Rosie and I have had some grooming sessions and some hang-out time, but I’ve just recently started doing some ground work with her. This is a video of our second time working on figure-eights. (This is also her third session with the clicker.) She’s doing great, and catching on quickly. In later sessions, I’ll start using the target less and asking her to read my body and hand cues instead.
Targeting is an easy, low-stress way to begin on something like figure-eights. It’s easy to tell when the horse is bored, or stressed or doesn’t understand. Also, the horse has pay attention to the trainer and the pattern, while starting to learn to read body cues. Learn more about target training.