Everyday Training: Gideon's Abcess

Apparently Gideon bruised his sole a little on our Antietam ride. A week later, he was 3-legged lame. Thank God it was just an abcess-- it's always disconcerting to see a pony in such pain! (Click here for a free article on equine abcess).

An abcess always means epsom salt soaks, and I knew I was in for a challenge. When Gideon first arrived on the farm he was pretty well behaved...except for his feet. He was petrified of "giving up" his hooves, particularly on his right side. This normally quiet pony would fight like a tiger when you tried to handle his hooves.

Naturally, he had improved immensely with consistent work on the issue. I still did not relish asking him to stand still with his foot in a rubber tub for 2o minutes on end! I had a choice. I could view the soaking as drudergy, or I could frame it as a valuable, "real-life" training experience.

One of the first things a horse learns when they arrive on the farm is a bridge signal, the foundation of clicker training. In a nutshell, the horse learns to associate an external cue, in this case a "cluck" with my tongue, with getting a treat. Most horses, of course, figure out what we want when they hear "good boy!" or get a rub. Adding a treat is essentially an increase in salary--who would not perform better for a bigger paycheck?

The bridge signal allows time to lapse between the desired behavior and the reward. We all know horses have a very short window of time in which they associate a reaction to their behavior. That is why any reward or correction must be immediate, or else the meaning is lost. The behavior is marked as a "yes" without the need for instant affirmation. This is just a quickie explanation. For a more detailed explanation, including ways to feed treats safely, please puruse our clicker training articles.

Facing twice-daily epsom salt soaks, I was grateful for the time I had invested teaching Gideon the bridge signal. Clicker training was going to my secret weapon to hasten his healing.