pretty immune to my poor timing.

Storm rolling in last week

No sooner had I started with him than he dragged me out to the edge of the rail. This is a problem in the larger arena (and I want to be able to long line him in there eventually, doing figure 8s and fun stuff) because there is no convenient rail so it means that he falls out and gets going real fast.

I gathered up the reins and counter bent him, then opened my inside rein (I had just attached it to the bit vs going through the surcingle because he needs an out) and then asked him to bring his inside front leg toward me. It took him a second but the moment tha the did it, he got a click and a bit of grain (I upgraded from the cookies so I could do more, also got myself a very embarrassing fanny pack to hold the grain so I didn't hav eto carry around a bucket and the long lines and the clicker). Soon he figured out that aid and was an old pro at staying in on the circle.

Once as I had more influence on where he was going, at both walk and trot, I just waited. When left to his own devices, TC will sometimes stretch his neck down and then pop it back up. I wanted him to get his neck down so I could click when he went there. Soon, he blew his nose and his neck went down, so he got clicked and immediately stopped for some grain. Some people will ask (like I did), isn't this just teaching him to stop all the time. No, because he doesn't get food unless the click comes first, so sure he will stop when I click, but only then. This work actually made him less likely to be slow because he was eager to get back to trot after he got the grain.

Soon he figured out that if he snorted then he'd get a click, so I waited until he did it without snorting (by this point he was trying to figure out where he had to be for clicks). Once as he got him stretching down, I asked him to hold it for longer and longer until he was just there all the time.

Wandering on one of the days I actually rode

The next step was to get him a bit more forward. When TC pushes from behind better, he swings his back and his trot gets bigger, he also comes over his back better too. So I sent him forward and waited until he had a moment of really pushing, then clicked. Soon he was offering this trot from the moment he picked it back up after getting food.

Unfortunately, that was the end of our work because I had to get to my own job. I was super pleased though! It worked so fast! At the beginning, I had a horse who I couldn't really steer very well and who was super tight and short in the neck. By the end he was taking bigger steps, swinging through his back better, and had his neck out and long.

I can't WAIT to do this again with the long lines, and possibly try it undersaddle too. Hopefully I can get him a bit more into the bridle and keep his back swinging while I'm on him too.

This winter has been super fun already and it's not even officially winter yet! TC and I are enjoying having less pressure on both of us and I can already see how working on non-dressage things is going to help our dressage get so much better next year!

Any Attention is Good Attention

It turns out that in my favorite dense book that makes me feel bad at riding, Academic Horse Training, there is a small section that talks about punishment. And long story short, surprise surprise, punishment isn't the best way to motivate horses.

I mean most people could guess that. Horses are best motivated by earning positive primary reinforcers (food, scratching on the withers, which lowers their heart rate). Negative reinforcement, such as taking away pressure is also effective, but less so. And positive punishment (the addition of an averse stimuli like the whip) is least effective.

Only time he stands still is if something is there
to entertain him. 

At our last show, my mom had come to hang out! It really helps when people come with me to shows because they can help watch TC by the trailer, since he's not yet the best at standing still by the trailer.

I left TC standing there and told my mom to ignore him unless he was doing something dangerous. Don't yell at him or give him ANY attention, good or bad.

Sure enough, TC pawed the entire time and made a mound of dirt and rocks under himself. He would have preferred a group of people standing around him, petting him and telling him how great he is, but honestly, he would have preferred attention of any kind. I can see his little face light up when I yell at him to quit it or even smack him. He doesn't feel comfortable being left on his own.

ENTERTAIN ME NOW PLS

Turns out it's not just TC. A study done at the University of Virginia (pop science; actual study; hilarious video) found that when left in a room where they could either be bored or shock themselves with a painful shock, many participants (67% of men; 25% of women, lol at the gender differences) chose to shock themselves at least once (one participant did it a LOT and the researcher was so confused haha). This was even after they themselves had been shocked once before the experiment and expressed that they would NOT like to be shocked again (in one experiment I think they said they'd be willing to pay money to not be shocked again, it was so unpleasant).

