Today, i walked Spice in hand just around our yard as being the spooky nervous horse she is even a walk around the yard can provide a valuable training exercise...
She was fine when walking with me inbetween her and the hedgerow but as soon as we turned around to go back which meant she was inbetween me and the hedgerow she felt far more anxious and found it difficult to focus on me.
So, i wondered how i could reward her for focusing on me when she did so that it would encourage her to focus on me more and spook less at the activities going on behind the hedgerow.
I came up with the following reward...every time i felt her get anxious to the point that she increased her speed or tried to overtake me i stopped her and made her stand still and only until she was looking at me for direction would i let her walk on 'away' from the scene of her distress thus giving her a reward for focusing on me rather than what she was spooking at.
I repeated this activity three times until eventually i had her nose to my shoulder the whole way and there was no speeding up or getting overly anxious at any point.
I found this a very valuable exercise and will continue to use this method outside of the yard.
Sometimes even the smallest things me and Spice do together teach me so much...
Wednesday 17 March 2010
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