Teaching my pony tricks

[Spotty_Pony]

I have seen the other thread about tricks but it hasn't answered my question.

I have no idea how to begin! I want to make my pony do loads of tricks (But obviously start with the easiest!) But, how do I know I'm on the right track?

I would love to make my pony:

*Bow
*Lay down
*Sit
*Talk
*Rear

How would I begin? Rearing is challenging but, how would I begin to train them? How do I recognise the signs of him learning and understanding?

Hope you understand and can help!

SP

PM me if easier
Thanks
:)

[BeachRiding]

for starters NEVER teach your pony to rear, an ABSOLUTE NO! This can and probably will escalate into rearing under saddle.
As for everything else, check under my threads I posted something similar.

[Laura+Phantom]

Just get a dog ;)

[Spotty_Pony]

Haha! Thanks Laura! ;)

[Picture This]

Hi!

Have you looked into clicker training?

[Daffy Dilly]

Easiest one is to teach a horse to kiss. Then you just have to teach them to kiss gently. ;)

If I remember how I did it, I started by showing Daffy a carrot, and making him stretch out for it, but then touching my cheek to his nose and making a "kiss" noise. Then he got the carrot.

I progressed to offering him my cheek before the carrot and making the kiss noise, and then giving him the carrot after he "kissed" me.

Then we got to the point where I could make the noise and he'd kind of throw his nose up either to my cheek, chin or nose. It hurt a few times, so I had to back off, and now we let him blow kisses for an occaisional treat.

He doesn't need the treat to kiss anymore, so we get quite a few, and he gets less treats.

[fishiz3434]

you could try carrot tricks but make sure he never gets rude (make him 'wait his turn') and u can teach him to hug u by tuching his side and if he touches his nose to the spot he mite get a carrot :) and get him to bow by working on him putting his head betwwen his front legs and to sit get him tokeep going to sit..i wouldn't teach him to rear unless u have someone profetional do it cos u dont want him to rear when u ride...but it's possible to do it under the right conditions...not with carrots though hehe:D good luck it's so much fun!!

[Spotty_Pony]

OK! Cool! Thank you! :)

[Wally]

First of all get the mindset out of your head of "making" your pony do tricks. You cannot "make" a horse do anything, he will do them if he feels his leader requires it of him.

I would be very, very wary of teaching tricks to any pony unless you have the skills and leadership to see it through to the bitter end. It is a very fine line between tricks and bad habit.

Unless you are 110% certain of every twitch of body language you produce don't do it.

[ImaLittleBoston]

I was told to teach to bow, take a treat, hold in between the two front legs, and I think it would be logical to make some sound when she/he does it, then when you make that sound some other time, he/she might know, but it could also work out negitivly, like, if you dont give your pony a treat as a reward, it might get grumpy and nip, I know a horse who did it before.

[Wally]

.....and a person we know nearly lost all her teeth doing that one on a pony who was, maybe, a bit too clever to be messed about like that with his treat! ;) ;)

As I say be careful what you try, unless you really know what youa re doing.

[Mareish]

Ditto Wally, I personally do not agree with it, tricks are for the circus

[Laura+Phantom]

Hence my comment :)

[LindaAd]

I would be very, very wary of teaching tricks to any pony unless you have the skills and leadership to see it through to the bitter end. It is a very fine line between tricks and bad habit.



Yes, when I was a child I taught a riding-school pony to "count" by pawing the ground .... (can't think why anyone didn't notice and stop me!). The pony became a real nuisance, it would follow you round and paw, until someone took it in hand and un-taught it ...:rolleyes:

So if you do teach it something like that, make sure you teach it only to do it when asked.

[coss]

i taught my pony to lift each front leg on command as he naturally would lift it up, i added a command, if he does it and i haven't asked i ignore him and he now understands treats only come when i've asked him to do something not because he's just being clever. I also taught him to put his head between his legs just to make him stretch, i say "down" and wait for him to start to put his head down, i then meet him there with a carrot but i wouldn't teach him to do anything he doesn't naturally want to do. As LindaAd says, you have to make sure the horse doesn't do it to be a nuissance. If my boy lifts his right leg to ask for a carrot in antisipation (sp?) i will step back and ask for the left leg, he needs things to occupy his brain but as i said previously, i hav not taught him anything he didn't already do.

