Clinic Reports
Linda Morse, owner of Brentwood Oaks, commented on how impressed she
was with the group that attended the clinic. They were focused on
their horses, very interactive with respect to helping each other
(peer support), nobody was losing his/her temper with the animals,
participants "shared" their animals with some of the auditors (often
times while they themselves stopped to help someone with less
experience work through a problem.) Most of us in the group don't
consider this to be so remarkable since that's how we are and what we
do, but it was quite nice to hear these observations from Linda.
For those of you in the clinic, as well as those of you who couldn't
make it, y'all need to reach around and pat yourselves on the back and
consider the impact that these kinds of things have... the image you
all project of mustang adopters and mustang mentors. When
"mainstream" folks observe this group for any length of time, they
can't help but consider that this bunch does have its act together and
also that these mustangs are very decent animals, especially when
handled correctly.
So, to all of you who pitched in to help in the ring, with logistics
and/or scrounging up some pretty cool things for the raffle, good job!
(BTW, I think Mary and Jan pretty much tied for "best haul" with
respect to raffle booty.)
Sharon and Judy
Our heartfelt thanks to Judy Ryder-Duffy who donated one of her few
spare weekends to work all day in this blast furnace that we call
Contra Costa County. She surely has a love for the art of horse
training and her unending patience and enthusiasm made this program
work.
Behind the scenes, Sharon organized all of the paperwork, kept the
records and finances straight, organized the raffle and kept the
administrative side of this whole thing on track. Believe me, it was
a much bigger job than it appeared, mainly because of the prep work
she did before clinic day. She still found time to come into the ring
and help out folks who were either having trouble or were trying out
new behaviors.
Pick up the Ball
I want to thank Linda and Richard, our patient hosts at Brentwood
Oaks. In spite of the heat and "firsts" such as their discovery that a
bored mustang can literally unscrew a float waterer off the wall, then
disconnect the waterer from the pipe by spinning it around and around
with her nose until it comes unscrewed (I guess Starfyre wanted to
cool off), they were up to the challenge and kept smiles on their
faces all the time. After it broke 100 degrees, I don't think I would
have been barbecuing and cooking for the group... I'd have been more
inclined to jump into the pool and call for take out! Thanks, Linda
and Richard!
Sheryl and Sunny
I'd also like to thank AMBA's Central Coast Chapter and Sheryl Feit
for handling the logistics of Judy's transportation. You just need to
remember that the traffic in the Bay Area is a teensy bit heavier than
you're used to down in Templeton!
Again, y'all are a great group which is why we go to the trouble to do
this stuff! Hope those who were here enjoyed the program and those
who couldn't make it will be motivated to organize something in your
own areas.
":O) Willis
Just a short note to let everyone know we had a super time at the clicker
clinic this weekend! We took Keno and her yearling colt, Jack and picked Jan
and Comanche up on the way. It was incredibly hot (109 degrees) but we all
enjoyed ourselves and it was great to see everyone again too!
Joyce-Northern California
It WAS hot!!! Thank goodness for the covered arena.
Judy Ryder-Duffy did a nice job presenting the clicker concepts and
working with folks individually, in spite of just coming off an
illness and being put into that heat. We did scrub the late afternoon
riding segment, went in and watched a video in the air conditioned B&B
and a few smart folks cooled off in the pool. We chased after the
cutting flag around 8:00 when it was starting to cool off a little
bit. Also, since it was Brentwood Corn Fest weekend, they had a
professional fireworks show after dark a couple of miles away and none
of the horses seemed upset by the noise and lights, even those still
working the cutting flag.
There were about a dozen mustangs in the clinic, each at varying
degrees of training from yearlings to some very mature horses. Most
every horse, including the domestics that were there, had some issues
to work through.
