Well, it is yet again dead week here at school and finals week begins in a few short days so I haven't been able to ride much, so I thought I'd just talk about life stuff. Especially since I had to complete my conditioning assignment with Jetta, that definitely took away from riding time. I didn't quite get to the "fetch" part, but at least she was fairly consistent with picking up the cone and giving it to me. Kind of.
Misty is fine from her little fumble on the cross country course. Her scrapes are very shallow so they'll have no problem healing. Her left hind above the fetlock was a little puffy so I hosed and re-wrapped her back legs and they look pretty much back to normal now. She was never off at all on the lunge line. She she's just gotten a very long (and well-deserved!) break after our show last weekend.
In the meantime... I'm kind of graduating. I mentioned a while ago that I had applied for vet school and had two
interviews. I didn't mention how they went. The first interview was at
Washington State University. This ended up being my favorite. Everyone
there was super nice and I loved how their program was run. I had a good
interview (not quite great because I'm not the best at interviewing
being rather shy and concise, but I thought it went quite well). The
second interview was at Oregon State University. I didn't have as great
an experience with this interview. They did the MMI (multiple
mini-interview) format which I just did not like. It just didn't mesh
with me how the more general format does. But honestly, I don't care
where I go to school I just would love to get in somewhere.
Well, I didn't. I am actually
on the wait list for Washington State, so there's still the tiniest
chance I will still get in, but I'm not holding my breath. I won't even
know for sure until August if I do by some miracle get in. So here I am,
planning on taking a 5th year (well, additional term or two) at school which was not even close to
being in "the plan". I'm still walking at commencement since I'm not going to stick around for next year's one. This isn't the end of the world. After all, it take
on average three tries to get into vet school. But I can't help feeling
like I failed and watching as other peers in my age group prepare to
transition from undergrad to vet school.
I will finish out my Honors degree by completing my thesis, beginning this summer. I've started
preparing my project (my experimental design has a rough draft and my
proposal is waiting to be signed and submitted) which I am REALLY
excited about. I'm doing a project on dog reproduction and while it
sounds like it's going to be really intense and a lot of work I am just
so completely excited about it I can't wait to get started.
This time next Thursday I'll finally be done for the term and I plan on rewarding myself with a nice long trail ride on Jetta. We both definitely need one! Sorry for the non-horse related post, but I just wanted to share!
Showing posts with label Clicker Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clicker Training. Show all posts
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Clicker Training Horses
Clicker training horses is a very interesting topic. Lots of people have very strong opinions for or against it. Personally, I was interested in it having seen some neat things that people had trained for, however I wasn't that motivated to try it since traditional methods worked for me and it's what I'd always done. Two bloggers that I know of use clicker training though, first is Matt the Cowpony who I've seen has a clicker-trained spin on the ground (really neat to watch). Secondly, just recently Bad Eventer posted about her success in using clicker training with her monster pony. Neat stuff!
Enter my animal learning class where our term project is to clicker train an animal. I am actually really enjoying this class contrary to how I thought it would be. I just find training so fascinating and I've loved training animals since I was little. Our family dog knows at least 15 different commands as a result of having to hang out at my family's store every day when I was between 8 and 10 years old. Boredom often has great results, haha.
First, some terminology. I didn't know the distinction between these terms before this class, though we so often use them in general life incorrectly.
Positive = adding something to the environment. Not good or bad, just the addition of a stimuli or object.
Negative = removing something from the environment.
Punishment = anything that makes an animal perform the specified action less
Reinforcement = anything that makes an animal perform the specified action more
So therefore positive reinforcement is adding something to the environment (such as treats or praise) to make the animal perform the behavior more often, negative reinforcement is removing something from the environment (such as pressure or an annoying sound) to get an animal to perform a behavior more often. Negative punishment is removing something (such as a child's favorite toy) to make them perform a behavior less often and positive punishment is adding something (an aversive stimuli such as a shock or slap) to make them perform the behavior less often.
