Jordi does a bit of work with other people's horses and has two lovely PREs (Pura Raza Española) in at the moment. They came from the mainland where apparently they were broken to driving by being put in with a more experienced horse, hit and made to go flat out. It's desperately sad because the net result is two horses that can only think forwards, forwards, forwards, the instant they are in the carriage and get themselves into trouble with no hope of standing still. PREs are fantastically intelligent horses that seem to thrive on human company and to learn so so quickly. In this case however one of the two horses has become impossible to catch. Xanthe asked my to show Jordi how clicker training might help this little horse get over his fear.
I started off by simply handling him and stroking him in return for clickered treats.
Later I asked him to touch and then allow himself to be touched by the halter. It was so bright that it was almost imperative to wear sunglasses and I found that it made no real difference to how successful my work was - is it eye contact that matters or just the direction of our attention and intention?
Jordi worked using the same techniques the same day and the next day. Jordi senior declared that he thought that it was a different horse. Good news.
