Training the Sidepass

I figure it is time to start Louie on learning something new. So, I decided to teach him to side pass from the ground. The first day I fooled around with it Louie was really not sure what I was asking. I didn't spend too much time with him that first day. Then a few days ago I went out when I had time to take as long as I wanted to work with Louie. And I admit, I decided to short cut the training by putting a halter and lead rope on him. Immediately the fun went out of it for Louie. He just loves working at liberty. But, as soon as he was "restrained" by the halter and lead rope, he seemed to feel that he might now be forced to do things he was unsure of or didn't understand. Unfortunately, I didn't really reflect on this until later.

Anyway, on our second side pass training session, I asked Louie to side pass and he was both reluctant and unsure of what I wanted. And being restrained, he was not as willing as he is when at liberty to just try things to see what might earn him a reward. He would disengage is hindquarters but when I would escalate my cues to get his front end to follow the back end, he would just try to turn and walk away from me. I was correcting him with the lead rope so he did not have the option to work things out on his own and he was shutting down on me. I got a 4' long 2" x 10" board and placed this on the ground lined up with the fence to restrict what directions Louie could go. I eventually was able to get him to side pass over the board but it was done without much enthusiasm and I was having to make my cues "big" to get him to even try. I decided to end with some things that we do all the time so we would end on a good note.

This morning when I was done with the chores, I decided to try again with the side passing. I went into the barn to get some treats. Louie was at the door when I came out and when I asked him to back up out of my way, he didn't move. He got a swat on the chest for that as he knows better then to stand in my space like that. He jumped and galloped off shaking his head. He went to the hay feeder where Marie was and glared at me from there. But, when I called him to me he was immediately over his sulking and was eager to play.

After mulling over our last unsatisfactory training session in my mind, I decided to go back to working with Louie at liberty. I just needed to break the lessons down into smaller steps as I should have right from the start. I started by giving him the same cue I had been using on our last two training sessions. He still seemed confused and he moved his front end, and his hind end, and he walked forward and backwards and turned around. He moved every way but sideways. I paused for a moment trying to decide how to break this down into easier steps. We were standing in the middle of the paddock and suddenly a light bulb went off in Louie's head. You could just see it happen. He spun around and marched over to the board I had placed on the ground for our previous session, lined right up on one end of it in perfect position to side pass over it. He then turned his head and looked at me with an eager expression on his face that seemed to say, "is this what you want me to do mom?" I went right over to him and gave him my cue to side pass and sure enough he did quite a nice side pass over that board! GOOD MULE!

I was delighted with Louie for thinking things through like he did. And I can tell you he was sure pleased with himself for figuring it out. Had I haltered him and kept him on a lead rope today, he would never have been able to follow through with that thought process and show me when he figured it out. The way these mules think things through continually amazes me.