As soon as I ordered a set from clickertraining.com, I found my stash of old, box-style clickers.
The new design has a quieter click, “for classes or sound sensitive animals.” The new shape, “is always in a clickable position no matter how you hold it.” (ibid). I like the fact that you can’t hold it backwards, but am having trouble getting used to smaller click. Milton hears it just fine.
Yes, I’ve tried clicker training before, both dogs and horses. They’ve done great. I’ve been a mess. Having read Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog [S&S 1984, revised Bantam 1999] and Lads before the Wind [Harper & Row 1975, expanded edition Sunshine 2000] multiple times, I had theories playing bumper cars in my head. What if I reward the wrong thing? What if I reward the right thing at the wrong time? Should I be shaping? What if …?
Enough.
This time, no books, no DVDs. Just a pile of carrots, a clicker, and a horse. What is the worst that could happen? I turn him into a carrot mooch? He already is. I derail his show career? He doesn’t have one. We spend time together? As long as he gets treats out of it, Milton’s happy.
“Remember your alignment (of your spine), get your ribs out of your waist, shoulders back and down, put them in your back pockets, ground yourself on your sitz bones, move with your breath, inhale up, exhale down, shoulders over your hips, hips over your knees, knees over your feet. Hold a neutral position, relax into it. Breath into it…
Sounds like every riding lesson you’ve ever had, right? These are directives from her chair yoga class. I guess body control is the same whether one is sitting on a horse or in a chair. Thank you, Joan.
Equine author Maggie Dana is on a new site for horsey authors, Horseback Reads: “I’m really excited and honored to be among these writers. I like their books and they’re also great people … from all over. The gal who started the site is from Ottawa, and our most distant author is Kate Lattey (middle-grade/YA) in New Zealand. The rest of us are scattered around the US. I’m the token Brit.”
Maggie explains further: “Authors in Horseback Reads are Tudor Robins, Maggie Dana, Barbara Morgenroth, Kate Lattey, Mara Dabrishus, Natalie Keller Reinert, and Kim Ablon Whitney. Kate is a Pony Club leader in New Zealand and she actively competes in show jumping, Mara is a librarian, Kim is a former Medal rider and now a USEF “R” judge, Natalie was once a racehorse exercise rider. The rest of us either now own or have owned horses and we’ve all competed. Four of us have been traditionally published and together, we bring a wealth of knowledge and stories to Horseback Reads.”
Tudor Robins (the site’s originator) explains why these authors chose to work together: “We’re a mix of hybrid and indie published authors. We’re all writing for lovers of equestrian fiction … adult, YA, and middle-grade readers.”
“Horse-lovers tend to be book-lovers and we know there’s a big collective audience out there. We also know, as individual authors, that our readers can’t get enough of our particular books, and read much faster than we can write. To satisfy our readers, and tap into the larger pool of horse-loving readers, seven of us decided to band together. We don’t believe we’re in competition – rather we think we’re in cahoots – to keep our readers happy, to keep them reading, to make sure when they finish one horse book, and reach for another, one of us has a great book waiting for them.”
Thank you, Maggie. Good luck with the new venture.
~~~ Confession: I don’t often read horse books for entertainment, Dick Francis aside. Nor do I read books about firefighting, nor about Life in the South. I’m DOING those things. Why do I need to read about them? I am more likely to read for vicarious experience of something I would never do, for example The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman [Broadway 2010].
I offer the Horseback Reads page on the theory that others may feel differently.
I am fortunate to spend two months messing with horses, anything below is said with that in mind. [Let the Tune-Up Begin]
Expected
☺ Saddle Time? Check. Once the brain catches on, the body needs repetition until the muscles remember.
☺ Too tired to do more than come home, shower, & collapse into bed? Check. Cue understanding spouse.
☺ Time off while horses are away? Check. Fallow days are easier to enjoy after a series of busy days. [To Every Thing There Is A Season]
Unexpected
☺ Mental Tiredness. I know that one’s physical state affects one’s mental state. I keep losing track of how much. I forget how slow & stupid my brain gets when my body is slow & stupid.
☺ Solo Riding. If time allows after my lesson, I get turned loose with one of the beginner school horses. It’s been years since I rode alone. As I walked Old Reliable toward the ring, I found I was bracing myself, waiting for him to transform spontaneously into a bucking, snorting, twirling Tasmanian Devil. This is not an idle concern on my part. It has happened with Rodney [Back To Square One] and with Milton [Did I Piss Off the Universe?]. One thing Rodney’s saga (the experience, not the blog) has taken from me is faith in my ability to handle a crisis. Without this belief, one is reduced to school horses and horse petting.
☺ Purpose. ‘Equitation is a pointless exercise in posing,’ thought by me, in snit. “The difference between bad riding and good riding? I can‘t see good riding.” Jimmy Wofford. I go back and forth on this question. [Form Follows Function versus Form Does Not Follow Function]
One reason I had trouble sitting quietly was that I attempted to hold myself in position by brute force. This led to stiffness, which led to bouncing, which led to people yelling at me be still, which led to more stiffness, which led to more yelling, ad infinitum until the class was over.
I think, possibly, that a decent equitation position is secretly a dynamically active neutral position, from which a rider can influence the horse. Equation classes are exercises in body control. Maybe. Ask me after the next progress report.
Caveat
I am undoubtedly working harder at Academy than most. If effort was a measure, Nationals would be a walkover. Unfortunately effort means diddly squat. It’s all about whatcha got on the day. I could get smoked by someone who started riding as an adult, has natural poise, and rides an retired big eq champion. At which point I smile and say thank you. That’s the game I signed up for.
~~~
Gratuitous Cat Pic. What happens when I cat-sit.
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