Cabin of the Week Contest

Enter to win 1000 bucks for your decorating skills!
DTKLOVER	ee561	DizzyDaizy
Last Week's Cabin Winner Ellie Renneberg2 Send contests@clubponypals.com an email telling us the username's cabin you want to enter. Rules are: Each week three cabins will be chosen from the entries for member voting. Members can enter enter as often as they like, but winners cannot enter this contest again for six months. Look for more new fun furniture items soon. Have a request for something you want to add? Let us know!

Drawing of the Week Contest

by B-tty123

by Maid Mairain

"Tongo"

Winner gets 500 Wiggins bucks, and their art is made into a painting for members' cabins. If you want to enter, send your art to the Contests@ClubPonyPals.com or mail it to:

Club Pony Pals
16654 Soledad Canyon Road #382
Canyon Country, CA 91387 USA

If you want a sticker and bookmark make sure and include a mailing address where we can send it!

Vote for your favorite caption for this cartoon--

Write a caption for this --

Can you write the winning funny caption for this cartoon? Deadline is Thursday of this week. Email it to Contests@clubponypals.com

Look for the entries in the next week's e-newsletter and vote for your favorite.

Winning caption gets 500 bucks, runners-up get 100 W bucks each. Captions should be short.

or draw a cartoon --

We are looking for cartoon artists, too. Draw one and email it to us by Thursday.

If it is selected, you can earn 500 Wiggins bucks! Hint -- for this contest, please draw your cartoon in black and white. If you want to enter, send your art to Contests@ClubPonyPals.com or mail it to:

Club Pony Pals
16654 Soledad Canyon Road #382
Canyon Country, CA 91387 USA

Envelope Art Contest! Win 100 Wiggins Bucks!

EagleGirl's Clicker Club Training Column: Walk on a Lead

Last week we went through the steps involved in teaching your pony to let you approach him and touch him.  Then we listed the general steps necessary to teach your pony to put on a halter.  If there is anyone who is actively involved in halter training, and you need more help with this step, please write me at the Clicker Club and I will analyze each of those steps with you.  If your pony already walks on a halter, but is difficult to get the halter on, you will find that it is worth your time to go back and go through this process with him.  Once you have, you will have a pony that looks at the halter as a positive thing, rather than a negative thing, and you will no longer spend much of your time trying to catch your pony and halter him.

Remember that each pony is different, and will have his own timetable.  Some ponies will have that halter on in a lesson or two.  Others may take weeks, or longer.  But if you will be patient, and work calmly and quietly, you and your pony will be successful.  Just build on each small success, and if at any time your pony is not successful, remember to back up to the last place that he was successful, go over it a few times, then proceed.  If he is very nervous, you might just stop at that success, and pick up there next time.  If he just didn't understand, or you moved too fast, then once you have given him success, you can proceed to the next tiny step.  Be sure to end EVERY clicker session with success!

This week we are going to talk about how to teach your pony to walk on a lead.  The process I am going to take you through is probably a little different than many clicker trainers will do it.  I am going to show you how I taught my Welsh mule to walk on a lead.  You might remember he had been abused, and was afraid to let anyone near him, much less touch him.  So haltering him was not an option for a very long time.  I did, however, eventually teach him that he could indeed wear a halter, and I did it following the steps I outlined for you at the end of last week's column.  Because of his fear, and because I was not willing to push him, it took us a very long time indeed.  We took excruciatingly tiny steps, because that is what he needed.  Clicker training is all about finding what your animal needs, and going from there.  And that is what I did with my mule.   And it is what you can do with your pony, dog, hamster, or other animal friend.

Now, in order to follow the procedure that I used with my mule, your pony needs to be able to target.  So if he does not target, you need to go back a couple of columns and read about targeting, then teach your pony to target.  Once he is working well with the target, ask him to target something else.  At some point, you will want to teach him to target a rope.  A short rope is just fine; you can use a lead rope if you like, though it is a little awkward because of the metal clip on one end.  I went to the hardware store and asked them to cut a seven foot length of thick, soft rope.  They sealed both ends for me so it would not unravel.  This is the rope I used with my mule.

