Starting young horses naturally with Parelli and clickers - Part 1

May 8, 5:04 PMClicker Training ExaminerEve Alexander

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This is Part 1 of my interview with Maxine Easey.

Maxine, you follow the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program and you clicker train. What came first Parelli or clicker training?
Clicker came first - I was very interested in looking at scientific - by which I mean psychology-based ways of training my horse Archie and this was one that looked most promising. I gave it a go, was amazed by how fast I was getting results and have never looked back. I've been using clicker for about 7 years. I was introduced to clicker training by a horsey friend who was also interested in all forms of animal training and had attended a course with Alexandra Kurland. She explained the basics, I borrowed a book and away we went.

I got into Parelli about a year or two later along with my husband Bryan with whom I was sharing Archie. Bryan and I have been study buddies all the way along and we've been Parelli students for about 5 years now. Arch was an extreme Left Brain Introvert so it's been a long journey and we are now well into Level 3 with some areas Level 4.

My abiding memory of starting Parelli was having an instructor tell us that we had done well to pass Level 1 with a "very challenging horse" so being pretty close to Level 3 now feels quite awesome. It's worth adding that when I started all this, it was with the first horse I had ever owned and my only other training in horsemanship and riding prior to that had been via traditional riding lessons from British Horse Society approved instructors or from close friends who had had traditional training, or from mainstream books on horsekeeping and equitation.

I understand you're using clicker training and Parelli to start your young horse.
We bought Harley at 2 years and 9 months old as an unstarted colt. He's an American Quarter Horse and he was imported in utero from the USA and was bought by his former owner on the day he was born - a very gorgeous healthy palomino! After weaning he went to live with Jo and we bought him from her in January 2008.

Luckily for us she was also into natural horsemanship but had done little with Harley other than teach him to lead in a halter. As far as we were concerned that made him perfect! We chose the breed for endurance and temperament - he will be primarily a fun trail horse for Bryan, although he comes from the very famous Hollywood Dun It reining horse blood line so he's rather good at slide stops and spins already!

What are the first things you trained your young horse to do?
We he first came he knew the basics of yielding to steady pressure but he had a lot to learn! We played a lot of friendly game with him to desensitise him to everything we could find - plastic, flapping things like flags, umbrellas and tarps, loud noises, commotion, different vehicles, fast traffic, bicycles and so on. We taught him about how to yield to pressure in all zones and all directions. We needed to have him respect our space and our aim was to be able to move his feet in all directions with lightness from steady and rhythmic pressure. We also honed up his skills leading in a halter and rope so he could walk when we did and stop and turn with us. He learned pretty much most of the 7 games and taught us how to play some of them much better!

We actually sat down and made a list of things he needed to learn and it was pretty extensive. Once he had the basics of yielding to steady and rhythmic pressure I helped him to get more confident putting his feet on different surfaces and then when that was going good I taught him to trailer and lorry load. We feel that it's important that a horse can load confidently onto a lorry or trailer right away. You never know when you might need to transport a horse in an emergency and this is something he needed to be able to do pretty soon in our plan. He was a little unconfident about putting his feet onto the wobbly ramp to start with but once he overcame that he was ready for the next step. I used clicker mixed with squeeze game to reinforce his slightest tries to get confident about going up the ramp and into the lorry. Once he made the commitment to clamber on he got the biggest click/treat he could have imagined - I'd saved a molasses lick for the occasion and brought that to him with a loud click as he stepped confidently into the lorry looking like he'd been doing it for years! I guess I spent about 3 sessions of around 2 hours preparing him for what he needed to be able to do to load on a lorry and then teaching the task of loading itself. It didn't take too long and I carried on basically until I was sure it was his idea, that he understood my body language and that he was willing and happy to clamber on to the lorry without hesitation every time. Since then he has loaded like a dream.

On to Part 2

More Information
Maxine Easey's Blog
Parelli Natural Horsemanship
Karen Pryor Clicker Training