A Turning Point

January 5, 2011

I must say Mint is a joy to ride. He is soft and responsive and this makes me feel incredibly effective as a rider. It is a bit of an illusion but I am okay with that. For that bit of time I get to forget that I am struggling to recall how to ride correctly again.
 
I came to know Mint when was at John and Beezie Madden’s Farm In Cazenovia, New York. He was very green broke. He didn’t know how to go in a straight line or to maintain a pace. Since he had just turned 3 and he was always home, he was available for training, which allowed me the opportunity to bring Mint along. This terrified and elated me all at the same time. I had only been riding for about a year. Well, I had ridden Killer Whale’s but this was different. Riding Mint at that point made me feel useless.
 
I was at John and Beezie’s to further explore the possibility of positive reinforcement (clicker training) with horses. It was unheard of at this point! As Mint goes, I had some pretty good tools in my tool box, Positive reinforcement and great instruction for traditional training. I was learning how the two could fit together.
 
One time I had the opportunity to ride one of Beezie’s Grand Prix horses and I remember thinking that this is the nicest horse I have ever ridden. He did whatever you asked, without a fight and he maintained it until you asked him to do something different. He did this for ME, a novice adult rider! It was amazing!
 
Mint and I were both improving, as the positive reinforcement helped him to progress at a extrordinary rate. He seemed mature beyond his years. One day I realized he was like that Grand Prix horse (okay, not as jumping goes) but as far as riding is concerned, he was a delight and a willing student. I eventually bought Mint from John and Beezie.
 
Enter Bugs… Here I was with a relatively green horse again. He didn’t feel like Mint at all. He kept his head kind of high and seemed rather stiff. Keep in mind that I had just started riding again after 8 years, so I’m sure my flopping about in the saddle had nothing to do with his defensiveness. (Yes, that was slightly sarcastic!)
 
It was a little discouraging and I found myself enjoying my time on Mint much more than my time in the saddle with Bugs. I needed to remind myself that there was a day when I didn’t exactly look forward to climbing in the saddle on Mint. That being said, it had been a great journey and look how far we had come! I tried to keep my current discouragement at bay by saying to myself “enjoy the journey, enjoy the journey, enjoy the journey” like a mantra.
 
Today, I realize Bugs is a lot like Mint! He is soft and responsive. He is a great student who seems to love his job. This seemed to happen so fast. I feel at home on Bugs. I have the same tools: great ground training and of course, positive reinforcement. This short little journey (so far anyway) Has been such a joy it brings tears to my eyes! I know we have a lot of bridges to cross but we are off to a great start. Bringing Bugs along makes me feel that I am right where I am supposed to be. I feel Blessed to have him in my life.

Author of those great Quotes: Han Senn Bio

I was asked “Who is this Hans Senn?” I have been posting some of his quotes…because I love them!! So here is a story about the author:

“Riding and competing in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and Germany gave Hans a broad exposure of different styles, methods and philosophies.

Hans came to the USA in 1952 where he became active in show jumping, dressage, eventing and fox hunting. He also learned to ride show hunters and competed many years in the Midwest, Florida, Devon and the indoor circuit.

Eventually, Hans started to judge hunters, jumpers, equitation, dressage and became a course designer.

In 1990, he was the coordinator of the Equestrian Events of the Olympic Festival.”

Sadly, Hans passed away a few months (or so) ago.

My Hunter/Jumper trainer and good friend Marcy Gehrke rode with Hans when she was young. She is responsible for getting me hooked on his little book of wisdom. So, I will continue to post his quotes as there are a ton of great ones in there!!

Mint: A Horse with Heart

It has been just over a year since Mint came back into my life. This got me to thinking about Mint’s life and the journey that we have taken together. Let’s start at the beginning…

Back in 1994 I went to John and Beezie Madden’s farm in upstate New York to begin training horses utilizing positive reinforcement training. I had learned these techniques during the 10 years I had spent training marine mammals at Sea World. This had not been done with horses and especially at the professional level. It was an exciting time for us. I worked with a number of horses, most of them were competing as high level show jumpers. There were two young horses that didn’t go to shows and ended up getting the most consistent training. These two were essentially my experimentals subjects. They were clean slates who had everything to learn. Mint was one of these horses. To date he holds the title as “The Worst Horse I Ever Worked”. He was such a quitter. He would quit during the target training process. For those of you who don’t know about target training, it is easy and they all love to do it. But not Mint. He seemed to have decided that this was too much effort. The horse in the paddock next to him, who was not part of our training program, would try to reach over the fence to touch the target that Mint wouldn’t touch right in front of his nose. All these years later and I have not met another horse who quits during target training!

Mint had no desire to try or please. He had no heart. When I first started working with horses I would hear how the best horses had “heart”. It was consistently thought of as something that a horse either had or didn’t have and not really something that you could change. I wasn’t familiar with the term “heart” and learned that this referred to a horses desire to please his rider/trainer. It boiled down to his attitude. This, to me, is the MOST important thing in the training process. If a horse learns something but he learns it with a bad attitude, well, it is just not going to end up being the best situation for either me or my horse. He may do what I want but if he has a sour attitude about the behavior then he will probably end up looking for ways to avoid doing it. This usually means bucking, spooking, bolting, rearing, balking, bulging, you get the picture. If Mint was going to be a part of the program, I needed to get him to put forth some effort. I would, and still do, reinforce him when he tries. When I see that things are getting difficult for him I reinforce him quite a bit for even the slightest effort.

