Alexandra Kurland  Clicker Clinic in Colo.

by Nancy Oly

I joined the group in the Barn where the horses were being introduced by their owners. Name, age, breed, training/problems, clicker training to date. All at least had exposure to clicker training in the form of targeting and showed us with the brightly colored 3 pronged squeaker dog toy that Alexandra Kurland had brought.

I missed Jane with Sweetie, a lovely QH mare, but I guess she is appropriately named!

Suzanne had taught her 3 yo TB gelding, Chance to touch a target while she cleaned his stall. He had displayed aggressive, possesive tendencies toward her in his stall at home and this had helped. He was fearful to be in the stall at the Ranch's barn with all of us looking at him, but she kept on working with him, targeting with the "toy", showing him how to control himself.  An important point that Alexandra made while they were working with Chance was that when Suzanne was at a good point and wanted to quit, that it was *her* that was leaving, not the horse walking off.

Laurie brought Moses, a 17 yo TB who's not a good trailer loader. With CT, she was there and so was he.

We went outside to meet the rest of the horses, as it was turning into a picture postcard Colorado day. Cathy has already talked about Cody, her 11 yo Sorrel QH on Clickryder. He is the Black Lab of the horse world. He was ready for anything Cathy asked of him. It only took a few minutes for him to understand Cathy wanted him to pick up the "toy" and then hand it to her.

We moved down to the big Paint gelding, 2 Tone. Carole had been working with him getting his ears forward and approaching her in a non-cranky mood, also targeting 2 Tone really reminded us that it's not the food, it's the interaction that the horses are after - and 2 Tone was not interested in interacting for very long.That's ok Alexandra was guessing that a horse like this who had been used as a ranch/cow horse hadn't been used to thinking on his own, trying things out, so we left him to think on things.

Dakota, a 9yo buckskin was taking notes, waiting patiently for his turn, displaying an eager attitude with his young owner, Annie. He was so excited, he'd stick his head sideways thru the bars of the paddock (Annie was on the outside). This was a good opportunity for Alexandra to remind us that *we* control *where* we will treat them, instead of the horse making demands. Once Annie started putting the "toy" and the treat where she wanted it, Dakota stopped pushing his head thru the paddock, begging. He learned quickly! Which is another real neat thing about clicker training.

On to Jimmy, a 20 something QH with a heart of gold. Sandra has target trained Jimmy, but she was reminded not to click late as that doesn't pinpoint the behavior we wanted and don't have the treat in her hand, as it distracts the horse from the lesson. The clicker buys us time to reach into our pocket and eliminates the mugging (not that Jimmy would ever do that!).

We talked about the 3 elements of training and how clicker training helps. 1. Timing - Clicker training improves *our* timing.

2 Reinforcement - in conventional training we usually give too Iow a rate of reinforcement - clicker training gives a very high rate of reinforcement - ask me how many carrots we went through!

3. Clear Criteria - again, many people are not clear on what they want and clicker training clarifies that, because you are forced to break it down into small steps and reward each individual right answer.

We are beginning to see that the Clicker is a very powerful tool and that

was a thought that was continually reinforced thru action and results this weekend Little did we know how far we would go... many people were amazed at how quickly the horses picked up the "toy" - that was nothing compared to Sunday.

In Alexandra's philosophy of Everything is Everything Else (take some time to think about that), whether the horse is picking up a cone or working on lunging (with clicker training), you are still working on the same emotional state. A willing horse, a horse that wants to work with you, a horse that is THERE with you.

We get to meet Ruby, a 21 yo Saddlebred mare. She's a real smart, perky girl, who gets scared very easily and shows us later that her safety/security is with her herd.mates, all of whom are here at the clinic. Pat wants to especially work on head lowering exercises, so targeting, picking up the target are good for Ruby.

Twister is a 16 yo Appy who has a tendency to be pushy and demanding. His young owner, Pat's daughter has to tell him "no" a lot and push him away when he demands his treat and without even performing his touch! Alexandra suggests that instead of pushing him away, that she, 1st - move out of his reach (why doing initial CT behind paddock bars is so useful) and then let him figure out how to get the treat, not by mugging us. This is one of the biggest problems that people have with CT - they give the horse the answer too soon and lose the opportunity for the horse to search and learn on their own. Very soon, he's not fussing with the owner and is targeting great. Later, he is backing with the lightest touch and is focused, no mugging at all. This is later when we are in the indoor arena and is so amazing because we are told Twister "does not back".

