Teaching a horse to use it's ears

[alphahorses]

After the 'whoa leg', I teach 'pretty ears'

Thought I'd start a new post for this one....

"Keeper", I'd be interested in a more detailed explanation of how you teach "pretty ears"... it's one thing I've just never been able to teach and my stallion does not use his ears well in the ring.

 

[kaykay]

i asked getitia this very same thing at the world show when i showed with her as i noticed her horses ALWAYS put their ears up. What she told me shocked me as its so simple and no one had ever told me this in all my short years of showing LOL.

Never ever treat a horse unless the ears are UP. Not even when you are playing around in the barn. The bad part is if you have already trained a horse and treated it with ears back getitia said you can really never correct it. Jet only being a weanling already knows to put his ears up for the treat. (this is what got me asking getitia)

I think Crunch was trained this way and i pretty much ruined him. When I started showing him this year he always gave me his ears. By the third show I couldnt get ears for nothing. Well thinking back i did give him the treat in the ring when his ears were back. So yep i started a really bad habit.

Thanks getitia for the tip :bgrin

 

[Leeana]

Well there is our problem :lol:

I think that is something that would be easeir to train as a breeder if you can start your foals with it as soon as they can lead or will even go for the treat but i dont know if you could teach this to an older horse. I'm going to start trying this and see if it can work any magic on some of mine.

This is our biggest show problem at the moment to and i really want to fix it before next year, the one thing i could never get was the ears ..i just always hoped they would pop up in the ring and i havnt paid enough attention to it in the ring to even know if they perk up or not.

Deffently going to start using this method!

 

[keeperofthehorses]

I do exactly what Kay does. No treats, no food (regular meals included), EVER, unless their ears are up. My mares are hilarious with this. At feeding time they'll make ugly mare faces at each other through the fence while I'm in the tack room mixing feed. When I start approaching with the buckets, they stop the nastiness and stand, ears up and give me the cutest faces.

My filly had a hard time getting the hang of this. I had to wave my arms around and generally make a fool of myself. When she finally put her ears up ('What on earth is wrong with my mommy?'), I said "Yay! Pretty ears!" I shoved a treat in her mouth and made a big fuss about what a very pretty pony she is. About 4 repetitions later, she got it.

I also, I always use the same command. Every treat, every feeding, even if their ears are already up, I re-enforce the "pretty ears" command. The same with all of the commands. Same command every single time.

I have inadvertantly taught Ripple to smile in addition to the pretty ears. She'd smile, I laugh, tell her she was cute and oh, OK, here's a candy cutie pie. We are trying to undo it, but everytime the treats come out, in addition to the ears, I get a big toothy grin. :bgrin I'm anxious to see how that plays to the judge. Good thing she has a nice bite, eh?

 

[dangerranger]

I have a TB who does this. Must have been trained in early. come to think of it our old TB who had been shown most of his life did this also. people used to coment on how nice his head and ears were. if you brought a camera anywhere around him he would pose for you till he got his treats. Ill have to try this with our current horses.

 

[keeperofthehorses]

Well there is our problem :lol:

I think that is something that would be easeir to train as a breeder if you can start your foals with it as soon as they can lead or will even go for the treat but i dont know if you could teach this to an older horse. I'm going to start trying this and see if it can work any magic on some of mine.

You can do it Leeana. The mare in my avatar was an auction rescue that I got at age 6. She'd never been handled, much less shown, and was scared to death of people. She's now my ear-queen. None of my horses were born and raised here; the youngest came here at 10 months and I really didn't start working with her much until this spring. Shetlands are exceptionally smart and love to have a job. I'm sure with consistancy, and finding a treat he will stand on his head for, Royal will pick up on it quickly.

:

 

[runamuk]

I posted this reply on the pictures thread and then saw this one....so here it is again.................

Here is my tip............I learned from my years working with arab and miniature breeders that asking for ears and neck whenever you work with them is the fastest way. I rarely use treats but do crinkle celophane and my horses are expected to greet me with pretty ears and necks even in the pasture when coming up for scratches. It becomes second nature to just always expect pretty looks and you will then spend alot less time doing any formal drills. My little mare will stand up and show in the middle of the field just for attention (she has never really been shown only a couple local shows) and my gelding came from a breeder who teaches ears and neck from birth so he has always shown just because. For setting legs I treat mini's or ponies just like a big horse and ask them to place leg's off of halter cues and my body...if they have real difficulty I use my dressage whip to touch the leg I want moved I don't believe in hand stacking horses of any size (just my thing). Most of all make it fun

 

[susanne]

The bad part is if you have already trained a horse and treated it with ears back getitia said you can really never correct it.

I'm hoping this isn't true...though I suppose it would depend upon the individual horse.

With a great deal of patience (on both our parts), Mingus is finally learning as a 6 year old to give ears. I believe that this is such a reflexive action that an adult horse who has not been "pretty ear trained" is hardly aware of what they are doing with their ears, so the trick is communication.

Mingus loves to show and to show off, but he seems to think he looks darned fine with his ears back, so we've been working on this with clicker training, crinkle wrappers, and the luscious, tender grass that is only given for good ears.

We work on this separately from all other show set-up training, as don't want to confuse him. Since he has such bad ear habits, at first he didn't have a clueas to what I wanted, and I had to essentially catch him doing it right. I ask for ears while crinkling or showing that "ear"esistable treat, then click the instance he gives ears. We work on this for just a short time, but many times a day, every day. Today is the first day that he has really seemed to get what I want. While the jury is still out, he seems to be learning. The biggest key for us has been P A T I E N C E .

Interestingly, he is beginning to give ears when asked to do anything, including jumping...

I have to admit, however, that so far Flash, who is usually a very fast learner, is resisting all efforts to teach pretty ears...