Keno
As Joyce wrote, she brought Keno and Jack which was interesting. Keno
would become obsessively parental whenever Jack was in the vicinity
(as within sight, smell, earshot.) We tried keeping the two separate,
but any time Jack was struggling with a behavior, Keno would pick up
on it and her focus would shift. She got pretty good at paying
attention to business by the end of the day, but it was an interesting
phenomenon. If she had a reason to worry about Jack, she would. If
she got anxious herself, it seemed like one of her emotional escapes
would be to worry about Jack. Great traits in the wild... not so
great in an arena full of horses and people. I think it was good that
she learned to some extent that she could be doing something, Jack
could be doing something else, and that the world was not going to
end. Maggie Jones worked Keno so it should be noted that she survived
the chaos of a rather involved clinic in the hands of a first time
handler.
Willis and Patience
Cindy brought Miss P who was a charmer all day. We opened the clinic
with Miss P. being ridden around the arena for the first time and
targeting buckets holding flags if something made her a little anxious
(which wasn't much.) Patience and Cindy seemed to stay busy although
neither seemed to have much difficulty. Patience would pick up a long
handled brush and hold it in her mouth until we asked for it and she
stood quietly while I waived a plastic back on a stick all around her
from up in the saddle. She also did a little unrehearsed demo where
she would repeatedly touch the side of a grain bowl on cue, but not
touch the grain until after the click and it was "spooned" to her.
Patience finally wore out riding after the cutting flag. She was
starting to get heavy on her feet and on one run, she just stopped,
stomped her front foot and said, "I've had enough!" We took one more
pass each direction and called it a night.
Patience, targeting the cutting flag.
It looked like Donna and Starfyre had a good day. One could see that
Starfyre is starting to mature emotionally and the click work seemed
to help keep her focused. Y'all have to realize that except for the
lunch break, most of these horses were doing something from 9:00 till
about 4:00 and with the clicker helping focus them, their attention
spans held for an incredibly long time. (The yearlings were given
several complete rest breaks during the day but most of the older
horses worked right on through.) The real test for Starfyre came
after the clinic. We were parked in the north 40 and Donna led
Starfyre over some fairly rough ground through the dark some time
around 10:00 PM. Starfyre led really well, checking out the shadows
and holes but proceeding nicely, and loaded in the dark without any
trouble at all.
Mary and Zodiac
Mary brought Zodie whom some of you may remember from WHW'98. Zodie
pretty much stayed calm and collected the whole day and didn't slip
into his "I don't want to do it, I'm not going to do it, you can't
make me do it" routine. One time another handler, Keri was
encouraging him over something scary and I think she might have been a
little short on the lead as he spooked and appeared to lift her up off
her feet, tipping her over backwards, but he immediately composed
himself and stepped back away from her rather than leap over the top
of her which was one of his former behaviors.
Missy, Willis, Annie
Annie brought Missy who basically did very well. This was Missy's
first time off the ranch except for during the flood and the first
time Missy ever traveled in a straight load trailer. It took us about
5 minutes to get her loaded each direction but each time when she
finally got down to business she walked in herself on voice command
with the lead rope tied off around her neck. The former mega-brat was
well behaved and attentive throughout the clinic.
Tami and Ranger
Tami brought Ranger. He was too cool. He wouldn't load in the
trailer coming over so she walked him down the road, which was a first
for Ranger, but Tami said he handled cars, dogs, tractors, etc., with
curiosity, not fear. At first he didn't want to go into his dark day
stall, but he settled in and within a short while was right up there
with the top of the class. I missed Ranger working the cutting flag
so I don't know if they tried it from the saddle or the ground. Maybe
someone who watched could elaborate. Nonetheless, by that time he was
pretty settled down and focused and loaded nicely into the trailer in
the dark, although he was a little bit edgy when those dark, shadowy
figures raised the ramp behind him.
Sheryl brought Sunny and Teeka. Sunny was a ringer. I think she was
just brought there to be cute! Actually, Sara worked Sunny and they
seemed to get along admirably. Fortunately for Sheryl, Sara didn't
bring a trailer or I think Sunny might have turned up missing at the
end of the program. Little Teeka did very well. When we got around
to practicing being tied, she'd simply bump the end of the line (set
up in a safety brake), accept it, then look around at the other
horses.