The majority of horse training is done through negative reinforcement. Put pressure on the reins to get the horse to give to the bit, pressure on the sides with your calf to get the horse to move forward or turn, etc. There's some positive reinforcement through praise, but mostly it's negative. The reward is removing the pressure. For the most part I don't see too much punishment in training horses and it's something that is generally avoided in my experience, but the most common I've experienced is smacking a horse with a crop for refusing a fence.
Clicker training is all about positive reinforcement. You don't have to use a clicker, but the reason it is used is to mark a positive behavior as soon as it happens. I think many people have experienced training a dog to sit and as soon as they do, you reach down to give them a treat and they immediately jump up to get the food, thus getting rewarded for standing up. Usually in training dogs (without a clicker) you still mark the good behavior as soon as it happens with a "good dog!" so they know exactly what is getting them that reward.
The most common arguments I've heard against clicker training horses are that the horse will become pushy and rude to get the treats (common argument against hand-feeding treats), that the horse will perform the trained behavior even when it's not asked for, and that the horse will only perform for treats, so if you don't have the treat forget it.
My opinion (notice it's an opinion!) is that these are both very untrue if done correctly. You can read another completely different opinion here. (Note: this was my first introduction to a view on clicker training horses several years ago. I'd never really considered using clicker training on horses before. Somehow I ran across this woman's blog. I really hope that this piece is intended to be more sarcastic than educational).
Anyways. The first argument against clicker training: the horse will become pushy and rude to get treats. They really shouldn't actually. I was slightly worried about this because Jetta is, well, apt to become just that: rude and pushy. But, the thing is that after the first session, where she sniffed me up and down and rifled through my clothes pockets to get the treats (which she got reprimanded for "positive punishment" because that is rude and not allowed) she quickly figured out the ONLY way to get a treat was to perform the behavior I wanted. In this case, she only got a treat if she touched the traffic cone and heard a click. And she's not going to "take off my hand" trying to get the treat, because as soon as I click to mark the behavior I basically shoved the treat in her face where she politely took it. There's no opportunity to bite even if she thought that was appropriate behavior, which she doesn't. If I had to struggle to get the treat out of my pocket, Jetta waited somewhat patiently because she knew that she's not allowed to beg for a treat. That doesn't get her anywhere.
Second argument, the horse will perform the trained behavior even when it's not asked for. If that is the case, then by definition, this behavior is not correctly or completely trained. A behavior is only completely trained when the animal performs it immediately upon command, it never occurs when not commanded, it never occurs in response to a different command (such as telling a dog to lie down and they sit instead), and no other behavior occurs in response to this command (so telling a dog to sit wouldn't result in them jumping up). If a behavior is completely trained, then the animal knows that they will receive no reinforcement for a behavior that is unasked for. In the beginning of training, yes the animal must offer behaviors that you will choose to reinforce, but by the end of training you can attach a verbal, visual or tactile cue and then animal will learn to ONLY perform that behavior when that cue is given.
Third argument, the horse will only perform for treats so if you don't have treats, forget it. Also a very common thought. What I never realized is that there are two basic schedules of reinforcement, meaning how often you reinforce for something. There is fixed ratio (FR) and variable ratio (VR). Initially, you'll use an FR1 schedule of reinforcement, meaning that every time the behavior is performed, the animal will be reinforced. Other types of FR schedules could be FR5, meaning that the behavior has to be performed five times to get one reinforcement. A VR schedule of reinforcement means that the number of times the behavior must be performed to get reinforced varies each time. A VR5 schedule means that the behavior must be performed an AVERAGE of 5 times. This could mean they do it once to get a treat or do it ten times to get a treat. They never know how many times it will take to get the treat. The great thing about this is that once a behavior is established, you can change from an FR1 schedule to a variable schedule. VR schedules are great because they create behaviors that are also really resistant to extinction, meaning if you forget treats, that behavior will still be performed when asked because eventually the animal knows that they will get reinforced.
