I have some exciting news to share….
This summer and fall, a friend and I did some volunteer work at a local horse rescue. At the end of November, I adopted one of the horses from the rescue.
Apollo is a middle-aged Arabian gelding. He’s been at the rescue since this past spring. Other than that, I don’t know a whole lot about his past.
He is a sweet, laid-back boy and obviously had quite a bit of handling and riding in the past. This means he knows quite a bit, but also has plenty of poisoned cues and negative associations with particular tasks.
My friend Jessica and I had done some training with Apollo at the rescue, but not a whole lot. He knows how to touch a target and go to a target. We were also working on a few other behaviors to help make him more adoptable, such as standing at the mounting block.
I have plans to ride him eventually. However, at this point, we need to re-train many of his behaviors and cues. We plan to spend the winter working on foundation lessons, ground work, tricks, and lots of other fun things.
For example, this week we have been working on Alexandra Kurland’s “Grown-ups” exercise. We are also working on the very beginnings of “fetch.” Apollo is learning to hold a dog toy in his mouth, and we’ve been adding a little bit of duration. So far, I have enough duration to very quickly snap a photo, but not enough duration to take a decent photo!
I have a lovely barn where I am keeping him. The barn is about 10-15 minutes from our house, which is great. Apollo is out in a herd environment 24/7 with around 10 other horses on about 15-20 acres. So far, he seems to be adjusting well to the move.
I’ll post more updates over the coming weeks about our training progress.
Yea for Apollo, and for you! For the documentary on Operant Conditioning we’re making, we took lots of footage of Alex’s horses doing the “Grownups are Talking” behavior and others in her wonderful barn. Robin is so beauitiful and poses himself with such impeccability! I’m sure Apollo will be doing as well soon. Congratulations on your new project partner!
Nancy – I can’t wait to see the documentary! I’m sure it was so much fun to get to visit Alex’s barn and see Robin posing and doing other behaviors. Robin certainly is a superstar. I’m looking forward to my first trip to Alex’s barn next May.
Hi! What would you use the object-in-the-mouth behavior for–a practical skill (the bit?), or fun–fetching, dunking a toy basketball…
l’ve inadvertently trained my way-too-smart Nubian goat to stop every 20 feet, on walks, so that she can step off and get a click…I wait longer to click now. Will it extinguish itself, eventually?
-thanks!
(Hope you’ll come to Boston…)
Hi – where would I rent or see the documentary, near Boston?! (Netflix?) Can’t wait.
I checked with Nancy – the documentary is still in production. However, there should be a website available soon with more info and updates about the project.
Sorry for the delay in this response.
For fetch toys, I am currently using a dog toy that is three plastic interconnected rings. If you go to the pet store and look in the dog toy aisle, there are several different types of toys that work well for horse fetch. I’ve also seen people use balls that are halfway deflated. This way, the horse can get a grip on it and pick it up.
How has the goat been doing? Has the stopping extinguished? If not, here is something you can try. Go back to clicking every several feet. This way, you can click before she stops, rather than her deciding to stop on her own. Then, you can gradually increase the distance. I hope that makes sense.