Thinking…

I’ve just had a lovely session with Abe, two great ones with George and a short but excellent one with Dancer. Poppy opted not to join in, but engulfed a few treats in passing.

George came in when he saw me, so he got a long session before the others arrived (he loves that kind of thing!). We did a lot of leading practice, halting, turning and standing, he let me go up and down the mounting block without flicking an ear and lifted all four hooves for me politely while grazing.

I put him back after that, with some skilled evasion of the gate on his part (he just gets between me and the gate so I can’t open it and then looks smug!) and persuaded him to let me get Abe out for a bit. George disapproved of this but with some persistence and luck manoeuvring around the yard, we managed it. I got George away from the gate and opened it with my other hand while continuing to decoy George’s attention away with the other, and Abe padded quietly out behind George’s tail!

Abe accepted his bridle with a slightly surprised air, then reluctantly allowed me to put his saddle on (he swivelled around so he could keep his nose on the saddle rather than letting me step alongside and sling it over him, the monkey!) As soon as the saddle was on his back he took a deep breath and held it! It didn’t really matter as I had no intention of sitting on him, but he’s a crafty beggar.

Once saddled and the girth acceptably tight-ish for groundwork, I took him for a walk to make sure he was comfortable, then we headed for the mounting block. Abe tried the swivel here, turning to face me, so I did nothing. He thought about this, tried lifting his nose and poking me to see if that got treats. It didn’t. He tried taking a step back, but no. He took a step forward….no. He poked me again, but it still didn’t work. Even his best kissy-face didn’t work! I gave him a clue at this point by turning so I was standing facing the same way and him, clicked and gave him a treat, then turned back. He hadn’t quite cottoned on, so I did it again, and this time when I turned back, the penny plummeted and he swivelled around to stand parallel to the block, perfectly positioned for me to mount! Lashings of praise, handfuls of treats and loads of clicks told him he’d got it, and he stood like a statue while I rocked the saddle on his back, patted it, patted him and finally leaned right over him so he could see me from his outside eye, which is normally where he starts getting edgy. He didn’t this time – he was watching me, certainly, but he’s definitely got the idea firmly in his head now. We did it again on the other rein and this time he didn’t need clues – he lined himself up and waited patiently for the silly human to go through the rock, pat, pat, lean routine again – with handfuls of treats to underline what a fantastic boy he was being!

I got Dancer out next, though we stayed close to the fence and Poppy. She did very well sniffing the saddle and even twiddled the girth buckles with her nose – very daring, as they made a noise! – but I haven’t put so much as a teatowel on her back yet so lumping the saddle any closer than sitting on the block was far too much. It stayed on the block and after a few minutes nuzzling it and tinkling the buckles, I popped her back out.

Poppy had had enough by then so everyone went out – except George, who was eager to have another go in the yard.

I took the girth off the saddle and let him nuzzle it, then held it up against his shoulder without any reaction, so then I slung it up over his back. Still no reaction! Excellent horse. It stayed sat on his back for a couple of minutes while we did standing practice, then I took it off, gave him a few minutes to graze on the verge and then got him back through the gate (on the second attempt!) and he accepted that fun was over for the day and went off to join the others in the field.

This is one of the things I really like about only using positive reinforcement – George can’t quite cope with being left to think things out for himself and gets frustrated if he can’t see what to do, but that’s probably because he’s still just a baby. Abe was definitely reasoning for himself today, though, and trying out various of the things he knows I sometimes want to see if I was just being obtuse before he caught the clues and put it together to hit the reward jackpot. Because he thought it out for himself, it’ll stick in his memory far better – experiential learning, rather than being taught by rote.