The Benefits of Clicker Training

I was riding Cole in the arena the other night, and a really nice boarder at our barn brought her horse in to lounge. She has a sweet Paint mare, that I have never seen truly misbehave, but her owner is afraid to ride her. She needs to lounge her a lot before she will ride her, and with her busy work schedule, she usually doesn’t have the time to both lounge and ride. As we all know, fear isn’t logical, and it certainly isn’t in this case.

I thought that demonstration of the usefulness of clicker training might help her. I told her that she would be less worried if she knew that, whatever she was doing, all she had to do was say “whoa,” and her mare would stop. I trotted down the wall, said “whoa,” and Cole instantly stopped. I clicked and treated him. I also explained that I don’t need to treat him every single time at this point. I just click him now and then to keep him sharp.

I then told her how he will stand until I tell him to move off—explaining how convenient this is if you are on trail and a dozen motorcycles come flying down the road. Instead of worrying if Cole will be frightened by them, I ask him to stop and stand until they pass. Since he is hoping for a click, he is more focused on me then the traffic. He has never spooked at something when I do this.

I then told her how he stands perfectly for mounting, listens to me about when to change gaits instead of following the horse ahead of him, and if he starts to get excited, I can just wiggle a rein, his head goes down and he is listening to me, again.

Then, I dismounted and showed her how he will do the same thing when I lead him if I point the whip handle towards the ground. He will keep his head down the whole time the whip is down, as if there is a rope going from the whip to his bit. (I should have shown her how he does it when we trot in hand, too.)

I didn’t think she was convinced, yet, so I got back on and started trotting him. I threw the reins down on his neck, lifted my arms in the air for a few strides and said, “whoa.” Of course he stopped. She gasped, but it turns out that she was amazed that he kept his frame in perfect self carriage with, if anything, more impulsion than when I was holding the reins. I thought about it, and got pretty amazed myself. I had to do it again to see if he would repeat his performance. This time, I trotted longer without the riens before asking him to stop. He did even better.

Still, my friend didn’t seem convinced that clicker training can do awesome things. I then tried one more thing. I told her, “Let’s say you are out on the trail and you drop something.” I then threw my whip to the ground.

Cole immediately stopped, reached down and picked the whip up. I took it out of his mouth, clicked and treated him.

She started laughing uproariously—she was so amazed. I think his trick won her over. Funny thing is, it is just a trick. All those other things are wonderful things that make him a safer horse—consequently making a more confident rider—just what my friend needs. Chances are, if I dropped something on the trail, he would reach down and probably start to graze!

Beautiful Fall Weather for Trail Riding

What a perfectly pretty November weekend in northeast Ohio. Of course, you could find me out on the trail with my Morabs. I love this weather.


Friday, I took my very last evening trail ride of the year. The time changed this weekend, and I no longer have the daylight to ride on the trail. Anyway, Cruiser made it a good one. He was energetic and silly. What else would I expect from him on a cool evening…? I rode Cole in the arena, and he wasn’t too keen on working. Before the ride, I turned him loose to play. He ran and ran and ran. I think he used most of his energy up, and didn’t have any for the ride. We did get some things accomplished, though. I will try them again, tonight, to see if he remembers them.

Saturday, I rode Cruiser with my sister and her horse Ranger. We went for about an hour and a half. It was quite chilly, and at one point, we got off to lead to warm up our toes. It was warmer when I took Cole out. He was just so perfect, I couldn’t really believe it. We mostly trotted—too and from home. The first few times I asked him to canter, he didn’t get it. Later, I asked him again—and we went right into it so beautifully…

Sunday, I took Cole with Ranger up to the show ring trails—as we do most Sundays. He gave me an A+ ride. (We like to grade our rides, and A+ doesn’t come up that often.) We trotted most of the time, and at one point, my sister asked Ranger to canter. When I asked Cole, he agreed, and once again, we had a beautiful transition. We didn’t get too far, because Ranger came back to a trot before we wanted him to. Cole had to do the same—as I didn’t want him to run past Ranger. Still, it was the first successful canter together. I then took Cruiser out for his 5-mile sprint. We met my boyfriend with Starry at the turnaround point, and we walked back with them.

My sister has a day off, tomorrow, so I took the day off, too. I am running out of vacation, but that’s the point this time of year. We are running out of good weather, too. Tomorrow promises to be another beauty.

A day off to ride

I took yesterday off from work because they were forecasting perfect weather—and they were right.


Cole and I went on a 2:37 hour ride. He wasn’t quite as good as last time—he went through a balky stage, tossed in some squeals and spins during the ride, and it took a little more work to settle down his trot towards home. We did canter 4 times for short distances, and that was really nice. He didn’t do the mad gallop that I have gotten in the past, but an actual canter. After that, he was no longer balky at the trot. He was good going past the utility workers, but he didn’t like the truck that was painting lines on the road at all. Though he could have been better, he wasn’t bad for only the 4th long ride by himself. I don’t know if I will get any more this year because the weather gets so questionable.

