We had another visit form Dustie, our horse osteopath. She was very concerned about Filly's right shoulder. She has some scar tissue there from an old injury which makes stretching the leg back difficult for her. So we need to work on that to loosen it up.
But how do you get a horse to do yoga ?
The answer seems to be by using positive reinforcement training, sometimes called clicker training.
The idea is to associate a particular cue with a particular behaviour. For this behaviour, stretching the leg, I decided on the cue "stretch".
So the sequence is
cue : "Filly Stretch"
then I place the right front hoof on the ground as far back as it will go
As she puts more and more effort into the attempt I use a bridging cue "good, Good,GOOD"
When I get the maximum effort required for that attempt then I click with my tongue which tells her that a treat is coming as soon as I can get it to her mouth.
The reason this works is described by the work of B.F.Skinner as described very well here Reinforcement and in any website devoted to clicker training.
The result is that she is now willingly letting me place her leg on the ground quite a way back. We are now working on getting her to stay in the stretch for longer to get more benefit. I have even be doing it in her field at liberty and yesterday for the first time she took a mouthful of grass with her left leg forward and right leg back whilst she waited for the click. Ultimately I would like her to graze with her legs this way round so that she maintains the mobility in that shoulder on her own. I feel this could be someway off however.
But how do you get a horse to do yoga ?
The answer seems to be by using positive reinforcement training, sometimes called clicker training.
The idea is to associate a particular cue with a particular behaviour. For this behaviour, stretching the leg, I decided on the cue "stretch".
So the sequence is
cue : "Filly Stretch"
then I place the right front hoof on the ground as far back as it will go
As she puts more and more effort into the attempt I use a bridging cue "good, Good,GOOD"
When I get the maximum effort required for that attempt then I click with my tongue which tells her that a treat is coming as soon as I can get it to her mouth.
The reason this works is described by the work of B.F.Skinner as described very well here Reinforcement and in any website devoted to clicker training.
The result is that she is now willingly letting me place her leg on the ground quite a way back. We are now working on getting her to stay in the stretch for longer to get more benefit. I have even be doing it in her field at liberty and yesterday for the first time she took a mouthful of grass with her left leg forward and right leg back whilst she waited for the click. Ultimately I would like her to graze with her legs this way round so that she maintains the mobility in that shoulder on her own. I feel this could be someway off however.
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