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Hi Jennifer,

My friend, Jan Norman, and I do clicker training and have free-shaped our 
horses to pee when asked.

It really doesn't take that much time, and it is a very valuable thing to be 
able to do.

Basically you catch your horse peeing, and you "click", "name or cue", and 
then treat her.  I use a mouth click, my cue is "go potty" or I whistle.  Do 
this for several repetitions, whenever you can.  The next step is to catch 
your horse preparing to pee.  If you are pretty sure she is going to, then 
you can move to cueing before the act, clicking during the act, and then 
treating.  Eventually (may take weeks or months) you can ask for the 
behavior independent of her preparing to pee.  I would ask her first at home 
in familiar surroundings, and by her favorite "bathroom".  When she 
succeeds, give her lots of treats.  Later, move your request out onto the 
trail.

My friend and I have written an article about this very subject and 
submitted it to be published but haven't heard back yet.  We started with 
foals. We can ask our foals to pee or poop or drink on command after using 
free shaping clicker training.  My older horses pee and drink on command, 
but I confess I haven't worked on the poop thing much yet.

Good Luck.
Beth Bliss




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