A chilled Filly

Thursday 24 February 2011

The Attitude of Justice is Effective

It's odd but true that whilst it is easy to learn the principles of horsemanship, of which the title is one, it is not until you really come up against them and start using them properly that you actually LEARN them.
One of the things I have discovered from my visits to James is that I have to be way more alert to subtle body language cues coming from the horse. I was well aware of my own body language, and of course the gross signals from the horse. But some of the more subtle ones I was missing.
Anyway James has changed all that and as a result the training is progressing well. One of the subtle signs from both of them happened when leading them. On asking for a halt they would just both lightly lean on me. Very gently like a caress, but of course they were coming into my space uninvited and testing my resolve to move them out again. To start this required quite firm driving with my elbows on their shoulders, and especially from Filly some fairly extreme reactions from them as they felt a little more of their dominance drift away.
This pressure was applied in phases of course. Starting with a gentle tap and building up. It was noticeable that at the initial light stages they both initially leant harder, they know the game of course! As James says once they have applied pressure I can reply immediately with more pressure than them matching energy. In other words if gentle pressure results in them pushing back don't mess about going slowly up the phases, use their phase plus a bit immediately. Of course if you go in strong to start with then you are not going to teach lightness, the most valuable commodity of all in horse developing.
This is a good example of the Attitude of Justice is Effective. If I went in strongly to start with then I am not being Just because they do not have time to yield. If they come strongly at me however then I can reply with higher pressure because this is Justice. I have noticed that if I get it wrong and apply too much pressure too soon they both resent it, the look on their face says it all. If I apply just as much pressure in a JUST way then they don't resent it, just look at bit annoyed at loosing yet another dominance game.
This all came together last night with Billy. Still being a bit stiff and sore to ride I decided that zone 3 driving would be a good substitute, having strictly followed the plan up to prepare to ride of course. He really had a problem with being driven forward with taps on the rump, resulting in a few big reactions from the hind legs. Passive persistence paid off and soon we were going round in some semblance of control. When asking for a halt however he pushed hard into my space, on one occasion turning his bum to me. This was a pretty high phase of pressure on his part and allowed me to respond firmly. After a few more halts he was noticeably softer. By now I was a bit to sore and Ritchie continued with more zone 3 driving, halts and corrections. Eventually she got a really nice stop, his head lowered submissively and he gave a long adrenalin releasing snort. Job done so we put him away,

