Does This Horse Look Walkable?

Today I had a short session with Hunter. My plan was to take him out for a walk. Almost as soon as I brought him into the pen, the rest of the herd left to go exploring the track, so Hunter was upset. He didn't really calm down that well, and it was also pretty breezy, so I figured we needed to do something else together to get him "rideable" or at least Zone 3 Driveable. Of course I would have been safe taking him out on line, but I think he would have been too emotional to learn anything. 

We started in the round pen on the 12' line. We did a few circles, mostly just doing a lap or two and disengaging. I really worked on him stopping and standing straight, giving me two eyes. He was having trouble keeping his attention on me, and also with giving me his right eye, which isn't usually much of an issue. He kept hoping to spot the herd out there somewhere, but the round pen is in an area sheltered by buildings on three sides, so there are only chinks to peek through. Once the On Line work was reasonable I took the halter off. I tried a couple of changes of direction at walk and lost him. He looked like he might trot around on a left circle for most of the day if I let him. I had an idea. I slowly worked my way toward one side of the pen, trying not to interrupt his pattern yet. When I got four or five feet from the rail I turned to face it, keeping my energy down and my eyes low. As he came through the gap I disengaged his hindquarters as if we had been playing the squeeze game. He turned and faced me. I sent him through the gap to repeat it, but he shot off on a right circle. He squirted through the gap fast as he came around again, but he wouldn't disengage. The next time, he wouldn't come through, rolled back and headed left. Interesting game!

With a little repetition I got him turning, facing and waiting every time. At first, if he didn't disengage, I just added a little pressure when he had Zone 5 to me. I then placed myself on his right and we did a couple of laps of Zone 3 Driving around the pen. It took a bit of effort from me for that to be really calm and harmonious. I decided that we still weren't ready for the big wide world (or even the pasture) so I took him to the arena, where he had his first session with some heavy poles we put down in a fan to use as cavaletti. He picked this up really well, but now he could see the herd coming in and got very bracey and pulled on the line, so it wasn't the pleasure it might have been. Oh well!

I decided to end the session with just a little walk, so we went down the driveway ( a few thresholds) and out the gate, where we had to clear some scary tumbleweeds to get through, to check the mail. He handled that pretty well. On our return trip toward the herd, he got a bit fast, and I disengaged him a number of times. I suspect, that had I been riding him, that's all I would have needed to do. I wonder?

Just Smashing!

Tuesday, Dove got her feet trimmed. I had managed to pick them up a few times, and our trimmer, John Graves does a nice job with less-than-confident horses, so things went great. I decided that having passed this milestone, and now being pretty easy to catch, I'd introduce her to the herd and if all went well, turn her out. I put Bruce in the arena and took Dove in and led her around the perimeter to show her the fence. (We put a training wire, that looks just like the stuff on the track in Dove and Journey's pen a few days ago.) 

Once I let her go, Bruce tried to sniff her rear end, she made to kick him with one of those long hind legs, and he whirled around and squealed and double barreled her to let her know that's not advisable. With that out of the way, they totally lost interest in each other. I put two piles of hay on a tarp for them and they ate pretty well in close proximity until the hay ran low. Then Bruce started nipping her shoulder to move her off. 

While they had their lunch date I played a bit with Iona in the round pen. (I've missed using the round pen. It's been a calf hospital for ages, however, the calf is finally better and  been moved in with some buddies.) We worked on our Porcupine stuff, did a few successful changes of direction and transitions, and I hopped on for a brief bridleless session. It all went well, especially the circles and riding. I can pretty well fake having the stick in my right hand now, if I use it two handed or just drag it along. However, she was pretty light and I didn't need it much. I'm afraid that I still don't have much of a program about progressing with Bruce and Iona these days, other than getting better responses with the Porcupine Game, especially where their heads are concerned. I just mess around and do what I can. Liberty is the easiest, although Iona is not bad to ride. I try to keep the sessions short and not show them too much about what I can't do.


I then put Iona in the arena with the other two. She wasn't interested in Dove at all. Just wanted to stand by the gate with Bruce. Okay then! I spent just a couple minutes catching Dove, haltered her, and we all started down the track. I encouraged the Fells to walk in front and Dove and I followed. We stopped for a drink and then headed on out to the pasture. I let Dove graze on line for a little while then took the halter off. I hung out for a bit, then made sure that I could still catch her. That took maybe five minutes of persistence. She looked pretty relieved when I let her go again!

I had left Hunter in the pen next door to Journey for company. However, he didn't have to stay there long, as Mark arrived home with yet another new horse! This is a gelding that belongs to a workmate of Mark's. Mark has him on trial. He's a sort of "been there, done that" horse, and we've heard good things about him. However. I wasn't prepared for the great big guy who stepped off the trailer. Especially as Mark had forgotten to take a halter with him when he picked him up, so I said, "Oh, don't worry. Just open the trailer door a bit and I'll throw a rope over his neck." Well, here was this big bay, about 16hh, and about 12hh wide! Talk about stocky! He's actually built a little like Iona. Short legs and a really, really deep body. How kids barrel raced him I'll never know, but it must have been something to see. This fellow currently rejoices under the name of "Smash" (part of his registered name). I'm thinking something like "Ranger" might be nice. We'll let you know.