Extinction is the decrease or disappearance of a behavior that was previously reinforced once reinforcement stops. So if a horse is reinforced for, let's say, laying down. All of the sudden if you stop giving them treats whenever they lay down then eventually that behavior will decrease or stop altogether. However, it's not something that happens immediately. Commonly there is an "extinction burst" where the animal will increase the behavior at first to try to get reinforced before slowly decreasing the behavior. This is something that I think a lot of people don't realize, but makes a lot of sense if you think about it. I think a great example is with little kids. If you're on a road trip and they ask "Are we there yet?" and you respond, giving them attention (reinforcement) then they will continue to ask this question throughout the trip. However, if you all of the sudden stop responding to them and start ignoring the question to try and get them to stop bugging you, at first they will increase their rate of asking, often escalating their obnoxiousness levels trying to get that attention back. However, if you wait it out long enough, they'll lose interest and eventually learn to stop asking because they won't get attention that way.
So that's my basic overview of clicker training. I'm still having a blast doing it with Jetta and plan to continue to use it after the class is over. Next thing on the list is teaching her to stand still in the wash stall cross ties. Still not something we've mastered over the past six years...
If you're interested in reading more, one of the required books for the class I'm in is Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog". Easy to understand and an easy read.
Enter my animal learning class where our term project is to clicker train an animal. I am actually really enjoying this class contrary to how I thought it would be. I just find training so fascinating and I've loved training animals since I was little. Our family dog knows at least 15 different commands as a result of having to hang out at my family's store every day when I was between 8 and 10 years old. Boredom often has great results, haha.
First, some terminology. I didn't know the distinction between these terms before this class, though we so often use them in general life incorrectly.
Positive = adding something to the environment. Not good or bad, just the addition of a stimuli or object.
Negative = removing something from the environment.
Punishment = anything that makes an animal perform the specified action less
Reinforcement = anything that makes an animal perform the specified action more
So therefore positive reinforcement is adding something to the environment (such as treats or praise) to make the animal perform the behavior more often, negative reinforcement is removing something from the environment (such as pressure or an annoying sound) to get an animal to perform a behavior more often. Negative punishment is removing something (such as a child's favorite toy) to make them perform a behavior less often and positive punishment is adding something (an aversive stimuli such as a shock or slap) to make them perform the behavior less often.
The majority of horse training is done through negative reinforcement. Put pressure on the reins to get the horse to give to the bit, pressure on the sides with your calf to get the horse to move forward or turn, etc. There's some positive reinforcement through praise, but mostly it's negative. The reward is removing the pressure. For the most part I don't see too much punishment in training horses and it's something that is generally avoided in my experience, but the most common I've experienced is smacking a horse with a crop for refusing a fence.
Clicker training is all about positive reinforcement. You don't have to use a clicker, but the reason it is used is to mark a positive behavior as soon as it happens. I think many people have experienced training a dog to sit and as soon as they do, you reach down to give them a treat and they immediately jump up to get the food, thus getting rewarded for standing up. Usually in training dogs (without a clicker) you still mark the good behavior as soon as it happens with a "good dog!" so they know exactly what is getting them that reward.
The most common arguments I've heard against clicker training horses are that the horse will become pushy and rude to get the treats (common argument against hand-feeding treats), that the horse will perform the trained behavior even when it's not asked for, and that the horse will only perform for treats, so if you don't have the treat forget it.
My opinion (notice it's an opinion!) is that these are both very untrue if done correctly. You can read another completely different opinion here. (Note: this was my first introduction to a view on clicker training horses several years ago. I'd never really considered using clicker training on horses before. Somehow I ran across this woman's blog. I really hope that this piece is intended to be more sarcastic than educational).
