Posts Tagged ‘Chincoteague
Gathering of the Clickers
Katie Bartlett and her horse Rosie
So on Sunday I went to my first group get-together of some local clicker trainers. I brought Minnow along as well so we could show the group what we were doing and have some fun with him. The first hour or so Katie Bartlett (owner of the farm we were at) showed us some of her horses and what she had worked on with them. Most of her horses did fun tricks, but she had also done a lot of ground work with them. Her one mare actually cantered collected on the bit while Katie walked next to her – it was pretty impressive.
Katie's horse Willy learning Spanish Walk
I then brought Minnow out and went through his little repitoire of tricks. I got some helpful suggestions from a lot of people. One suggestion was about Minnow’s trick involving rolling out the blanket. He’s really good about rolling it out all the way, but when it gets to the last little part he tends to leave it folded over. So Katie suggested I work backwards (which I had never thought about before), start with the hardest part of the trick (unroll the blanket and leave the last bit folded) – ask him to unroll that part and then when he has that mastered move onto unolling the whole thing instead of just the end piece. It was a neat concept I had never thought about before.
The other thing I learned was about cues. It was suggested that you don’t add a cue to your trick (or exercise) until your horse has given you that final product you want. So if for example I am trying to teach Minnow how to bow…as I go through the stages I would not be saying “BOW” at all (which is what I want my final cue to be) I would only add the verbal cue BOW when he successfully placed his knee on the ground like I wanted. If had said bow all along then Minnow may end up giving me different versions of the bow that he had done while he was learning it instead of that final polished bow that I wanted. I had never thought about it this way, and I admit I think when I taught Minnow to bow all along I continued to say it. Anyway now I know and I can put this to use with everything I do from now on.
Katie and her miniature horse, Buster
The final tidbit I took away was that it may be beneficial for me to teach Minnow a cue to do “nothing”. Katie told me about another trainer that taught her horse the “grownups are talking” cue (taken from Alexandra Kurland’s training methods). Where the horse learned when she folded her arms that it was to stand there quietly and still. This is a great cue for performance work because if I need a minute to gather my props I could give Minnow the cue so that he knows to stand still and not “perform” on his own while I get ready. Minnow has a tendency of offering tricks when I don’t ask for them because he gets over excited.
Later I brought out my big tuff ball so that Katie’s horses could play with it. I found it really interesting that they were willing to go up and touch it, but all of her horses opted to push it with their noses. In contrast, when I first introduced the ball to my ponies their first reaction was to kick it with their front feet. I’m not sure why, but it was neat to see the different reaction her horses had to it.
Overall it was a fun day and I hope that I can attend another monthly meeting in the hopes to learn more.
Photos courtesy of Katie Bartlett
Tommie Turvey at Pony Penning
So I have several blogs that I comb every day – one being the Equine Extremiest Blog of Tommie Turvey. I met him and watched his demos/exhibitions at the horse world expo in March of this year. He’s a trick horse trainer that trains horses for movies, events, and pretty much anything you can think of. This was the first time I saw him and I thought what he did was pretty exciting. I still prefer to include clicker training into my training (Tommie does not use clicker training that I have seen but I have seen him reward with treats), but I have incorporated some of Tommie’s methods into my training. (see the video below of me using Tommie Turvey’s method of laying down Blitz).
Anyway while reading Tommie’s blog this morning I was excited to see that he will be attending the Chincoteague Pony Penning this year. How cool! Then I started to think about how there is no way that my little act with Chincoteague Minnow at the Pony Centre can top anything that Tommie Turvey can do. Now I think I should be nervous! I really need to make sure I get my “act” together, Minnow and I have a lot of work ahead of us!
Either way I think it will be a lot of fun to see Tommie Turvey again, perhaps he will come to the shows at the Pony Centre and will even be able to give me some pointers.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Clicks for Tricks
My video for the day is of Minnow and I goofing around at the farm last weekend. I was teaching him to kick the ball while standing on his pedestal. This video reminded me of how difficult Minnow was when he first came to live with me. If I had brought out the ball 6 years ago Minnow would have had his typical reaction – which was to pretend it didn’t exist and he couldn’t see it – mostly he would turn his head all the way around so that he didn’t have to look at it. This was extremely frustrating because if I wanted to show him something (games equipment, a scary rock, etc) I couldn’t even get him to acknowledge its existence. That is until I began clicker training him – then suddenly everything was of interest to him. He wanted to touch everything! In the hopes that it would get him a treat.