Journey
Most of Wednesday was taken up with picking up a load of hay, but with the round pen clear, I decided it was time to try and make some more progress with Journey. I'd love to be able to turn her out, but I'd also love to be able to catch her again, get her feet  trimmed, be able to deal with her (and maybe a foal) if she's pregnant, etc. On the way home we figured out how to create a corridor from her pen to the round pen, where we could open a gap in the panels to drive her in. That went smoothly and I started playing the Catching Game. I'm not surprised that she's proving a tough customer with this. and I wish I had some more Savvy Arrows. I ended up sending her around for ages. She would start to lock on to me, and would face me when I took the pressure off, but I couldn't get any forward steps. In the end I played things a little different and approached her. If she let me make a little progress (first, touch me, then let me touch her and make some progress through the zones) I'd back off. Not all these things at once, of course, but progressively. If she chose to leave, I'd send her out again. If not. we'd do a slow dance where I'd casually try to get back to Zone 5, then send her out. We had quite a long session, and she was a bit sweaty but I managed to get a little further past her withers than we had been so far. I didn't want to push her any harder as it was getting late and cold and I didn't want to stress her too much.


Today we had another session. I tried a few new things. One was backing into her space just as her Zone 5 went behind me on the circle. I watched Pat do that on the old Catching Game DVD. However, I think that scared her, so I quit. We also had a period when the whole thing took on a more playful feeling. I think that was great, but somewhere it dribbled away and I didn't really find it again. I also tried using a telescoping rod to touch her. It was a bit cumbersome and not quite long enough for the size of the pen, but I'll try it again in a smaller space. Toward the end of the session I'm pretty sure I approached too much and retreated too little. Darn!  I felt that I'd taught her to keep facing me but we weren't progressing much past that. I also discovered that she really doesn't want me on her left side, so I worked on that, and when she let me touch her a little there, we called it a day. Later, when I was doing chores in her pen, I noticed that she was obsessively facing me. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing.....


I also had short sessions with Bruce and Smash/Ranger today. Bruce and I mainly worked on Game 2 at Liberty. I could tell he would like to do more, but I didn't have a plan. At least the little bit we did went pretty well.


I managed to play the first four Games with the big guy. He's been a little pushy and disrespectful so far, so we defined my space. He went along with this, but I can tell he doesn't really believe me yet.  Surprisingly, his Porcupine and Driving was pretty good in all Zones. It's possible he's been played with a little in the past. I think his owners have flirted with PNH. Yo-yo was harder. He couldn't believe that Phase 1 or 2 meant anything. Perhaps my energy could have been clearer? Having given him a couple of BIG Phase 4s, I settled for some good steps at Phase 3.


It's amusing to have all these things that I can do with horses I hardly know. The first four Games one handed are pretty easy. So is most of the work with Journey. But at the same time, I can do so little with my "advanced" horses. At least the new guys are keeping me occupied. 


Snowstorm
A bit of a blizzard hit this afternoon, and they say we will have some really low temperatures for awhile. Because Bruce was in, the others hung around the yard area all day and didn't go get their hay. By the time Bruce was out the storm was coming, and he was not sure whether to take them out to the pasture or stay near the shed. I knew they were hungry and needed something in their bellies for the cold night. They got halfway up the drive and stood around eating weeds with the snow sticking to them. By dusk they were still there. I decided to put a bale in their shed and walked them to it. Dove isn't well integrated yet. She hangs back and Hunter bullies her a bit. I was worried that she wouldn't get into the shed or get any hay, so I offered to catch her, and would have let her wait the storm out with Journey, but she wasn't having it, and it was getting dark and I was frozen. I felt bad, as she's a bit thin. but she's lived out all her life and I know she'll be fine. If she's looking unhappy in the morning I'll catch her and give her some TLC.

Catching Dove

Dove and Journey

Two weeks ago Mark and I went to a farm auction. The owner was selling up. He was a breeder of Appaloosas and Quarter Horses of quite good quality and we came home with two mares. A nine year old gray whom I named Dove, and a three year old bay that Mark has named Journey. Dove is halter broken and probably had two or three rides put on her as a youngster.  She has been used as a broodmare. Journey probably isn't halter broken, and we don't think she's been ridden. Both are probably in foal.

So far they are fairly timid or skeptical about people. Dove will tolerate being touched, but obviously doesn't enjoy it, although she's not really that scared, I'd say. Just cautious. Journey is more curious about us, but at the same time more timid. I have only touched her nose and face, so far. Mark has gotten slightly further. Journey also makes a lot of grumpy faces and occasional threats. So far she hasn't followed through, but I'm sure she could. Her eyes are always the first thing people comment on. The whites show a lot of the time. This seems to be partly conformational, but she also has that habit of arching her "eyebrows" when she's worried, which is a lot of the time. She's going to be quite a challenge, we suspect. 

I've spent some time just sitting in their pen reading, and stuff like that. They do come and check me out. One day I put a haynet under my chair, which made me a lot more interesting, and that day I got to touch Dove a lot more. Then I got busy and haven't done much for a few days. However, this morning as Mark and I were standing looking at them I felt the moment was right to do a little more with Dove. I took a halter and lead rope and played an informal and low key Catching Game. 

It went much as I expected. She didn't get scared, but there was no magical moment when I suddenly got lots of draw or she decided to "join up". The pen is an odd shape with lots of corners, plus a run-in area. Luckily they didn't want to be in the run-in with me (too trappy) and it was pretty easy to keep them circling. I say "them" because of course Journey is in the pen, too, and had to come along for the ride. She likes to stick close to Dove for security, and at times seemed to be trying to cut me off from her. Dove pretty much ignores Journey's insecurity, and didn't try to hide behind her at all. I tried not to put too much pressure on them, and stuck to walk and trot. Canter might have been a more effective gait, but Journey is pretty reactive, while it would have taken quite a bit to get Dove going, I think. We are in a tape pen, the ground is hard, their feet aren't that great, and they're pregnant. Lot's of good reasons to keep is low key.

