This is a longer video going through a training plan for teaching a cue involving tapping on the shoulder to ask the horse to turn his head to receive food. It's deliberately and unapologetically boring in that it's not sliding stops or jumping huge fences or canter pirouettes, but it is a horse saying "yes" to me asking if he's comfortable with me over his back when he has the option to say "no." This is the foundational training that starts with teaching him a way to get reinforcement, which will come in handy with a rider later on, but it's also him being able to make decisions about what happens to him. If I do the "boring" work of not only trying to make him comfortable, but learning when he’s not, his confidence in saying “no” will make his “yes” mean something.
Plus it’s just super fun when you’ve got a horse that’s fairly new to R+ and you can communicate and teach a new skill in about ten minutes!
