Starting Fae

Irish Clicker Centre, Ballygarron, The Spa, Tralee, Co Kerry
Contact: Marte 086-1902337; Mary 087-1370162; e-mail irishclickercentre@gmail.com

On a cold November day, a horse fair fills the main street of Castleisland, Co Kerry. Wandering through the throng, Louise spotted a grey mare with a very kind eye standing quietly despite the fact that it was her first day out. She enquired after the price but was convinced by her boyfriend to leave her there. A bit reluctantly she moved on. However later that evening her boyfriend spotted the owner in the chip shop and over a bag of chips, a deal was struck and so Fae was presented to a surprised and very delighted Louise.

Fae had had a good start with her breeder who handled her quietly and gently for all of her one and a half years and she followed him into the horsebox and on to her new home.

Louise was delighted with her new horse in almost every way. Fae could, however, be pushy and barge through people to get past. Louise went in search of a gentle way to deal with this problem and so came to clicker training. She knew Mary C was involved and made enquiries.

In June 2008 Alexandra Kurland came to Kerry to give the first ever clicker training clinic in Ireland. At 2 years and 1 month old, Fae was the youngest equine participant but she took to clicker training enthusiastically.

Over the next 10 months, Lou worked with Fae teaching her skills such as backing, head lowering and stand on a mat. Her touching skills were used to teach her to put on her own bridle and Fae learned to lead and walk quietly with Louise. She also learned to play football and fetch, and other fun stuff which helps to build a womderful relationship between horse and human!

Louise felt that Fae was ready to be started under saddle and came to us at the Irish Clicker Centre. After some discussion, we decided that the best approach would be to have Fae come and stay at the Centre for the 2 weeks of the Easter holidays, when Louise would be free to come and work with Fae and ourselves for an hour or so each day.

Over the next 12 days, Fae had a lot of new experiences�.she was brought to the beach, introduced to traffic, started lateral work in hand, was lunged, felt her first saddle and finally was backed (this was done in a bareback pad as her own saddle needed some modification to fit properly). All this was done with an eager happy Fae and a calm atmosphere.