How it went was that I would send her around for awhile, and she would begin to show signs of relaxing and/or locking onto me a bit, or wanting to stop at a favorite spot. I didn't have draw, so I would experiment with going over and letting her sniff me and/or trying to pet her. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't. I tried to time sending her off again to her offering to leave. If she didn't offer then I would walk away and chat to Mark for a moment or two. I did feel we were reaching a stalemate at one point, and by this time Journey was getting used to the proceedings, and figuring out that this was just not about her, so I was able to up the pressure a bit and throw the line out at Dove.  I got to where I could pet her and she would stand for longer, then actually rub her with the halter and rope. I walked away. 

Pretty quickly after that there was a very clear change, and she let me put the halter on with no rush, no sneaking, and I felt she accepted it. We had a walk around the pen. I was very careful not to let Journey get between me and Dove with that halter on, as I feared that could turn into a wreck. I then had a look at how she felt about being touched in more provocative areas, and hand fed her some hay for awhile, and let her go. The hardest thing resisting the urge to try to touch her again before I walked away, but I knew it was the wrong thing!

If I did a good job today, tomorrow it will take half the time.

and Brucie

After this incredible feat of horse whispering, thank goodness Bruce was around to help return me to humility. I thought I  might just give him a nice grooming and a bit of attention, but it was obvious that he wanted to do more. As soon as I tied him up he had to play with everything, and clown around. So we did the grooming thing and I put his bareback pad on. We headed for the arena. I thought we might work on some Figure 8s. 

I started On Line. The 22' is too heavy for my wrist, so we were limited to the 12'. He pulled on me a couple of times and I decided that was a no-no, so we went in the roundpen, where we had a pretty good session recently. He did some nice transitions, but perhaps not quite as nice as last time. (Hmmm. I'd better monitor myself, or I'm going to allow him to get dull.) Then I tried some changes of direction between two cones, but he was doubtful about that. Because I know he can get a little unconfident with that I was trying it at a walk. I had no draw! It actually went better a little later when he was trotting and cantering. 

Things seemed to be improving, so I tried some Stick to Me outside the pen. That was great so I hopped on. I had no lateral flexion ot the right (my bad hand). It really took some getting, and when I finally got it, I gave him a treat. I'm not sure it was the right strategy. He did one or two nice things, but I spent most of the ride dragging him away from obstacles I had not asked him to visit. Aaarggghhh! It was pretty messy and although you simply can't out-muscle Bruce anyway. having a weak hand didn't help. My little pony turned out to be too much horse for me, so I found a good note to finish on and bailed out. Probably the most harmonious note of the session was me sitting down on the ground and inviting him to roll. I'm sure it was his favorite part!

Still my Black Angel

You might expect that my relationship with Iona would be damaged by our wreck. I have to say "No." My confidence is in good shape, and I don't bear her any ill will. She was just being a horse. She certainly didn't respect my space at that moment, but she wasn't acting aggressively toward me. She had no idea that pushing me out of the way would injure me. It would be nothing to another horse, after all. Let's move on.

A couple of days after the accident I thought I'd try some Liberty. I figured that losing the rope was a plus, since I only had one hand. We headed for the roundpen to try out some stuff Jena Cody had shown us. What I got was a very confused pony. My stick was in the "wrong" hand half the time! We hung in there and finished the session, but I had to stop and think about this. Did I really want to teach a bunch of new cues that would be pointless in a couple of months? No! Were we ready to go stickless? Huh-uh. Were the other Savvies going to be easier? HAHAHAHA!!!

Another day I thought I might have a little ride. It was windy, and I couldn't really warm up effectively. I dragged her to the mounting block anyway and wrestled her into position. I got halfway on and she said "Don't do this!" So I lay on her like a green colt for a moment and jumped off the other side. That was my ride.

Recently, I have been for a couple of rides around the property with friends. My arm is a little more useful, and fairly safe in the brace. On the first ride, Iona took off for the comfort of the herd twice and I couldn't stop her. However, it all felt pretty safe, and kind of got me over my worries about riding with The Arm. Sunday, I was out again with Denise riding Bruce and Sara on Sage. We did spend time warming up, and I was amazed at how responsive and connected Iona was in the arena. The ride went pretty well, too.

So today I thought I'd play for a bit. I have tried to continue to work on the Porcupine game, especially in Zone 1. Today we continued that and I wasn't thrilled with how it went. One of the things I tried was leading by the ear. We can kinda do this, but it's not pretty. This evening I was suddenly hit  by a picture of  me just grabbing her ear and pulling. Eek! Now, it wasn't quite like that, but it probably seemed like it to her. Shucks, I'm supposed to be doing this in the name of  lightness and responsiveness. Maybe I should try to offer some. You know, go slow...reward the slightest try. Great! I think I know where I'm going wrong with this.

However, we had some good stuff, too. We were in a small pen with no toys. How to be provocative? Porcupine and Driving in the other Zones was pretty good. I tried a little Zone 5 Driving using just my hands. She is very sensitive to whether I'm asking her to go forward or back. I love that! It really does feel magical. Turning to left and right is a little harder, but if we concentrate, we can. We also backed in a circle and kept the belly of the rope on the ground. We played a fun game where I positioned her so that each of her feet in turn had to step on a piece of brick that was on the ground. We did lead by the leg with just my hand around her hock. What a cool pony I have!

I needed to pick up empty hay nets from the track. I thought we might ride part of that trip. I clipped on a set of reins. (I recently got a set of 7' ones, and what a difference it makes to have some the right length!) However, she felt a little high to me, so I sort of rode her from the ground, using the reins to cue her most of the way, and as a lead rope once I had my hand full of nets. Then we had a little ride in the arena. That went well. I tried not to use the reins at all. There were quite a few cones and barrels and stuff scattered around, and I tried to use them as markers, so that I wasn't too aimless. She was spot on with almost everything I asked her.

More fun with Bruce!

