This is Part 3 of a 4 part conversation. In November Dominique and I spent a delightful afternoon going through a list of topics Dominique had been accumulating. We talked the afternoon away, so I’ve split our conversation into four episodes.

In Part 1 we talked about trailer loading, the Microshaping Strategy, and what criteria we use to decide when to end a training session.

In part 2 I described a procedure for teaching a horse to lift his feet that uses body part targeting. This lesson helps develop skills in the handler that are needed for teaching lateral work.

I also described a fun lesson where instead of round penning horses, we round pen people. The lesson teaches handlers the choreography of ground work.

Now in part 3 we consider another critical handler skill and that’s fast decision making. Often we look at training progressions with the focus on what the horse is learning. Of course, the question that interests people is: What am I going to be teaching my horse?

In order to teach well, there are skills the handler needs to learn. Many of these are obvious physical skills such as learning good rope handling techniques. What is less obvious are some of the “invisible” skills such as fast decision making. These invisible skills are the “grease” that makes all the physical skills work smoothly.

So in this episode we focus on flexible thinking and fast decision making. We review the progression of lessons that develops this skill for the handler and we consider why this is such an important skill.

We also look at shaping on either side of the click and more details about teaching foot care, especially related to handling the hind feet of potential kickers.