Nose to Finger: Targetting
Nose to finger
• Objective: The horse will move its nose (nostrils or above) to make contact with a V-sign (finger target) made with the fingers.
• The Set-Up: You are working through a panel with the horse.
• Prerequisite Training: The horse has learned to take hay relaxed and understands the bridge means food will arrive momentarily.
• Protocol: When the horse is waiting for a bridge and food, put the finger target into the pen very casually. Keep the energy in the movement very low and don’t stare at the horse. The horse will almost always sniff your fingers. Bridge and reward. Repeat many times in exactly the same way every time. Do not bridge or reinforce for touches with the lips (it may lead to biting). When the horse looks to your target hand before it is offered, the horse understands what you are doing. If it is still snorting, it is not relaxed. Do this until the horse can do it as relaxed as it was free feeding. Only then start changing things -- the next step!
• What ifs: What if the horse wants to nibble me? Don’t reinforce touches with the lips. If the horse is attempting to mouth you, give them a 10 second time out, before you start again. If it is actually trying to bite you, you don't have a relaxed horse. What if the horse won’t try? Let desire grow and try it later in the day. What if the horse keeps snorting and being tense? It’s going to require more patience on your part. You may have jumped the gun in his earlier training. If you have done this for a week and you still have a tense horse, there may be other things affecting the psychological state of the horse. You could try using the glove on a stick or a similar target instead of your fingers, then gradually get your fingers up close to the animal by holding farther up the stick part.
Rusty started out with a very faint touch to the edge of his nostril. It was high enough to accept it, so we worked from there. We like to get clear up to the bony part of the nose as fast as possible and not get stuck down at the lips. His tries were deliberate, and there was nothing aggressive in them. I was pleased.
The best performers yesterday were Billy and Maribel by the quickness and consistency of their responses. However, you could see that Maribel had conflicted emotions about us. She lays her ears back. Billy is not deliberate about touching us and seems to just randomly bump his nose to the hand. Still these horses were right there and ready to engage. Like Rusty, Sally and little Halley got very consistent over the course of the day. Queenie and Stardust were too tense to engage in touching yesterday but figured it out today.
We want the horse to have a very positive opinion of the human hand. This exercise provides the opportunity to make that happen. It also starts teaching the animal that it can earn food by interacting with the human but the snacks are no longer free. I think they really enjoy having that much control over the situation.
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