Don't stand too close, else you be hypnotised!

Ah, Max and the clicker training! We’re still having fun, of course, but we’re also at the stage where he’ll run through his repertoire trying for a pony nut, when I haven’t asked him to do anything at all.

I know I need to fine-tune. The point is to eventually phase out the treats for desired behaviour, and with new learned behaviour, to ignore it and stand back if you haven’t asked for a display.

But Max is so eager, and so loves his click/reward, that he’s still trying it on, especially with new stuff.

I’ve got to get more of a handle on this, but we’re working through it slowly, and he does pick up on things pretty quickly.

Today, before our in-hand work in the school, we did a little clicker work in his stable. This still seems to be the best place to try new things, when he is not distracted and is very focused on me.

But he was trying so hard to get me to dispense my wealth of pony nuts, just looking for the key to open that vending machine, and I was putting distance between us, hands behind my back, offering nothing because I’d asked for nothing.

I find trying to keep a straight face and stay focused is so difficult when he’s being such a comedy pony.

He respects my space, but I ended up at the back of his box, with Max standing in front of me, ears pricked, everything at attention, practically a-quiver and straining out of his skin with intent, and his eyes tuned on me like a laser, burning into me, willing me to offer it up to him.

Come all ye! See the Amazing Maxo-Relaxo and his magic act!

“Look into my eyes! Look directly into my eyes! Not around my eyes, IN my eyes… and… you’re under! Max is an excellent pony and he deserves a pony nut. He deserves ALL the pony nuts! One, two, three… and you’re back in the box. Gimme!”

I was thinking today, after I’d left the yard and was doing the grocery shopping, that in all my years of loving horses from afar, and yes, loving them up close and personal in riding schools, working various yards, all that, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed with a horse the way I laugh with Max.

There is something so different about being in tune and belonging to one singular horse, my own beautiful boy, that has made me learn to appreciate the equine sense of humour. And because of Max, I now see it in so many of the others. They’re a pack of jokers, all right, with an amazing sense of fun all bound up with that grace and nobility.