KBR Training Information Sheet:

Patience at Xenophon's Equifest

Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center in Orinda, CA, is a non-profit organization that provides equine facilitated therapy and related services for disabled children in and near Contra Costa County. In March, 2001, they decided to hold an Equifest to help raise funds to meet growing demands for their services as well as to provide some additional public outreach so that people could better understand equine facilitated therapy and its benefits to disabled children.

In prior years Xenophon had a BLM "mustang" as one of their mounts for the children. Director Judy Lazarus thought it would be an interesting addition to their Equifest program to show off a couple of wild horses. In this case we would show off some clicker training.

We brought Debbie and Patience to demonstrate. Both mares had been out in pasture all winter and Debbie had never been exposed to so much stimulation since she was adopted and she had never been inside an indoor arena. The last time Patience had been out in a public event was July 10, 1999. This venue was a good test of these mares' sensibilities and our ability to keep them focused.

While we were waiting outside to do our demonstration we were approached by a couple of the Xenophon riders. Antonia DeMichiel approached using crutches which could confuse and worry horses that had never seen them before. Since both mares were still taking in all the visual stimulation of all the people, galloping horses in an adjacent arena, trucks, dogs, etc., we explained to the young lady that we needed to teach the horses to "target" her crutches and learn that they were not dangerous.

Antonia helped us teach Patience about some of the equipment used by handicapped riders and pretty soon Patience was touching and exploring the crutches, scary plastic and other objects. Celia Shure also helped and the young ladies took turns targeting, clicking and giving carrot bit rewards to the horses. Within a couple of minutes Antonia could come up to Patience as quickly as she could on her crutches and Patience eagerly awaited her friendly contact.

An important note should be made here. In spite of all the "new" stimulation that these horses were experiencing, by turning the additional stress of strange metal objects (the crutches) and other objects that we presented into a learning game, the horses not only didn't stress out over these new "hazards" but actually became more relaxed and enjoyed the experience.

Checking out the handicapped riders

Antonia and Celia
learning to target and click

Targeting a crutch and scary plastic

Good job Patience. Here's your reward.

To learn more about the

Click Here!