Mouse is one beautiful, mouse (what else) colored dun mare and she's a wee bit cranky. Everything bugs her, but she mostly takes it out on her adjacent paddock mates, squealing, snaking her head, ears flattened to her head, turning her butt to kick. This is constant and I wonder if Susie is going to get nailed in the melee. Just another educational opportunity. We see this behavior diminish to almost nothing as Alexandra guides Susie to get Mouse to follow the target off to the side, follow with her feet, everytime she softens and comes around to click her. Susie was soon able to get Mouse to make 2 steps over in back and this was quite an accomplishment from a mare that earlier wanted to fight with the other horses and had a real problem with being soft.

Later on Sunday, when Alexandra and Mary are being a Horse, Susie asks to maneuver the "horse" using a "lead rope". She is really pushing and pulling to get this "horse" to cooperate, the aim being to back in a half circle. Kindly, Alexandra points out the force of her shoving and shows Susie how her pushing makes the horse step away instead of softly, bending in an arc. Susie says something like: "OMIGOD, that's exactly what my horse does?' (This Human -Horse exercise which Alexandra does is a very effective teaching tool, BTW) In the wrap-up session, Susie is still mulling over everything she's seen, heard, experienced this weekend and realizes that when she looks at Mouse's face; it's all clenched up and she needs to do something different, as her previous techniques aren't working.

Elaine is up next with her 15yo TB, Hap, who's given us a wonderful report on Hap's progress already on Clickryder. They were working on target to side, move hind feet over. Alexandra also mentions that this is a good exercise to develop focus (which is something Elaine tells us that Hap could use, especially in strange surroundings). Coming from a Hunter/Jumper background, Elaine said she knew little about NH techniques, but when you see this lady working softly with Hap, displaying more feel and feeling for the horse than most anyone I've met, you realize how little the "method" matters if you don't consider the horse first.

I didn't think much of this last horse, a big, "childish -acting" fellow, playing with Hap thru and over the fence, making quite the ruckus on such a mellow morning. But then Jean went in with Chewie, a 3 yo TB/Andalusian cross and started working with him and you just had to sit up and notice. Sure he was still a kid, who wanted to keep playing with the horse next door and had a few moments of barging, feeling his adolescent size (16.2 and growing!) and energy and a few snappy moments when things weren't going as he planned. Hey, you could certainly forgive all that (if you weren't the handler, that is) just to see him get in a collected profile and move around. Beauty. Look for him in the dressage arena in a few years, Jean assures us.

Anyways, back to earth. First off, he's an imprinted baby, which shows in his affection for his owner and his easy ways - but he's also a Big Boy who's learned he can shove people around and can intimidate. Jean can take a lot of credit for his good training and nature, so far Alexandra gets in there with Chewie and I have to tell you, this is the first time she's been in with a horse so far today and if one had any doubts about Alexandra's abilities with horses, they are soon cleared up.  When Chewie starts to barge past Alexandra, she gives him an alternate behavior (backing up ). This is a very big, lively, young horse and Alexandra is not big and yet she has near perfect control.  Her secret? (She shares tips/advice freely - this clinic was worth that alone!) Ok, what Alexandra did was: Ignor the bad/wrong behavior, wait for the correct response, C&T. Don't pick a fight or use punishment - horse may display bad side effects from punishment. FOCUS on what we want! NOT on what we don't want! Person shouldn't get frustrated and out of place. Several times she mentions, we need to be a Post - which I have an incomplete understanding of - being a total wuss myself when horses are being intimidating. Maybe someone can help explain this important point? As the horse backs up, the pressure is off, we click for the backward motion (remember, Alexandra was working with Chewie on his barging forward) Chewie does have Clicker basics and so does respond well and lightly to training & backing with a clicker. Jean also wants to learn some more games to play with him (because he is so smart and has all that excess energy). Later we see some videos which give us all good ideas for more games. I'll tell you about them later. Cool stuff - I immediately ran out to the store and got a beach ball and a squeaker dog toy!

WHAT YOU CLICK IS WHAT YOU GET

Simple words which became my mantra (I like simple). In practice, it's difficult for some of us "timing challenged folks".  When we brought the homes to the inside arena, I paired up with Pat, who has the scared, herdbound Saddlebred mare. As an auditor, I was a coach and clicker person and later, we could switch roles.

