Wednesday, July 20, 2011

self-loading in 20 minutes? check!

I taught Lucy to self-load today on the trailer in 20 minutes! It started when I decided to work with her again to make sure all the progress we made over the weekend wasn't a fluke. Indeed it was not, and she got right on with no fuss the first time! I was so happy!

Kenny was at the barn with me so he recorded us working on the self-loading:



He didn't get the very first time we tried it, but basically she got halfway on and then realised I wasn't next to her, and got confused, but I tapped her on the butt and she considered her options for a second and then continued walking forward.

In the hay basket in the trailer, we piled lots of apples and carrots. We were trying to get her to realise that really wonderful things await her whenever she gets on the trailer! It worked, and thankfully she's quite food-motivated (a woman after my own heart).

Anyway, she gets a gold star today :)

8 comments:

  1. I think you have the same horse trailer as me. :) Is than an Adams?

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  2. Yup! It's an Adams (I believe a 2010 or 2011), but it isn't mine :( It belongs to Claire, but she is so gracious in letting me borrow it. It actually works really well because she doesn't have a truck to pull it, and Kenny has his Silverado but we have no trailer, so we all make a good team :)

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  3. I love the way you say "good giiiiiiiRRRRRRRRllll!!" very cute in your accent!

    That is next on my to do list, self loading. So handy if you have to load them up by yourself.

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  4. Gooood girrrlll! She really looks nice and fit. Great camera work Kenny!

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  5. She responds so well to positive training. I wonder if clicker training would work for her? I've seen it used on horses, and they seem to get it really well.

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  6. She is certainly a horse who blossoms with praise and gets very defensive with any negative feedback. Yes I think clicker training would work very well with her, I just haven't tried it yet.

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