Whenever TC is being impatient and I want to yell at him to knock it off, I always remember that damn study. I don't know if it's at all applicable to horses, but I swear TC would rather be yelled at than be bored. So I hold my tongue and just ignore him. Even if it's very annoying to listen to wiggling and pawing.

This winter we're doing a lot of tying up and leaving the pony. He will learn to be patient once and for all!

WW: I was the BEST at Dressage

I've been going through old pictures recently and figured I'd share some of the beautiful shots of me learning how to ride dressage before I started working with any sort of semi-decent dressage trainer. 

As you can see, unlike many people, dressage came incredibly naturally to me.

Dandy always had such good cadence thanks to my great riding

So elegant

I've always sat really well on the back of a horse

My ability to connect horses properly started when I was young

Square halts were my expertise, as you can see

Continuing to sit really well in the tack

My hands have always been very soft to the point where people
often wonder if they are even effective all the way up there.

Things might have gotten better down the road... 

Scavenger Hunt

I can't tell you how much fun I've had with my horse since I got back from all the conferences. I've definitely been much more relaxed without the stress of traveling (well, at least for the next three or four weeks) or horse shows to wear on me. And TC hasn't been feeling 100% because he got shots on Friday of last week, and it's also been kind of hot and he's now got a winter coat. Unfortunately for both of us, sickish TC is better than regular TC.

On Saturday TC wasn't having it, so we just wandered around. Then Sunday he was feeling a bit better and offered me a flying change, so I went with it and we got a clean one. Then we schooled them deliberately and got a clean one then too! We're still quite far away from when I want to consciously try to put them on, but I am not going to argue with him about doing them.

Monday morning TC finally felt NORMAL and that was a relief. Luckily it was warm so he wasn't a nut. Our ride went super well, we just worked on what Tracey had us do in our last lesson- putting him way into the bridle, encouraging him to step into the right rein, and getting him to move his rib cage to the left. All the while I need to sit to the right.

Wandering around looking for stuff to spook at

It went super well, with him not objecting too much to the increased level of pressure that just comes with that kind of connection. Tracey is right, as always, that having him into the bridle will mean less bolting. And sure enough, during times where he got a bit up, he got a bit light in the bridle. Because I am riding him heavier, I was able to put him back in there before he got away. So that was quite helpful. Though because it was quite warm outside, I'm also going to say that I bet if he really wanted to run off with me, being into the bridle wouldn't affect that one bit.

After the work, we went on a walk around the property.

TC has been learning some clicker training. I haven't been very methodical about it. I don't even know if he really knows what the clicker means yet. The one thing that he does know though, is that cookies are now involved in his job and that's a good thing.

In an effort to get him to be less spooky, I've been clicker training him to touch things that scare him. I was slightly worried that this would make him MORE spooky, so I've been very careful to reinforce only when he has chilled out about an object, rather than praise him for being tense.

I was able to turn him out for an hour or two TWO days in a row

This is what is currently happening:

See terrifying thing - adrenaline spike - spook - be convinced to slowly approach terrifying thing (praise whenever he takes a step toward it, ignore if he goes away) - take deep breath knowing that terrifying thing hasn't killed you yet - touch terrifying thing - click - cookie

And this is my goal:

See terrifying thing - adrenaline spike - know that terrifying thing has cookies in it - cookies are the best - take a deep breath - approach terrifying thing - touch terrifying thing - click - cookie

I want him to get to the point where that spike of adrenaline that precedes the spook is actually a discriminant stimulus for receiving clicks and cookies. Like a sign from closed to open signals that a restaurant is open so reinforcement (food) is available- the adrenaline spikes and signals that if you go poke that thing, you will get a cookie out of it.

I found a blanket to sniff, yay

So we've been doing this here and there. He's maybe had three lessons on it so far where he'd spook at something or act avoidant, then I'd convince him to go up to it, click, and cookie.

On Monday morning when we walked around the ranch, we saw that someone had put a blanket up on a tack shed. I immediately thought that TC was going to FLIP OUT about it. He hates things being up high and has definitely spooked at blankets in other locations before.

I felt it all happen in slow motion. He saw it, got a bit tense.... then put his neck down and marched over to it and stuffed his face right in it. No hesitation. Luckily I had cookies and I stuffed one into his mouth and told him how amazing he is.

