Ran a very cool workshop yesterday. It was a horse camp of sorts - working with horses on the ground training them in a clicker/positive way to do some new things. The small but mighty group was largely dog trainers with amazing skill sets who were happy to play with horses and learn about training new species.
We did some basic scent training. The horses all were very happy to target the scent an wait for their treats. Then we did some targeting.
The participants were all terrific about working with a variety of horses. The horses were all quite willing to work with the range of participants too!
We had a lovely lunch just chatting about all sorts of things - interestingly enough the horse training was tiring for the humans it seemed. When working people were very focused and when there was down time there was lots of random chatting and laughter.
After lunch we did some more advanced scent work-using boxes in both lines and circles. What a great way to learn better handling skills for working with dogs. (Turns out you simply don't rush a horse scenting!)
Then people picked a horse, a trick and a human partner and got to work. One trick was touching one pylon then another.
Another was hoofing a jolly ball. Nelly got quite enthusiastic about this one!
Amaretto worked on polite and offered mounting block behaviour (he had developed the habit of flinging the box rather than staying beside it nicely). At the end of the session anyone who wanted tried lunging one of our happy horses.
I was so delighted with all the work that got accomplished! I hadn't done that much clicker work with horses but can certainly see doing it more and with more conscious thought.
awesome treat ideas for horses
