More Clicker

Another dreary wet and overcast day. Nothing really fun again that could be done with the horses that did not involve ankle deep mud. I took the warm mash of beet pulp, alfalfa cubes and senior feed to the old mule, John, and Lil’ Bit in the west pasture. They were waiting for me tonight. The last couple of nights, John had decided I needed more exercise and I should trudge up and down the pasture hill in search of him. At nearly 40 years of age, his hearing has pretty well left him, and calling for him makes me feel like I am doing something other than trudging, but little else.

While they munched. I drove back up to the main pasture to see how well the horses that were in on the clicker game remembered. I filled my feed bucket and put five piles of grain out to discourage the bully horses from being interested in what the others were doing.

Cirrus paid no attention to the piles of grain and followed me up to the gate where we had played before. As the star pupil, he was ready and eager to have another go. He was reaching for the cone before I could get a good purchase on the bottom to present it. He had certainly not lost any of what he had learned the night before. Reo joined him as star pupil #2. He also had no hesitation with touching the cone to get a click and some grain. Since Cirrus was so far ahead with his understanding, I upped the anty on him. He had to touch the top of the cone and only the top of the cone to get the click and grain. No problem. One time he took the top of the cone in his lips. I clicked. Now the only time he gets a click is when he puts the top of the cone in his mouth. Only a couple of fumbles, and he is 100%. Reo is not as orally fixated as Cirrus, so it took him a while longer to go from only the top of the cone to lipping it. I would wait until he was at the top and made any wiggle movement with his lips near the cone, ever so slight, and he started to understand what I wanted and his upper lip got busier. Nimbus finally joined us. He was hesitant, as though he was not certain this still would work. He had a couple of long thinking spells, looking at the cone and not moving. He finally touched it. While he was slower getting the concept to begin with, once I asked him for just the top, I got just the top and the “put it in the mouth” all at once and consistently. I believe he watches and learns from the other horses (which studies have proven does happen).

The reason I am wanting them to put the cone in their mouth, is in a few days, I want them to pick it up from the ground and hand it to me. Then we can pick up other objects – like my hat when it gets knocked off on a ride. I need to read further in the book to be sure I am not out thinking myself on where I want to go. I have been teaching these three to bow onto one knee. Reo at 16.2 will be much easier to get on and off with that particular talent. I may add the clicker to what they already know about bowing and see if it increases the learning curve. Cirrus is the top pupil there as well. Nimbus seems to take longer initially and then jump ahead several steps. Reo is steady, easy, and takes it all in a steady flow.

The two alpha horses never offered to come up at all. Little MeToo stood at a respectful distance just outside the group and watched the entire time. She never came forward and asked for or demanded any grain. Tomorrow night, if she comes to watch again, I will invite her into the game. There was no fighting or quarreling again tonight and everyone took their honest turn and did not reach for grain they had not “earned.” When the grain was gone and I picked the bucket up to leave though, they all glared at each other, snorted “back off”, “so’s your mother”, and “I never liked you!” and scattered.