Anyways. The first argument against clicker training: the horse will become pushy and rude to get treats. They really shouldn't actually. I was slightly worried about this because Jetta is, well, apt to become just that: rude and pushy. But, the thing is that after the first session, where she sniffed me up and down and rifled through my clothes pockets to get the treats (which she got reprimanded for "positive punishment" because that is rude and not allowed) she quickly figured out the ONLY way to get a treat was to perform the behavior I wanted. In this case, she only got a treat if she touched the traffic cone and heard a click. And she's not going to "take off my hand" trying to get the treat, because as soon as I click to mark the behavior I basically shoved the treat in her face where she politely took it. There's no opportunity to bite even if she thought that was appropriate behavior, which she doesn't. If I had to struggle to get the treat out of my pocket, Jetta waited somewhat patiently because she knew that she's not allowed to beg for a treat. That doesn't get her anywhere.
Second argument, the horse will perform the trained behavior even when it's not asked for. If that is the case, then by definition, this behavior is not correctly or completely trained. A behavior is only completely trained when the animal performs it immediately upon command, it never occurs when not commanded, it never occurs in response to a different command (such as telling a dog to lie down and they sit instead), and no other behavior occurs in response to this command (so telling a dog to sit wouldn't result in them jumping up). If a behavior is completely trained, then the animal knows that they will receive no reinforcement for a behavior that is unasked for. In the beginning of training, yes the animal must offer behaviors that you will choose to reinforce, but by the end of training you can attach a verbal, visual or tactile cue and then animal will learn to ONLY perform that behavior when that cue is given.
Third argument, the horse will only perform for treats so if you don't have treats, forget it. Also a very common thought. What I never realized is that there are two basic schedules of reinforcement, meaning how often you reinforce for something. There is fixed ratio (FR) and variable ratio (VR). Initially, you'll use an FR1 schedule of reinforcement, meaning that every time the behavior is performed, the animal will be reinforced. Other types of FR schedules could be FR5, meaning that the behavior has to be performed five times to get one reinforcement. A VR schedule of reinforcement means that the number of times the behavior must be performed to get reinforced varies each time. A VR5 schedule means that the behavior must be performed an AVERAGE of 5 times. This could mean they do it once to get a treat or do it ten times to get a treat. They never know how many times it will take to get the treat. The great thing about this is that once a behavior is established, you can change from an FR1 schedule to a variable schedule. VR schedules are great because they create behaviors that are also really resistant to extinction, meaning if you forget treats, that behavior will still be performed when asked because eventually the animal knows that they will get reinforced.
Extinction is the decrease or disappearance of a behavior that was previously reinforced once reinforcement stops. So if a horse is reinforced for, let's say, laying down. All of the sudden if you stop giving them treats whenever they lay down then eventually that behavior will decrease or stop altogether. However, it's not something that happens immediately. Commonly there is an "extinction burst" where the animal will increase the behavior at first to try to get reinforced before slowly decreasing the behavior. This is something that I think a lot of people don't realize, but makes a lot of sense if you think about it. I think a great example is with little kids. If you're on a road trip and they ask "Are we there yet?" and you respond, giving them attention (reinforcement) then they will continue to ask this question throughout the trip. However, if you all of the sudden stop responding to them and start ignoring the question to try and get them to stop bugging you, at first they will increase their rate of asking, often escalating their obnoxiousness levels trying to get that attention back. However, if you wait it out long enough, they'll lose interest and eventually learn to stop asking because they won't get attention that way.
So that's my basic overview of clicker training. I'm still having a blast doing it with Jetta and plan to continue to use it after the class is over. Next thing on the list is teaching her to stand still in the wash stall cross ties. Still not something we've mastered over the past six years...
If you're interested in reading more, one of the required books for the class I'm in is Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog". Easy to understand and an easy read.
Monday, May 19, 2014
The Other Good Pony
Poor Jetta has been getting the short end. With me trying to get Misty all ready to sell and show, I've been riding her way more often. I haven't ridden Jetta since last Monday during our not-so-good jump school (if you can even call it schooling).
But despite the jumping fail, she's actually been REALLY good lately. I wrote about our last awesome ride and how I could definitely see us getting to second level by the end of this year. And after our ride today, I can say that should be the case!
I finally have my sweet, hard-working (if not still a little bit hard-headed and stubborn) horse back. Can't believe a month ago we were dealing with bucking, bolting, rearing and spooking. No more! She didn't hardly put a foot wrong.