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Liberty with Billy

We went to James Roberts again yesterday for another dose of spectating. It is amazing what can be learned by just watching. Now I have a good idea about the big picture I am homing in on the details. To do this it is necessary to watch very intently to pick up on the slightest piece of horse behaviour and James' response. Yesterday was a particularly fortunate day to attend as he worked with one horse which was, in character, the spitting image of Filly and another very like Billy. If Filly knew where I was getting all my new tactics from I think she would be very upset with him !!
At the risk of incurring James' wrath (or at least a fine) I will mention the past. Two days ago I rode on Ritchies' horse, Bonitao. Trotting the rail was going very well. Unbidden he tipped up into a canter, then spooked. I was just bending him to a stop when the world turned upside down, the saddle slipped an I landed squarely on my back (still holding the rein I might add). A bit sore we quickly readjusted the saddle, tightened it a bit more and I returned to trotting the rail. All went well until he cantered again and once again I bent him to a stop and the saddle slipped. Landed on exactly the same part of my back a second time a bit winded. Now having a bit of a thick head I got on again but was intelligent enough to do away with the stirrups. Feeling much more secure I went back to trotting the rail with lots of small circles at each corner until Bonitao calmed down, relaxed and gave a nice adrenalin releasing snort. At the center of the school I finally dismounted gracefully, but B was a little right brained about me getting off. Can't blame him the previous two occasions were not exactly calming. So I spent some time mounting / dismounting until he was again confident and we could put him away.
Investigation of the girth revealed that the elastic could stretch up to a total of 6 inches. This is fine with Ritchies' light frame riding him but with my greater weight the added torque started a slip, the girth stretched and so it continued until I was dumped. Needless to say we have now bought a new girth and I am a very sore and a bit stiff!
Additionally I now see the wisdom of mounting from the ground whenever possible. If had had done this without Ritchie holding the other side I would have found the saddle rotated under my weight and could have sorted it out before falling off. In future I will always try to do this, at least for the first ride or two on a new horse/saddle/girth combination to ensure it will not slip.
With this slight impediment I have not tried to ride Billy for the last few days as I am not flexible enough to move with him and don't want to interfere with his movement at this early stage. However I did have a nice online and first proper liberty session with him tonight.
The online section was largely played with a very very small jump. As with Filly a few nights ago I was using the jump in a similar way to a question box. I had been having a few problems with gait transitions online and needed a way to get his attention. We started with some ordinary circling game, which is getting very good. By travelling the circle I presented the jump to him with no real expectation as to what he would do with it. Initially he just jumped it. After a time just before the jump I started to ask for a transition to halt. Soon I had him stopping just before the jump. I then had several choices. Ask him over it, sidepass around it or turn round and go the other way. Thus I made a game out of the jump and got him asking me questions as we approached it, "what do you want this time". We also got to practice sideways game around the jump which reinforced the driving games. On a few occasions I managed to ask for just the front feet over which built confidence in having the pole under his belly. It is amazing how a simple obstacle such as this can a) give so many teaching opportunities and b) make the game way more fun for both of us.
Once we had this going well I took a chance and removed the rope. I had done one brief session of Liberty with Billy before but this was the first long session attempted. It was mostly a sucess. We started with YoYo, sending him out and drawing him back. Getting this straight was a chellenge but we got there. Next was circling game. This started well, but I played with it too long and it broke down requiring some "Catching game" to get him back.
One of the beauties of Natural Horsemanship is that there are so many tools in the bag to fix the odd mistake like this, the trick is picking the appropriate one. After a few more nice circles I switched to Stick to Me game which went very well.
One thing that was very interesting to me was that at Liberty, when the circling game broke down, Billy was very happy to go and stand at the spooky end of the school. I took advantage of this, trying to plan for the future, by letting him stay there longer than I should for the Catch me Game. The idea was to make this area a haven of calm. Time will tell if it works.
Quick note about Filly. We continue to play in the field on the 45 foot line (which I have nearly made friends with !!). I am being much more particular if she tries to invade my space about getting her out of it. Even on a circle I am watchful of the shoulder arcing towards me and drive it away, normally with a stern look, but if that fails a quick throw of some of the spare rope at zone 2/3 does the trick. It is starting to bear fruit with regard to the respect she gives me but, as a very nice liberty session in the indoor school proved, not at the expense of rapport.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Time for an update

Sorry updates have been a bit slow recently. More work exams and studying for them got in the way. Either the blog or the horses had to take a back seat, and obviously it was the blog. Therefore this blog will be a quick roundup of several sessions.
Billy
Riding on Billy carries on. I have been religiously using the plan and have to report it really pays of. It does take time to perform of course, but the old saying "Take the time is takes so it takes less time" is really apt for this process.
I had a Parelli instructor, watch me go through the plan the other day. Rather than a traditional lesson I wanted a progress check. She just quietly watched me go through all the steps to prepare Billy to ride and commented on each section. She generally thought I was doing a good job, which was a relief as I would hate to feel I was harming Filly and Billy, but had a few pointers to improve it further.

