The great outdoors can be a scary place! Autumn and I have started going for walks around the yard, which I wrote a bit about here. We’re encountering all sorts of strange sights, sounds, smells, textures, and noises. Some of these new objects can seem like monsters to a horse, especially once they’ve left the [...]
Autumn Blaze learns to lead (video)
I’ve been working with Autumn Blaze for about two weeks now. Dawn and I recently brought her to the rescue’s main property. She’s a big stocky mare, 1/4 thoroughbred and 3/4 Quarter horse/paint and will be four this spring. She’s had no training up to this point. Autumn has been fun to work with–she’s laid [...]
Halter Training Success with Daisy and Gatsby
Daisy and Gatsby, the two new horses we recently brought over to the rescue’s main property, had their first session wearing halters yesterday. (You can read more about Daisy and Gatsby, and our adventures trailer loading two not halter trained horses in this post.) I worked with both of them together for about an hour [...]
Practicing Perfect Transitions
Leading is how we get our horse from point A to point B. And most horses lead well enough that you can usually get them from point A to point B. However, games that involve leading can be a great way to work on fine-tuning your communication with your horse. Creative leading exercises can help [...]
Shimmer Practices Trailer Loading (video)
This is Shimmer’s second day practicing walking into the trailer. Trailer loading can be very frightening to a horse and many people have lots of trouble and training problems trying to get their horse to load into a trailer. With clicker training, trailer loading is a piece of cake! To read more about teaching Shimmer [...]
Shimmer Learns to Trailer Load
A trailer is a small, dark, metal box on wheels. For a prey animal like a horse, walking into the mouth of this monster sounds like a pretty scary idea! Shimmer, our little buckskin filly has found a foster home. So, it was high time for her to learn to walk into a trailer! She [...]
Doolittle works on leading using clicker training (video)
Clicker training is a safe and effective way to teach a foal, colt or horse the basics of leading.
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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