Chloe, like many ponies, is a bit of a brat sometimes. In the morning, when we get up, she paws the ground, snorts and bangs into the fence, walks in circles, gnaws on the gate. We didn’t like it, she could damage something and she seems too  excited. We were inadvertently sending her the wrong message, reinforcing the behavior we didn’t want by giving her a treat or bringing her hay while she was being obnoxious.

We woke up to this. We decided to use some of our dog training techniques and  work with her. What we do is walk to the gate, if she is stomping or banging into things, we just stop and talk to one another.

We don’t move until she is quiet for a full minute or two. When it is clear that she is still, we walk to the fence. The first couple of days she kept stomping, today, she stomped a bit, then stood still, watching us. She may be a brat, but she is a very smart pony, and like most equines, she is intuitive. She is also quite affectionate, she pays close attention to us.

She knows what we want and is figuring out that in order to get feed or get attention, she has to be calm and still.

This is an important element in dog training also. We often speak to them at the wrong times, when they are doing something wrong, but not at the right time, when they are doing what we want. We end up reinforcing the behaviors we don’t want – we were shouting to Chloe to be quiet, which is silly – and then got our heads straight and began reinforcing the behavior we don’t want. It is working out. There is already a big difference.