I'll mention those here, but they will also make it into the correct sections of the website (as will loads of suggestions from Petra).
The first main comment came from the Standstill section. Please remember that I am training a young horse here, not a mature old faithful. It was felt that I needed to get more active with the freindly game during the standstill. The drunken/skipping walk was fine, but swinging the carrot stick and slapping the ground with the savvy string was not vigorous enough. When I upped my energy it was clear that Billy did not look totally confident, not right brain either, but clearly not happy. I had missed the signs as they were extremely subtle to me but an experienced eye could see them. Of course as soon as it was pointed out it was obvious. So what to do ? I maintained a rhythmic slapping until my wrist hurt waiting for him to soften, head lower and blink more often and preferably lick chew and snort. No change, he had gone inside himself and just stood still. Move him a few steps was the suggestion to get him out again and continue. THis worked like a dream. He now looked more unconfident which was a good thing as he was no longer hiding his emotions. Slowly he started to get that all this commotion was nothing more than friendly game and relaxed. Not completely that will come with more sessions, like the one last night, but sufficient to pass the test.
Saddle with Savvy. Yes we put a saddle on him in the correct section of the plan. I had been riding bareback up to now, but it was deemed that he was ready for saddling. He actually took this very well but got in to trouble with Ritchie for chewing her favourite saddle. Young horse eh !
Now it was time to move him around in the Prepare to ride section. Of course in true natural horsemanship style the stirrups were just left to flap. Isn't it useful to see what your horses reaction would be if you lost a stirrup whilst you are still firmly on the ground ? So we circled him, to start with at walk, then trot, then canter. He was a little unconfident to start with, but no real bucks or tantrums. Well there was a few tantrums, but they were not due to the saddle. On right circle he often baulks in this one spot. Apparently I did the correct thing by just passively applying porcupine pressure to the halter by leading out in the correct direction with my arm and waiting whilst he pulled back hard. He quickly learned that pulling back did not release the pressure, but continuing on the circle did. This was an important porcupine game to win. We were looking for the head to really lower and ideally for an adrenaline releasing snort. This took a long time coming. I had in the meantime resorted to the old favourite of travelling circles to make his left brain kick in and think through the problem. We never did get a snort, but then I have rarely heard one from him in the past. We did get a softening and lower head however, so accepted that.
Pre flight checks. Rope around went well as did indirect/direct rein, although I was given some pointers on how to make this more effective. It was suggested that the zone three porcupine that I have been working on in the prepare to ride section to improve the indirect rein should be done every time I ride and thus promoted to the Pre-flight check section permanently. In addition a lateral flexion towards me whilst standing next to the saddle should also be included on every ride.
We now got to mount with savvy. This was the first time anyone had ridden in a saddle with him so we took great care here. There was lots of getting one foot in the stirrup, standing up in balance facing forwards rubbing the opposite side of his neck and getting off again. When he looked happy and confident I started swinging my free leg back and forward. Think of the sensation this must give under his saddle and you can see why this will feel new to him with all my weight in one stirrup. Finally the leg was swung over and I sat on him. He looked very chilled by this point and so we did the correct thing. NOTHING. We just relaxed and stood still.
The usual Lateral Flexions went well with much much less biting this time.
Now it came to the problem area of getting him to move his feet. This was done mainly by doing dozens of direct reins, asking the front feet to move off and hoping the hind would follow. In effect every time he stopped I just asked the front feet to step off again in a different direction. This was a much better technique than the indirect rein, asking the hind legs to move that I had been attempting. Soon we had many steps of forward movement. To up the impulsion levels a bit as soon as he was moving I would up my energy, move in time with his gait and slap my leg to create a little commotion pressure on his back. Getting the timing of all this right was really difficult, especially whilst trying to listen and respond to an instructor ! But we did make progress and I think both Billy and I felt much happier towards the end.
I put all this into practise on my own last night. Wrist ache again in the standstill section, but a bit better. I also spent a lot of time circling him in a spooky spot in the school as when riding he really resists going towards that spot. Some really good spooks resulted, then a change moment occurred. Rather than just charging past the spooky bit he stopped quite suddenly, looked into that corner licked and chewed and confidently carried on the circle. The change was sudden and profound. Passive persistence in the proper position pays off again !!
This really translated into a better ride. After a longish time of the continuous turns at the other end of the school he, again quite suddenly, decided to walk confidently along the wall to the bad corner. He was even confident enough to very calmly stop and with me on his back poop there, not an adrenaline loose poop, just a regular one. Next time round he had to smell it of course, but that was to my benefit as it made that corner interesting. I made a point of getting off near that area as well to make it a place of comfort.
I'll come to Filly in a later post as this is quite enough for me to write, and you to read for one day !! Suffice to say she is well and the instructor absolutely adored her.

