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Four years ago I spent hours at this very trail trying to get Luna to load to go back home. I was scared to come back to this trail for years because of one bad experience. Now she loads in her mask, with no one leading her. It just takes a little patience.
When you start clicker training your horse you might want to start with something fun and measurable. Key Lesson Mat training is an excellent exercise to start clicker training your horse. It’s a very simple exercise to train and easy to understand for your horse.
What does Key Lesson Mat training look like?
Your horse steps with his 2 front hooves on a mat. Soon you can train for duration and teach your horse to stay on the mat.
Purpose of Key Lesson Mat training
Safety: It creates distance between horse and handler. If he is standing on a mat he is not in your personal circle
Practising sending your horse away from you, towards the mat
Practising asking your horse to come to you, towards the mat
Groundtying with feet
Clarity: horse knows what to do, where to go and where to stand
Great foundation: ideal stepping stone to train other behaviours
5 Benefits of teaching your horse Key Lesson Mat training
Horse pays attention to the mat, not your hands or your pockets
Horse learns he has to do something in order to receive a click and reinforcer (C&R). He also learns that he can influence the C&R with his own behaviour
Makes it way easier and quicker to teach your horse other useful behaviours
Teach your horse to move towards something, instead of moving away from something which is so common in other training methods
Mats can become ‘safety blankets’ because of their positive reinforcement history. If the horse spooks there is a huge chance that he will look for the mat to stand on to give him comfort.
In this video you can see what happens when Kyra spooks: she doesn’t run to me or run me over. Instead she runs to the mat for comfort and safety. Super powerful benefit, wouldn’t you say?
Advanced Mat training ideas
Put 5 or 6 mats in a circle and teach your horse to go from mat to mat
Exercise your horse without riding by sending him from mat to mat with a few poles or low jump in the middle
Teach your horse to stand on other (unfamiliar) objects like tarps, pedestals, trailer ramps, wooden bridges, hoof jacks, into a bucket of water and so on.
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Preparing for a hoof stand.
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Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.
I help horse owners create the relationship with their horse they really, really want. I do this by connecting them with their inner wisdom and teach them the principles of learning and motivation, so they become confident and skilled to train their horse in a safe and effective way that is a lot of FUN for both human and horse. Win-win.
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5 Benefits of Teaching Your Horse to Stand on a Mat When you start clicker training your horse you might want to start with something fun and measurable.
Trailer Loading - How to Fix Anything with Horses presented by Elite Hor...
4 Reasons to start trailer loading today
4 Reasons to start trailer loading today
Is your horse a happy traveller? Wouldn’t it be a comforting thought if your horse would be ok being in a trailer? Every time and under all circumstances?
There are many reasons why people don’t practise trailer loading. I’ve heard: my horse is too old, my horse is too nervous, I am not going anywhere with my horse, I don’t have a trailer, I will never sell my horse, my horse is OK in a trailer…
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Obviously this is the after photo (I stopped taking my phone out with me in the fields after I lost it in the grass a few weeks ago), but I gave this distance a go loading Dom tonight and it went great! He wants to get right on the trailer as soon as one of the door is open. He trotted all the way up and just got in a waited for me. :)
He waited in the trailer for me without turning around the first time before we turned the camera on, but with him being that exuberant about coming back to me who can be miffed? :)
omg, what a day so far. We've been practicing loading Nook onto the trailer. Let me explain you something about her. She has not been a trailer since she got here 11 years ago. When she was supposed to go the trainers years ago, they couldn't load her on, so she stayed here and they sent another horse. Nook has been out with the same herd of horses in the same field (24/7) for probably...6 years at least. She's not as herd bound as she was before I started working with her, but it's still pretty bad.
So loading her is difficult. Plus, the trailer is a cramped 2 horse slant load (?!) step up, which for SOME STUPID REASON has a design where you have to open the door by the butt of the horse on the end first.
We decided to use her herd mate Monty, who apparently walks right on the trailer, as her encouragement to load. Yesterday we got her on, drove around the pasture, unloaded, got back on, drove around some more, then unloaded again. Today we were doing the same, but we gave Nook some Ace to calm her down a little, and we were going to work on unloading properly, because she tried to kill me yesterday. She went right on again today, we drove around and unloaded in the field, and then she would not load up again. It took us an HOUR to get her back on, because her other two herd mates were screaming for her and Monty to come back. Finally succeeded though.
My arm is so sore from her trying to yank it out.
Also, I am trying to think up a kind of show name for her, because her registered name is 13 and Out, and that's just plain stupid. I like to name horses after songs or fictional characters. She is a chestnut mare, older, lazy, kinda really unfeminine and only moderately friendly. So far the only names I've come up with are Trickster's Choice, but she's not really a prankster, and Lady Stoneheart, which I feel I will got to hell if I name my horse that. Any ideas?