[Mareish]

Hence my comment :)

Couldn't agree more ;)

[Wally]

Lifting feet on command isn't really a trick, its necessary behaviour which makes your like easier and is a means to an end.

[coss]

Lifting feet on command isn't really a trick, its necessary behaviour which makes your like easier and is a means to an end.

true, but he lift his foot forwards in a more showy way but yes, a means to an end

[Wally]

Putting his foot on the foot stand for the farrier to finish off!

[Picture This]

There isn't really any difference between 'teaching tricks' and teaching all the things that we usually require our horses to do. The horse cannot know the difference can it?
If I teach my horse to back up that is great, but it's still only something I want him to do on request.
I know I'm repeating myself but I would definately reccomend you have a look at clicker training. It takes the guess work out of it for the horse. say if I am using a carrott to teach my horse to back up then chances are that before I can give him the treat he has stopped backing, which isn't what I want him to learn, if I use my clicker I can tell him that he's doing the right thing as he's doing it.
The first thing to start with using the clicker is to click and give a treat (start in stable away from other horses and distractions) and continue with very small treats after each click untill your pony is looking for the treat when you have clicked. BUT do not click and reward if he is mugging you, he will quickly learn that he only gets a click which is your promise that he is going to get a treat if he is polite. the click then lets him know when he is doing the right thing, it's important that you click while he's doing what you want, not when he's stopped doing it!
When he has made the connection between click and treat (I use a slice of carrott, a polo, or a couple of pasture nuts out of his normal ration) then you can start asking for something from him, the usual thing to start with is getting him to touch a 'target' with his nose, (I used a grooming brush)
Keep sessions short, say 5 or 10 minutes, only reward what you want but when teaching something start by rewarding anything approaching what you want, in the case of touching a target make it easy by holding the target where he may touch it out of curiosity or by accident, if that doesn't happen reward with a click followed by a treat if he looks in the right direction and build on that. Never reward pushy behaviour or anything you don't want at that time. If you make a mistake with your timing and accidently reward the wrong behaviour then don't give the treat just pause for a few seconds and start again. Also try to ignore any unwanted behaviour, don't punish.
Just to give you an idea about what I have been up to with my little fella :) I have taught him to pick up and hold up his feet to the command 'pick up' and a light touch to the back of his cannon bone, and before I started he was difficult to persuade to pick up his feet at all. He will back up on command, stand still, lower his head, let me handle his ears, lead politely and keep pace and place next to me, and free school, by which I mean walk trot and canter around me in the arena as if he was on the lunge but with no lunge line.
I have never had so much fun :) :) :) :D :D :D
And my horsie loves working too!!!
So much so that someone described him as a model citizen!!! a bit of a shock as when I got him he was a pain in the behind to handle on the ground.

[The Flying Irishman]

Just get a dog ;)

My thoughts exactly

[leno289]

Sorry but why do you want to teach your horse tricks :confused: unless of course you have been offered a fortune for him by the local circus if he is trained.
As others have said NEVER EVER try to teach your horse to rear.
How old is the horse/ breed etc -do you plan to keep him forever because once you have "taught" him something should he ever need to be sold/loaned it would be very difficult for the new owner.
Yeah we all say Ah bless when we see an animal doing something different but this is a huge animal with alot of power and a mind of his own so please be very careful and really consider why you want to train him in that way

[icegirl]

It sounds like the line between tricks and encouraging certain behaviours is quite a narrow one. I thought it was quite common to do "carrot stretches", one of which is to get the horse to put his head between his legs or round to each side to take a treat from behind the girth area. This was sold to me as a way of helping your horse stay flexible.
Also, lots of people seem to have fun playing with their horses in the school, getting them to follow, stop etc, just by voice command from a distance. Mine seems to enjoy doing stuff like this and doesnt respond by getting pushy.
I do agree that rearing sounds dangerous. Also, someone else had taught mine to bow before I got him which was a bit of a pain as he would do it all the time (not when I was on board tho!) so I taught him out of it by not rewarding the behaviour.

[Spotty_Pony]

Picture This.

Wow! I sure would love to try clicker training... except, how do you begin? You taught your horse to pick up his foot easily... but what were the steps? You didn't just touch his leg and he went from hard to perfect... that's where my problem is... is my pony making progress? Is he confused or is he really searching for the answer. PM me if easier. :D

[Spotty_Pony]

Mmm, thanks guys! I'm going to try clicker training. :D