I'll have to come up with some way of distinguishing them, though I haven't resorted to dye yet.
With the skies threatening again, and Max having a right grump on, decided to hang out in the school together with no real plan, then try some clicker training if Max was amenable.
First he wanted a roll, and then he was a demolition pony, knocking down all the jumps that had been carefully set up with a polite notice asking that they remain untouched. Max was having none of that! Just headbutted them over, then picked up the poles in his teeth and dragged them around.
After he got tired of that game, we got down to some clicker training. I continued on our attempts to get him to lift his front feet, following my raised foot as an example. First I did this standing next to him, touching the leg that I wanted to perform the action, while raising my own corresponding leg and saying... well... "Foot".
We had tried this before with the hula hoop with some success, and again today, he caught on pretty quickly, and was eagerly raising the correct foot in turn when asked. So I moved to stand in front of him, and pointed to his leg rather than touching it, whilst raising my leg at the same time.
Max watched with his "I'm concentrating" face on, and after a pause, mirrored my movement.
Clever boy! We didn't spend too much time on that after he'd had a couple of successes, and moved on to carrot races just for fun.
Finally, as I led him back to his field after our session, I decided to have one last go while he was outside and surrounded by distractions.
Again I stood in front, again I raised my foot while pointing at his and he tentatively lifted his left, then his right in turn, when asked. I was in the midst of giving him a big fuss for being a clever boy when he looked at me in a curious, intense way and then slowly raised his left hind and held it up, as if he'd made the logical leap that if I was pleased about front foot raises, I'd be bound to pleased about backs, too.
I said "good boy, Max" without a click because I hadn't asked for it, but I did want to praise him.
Went and stood by his hindquarters, touched his hind leg at the stifle and said "Foot" as I had with the fronts, and up it came. Same on the other side. My response was enthusiastic, and there ended the lesson. Max was released to his pasture but offered his nose for a kiss goodbye before wandering off.
A gent and a scholar, my boy.
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