I was quite surprised to discover that for a non emergency I had to wait a week to see the vet! Patience #1. Just as I thought that all was looking well with Fat Pony, he developed a skin condition :-( Not knowing what it was, I felt it best to keep him isolated until the vet could take a look. Good for his ongoing diet. Bad for Horse Agility! Patience #2. To keep Bored Fat Pony amused, I had a think about what I could still practice with him, in the confines of his fairly small diet pen.
Three of this month's Horse Agility obstacles involve variations on "stand and wait" and as Playful Fat Pony's brain goes at a million miles an hour, he's not very good at patience, standing still, waiting, doing nothing..... And as practicing Stand and Wait doesn't need much space, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to get some serious practice in. Patience #3 :-D
I find that "positive re-enforcement" training (such as clicker training or treat training) works really well with something like the stand and wait. With Fat Pony I use treats (sugar free polos!). I appreciate that there are arguments against feeding from the hand, but that would be a separate subject all by itself. There are other ways to reward the desired behaviour, I just choose what works for me.
To make it more interesting, we are practicing a number of variations on the theme: how far away I can go; how long he will wait for; waiting without recall (I return to pony); waiting with recall (he comes to me on cue after the wait); and him standing still while I walk all the way around him (not as easy as you might think, try it!). The most difficult one to work on has been me walking away from him with my back turned. The reason for that is that we had previously been doing some Parelli and I had taught him to stand and wait with me facing him square on, with the signal for him to come to me and/ or to follow me being to drop my shoulder (passive body language) and turn and walk away. Most of the time, there is quite good alignment between the body language of "Natural Horsemanship" and directing the pony around a Horse Agility course, but occasionally it doesn't quite work out. Another topic in its own right!
Three of this month's Horse Agility obstacles involve variations on "stand and wait" and as Playful Fat Pony's brain goes at a million miles an hour, he's not very good at patience, standing still, waiting, doing nothing..... And as practicing Stand and Wait doesn't need much space, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to get some serious practice in. Patience #3 :-D
I find that "positive re-enforcement" training (such as clicker training or treat training) works really well with something like the stand and wait. With Fat Pony I use treats (sugar free polos!). I appreciate that there are arguments against feeding from the hand, but that would be a separate subject all by itself. There are other ways to reward the desired behaviour, I just choose what works for me.
To make it more interesting, we are practicing a number of variations on the theme: how far away I can go; how long he will wait for; waiting without recall (I return to pony); waiting with recall (he comes to me on cue after the wait); and him standing still while I walk all the way around him (not as easy as you might think, try it!). The most difficult one to work on has been me walking away from him with my back turned. The reason for that is that we had previously been doing some Parelli and I had taught him to stand and wait with me facing him square on, with the signal for him to come to me and/ or to follow me being to drop my shoulder (passive body language) and turn and walk away. Most of the time, there is quite good alignment between the body language of "Natural Horsemanship" and directing the pony around a Horse Agility course, but occasionally it doesn't quite work out. Another topic in its own right!
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