Sunday 13 February 2011

Quick note today

Just a very quick blog today about a very special time yesterday. I arrived with not enough time to play with both horses and wanted to concentrate on Billy. However I had to at least visit Filly in the semi outdoor cage she inhabits during the day. Not ideal but better than staying in the box all day.
Anyway as I approached the cage she was lying down with her head up. I expected her to get up as I entered, especially as getting the door open is not exactly quiet ! However she stayed down so I knelt next to her head and started gently rubbing and scratching her. Nice cuddles from her head with no aggressiveness at all. After 5 minutes or more she suddenly acted as though she was going to roll and kicked her legs out horizontally. In fact she was just lying completely flat with her nose next to my knees. Lots more rubbing of head and neck. I can't describe the gentle noise she made, but imagine a purring cat and you get the idea. She lay like this for at least 5 minutes with me next to her. Moments like this make up for all the hard times don't you think !!

Saturday 12 February 2011

The power of not focussing

An odd title given my last post, but bear with me.
After landing from Calgary we went to the horses at around 3pm. Not feeling like doing an intense training session I decided to take Filly for a walk to the fields.
Again I concentrated on a focussed walk to the field, a different one today, and she was much better with very few spooky points or pulling on the lead rope.
Once in the field she started calm, but had a few minutes of right brain running around which I quickly changed into travelling circles at canter. She soon went left brained and realised she was surrounded by grass, but I kept her circling for another 5 minutes just to assert my authority to cause her to move.
Lots of grazing followed, which given she is not allowed, by the yard, to go into field at the moment was a nice treat for her.
She suddenly lifted her head and stared in a particular direction, clearly becoming right brain. I managed to not follow her gaze, but remained relaxed. However she became worried again and more travelling circles enused. I managed to sneak a look and found that a large 4x4 car was entering the field. I studiously ignored it and we carried on with the circles until she calmed down, whilst casually walking in the general direction of the now parked car. Not at it in a direct line, but meandering across the field. Once she calmed down I let her graze for a bit and then started doing fouccused walks back and forth past the car, getting a little closer on each pass. I always turned away from the car so that I never looked at it directly, but focussed on objects in the distance. She started by being alert and staring at the car (I assume, I wasn't looking !) but slowly relaxed. Suddenly she got curious and more or less dragged me to the car. She never touched it, but happily grazed right next to it even when the owner returned, started it up and drove off. She watched it leave and almost seemed upset that it was going !
This of course was an example of the natural power of focus. By not looking at the car I, as her leader (well sometimes !), signalled that it was not worth worrying about and soon she was not only calm about the new object, but curious. This was one of the most dramatic examples of this principle I have witnessed and has really driven the point home for me.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Another day another ride

Another good day with the horses, which as I have said before always bothers me a bit. I know that I will get a bad day eventually !!


It was a beautiful sunny day for a change and I only had a short time to play with Filly. I decided that a non-demanding walk to the herd field and some grazing was in order.
Remember I am trying to rebuild her confidence in the great outdoors. Currently the yard won't allow her in a field as she looks unhappy and tends to tear it up. See previous post on my analysis of this behaviour. In short I think she is very unconfident in the field due to there being no proper leader in the field, just a rather old pony.
I am making a point of walking "with focus" down to the field. There is the odd spot where she gets worried and tends to pull back on the lead rope. I do not look at her at this point, and most definitely do not look at whatever is spooking her. It is natural for humans to try and anticipate what might worry our horses and as a result we tend to look at scary things. When we identify one we probably stare at it and tense up a bit waiting for the horse to react. Lets look at this from the horses point of view.
"What a nice walk with my leader. Oh Oh what is he looking at. That looks scary and my leader has become tense, I guess I should be worried as well. I am worried as he has tensed even more now I have seen it. Run Away."
The alternative conversation is
"What a nice walk with my leader. What the hell is that object maybe I should pull away. Hang on my leader isn't even looking at it ! Guess it isn't scary then. Ok onwards to the grass"
I hope this helps illustrate the point. Focussing on potentially scary objects makes them scary !!
This mimics wild horse behaviour of course. In the wild the youngsters look to the more experienced horses to see how to react to a new object. If they ran from everything there would be no time to eat, and lots of energy would be wasted. If a scary object appears and the experienced horses ignore it and carry on walking or grazing the youngster is reassured and quickly adds the object to it's internal library of things to ignore.
How to be the calm leader in practise ? One suggestion from James Roberts is to walk or ride with focus. With a young horse, when out on a trail ride he looks into the distance focussing on a tree way way in front of him. He does not let the horse out focus him when it looks around. He just stares at the tree even if it starts prancing around.
When you are riding round the school he will randomly call your name, or do something else to grab your attention. If he manages to out focus you he fines you a pound ! Simple but effective. Should your horse spook on a trail ride he asks what it spooked at. If you tell him you must have looked and there goes another pound. No wonder his courses seem good value, he makes his money on the job !!!
Does it work with Filly. Yes ! She walked down to the field in a much calmer state than the previous day. She did stop a couple of times, but by applying steady pressure on the lead rope and maintaining my focus we got through them. One stop did make me turn to help her through, but I made a point of not looking where she was staring.
In the field itself I just let her graze quietly for half an hour, with no right brain moments at all. What a change from the previous day.
Walking with focus takes practise and I have practised without a horse when going to the yard. (About 2 miles). Believe me it is difficult.