I started out with our clicker training session. The due date on our class project is coming up quickly and I'm afraid we're not going to have enough time to get to our goal behavior. But, she learns so fast that hopefully it won't be a big problem. This was only our second session and there was a huge gap between the two so I was bracing myself for her having forgotten everything. I needn't have worried because she immediately started touching the cone to get her treat even when it was sitting on the ground, so I started shaping for a new behavior.
She was touching the cone for a second. But the end goal is to get her to pick up the cone and hold it in her mouth, so I started waiting for her to hold her nose to the cone for a couple seconds instead of just a split-second. She quickly picked that up so I started waiting for her to mouth the cone a little bit. She caught onto that fairly quickly, but unfortunately when I thought I was reinforcing her for mouthing the cone, she thought she was getting reinforced for wiggling her lips all over it. I wanted the next step to be her biting the cone, but she was happily going to town with her camel lips all over the cone so there wasn't the opportunity to reinforce her for the new behavior.
I ended up having to hold the cone for her and wait for her to bite it out of being upset lol. She got kind of offended a couple times and left when she didn't get her treat (we were in the roundpen) but she always came back. Ended it on a good note when she bit the cone three times in a row.
Next time we'll hopefully get the biting the cone behavior more set then if I can get her to actually pick it up off the ground I'll be happy.
After the clicker session I lunged her and got on. I was expecting her to be a witch because I haven't ridden (or even lunged) her for a week plus she's in heat. But I couldn't even tell when I got in the saddle. She warmed up really well so I decided to run through some second level movements. 10 meter circles are really nice. She has great rein-backs and a nice collected trot. Shoulder-in wasn't quite as nice as our last ride (where they were literally perfect) but still acceptable. Medium gaits need lots more work. Simple changes are ok, but she still gives about three trot strides before she walks and I usually have to give a bigger half halt than I'd like. But she picks up her leads from the walk perfectly. The canter serpentines on the same lead are a little interesting. She gets kind of worried and braces, but doesn't try to change so we'll keep working on those.
Overall, an awesome ride. We're going to keep chipping away at second level and start putting all the pieces together to ride a test at a show and hopefully once summer rolls around we'll get a lesson or two to clean up any loose ends. I'm excited!
And, here are the pics of Jetta jumping last week.
But despite the jumping fail, she's actually been REALLY good lately. I wrote about our last awesome ride and how I could definitely see us getting to second level by the end of this year. And after our ride today, I can say that should be the case!
I finally have my sweet, hard-working (if not still a little bit hard-headed and stubborn) horse back. Can't believe a month ago we were dealing with bucking, bolting, rearing and spooking. No more! She didn't hardly put a foot wrong.
I started out with our clicker training session. The due date on our class project is coming up quickly and I'm afraid we're not going to have enough time to get to our goal behavior. But, she learns so fast that hopefully it won't be a big problem. This was only our second session and there was a huge gap between the two so I was bracing myself for her having forgotten everything. I needn't have worried because she immediately started touching the cone to get her treat even when it was sitting on the ground, so I started shaping for a new behavior.
She was touching the cone for a second. But the end goal is to get her to pick up the cone and hold it in her mouth, so I started waiting for her to hold her nose to the cone for a couple seconds instead of just a split-second. She quickly picked that up so I started waiting for her to mouth the cone a little bit. She caught onto that fairly quickly, but unfortunately when I thought I was reinforcing her for mouthing the cone, she thought she was getting reinforced for wiggling her lips all over it. I wanted the next step to be her biting the cone, but she was happily going to town with her camel lips all over the cone so there wasn't the opportunity to reinforce her for the new behavior.
I ended up having to hold the cone for her and wait for her to bite it out of being upset lol. She got kind of offended a couple times and left when she didn't get her treat (we were in the roundpen) but she always came back. Ended it on a good note when she bit the cone three times in a row.
Next time we'll hopefully get the biting the cone behavior more set then if I can get her to actually pick it up off the ground I'll be happy.
