Horses Can't Do That!
I've been hearing that a lot lately: "Horses can't do that!" My seventeen year old
rescued off-the-track Thoroughbred Lukas is listed on both Yahoo and Google as "The World's Smartest Horse," and has attracted world-wide media attention for his cognitive and perceptive abilities. In addition, he performs a wide variety of liberty (free) movements and tricks. All to show the happy results of kind training and how smart and wonderful animals are.
Lukas (race name "Just Ask Mike") ran in three races as a two year old: back of the pack finishes and two bowed tendons unceremoniously ended his race-track career. He changed hands several times, ending up neglected and emaciated in a yard belonging to a family who didn't know how to care for him (or even what to feed him). A local jumper trainer noticed him while she was driving by and bought the then eight year old gelding out of pity: "He was skin and bones and his tail was a solid bat of dried mud." She had hoped to rehabilitate him and eventually include him in her amateur jumping program. After two years though, he still "wasn't fitting in," according to her, and I found him advertised in the local Horsetrader as a "Green project horse."
I immediately like his big, kind eye and thoughtful gaze, and after visiting him once more the next day, purchased him. Lukas' extremely sensitive nature was soon going to become very obvious. I enlisted the help of a trainer to prepare Lukas for lower-level Dressage competition. Within a short time, Lukas reacted in dangerous and resistive ways: bucking, spooking and bolting. After discontinuing the trainer, I decided to train him myself and hopefully reclaim his trust.
I use a combination of shaping, clicker training and positive reinforcement along with intermediary markers to signal correct inclinations. As a psychiatric nurse for twenty-five years, I've borrowed behavior modification techniques from my career, and bits and pieces from over thirty years of studying every type of training from birds, zoo animals, dogs and marine mammals.
I started with face and neck tricks and progressed to more complex movements and behaviors. Lukas' curious, eager nature sparked an exploration into cognitive and perceptual tasks as well. His current repertoire includes: the smile, pose, yes, no, kiss (dry and wet), fetch, blindfold, catch, yawn, wave, pedestal work, Spanish Walk (forward and backward), stay and come, jambet (three-legged pivot), reverence, passage, bow, crossing his front legs, lay down (and I sit on him), feet together (front and back), hide and seek, acting lame, pushing a cart and rearing. In addition, he spells, counts, identifies shapes, discriminates colors, and understands the concepts of spatial relationships, object permanence, proportion, same/different, and his newest: absentness.
To date Lukas has been on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, HLN, Equisearch, Equine VIP, Pet Life Radio, RFD-Radio and the Associated Press released a feature story about him. He has been in countless magazines, newsletters, forums, blogs on-line sites and newspapers. He is the Spokeshorse for TROTT (Training Racehorses Off The Track) and is the poster-boy for the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. Also, he is associated with HEAL (Human Equine Alliances for Learning), a therapy practice in Chehalis, Washington, that assists trauma victims.
Lukas' purpose continues to be to show the happy results of kind training and that animals are smart and have emotions. Horses can do all that - they just need to be taught in a way that they understand.
by: Karen Murdock
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