Ben and Jack seemed to do well. Jack was handling the situation
better than Keno. It was funny. When Jack would get frustrated with
a behavior, Keno would hone in like a compass from clear across the
arena. (I guess it wasn't so funny for Maggie.) As Jack got more
confident, Keno became less worried and we did get to the point that
we could actually ground tie Keno for short periods and she wouldn't
take off to meet up with Jack.
Cheryl brought Annie who as I recall did very well. Annie had some
issues which involved passing quietly between two close objects such
as buckets holding fluttering flags which were spaced just wide enough
to pass between, but she focused, dealt with her fears and handled the
objects just fine.
(I think I listed all of the horses from the WH group. If I missed
someone, please speak up!)
Bruno
The other mustangs seemed to do really well. One big fellow, Bruno,
seemed to get upset at first when car traffic would pass by the arena
so we set him up a target pole close to the driveway and from what I
could tell, after a short time it wasn't an issue any more. One lady
had an abused QH who could handle everything we had to offer except a
white plastic flag. (He was severely mistreated by a trainer who used
grocery bag flags.) He would target the flag but would panic if it
went farther back than his muzzle. Without chasing him around, he was
accepting the flag all around him and on him in about 15 minutes.
Andrea and Miro
Other than basic bomb proofing and playing with toys, we dealt with
narrow openings, walking on mats, walking over the plastic culvert,
walking through the side wall rings, walking over plastic tarps and
some folks even put the side wall rings on top of the blue plastic
tarp for their horse to walk through. A few had difficulty but those
were typically horses who weren't solid on targeting. Most of the
others would focus on their targets, the targets could be held close
to the obstacle so they would focus on the obstacle too, then they
would quietly follow the target through the obstacle.
The biggest difficulty was the heat, but in spite of all the scary
stuff and activity I don't recall any horses really sweating up and in
fact a couple sweated up from the heat in their box stalls but stayed
pretty dry in the arena. My conclusion is that they were more curious
than stressed, which is why most of them lasted all day.
Finally, we all wondered what it would be like with 15 clickers going
off all at one time. It was a little noisy but just like when we have
a conversation in a fairly noisy room, the horses had no problem
maintaining communication with their handlers and recognizing
immediately which click was intended for them.
Perhaps some of the others can describe some activities that I missed
or didn't cover.
":O) Willis
Before
I had a great time. Comanche picked up clicker training really
quickly. We did the targets and worked on worming, which is usually a
hassle. We were standing near Sheryl who was team working the clicker
with Sunny and everytime Sunny got clicked, Comanche quickly turned for
a treat. He also thought that if you just walk by a target and touched
it, you should really rewarded.
THE GREATEST THING WITH CLICKER TRAINING IS:
I have had Comanche 6 yrs. He was an abused horse, so trust was a big
issue. It took 3 yrs. for him to allow me to touch his ears as everyone
figured that he had been terribly eared. WELL, Sat. I started playing
trying to touch the insides of his ears with the clicker, not only can I
touch inside, I can rub his ears with pressure and put him to sleep.
Sharon explained about colic and the ear points and how it released
endorphins (?) and C was so funny.. He would turn in front of me and
dropped his head so that I could rub his ears. This happened in less
than an hour. Touching his ears wasn't an issue that I thought about
wanting to overcome, but it shows that clicker training is wonderful. I
am now a total believer. Cann't wait to go up to Joyce's and play with
Quincy...
After
Sorry this was so long, but it is so great to have a horse who isn't
afraid to have his ears stroked...
Jan
Rebecca and Piper
Shannon wrote and asked how to get a clicker clinic set up in her area.
My sincerest recommendation is to talk to the fabulous people at Wild
Horse Mentors who set up the Northern California clinic last weekend.
They had Judy fly up and Willis and Sharon were great. Piper and I
learned so much!
The whole clinic was fabulous and fun (if a little too hot!) and I
highly recommend you either set up a formal clinic, or at least get a
clicker play-day going. It's nice to see where other partnerships are
going with the training- gives you both a goal to shoot for and a
pat-on-the-back for facing your own challenges well.
Keep an eye on their website (and Judy's too I suppose) for more
information and pictures from the weekend.
Rebecca and Piper (happily facing scary tractors for cereal)
