Chewie and I have been working on some horse agility training!
One of my long-term goals is to compete with Chewie in the Horse Agility Club, as I did with my Arabian, Apollo.
I have been introducing Chewie to some of the different horse agility obstacles, and we are starting to play around with creating short sequences of behavior.
One obstacle from this month’s horse agility test is a hula hoop.
At the beginning levels, the horse must walk through the hula hoop, with at least one foot stepping into the hoop. However, the horse’s hooves should not touch the hoop.
I thought the hula hoop would be a piece of cake for Chewie.
But, she was a little unsure at first. I realized that we have not spent much time practicing walking over obstacles or through obstacles without stopping.
So, we went slowly for the first several days, and I gave her plenty of time to investigate.
When introducing a horse to a hula hoop, I like to use a sturdy octagonal hoop made out of PVC pipe. The PVC hoop is bigger and thicker than most regular hula hoops. So, it’s easy for the horse to see it.
It also weighs quite a bit more than a regular hula hoop, which makes it safer. A light-weight hula hoop may slide around if a horse steps on the edge of it or even flip up and hit the horse.
At first, Chewie sometimes wanted to walk around the hula hoop, instead of walking through it. And, that was okay!
Then, Chewie decided to get creative!
As you can see in the photo above, she stood with one hoof on the red block and one hoof on the PVC hula hoop.
It wasn’t the response I wanted, but she earned a treat for her effort.
And, actually, her behavior made a lot of sense.
We have spent a lot of time practicing stopping and standing on top of tarps, blue mats, rainbow mats, plastic pedestals, and other objects. We have also spent very little time walking continuously over obstacles or through obstacles.
So, it makes sense that, when she wasn’t quite sure what to do, her default was to try to stand on the object.
But, with a little more practice, she quickly figured out that the goal was to walk through the hoop, not to stop on top of it!
I’ll share more as our horse agility training continues.
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