Now, show your pony the rope and ask him to "Touch it."  The instant he makes any movement towards the rope, click and treat.  Repeat a few times, then wait until he moves a little closer.  Click and treat.  Continue until he actually touches the rope.  The first time he touches the rope, immediately click, pull the rope back, and give a jackpot treat.  Now your pony knows that what he did was really good.  Immediately ask him to target the rope again, and as soon as he touches it, click and treat, with a normal treat (though if you think he might need another jackpot, you can use that as well).  If he does not target the rope, just stand and wait.  Don't jiggle or wiggle the rope, don't chatter at him, just stand quietly and wait.  If after a significant wait, he has not touched the rope, you need to back up to the last place he was successful.  Since he did touch it once, you can ask him to "Touch it" again.  He may have forgotten what you wanted, or not be sure.  If he still doesn't touch it, you can turn around, walk off, wait a minute, then come back and ask him to touch it again.  Then you will click for any movement towards the rope, thus starting at the beginning of this process again.  Continue working your way back up to the point where he is touching the rope.

Once he is touching the rope consistently, it is time to move the rope to a different spot.  Let him have the opportunity to touch it in front of him, up a bit, down a bit, to the left, to the right, up to the left, down to the right . . .  you get the idea!  Just move the rope all over the place, and ask him to touch it in each spot.  Once he is consistently touching the rope no matter where you hold it, you are ready to move on.  But remember, if he does not touch the rope when you move it, go back to where he was successful, then move the rope a shorter distance away for the next targeting.

Once he is touching the rope wherever you hold it, it is time to start asking him to follow it.  You will do this by holding out the rope, stepping back a step, and asking him to touch it.  Because you have stepped back, he can no longer reach the rope by stretching out his neck, and he will have to take a step towards it.  Let him take the step, and the instant he touches the rope click and give a jackpot treat.  Repeat this several times, switching back to normal treats.  If you find that he does not touch the rope, ask again, then click for the first step he takes.  Treat.  Continue this, waiting a little longer each time, until he does touch the rope.  Click and give a jackpot, then proceed.  Then, step back two steps and ask him to touch it again.  He will now need to take two steps to reach the rope and target it.  Click as soon as his muzzle touches the rope, then treat.  Once he has mastered this, step back even farther so that now he has to take three steps to touch the rope.

Now you see the procedure we are following.  Once he is doing this, you can ask him to touch the rope, then as he steps forward, you can step away.  Ask him to touch the rope, let him take a step or two, then you walk a step or two so that he has to keep walking.  Just add one step at a time at first.  Once he has walked the extra step, let him touch the rope then click and treat.  Don't forget to give him a jackpot treat the first time he walks with you.  You will gradually be able to walk farther and farther.  It will not be long until he is used to walking with you.  Remember not to click until he has touched the rope.  You are not asking him to walk with you right now, you are asking him to touch the rope, so that is what you are going to click for.

If you don't want to count steps when you are walking, you can count seconds.  The first time just have him move forward with you for one second, then two, then gradually longer and longer.  Or, you can simply go by how far you move.  The first time just walk a few inches, then gradually add a little distance at a time.  Again, each animal has his own timetable.  Some ponies will get this in one lesson, others will take several lessons.  Some ponies will zip through the process, others will need to back up and repeat until they get it.  Remember, the key is OBSERVATION.  Observe your pony, study him, learn how he thinks, and he will tell you what he needs.  And always be aware of when your pony is getting discouraged, or thinking about stopping.  You want to stop and let him touch the rope BEFORE he stops following it.  If you misjudge and he stops before you do, then just back up and try again, walking just a little less than you did the last time he was successful.  Remember to always end with success!

When you are walking, you will face forward, and hold your right arm out to your side.  This will result in your walking ahead of your pony's head, not near his shoulder.  His muzzle will be right behind your hand, which is even with or slightly behind your body.  I find this to be an excellent position for walking with my mules, and I think you will find it to be true with your pony as well.  We will talk more about the benefits of this position in another column.

