Week Four

The deed is done and the horse is moved.  My friend and student Kylie gave Fudge a lift in to the stables on Friday morning and his life suddenly got a lot busier (and scarier!).  Again, he loaded and travelled beautifully so it seems that that is one part of his early education which was solidly established and that he remembers. 
After leaving him to settle in, on Friday afternoon I re-introduced the clicker and took him for a long walk around the property including a bit of bush-bashing down to the dam, through the scrub and up to (and over!) some scary obstacles.   He was great!  Having the target and a pocketful of treats was really helpful for redirecting and refocusing him when he got distracted.  When he was scared he sometimes wanted to RUN and even had a near-barging-into-me incident when another horse unexpected appeared around a corner.  A sharp correction and then a quick target and treat and we were back on track.  He's a sharp horse with a quick mind and a well-honed flight response so I will have to be careful to train him to STOP and think when he gets a fright. 
Back at the stables, I introduced the small clippers and used the clicker to capture him standing still and accepting the noise and vibration.  I had a little audience at this point, with several people interested to see how the clicker could be used for this work and it turned into an impromptu demonstration.  Luckily Fudge was a good guinea pig and gradually accepted the clippers touching his shoulder and neck and then down his foreleg.  I didn't tie him up at any point, just clicked and treated when he stopped moving around.  He timidly targetted the running clippers, I clipped the feathers off one foreleg and left it at that with the intention of doing more the next day.
Feeling like I was getting to know his character and with these lessons in mind, I saddled up and had my first schooling ride at the new location on Saturday afternoon.  He was very tight and tense and I only walked and trotted, focussing on 'riding with my legs and guiding with my hands' which I find is a very useful phrase to remind myself of.  Fudge is not very forward going, despite being nervy, and is particularly light-mouthed and light-necked and I think has never been ridden with a consistent, elastic contact.  This makes things interesting, as he does crave security and stability and having someone 'holding his hand' certainly helps him be brave about approaching scary objects under saddle.  However, he has a funny quirk, which I will have to try and eliminate as quickly as possible, where he drops his head, bumps into the contact (as I'm trying to maintain my independent hand as still as possible) and then stops dead!  It's like he's giving himself a halt aid.  There is no conflict in it, he just lowers his head to the point that he 'finds' my hands and then thinks, 'oh, stop?  OK!'  Quite sweet, really.
I used food rewards from the saddle to reward particularly good efforts at anything, though I haven't been using a clicker to mark any particular behaviours under saddle yet.  It's more general so far, so, relaxation while standing next to something scary, letting me hang off the side of him to open the gate latch, going obediently near the rowdy horses on the other side of the fence and not being too distracted by them.
After his ride he had a good shampoo and again enjoyed being curry combed while soapy.  He's still got slightly dry, scaly skin but his coat is already feeling smoother and glossier.  I can't wait to clip off the yellowish sun bleached bits!  I pulled a bit more out of his mane and put him to bed in his new jute rug.  Jute is an old-fashioned fabric for horse rugs but I find it nice and breathable and has a good polishing effect as well as being not too heavy for our warm nights.