I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit–I attended clickerExpo two weekends ago, which was fabulous, and then ended up with a bad cold last week. (Not enough sleep during clickerExpo–too many late nights chatting with new friends! I promise at least a few clickerExpo related posts in the next week or two, I learned a [...]
Horse Initiated Desensitization
Here’s a simple pattern Shiloh and I were playing with at liberty on Sunday afternoon 1) Shiloh approaches me and targets an exercise ball I am holding. Once he touches it with his nose, I click and give him a treat. 2) As I feed the treat in front of him, I move to his [...]
Introducing Sebastian to a Saddle Pad (video)
This is the first of several posts on introducing a young horse to a saddle. Sebastian and I have been playing a lot with saddle blankets, cinches, bareback pads and saddles over the past month. He’s done great and accepted all of this in stride. In fact, the first time I saddled him, he stood [...]
Mark Rashid: Ground Driving 101 DVD
I recently watched one of Mark Rashid’s DVDs, Ground Driving 101 , after renting it from Giddyupflix. I was interested in watching this DVD because I love Mark Rashid’s books and would like to start with some ground driving work with a few of the rescue horses. Overall, I was not very impressed with this [...]
How long does it take to train a horse?
Question: How long does it take to train a horse? Answer: As long as it takes. This is a follow up post to my previous post, In a Whisper or In a Shout? Training under Time Restraints, which discussed training unhandled colts in 2 1/2 hours. Do you remember the story of the tortoise and [...]
In a Whisper or In a Shout? Training under Time Constraints
Recently I watched a documentary film called In A Whisper. It’s a DVD of a colt starting challenge that was held in Fort Worth in 2002. The three trainers in the competition, Craig Cameron, Pat Parelli and Josh Lyons, each had 2 1/2 hours to start a two year old colt. The horses had very [...]
Rosie Meets the Big Green Ball
Rosie and I recently started playing with a big green ball. It’s not quite as big as some of the ones marketed by natural horse trainers, but it’s still pretty big! The ball is actually an exercise ball I bought at a sporting goods store. I just hope it will be strong enough for the [...]
What’s the best way to train an animal?
Stale Cheerios will help you learn new knowledge and techniques to take your training skills to the next level. So stick around, your animals will be grateful!
I'm a graduate student studying the science of behavior and training. On this blog I share stories of my animal training adventures, as well as tips, techniques and tricks to help you improve your training. Although most of this blog centers around training rescue horses, the ideas discussed apply equally to all species. The other animals I work with, including dogs and rats, also appear occasionally on the blog.
Mary Hunter
cheeriotrainer@gmail.com
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