Teaching Tricks to Miniature Horses Using Clicker Training

Although miniature horses or minis are cute and small, they still contain an impressive amount of strength. They also are not aware of their size, acting just like full-size horses. Combine their strength with their high intelligence and this can be a recipe or disaster. Miniature horses need training or they will soon become unruly. Tricks are a fun way to give minis these training.

Clicker Training Basics

Clicker training is the most popular miniature horse trick training method. It uses positive reinforcement, often in the form of a small food treat, in order to encourage horses to perform desired behaviors like tricks. The key to clicker training is persistence. It cannot be used one day and discarded the next. Ignore all undesirable behaviors.

Equipment needed to begin clicker training include:

• A plastic clicking noisemaker often sold in dog training supplies
• A long stick or lunge whip with a large soft ball on the end
• A bag full of carrots cut up into small chunks

First you must prime the clicker. Do this in the minis stall or a confined space so it is free from distractions. Click and treat within a minute. Repeat until the mini is expectantly looking at you for the treat as soon as the click is heard. The miniature horse quickly learns to associate the sound of a click with a treat. All of clicker training is based on click means a good thing is sure to come. Horses will then do whatever they can in order to get you to click and then reward.

Targeting

After the mini has learned that click equals reward, it's time to begin elementary miniature horse trick training. Keep sessions short. Fifteen to twenty minutes is more than enough. If the horse seems to zone out after five or ten minutes, keep training sessions to that length. You must fit the training sessions to the horse's natural temperament - not the other way around.

Now it's time to get that long stick or whip with a ball attached to the end. This is the target. The goal is to get the mini to follow the target, even over strange obstacles like crinkling tarpaulin or cavelletti poles. Hold the stick out quietly so that the ball is near the mini's nose. Most minis will instinctively sniff the ball.

As soon as the mini sniffs the ball, click and treat. Repeat a few times, but then raise the stakes. Do not click until the horse touches the ball with its muzzle or lips. When the horse does this, click and treat. Walk quietly around, even if it just a few steps. If the horse follows, click and treat.

Breaking Tricks Into Steps

Tricks such as rolling a beach ball across an arena are surprisingly complex tricks. But if you can get your mini to target, then part of the trick is accomplished. Think about a trick such as rolling a ball and break it down into steps. Teach the steps.

To teach the mini to roll a ball, get the mini to first approach a ball. Click and treat. When it touches the ball, even accidentally, click and treat. Trick Training Your Horse to Success notes that minis are often startled at the sight of a rolling ball. But if you are calm, the horse will soon realize that there is nothing to worry about. Have the horse on a halter and lead for control. If you can use a helper to slowly roll the ball back ad forth, that's even better. Click and treat for calm behavior.

When the horse is bored by a rolling ball and will touch it, then ask the horse to touch it and step forward. You can lead the horse forward with a halter and lead rope for now and eventually take off the lead rope when the horse gets the idea.

It may take a week or more of sessions, but eventually the mini will push the ball forward. Break any tick or task such as standing still for grooming or for the farrier down into small steps. Reward the steps. Eventually take away the reward for the first step and only reward when the horse does two steps, and so on. If you are patient then you will succeed at miniature horse trick training.

Sources

Sharp, Jan. Trick Training Your Horse to Success. Eclipse Press; 2004.

Lynghaug, Fran. The Official Horse Breed Standards Guide. Voyaguer Press; 2009.

The Best Whisper is a Click. http://www.thebestwhisperisaclick.com/