A beginners video

The beginnings of three things we are currently working on: front crunch, turning and low rears, which aren't more than tiny little hops yet.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Pia
• liberty
• groundwork
• shetland
• pony
• front
• crunch
• rearing
• turning

[shunabell]

Gorgeous little pony, love your work, what breed of pony is it.

[RomyTitum]

@shunabell Thank you very much! Pia is a Shetland pony.

Warm Regards,

Romy

[MultiAnimalcrackers]

how did you train the hops to begin with?? and the walk sideways look fantastic..how did you train them too??  LOVE your video you have an awesome bond with your pony:))

[RomyTitum]

@MultiAnimalcrackers Thank you! I love your videos, too :)

The hops: Pia knows rearing up high, so this probably made it easier for us. When I ask for a rear, I often bend my knees, because I also want the horse to use his hindlegs. So I did this for the low hops as well, but deeper than usual and I am also making small movements with my hands which I hold in a rather low position. I guess this puts her focus downwards (as opposed to holding up a target to focus on, which creates high rears.

[RomyTitum]

@MultiAnimalcrackers About the sideways I am not sure. I usually just experiment with some sort of small moves and then go with the horse's reaction. If I have a specific goal, I still reward whatever the horse offers but then adjust my cue so that it doesn't suggest the component in the horse's reaction that I did not like. She then rewards me with better reactions when my cues get better. So I guess she must have reinforced me into doing a certain movement, but I am not sure what it is.

[myprophet1]

Lawd, I love clicker!! At 55 yrs, I finally found the one thing that is making all my dreams come true. And I'm "dancing with my horse". There just can't be anything better than that! Pia is 'lookin good':)