Now I love showing him new things because I’m always amazed at how he decides to react to it. Sometimes he bites it, sometimes he licks it, sometimes he kicks it, and so on. In the case of the ball (as you can see) he decided that kicking it is the most fun.
Tomorrow I am taking Minnow to my first meeting with a local clicker training horse group. I’m very excited to meet everyone – as I’m sure Minnow will be too. Minnow loves to travel, especially if he gets to do tricks when he gets there. It should be fun, and I look forward to posting how it went on Tuesday!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Photography Fun
So I was “tagged” in this little photo exercise and here’s what I have to do:
1) Go to your photo files
2) Pick the sixth folder (open)
3) Pick the 6th photo
4) Write a story about the photo
6) Tag six people
So here’s my photo:
And here’s the story:
I took this photograph of the Breyer Model I painted to look like my pony, Chincoteague Minnow I know you can Hire a professional Headshot Photographer for your Linkedin account and get better photos but I am trying myself for a while. The model came completely white with no color on it what-so-ever, and it was intended to be a model of Misty of Chincoteague. I think I painted a fairly good representation of Minnow considering this was my first attempt at it. I later completed another model to look like my pony, Chesapeake Lightning and I’m in the works to complete one of Chesapeake Boomerang.
You can see my original posts on Minnow and Blitz’s models by clicking the links.
So there’s my story but as far as tagging 6 people I have only one person to tag (sadly I have no blogging friends except for the person who tagged me).
So my one tag goes to my husband Mike at MikeDiLuigi.com. And my guess is when I tell him he has to do this little “project” is that he definitely won’t do it – because he’s no fun…and I’m saying this because I know he will read this and I’m trying to entice him into doing it – likely this feeble attempt won’t work either. So I guess you’ll just have to keep checking his blog to see if he will do it. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Good Boy Blitz
The character that is Blitz
The majority of my posts always involve my two Chincoteagues, Boomerang and Minnow, because they are the two that I actually own. But my farm is also home to one more Chincoteague that I consider one of my own, Chesapeake Lightning or Blitz. I actually used to own Blitz, until I sold him to my mom recently. I bought Blitz last May in the hopes that he would be my next mounted games pony after I retired Minnow. I tried Blitz in Maryland one rainy day and he seemed like he might fit the job. He seemed to have some speed, was unaffected by the equipment and was defintely a food oriented pony…perfect for trick training. Not to mention his stunning good looks won me over instantly. I bought him right then and there – well I guess actually I agreed to take him on trial for a few days back home before it was official. During my trial period with him I began to notice that he didn’t seem as speedy. He became a lot more sluggish and slow to move off my leg and I began to have doubts that he’d be the speedy mounted games pony I desired. I contemplated sending him back (even though I had already fallen in love) but my mom convinced me to keep him – thinking the speed would come later. 
After several months of working with him it was evident that he just wasn’t cut out to be speed demon games pony – although I was successful in getting him more forward than he was. I decided it was best to sell Blitz, and I was in luck because my mom wanted to keep him for herself. Blitz is still in training to be a games pony, but at a speed better suitable for him and my mom. So in the end things have worked out – Blitz gets to stay with us and his Chincoteague brothers, and I still get to work with him.
I took a short video the other day of the tricks Blitz has learned so far. Unfortunately there isn’t many – mainly because once I bought Boomerang I didn’t have as much time to spend working with Blitz. But luckily Blitz is a very fast learner, he almost has a dog like personality – I’ve never met a horse quite like him for sure. I think he’d crawl in my lap if he could. He has a quirky attitude that commands everyone’s attention – I think thats why he was so easy to call in love with. I definitely have plans to keep training Blitz to perform, and I have been grooming my mom to teach him new skills as well.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
