I’m showing you all this so that you can see that I, too, inadvertently teach my horses amazing tricks with hardly any time or preparation.
It just goes to show how smart and quick they are.
I think Annie learned this in one session.
Annie (Percheron cross) came to us untouchable and pregnant in September… Now she is much, much friendlier although I doubt she is pregnant anymore. Here she is, approaching the front porch.
HOW DID I TEACH HER AN AMAZING TRICK IN ONE SETTING?
Easy.
I was extremely lazy and she loves treats.
As you all have seen already, my good intention of having treats ready for Annie should she show interest in me, was a bad idea. I knew it at the time, but I also knew it would be faster to train her (and I needed her trained if she was pregnant – which she isn’t) if I had treats.
The second laziest and ridiculous horse training scenarios I got myself into was having these yummy treats in my car.
Annie learned that if she was anywhere near my car, I would have access to treats.
So, Annie learned that if she ran to the gate when I came home, she’d get a treat.
Well, that backfired. She ran up to not only my car every single day, twice a day, but every other car that came through the gate – including PGE, Propane, Fed Ex and UPS. Most thought this was the friendliest horse they’d ever seen! I knew that she was just looking for treats.
Annie: “Maybe all human mobile stalls have treats?!”
She not only knew to run to the gate when a car came up to the gate; she then applied that behavior to whenever a car was leaving the gate, as well.
She did that herself…
So, Annie started to follow me down the driveway whenever I got into my car to drive anywhere.
And from there, she learned that it takes me three steps to open/close our manual gate. This realization opened up three opportunities to requests treats if she chewed real fast. Annie now asks for cookies at each juncture of gate opening or closing.
Lucky me. I’m such a good trainer.
And now…
This is Annie’s ‘treat’ face. I see it often. She licks her lips aggressively in anticipation of a yummy treat. She licks after she eats… She is very lickey.
AND NOW I HAVE TAUGHT HER THE LAZIEST HUMAN TRICK OF ALL.
So, being rushed all the time right now, I did the ultimate lazy human, horrible horse trainer trick.
Annie saw me get into my car to leave for errands. She whinnied and ran to the fence… and I drove up to the fence, rolled down my window – she stuck her head right into my driver side window.
Annie: “Is this how you want me to get my treat today?”
Me (sigh): “Yes. It is quicker and easier for me.”
Annie: “Sounds good. Fine by me. Got another?”
And so it went. I’m training Annie, alright… I’m not proud of my methods or my accomplishment here. But, I can tell you that she will do just about anything for a cookie.
Yes, this is Annie reaching into my car – that I have pulled aside her fence – to give her the laziest treat of all. Just one more trick up her sleeve.
MAY BUCKET FUND: THE HUNG HORSES! These lucky surviving horses are very much alive and would greatly benefit from our support during their long recover! See a new pic of Cider below! Click here to read their story! Click here to donate!
This is beautiful Cider…pouting because another horse is being groomed. Doesn’t he look great?! Please help support their recovery!
Great training indeed! ;)
LOL! I trained a dog once in a similar though less publicly obvious way. I would come home from work, and get ready to take Geoffrey out for a good long run. He had been in the apartment alone all day. I would change out of my business clothes, put on outdoor clothes, and off we would go. Well, after not too long Geoffrey noticed that the first sign that he would get his run was my changing clothes, and he would dance in excitement as I did that. All fine and good, but alas he didn’t understand the difference between changing clothes to go out, and changing clothes to go to bed. So every night he would dance in excitement as I put on my nightgown. Fortunately my husband thought it was funny.