With Filly happily back in her stable attention turns to Billy.
Not too much to report, which when backing a young horse is a good thing. Most of the plan up to mounting went really smoothly. Billy is of course getting the hang of it himself now, and knows what is coming next. Mounting was the usual joy with him nestling against my legs with no prompting at all from me. Standstill was better than in the past. Lateral flexion was still dominant with some biting issues, but maybe a little better than in the past. Indirect rein not great but usable.
This leads me onto asking for forward movement which was better than before, but he still got "stuck" a few times. The incorrect response to this would have been to just push him through. If the feet are stuck and he cannot move forwards then if more pressure is applied there is one other direction he could go, UP and this would be a bad thing. So I need to get the feet moving again, in any direction, to unstick them. This is where indirect rein comes in. Asking the hind legs is a good method and we are soon walking again.
Lets have a look at the alternative which is direct line thinking and pushing him through into walking. To achieve this I would have to squeeze harder with my legs, really up my energy and tap him on the rump. He is stuck because he is unconfident so responding like a predator and clamping myself to his back whilst I get high energy becoming big and scary is hardly likely to end happily !

All in all a good day which was made even better with the knowledge that I had Ritchie and a friend watching. This matters as he still kept most of his attention on me, came to the mounting block as they stood nearby, and generally felt confident with them about on the ground. A big change from the early rides.

Going to Calgary this afternoon, back on Saturday, so no more posts until Sunday or Monday.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Billy's first proper ride !!

Great day yesterday. Played with both horses and had a rewarding time with both.
Started with Filly by taking her down to the big herd field after all the horses were in. Bonitao and Ritchie came to keep us company.
We had a little trouble getting to the field, but then she has not been out of the yard area for ages, and the yard owners don't let her in a field at the moment as she tends to run around and tear it up. She was particularly difficult about heading towards Rick running one of the race horses. Lots of unconfident behaviour. Not right brain, but not sure either.
In the field she went completely wild for a time, initially very right brain, just running in circles around me. To help interupt the pattern I turned the circles into travelling circles by walking across the field. This forced the left side of her brain to kick in to stay centered around me and after a while she thought "why the hell am I running around over this grass when I could be eating it". However I made her maintain the trotting circle for a while, proclaiming dominance by making her move her feet more than I moved mine.
We then moved to a known spooky spot near a hedge. Again, as expected right brain behaviour emerged, and again I just did loads of travelling circles until she calmed down, by which time she was quite sweaty.
The walk back to the barns was very pleasant, with a well bonded, obedient, calm Filly.
As James always emphasises the innate horsenality of your horse is not that important, what is very important is what horsenality they exhibit as you leave them at the end of the day.