Reaching up to get the best angle

It's kind of like a scavenger hunt or a video game. Go find the objects that make you scared, touch them, and get cookies!

If this continues to work, this plus reinforcing the whoa aid like crazy could be game changers. My two biggest complaints about this horse are his bolting and his spooking. Take away those and he's just perfect (well...). I'm really excited to see how things change in the future with this work. The winter will be hard and awful, I'm sure, but if we can come out of it with some good tools like this, I'll be happy!

Day in the Life

A little while ago, L posted an updated flowchart of what her days are like. I'm not an ammy, technically, and I don't really have a regular schedule due to so much traveling, but I tried to make a flow chart anyway. And here it is:

Some explanations-

My commute varies like crazy. Without any traffic, I can get to work from home in 45 minutes and from the barn in 50 minutes. I only get that wonderful drive in the summer in the early mornings (before 9am) because there are no students clogging up the roads early, OR in the fall/winter/spring in the late mornings (after 10am) because there's no beach traffic. Sometimes there is both and I'm fucked.

In the fall/winter/spring before 9am, I have lots of students on the roads and in the summer after 10am is when all those students are going to the damn beach. This means that during the summer, I ride in the evenings and in the fall/winter/spring, I ride in the mornings.

Luckily, pretty much any time I leave work, I can make it either home or to the barn within in an hour. The only exception is on Fridays when I'm going to the barn, I have to remember to take back roads when I get into the town my barn is in because my barn is on the way to LA so everyone clogs up the roads.

TC wants to go to LA and become a Hollywood star

So basically in the summer, I sleep from 11pm to 7am (my natural circadian rhythm) and in the fall/winter/spring, I sleep from 10am to 6am (so I'm always a bit sleep deprived, boo).

Unlike all the awesome barns on the east coast, mine does not grain my horse. On my days off from riding, I still go to the barn either before or after work to feed him. Often then I won't even give him a full day off, and I'll ride him bareback (if it's spring/summer/fall) or something. Also recently I've been traveling a lot so haven't had a lot of days where he gets a day off and I'm around.

This flow chart makes it sound like I go to the gym more than I do. I ride pretty much 6 days a week, and the days TC gets off are mostly days where I have some sort of social outing. Now that it's winter, I really hope to be doing more gym days and being better about letting TC hang out a bit.

This chart also doesn't illustrate how annoying it is to remember what clothes to put on and what clothes to pack. I have definitely arrived at the barn in work clothes and vice versa. I often set an alarm that will tell me what to do in the mornings.

One day I'll live close to my job and horse! Or just be able to work from home once or twice a week. Going to try to get on with that schedule this winter finally.

Laying Down the Foundation

After a very uncomfortable plane ride, an unusually expensive taxi ride (wtf), and a pit stop for bubble tea, I headed out to the barn on Tuesday afternoon.

Normally when I'm on the east coast, I don't switch my time over too much. I tend to get up around 6-6:30 when I'm on the west coast, and closer to 8 when I'm on the east coast. Not this time. I'd been getting up much earlier. That plus the time change made me extra jet lagged.

But luckily it was 70 degrees and not windy, so I was excited to work with TC. I didn't have much of an agenda, but when I got to the barn and saw the neck rope I used on Rico to ride bridleless with, I had an idea.

Also other things

I've never thought about riding TC bridleless. Rico was so good to ride bridleless because at any point, if you took all your aids off, he'd stop. TC isn't that horse (which is nice most of the time). That coupled with the bolting makes me pretty attached to riding him with at least SOMETHING on his face (I have ridden him in a rope halter, usually in the summer when I have Good TC).

But I saw it and I was thinking that maybe if I just REALLY took my time teaching him to be VERY sensitive to the whoa aids (which helps the bolting in general- this winter we're going to do a lot of halting), I could potentially ride him bridleless in the round pen. Like with his bridle still on. But just not holding onto the reins. And that would honestly be HUGE progress maybe not from now, but from last year when he was bolting all the time. Plus again, it helps the bolting anyway!