My Beautiful Brucie

(taken in Scotland)

Denise and I have had a few sessions with Bruce since I last posted. Their partnership is improving. Denise has stepped up to take on the things I am asking her to do with him, and he is having a lot of fun playing and enjoying the extra attention. Yesterday evening was really fun, though!

We started by looking at playing Games 4-7 in a flow, and I suggested that Brucie should really be trotting 90% of the time. I played first, and I have to say I was surprised at just how well he did. I didn't need to ask him to pick up the pace much at all - he just went. Denise also had a good little session, although she needed to remember to "expect a lot" as she just didn't realise he could easily do much more for her at first.

We then had a look at tacking him up with a bareback pad. Typically, he was trying to undo the latigos and "help" her put it on. He is always impatient with tacking up. He thinks it take too long.

In the interest of continuing with the Impulsion Programs, I had to think of a way to play the Trotting Game dismounted. I decided we could try Liberty. We were in the small arena, so Denise and I each took a half and I sent him off - really to go where he liked as long as he trotted! And if he went over to Denise's side, then it was up to her to keep him trotting. Naturally, he had no idea what we were asking him to do. However, that just seemed to make it more fun for him and he was pretty expressive. Only one or two little moments of "uh-oh, I guess I'm wrong!" He mostly offered to do big circles around us, and we ended up having to sort of discuss how to get him to go to the other person's side. We all had a blast, and ended up asking him not to canter more than not to walk, by far. It would be very easy to get him to do a big Figure 8 around the two of us, I think.

Denise then mounted up to work on her lateral flexion, friendly game and a bit of Passenger Lesson. I'm not sure that too much Passenger Lesson will be a good thing for Bruce, so this may be a bit of a compromise. Hopefully, Denise can sort of get that just riding him around with me and Iona before too long.

Because of Bruce's impending trip, I thought I'd better work on his trailer loading. We haven't done much with it since the Trailer Woes thing this autumn. However, after a little initial scepticism he went on and off several times easily. I then experimented with how he felt about me coming in. No problem, so we played a little Yo-yo game and stuff in there, and I also experimented with running the lead rope through the bars to simulate tying him up. That also went just fine. I think that's where we had problems the last time - or at the next step, where I dallied the rope to something and left him - and then he panicked a little. No problem this time. I didn't dally the rope, but did get out of the trailer and go around and give him a treat through the bars from the outside. A pattern he knows from our old trailer in Scotland. I was really happy with that session, and with how the whole evening went.

Jerry's Clinic - Personal Notes

Denise and I are still sorting through her fab photos of the clinic, and I hope to post some here, along with a further clinic report soon. But before I lose the feel of the weekend and the buzz of what I learned, I thought I would go ahead and write about my own perspective of the past few days.

The weeks ahead of the clinic were remarkably windy. Mark and I kept thinking that we would get started on the various jobs that needed to be done, plus we have our first weed problem of the year: mustard/flixweed to contend with, which meant I should really be out on that tractor mowing the stuff down before it goes to seed. I have done some mowing, and we did get the essential prep work done, but it felt more like a battle than a pleasure, and as I write this the wind is still blowing, the flixweed is still growing, and I am trying to remember what it's like to play with Iona. 

The weekend had many personal highlights for me. Things I learned from Jerry, progress in new and old friendships and also seeing another milestone reached for Springvalley Farm with our first multi-day clinic. And I have to say - it's all been great!

Jenifer and Lily

As I wrote previously, I have been excited about finally making contact with Jenifer Morrissey, so I was over the moon when she decided to attend Jerry's Horsenality Clinic on Friday. Jenifer and Don arrived on Thursday night with Jenifer's mare, Lily. We had a nice evening together, in spite of there still being quite a few things left to do. They are both great company, and pitched in and helped while we talked, and the evening really helped to set me up for the weekend ahead.

Friday's clinic was awesome. Jerry started off by asking all of us to state our own horsenality! He then came up with a simple diagnostic tool for determining this which I found very powerful. Here it is:

When making decisions, introverts make them slowly and extraverts make them quickly. Basing decisions on facts is a left brained approach, basing them on feelings is a right brained approach.

Jerry used examples from his own life which really helped me to identify some issues in my own relationships both with horses and humans. One thing I realised is that many times we confuse feelings with facts (or at least I do!). Another thing I realised was that although I would generally classify myself as an introvert with both right and left brained tendencies, I have a lot of learned LBE behaviour, and this is particularly true in how I relate to horses. My energy is definitely higher than Iona's, which I know is a source of irritation to her. I hope that I can now figure out what to do with this realisation, which also explains why I find it so easy to blow more sensitive horses up, or create brace in horses. 

Other notes from the classroom session were -

- a reminder to get in harmony with the horse first, then we can begin to ask them to get in harmony with us!

- The 5 areas of confidence: Self, Leader, Environment, Learning and Herd.  I would say that that Iona is least confident with environment, followed by learning. However, it's possible that some of her bully behaviour in the herd could be lack of confidence - I don't know!)

We moved out to the playground with our horses, where Jerry asked us to play some games so he could get a look at everybody and he gave everyone some individual help as they needed it. My most memorable piece of learning from that session was the Quadrant Game. This is a version of the Circle Game for horses who already know the game but don't want to go forward. The deal is to give them a long phase one, but then you get to tag them as many times as possible within the first quarter of the circle only. It is very motivating. Of course it also motivated Iona to run off. Jerry's suggestion here was to go toward her hindquarters. I didn't really get to explore that strategy, as she didn't happen to run off again, but I will try to remember it!

Playing the Circle Game

We each had an individual session in the roundpen with Jerry. Iona wasn't sticking to me very well, and Jerry's tips were that I needed to be slower and less jerky, which made it much easier for her to stay with me, particularly on the turns. He reminded me to find her rhythm before trying to set one of my own. He played with her for awhile, and I noticed that he did a little more with the stick than I did. He explained that once he took his energy up and either forward or backward in an obvious way, that he wanted her to start moving, and if she didn't he would gently encourage her with the stick rather than leave without her. That was useful. I see that I was just walking off without her and then having to be more argumentative in the long run.