Now on to Billy.
Prepared to ride as usual, but had trouble placing the feet. I noticed only one had been picked out and so concluded that someone had attepmted to pick out his hooves, had trouble, dropped it and left. This off course had "taught" him that if he struggles with his feet he can win. Not with me of course, but it took a long time to pick out the remaining feet and get a good foot placement and so undo the damage.
Everything else went pretty well and in very little time he was ready for me to mount. Again he offered to place himself correctly at the mounting block, and upon mounting he only moved 2 steps, to enable him to lick the mounting block as it happens. Not ideal, but not too bad. Lateral flexions are still a problem. He flexes perfectly, but then quite aggressively chews my boots, legs etc. Solution is to place my leg alongside his neck where he can't get to me, hold the flexion until he submits, then reward by releasing quickly (drop the rope).
On one flexion release he suddenly offered to walk forwards with me on him, a first. I did not refuse and gently guided him with direct rein manouevres.
Now I knew he was confident to walk with me on his back, and no leader on the ground, I felt I could ask a little more forcefully. Lifting the rein, raising my body energy, pushing with my bum, squeezing with my legs, and finally reaching back with my free hand to tickle his rump (all deliberately and slowly in that order) and we had walk. As soon as he started I released all the aids as a reward. Over several attempts we had continuous, controlled walk, using lateral flexion to bend him to a halt.
Job done for the day I got off to further reward him for his efforts.
Great day and to cap it all Ritchie watched the whole process, giving valuable feedback about his expression which varied from confident relaxed to confident dominant.
Not bad for a horses first proper ride !!

Sunday 6 February 2011

Cuddly Filly

A much changed Filly recently. Even the girls at the yard are reporting that she has been much more cuddly recently, so what has changed ?

I have been taking two lines of approach to this problem. First I had analysed that her problem was most likely a loss of confidence as I reported a few days back, and as a result I needed to do things to raise her confidence. Secondly I took the decision to not react much to her mouthy porcupine games, and therefore stop them being fun. At most I just drive her out of my space is she tries to bite and usually I just block the attack with my arm.

For the confidence building side I have been taking her around the farm and exposing her to different environments. This was designed to achieve two things. 1 to give her a bit more confidence in the big wide world and 2 to give her more confidence in me as a worthy and safe leader.
Part 1 was achieved by just taking her to many places with potentially scary visual and aural stimuli. I running stream was one of the most challenging. Sparkly light on the water to confuse her vision, and the sound of running water to reduce her ability to hear her environment.
Part 2 was done by making sure that I acted as a good leader. This was done by making sure I maintained my focus when walking. I walked in a relaxed, but purposeful, manner whilst staring at an object in the distance to walk towards. This shows her that I know where we are going, I am not just wandering around. In addition by not looking at everything she stares at I am giving her a strong signal to ignore all these spooky things. Look at this the other way. If I continually look around at everything she stares at I am saying "we have to be careful, there are lions in the hedges". A foal learns what is scary by mimicking the mare. If a new object appears in the area and the mare ignores it and keeps grazing the foal will do likewise. If the mare looks up and stares at the new object the foal will do likewise, and if the mare tenses and moves off then the foal has fixed in its mind that the object is scary.

The lesson is clear, as a rider or handler do not stare at things you think might scare your horse, if you do it WILL scare your horse !

Last night we went in the school and I just played lots of the seven games with her. I concentrated on the squeeze game over a jump, which she initially kept trying to avoid. Using the driving games I made it easier for her to go over the jump rather than around it and soon she was popping over confidently.
She seemed to really enjoy this session and I was rewarded with lots of very gentle, friendly cuddles.

I did some work with Billy with Ritchie's help. All the steps up to mounting went very well. On his back however he is still a little difficult. He does not see me as the leader in the position and still tries to bite my trousers. We managed some nice lateral flexions, and a few indirect reins. He did over some forward walks on his own which was good, but I also got Ritchie to lead me round the school on a 22 foot rope for a while. All very confident and calm so progress. if slow, is being made. My hope is that he will suddenly get it and progress will be very rapid for a time.

Saturday 5 February 2011

Website updated

Quick note to say that the website has been updated with some corrections, some explanation expansion and a few more steps covered. All steps up to "Lateral Flexion" are now done, but they may still be revised as my level of knowledge increases and following feedback from my wife, Ritchie, and Petra Christensen. A big thank you to both for taking the time to not only read the web pages, but the considerable time it must have taken to write up the required corrections / suggestions.

Link to the website in the right margin of the blog page

Going to the horses now and will try to find time for a proper blog later