With the trip to James Roberts looming it was time to start trailer training Filly. Her previous encounters with trailers havn't been great. They have only been used to take her to and from the vet ! Thus I anticipated trouble.
Two days ago I took her to the trailer and she was not impressed to start with. I had anticpitaed this problem so had already spent some time in the indoor school playing the squeeze game. In this game I ask her to pass between me and a wall and then having gone through the gap, turn, face the gap and wait. This is designed to modify the natural flight distance of the horse. So instead of running for about 3/4 mile when frightened they learn to go just a short distance before turning and facing the threat for a re-evaluation. In this case the threat is a claustrophobic gap, similar to the walls of a trailer really.
So with Filly being uncomfortable even next to the trailer we went straight to squeeze game which gave her orchestrated periods of time to face and think about the trailer. A couple of passes and her natural curiosity kicked in and the trailer was subjected to detailed scrutiny.
I then lowered the ramp so she could see inside. I thought that this would cause problems, the trailer looks like a big cave after all, and caves are the natural habitat of wolves and bears, not horses. However I did not anticipate her curiosity and in fairly short order she had her nose in the trailer without me even asking. One of the hardest things to do when training a horse is knowing when to quit, but this was clearly a good moment. Keep the curiosity there for the next encounter with no scary moments.
Yesterday we had another trailer session. As she is so comfortable in my presence I decided to stand inside the trailer and ask her in using the YoYo game. Normally I would trailer load from the outside to avoid being a predator asking the horse in to its cave for lunch. Filly, being largely hand reared, is an exception to this rule. I also decided to use a combination of classic YoYo with clicker training. Thus if she made an effort to come into the trailer I clicked and she got a small treat, nothing if she backed out. However for each click and treat the effort had to be slightly better than the previous one. I must add that at no time were the treats available or visible until she had received a click. This is the difference between reward and bribery. It did not take long until she was all the way inside and receiving a large handful of treats as a bonus. Job done for day two.
Today we just added the fact that the partition was in place, meaning that the gap she had to stand in in the trailer was much narrower. Same procedure as yesterday and she was in. Again job done. I backed her out and was standing around chatting when she decided to give it a go on her own. I let her stand half way in the trailer for a while before asking her out and taking her to her field.
The combination of negative and positive reinforcement used for this exercise is very powerful, but I can see how if it were mishandled it could cause more trouble than it saves. The timing of the release of pressure (negative reinforcement) and the addition of the click denoting positive reinforcement has to be handled with care. Accidentally give the click a little too soon and you have just powerfully rewarded pulling back on the halter for example. But done right and it really accelerates learning, especially with a horse with Filly's horsenality.
Two days ago I took her to the trailer and she was not impressed to start with. I had anticpitaed this problem so had already spent some time in the indoor school playing the squeeze game. In this game I ask her to pass between me and a wall and then having gone through the gap, turn, face the gap and wait. This is designed to modify the natural flight distance of the horse. So instead of running for about 3/4 mile when frightened they learn to go just a short distance before turning and facing the threat for a re-evaluation. In this case the threat is a claustrophobic gap, similar to the walls of a trailer really.
So with Filly being uncomfortable even next to the trailer we went straight to squeeze game which gave her orchestrated periods of time to face and think about the trailer. A couple of passes and her natural curiosity kicked in and the trailer was subjected to detailed scrutiny.
I then lowered the ramp so she could see inside. I thought that this would cause problems, the trailer looks like a big cave after all, and caves are the natural habitat of wolves and bears, not horses. However I did not anticipate her curiosity and in fairly short order she had her nose in the trailer without me even asking. One of the hardest things to do when training a horse is knowing when to quit, but this was clearly a good moment. Keep the curiosity there for the next encounter with no scary moments.
Yesterday we had another trailer session. As she is so comfortable in my presence I decided to stand inside the trailer and ask her in using the YoYo game. Normally I would trailer load from the outside to avoid being a predator asking the horse in to its cave for lunch. Filly, being largely hand reared, is an exception to this rule. I also decided to use a combination of classic YoYo with clicker training. Thus if she made an effort to come into the trailer I clicked and she got a small treat, nothing if she backed out. However for each click and treat the effort had to be slightly better than the previous one. I must add that at no time were the treats available or visible until she had received a click. This is the difference between reward and bribery. It did not take long until she was all the way inside and receiving a large handful of treats as a bonus. Job done for day two.
Today we just added the fact that the partition was in place, meaning that the gap she had to stand in in the trailer was much narrower. Same procedure as yesterday and she was in. Again job done. I backed her out and was standing around chatting when she decided to give it a go on her own. I let her stand half way in the trailer for a while before asking her out and taking her to her field.
The combination of negative and positive reinforcement used for this exercise is very powerful, but I can see how if it were mishandled it could cause more trouble than it saves. The timing of the release of pressure (negative reinforcement) and the addition of the click denoting positive reinforcement has to be handled with care. Accidentally give the click a little too soon and you have just powerfully rewarded pulling back on the halter for example. But done right and it really accelerates learning, especially with a horse with Filly's horsenality.
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