My Silly Horse

 

My Silly Horse

I gave Cole a day off and thought he might like to go outside to play.  Well, the mud was just too sloppy for him, and he refused to step in the gate.  I could have forced him to go in, but when I have done that in the past, he just stands at the gate and pouts until I bring him out.  That is my Cole--he simply hates mud.

I took him into the indoor arena to do a trick training session.  He loves doing tricks, and since he is a clicker trained horse, there are a lot of treats involved.  He will just cycle through all of his tricks, over and over until I run out of treats.

He did silly walk, but he was so excited about doing tricks, he tried to do it while trotting.  That looked really weird.  I had him settle down by doing a bunch of parking out and bowing.  Then he was ready to work on his proper silly walk with me next to his side.  We also did it with me in front of him, going backwards with him going forwards.  It is a bit trickier because he often just parks out and bows.  When we get it right, he will do a few steps first and then do the parking and bowing.

He was too excited to do any lounging--something he doesn't consider a trick but rather work.  He kept jumping around and trying to rear.  Of course, he used to do that back when I lounged him regularly, too.  We decided to skip that.

I asked him to do some trotting in hand without lifting his front legs up high like in silly walk, and he did great--but he was too fast for me.  I had to catch my breath, and then meant he got to practice parking and bowing.

I really needed a new trick to work on.  Years ago during a very cold winter where I didn't want to ride, I tried to do proper in-hand training.  He was actually doing the simple things very well, but then it got warmer and I switched back to riding.  I never got to anything advanced.  I decided to try a side pass.

Cole side passes very well in the saddle, so that made it an easier task for me.

I pointed my left hand towards the top of his front legs and my right hand towards the top of his back legs--and he immediately took 4 steps away from me in a perfect side pass.  I was astounded.  Of course, I clicked and treated him.  We did it 3 times on his left side and then did 3 times on his right side.  He wasn't quite as good on the right on the first attempt, but he was great on the other 2 tries.

I decided to quit there for the day.

The following day, I was going to go for a ride with Ellen.  I was saddled up before her, and I took Cole in the indoor arena.  He always wants to do his tricks before the ride.  I have to do silly walk, park out and 2 different styles of bowing before mounting.  I humor him because it makes him happy.

When we finished our routine, he side passed all on his own to show me what he learned, yesterday.  He did it perfect.  I had forgotten all about our new trick, but he sure didn't.  I asked him to do it a couple times in each direction on command.  He is such a silly horse.