Train the Grass Grabber- Teach your horse to Graze (or not!) on Cue

“How can I make it so that being with me is more reinforcing than snatching grass while leading or riding and how do I prevent my horse from passing me and attempting to drag me towards the grass?” This question was submitted recently a CHC member. See Melissa’s response below taken from the CHC members only forum, and check out the video to learn more about how to do this with your horse.

But first, about the video.... You can use the same technique in the video with your horse. 

Horses can be quick to drag us along with them when lucious grass is nearby. This savvy CHC member and online coaching participant uses the grass as a reinforcer to keep her sensitive mare comfy in challenging contexts and has overcome the huge hurdle of being able to keep the mare's attention when walking by grass and also asking her to leave it. No small feat for this grass grabbing girl!

Melissa's response to the ? above:

                 "This is a common scenario and excellent question. You are smart to ask about how to handle asking a horse to stay connected and engaged with you rather than snatching grass using positive reinforcement. It’s important to create a situation in which your horse finds staying with you more reinforcing.

Grass can be challenging since it is hard wired in the horse’s DNA. (This is the reason it is not included as a recommended training goal at the very beginning of the course, until cue clarity and strong reinforcement histories staying with you at liberty and online are established in a handful of other exercises. The latter will assist you in getting and keeping his attention in challenging circumstances including gorgeous grass.)

However, tis the season since it’s spring, and I’m happy to give you some pointers here.

Before attempting to keep a horse engaged when going across grass, especially horses like yours that do not get to graze regularly due to insulin resistance, you’ll want

• an attentive horse
• that is engaged and
• understands your cues for head up,
• touch the target etc.
• and have a reliable/confirmed graze cue,
• a high enough rate of reinforcement,
• high enough value food
• and large enough volume of reinforcer.

...to make it worth it to your grass craving horse to pass up the grazing opportunity and enjoy what you have to offer when you first begin this training. Later, when the behavior is well established you can begin Fading the Food ™ as in described in my E-book of the same name and your online course.

Once you have these things in place,

• you’ll need to observe your horse to ensure that you understand how long he is able to handle doing something near grass without being tempted to graze, and
• I suggest starting near grass that is less than luscious.
• Then you’ll also want to figure out, once you give the graze cue, how long your horse is able to graze and still be responsive to your head up cue without going down the rabbit hole, so to speak.

Having your foundational behaviors to fall back on as games that have a strong reinforcement history that can be used immediately following him picking his head up to increase his duration and focus on you is usually very helpful and makes taking his mind of the grass interesting and reinforcing. Finally, when this is reliable, you’ll want to add a step or two of walk following head up and reinforce him handsomely! 

Here is an overview of the strategy I am recommending:

• First, have foundational behaviors and cues confirmed with a strong reinforcement history of something wonderful happening in all of your day-to-day interactions – i.e. we will want to remember that our horse is the judge of the experience being wonderful.
• Have an understanding of how to increase duration of behaviors in general.
• Then, I invite you to explore/consider how you can practice prevention rather than intervention.
• Or in this case, even use redirection after the behavior of passing you has occurred, as training is always happening whether we intend it or not. The more he practices passing you, the more he trains himself to do it.
• Ensure your reinforcers are of enough value to the horse to be as valuable or preferably more valuable than the grass (you might even use grass in your treat pouch).
• Start near not so tasty grass before asking for movement or raising the criteria.
• Finally, ensure you have the qualities below prior to grass training. You can find more on this in the moving together section of your Training Compassionate Horse Click Online course and we can also discuss in your next online lesson. But, for the moment it may be helpful to focus on your foundational behaviors and post them and let us have a look at them to ensure that you have the level of:
• cue clarity 

• attentiveness and

• softness that lends itself to success when you begin liberty leading/moving together.
  (for those not in the CHC Course, feel free to post videos in our Positive Reinforcement Horse Training – Compassionate Horse Click FB group and request feedback: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1742650405954835)

Remember, grabbing grass is in your horses DNA and it will always be a temptation so it's important to understand the depth of the challenge and prepare and train accordingly. For specific related to graze cues and connection etc., you’ll learn more details about this in the Going/Getting Across Grass section of the course or we can always address it in a one-on-one online coaching session, and I can show you videos of this being done at different stages of the process. Plus, we can work with your specific horse live online via video with your phone or with pre-recorded videos.

Most importantly,  take heart and be encouraged. You are asking excellent questions and ones that everyone can benefit and learn from – THANKS FOR THAT and Keep on learning from your experiences with your wonderful horses as your guides!"

PS Contact: [email protected] for info on purchasing the Fading the Food ™ E-book