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
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