This week has started off with a couple of return visits after quite a long gap. Yesterday I saw Quarter Horse Herbie who has been snatiching his feet away from the farrier when he has his feet trimmed. There is no balance or pain problem here, his strategy has been working and so that's what he does. I worked with his owners on asking him to pick up his feet for longer each time and then working with his foot in different positions emulating the farrier. In the end he was achieving "clear rounds" by holding each of his feet up in different positions for two minutes each time. If the owners continue to practice - particularly the man - he should be fine by the time the farrier sees him again.
This morning it was Gylfi's turn. Yet another pony who has had a bad experience with the headcollar at the beginning of his life which has led him to be permanently wary of being caught. Although he had improved using the touch and move away technique, Fiona reported that he was still diffident about the headcollar and certainly wouldn't be caught in the field. It was time to try Clicker Enhanced training and today we established a link between a target (eventually the headcollar) and a click and a treat before thanking him with a click and a treat for each stage of putting a headcollar on. He was less than enthusiastic about the dry brown treats that we used to begin with but became much more interested when we used broken up mints. Hopefully this is the start of being able to ask him to be less "self conscious" and to start to see the headcollar as friend rather than foe.
