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All about horses in northern B.C. Issue # 12: January 17, 2000 Published each Monday by Kristi McCrindle, editor I'd like to thank Slider for her intuitive comments on the Horse Talk page. She really understood my last week's editorial and brought up other insights as well. Slider mentioned that spending more time with a horse deepens the bond you have with it, especially nursing a horse through an injury or sickness. I too have found this to be true, having dealt with several serious injuries through my horsey lifetime. There is something about the horse being dependent on you, and also allowing you to do things that you might not have done otherwise, that deepens the bond you have with your horse. By that I mean, for instance, how many times would you normally go out to see your horse in a day? Maybe once, or twice if you're feeding him, but less if he's turned out on grass. But if he is on medication or being treated for some condition, you may well be catching him three or four time a day! Each time you go out to him, even though he may not like the stuff you are giving him or doing to him, he will respond to the being caught and handled, especially if you do something nice as well, like groom him, scratch his itchy places, or just talk to him for a while. I had one horse with a badly cut heel - he had sliced the heel bulbs right down the coronet. At first, it took three people handling him to clean and bandage that foot - one to hold him, one to hold the leg, and one to do the doctoring! This horse was new to me at the time and hadn't learned to trust me yet. As time went on, and he realized that we weren't hurting him, he became so quiet I could doctor him loose in his field while he was eating his dinner. Building this bond gave him the ability to overcome some of his fears of a new place. When it later became time to trailer train this horse (a trailer mishap was how he had gotten hurt in the first place), he had enough faith in me to climb into the trailer without much fuss. It still took a while to get him comfortable in the trailer, and with hauling, but he was willing to take those first steps in. Then, when you begin to ride a horse after coming back from an injury or sickness, and you spend even more time with him, that's when you will really start to notice the bond strengthening. Tune in next week for more! ~ Kristi : ) New!! Take a moment and fill out our Reader Survey ...and enter the Draw for a prized hiway16.com mug email to editor: kristi@hiway16.com (If you see error messages when viewing this page, your browser may be out-of-date. If you upgrade to a 4.x version, the error messages should disappear)

Tell us a bit about yourself and your horses in our new Reader Survey. You can win a prized hiway16.com mug Hind cinch A hind cinch also goes by several other names - flank cinch, rear cinch, back cinch, and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a bucking strap. A bucking strap is only found on bucking stock, like rodeo saddle broncs, and passes around the flanks of the horse, tightened up to annoy the horse into bucking. A hind cinch is attached to the saddle near the back of the skirts, and is not pulled really tight against the horse. Usually a hind cinch consists of a single ply leather strap, unlike a front cinch which can be leather, string, fleece, neoprene, webbing, or other combinations of materials. It attaches to the saddle on a pair of billets, leather straps that are attached to slots or rings in the lower skirts of the saddle. The hind cinch usually adjusts on both sides of the saddle with a common buckle. The best way to check for correct adjustment is to slide your hand in sideways under it - you should be able to slide your hand in comfortably. If the hind cinch is much looser, you run the risk of getting sticks caught in it on the trail, and if left to hang several inches from the belly of the horse, you even risk him getting a hoof caught in it. If you overtighten the cinch, you can create discomfort which can cause some horses to think about bucking (perhaps this is why some people confuse the two!). A hind cinch usually is used to provide stability for a saddle when the horn is expected to take strain such as in roping. As the horse stops and pulls the calf to a stop, the rear part of the saddle can come up if a hind cinch is not used. Other than that, there isn't a lot of need to use a hind cinch, say for regular riding or showing, and many people simply remove the billets and the cinch for a cleaner appearance. If you have tips or questions on equipment care, purchases, fit, or anything else to do with equestrian equipment, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page. Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world. We update the Events Page every week - so be sure to check often Western, English, Penning or Trail riding, all equine sports have a voice on Northern B.C. Horse.	Past articles are all available in the Heated watering options So, what if hydro is available, what options does that open up for your watering needs? You can invest in a heated bucket, a trough heater, or a stock waterer - all should serve you well to keep your horse from dehydrating. A heated bucket is a good alternative for only one horse, as it only holds as much as regular bucket will. This will need to be refilled usually twice a day, so if you are not able to get out to your horse that often, you may need to look at other options. Another concern of the heated bucket is that there is a cord attached and horses being playful creatures, they may chew on it. While the bucket cord usually comes with a protective covering, there is always the danger of electrocution if the horse chews through the cord. Trough heaters come in several different styles but you have to be careful to choose the right type for your trough. If you have a bathtub, aluminum trough or other metal type of tub, you can use a floating heater with external elements. Again, there is a cord attached, which needs to be strung safely. If you have the trough against the fence (or underneath it if being shared by two fields), one good way of hanging a cord on a trough heater is to run it along the fence line, and to secure it to the fence with strong tape, string or tie wraps. If you use a plastic type of tub, such as a Rubbermaid, you shouldn't use an external heater, as when the water level drops, it can melt holes in the plastic (I know the directions may say the heater will shut off before that happens, but my neighbours have a wrecked Rubbermaid tub that says otherwise!). There are floating heaters that have guarded elements which are safe for use in a plastic tub, and then there is my favourite. It looks like a large car-type block heater and replaces the plug at the bottom of the trough, a very simple procedure with a pair of water pump pliers. It then sits in the near bottom of the trough, where it stays out of harm's way as long as the trough has more than a few inches of water in it, and as an added bonus, the wiring is on the back side of the trough and can be kept away from the horses. So, there are lots of options out there for keeping your horse hydrated through the winter months here in northern BC. If you're not sure where to find these products, feel free to email me at kristi@hiway16.com If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com	Clicker training- An Introduction Well, I wasn't sure what to write about this week for technique, it is really tough to think of techniques during the winter when nobody is riding. I've got a few things on the go, though, and one of them is studying up on clicker training, which Andi had asked me to look into. Kate and Lorna have been kind enough to lend me some videos and books on clicker training, which I just started looking at. I'm finding it quite informative, as well as a lot of fun, and I'm thinking maybe I need to get outside and start with both my dog and my yearling filly! Originally started with a whistle to train dolphins, the clicker method has evolved to use a small handheld clicker and can be used on a variety of animals from dogs and cats to elephants and goldfish, and of course, horses! Clicker training basically teaches the animal to respond to a "conditioned reinforcer", or a "yes" signal. By rewarding the animal with a click and a treat when it does the right behaviour, it soon is trying the behaviour often to get the handler to click and treat it. You might think the animal is working solely for the treat, but while that may be true at first, they quickly realize that the click itself is the "yes" signal. They can even be taught to back off for the treat, instead of coming to you, which is a good thing when working with a 1000+ lb carrot-muching monster! The clicker method relies on positive reinforcement, rather than negative punishment. First you start by teaching the animal that the click means good. You can do this with praise, but most clicker trainers prefer to use food at first - it really gets the animal's attention. For horses, suggested treats are grain, pieces of apple and carrot, peppermints or other hard candies, breakfast cereal, and pretty much anything else that your horse will eat! If you click immediately when the horse does the desired behaviour, then treat afterwards, he learns to associate the click with getting a treat. Sound interesting? That's what I thought too! So I'm going to watch the videos again, and read some more of the books, and see what else I learn between now and next week! If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com Northern B.C. 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