Training Body Targets with R+

One of my all-time favorite skills to teach to horses is body targets.

Body targets are an extension of the nose targeting that we usually start with when teaching our horses to target a target stick. Instead of the nose touching something, we’re now going to ask different body parts to touch the target. I usually use a raised hand with a flat palm as my “target” here, but you can use anything that makes sense for you and your horse!

You can teach a body target for any body part, but I usually start with the neck, shoulders, and hips first.

(Not sure what I’m talking about right now? Check out my FREE ONLINE CLASS Clicker Training 101, where I explain all of the background info you need before starting body targets, including using target sticks!)

I used to find body targets incredibly daunting - but really it’s just like anything else we want to shape. I was struggling because I was expecting too big of criteria too quickly and my timing wasn’t sharp enough

With a little practice I promise it gets easier and easier!

The key with body targets is that your hand stays still and the horse moves into the hand - your hand doesn’t move into the horse.

You can ask for little weight shifts if your hand is close to the horse (start here), or you can ask for a lateral step by moving your hand further away (progress to this). This video shows a shoulder target, but remember: you can adapt this same concept to any part of the body.

Here Locket shows us a few different options with the shoulder target and she accomplishes the task with a few different neck positions. I love to see horses experimenting with different movement options - if there’s a motor pattern I end up feeling strongly about keeping (or not) then I can reward it more (or less) and shape for more “ideal” movement.

But lots of times, variety is the spice!I use this exercise in rehab to help with body awareness and coordination and it can also be taken into movement to create things like shoulders or haunches in!

This clip is real life and unedited, so you also get to see how I work through Locket getting a little worried about something out the window.

Teaching shoulder target to horse with clicker training

(If you saw my last blog post about my new course Sound Horse Academy, this is one of the skills you’ll learn in class )

If you haven’t gotten started yet with clicker training, make sure you check out my FREE class Clicker Training 101 and start building that foundation for all the cool stuff that comes next!

Watch this YouTube video for more examples of body targets.