In this series about the key lessons (the key to successful clicker training) I\’ve already talked about five important exercises. There are two more important basic lessons for the horse: \’patience\’ and \’mat training\’.
Standing on a mat
The purpose of mat training is to teach your horse to stand on a mat with his two front hooves. It is basically targeting with hooves. If your horse learns to stand on a rubber mat, he learns to trust you and standing on new surfaces. Horses have a lot of \’feel\’ in their hooves and therefor it can be scary in the beginning to stand on a item that is soft and squishy, like a puzzle mat.
Other behaviours
Once your horse has learned to stand on a mat on cue, you can build \’duration\’. Just like in targeting. If you train for duration in easy exercises it will be easier in the future to train duration, like in exercises under saddle. Your horse can learn to generalize. You can introduce a keep-going signal to make it more clear what you want to train.
Train opposite behaviour
Always reinforce the opposite behaviour of what you are training as well. You want don’t want teach him to stand on the mat only, but you also want him to step down on command. If you don\’t do this, you will create a horse that always runs to whatever mat or similar surface he spots. And expects a treat!
After introducing a mat, you can ask your horse to mount other surfaces like a piece of plywood. Or ask your horse to walk over it. The sound of his hoof beat might scare him at first, but if you reinforce every little step (literally!) or even weight shifts he will soon gain the confidence to walk over it. This is a really good preparation for walking up ramps or entering trailers or walking over (wooden) bridges. It makes it easier to teach your horse to mount a pedestal.
Mat training also helps to make clear where you want your horse to be. If you want this to teach him to stand next to a mounting block, the mat can help indicate where you want your horse to stand.
Slow horses
If you have a horse with more whoa than go, it can help to teach him to walk from mat to mat in the arena. First at walk, then trot and finally in canter. It can make energy-saving horses really enthusiastic: it is clear that they have to go from mat to mat. So they know when to go and where they can stop. It can give them a feeling of control and makes it predictable for them. It can also help the trainer to be happy and content with little progress because the mats make the criteria and progress \’visible\’.
Fast horses
If you have a horse that has more go than whoa you can also teach him to go from mat to mat. Place the mats close together at first until your horse knows what is expected. You can teach him to slow down, walking over a mat, but keep going. Or you can ask him to stop. Experiment!
Jumping at liberty
Mats can help send a horse over a jump by himself, without chasing him with a whip over a jump. Simply place two mats on either side of a pole and ask your horse to go to the other mat. Place the mats a bit further apart each time,then you can raise the criteria by making a low jump and built from there.
Links to other key lessons
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Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.
I help horse owners get the results in training they really, really want with joy and easy for both horse and human. I always aim for win-win!
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Excellent – as usual, some useful tips. I like the idea of mats for going over poles, Mole isn’t very enthusiastic and knocks them over when I raise them of the ground. Thanks
Thank you! Kyra used to knock over poles! I clicked and reinforced step by step: every hoof that didn’t touch the pole got reinforced. I started by asking first one leg, halt, two legs, halt etcetera. Once she learned that “lifting a foot over the pole without touching” was reinforced, I raised my criterion. Two feet over, click. Once she knew how to do this I clicked for 3 and eventually for 4. The I raised the pole, or put 2 poles after each other. It was a process, but the journey was very enjoyable. Now Kyra loves to jump at liberty! I hope Mojo learn to like it too!
![\"_key_lesson_standing_on_a_mat_hippologic\"](\"https://hippologic.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/key_lesson_standing_on_a_mat_hippologic.jpg\")
Other behaviours
Once your horse has learned to stand on a mat on cue, you can build \’duration\’. Just like in targeting. If you train for duration in easy exercises it will be easier in the future to train duration, like in exercises under saddle. Your horse can learn to generalize. You can introduce a keep-going signal to make it more clear what you want to train.
Train opposite behaviour
Always reinforce the opposite behaviour of what you are training as well. You want don’t want teach him to stand on the mat only, but you also want him to step down on command. If you don\’t do this, you will create a horse that always runs to whatever mat or similar surface he spots. And expects a treat!
After introducing a mat, you can ask your horse to mount other surfaces like a piece of plywood. Or ask your horse to walk over it. The sound of his hoof beat might scare him at first, but if you reinforce every little step (literally!) or even weight shifts he will soon gain the confidence to walk over it. This is a really good preparation for walking up ramps or entering trailers or walking over (wooden) bridges. It makes it easier to teach your horse to mount a pedestal.
Mat training also helps to make clear where you want your horse to be. If you want this to teach him to stand next to a mounting block, the mat can help indicate where you want your horse to stand.
Slow horses
If you have a horse with more whoa than go, it can help to teach him to walk from mat to mat in the arena. First at walk, then trot and finally in canter. It can make energy-saving horses really enthusiastic: it is clear that they have to go from mat to mat. So they know when to go and where they can stop. It can give them a feeling of control and makes it predictable for them. It can also help the trainer to be happy and content with little progress because the mats make the criteria and progress \’visible\’.
![\"_Keylessonmatwork2\"](\"https://hippologic.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/keylessonmatwork2.jpg\")
Fast horses
If you have a horse that has more go than whoa you can also teach him to go from mat to mat. Place the mats close together at first until your horse knows what is expected. You can teach him to slow down, walking over a mat, but keep going. Or you can ask him to stop. Experiment!
Jumping at liberty
Mats can help send a horse over a jump by himself, without chasing him with a whip over a jump. Simply place two mats on either side of a pole and ask your horse to go to the other mat. Place the mats a bit further apart each time,then you can raise the criteria by making a low jump and built from there.
Links to other key lessons
![\"\"](\"https://validfacecave.mylearndash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hippologic-clickertraining_sandra-en-kyra.jpg?w=524\")
Excellent – as usual, some useful tips. I like the idea of mats for going over poles, Mole isn’t very enthusiastic and knocks them over when I raise them of the ground. Thanks
That should read Mojo, I think my spellchecker kicked in!
Thank you! Kyra used to knock over poles! I clicked and reinforced step by step: every hoof that didn’t touch the pole got reinforced. I started by asking first one leg, halt, two legs, halt etcetera. Once she learned that “lifting a foot over the pole without touching” was reinforced, I raised my criterion. Two feet over, click. Once she knew how to do this I clicked for 3 and eventually for 4. The I raised the pole, or put 2 poles after each other. It was a process, but the journey was very enjoyable. Now Kyra loves to jump at liberty! I hope Mojo learn to like it too!
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