Four Day Blitz
It is getting too warm to ride outside in the sunny arena, so I decided to do some hill work with Trifecta on the weekdays. Ellen has to go to work after we ride, so there really isn't enough time to ride the Big Guys and then take Trifecta out on a real trail ride, too. Of course, I could go alone, but I really like having Ellen following along with me on foot. She is so helpful. Most of the time, I don't even have to tell her what I need or plan to do--it is like we are of one mind.
So we went back to doing what we were doing last year when I first started taking Trifecta down the hill to the river. We would get back from our first ride and Ellen would clean Dante's stall while I saddled up Trifecta and started riding in the indoor arena. When she was done with all of her chores, we would take Trifecta down the hill.
Day one went fine, except Trifecta wasn't on the same page. He suddenly decided he would prefer not to go out on a trail ride. He was sticky in the driveway and on the street. When I mounted at the trail head, he veered off the trail and tried to go into the woods. He tried to the left--he tried to the right. I was having the toughest time getting him to stay on the trail and go straight. This was not actually any different than in the arena when he would refuse his trot transitions on the fence--only when we were going counter clockwise. I struggled through it just like I did in the arena, but this time there was a cliff on one side and a deep ditch on the other...
Once we were about halfway down the hill, he went steady and straight. We did one trip on the hill, turned around and came home. He was completely fine on the way back.
The following day, we repeated the same thing--and so did he. I was more prepared for it, so he wasn't quite as bad, but still it was discouraging.
The next day was Saturday, so we had time to go across the river to the real trail. He pulled the same tricks as before, but they weren't as bad. Once we got across the water, I did some trotting and he was great. In the past, he was reluctant to trot and leave Ellen, but he seemed willing to move out this time. We did walk/trot transitions and all went well--except for the few times he tried to swerve off the trail.
I was far from Ellen when I asked him to go around a corner that also goes down a slope. He refused. I think either he thought he was supposed to turn around there to go home here, because we have, or he didn't like the stones he has to walk through. I waited for Ellen to catch up, so he could follow her--he didn't. We had to do a lot of coaxing and luring with handfuls of grass until he went down. Once we managed that, I trotted a little ways, turned around and headed towards home. When we got to the spot that he refused, we turned him around to try again. Once again, he didn't want to do it. Finally, he did and got rewarded. We did it one more time, and he only hesitated a little that time.
The following day, we decided to repeat the ride. This time, I had put some thought into it and done some research to tackle our problems. Clicker training was going to come to our rescue! (Again,)
I saddled him up and led him into our indoor arena. There, we practiced our walk transitions, and I clicked him when he did well. I got his attention. When I asked him to walk out the arena door, I clicked him. This time, he only hesitated a little on the driveway--more clicks. Trifecta's head was in the game.
At the trail head, we practiced our walks and whoas, which of course, he got clicked for. When I mounted and asked him to walk, I felt a pause and then he stepped forward. He got clicked for 3 steps, then 5 steps, then 8 steps and then a dozen. A few times, I could feel him starting to veer off, but now I was able to correct him with leg pressure. He kept getting better and better. Whenever he was really good, I gave him a click.
The last few times I crossed the river, he has been reluctant. I decided to employ this technique going down the river bank. It helped, but it still took him a bit before he would go in the water. Once he did, he walked across fine.
The ride went really well until we got to the corner with the slope. He just stood there and refused. Ellen suggested the circling technique. It only took 2 circles. As I finished the second circle and had him pointing in the right direction, I urged him forward. I felt him take a big step, and we were on our way down. Of course, we clicked him and praised him. I trotted off down the trail. He stopped where I stopped him a couple rides previous. I asked him to trot again--only to have him try to stop where we stopped the day before. I was able to keep him moving, and we kept going a little more--then I asked him to stop, we turned around and went home.
All went well on the way home until I made a fatal mistake. At the river crossing, we stopped to talk to a couple people with a dog. They admired him and wanted to watch him cross the river. I have mentioned how much Trifecta enjoys being around people before. He decided they were his friends, and he didn't want to leave them! They saw they were causing a problem and left--then he crossed. Note to self: be careful where you stop and talk to people with Trifecta.
One very bright spot of our ride--he passed up 3 small groups of horses without making a fuss. One of the horses was even his buddy, Starry, being ridden by his other buddy, Kevin. This has been one of his biggest problems in the past. I think he is just becoming more mature.
I could be wrong, but I think the reason he was trying to go off the trail was simply curiosity. He wants to go exploring; it's what young, male horses would be doing in the wild. I think he is just getting a little bit bored with the hill. I needed him to understand what I wanted--and basically, that is just how I fixed the problem in the arena.
As a side note, I did have another part of the plan that I didn't have to deploy. If he would have successfully gotten off the trail or even just put up a big fight about it, I wasn't going to click him right away when he went straight. My fear was that he would chain the behavior. Chaining is a useful training tool, but it is possible to accidentally create an undesirable chain. I didn't want him to conclude that if he veers off the trail and then goes back to going straight that he would get a click. It would just encourage him to veer off. It is something to always keep in mind when you train with a clicker.
The plan was to have him walk straight for a few steps, ask him to stop and then ask him to walk straight again. At that point he would get a click, and not associate the good behavior with the previous bad behavior.
I do know that all of this would be easier if we just followed another horse, but I am trying to train him to be independent. It really pays off in the long run.
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