There are 18 Lessons in the original DVD series. This lesson is now available as a mini on-line course.
Lesson 9: Overcoming Fear
and the
Power of Cues
The original 2 hour DVD Lesson is now an on-line course
$45.00
Muska is a young Icelandic who developed a fear of saddles after a riding accident. Follow her lesson as we use the power of cues to remove her fear of saddles.
This two hour DVD:
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shows you how to overcome a fear issue using head lowering
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highlights the importance of handling skills
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shows you how to build duration into your head lowering behavior
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teaches you how to combine advance and retreat techniques with the clicker
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helps you read your horse's body language
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shows you how to recognize and use the cues that evolve during the shaping process.
If you aren’t sure how to use clicker training for practical, everyday training issues, this mini course from the original DVD lesson will give you lots of ideas.
You'll see common mistakes people make that can confuse, or frustrate a horse during the learning process. Little details can make a huge difference.
This mini course shows a real gem of a session. It features Muska, a seven year old Icelandic mare I met in the summer of 2007.
Muska is owned by Nick and Cherrie Foot. Muska's previous owners had started her under saddle. When she had about a month’s worth of rides behind her, they put their granddaughter up on her. That would have been fine, except nobody remembered to check the girth. You know the rest of the story. The saddle slipped under Muska's belly. The granddaughter fell off. Muska panicked. The end result: Muska became afraid of saddles.
Nick bought her knowing she had this problem. She was a very sweet horse and it seemed a shame that something like this would be the undoing of what was otherwise a very lovely mare.
Nick and Cherrie had begun exploring clicker training. They’d made progress. Muska had learned to target the saddle, but she was still profoundly wary of it. It could take as much as forty minutes or more of patient work to get the saddle on her.
This is such a common situation people find themselves in with their horses. Some unfortunate series of events has left the horse with an overwhelming fear. In Muska's case, she was afraid of saddles, but it could just as easily have been clippers, or shots, or plastic tarps, etc. You fill in the blank. You have a horse who is afraid of __________. What do you do? That's the question this lesson explores. But it is so much more than a simple lesson in desensitization. What this mini course really looks at is the power of cues: how they evolve and how we can use them to change our horse's response to the things that frighten them.
Every now and then you get a perfect gem of a session, one that clarifies a concept, or illustrates a particular lesson. And that’s what happened with Muska's lesson. And for a change, when we got the camera out, everything worked. We had enough tape, the battery didn’t run out mid-way through the session, the threatening rain clouds held off until we were finished, and best of all the horse cooperated by giving us a great session.
So what are you going to see on in this mini course?
You’re going to see the foundation lessons used to solve a major fear issue. If you’re fairly new to clicker training, you may have gone through the first few lessons thinking - so what? How do I use these things that I’ve taught my horse. In this lesson, you’ll see the foundation lessons come alive. You’ll see how useful they are in resolving fear and space issues.
But more than that this is a lesson in timing, the importance of handling skills, chunking lessons down into small steps and reading your horse. I think you’re going to learn a lot from it.
In the first part of the less I’m working with Muska. In the second half, I turn her over to Nick. I do so appreciate all the people who participate in these DVDs. They help so many others succeed with clicker training by sharing their own learning curve.
Sometimes when you watch a session, it can look easy. Getting the handling and timing right -all of that looks so smooth on the video. How hard can it be? Nick shows you that getting all the details right is anything but easy. It’s so useful to watch somebody else sorting through the process to help you remember all the details that you need to keep track of. So Nick - thank you for sharing.
If you are at the stage where you and your horse are struggling to connect, watching this part of the lesson may help you spot some of those little details that are frustrating or confusing your horse and making it difficult for him to do what you want.
So again, I really thank Nick for being willing to have the camera running while he was at the stage where the lesson feels anything but smooth and easy.
That’s part of what is in this mini course. Something else that’s important is the reading of body language. I think Muska is very expressive. We'll be looking together at all the places where she is asking questions, where we need to notice her concern, her worry. I'll show you how you can manage your handling skills to provide answers to your horse’s small questions so they don't build up into big worries. You'll be learning how to listen to and be responsive to your horse's emotional needs.
And finally the real gem that came out of this session is the power of cues. You’re going to see how quickly cues evolve, how important it is to recognize them and make use of them. You’re going to see how you can put cues to work for you.
At the beginning of the lesson the saddle is most definitely a cue to leave - by the end of the lesson it has evolved into something very different. The process through which cues evolve, and their use with fear issues is one of the major lessons of this on-line course.
So overcoming a fear issue, head lowering, timing, handling skills, building duration, advance and retreat, reading body language, and the power of cues - it’s all in there! Enjoy!
This mini course includes the original DVD Lesson 9: Overcoming Fear And The Power Of Cues. The DVD was first produced in Dec, 2007