Trick training is GREAT for rehab!

[DJR]

I’ve now been riding Finn for almost a full week. He’s doing great! It’s already rare to see or feel him being even slightly gimpy, and he’s eager to work.

Yesterday and today my daughter & I didn’t do any ring work and instead went down the road for a 25-minute pre-dusk trail ride. He loves doing that and is so interested in his surroundings, a bit looky here & there, but solid and reliable ... amazing for a 5 yr old!

I regularly do/did carrot stretches with Jet, particularly side bending and also bowing. Jet was sort of good at bowing, but not with gusto.

(By the way, Jet is about 12 days into his suspensory ligament injury rehab and just started once daily short hand-walking sessions yesterday. He’s had two shock wave treatments now and is walking soundly and minimal swelling or heat. There’s still a very long rode ahead, but hopefully this will end up taking closer to six months instead of twelve months to heal. But, I digress ... )

Four days ago I started side-bending carrot stretches with Finn. He easily can reach the point of his hip either way, but I can tell he finds it a bit difficult to hold for more than a second. So that’s good to work on.

Yesterday I introduced bowing. He’s a natural! He figured out two-legged bowing yesterday and was able to repeat it today.

Two-legged bow.

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Today he surprised me by readily offering a one-legged bow. The best part is that he eagerly offered his right (good) leg as the leg he folded underneath him, making the injured shoulder the one bearing the weight and fully extending that leg in front of him. He loved doing it, too!

One-legged bow.

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Meanwhile, my daughter has been working with her pony for quite awhile so he’s a pro at the two-legged bow. He looks like the headless horse when he does it, LOL!

Sawyer bow.

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Does anyone else do trick-training with their horse(s)?

[PhoenixRising]

I haven’t done it with Phoenix, but I taught two of my past horses to lay down.

[DJR]

I haven’t done it with Phoenix, but I taught two of my past horses to lay down.

How did you train this?

[Kyra's Mom]

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I have been doing a little "trick" training. I follow Karen Rohlf and she had a couple videos on "silly horse tricks". So far, I can tell Kyra to go get in the bucket...and she does (with front feet) and to go sideways on command.The 'bucket' is a 20 gal rubber tub so nothing that can injure her. I am just getting her to where she will stick with me and do it at liberty. I started her on a very light, thin long line but the last time, I did indeed get her to do both at liberty . She seems quite pleased with herself and I can reproduce it so I am taking it that she is actually learning that "skill".

That is a great bow with the injured side weighted. That ought to be so good for stretching his shoulder out. I find the bucket good for Kyra as it encourages bending of joints as the tub is about 8 inches high. She seems to be getting a bit freer in the shoulder. I still have to help direct her with a line for her to get her back feet in the bucket but that is rapidly getting easier for her. It is more difficult as the bucket is then behind her line of sight and they have to feel for it. Initially, it is much easier to just side step to avoid it altogether .

I enjoy this training. It's goofy but I have noticed much more interest in Kyra to pay attention to me and stick with me and thus far under saddle, she has been fantastic.

Thanks for sharing.
Susan

[kande50]

I taught a lot of tricks when I first started clicker training because I didn't know much about how it worked, or what I wanted to teach, but knew that I wanted to learn how to do it. I did most of it with my mule, who is now 25 and has been clicker trained for 21 years, so he's pretty goofy now.

By the time I got to my horse I'd already been clicker training for several years so taught him fewer silly pet tricks and more useful behaviors. My mule though, stretches, bows, lies down, turns around, backs, sidepasses, closes up, hops, shakes his head yes and no, comes over to the mounting block and lines up, jumps over stuff, goes away--and probably more that I've forgotten about.

I still feed a lot of treats when I ride, and keep telling myself that I'm going to work on duration more today but then fall right back into clicking them every time they do something I like. And they're of course, really into that, so are very motivated to figure out what it is that I want--which is the part of clicker training that I've become so addicted to.

I like the bucket idea, Kyra's Mom.

[khall]

Two legged bow is also called Reverance:) Have you thought about teaching SW with him? Really good at freeing those shoulder up.

BTW I was seriously impressed how quiet he was just going back into work. Good job on raising and training this level headed youngster! Sending him off was a excellent choice.

[PhoenixRising]

I haven’t done it with Phoenix, but I taught two of my past horses to lay down.

How did you train this?

I'm sure there are different methods, but here's how I did it.
I started with teaching the one legged bow. Gradually, I asked the horse to stay there longer and longer. I'd put my hand on the withers and apply pressure towards the bent leg to encourage them to stay there slightly longer and then release and reward when they did. Build it up slowly until they're in that position for longer durations, and eventually they lay down because it's easier. Once they realize that's what you're asking for it gets a lot easier.
The transition from bow to laying down is quite hard on them mentally, so they really need you to stay patient and give lots of positive affirmation that they're doing good and doing the right thing!

[kande50]

When I was teaching my mule to bow he just layed down, so I jackpotted him for it and then he had it. If I stand on one side and put my hand on his girth area he bows, if I stand on the other he lies down. I can't keep track of which side is which, but he knows.

He offered to lay down once under saddle and I stepped off and didn't click him, and that was the last time he offered it when I was on him.

Capturing seems to be the easiest way to get lie down, so if I want to teach it I can get them wet and then take them to a sandy place and they'll almost always get down to roll, and then I click them when they first lie down and have been able to capture it that way.