Over the weekend I watched a DVD produced by Colorado horse trainer Jason Patrick. Although our philosophies and training techniques differ, I really enjoyed watching the DVD. He has a relaxed and easy going style, which seems to carry over to how he works with his horses. Jason Patrick is an innovator–willing to try new […]
Training Stories and Tips RSS feed for this section
Dogs, horses, and rats. Birds, goldfish, cats. Dolphins, raccoons, and elephants. What animals can’t we train? In this section you’ll find lots of great training stories and tips. You will also get to meet many of the wonderful animals that I get to train. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading about my adventures (and misadventures) and that these articles and tales can provide you with insight that will help you with your own animals.
Morning Nap Time Photo
It’s hard work being a young horse! Here are four of the colts at the rescue taking a morning nap in the sun. Doolittle is the cute little paint colt in the front, Suede, Moody and Tilde are the chestnuts in the back. As you can probably tell, it’s been really muddy lately! For now, […]
Rescued Horses Need Homes
The rescue I volunteer at saved 23 horses at the end of the summer. The horses finally legally belong to the rescue and we are looking for adoptive homes or foster homes. We recently have also had several horses returned from adoptive homes that could no longer care for them. The rescue now has over […]
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 […]
Shaping a Horse to Stand on a Pedestal
This is a video I found yesterday that I really like. It’s a great example of a trainer setting the animal up for success and then patiently clicking successive approximations to the final goal. Horses are curious by nature and are usually interested in exploring new items in their surrounding. If we can reward even […]
Baby Horse Pictures!
These are our babies at the rescue, getting to practice wearing halters. Suede is wearing the pink halter, Moody is wearing the teal halter and Tilde isn’t wearing a halter. Tilde’s a bit more shy than the other two. While he’s starting to enjoy getting scratched, he’s still not at the point where he’s comfortable […]