Today I was thinking about all the different amazing moments I've had with my horse... however small and insignificant they might seem to someone else, they are special to me. :)
Today when I had practically driven Lady catatonic trying to trim the last of her feet, it made me upset with myself, so I went and sat with my back to her. It didn't take more than a minute or two before she started licking and thinking and then came up behind me and started nuzzling my hair... and then finally dropped her nose over my shoulder and sighed and relaxed. So special... :)
And yesterday when we were finished playing in the big arena and were going through the scary "tunnel" back towards the gate... instead of bolting through and running away from me, she only shuddered and then looked to me for further direction. Had I actually established leadership...? :D
These things make me so certain that our relationship is solid... I love those moments and I love my horse. :D
Savvy on!
-Kit Marie
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Breakthrough... WOW
When I went out to play with the horses today, I really didn’t have a lot of expectations. I kind of wanted to do a bit of riding… maybe get some Circling Game practice… approach and retreat with the saddle… I even brought out my 45’ Line just in case I wanted it.
What I ended up getting was quite interesting however… Lady was a bit hesitant when we went up to the arena – I led her from the right side. We did some slow circles at the walk and some travelling circles at the trot, all on the 12’ Line and she did well at maintaining both gait and direction, I was VERY happy with that :)
I had set out cones for the Weave Pattern and her Figure-8s seemed fairly solid, so we did some work on that. At first she seemed to remember the pattern from the last time, but she kept breaking into the trot.
During this time, going back and forth trying to get her to understand exactly what I wanted, something was bothering me about the way she was moving and turning around the cones. Her steps were hesitant and short… at times she seemed completely oblivious to the stick ‘encouraging’ her!
Suddenly it dawned on me! I had just drawn her in and given her a treat when I realized what was going on… she had gotten all “stary” and blank and she barely wanted to move when I offered her a treat. She was being a Right Brain Introvert!
It really doesn’t sound like much, but it was huge in my mind. Very very quickly I changed my approach. Instead of letting her walk and figure out the pattern on her own, I held her hand and we went over the pattern again TOGETHER! It took a few repetitions but she ended up blowing out and relaxing and licking her lips… I think she got it… we’ll find out tomorrow ;)
Just to see what would happen, I tried doing some other things with her… I played some basic Level 1 tasks, testing her expression and our connection… we did some Touch-It which helped enormously. Finally, I asked her to stand still while I went out to the end of the 22’ Line… and then asked her to come in to me… which is when it hit me that she really really really wanted and needed me! She came in and put her head on my chest and just stood there, breathing and licking my hands. The licking especially helped get her confidence back… strange, I know, but the rest of the time I was with her, if she got a little bit uptight or nervous about what was happening, if I offered her my hand to lick it didn’t take more than a minute or two before she was calm again…
Honestly… I laughed out loud when it suddenly became clear in my mind… I cried… I hugged her… I suddenly knew what she needed! She was being exactly like me!
Of course… being a needy RBI isn’t her only side… as soon as she got confident, she went back to being LBE!
We did some playing with the saddle blanket yet and I got on her once bareback… she decided to bite the saddle and wanted to be very very close to me all the time.. needless to say, the 45’ Line did NOT get used!
I had an awesome time, in any case... I learned a TON... wow... your horse really is your mirror!
Savvy on!
-Kit Marie
Friday, March 2, 2012
Low-Key Fun :)
And now... I finally get back to blogging! :D I won’t expand on my reasons for not writing other than to say... I was busy... :P
Anyway... I spent 1 ½ hours outside with my lovely horses this afternoon. I was beautiful weather for playing in, cool, windy, etc, etc.. you get the point. :)
My lovely Lady was not terribly thrilled about being caught. My guess is that she isn’t particularly fond of being tied up for feeding and grooming, but who knows.