After the clicker session I lunged her and got on. I was expecting her to be a witch because I haven't ridden (or even lunged) her for a week plus she's in heat. But I couldn't even tell when I got in the saddle. She warmed up really well so I decided to run through some second level movements. 10 meter circles are really nice. She has great rein-backs and a nice collected trot. Shoulder-in wasn't quite as nice as our last ride (where they were literally perfect) but still acceptable. Medium gaits need lots more work. Simple changes are ok, but she still gives about three trot strides before she walks and I usually have to give a bigger half halt than I'd like. But she picks up her leads from the walk perfectly. The canter serpentines on the same lead are a little interesting. She gets kind of worried and braces, but doesn't try to change so we'll keep working on those.
Overall, an awesome ride. We're going to keep chipping away at second level and start putting all the pieces together to ride a test at a show and hopefully once summer rolls around we'll get a lesson or two to clean up any loose ends. I'm excited!
And, here are the pics of Jetta jumping last week.
 |
| Can we just say how good she's looking? That neck! |
 |
| Proof that we can actually jump 3'3" like normal people. Except where on Earth is my leg?? |
 |
| Warming up over the 2'9" I think this is the one picture where Jetta deigned to actually pick up her feet over the jump. |
Friday, May 16, 2014
Tweaked
So many things happening this week, but I've just been waiting for all the pieces to come together so I can write some more complete posts! Here's a not-so-brief synopsis.
Monday a friend came out to take pictures for a class project. She's taking a journalism class and has to do an article on a sport, so of course she chose horses. The plan was to get some pics of me riding Misty dressage and then do some jumping pictures of Jetta.
Neither horse was on their best behavior. But it was probably my fault with both horses. With Misty, I just didn't give her a solid enough warm-up so she was resistant the whole time and the only thing she wanted to do was open her mouth and chew on the bit. But she wasn't otherwise awful and tolerated PM laying on the ground and us trotting right next to her so she could get some "dramatic" shots.
Now with Jetta... I haven't jumped in MONTHS. I was worried my ankle wouldn't do well with it, but I thought Jetta would be totally fine. After all, she LIKES jumping which of course I told PM this exact thing. I think I jinxed it! (though my ankle was totally fine) Warmed up over a 2'9" cross rail just fine, so I set it up to a 3'3" vertical. She refused it a couple times, not badly, I knew they were coming, more my fault than anything for being wishy-washy with putting my leg on. Finally I got her over. First few jumps weren't super smooth, so I took her back over until we got two perfect jumps. I was going to stop, after all it was ending on a good note, we haven't jumped in forever... but then of course I decided "one more time" for the camera. Bad idea. Enter monster pony. She stopped DIRTY. Multiple times. I thought she'd be going over it but at the very last second she'd slam on the brakes and toss her head back catching me in the face. Fuuuun. So we dropped it back to 2'9" and popped over it a couple times then called it good. But I was not pleased.
Pictures will hopefully be coming soon though!
A couple pics to tide you over in the meantime:
Tuesday I had a great ride on Misty. We rode western, warmed up in the snaffle then put the curb in and worked on our reining stuff. She's improved so much in this area. It's just so much fun. We were practicing our rollbacks and she spun around so quickly I tweaked my ankle. Was definitely not expecting that and now it hurts :( I call it my half-sprained ankle. I just want it to heal and get back to normal!
No ride Wednesday (last physics midterm ever!!)
Thursday was another awesome day. For my animal learning class we have to do a clicker training project, so of course I'm working with Jetta. The goal is to get her to learn to "fetch" a cone. I don't know how successful I'll be, but already after our first session, I'm excited. I'll do a more complete post on clicker training, what I've learned in class and my observations so far soon. But, I just have to share how neat it is. The first step in training this behavior is to get Jetta to touch her nose to the cone to get a click and a treat. We "loaded" the clicker and then started with me holding the cone close to me. She was super determined to get treats out of my hand, but she'd only get a treat if she first touched the cone. Gradually as she figured out that touching the cone was the only way to get a treat I moved the cone further and further away until it was sitting on the ground and she'd have to touch it then get her click and treat. So cool to see the wheels in her head turning as she'd look at my hand with the treats in it, then at the cone sitting several feet away. I'm really excited to see how this goes!
