Thank you Dolores, Cynthia, and Laurel on your supportive posts
regarding Jazz.

Believe me, I am sympathetic with the approach that one should not
deprive an animal of his lush life; I have worked very hard to give a
wonderful life to my horses and I would not deprive them of it.
However, I want to make the point to Jazz that "To whom much is
given, much is expected."

Jazz does very little. Even when I was riding him frequently, he was
not asked to work particularly hard and there were always treats and
games for him to enjoy. When we do work, the work is always leavened
with an activity he relishes: a walk to see the goats, some grazing,
a chance to run up and down the gulleys formed by the small stream on
our property, or an opportunity to snort-and-blow at the giant
warmblood geldings owned by a friend. Jazz is highly indulged,
although if he were able to tell you so, he would probably say that
it is nothing more than he deserves. He is king of the barn,
deferring only to me and my husband because we own the food.

I recall that some clicker trainers, Susan Garrett among them,
endorse a "tough love" approach with their hard-headed trainees.
Susan tells of a talented Terrier of hers who would not stop jumping
and barking during meal time. Her husband said: "It's me or the dog."
So her tough love approach was to put the dog in his crate if he
misbehaved at meal time and he lost his dinner. Only a few sessions
made clear that this behavior would result in an aversive
consequence.

I took a similar approach with my now-three-year old colt: he wanted
to be in control of his feet handling--would yank the foot out of my
hand when he was tired of holding it. Thought it was a fun game to be
in control. Let me make clear that he understood the request to pick
up and hold up his foot quite well: we had done the activity since he
was a day old. However, it was far more interesting to annoy Mom than
to wait patiently for the cookie.

What I decided to do was to allow him the chance to think about his
actions. We worked in his stall, with all his family outside on
pasture, and I would ask him to hold up his feet. When he did he got
his C/T. When he decided to snatch the foot away, I left the barn. He
stayed. Sometimes we would have a number of nice interactions, but at
some point he would decide he wanted to be done with it and he'd
snatch his foot away. Once again, I would leave for an indeterminate
time. He was left in his comfy stall with his water bucket ... and
nothing else.

At the end of an 8 hour day when I came back and forth 7 or 8 times,
he was perfect with his feet. He has been perfect ever since. In
fact, one must exercise caution because when his foot is touched he
snaps it up so fast that he can easily slam a person in the nose.

I don't think this approach is cruel or abusive, but some might
differ. It is what I am thinking of doing with Jazz. The exact
approach, I haven't worked out yet.

Your thoughts are welcome. I appreciate your insights.

Best,

Patricia