Noche Miller turned to trick training when Rusty, a young rescue Morgan, bit and walked straight through people. He had been dumped at auction because nobody could handle him, and two or three months of traditional handling had got nowhere. Noche, an instructor with Horse Tricks 101, tells Anna Louise how teaching him to fetch a rubber chicken changed the way she works with horses, and why the same small steps prepare a horse for trailer loading, dental checks and being ridden.
In this episode:
- How fetch is built up from a single nose touch
- Why standing on a pedestal makes trailer loading less of a leap
- Treat manners, and why a good scratch can be a reward too
- Choosing a reward worth working for that doesn't tip a horse into overexcitement
- Scent boxes and grazing boxes for horses with limited turnout
- Why it's fine to own a horse you don't ride
- How Rusty and Ghost the cow each earned a Guinness world record for tricks
Guest: Noche Miller, instructor with Horse Tricks 101
horsetricks101.com, plus Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @horsetricks101
Follow Curious Equestrian on Spotify to hear each new episode as soon as it's out.
Free newsletter, including the behind-the-scenes listener Q&A with Noche Miller: https://www.curiousequestrian.co.uk/#/portal/signup
Support Curious Equestrian:
Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/curiousequestrian (Bookshop pays us a small commission on purchases and a share goes to independent bookshops; it costs you nothing extra.)
Merch: https://curiousequestrian.teemill.com/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:43 Rusty, the rescue Morgan nobody could handle
07:55 What changed when trick training began
09:21 Building fetch from a single nose touch
13:43 Becoming a Horse Tricks 101 instructor
14:52 Treat manners: from biting to waiting
16:30 Dumped at auction
21:00 Where Rusty's behaviour came from
22:22 Guinness world records for Ghost the cow and Rusty
26:02 Tricks for horses that can't be ridden
27:28 Useful tricks: mounting blocks, trailers and teeth
31:31 Working around a bad start
32:43 Scent boxes and grazing boxes
36:59 The Horse Tricks 101 community
39:07 Over-horsed? Go back to groundwork
41:17 It's fine not to ride
45:09 Changing horsemanship by example
49:01 Does a horse need to be food motivated?
51:45 Choosing the right value of reward
53:38 What trick training does for the human
56:53 Ending the stigma around food
