Cone Circle Series

Hi, I am so excited that you are continuing this journey with Blondie and me. I know how challenging it is to carve out some time to read. That’s why I will try to keep to the point and use video instead of lengthy text. Before we continue from what you already read, let’s do … Weiterlesen

Hi, In the last email, I challenged you to develop a constructional program for Blondie that would allow me to play with her at liberty. To help with that, we use Goldiamond’s four questions: I am curious, what does your training plan look like? If you feel like sharing it, send me an email. I … Weiterlesen

Hi, In the last email, I described where I want to go with Blondie, working at liberty, and where we are now. In the process, we identified our starting point. We found that she can be focused and engaged in the paddock and that training should start there. I have asked you to suggest one … Weiterlesen

Hi, In yesterday’s email, I described how to use the starting point that we identified in question 2: ‘Where are you now?’ to build towards our target behavior. I decided to start in the paddock, where she is focused and calm with a trained behavior that she knows well: Standing on a mat. Using multiple … Weiterlesen

Hi, Before we dive in, let’s recap what we have done so far. My goal is to work with Blondie at liberty in the arena (question 1). To build that skill, I went through a systematic process to identify our starting point (question 2). We identified the foundation lesson’ Standing on a mat’ as our … Weiterlesen

Hi, Yesterday, we piled through a lot of material. Today we get more practical. Remember, we talked about two strategies to teach a new skill. Response shaping and stimulus shaping or fadingDon’t get hung up by the terminology. I found both stimulus fading and stimulus shaping in the literature. Some authors seem to use both … Weiterlesen

Hi, In the last email, I introduced you to The expanding ellipse lesson. With the two mats and two opposite cones that are moved further away from each other, this setup is a great way to increase the distance that your horse walks from one mat to the next, and it creates a balance puzzle … Weiterlesen

Hi, In the last email, I introduced you to the figure 8 lesson. In that setup with a mat and two cones, you ask your horse to go around a cone, land on the mat, change direction and go around the opposite cone. This creates beautiful turns and establishes your cues to send your horse … Weiterlesen

Hi, In the last lesson, we expanded the turns to 4 cones with the mat in the center and used feeding to the off-side, away for us, to set up the balance for a turn around a cone that is more to the side instead of the one straight ahead. Now we will systematically build … Weiterlesen

Hi, This is the last email in this series. What a sprint! And you made it through all 10 emails! Good for you – and your horse 🐴 You obviously are very dedicated and want to be the best teacher for your horse ❤️ In this last email, I will wrap up the journey we … Weiterlesen