In the Roundpen

Stick to Me

He also emphasised the importance of what happens when you start a liberty session. Many humans will take the halter off, and then break the connection with the horse by walking away to where they want to put the halter and rope. This led on to some interesting topics about keeping and breaking the connection generally. For example, Jerry suggested that when breaking the connection (or leaving your horse) you walk from the head toward the tail with your nearest hand still in contact in a friendly way, rather than walk directly away from their head. This makes it more obvious that you no longer expect them to follow. He also talked about the importance of breaking the connection gracefully when turning a horse out. So doing something similar, and perhaps even taking the horse to the herd, rather than it running off toward the herd. No hard and fast rules here, but judge the situation so that everybody has a good feeling about it and you are well set up for next time being even better. He also pointed out that when you tie a horse up, in a way this maintains the connection while you are gone. "This is where I would like you to wait for me" sort of thing. I knew that, but couldn't have put it in words, and of course I see how it makes ground tying or teaching a horse to stand at it's place is a refinement of the same thing! Jerry called this keeping the conection by giving the horse a job, and used the example of how Pat will get Magic to go and stand on the pedestal while he is working with another horse.

I had what I think may turn out to be another big moment when Jerry said something about treating a horse the way they treat other horses. We were talking a lot about phases, as one of the themes of the weekend was Teach-Control-Reinforce-Refine and how this affects the use of phases. Jerry said something almost in passing about playing with a horse and noticing how he was very bossy in the herd, and using the same approach with him. At lunchtime I asked Jerry about this by asking about Bruce and Iona. Bruce has a long and subtle phase one, but the lower ranking herd members tend to be very attentive to him and move off his slightest glance. However, if they don't, he has a lightening quick and effective phase 4. Usually a bite! Iona, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have much in the way of phases. I think that I am right about this, because if she did, more horses would get out of her way in time, because she double-barrels them really hard! I have noticed that they do try to respect her space (even Bruce), but she is pretty calculated about setting herself up to get that kick in if she can.

As I write this, I don't see how it could possibly be fair to try to sneak into a position where I can just smack Iona, or what that would achieve. However, perhaps I should be really particular about my space, and see what that does for her respect. Hmmmmm. I also doubt (from experience) that I could hit her hard enough to simulate one of her kicks or that I would like myself if I did. But I think I will be looking for a more effective phase 4 again, and for better or worse, I have never really been afraid to use the stick on her. With Bruce, I suspect that making a sort of  slow "I'm gonna get you" game out of things will be pretty ineffective if I don't also learn to at least follow it up with a really FAST phase 4, and make the "gonna get you" part more subtle, as the more he has to watch me to see if it is coming, the more interesting I will probably become!

An unmotivated moment

A motivating moment

A motivated moment

With all this talk of phase 4, I will just end with another important thought from Jerry, which was about setting the horse up well, so that it can at least achieve a small part of the task, so that you can reward it. I'm sure that for Iona I will continue to use food rewards quite a bit. I have taken David Lichman's statement to heart that she needs to see what's in it for her. However, I also have the idea in my mind that once you become interesting enough or significant enough as a leader, this will not be as important. But I see this concept of setting the horse up to do something that you CAN reward as the essence of what David was telling me. I may not end up breaking it down in quite the same way he described, but I will try to make sure that I set her up to both progress and succeed.

Can you see why I'm so interesting at this moment?

That's probably most of the Horsenality Clinic stuff. I will include some ideas from the Refinement clinic in the next installment.

Fun-demanding Time

MUD. After the demo we had more snow. First we had the wet, rainy kind, then the drier powdery kind. With the ground already pretty well saturated, we ended up with really terrible mud. Yech! Except for one day when it had just snowed, I haven't been able to do much with the ponies. That one day was glorious, though. The powder snow was fun to play in, so I took Bruce and Iona into the playground and took turns with them - first doing a task with one and then a task with the other. I ended up getting some nice Liberty Figure 8s with Iona, and some great clowning around from Bruce. (I was encouraging him to clown around. Sometimes it's better to ask the question he wants to hear!)

Oh, yes, and they've been helping with the chores. The first week of each month is Sand Clear week. Bruce would rather not eat this, and not only tips his own bucket over, but then tips everybody's bucket over checking to see if anybody didn't get some. Tiresome. So he has to be brought into a pen and fed from a special untippable bucket which fits in a tire, which sits on a piece of plywood, so that if her throws the food around I can pick it up. Apparantly Sand Clear tastes better this way, as he then eats it up!

I have been finding this such an extra hassle at feeding time. and more so with the mud, as it just means another potentially muddy rope. So I decided it was time to see whether we could do this at Liberty, since he can see what needs to happen. That was no problem, so I was very pleased with that bit of progress.

I've been putting a few hay nets out on the track the past month or so, to encourage the herd to move (I change their locations around each day). With the mud, there is no way I would want to go out in a vehicle, as even if it didn't get stuck it would tear the ground up. However, seven sections of hay is heavy, so since Bruce was in the yard every morning anyway, I decided to get him to carry them. He's done this before, so it's no big deal. The first day he decided to bolt for home with the nets, about halfway across the pasture. Something in the distance had worried him. I must have had those nets balanced just right, as not a single one fell off. I think this deflated him a little, so I easily got him to come to me and we set off again. The second day he realised that once we got to the feeding station he was going to get to stand and stuff himself with hay, so he became quite motivated. Iona's taken a turn on some days, too, now. This is one job they definitely see a purpose to!