Is this the only way to train your pony to walk nicely on a lead?  No.  But this is the way I trained my mule, and I have been very pleased with the lovely results.  He walks to my right, with his muzzle and head about even with my body, or slightly behind.  If I want to turn right, I simply rotate my wrist and move my hand slightly to the right, and he turns.  If I want to turn left, I rotate my wrist that way, and move my hand slightly to the left, and he turns.  He does this both while on a lead and off.  I like this position because we don't bump each other when we turn.  If you prefer to have your pony walk more forward than this, then that is the position you should take when you are training.

Next week, we will continue talking about the leading process, and you will learn a fun game to play with your pony.

Until next time, happy clicking!
EagleGirl

Member Photo Gallery

from OreoIsMine

Hi CPP! I'm OreoIsMine. This is me and my pony Oreo. We are at a show jumping 2'6"! Oreo is the best!!!

The other is of Oreo wanting to eat my camera so he stuck his nose through the fence. Hope you like them!

Member Art Gallery

by Onaneagle

by 123dogesrule

 

Dear Pony Pals Send in your photos, stories and drawings for our contests. e-mail them to Contests@ClubPonyPals.com or mail it to: Club Pony Pals 16654 Soledad Canyon Road #382 Canyon Country, CA 91387 USA The first printing of collectable stickers is almost gone. For the next week or two, if you want a sticker and bookmark make sure and include a mailing address where we can send it. Please include your user name and the email address you used to register in your letter, too. Webmaster

 

Play These Games to Earn Wiggins Bucks

 

Play these to earn bucks! Each week, that week's highest scoring

Scavenger Hunt
Winner gets 3000 Wiggins bucks,
next nine members scores below that get 500 bucks each.

 

 

"Scavenger Hunt "

jogjed

ilove wolves

xochristalynn

TigeressCC

GothJess

no:1!

aquabreeze

Carolol10

Tempeh

316746mtm

 

Pony Pal Derby
Race your pony to earn Wiggins bucks!
Each week the derby game's highest scoring player earns 3000 Wbucks.
500 Wbucks goes to each of the next nine highest scores.

 

"Pony Pal Derby"

DizzyDaizy

chelsea2

BostonGal

cicara

horselover2010

Wheeler101

Raven305

indijade

Princess777

Ellie Renneberg2

 

Math Games
High scoring players in addition,
subtraction or multiplication earn 500 Wiggins bucks,
next nine players who have high scores earn 100 bucks each.

 

"Add Like Mad"

EagleGirl

wombat165

LunaLight

indijade

rudytootoot

ericahippo5

balletgirl95

lexibff

charlizerocks

Raven305

 

 

"Subtraction Action"

wombat165

LunaLight

indijade

Nat2

lexibff

rudytootoot

squirtb

Onaneagle

SarahJYork

ericahippo5

 

 

"Multiplication Station"

HorsesAreMyLifeNZ

LunaLight

EagleGirl

indijade

Natalie21

katylibra

rudytootoot

lexibff

Elzie10

ashwells

This Week's Cross-Country Trophy Winners

Cross-country course north

ashley7

iloovemyhorses

HaleyBell

lacer94

SunSetStablesGirl1

Cross-country course south

scoutgirl

celebi_00

rachmintcpphp

Danna

Jaimee1325

 

Pony Pal Thoughts for the Day:

" Emily,I've a little confession to make. I really am a horse doctor. But marry me, and I'll never look at any other horse!"
Groucho Marx

_____________________

" Do we really have to cross the creek when there is a great bridge over there?"
Vendavalda the Peruvian Paso

______________________

" When I can't ride anymore, I shall keep horses as long as I can hobble along with a bucket and wheelbarrow. When I can't hobble, I shall roll my wheelchair out by the fence of the field where my horses graze, and watch them."
Monica Dickens

_______________________

"Look back on our struggle for freedom,
Trace our present day's strength to it's source;
And you'll find that man's pathway to glory
Is strewn with the bones of a horse "
Anonymous