Hi,
Alexandra Kurland has developed Six Foundation Lessons:
- Targeting
- Backing
- Grown-ups are talking, please don’t interrupt
- Head Lowering
- Happy faces
- Standing on a mat.
I start all horses with these lessons because they truly are the foundation for everything that follows.
In the last email, you have seen the beginnings of the first three of that list.
A nose target is a fabulous way to introduce a horse (and a novice trainer) to clicker training. Delivering the treat in a way that invites the horses to take a step back is a smart and kind way to teach backing. And “Grown-ups” is crucial for working with plenty of food in your pockets while enjoying a polite horse next to you.
There are many good reasons for teaching Head lowering, some of which are described below.
It can be taught by lowering the target to the ground or with pressure and release of pressure. You place your hand gently on the horse’s neck and remove it as soon as she drops her head even slightly, and adding a click and treat.
Another way of teaching it, that becomes very handy when you start riding, is through a lesson that is called ‘Backing in a Square’. It is a way to establish the rope cue for head lowering. This lesson has many benefits and we’ll get to it later in the series.
At this point, I want to introduce head lowering with a target and how you can use a “New cue – Old cue” procedure to transfer stimulus control from the target to the lead rope.
In the video below, you see the entire training session with Malou. You’ll see how I use the target to get the behaviour going and then transfer the behaviour of head lowering from the cue “target” to the new rope cue.
It’s a long video but I think it’s interesting to watch how quickly you can transfer the behaviour to a new cue. At the end of the video, I have added a short sequence from another training session, where I ask Malou, if she can respond to the cue that we established in her paddock also in the riding arena. After as short refresher, she understood what I asked. Smart girl.
HEAD LOWERING for safety
Teaching head lowering is a safety measure. If taught well, you can use the lesson to return quickly to calmness after a little scare.
In this clip you see the benefits in a real life example. We are working in the arena when our resident deer “Tino” makes a sudden appearance. Asking Graya for head lowering through the lead rope, we get back to calmness quickly and continue the lesson.
This works the same during riding. Say you are on a trail ride and something startles your your horse. You can ask for head lowering through the reins and as the head drops to the ground, you can either quickly dismount or prepare for whatever next move.
HEAD LOWERING is a powerful lesson for the cross-over horse.
When I got Asfaloth in 2009, he swiped at me when I was too close to his face and during saddling. Teaching him to lower his head while I closed the girth was a way to stay safe AND I used his response to know if I could proceed with saddling.
Today, he still drops his head during girthing but otherwise he is absolutely relaxed about saddling or touching (or kissing) his face.
I found a very old video (2014) of Asfaloth. He offers the Pilates Pose throughout the grooming and preparation until it comes to closing the girth, then he drops his head.
(As I rewatched this clip, I was a little was a little concerned at first about how he held his tail, but he just needed to poop 😅)
Many years later, I applied a more sophisticated and constructional process to saddling with Blondie – which I will share with you in later emails.
In the next email, I will provide some examples of how you can use this behaviour of head lowering to teach self-haltering, which is a necessity for young horses and some cross-over horses.
Happy training,
Michaela