Today, I couldn't stand it any longer. The weather has been quite nice (hence the mud) and I really needed a pony fix! So I grabbed Iona's halter and line, and a stick, and walked out to where the herd were loafing under some trees. We messed around a little - I squeezed her through a puddle and over a log, then decided to get on and just hang out. I figured that it would get boring pretty quick, but the herd decided to go for a walk, so I got a half mile or so ride. Just being a passenger. The mud is pretty slippery, so being a great passenger was the thing to focus on. Iona has a tendency to trail her hindquarters and then have them slide out behind her, so I experimented with what I could do to get her to step under herself more.

I also played with whether I could get her to do lateral flexion just by thinking about it. No reins or stick. Amazingly, she did it several times. I just kind of looked down at my foot and thought about what I would do with the reins to ask for this, if I was using them. It was enough for her to feel, obviously. Gee, do you think I'm probably "shouting" at her most of the time, if she responded to that?

I did pick up the reins when we went down a small muddy bank. I watched the other horses. Petra's horses ran down it, jumping a suspicious looking patch of snow. Bruce kinda slid down it sideways. All he needed was a snowboard - he's such a goofball! I didn't really want to  try either method bareback, so I asked her to line up and "do it properly" which she did.

We got to a place where there was grass to pick at. It was very interesting being part of the herd. A couple of times I saw Hunter or JB suddenly do a snappy departure for a new location and I wondered what had prompted that. Observing more closely, I realised that their movements were totally directed by Bruce. His phase one was so subtle I had missed it. It was about the equivalant of a human raising an eyebrow without even looking up at the other party. Boy, his phase four must be pretty memorable if his phase one is that effective and light! And the others have to really be paying attention to him, even though they're searching for a nibble, to notice it. I guess they must consider his thoughts to be pretty interesting! I gotta think about how to be like that.

Eventually, everybody started to turn around. I knew they hadn't been up that way for awhile, and that once they got that unfamiliar ground behind them they would probably start galloping. With the mud, I decided I would save that joy for another day, so I hopped off and let Iona go just in time to see the Browns take off with Hunter and Dakota in hot pursuit, and Bruce at the back, galloping for a bit, then stopping to do a handstand now and again. Iona soon caught up. 

Yesterday, Today and ....

I've been thinking about whether I had the balance right with Iona. For years I thought she was purely a "stubborn, dominant, lazy" Left Brained Introvert (although at that stage the terminology wasn't around). When the Horsenality model arrived, I realised that some of her behavior was actually fear based "Right Brained Introvert". So I went through a period of taking care of that part of Iona, now that I knew about it. I'm sure she really appreciated my new level of understanding,  but it possibly made me a more hesitant leader, and that is not what a dominant horse needs. I did a little Horsenality chart on our recent problems, and all I saw was extreme LBI behavior. Oh. I guess that's where we are again.

Played with Iona yesterday. I audited a group lesson with Kime Conkright on Sunday, and she said something that really impressed me about how there is always a chance for a new beginning when you go get your horse to play. She was suggesting to a student that playing for a bit, then putting the horse up for awhile, getting her out and playing again, etc. might be a good strategy. I thought it might be worth a try with Iona this week. Things are going to be hectic getting ready for the demo on Sunday, and at the same time I want to spend a lot of time with Iona, both playing and sharing undemanding time. So yesterday, one session was just grooming her, and the moving her around, etc. that this involves. Even that was hard work. I had no draw, she didn't want to look at me, or put her halter on or be led. Yech!!  Then I left her while I did some other things.

Came back and we played the Circle game. I am trying to increase how many laps of trot or canter we can do. This may be one of the reasons we are having these big disagreements lately. I believe that Iona is "ready and able" to do this. I believe, in fact, that playing with this is going to teach each of us some things we now need to learn about Rapport, Respect, Impulsion and Flexion. However, because I'm still searching for strategies and because Iona is so dominant, this is causing her to "up the ante" and revert to some old behaviors. Like refusing to go forward, charging, threatening to kick, bucking... Yep, she did all of those. Happily, at least it doesn't scare me, and I don't get angry anymore. Frustrated, occasionally, but I do my best to manage it!

We went out to the playground and worked on Weave. This went a bit better than it has been. I think NOT doing Figure 8 and Weave on the same day helps. She finds this too predictable and boring. Perhaps if I can mix them up. I did mix some circles into the weave session, and that worked pretty well. I didn't stay at this too long, though. Too boring for her. Yes, I know it's not the Pattern that's boring, it's the way I'm presenting it. I think I try to go too fast, when actually, being more particular might be more interesting and provocative.

I left her in the roundpen while I went and did a few things. I came back with a bareback pad and hackamore. She did a great job of finding her bareback pad and letting me put it on, although once again I lacked the patience to really wait for her to sniff it. (I am beginning to suspect that this is a huge mistake, by the way!) She was very grumpy and didn't want to do much in the pen. I persisted and insisted as politely and passively as I could. I never hit her, but she did run into my stick a few times. We spent a lot of time discussing circles and Stick to Me, but very little time actually doing them. I tried to end on a good note, and decided to go ahead and ride.

That didn't go very well except as a rodeo event. I wanted to do some Figure 8 at trot around two barrels. Again, I think part of the trouble is boredom, (she could do this years ago) but the lack of respect and impulsion was not appropriate. So lots of bucking. I got to work on my independent seat and emotional fitness. Yea!! Eventually....finally....we got going and did the pattern with a nice trot and a pretty good attitude. We quit for the day.

Throughout the day's sessions I felt nothing but love for Iona. YES, I was frustrated! After all we are supposed to be riding in a demo on Sunday!!!! and I'm not sure it's going to look that good. However, I was also very firm with her. I was fair, I was friendly, but I was as dominant as I could figure out how to be without being mean. And I spent the evening wondering whether I could stand another day like that, as I didn't really know whether it had done any good.

