How did horse tricks turn a biting rescue horse around? | Noche Miller, Horse Tricks 101 trainer

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