Then I had a great jump school on Misty. I just set up a single jump out of barrels in the outdoor. She did awesome! Definitely have to keep my leg on and really drive her forward to get her to go over straight and not chip in, but she is so willing and I just love that about her! Plus having flying changes/most always landing on the correct lead is so nice, when compared with Jetta. Just way easier in general.
And then, the most awesome, amazing cross country school happened today. Details and pictures to follow :)
Monday a friend came out to take pictures for a class project. She's taking a journalism class and has to do an article on a sport, so of course she chose horses. The plan was to get some pics of me riding Misty dressage and then do some jumping pictures of Jetta.
Neither horse was on their best behavior. But it was probably my fault with both horses. With Misty, I just didn't give her a solid enough warm-up so she was resistant the whole time and the only thing she wanted to do was open her mouth and chew on the bit. But she wasn't otherwise awful and tolerated PM laying on the ground and us trotting right next to her so she could get some "dramatic" shots.
Now with Jetta... I haven't jumped in MONTHS. I was worried my ankle wouldn't do well with it, but I thought Jetta would be totally fine. After all, she LIKES jumping which of course I told PM this exact thing. I think I jinxed it! (though my ankle was totally fine) Warmed up over a 2'9" cross rail just fine, so I set it up to a 3'3" vertical. She refused it a couple times, not badly, I knew they were coming, more my fault than anything for being wishy-washy with putting my leg on. Finally I got her over. First few jumps weren't super smooth, so I took her back over until we got two perfect jumps. I was going to stop, after all it was ending on a good note, we haven't jumped in forever... but then of course I decided "one more time" for the camera. Bad idea. Enter monster pony. She stopped DIRTY. Multiple times. I thought she'd be going over it but at the very last second she'd slam on the brakes and toss her head back catching me in the face. Fuuuun. So we dropped it back to 2'9" and popped over it a couple times then called it good. But I was not pleased.
Pictures will hopefully be coming soon though!
A couple pics to tide you over in the meantime:
 |
| Both smilin' for the camera |
Tuesday I had a great ride on Misty. We rode western, warmed up in the snaffle then put the curb in and worked on our reining stuff. She's improved so much in this area. It's just so much fun. We were practicing our rollbacks and she spun around so quickly I tweaked my ankle. Was definitely not expecting that and now it hurts :( I call it my half-sprained ankle. I just want it to heal and get back to normal!
No ride Wednesday (last physics midterm ever!!)
Thursday was another awesome day. For my animal learning class we have to do a clicker training project, so of course I'm working with Jetta. The goal is to get her to learn to "fetch" a cone. I don't know how successful I'll be, but already after our first session, I'm excited. I'll do a more complete post on clicker training, what I've learned in class and my observations so far soon. But, I just have to share how neat it is. The first step in training this behavior is to get Jetta to touch her nose to the cone to get a click and a treat. We "loaded" the clicker and then started with me holding the cone close to me. She was super determined to get treats out of my hand, but she'd only get a treat if she first touched the cone. Gradually as she figured out that touching the cone was the only way to get a treat I moved the cone further and further away until it was sitting on the ground and she'd have to touch it then get her click and treat. So cool to see the wheels in her head turning as she'd look at my hand with the treats in it, then at the cone sitting several feet away. I'm really excited to see how this goes!
Then I had a great jump school on Misty. I just set up a single jump out of barrels in the outdoor. She did awesome! Definitely have to keep my leg on and really drive her forward to get her to go over straight and not chip in, but she is so willing and I just love that about her! Plus having flying changes/most always landing on the correct lead is so nice, when compared with Jetta. Just way easier in general.
And then, the most awesome, amazing cross country school happened today. Details and pictures to follow :)
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