I've also been talking to Kate and Nicole a lot about clicker training since they use it. I've heard the stories of how much it slows down horses' thinking and holds their attention in work and I really want TC to be a bit more attentive and a bit more deliberate. He tends to be pretty good, but there are still moments where he clearly tunes me out because something else is way distracting.

It's about stimulus control. I lose it with him sometimes (so much less than before), where my whoa aids or contain-yo-self aids become less reinforcing than the escape behavior. Knowing that this is a) a theme with him that I need to continuously work on and b) going to get worse in the winter, I wanted to start now.

And what better way to become a bird serial killer with the one stone but to start the clicker training and the bridleless stuff at the same time.

Wandering around the ranch 

Unfortunately I only had THE BEST COOKIES EVER (apparently) with me, so I need to find some less appealing cookies. TC learned VERY quickly that whoaing meant clicks which meant cookies, so he refused to go forward at all. I had to grab mane and swat him with the whip once. I then started to alternate praise with scratches on the withers and cookies so that he didn't get so excited for the cookies. Scratches are also primary reinforcers so that's good, they are clearly not as reinforcing as cookies because when he thought he was getting cookies, he slammed on the brakes vs peetering to a halt.

But by the end of the ride, TC was stopping with just a "whoa" and a tug on the rope (and stopping my seat), even from the canter! I also walked around the ranch afterward pairing the turning aids with my leg, seat, and reins with the rope turning aids. TC seemed to catch on but I never really dropped the reins completely to try it.

I don't think we'll be truly bridleless for a LONG time, but I do think that it's a good way to introduce the clicker training, introduce the rope, and make sure that TC is thinking whoa all the time.

Winter of Breadth

So on Tuesday I got home from a conference on the east coast. Then I rode my horse. Then I'm riding him again today before going to another conference that I'm at for the rest of the week. Oh yay. No but this one is my favorite conference of the year, so I'm stoked. Not as pleased to leave the horse again, but that's what happens.

And besides, now that it's winter time and the weather has started to turn, TC has started to get into winter-TC-mode, which I do NOT like.

I have to remember that last winter was real bad
but we somehow made it through without any
murders (horse or human)

Because of last winter, where winter-TC eventually made me too scared to ride him and made me put him up for sale several times, this winter, I want to prepare. TC is definitely very sensitive to the weather- when it's warm and sunny, he's wonderful, but when it's cold or windy, he starts to get a bit unruly. This unrulyness usually comes out in the form of bolting, though last winter he did have a brief stint of rearing (which was not very high but I also didn't push it).

TC is now living in a large paddock, which means that I don't feel as bad for him when he gets days off. He has plenty of room to trot and do a few steps of canter, plus two neighbors who he hangs out with around the water cooler. Sure, he'd be best in a large pasture with other horses to play with, but he'd also probably rip several more tendons and ligaments out of his legs if he did. Not because of anything wrong with group turnout, just because he's my horse and my horses like to hurt me emotionally and financially.

The only reason to ride every day and keep pressing along is to make progress in the dressage. After my lesson in October, my plan had been to take four lessons in November to give us a boost, then ride once or twice in December, once in January, and then go to the January show. This whole ordeal, just lessons and the show, would cost me a fair amount of money. But scores! But learning! But dressage!

But showwwinggg and getting this canter all the time!

It seemed like a good idea until the first day where it was wintery and TC decided to take off with me every few circles. I was like wow is this completely NOT FUN. I don't want to waste money on lessons and shows if the in-between (or maybe even at these events) was going to just suck. So I decided that instead, I was going to make progress in other ways.

TC is still not great about being left tied, self-loading, not being a spooky asshole, hauling to new places, standing in the trailer while it's parked, and a LOT of other stuff. He's not bad, but he's not perfect yet. He could also use a refresher on long-lining, ground driving, longeing, ground work, and I'd love to start clicker training him for real just for fun.

So this winter is going to be the winter of breadth!

It saves me a LOT of money since I'll be doing minimal lessons/clinics and no shows. It lets me have more weekends free to actually see my friends and family and hang out with Rico (who is the most fun horse ever when it's cold since it also makes him sassy). I can also like... clean my apartment and work on external projects and get all the stuff done on my to do lists.

Here are some of the things I have planned for TC...