We played in the arena OnLine for about 30 minutes. The first thing I noticed was when I started with YoYo and her draw was sticky... very sticky... like... stuck. I managed to fix that mostly through repetitive yoyos and squeezes (Consistency!). She was fairly low-key today, unlike Wednesday’s Lipizzaner act, so I had to adjust my approach. :)
Another thing I noticed was her one-sidedness while doing Figure-8s. Her turn around the right hand barrel was absolutely lovely! Her turn around the left hand barrel was almost nonexistent. She came mostly around and then stopped, facing me as if asking a question (unless she is on adrenaline... those days she keeps running in a circle with no intention of stopping). I’m not sure exactly why that was today, whether it was a physical thing or not... I might have to check her back tomorrow...
Since she was so calm and tolerant, I decided to ride (only my second ride since last Thursday’s tumble). All of her preflight checks were solid, so we did the Follow the Rail pattern for a few minutes. The Level 1 Follow the Rail pattern involves 180s, walk-trot-walk transitions and walk-halt-backup transitions. We did all of those and I was VERY surprised how sharp her 180s were away from the rail!
Her circles today were less like blobs than the last few times! I had to correct her trot-away-from-the-circle trick only once or twice and we ended with 2 decently round circles to finish off with.
I finally got around to filling out Lady’s chart today. Most of her dots are in the mild/moderate slots. I labeled her one extreme mark as “charismatic” in the LBE quadrant. All in all, she placed with 1 extreme and 3 moderates in LBE, 3 mild marks in LBI, 2 moderate and 2 mild in RBE and nothing in the RBI quadrant. The positive attributes chart filled out much the same, playing her as a Left Brain/Right Brain Extrovert with mild Left Brain Introvert qualities.
I also got to play with Tempest today and she did absolutely wonderful! :D It didn’t take more than minute or two until I could pet her and feed her cookies. I ended up being able to halter her, treat and take the halter off. I think she was curious and confident enough to have learned something through it...
Savvy on!
-Kit Marie
Anyway... I spent 1 ½ hours outside with my lovely horses this afternoon. I was beautiful weather for playing in, cool, windy, etc, etc.. you get the point. :)
My lovely Lady was not terribly thrilled about being caught. My guess is that she isn’t particularly fond of being tied up for feeding and grooming, but who knows.
We played in the arena OnLine for about 30 minutes. The first thing I noticed was when I started with YoYo and her draw was sticky... very sticky... like... stuck. I managed to fix that mostly through repetitive yoyos and squeezes (Consistency!). She was fairly low-key today, unlike Wednesday’s Lipizzaner act, so I had to adjust my approach. :)
Another thing I noticed was her one-sidedness while doing Figure-8s. Her turn around the right hand barrel was absolutely lovely! Her turn around the left hand barrel was almost nonexistent. She came mostly around and then stopped, facing me as if asking a question (unless she is on adrenaline... those days she keeps running in a circle with no intention of stopping). I’m not sure exactly why that was today, whether it was a physical thing or not... I might have to check her back tomorrow...
Since she was so calm and tolerant, I decided to ride (only my second ride since last Thursday’s tumble). All of her preflight checks were solid, so we did the Follow the Rail pattern for a few minutes. The Level 1 Follow the Rail pattern involves 180s, walk-trot-walk transitions and walk-halt-backup transitions. We did all of those and I was VERY surprised how sharp her 180s were away from the rail!
Her circles today were less like blobs than the last few times! I had to correct her trot-away-from-the-circle trick only once or twice and we ended with 2 decently round circles to finish off with.
I finally got around to filling out Lady’s chart today. Most of her dots are in the mild/moderate slots. I labeled her one extreme mark as “charismatic” in the LBE quadrant. All in all, she placed with 1 extreme and 3 moderates in LBE, 3 mild marks in LBI, 2 moderate and 2 mild in RBE and nothing in the RBI quadrant. The positive attributes chart filled out much the same, playing her as a Left Brain/Right Brain Extrovert with mild Left Brain Introvert qualities.
I also got to play with Tempest today and she did absolutely wonderful! :D It didn’t take more than minute or two until I could pet her and feed her cookies. I ended up being able to halter her, treat and take the halter off. I think she was curious and confident enough to have learned something through it...
Savvy on!
-Kit Marie
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