it's the little things!

The sun was shining and it was tropically hot ( 10 degrees!), no wind and it had been raining but no more ice

I've been reading Ben Hart's ebook on shaping plans so have been structuring a 'SMART' goal and target. My SMART target is 'to be able to mount Shadow from a mounting block or from the ground, at home or outside of the yard'.

I've not had Shadow in from the field really for a few weeks due to snow, ice hazard and illness, so I've only really flicked him off and picked his feet out. Today I decided I'd get him in before we did some clicker, to pamper him.

On our way in from the field, Shadow suddenly pricks his ears, starts breathing heavier and stopped in his tracks. I had a look round and told him he was a good boy and then realised that by one of the fields, was a hay bale covered in one of those yellow tarp covers. There are quite a lot of puddles at the yard where it's been raining/snow and ice has melted, and the next thing, he took a step backwards and soaked me as he legged it. When he stopped, I walked up to him and slowly told him he was a good boy. I unclipped his leadrope ( in case he did run off again, I didn't want him tripping) and left him there and I walked up to the hay covers. I stood and started touching it and then walking past it. Shadow watched me and the look on his face. I called his name and he slowly started walking over. I know it sounds silly but it was that sort of moment where I felt he trusted me, because he was coming up to me, he came over and we had a sniff off the cover, I told him he was a good boy and I was kicking myself for not having my clicker- fortunately, he finds strokes rewarding- so got lots of that... and we walked back to the tying rings and he got a nice groom.


Started clicker training and our first session was with recapping ground-tying. It appears I've conditioned him to my hand cue, but not to my voice cue- and I feel that my voice will be more effective when it comes to the likes of mounting. So today was conditioning Shadow to the word ''stand''.

We had a bit of an issue with my lack of organisation- I had removed his haynet and put it over the middle of the rings so he couldn't get it....stooopid Amy! We had some nice work and then suddenly he caught sight of the hay net and that became more interesting than the clicker training. So; I remembered something Jeanette said to me the other day about 'cueing' head up and when they can eat. I will admit I did find this hard because Shadow obviously found the hay a lot more rewarding, but I did manage to encourage his head up and remove the haynet before any further hay net issues arose!

Finished on a good note and I left him with his haynet whilst I had a quick bite to eat and went for a wee. Came back and groomed him again for a little bit more and then forgot to remove the haynet- surprisingly, Shadow actually didn't seem to be bothered. We had a cracking session and I'm gutted my camera had died ( always the way) so I hadn't the chance to film it at all. We achieved our first 5 steps of the shaping plan. Which was how I had planned to end the day. He is now conditioned to the word stand and let me walk away, he stood for over 10 seconds required without me using my hand up to ask him to stand, only my voice. So I felt this was a perfect place to end and I jackpotted him and left it at that. Let him finish his hay and then was going to take him back to the field and poo pick...

We've had this issue in the past, and I will be honest, am not sure how to solve it really. Shadow leads in from the field like a dream, but 90% of the time, will plant himself and won't lead back to the field. I tried tickling his sides, I tried removing the haynet totally, letting him finish his haynet, but 10 minutes in, we hadn't got no where.

So I made a makeshift 'target'. I got a short crop, a glove and elastic band and created a rather strange looking target. Shadow clearly liked the look of it and I was getting him to bump it. It certainly got him moving- however; this is where our problem was. He became a little bit aggressive with it. He wanted to touch it the whole time, and would run at me if I was holding it, he would snap at it and then started trotting all over the place. I will say, it did actually scare me quite a bit so I'm sure this impaired my focus. But now I've gotten home and reflected on it, is it because he's still not totally conditioned enough? I always have used the 'touch it' cue, but perhaps he's not yet conditioned to it? How can I extinguish this frustration and how can I overcome the leading issue? Is there an exercise I can do in the field or during his time in ( he's fine to lead in) which will benefit leading back to the field at all? Any tips would be greatly appreciated or any ideas as to why this is, would be even better.

The next thing Shadow did was so silly and to most people such a silly thing for me to get excited and happy about... but it's me so I don't care ! I was poo picking and Shadow was following me around and he stopped and was just staring at the trees. Anyway, I said 'What's up Shad's', he turned his bum to the poop scoop and pooed in it. Now, it must be something in the air ( i.e Star cueing herself), but what a clever pony and also VERY helpful! He stayed with me for a bit and then got a bit bored and started grazing
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