Vaquero Soaks His Hooves
I have a new lesson horse, and I got him knowing he’d need some patching and pasting to get ready for his new job. The farrier discovered the beginning of white line disease, so I’ve spent the last two days soaking his hooves—and took the opportunity to introduce the clicker!
There’s no faster way to get to know a new horse than a good foot soak. I quickly found out that Vaquero is a little impatient. He chews the cross ties, flicks his hoof all over the place once he lifts it, and doesn’t like having his ears brushed... mmmm, lots of things to work on with the clicker!
He’s a very smart 17-year-old—personable, a bit of a jokester, and with no mean bones in his body. I just need to be smarter, stay mindful, and be consistent to get the results I want. You can see the silly look in his eyes!
I decided that target training would be the perfect place to start. Since I was going to wrap his freshly soaked hoof with a diaper, the diaper became the target. Being an inquisitive and confident gelding, Vaquero saw the object and instantly investigated it with his muzzle. Click, treat! That was exciting. I offered it over and over from different angles. The second and third times, he still wasn’t sure how that food came to him, but by the fourth or fifth time, he started to associate the diaper with his favorite thing—food!
An eager eater makes clicker training easy, but a smart eager eater makes it more challenging. I have to be on my best behavior and mindful of my every move, because everything I do becomes a cue to him for how to get that food.
After wrapping one hoof with the diaper, vet wrap, and duct tape, I repeated the diaper targeting—and he did great. I’m already discovering that my new student is a fast learner and loves treats. That’s why I deliver treats very intentionally—there are no freebies.
My next game was to see if I could get Vaquero to lower his head when I held the brush above his poll, so I can tend to his ears. I clicked when he lowered his head—this time, it wasn’t muzzle-to-object that brought the food, but the action of lowering his head, marked by the click to tell him, “That’s what I want!”
That lesson is still in progress, but the seed has been planted. Thanks to the diaper target training, he’s starting to understand what the clicker means. Vaquero is going to be a fun clicker project!