Chardonnay Meets The Noodles

We’ve started playing with several of our horses with the noodle fingers obstacle on our new horse obstacle course. The noodle fingers obstacle is definitely pretty scary!

The best way to introduce a horse to something scary is gradually, using a shaping process. So, start with something the horse can do, then gradually increase your criteria.

With Chardonnay, we started small, by rubbing one noodle all over her body. Next, we held the noodle against her side while she walked forward. Once she was okay with that, we put one noodle on the obstacle and let her walk through. After she was okay with that, we put two noodles on the obstacle and let her practice walking back and forth.

We ended with that. Over the next few sessions, we’ll gradually add more and more and more noodles to the pegs until she is walking through a wall of noodles! However, it’s always good with something new to try not to introduce too much at once. If a session is going really well and the animal is doing really well, end there. Building a skill slowly over a few sessions can really help build up an animal’s confidence.

One of our young volunteers, Whitney, was the one working with Chardonnay during this session. Whitney did an awesome job giving Chardonnay plenty of time to be curious and investigate the noodles. Letting a horse explore their environment at their own pace is very empowering. Most horses are naturally curious if we give them time to be curious. After checking out the noodles, Chardonnay eventually walked calmly through them. However, she might have been hesitant or scared if we had tried to force her through them at first, without giving her time to think about the situation. In the two pictures above, Whitney is letting her smell the bases and then smell the noodles. Good job Whitney and Chardonnay!

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7 Responses to Chardonnay Meets The Noodles

  1. Kate July 5, 2011 at 11:59 am #

    It’s great to see your young volunteers learning how to work with horses in a respectful and effective manner!

    • Mary Hunter July 5, 2011 at 1:29 pm #

      Thanks, Kate.

      We have about half a dozen junior high and high school kids who have been volunteering this summer and helping out with the horse care and training. Most of them are pretty green, but they are learning a ton and having a great time. And we are really happy to have their help!!

      It is great for our horses, too, because the extra help means we have more time to spend with each horse. This mare is doing really well with ground work and her first rides. She is going to make someone a great trail horse!

      ~Mary

      Sent from my iPad

  2. Radal16 July 6, 2011 at 3:10 pm #

    Whitney has really nice body language, it’s easy to see that she’s very relaxed and is helping the horse be relaxed.

    Also wanted to send a quick note about how great your last message to Alex’s list serve was. You were right on.

    • Mary Hunter July 11, 2011 at 3:32 pm #

      Thanks for the kind feedback!

      I am thinking about publishing part or all of that message from the list serve to the blog. 

      Mary

  3. achieve1dream July 17, 2011 at 3:51 am #

    Awesome job Whitney and Chardonnay!  They did really well.  I love that obstacle and am seriously considering building on.  

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