During the two days, we worked on backing, head Iowering and hindquarters over (one unit at a time).  In doing backing for instance, it's important to click the horse WHILE they are moving, NOT after the horse has stopped backward motion, otherwise you are rewarding the stop, not what we wanted at this point.

But we eventually got the timing and basics right on Saturday, which was good because on Sunday, Pat left Ruby's closest herdmate, Twister, outside. We resumed work in the indoor arena with Ruby on Sunday and she was losing it. Her head was way up, neighing, ignoring Pat, circling her, trying to get away. Alexandra was there to guide Pat. This was so stressful - anyone else would have quit, not Pat. The groundwork from the previous day paid off.

I wish I had a video camera for Pat to look at later, the changes coming over Ruby were incredible. We combined the headlowenng, backed up by the backing if Ruby got excited. Ruby was standing still, she was paying attention, she was keeping her head lower and lower for longer and longer periods of time. Pat was able to work with a sane, under control horse. Periodically, Ruby would start to lose it, but Pat was right there, able to work her thru it. Pat definitely had her hands full and it wasn't going to get cured just in 2 days, but boy, she stuck with it and she was doing great. Had Pat not had such a good relationship with this mare and had she not had the additional tools of CT and Alexandra's training tips, this could have been real ugly.

I need to emphasize that this "backing" is NOT done with the mindset that the horse will see that STANDING STILL is a better option (popular training notion out there). Totally different view here.

There were some basic skills involved which are very difficult to explain - such as hand position on the lead rope end horse which effectively block the horse from forward movement (it was one of the things we practiced on each other), being a POST ( a much better clarification from Alexandra follows) and also the backing the horse in the semi circle which Alexandra said calmed the horse (another one of those things you have to see/experience to believe it really works).

From Alexandra Kurland:  "By the way, to understand posts better, go tie a leadrope to a stout one and pull on it. No matter how hard you pull, or how obnoxious you get, the post will not pull back, get flustered, distracted, or angry. It will just be a post. Keep pulling on that post, and you'll very quickly discover that you'd rather just quit and stand quietly. From the horse's point of view your hand needs to feel like a post. But with a horse like Chewy as you saw sometimes the post does have to move or it will get plowed down. The trick is to remain post-like, even when you are being run-over, and that can be a hard concept to grasp. It's all about focus and intent. That's what Pat was able to do so well with Ruby Sat. alt. She stayed focused on what she wanted - head lowering -and didn't let Ruby's frantic behavior distract her from being a post. As you work through these foundations steps, you'll begin to feel the difference between pulling, being a post, and letting the horse take charge .... "

GAMES TO PLAY

As I mentioned previously, I was very excited to play games with my horse when I got home. Now you may be saying like my mother did after I told her I taught him to kick the beach ball; "Well, why would you do that?" Like it needed a practical application or something! Yes, this is a riding horse we're talking about, not a trick circus pony. But what if you have a horse that is out of work, maybe because of injury or you want him to get used to stuff under/between his legs. The practical applications become endless.

There are lots of ideas for games on the various websites devoted to Clicker Training and also in Alexandra's book. Personally, I hadn't got much beyond fetching with my horse - so when I saw videos of Alexandra's client's horse and also of Peregrine, I wanted to try out new things! What we saw was the horse picking up a toy basketball and dropping it into a 4 ft hoop, moving a big beach ball around the arena with his nose, then kicking the ball around and across the arena adding trot and canter, picking up a cone with his mouth and standing on a box, shaking hands while standing other front hoof on box. This last, Alexandra mentioned was wise - only do the shaking hands when balanced on box - wouldn't want this behavior on the ground. Peregrine took the bit up into his mouth (almost bridling himself), canters in hand on an invisible lead rope, free sidepasses. I know reading about it just doesn't have the same pizazz - hopefully, Alexandra will have her Horse Clicker Training video out soon.

HEAD LOWERING I have read about this and can do it with limited success from the ground on my horses, by touching their poll, If their head is Iow enough for me to reach...

The way Alexandra teaches it, with Clicker Training, with the lead rope which easily transfers to bridle is.... well, so effective, you can even use it on Thoroughbreds. (Joking about "TB moments" was on-going). I'll try to describe it, but you might want to go to one of her clinics or buy her book. It was crystal clear when you see it and can do it.

