Dit kreeg ik gisteren. Sorry, even geen tijd  de boel te vertalen
Hi,
I just thought it would be fun to share a video of my Chincoteague 
Pony, Chesapeake Boomerang, and I from this past weekend at the Horse 
World Expo in Harrisburg, PA.
6 weeks ago I decided to begin training him to compete in Craig 
Cameron's Extreme Cowboy Race. If you've never heard of it it's 
basically a timed obstacle course which is also judged on agility, 
horsemanship, communication, etc. I thought it looked like something 
fun and new to try with my pony.
I started clicker training Boomerang almost 3 years ago when he first 
came to live with me at the age of 5. But this new event for us 
required that we learn a lot of new maneuvers - many western.....as 
we ride and compete english. So in 6 weeks I clicker trained him to 
do flying lead changes, sidepassing, western roll backs, and more. I 
admit I had some pretty high expectations for him.
The only thing I couldn't "prepare" for and "train" was any sort of 
reaction he might have to cheering crowds. Thankfully I prepared 
myself with a back-up plan should I need to refocus him during the 
event.
Here is a link to the video of our preliminary round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV8l50UHIHkIf you notice right about 0:34 seconds Boomerang gets a little 
frightened by the loud cheering. But I was able to refocus him by 
asking him to "whoa" and then clicking and rewarding him for 
remaining stationary. After that the crowd became a non-issue for him 
- if only a slight distraction. I was glad that Craig Cameron 
announced that Boomerang had been trained using clicker training. :)
Our preliminary round moved us into 2nd place out of 23 riders and 
earned us a spot in the finals among the top 10 riders. We ended up 
placing 6th in the finals.
Anyway, I was very proud of my brave pony, who was also the ONLY pony 
to compete bitless! Just had to share. :)
Piet
Clicker training is a wonderful tool for teaching
people to focus on the positive and have an
attitude of gratitude for every effort your horse
makes.