Teaching the whip cues using body language and the handheld target

"First you go with the horse. Then the horse goes with you. Then you go together." - Tom Dorrance.
In this video, Mary-Anne and Vinnie are exploring different whip cues, using body language and the handheld target to clarify if Vinnie doesn't understand or feels hesitant.
By adding options within the activity - along with the opt-out bucket where he can end the exercise and still earn the reinforcer - Vinnie has choice and control over the whip cues which can build his confidence and sense of safety around them. The safer and more confident he feels, the more creative and expressive he gets with what he offers, and we can shape these offers into different exercises.
In this case, we were working with the whip cue to connect his inside hind leg forward from behind in the trot to create a better shape. As he got more confident with the activity, he started to offer collected trot in haunches-in, which Mary-Anne matched her cue to and rewarded! This led to him offering canter, which we also matched and rewarded!
As each of these exercises move into Vinnie's comfort zone, we will practice cue control and Mary-Anne will be able to ask for each specific behaviour from a particular cue. So we will move from matching and going with Vinnie's ideas, to Vinnie matching and going with Mary-Anne's ideas, and then back to following Vinnie's ideas again when we move into new territory.
By continuously moving back and forth between these states depending on the topic of conversation, we find a beautiful homeostasis of togetherness.
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