Then we started to play with some of his tricks and in-hand liberty work. I'm teaching him at liberty (with no ropes or halters) for a couple different reasons. The biggest one is because I had back surgery at the end of December, and the doctors said I can be walking around, but not bending or lifting, and I definitely have not yet been cleared to have 1000 lb animals pulling on me via lead rope. I can teach Dewey a significant amount with him loose in the pen with me, and this way he won't tug on me nor can I inadvertently pull or re-injure myself.
Another reason I'm teaching Dewey at liberty is because I find this builds a lot of trust between horse and human. With him totally loose in the large space with me, if he doesn't want to participate in my human nonsense he has nothing coercing him into staying near me. This allows him a format in which he chooses to partner with me, and because he consciously makes that decision he really owns the training. By that I mean he decided he WANTS to learn from me, therefore he is much more active and interested in the training process than if he was working to escape something uncomfortable as in the common "pressure and release" paradigm.
In technical terms, "pressure and release" is called negative reinforcement. Forgive me my inner science geek - my degree is in psychology, anatomy, and neurobiology and I love to talk shop. Dewey is learning and performing behaviors because they are fun, he gets praise, and he is earning little tidbits of cookies. This method is called positive reinforcement. Many studies have shown it is most effective when creating lasting behaviors. In my experience this has usually been the best way to teach, though I do use other methods as well when the situation necessitates it. I've found the horses respond so well to positive reinforcement that it makes training easy, the horses like it, and I'm all about doing things the easy way.
With regards to treats, I don't end up with biting or getting mugged for goodies because Dewey understands that he has to perform some specific behavior in order to turn me into a vending machine. Those behaviors include bowing, smiling, stretching, trotting or cantering next to me in rhythm with my steps, lining up at the mounting block and standing still, among other things. Since he doesn't know which act to perform unless I give him certain verbal cues, he pays super close attention to me so he knows which behavior will earn him a goodie. Because he is still young and has a short attention span, he does occasionally get distracted or sometimes he needs a victory lap or recess of running in order to be able to focus again. I let him have these breaks, and then he's ready to focus again in a few minutes. Because everything is so much fun for him with all this interesting stuff to do to transform me into a treat dispenser, he really enjoys his work and has very low stress levels. He also learns that I am trustworthy, and he can begin to generalize this to other humans as well.
Dewey is getting the hang of smiling and doing his side stretches.
In pretty much every photo that was taken, my legs are in the same position as Dewey's. Even when I'm not looking at him or facing him, we are matched, stride for stride. He is mimicking me, because it's easiest to follow my cues (thus earning praise) when we're in perfect rhythm. Among other reasons, since rhythm is the very first tenet of dressage training, I also consider this liberty work really good preparation for riding and especially dressage.
I do a lot of transitions with Dewey, so on the ground I will jog and then halt, or canter and halt, and he matches me. Transitions have the effect of making him load his haunches with more weight so he can take off with me right away or stop right away. That in turn causes him to activate his abdominal muscles and infraspinatus muscles, creating a "lift" in his back, also called "roundness". These are basic pieces of education about using his body a young horse needs in order to learn to balance himself, which he can do much more easily without a rider. Dewey has grown a lot in a short period of time, and is still acclimating himself to his longer limbs and bigger body, so this is time well spent in teaching him how to balance himself.
Interestingly, as he gets stronger I will progress to doing things like trotting in place, and he'll stay next to me, also trotting in place. Eventually we will canter in place as well. These are the beginnings, really the foundations of the upper level dressage work such as piaffe, passage, and canter pirouettes. Being able to transfer weight onto his haunches and control his body in a balanced way will also help him if he goes on to do jumping, turning at speed, or riding up and down steep hills on technical trail rides. Because of the time it takes to properly develop his musculature so that he can sustain these movements, Dewey won't be doing upper level work under saddle before we get to the expo of course. However, I'm laying the foundation for him to go any direction in his future endeavors in his forever home.
Dewey's in hand canter work is coming along too. Mahzi the dog is always trying to help, and Dewey was a little excited about competition for his cookies, so it started a bit too rowdy. Dewey found his rhythm, though, and settled into the groove really nicely!
Dewey takes a well deserved bow!
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