Mint came along nicely and soon got up to speed. It still took a while for his personality to fully come out. He was always good but not very demonstrative. It made me happy when he moved past just doing the things I asked of him and began to actually enjoy the things I asked him to do. His “heart” was growing. We went on to a rigorous schedule, touring and doing clinics and expos all over the country. He shipped 60,000 miles in two years. Then in 2002 I went through some very difficult times. The challenges were of a personal nature and the horses were sent to Minnesota to be turned out while I tried to get my life sorted out. Thankfully, I have finaly arrived in a great place, but it took a while. Seven years later Mint was shipped back to California. I was so excited to see him but the behaviorist in me was curious about how much he would recall. Would he remember me? Would he remember his training? Would he be happy to be back? I had seen him one time in all those years. It was amazing to see him when that day finally got here. He seemed to feel the same. When the trailer pulled up he was unloaded into a corral. I gave him a couple minutes to get some water or urinate and then took him to the arena and took off his halter. He stayed right with me and did everything that I asked. He didn’t just do the behaviors, he did them with enthusiasm and zeal. He did them with heart!

People tell me often that Mint is an “exceptional horse”, suggesting that he was “born” with heart. It makes me smile to think back to that young horse who was beyond indifferent, to this horse who has developed heart through the use of positive reinforcement. We have now moved barns a couple times and have finally settled into a new barn where we can continue on our journey together.

The video of Mint’s arrival is available. If you want to see the day he arrived it is on my blog and it is titled “Clicker Trained Horse Remembers”.

Getting my clicker/horse training blog going!!

Hey Everyone,

I am technically challenged and yet I am choosing to tackle all kinds of new technology. I love how connected I feel to so many people with all of the options available these days. However it is tricky to balance out my time at the barn and working horses with my time at the computer. But here I go… First I want to give you a run down of the horses I am working and the issues I am addressing with each of them. I, personally, have two horses who are constantly being trained.

There is Mint, who is a 19-year-old thoroughbred. He seems as young as ever. He was at John and Beezie Maddens when I started really doing the On Target Training in a professional sense back in 1994. He has been there from the beginning. He was turned out for 7 years while I went through some of life’s tougher times. As I came out on the other side of life I brought Mint back and he is as good as ever. With him I am focusing on fun behaviors. He is past his performance prime but a great example of positive reinforcement training. I must say he was the worst horse I ever worked way back when. He was such a quitter. You don’t see that anymore but I keep that tendency in my mind as I work on new behaviors with him. I always encourage his efforts and try.

My other horse is Bugs. He is a 6-year-old appendix quarter horse. He has a lot of Thoroughbred in him and is at least 16.3 hands. He spent the first 4 years of his life turned out. When it was time to find him a job it didn’t go so well at first. He was too big for the typical quarter horses activities and bucked pretty good. He seemed to be a square peg who didn’t really fit with his owners. My friend Marcy took him to her barn and focused on getting him started under saddle. He was rather suspicious, willful and sensitive all at the same time. I came along and it has been a great fit. He presents some challenges but I feel well equipped to help him grow. Positive reinforcement has made a big difference in his attitude and he continues to make good progress. He has a lot to learn and I will continue to keep you updated through video and blog as we move forward.

There is also Haley. She is my dog, she is a Rottweiler and about a year and a half. She is pretty much a clown. She is also a bit of a chicken and totally sweet. She goes with me everywhere.

As for me… You probably already know about my history from my website but here it is in a nut shell… I worked at Sea World in San Diego for 10 years. I trained whales, dolphins, sea lions, walruses and otters. I trained them and did the shows with them. All of the training is based in positive reinforcement training. I recognized that these techniques were not being used with horses. I saw such a gap in the training equation. Horses had had great success without the use of positive reinforcement and I knew that incorporating what I had learned at Sea World would really improve things. I focused on learning how it was done through traditional training and then in 1994 John and Beezie Madden invited me (and my ex husband, Vinton) to move to their farm and work with them and their horses. That is where it started. The term clicker training came to horses from the dog training world and seems to have stuck.

I will use my blog for the sole purpose of being able to educate and share progress through on going training. I work other horses besides my own with various training issues. I will tell you about them next time. I also will share progress and I often film these with helmet cam so you can learn as we go. I also have a tele-training seminar/webinar each month. I get a lot of great questions and I will address some of these questions in the blog and some in the webinars. I really see this being a great resource for learning more about positive reinforcement/clicker training. I hope that you find this engaging and helpful. I will love to hear some questions and feedback from you. I feel like we are starting an exciting journey together and I am glad that you are here. Now let’s go get On Target!!

Recognizing, Reinforcing and Rewarding the Right Attitude

It’s important to think about and understand your horse’s attitude when you’re teaching him to do something new. In this video, Shawna discusses recognizing how your horse responds to training and how to reinforce and reward accordingly.

Clicker Trained Horse Remembers After 7 Years!

After almost seven years apart, Shawna and her horse Mint reunite. Watch how much Mint remembers his On Target Training on his first day back with Shawna.

Building Blocks for Training Your Horse

Whether you use On Target Training or another training method, take small steps to build your horse’s foundation for learning. The term used for this is Successive Approximation.