Self Loading
TC gets in the trailer just fine, but it'd be nice to just send him in like I can send Rico in. At the last show, TC shifted weight as I was putting his lead rope through the window and smashed me against the trailer, leaving a bruise and a scrape on my arm. He didn't mean anything of it (though I did get after him a little bit because he should have felt himself start to smash me and stop rather than rub me across the door lol) but self loading would fix that for good.

COME RESCUE ME I AM BEING TAKEN
TO THE PLACE WHERE THEY MURDER
HORSES I SWEAR!

Patience
TC is NOT a patient horse (on the ground, he'll stand all day long under saddle). He wants to be the center of attention and if he's not getting attention, he will do whatever it takes to draw your eye. Any attention is good attention. At home, the attention seeking behavior is just wiggling and pawing. In new places, this is the infamous rearing while tied. He also isn't very patient in the trailer either- pawing whenever it slows down or stops. I want him to be like Kate's horses who will happily sit in the trailer for quite some time. The plan is to take him to my parent's house and either leave him tied in the trailer or tied in the cross ties while I hang out with Rico.


Bombproofing
I wasn't going to do their second clinic, but I decided that it would actually be really fun. Knowing now that TC really liked the first one, I'm really looking forward to playing with him with all the stuff again. That clinic really set me on the right path with him, showed me that he was more curious than afraid, and that if I took my time to really introduce things to him in a positive way with patience, he would stop being such a dingbat about stuff. And sure enough, his spooking really decreased after that. Still very much there... especially at home, but it decreased.

Stoked to do this again

Jumping
Well, pole work. I don't know how much I actually want to jump TC. But I do think that he should be able to trot and canter through a little pole course pretty easily as a dressage horse. Maybe jump some tiny fences. He needs to learn how to push through his back for dressage, and what better way to help him figure out how to do that than to put some shit in his way so he has to press to the fences/poles a bit. We did this last week and all he wanted to do was land off of a pole and take off with me, but we eventually did get some good moments where I could feel him actually use himself.


Ground Work & Longeing
This includes the usual ground work (stop when I stop, go when I go, etc) and longeing/long-lining/ground driving. I used to do ground work with TC every day before getting on, and he was regularly longed. But ever since summer hit, we did none of it. Now it's chilly again and I'm wondering why he's been a bit nutty? Maybe all that ground work really helped... and it's just good stuff for him to be able to do! I loved telling people that Rico could do anything, but he wasn't born that way, I was at least a little involved. So TC is going to have a few designated ground work days, especially when it's nasty out. In the mornings before work, no one is around, so I can do some ground work in the covered arena if it's raining.

It was so fun earlier this year

Clicker Training
You guys should see what Kate did with one of her horses. The horse had a very busy mind (like TC) and would get a bit anticipating/over enthused (like TC). Clicker training really helped him slow his hamsters down on their wheels and turn them into what I think I referred to at one point as beach hamsters, happy to do their jobs when necessary but mostly wanting to lounge on the beach. TC needs beach hamsters in the winter, so clicker training will hopefully help him figure out how to slow his brain down and think through problems. He's not the worst at this, but he definitely does have moments where he figures that running away with me is a good solution to problems.


I'm sure I'll come up with other ideas, but for now, this is my list. It's going to be hard to deal with the guilt of letting him come down fitness/strength wise, and I'm definitely delaying our return to the show ring since I'll be waiting for better weather to put him back into full work and then we'll have a while before we're ready for First again... but hopefully at that point, I'll have a much better horse all around. And honestly, to me, that matters so much more right now.

Hi I'd like to order one copy of this animal pls

The thing I loved most about Rico was the ability to trust him in any situation, the dressage was always secondary. With TC, because of my past, I've really put dressage first and not been able to have as much fun with him. Part of this is just who he is, part of this is his injury, and if we're being honest here, I didn't have fun with Rico in the first few years I rode him either. But I wan to put in the time to make TC a really fun all around horse, who also happens to be a great dressage horse.

So we'll see how long my idea of putting dressage on the back burner lasts. I think that the bombproofing clinic will be a good reminder of what I'm wanting to work towards this winter. And I'll talk about yesterday's ride tomorrow and get to share how the first project is going!