Today my plan was to groom again, put on the bareback pad, do one short roundpen sesssion and then take her out to the big pasture for a passenger lesson-mosey-grazing-thingy! I usually bring any horses I want to play with in from the track just as they finish their bucket feed. I was trying to catch up on a few chores while they ate, and before I knew it Bruce and Iona were starting to leave the feeding area for goodness knows where. I was some distance away, but thought it was worth a try, so I shouted "Iona! Wait!" She did, and when I got there and called her she came right over and put her nose in the halter. Hmmmmm.

I was very particular with her about how she led, how she went through gates, but also particular to reward her (treats) when she did these things well. She mostly did them really well. Grooming was nice. Then I hung out my washing. Came back. Had reasonable draw. Decided to see if she would go with me at Liberty to get her pad on. We walked toward the saddle stand where I had put it. That's near a wate hydrant. She's always thirsty, so I filled a bucket and she had a drink. She found the pad and sniffed it. sniffed it again when I was in position to put it on. So far, so good.

I thought I'd just carry on at Liberty, and although she was slow, we made it into the little back yard and into the roundpen all at Liberty. I really tried to match her slow walking speed, and I think that helped our Rapport. In the roundpen session the bad stuff did come up again. However, I tried to be particular. I didn't find that I had to be as dominant as yesterday,  and after a bit things went well.

We then walked through the arena, out to the track, through two gates, to a mounting block where I lined her up, messed up my mount, had to get off, reposition her, got on again - all at Liberty. All at Liberty! Nothing on her head at all, just me, my pony and our orange stick. I just let her eat for awhile, then did a bit of passenger - eat - passenger - eat, first walk and eventually trot. Her lateral flexion was fabulous, she maintained gait at the trot very well after a bit. Let her eat a bit more and we called it a day. Oh, that is, after doing the whole untacking and turning out song and dance also at Liberty.

They say you have a 50/50 chance of choosing the right strategy, and I guess that what I did yesterday must have been right, if today was anything to go by. I wonder what she'll do tomorrow.

Phew, it's hot!
Back in Scotland, when it's too rainy even for Scots to get anything done outdoors, we say the day was a complete washout. I can only describe yesterday as a complete burnout. At least for me and the ponies. They were actually in the loafing shed trying to cool off at 9am.

I thought that by getting up super early this morning I might get something done with them, but we only managed a bit of grooming in the shade. Bruce lay down during that, and let me finish while he lay there. That was kinda fun.

Meanwhile, when the heat wasn't too bad today I worked on the roundpen a bit. It's coming along faster than I imagined. Clearing the hazards and old weeds away. I've placed it so that it can be an extension of the arena, and if I want to play with the gate open and they leave they will just end up in the arena. Later I will also clear the area outside it, so that if I leave the arena gate open I will be able to ride out of the arena and do a circular ride the rail around the pen. That will give us a little more variety while I develop the bigger play areas.

One thing we have been progressing with is liberty, though. I want to get to where I can move them around the farm without lead ropes. So I thought a good start was to only have a rope on one of them. Yesterday I led Iona and Bruce had to stick to me. He was so hot I wondered if I'd get him moving, but once he understood he got quite interested (treats were involved) and did a lovely job, even though since we were coming from the loafing shed it wasn't our usual morning route. Turned them out later the same way. This morning it was Iona's turn, and she did a great job, too.

By about 7 this evening it had cooled off, and after an afternoon spent watching some inspiring PNH stuff on DVD I really felt like getting Iona and playing. I want out to the track to get her, and of course Bruce assumed just what I have been teaching him, that he should come with us at liberty! Or maybe he just wanted the nice grass on the other side of the gate we tried to go through. Anyway, he was pretty easy to catch and redirect, so it was fine. I will have to work out some clearer signals about my intentions!

We cut across the pasture rather than going along the track, but that meant that I was seperating them, so Iona got a bit high headed and bracey. I just kept giving her things to do and she managed to keep it together. In the arena she was still a little uptight, but we managed to do some friendly game with both the ball and flag. Actually, I think we had a bit of a breakthrough with the flag. When she got worried and turned zone 5 to me (to leave, not to kick) I actually increased the pressure and played a sort of catching game. That interrupted the leaving pattern, and I think it was the right thing as at this stage I feel she is more offended by the flag then really fearful. Gee, maybe I am finally learning to read horses! I think my timing was better tonight than in the previous session. We managed to end on a lick and chew and relax.

It was a great moment to challenge myself with some bareback pushing passenger, because as soon as I got on her, she just wanted to dash to the gate (a piece of old rope, remember) toward Bruce. Not quite bracey, but a nice jolting trot and very determined. So then I would have to stop pushing and turn her, as I didn't want her to test the "gate". (Okay, I'll get a better gate!) It was good practise, though!

We finished up with some point to point on the 45' line. Wow! That was really easy! Cool! We walked back out to the track at liberty, and I was very proud that she waited while I shut a gate and never offered to run ahead to get back to Bruce.

Just to cool us all off, here are some photos I forgot to add last time. It's Bruce and Sara having a laugh with the hose after the ride on Sunday.

First Pony Party

A little preparation

Knowing that I had friends coming to ride this week certainly galvinised me into action. I finished clearing the yard in front of the "visitors shed" and put up a pen there. I finished clearing the arena, too, and removed a number of hazards that I wasn't happy about.

In between that I also took Iona out around the farm again, and with better preparation we much improved the grass diving thing, We also had some fabulous canters! And I rode Bruce a bit, as the plan was for Sara to ride him today, and I just wanted to check him out a little. She was on him bareback recently and they looked great together, but I wanted to be sure of him. He was just his usual self, however.

