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she taught me to give her cookies whenever she wants them.
I've been trying to get a good pic or this but she won't let me get far enough away from her to get the whole shot. It's really cute with her butt stuck up in the air! She does it almost every time I tack her up. She often gets quite dramatic about it with her neck arched so her face is almost on the ground and her chest actually touches the ground. Sometimes she even makes the noise that people make when they are having a really good stretch.
She really did teach herself. The first time she did it, probably just stretching, I made over like she was the smartest horse in the world and gave her several cookies. She quickly did it a couple more time in a row. Now it's a routine...

Just so no one worries that maybe she does it because the saddle doesn't fit or something, she does it while I'm grooming, well before the saddle comes out. If she happens to be in the barn when I'm tacking up another horse, she'll do it then, too, to try to get me over to her stall so I can give her a cookie. I give cookies freely when I tack up. I know there are people who think treating or over treating is a bad idea, but my ponies are well behaved and it's an indulgence I choose to give them.

demi wrote:Just so no one worries that maybe she does it because the saddle doesn't fit or something, she does it while I'm grooming, well before the saddle comes out. If she happens to be in the barn when I'm tacking up another horse, she'll do it then, too, to try to get me over to her stall so I can give her a cookie. I give cookies freely when I tack up. I know there are people who think treating or over treating is a bad idea, but my ponies are well behaved and it's an indulgence I choose to give them.

Oh that's funny, because mine do that, too!

I did recently start to limit it to one stretch and then no more cookies though, because they were offering it over and over again while I was trying to tack up and I didn't want that much stretching!

So I'm currently rewarding both of them for standing still for brushing and tacking, because if I start rewarding them for anything else then they'll just start going through their repertoire in hopes of getting more cookies, faster.

Now that I've finally gotten to where I can ride forward with duration I don't click as frequently as I used to under saddle, so try to make up for it by clicking more often on the ground. But as much as I didn't want to (I was doing a lot of clicking for energy), I did have to start clicking more for standing still because they were getting a bit frenetic.

I love that I can get whatever I click, though. So if I want more stretching I can click stretching more frequently, but if I decide I don't want so much stretching I can start clicking for standing still and pretty soon I'll start getting more and more of that.

That's pretty adorable - although I'd say that she has YOU training to disperse cookies!

I though you might appreciate the post, Kande! As I've mentioned, I'm not a clicker trainer, but I have a lot of respect for the method.

And yes, Sunshine, Rocky has me trained She is an excellent trainer! I have a lot of fun with her.

Since getting the new horse, I haven't ridden Rocky in the dressage saddle. I have gone back to western and a longer rein. Life for both of us is much easier on a longer rein. Maybe I should consider Western dressage with her....

Rocky is as flexible as a cat with those stretches!!

Sunshine2Me wrote:That's pretty adorable - although I'd say that she has YOU training to disperse cookies!

That's why it's called operant conditioning, because they learn to operate us. Ultimately, we operate them because we control the cookies, but they operate us by offering behaviors they know will earn them cookies, so I guess it's a symbiotic relationship!

demi wrote:Since getting the new horse, I haven't ridden Rocky in the dressage saddle. I have gone back to western and a longer rein. Life for both of us is much easier on a longer rein. Maybe I should consider Western dressage with her....

I was planning to do that with my mule too, but then realized that I barely had enough oomph to take my horse to shows so there wasn't a lot of sense in trying to take my mule, too.

But if I only had my mule I would show him in Western Dressage, simply because he's better suited to it with his short little fat body and little tiny trot and canter.

Are you planning to keep both of your mares in work?