SMILES ALL ROUND

TEACHING YOUR PONY TO SMILE

YOU’LL NEED

• You’ll need something that smells unusual to your horse but that he won’t be tempted to eat e.g. a tube of toothpaste.

• Treats that your pony likes, that are small and not too high in calories. You don’t want to be giving your pony a full carrot every time he does the trick right, so make sure your treats are cut up into small pieces or buy small training treats from a tack shop.

• A pocket or bag that is easy to get the treats from so that you can give them quickly when your pony gets the trick right.

TO TEACH THE TRICK

1. Wave the toothpaste or other object under your pony’s nose and wait for a reaction. As you do this, open and close your hand and say ‘smile’; these will be your cues for getting him to smile in the future.

2. If he doesn’t react to the toothpaste, you can either try a different scented object or touch the toothpaste tube to his nose and tickle him on his upper lip.

3. When you see him curl his lip even a little bit, reward him with a treat and remove the toothpaste.

4. Repeat this process by showing him the toothpaste and using your cues to ask him to smile. If you reward each time he does this he will soon learn what it is you are asking him to do.

5. Over time you can ask him to hold the smile for a few seconds longer before you give him the reward. This can teach him to hold the pose.

6. When you are confident that your pony fully understands what you are asking, you can remove the toothpaste and just use your hand and say ‘smile’ to trigger him to smile. Reward each time, and you will have taught your first trick!

CHOOSE YOUR CUE

You do not need to use the opening and closing of your hand as the cue for ‘smiling’ and can choose whatever you want. You must just make sure your cue isn’t something that could become confused with another cue later on.