On Friday JR was here helping me. He removed a number of dangerous metal posts out in the pastures that I hadn't been able to get out with my post puller, and also set the last few turning posts for the track fence. On Saturday he even came out for a couple of extra hours and fixed some further hazards in the arena that were slightly bigger projects, and I don't think I would have got them done without his help! Big sigh of relief!

I just have to digress a bit here, and tell you about how great Iona was on Friday. She and Bruce each have a tie up place, where I have been grooming and feeding them recently. Friday I was grooming Iona's mane, so I took her halter off. No big deal, I have taught her to stay put at her place on previous yards, and she still knows what to do. However, she managed to do it with JR filling water cans, moving his truck around, loading it, and running power tools all right next to her, while I wandered around finding grooming stuff, etc. so I was well impressed with her. Then, much to my amazement, Bruce managed to do the same when it was his turn for the hairdresser. Now that's an achievement! Then, Iona stood completely quiet and relaxed, with the rope draped over her back, out by the "water hole" while I shampooed her tail and hosed her teats and belly where she has fly bites. She isn't always a happy bather so I was really pleased.

PONY PARTY!

Today was hot, and I really wondered how the Fells would cope with an active day and early afternoon ride. However, they took it in their stride and gave us a really good day out. Sara and Linda both arrived just after lunchtime. Linda's horse, Ducky, was his usual cool, calm and collected self! Bruce and Iona greeted him with a modest display of running around and bucking. They are old friends. It was great to be able to pop him into that visitor's pen while the three of us shared a cold drink and a chat.

Linda and Ducky arrive.

We got our horses and headed for the arena. Somehow it was too hot to feel really inspired about playing, but we warmed up, saddled up, did our pre-flight checks and so on. Even managed to have a chat about Rapport, Respect, Impulsion and Flexion, and how that should really be part of the pre-flight checks. I got a little busy taking Sara through the mysteries of Bruce's tack , and didn't manage to take many pictures. The poor girl survived her first time with a Theraflex pad, first time with a crupper and first time with a treeless saddle, and took it all in her stride.

I did manage to get a nice shot of Sara putting Bruce on the pedestal while Iona stood by looking suitably unimpressed!

So we were all mounted up and after a little warmup in the arena we headed out into the pasture to ride and have fun. Sara hadn't ridden in a hackamore before, so we talked a little about the basics as we started out of the yard, and she did great. She just needed to be reminded that it's still one rein at a time.

I knew that we were likely to have a few discussions with Bruce and Iona about that tasty grass, so I suggested that we stop at the very first nice patch and make sure that they waited for a signal from us to eat. We did that and walked awhile and repeated this a few times.

Linda said that one of her goals for the day was to improve how she was riding both the trot and canter. So Sara and I took the lead in trot so that she could work on it. After a couple of these, she still wasn't happy. I think the Fells trot a lot faster than Ducky normally would. He's not lazy, he just has a rather polite little Western jog. When he has to follow the Fells he must think "Gee, what's this? Should I lope now?" I suggested to Linda that maybe if she just asked him to canter, then she would know that it was no problem if he did. That might help her relax in trot. I said we'd do another fast trot and she could experiment and play with trot and canter transitions behind us. So off we went. She looked great, and how I know is that she and Ducky overtook us! Not out of control, but looking pretty sorted. We were on a nice stretch of ground, so I suggested we turn and do some more. Then I felt like I really wanted a fast canter, and Sara was ready to try it with Bruce, too. So when we turned again, Linda went on ahead at her own pace, and once she was well away Sara and I let the Fells go. Bruce exploded with joy, and Sara rode it like a pro. She had to circle a bit to disengage him at the end, and his feet were hardly touching the ground. Wheehee!

By now we'd ridden a mile or so of rail. and we were at the east side where the road that follows the fence is on a bit of a high bank. We all did serpentines up and down the bank. (Iona thinks this is absolutely the biz!) Then we stopped for a little photo opportunity.

Linda and I

Linda and Sara

Sara and I

This felt like enough follow the rail, so I suggested that we ride around more in the middle. That was fun, and we all started doing things like using two patches of bindweed or two anthills for Figure 8 markers. I reckon it is about the most useful those two items will ever be!

Sara asked me about carrot stick riding. I had given her mine to help Bruce get zone 1 out of the grass. So I did a quick demo. Once we got over the semantics of direct and indirect "rein" when you aren't actually using your reins, she picked it up really quickly. Iona was a little star! Then we decided that we were thirsty, so we headed back to the house, and I rode the whole way with no reins. Yay!

Time for iced tea

And buckets of water

In spite of the heat we headed out again. Primarily with the plan of taking in the area where we hadn't ridden yet. It's got some of the best grass, so we thought we would just head out there to let them graze for a bit. Bruce and Iona didn't look very energetic as it was pretty hot. However, Ducky was still fine, so he and Linda led us on the next canter. Then we walked along to the nice grass, and just spent some undemanding time chatting while they grazed.

Sara tells a good storyLooks like Linda's enjoying it.

Don't they look relaxed!

So we headed back. Iona and I have been practising working the electric fencing gates without touching any of the polyrope (even though it's switched off). That one needs to get into the muscle memory. That skill came in handy and gave us a bit of a shortcut home. We all agreed that we'd had a brilliant time. For me, it was just fantastic to see other people having fun and benefitting from this place. Everybody stayed for dinner, and JR came, too, with the kids. (Did I mention, he and Sara are married?)

You'll probably laugh at this, but after everybody was gone, I went out with the wheelbarrow and fork to "tidy" the yard and arena. It just felt perfect! The place looked lived in and used, which is exactly how I like it! I felt so inspired, I went into the next little side yard and put in posts for a roundpen there and started clearing the ground. It's so sandy back there, it should be great!