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Tracking Equines Vicki Conroy explains how she implemented some fun preliminary lessons for her ponies in scent tracking, based on an introductory workshop for scent tracking with dogs
© Vicki Conroy
© Vicki Conroy
Mini ponies Giselle (left) and Genevieve (right) were the first to test out author Vicki Conroy’s efforts to teach tracking to her equine contingent
Having attended a tracking workshop for dogs, Conroy was interested to find out how her horses and ponies would respond to the same training
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like, “Can you please get that food out of my face? I have a serious job to do here, and I certainly don’t have time to eat!”
while ago I hosted a tracking workshop for dogs at my hobby farm in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, hosted by Margaret Keast of Jigsaw Dog Training and Behaviour Consultancy, who is based in Newcastle, NSW. I had a blast! The dogs seemed to pick it up quickly and certainly seemed to enjoy it, and it was really interesting watching the different breeds involved and how they processed the task differently. My main recollection/observation from the workshop was the re sponses of my cattle dogs compared to my German shepherd. The cattle dogs were, “Yep I can do that, goodee food, hmm smell, follow this, yahoo more food, I’m doing it!” While the German shepherd was more
Air Scenting A long time prior to the workshop I had read an article about horses who could track (by air scenting) and were being used for search and rescue to find lost people in Canada. I wondered how horses would en gage in the process compared to dogs. And then I wondered if I could teach them how to do it. As I had enjoyed the introductory day to tracking with dogs so much, I thought it would be fun to try it with my ponies. The worstcase scenario would be free treats for the ponies if it didn’t work. But it would be an interesting exercise watching the different species learning and putting things together, plus the challenge of me trying to teach them. I figured I would try it the same way I had started with the dogs (which was actually the only way I knew) to see if it could work and how I could adapt it for equines. There were so many fun things to explore here. Enter the minis. Meet Giselle, pony tracker extraordinaire, and Genevieve, the Icanplaytheboxgame pony (see photos, above).
Starting Out
© Vicki Conroy
Although the ponies were used to feeding on the ground, looking for food in socks on the ground was initially too much of a context change
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BARKS from the Guild/September 2021
When we started with the dogs, we used about eight socks that had been well scented (i.e., worn under my shirt all morning). The socks were laid along the ground about 3 ft. apart, and there were smelly dog treats on each one. The dogs probably started out seeing/smelling the treats, then looking to see – or sniffing to see – if there were more treats. And these treats were found on socks which smelled of human. Once the dogs had established that socks could indicate the pres ence of food, the socks were then spaced further apart. Somewhere along the way, by following the socks visually or the waft of scented treats to the next sock, the dogs switched to following the smell of the