Anyway, you pick up the lead rope about where the buckle would be with your right hand, anchor it on neck/wither area, slide your left hand down toward head, taking slack out, the instant the horse lowers his head, release, click and treat. We get what we release for/click for and then build on that until horse is Iowering head to dirt. Every horse was soon doing it and partly because it is so relaxing to the horse.

Ok, so how do we do it from the saddle? Alexandra told us a couple times that the only difference between groundwork and saddle work is you are sitting down. Elaine was our volunteer on Hap (a TB, I might point out) to show us clicking under saddle. She was nervous. On previous outings with Hap in the 7 years she had owned him, it had taken him up to 2 hours to settle down with both the trainer and Elaine riding him and lunging him at the shows they competed in. I didn't much notice him all saddled up and ready to go because I was concentrating on Pat and Ruby making their exit. He certainly wasn't bouncing off the wails, even when Elaine got up on him: with all the commotion. He was just hanging out, calm, relaxed. She had never CT him from the saddle, but they quickly got the hang of it. Pretty much they worked on the head Iowering so she would have that in place, if and when, she needed it again. He did wonderful. If he moved a step (which was rare), one rein to back, calm, cool and collected. You would have sworn they had been practicing for days, weeks, hours and that Alexandra stacked the deck for this demo But it was decided only a couple hours before and Elaine had never done a one rein stop, one rein back or head lowering from the saddle. She had done it from the ground that day. Hap knew it and Elaine knew it. We didn't realize how awesome this was until later during our wrap up session, when Alexandra went around the room and everyone shared what they had learned from our weekend together. Elaine, very full of emotion, said she learned how great Hap was. She wasn't the only one with wet eyes in that room.

HINDQUARTERS OVER (OR WHAT EVER YOU CALL IT)

It certainly goes by a number of different descriptions - disengaging the hindquarters, displacing the hip, moving the feet, turning on the forehand. And there also seem to be endless ways to achieve what ever you call it. It must be very in vogue this season, since I seem to see people "doing it to their horses" every place Iv'e been lately.

Alexandra spoke about this phenomenon. She had a person stand with their legs crossed over and tried to push them over - no problem. Then she had a person stand with legs shoulder width apart while she tried to push them over, which was difficult. Obvious, but consider the horse who is a prey animal. They want structural stability, they don't want to cross over, they feel vulnerable. There is a need for it in modem riding, however, to control a bolting horse, upper level dressage, trail classes, etc.  What Alexandra is seeing out there is that people are learning to whirl ropes, poke with whips & fingers, jab with spurs and keeping it on, getting that horse by god, to move off from "pressure". Horse is moving, feeling vulnerable and still the "thing" is chasing him. What she's seeing is a lot of very unhappy horses.

In Clicker Training, she uses the natural motion of the horse, by turning

the head to the side (we've learned to get the horse to target to the side,

so we don't need to yank or pull) and then the legs will automatically cross over in back to straighten out the horse.  Simple. Click as soon as the legs go into motion and treat. Build on that until there are two or more steps over in back. Then the cue can be as gentle as a touch to the side or hip or a look to the area. It's really neat how quick and how lightly you can get this going well.  I paired up with Carole and 2 Tone on this. He was telling her with his ears back and swishing tail that the cue was too strong, on too long and she was asking too much of him at one time. She started using the clicker, breaking it down into smaller chunks and what a difference. The ears became visible part of his anatomy again, his tail became still and he really got easier to turn & back, also.  We had a real interesting discussion about ol' 2 Tone's previous life. It sounded to me like he had always been TOLD what to do, which he did with no question, but he didn't have to be happy about it. When Carole started asking him, when he was no longer being forced to do something, he started getting into it more, which is a great start for him.

FINALLY,

I liked so many things about this clinic, as you can tell by the length of my report. Alexandra's teaching style is one of the best, most effective, personable I've witnessed in a long time. She knows her stuff, but most importantly she can convey it to ALL her students in many interesting, hands on ways. For working with your horse, getting a better relationship, learning fun things to do with your horse, developing lightness and responsiveness, you can learn it all at her clinic. As an extra bonus, I also gained some ideas and insights on how to clicker train Cocoa, our GOAT. Wish me luck!

Nancy O