Trotting and Cantering In Hand Over Jumps, Horse's 4th Ride

Buster is a 3.5 year old Arab Cross. In this video, he is trotting and cantering over jumps. The way we taught him to trot in hand was we started to run back towards his pen from the arena. Since he wanted to get back to his pen, when he saw us running, he started to run too. When he started to trot, we clicked and treated. It only took about 3 clicks before recognized a cluck as the cue to trot and would start right into it.
Buster was last sat on in April. Now we're in August, 3+ months later, and when we pulled him out of the pasture, he was as awesome as if he had just been ridden yesterday. Buster is a smart, honest, easy horse with a ton of play drive.
Les brought him into the ring and started to jog in hand with him, then began jogging over jumps. Buster offered the canter when his life came up because he was jumping. Les clicked him for the canter one time, started to gallop instead of run, and Buster recognized Les' galloping as the cue to canter. In less than 5 minutes, he learned to canter from a halt just by copying Les. He also performed just as well with Kali when Les gave Buster to her.
Even though Buster had just had all that fun cantering and jumping, and there were 3 other horses in the arena, when Kali asked Buster to play the Chair Game, he immediately settled in. Kali used her hand as a target to show Buster where to position his nose so that his back would be in the right place for Kali to get on. Kali clicked and treated Buster for lining up.
The last time Buster was sat on was during one on one time with Kali in the round pen back in April. In this video, he let's Kali ride him, not only after he was running around playing hard, but with no warm up, with 3 other horses in the ring, during a thunderstorm. Horses like this are few and far between, but Kali and Buster owe a lot of their success to clicker training. Nothing makes training easier for a horse to retain then a click and a treat.
Initially, Kali asks Buster to line up to the mounting block, but she builds up from there to rubbing Buster with her leg, to laying over his back, to laying down the middle of his back with her feet hanging off the tail, to kneeling on him, and finally to getting on from both sides and straddling him. She also gets on him both from the ground and from a mounting block. Buster does awesome with each part of the process, staying calm and enthusiastic the whole time. Kali hopes that with a good start under saddle like this, Buster is likely to be a fun performance horse for the rest of his life.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• colt+starting
• clicker+training
• horse
• pony
• horse+training
• natural+horsemanship
• trot+in+hand
• jog+in+hand
• jumping

[phillincoln88]

This looks like such a good way to establish a real bond with your horse - what treats do you use? I was thinking about doing something similar with my horse.

ps. he is so beautiful - a real stunner! =D

[welcometopemberley]

Thanks! The training method is called clicker training. You can find more info in the yahoo groups "clickryder" or "pnh clickers". A really good book to use to get started is "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor. There are some other books out there by Alexandra Kurland and Leslie Pavlich as well, but I like Karen Pryor's book best because it is more about the principle than recipes.

[welcometopemberley]

For treats, I use a nickel sized amount of Safe Choice grain. It's low in sugar. Most horses get sick of carrots after about 15 minutes. Cheerios, the cereal, works for some horses. Packer Pellets are a little big, but if you're worried about your horse trying to eat the spilled grain later and ingesting sand, they're a good option.

[welcometopemberley]

You can keep your treats in an over the shoulder purse/satchel, an ammunition bag that hooks through your belt, or a fanny pack. I've found that 2 cups of grain (about 3/4lb) is plenty for a 1 hour session.

[devinbriann12]

if I make a video of my friend`s horse would you be willing to try and help us out?he was a contester and when you try to get on he kicks and bites!then when you`re riding he starts to rear but he doesn`t.he has the softest mouth but when you barely touch his sides he tries to take off!urgh,I`m trying to get him broke of all of this but I only go out and work with him 2 times a week,no one else is trying to go on with the training,urgh,haha

[welcometopemberley]

Yeah I'll help you. He might have a rib out of alignment... that is really common. If you hold his sides on the ground or run your thumb across his ribs and he gets nippy, that is almost certainly your problem.

[fezdogwog]

Buster is a gorgeous horse.

[horselover99100]

OMG HE WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOURGUS and awesome techniques i will use them

[CanterQueen820]

Awww, you gave him a treat and hes like YES FOOD!!!

[xHorseChannel]

How tall is the horse? Gorgeous! I love the look of that horse, it's beautiful!

[XxXIsaHorseyLoverXxX]

either he's running really fast or the horse is just cantering slow (lol jk)

but nice! =D

[luce0472]

he is so beautiful!!!