Aardig  verhaaltje.
C/R staat  voor  Click/Reward  
Just wanted to post a clicker experience. I am not any where near an 
expert or what you would call a trainer (except for the fact that we 
are always 'training' when we interact with horses). 
I have a yearling colt that needs to experience being away from home 
for a week, no other problems, just has never traveled.
A friend has a filly that kicks, won't lead and is generally wicked. 
The deal was made that my colt could go to her farm for a week and I 
would bring the filly here for some handling and 'training'. The 
only catch, the owner said there is no way to get the filly out of 
the field of 6 horses and onto a trailer without setting up a way to 
drive her into it.
Bets were talked about, like cleaning ALL of my stalls for a month, 
huge sums of money, etc because there was ABSOLUTLY NO WAY this filly 
would lead from the group or load onto the trailer.
The filly is kept w/halter on in the field. In the am, she was 
caught and held so that I could get near enough to hold her halter. 
I spent about 10 minutes showing her to target on a lead line while 
the rest of the horses crowded around and generally interfered. The 
filly is very small and low horse in the herd, so this was a 
challenge for her to stay with me while they were all trying to bully 
in. But I also ran off the other horses, so think that gave me a leg 
up in her way of thinking. But that was it in the morning.
Then we hauled some other horses to a show and came back in the 
afternoon when there was less than an hour of daylight left to get 
the filly loaded.
This time, I went out to the field and she let me walk up to her. I 
put a rope through her halter (so it would slide out if she took off) 
and asked for a step. I C/R each little step. Pretty soon, she was 
following me to the gate (a place she doesn't pass through often). I 
C/R all efforts to move through and now we're out. We walk around a 
bit with high C/R rate. Then we walk to the back of the trailer. I 
C/R any curious looks inside and she's up to the back of the 
trailer. Owner at this point is amazed that she's not running loose 
in a panic and everyone has that "holding their breath" look hoping 
she doesn't panic and run. The look on their faces is actually kind 
of funny. 
The filly puts one foot in, I C/R (and can see the owner behind her 
looking like she's wants to ram the filly the rest of the way in. I 
ask the filly to back out (owner's face looks like -oh no). 
I ask the filly in again and she puts two feet in (owner looks ready 
to ram), I C/R and ask her to back out (owner looks like -crap!). 
Eventually she's all the way in. Owner wants to slam the trailer 
shut. I say no, we're learning here. So we walk around inside the 
trailer and I ask her to step off the trailer in a calm way. (C/R 
through all this). Then we walk back up to the back of the trailer 
and she gets C/R for looking in again and putting feet in again. 
Then she gets put into a stall to think while I eat a quick drive 
through 'dinner'. Owner is confused, why didn't we slam the doors 
shut to keep her in there. I explained that I'm not trying to trick 
or trap the horse and that she was fine before and will go in again. 
The goal isn't to trap the horse in the trailer, its to teach the 
horse that SHE can load into a trailer just fine. I also will be 
unloading this filly alone, after dark on a strange farm, so want to 
have at least three 'sessions' so she's got the C/R system down 
pretty well. Owner thinks I've screwed up. 
Then (about 20min) I go get her from the stall. She follows along 
with me fine and we get to the back of the trailer. I hold her while 
aother mare is loaded into the front stall. Then its her turn. She 
hesitates a small amount, but generally loads on nicely (very high 
C/R through this whole process). And I ask the owner to close the 
back doors.
Again, I only had 1hr of daylight so BOTH of the two 'training' 
sessions and the 20min break were less than an hour. The owner was 
amazed (but is now reniging on all bets/promises - of course). 
I kept emphasizing to the owner (and to her kids who thought the 
filly did well because she 'liked' me) that all I did was reward good 
behavoir. It is not magic, only a different way of thinking. I've 
been showing the 10yo about clicker training and hopefully she'll 
take it to heart. 
BTW: My yearling colt was introduced to the trailer the day before 
the exchange and the 10yo girl watched how I did it. The day of the 
exchange, the 10yo girl had trouble holding him OFF the trailer while 
the mare going to the show was loaded into the first stall 

Now, I admit that this is not classic clicker training, but it shows 
how even the fundamental concepts used on-the-fly can be very 
helpful. And, I'm sorry, but with PNH approachs, we would have been 
talking about weeks (of not months) of training to get that filly 
away from the herd and onto the trailer.
As for the unloading. The filly was so frightened that she would not 
eat any 'treat', but she still remembered the C/R. With tounge 
clucking as the only reward, I was able to get her to step off the 
trailer and lead into a stall past many new and scary things.
 Piet
Natuurlijk  bekappen is zo simpel, mijn paard kan het zelf (s)!