I took Cruiser out on a quick 5-mile. He was great, of course. He got pretty excited on the way home, because he thought he might find Starry like he did last time, so he did some pretty fast gaiting instead of walking. Finally, he passed up some horses and calmed down the rest of the way home.

I took a break for dinner with my boyfriend and then came back to feed the horses. I was exhausted after all that. I need to get into better shape!

Halloween Rides

I took Cruiser on a quick trail ride before sunset, and we didn’t see a soul—not even the headless horseman. It was a cool and pretty evening. There are still some leaves on the trees, and they were very vibrant in the dimming light of the evening. Next weekend, the time changes, and there will be no more trail rides after work. I sure will miss them.


I then rode Cole in the arena. I had the place all to myself. We worked on a little of this and a little of that. I still can’t get him to canter, but I was able to get him to trot faster—not just bigger. I am hoping that if he figures out the speed up command, I can just keep speeding him up until he will canter. I wish I had been brave enough with this last year to introduce it then. I think he would have been more open minded. I’m getting somewhat frustrated. We are cantering a little bit on the trail, but the transitions are still explosive.

The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow, and if I can get control of my workload, I will take the day off to take them both on a trail ride. The weekend is looking good, too, for a change.

House Cat Tip of the Month

House Cat Tip of the Month

I thought of this one when I brought my plants in for the winter. Thunder is fascinated and loves poking around in them. He doesn’t try to eat the plants, too much, but to discourage him from that idea, I put long stalks of grass from outside in them.


Now, he noses around in them, finds his grass and nibbles on that. It keeps him entertained, protects the plants, and best of all, gives him something safer to eat than houseplants.

Of course, I use grass that doesn’t have anything sprayed on it that might hurt him.

(pictures are Stormy, my sister's cat.)

Fun with Horses

We had a nice, horse weekend. The river wasn’t crossable, but our younger niece came out, and she made it fun for us. I started out riding Cole in the arena. He had a lackluster day. I then let my niece take him down the hill to the river. He was pretty good for her, and she is getting used to his bouncy walk down hills. When we got to the bottom, we let her trot on the flat part a bunch of times. Cole has a normal trail trot, and she was posting is beautifully. (She can’t manage his arena trot, but most people can’t.) I think she had fun with him. He was fine going back up the hill.

Then, we saddled up Cruiser and Ranger. My sister came with us on foot. We did the hill 3 times. At the bottom, we did do some trotting, and Cruiser showed his true colors as he burst past Ranger at a canter. Once he got in the lead, he was happy to trot. Ranger handled it well—but then he is used to it from Cruiser. May Cruiser never grow old…


Sunday, the river was low enough, so my sister and I took Ranger and Cole up to the show ring trails and had a really nice ride. It was a frosty morning—glad we had our thermal underwear on! I then took Cruiser on a quick 5-mile ride. He was in a great mood. We rode across the ford, and the only 2 motorcycles to brave the chilliness had to pass us when we were in the middle of it. He got scared and tried to run off towards home, but I was able to contain him. That certainly got our adrenaline going. It took a while to settle him down.

On the way home, we met my boyfriend on Starry and my sister on foot. We all ambled home, chatting.

Anyone looking to rent a house?

These are pictures of the house my brother and I bought.  We are going to make some revisions to it and then rent it out.  Isn't it cute?  It isn't as big as it looks in the pictures, though.

I think this is all a great idea, but it is still a scary thing to do.  I hope we can find a nice tenant who wants to stay in it for a long time...



Farrier Night

Last night was farrier night. my sister and I come out to the barn after work. Sometimes, the farrier gets there before us because he does another horse at our stables. When he finishes, he starts Cruise and Ranger. He waits for me to do Cole so I could help with holding him.

When I got there, my sister was talking to him and there were no horses in the crossties. I was surprised and wondered what was going on. My sister said that they started Cole, and he was so bad that they put him in the stall to wait for me to get there. I was disappointed. I have been working hard the last 2 weeks reviewing his training. She said he was kicking and rearing and biting—now, I started to get skeptical. That didn’t sound like my Cole Train.


She was kidding. He was perfect. The only thing he did wrong was nibble the farrier and chew the crossties. When she got there, he was nearly done and only wanted to know if I wanted the shoes back on or not.


