Boomerang Training Update

Posted at May 18, 2010 // Clicker Training

As many of you know I have been training my now 7 year old Chincoteague Pony, Boomerang, to play mounted games since August of 2008. I’ve spent a long time working with him and we still have a long way to go. This year was the first year I stepped him up to compete in the masters level of Mounted Games, because I believed he was emotionally ready. And while he is emotionally ready, we still have a lot of specific skills I’d like to work on with him. Our training will never be finished as I believe there is always more we can learn together, but I do think with a few more specific skills he will be pretty polished.

On Sunday we had a clinic at the farm with Natural Horsemanship Trainer, Chris Carlile. I was able to take away a few things that I will start to implement into his training. I plan to do a full post and review on the clinic later – as I’m waiting to get some photos and videos back from my dad.

But in the meantime I do have a video from yesterday.

I was working with Boomer on teaching him to ride with speed to an object, settle into a nice square halt, and then ride off with speed when I gave him the signal. Obviously when we started out we began at a trot and have now worked up to a controlled canter, but the hope is to eventually be able to do this at a gallop. In mounted games, the best ponies are able to ride with bursts of speed, yet quickly transition to a solid halt so their riders can perform tasks like putting a flag into a chute, or placing a ring on a peg. If Boomer can master this skill in the heat of competition, then I will have a valuable “weapon” to use in wining a race.

I love watching this video because I can see Boomer really starting to push off of his hind end more. I’ve spent a long time teaching him to rock his weight back in order to propel himself forward. Boomer is naturally more on his forehand, and its been a challenge to teach him not to be, but this video proves that he’s definitely starting to get it, and build the muscle for it. I’m excited to see more improvement in the months to come.