Fairy Tales Do Come True

"The best place for him, Karen, is the feedlot - he's too far gone; he's so scrambled that he's not coming back". A trainer's comments seven years ago, after he watched while I tried in vain to stop my then 10 year old gelding, Lukas. "Downward transitions" were accomplished by veering towards a solid barrier and hanging on for dear life. He had become increasingly unmanageable and dangerous with each successive day. I had purchased him as a green project horse from a hunter barn, where he wasn't fitting in with the amateur program. Prior to that he had been in a back yard, neglected and malnourished. His racing career years before had been brief and unmemorable - 3 races with 3 back-of-the-pack finishes and 2 bowed tendons.

I have always loved Dressage (a type of English riding) and felt that it was the most elegant of all the disciplines and had planned to show him in the lower levels. Using the Classical Training Scale had improved all of my past horses, but Lukas was the exception: Half-halt? Forget it! Bend? Bucking is better? A bit of collection? No way! Just hand walking him, we were beset with invisible monsters that even followed him into his own stall! One particularly disappointing day, after I had been unable to even give him away as a pasture pet and he was sulking in a far corner, it occurred to me that we needed some type of "bridge" - a way to connect in between the problematic present and my cherished Dressage goals. I decided to fall back on my trick training experience as a way to try to bond and establish an understanding with Lukas. This playful interactive way of relating with animals had long been a way for me to enhance learning and make a horse more attractive for adoption. But, could it also become a way to help Lukas reach his potential, I wondered?

So, the journey began - face tricks being the easiest and simplest, the smile was attempted first. Having been a psychiatric nurse for 25 years, I use a combination of behavior modification techniques, my own specialized version of clicker training and a wide variety of bits and pieces from everything to circus to cowboy, Spanish Riding School to Sea World. Kindness and liberty training are the foundation of my system - positive reinforcement along with brief, enjoyable lessons provide the most beneficial results for both trainer and trainee. But to even begin, I first needed to get his attention: I used round pen liberty work to develop his focus and concentration. During this time, I also began to link rewards (praise, petting, small carrot bits) with acceptable responses and as Lukas' abilities improved, I was able to create longer "chains" of behaviors.

I began to notice a definite shift in Lukas' attitude - I was being greeted now with a loud whinny when he heard my car door shut as I arrived at the stables. Our lessons had now become games that he initiated with a happy eagerness and ceaseless enthusiasm. The smile had been learned within days and I had been adding new tricks weekly to his ever-expanding repertoire. His spookiness had disappeared long ago as his trust, confidence and focus had improved. And his under-saddle work? Through our playing he had "learned to learn", and had become a joy to ride.

Around this time, I began to wonder just how much Lukas really could learn and happened to pick up the book, "Beautiful Jim Key" - a fascinating story about a horse who lived at the turn of the century. Jim is considered to be the most intelligent horse that has ever lived - his IQ was estimated to be equal to that of a 5th grader's! So, I began to incorporate different perceptual tasks into our play-times just to see what would happen. And, now, the rest is history, as they say.

To date, Lukas' talents include: smiling; nodding yes; shaking his head no, kissing (dry and wet - for the young at heart); posing; yawning; catching; fetching; the "blindfold"; crossing his front legs; acting lame; obeissance (curtsy); waving; going to a mark; pedestal work; Spanish walk (to the front and back); jambet; passage; bowing; laying down and letting me sit on him; putting his feet all together; playing hide and seek; staying and coming; rearing; pushing a barrel; spelling (5 letter words); counting (up to 5); identifying shapes (horse, butterfly, square, heart and star) and discriminating between 3 colors (he chooses his green one). In addition, he has grasped the concepts of spatial relationships, proportion, same/different and absentness.

His story has been picked up globally on NBC; CBS; ABC; CNN; HLN; Equisearch, EquineVIP, RFD-Radio, and Pet Life Radio among many others. Also, The Associated Press released a feature article on him. He has been included in many newspapers, magazine articles and forums, Yahoo and Google have listed him under "The World's Smartest Horse", and he is currently being studied by The Human-Equine Alliance for Learning (HEAL). Lukas has been appointed the official "Spokeshorse" for TROTT- a group that finds homes for ex-racehorses. In addition, he is the poster-boy for the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association - an organization dedicated to Thoroughbred awareness ownership.

What's next for Lukas?, I'm often asked. We plan to continue to show others the happy results of kind training and how smart and wonderful horses are. Lukas' new book is available on Lulu as an e-book or a print version: "Playing With Lukas." Like the sign on his gate reads "Fairy Tales Do Come True."

We wish to thank our gracious hosts, The Waltons and Brookside Equestrian Center