Alas, with the impending doom of winter, snow, ice, cold and a frozen river that we won’t cross, we decided to pull Ranger’s and Cole’s shoes. I leave them on Cruiser because he seems to need the support with his healed bowed tendon and carpal tunnel syndrome. Last year when I pulled them, he quickly became lame. He did fine when I put them back on. (The vet said to keep them on, but I thought I would see what happened…)



The ponies get the day off, today. I am going to a local play with my boyfriend. We will be back on Saturday with my youngest niece…

Evening Rides

There was only a little daylight after work and the river was too high to cross, again. I rode Cruiser up and down the hill three times. He was quite energetic, and even did some gaiting up the hill. (Cruiser has standard gaits, but he also does a stepping pace when he is excited. He can get quite fast. He must have gotten it from his Morgan side, as there are gaited Morgans.) When we got back to the barn, it started to rain, lightly. Perfect timing. It rained the rest of the night.


I worked Cole in the arena. Since I took him on the 2.5 hour trail ride with a lot of trotting just the day before, I planned a quiet ride. I’m glad to say he had just as much energy as a typical day. Still, I didn’t push him too hard. We did some trotting, got our 10 clickable walk/trot transitions, worked on our corners and straight sides at a walk, threw in some trotting and then started something new—walk/whoa transitions using the reins. I might have taught him that last year, but he stops quite well with a verbal command—I have gotten lazy. I realized we needed to get a solid stop with the reins. It didn’t take long—maybe 5 tries and he understood it. I only clicked him for perfect halts. I will review this lesson a lot, since it is a good one for warm ups and walk breaks.

We then had to show off to everyone how he picks up my whip if I drop it. he loves picking things up, so it is a good way to reward him for being such a good boy.

Steady Trotting Home

Steady Trotting Home

The trails by our barn do not form any sort of loop. Basically, we ride out to our desired distance, turn around and come back. There are a few tiny loops, but they join the main trail, so the horses get that definite feeling that they are headed home.


Most horses will travel faster on the way home than on the way out—that is a given. Horses like to be home where their friends are. This doesn’t happen if we are riding Cruiser and Ranger together. They seem to feel that they are the herd and there is nothing to rush home to. By themselves, though, they step up the pace, too.

A faster gait on the way home if fine, but it must be a steady and controllable gait. It was time to teach Cole this lesson.

We have practiced trotting towards home with Ranger, and Cole seems happy to follow along at the speed of Range. It taught him a lot. Now, it was time to work on doing it alone.

As of writing this, we have gone on 3 long rides as described above. We did do some trotting towards home for short stretches with mixed results. On the third ride, we went further than ever. I didn’t want to do a lot of walking back because it would have taken forever. It was time to work on long stretches of trotting back to the herd.

Shortly after turning around to go towards home, I asked him to trot. He went very, very fast. After about ten seconds with no slowing, regardless of what I did, I decided it was time to start all over. Cole reluctantly stopped when I asked him to. We walked a bit, and then I asked him to trot. This time, he went even faster, and before I knew it, we were cantering—and he didn’t want to stop. I had to do the old “swerve to the left—swerve to the right” a few times to slow him down. Once he got to the trot, I turned him around a tree until he was going away from home, and we walked a little bit. It was clear that I had to come up with a plan.

We were heading back towards home, and I asked him for a trot. A few strides later, before he could gain speed, I said “whoa” and clicked for the stop. We did that a few more times. Each time, he was more cooperative about stopping. I got his attention.

My next step was to allow him to trot, and this time click him for slowing down when I asked him. We did this 4-5 times—I don’t remember how many times—and each time, he improved, but I noticed that he didn’t stop right away to get his treat. He kind of just coasted down to a walk.


The flash bulb went off. I didn’t need clicker, now. What Cole really wanted was to keep trotting. I would use that as my reward. I asked him to trot, and of course, he rushed off, again. I asked him to slow down, and when he did, I eased up on the reins, told him how good he was and let him just continue to trot at that nice speed. If he didn’t slow down, I would stop him and try it, again. (This actually didn’t happen, but it was part of the plan.) He made the connection. I didn’t have any more troubles with him the rest of the way home. When he sped up more than I wanted him, I asked him to slow, he did and then we just went on our merry way.

We did a fair amount of transitions, threw in some walk breaks and smiled all the while. We walked the last half hour except for one section of trail that was fairly close to home. I wanted to test him. We were close enough that Cruiser and Ranger will sometimes give us trouble if we trot there. We trotted 3 separate trots on that trail. The first two were perfect, but the last one, he didn’t respond to my slow down requests. He still stopped, though, when I asked him.

Overall, I think it was an excellent training session. The active training part didn’t take much more than 5 minutes. The rest was easy. Clicker helped, but figuring out that sometimes there are things that are more important than carrots helped, too. Clicker merely explained to him what I wanted.

It was a two and a half hour ride, with nearly an hour and a half of trotting. The weather was perfect and my horse just keeps getting better and better. I sure wish winter wasn’t right around the corner…