Straightness. (Is it really a word?)

I think the thing I object to is deconstruction, but I can't be certain. Breaking down actions into component parts, teaching each component, and then reassembling all the behaviours into the desired action, seems to be popular these days, and it works, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

So much training is obsessional about control, but I am at heart, lazy.

To take a simple example, row crop work. The pony must pull a series of hoes along two lines of plants, 29”apart, ideally with the hoes an inch or two either side of the plants. The rows are 30 to 40 yards long and straight, which simplifies the job. The machine Obama is pulling has the wheel centres 72” apart, and the hoes are pulled along the rows. One wheel follows straight behind Obama, and the machiine is offset to the right, with the other two wheels 72” to his right.

It is clearly vital to teach the animal to move in a straight line. Aim him right, teach him to run straight and life is easy. But how do you get the concept of straight into his life. Can you think of a way to teach an animal that has a partial blindspot straight in front, to walk in a straight line, forward. But as I said I am lazy. The tractor which sows the seeds, or plants the plants, has wheels 72” apart, so actually all I did is walk Obama down the tractor tyre marks, correcting any tendency to deviate from the path.

Animals instinctively follow trails, which is why there are trails. If one animal has left a track it proves that the ground is solid, without major risk. As more and more animals use it it becomes clearly defined, and more obviously safe, and is used more and more. This is not just on the ground, squirrels have tracks through the trees and they will use specific routes through woods.

People do exactly the same, and when they are big enough call them M5 or A303.

So rather than trying to teach Obama the nebulous concept of straight, I teach him that tractor tracks, especially with rows of vegetables either side, are good. So he follows the tractor tracks, and rather than waste my time steering him, I can walk behind steering the hoes which are pulled by the frontbar of the vehicle. This allows me to steer the hoes with total precision to within probably half an inch, if I am concentrating, and I haven't taught Obama anything complicated, just that I want him to follow this track, a habit pre programmed into his genes and mine.

Because my actions are about achieving something, hoeing vegetables, taking a wheelchair across Dartmoor, or from Exeter to Hyde Park, it is easier to teach Obama the job, than to try and break each job down into trainable modules.