Dante and the River

Dante and the River

Dante's river crossings were driving us crazy!  He was just so slow.  Some of the problem was caused by Ellen over clicking him.  When she was nervous, she clicked him, and she was very nervous crossing the water.  Dante just started demanding treats.  He wanted treats every step of the way.  She wouldn't give them to him--and then he refused to go.  When she did get him moving, if she felt nervous in the least bit, he sensed it and stopped.  He has learned that he gets a treat when she gets nervous.  The crossings would take forever.

Early this year, she tried to cross him to go home, and he got stuck on the bank.  She got so nervous that we switched horses.  He then crossed immediately for me.  After that, we switched to cross on the way home for a number of rides--and he barely stalled out for me.  He did bolt up the bank on the other side a few times, but we worked through that.

When it was time for Ellen to start riding him across, he just kept getting better and better for her.  We couldn't believe it.  She can now just ride him down the bank and across the water without him stopping.  No longer am I waiting up to 5 minutes for them on the other side.  We are so happy about this, and we both agree that we will never stop being grateful for Dante's wonderful river crossings.

That still left us the next river.  It is wider and much deeper.  Early in the year, the river was too high to cross there, so we were using the ford.  (There is no ford for us for our first crossing.)  We really don't like riding on the ford because we have to share it with the cars.  Eventually, Ellen had to tackle the river.

The first time she tried, Dante was just as bad as ever.  Same with the second time, the third time...   Ellen was still avoiding crossing the river whenever she could get away with it.  She simply hated it.  At first she was afraid, but the fear was replaced with annoyance.  It just took too long.

She tried different things--more treats, less treats, more kicking, less kicking...Would you believe that is what worked?  Less kicking!  In fact, she is best with no kicking at all.  She learned to squeeze her legs and if that didn't work, she tapped him with the whip.  He started crossing faster and faster.  The last few weeks have been outstanding.  He just goes down the bank and steps into the water.  She clicks and treats him for that, then asks him to proceed--and he does!!!  It is amazing!!! 

After years of struggling to cross that river, he is walking right across like a normal horse.  Sure, sometimes he likes to pause to stick his nose in the water.  They all do.  But when he is done, she just squeezes, and he crosses.

Kicking had become a poisoned cue.  (She has been having trouble with getting him to go in the arena, too, if she kicks.)  Poisoned cues are a cue that used to work that the animal associates with something unpleasant and refuses to listen to it.  We don't know what went on in Dante's mind to cause this to happen, but it did.  Once Ellen removed kicking--even though she replaced it with a whip tap which would seem to be worse--Dante progressively improved.

I seriously think that one of the reasons he improved so quickly is because he is now doing what he really wanted to do--get across the river to be with his buddies who are waiting on the other side.  So once he started to get better, the whole process was self reinforcing.

Now her river crossings are a thing of beauty.