A chilled Filly

Thursday 25 October 2012

My First Ride on Filly

At short notice I decided I would go to James Roberts today to see how Filly was getting on. In theory it was the first of two handover days in any case, but as I have to work tomorrow we decided a while back that my handover would be four days next week. Therefore I did not go with the anticipation of riding, just a visit to see how she was doing.
The day started watching James ride his big black show jumper. Very interesting to watch as always. He was working on getting a standard stride pattern at canter, with lead changes, between poles on the ground. That's an overview, the interest was in the detail which would take me hours to describe.
After that the other folks on their handovers had a lecture which I sat in on to save James the trouble of giving it again to me.
Then came the shock. Did I want to ride Filly ? I quick check that Josh's hat fitted and that was settled.
We got the colts out of their pens and brought them up to the indoor school. I guess I expected some coaching from James, but he just said "do what you need to prepare a ride practising inside leg isolations and no more" and left me to get on with it.
The first challenge was getting the saddle on. I ride in a western saddle but with only one cinch and a different tieing system. Having got it on her back I must admit to asking Josh for some clues as to what to do.
The prepare to ride was mainly zone 3 or 4 driving to get a good forward walk, some backup and some direction changes. All designed to get her generally warmed up and in particular her back muscles (hence the backup). Then we did a few circles with some short spells of 3 and 4 track movement to give her a latitudinal stretch and to ensure she would yield sideways. I then deemed her ready to ride.
After the usual rope around check and getting a standstill I arrived at my first big challenge of the day. Mounting from the ground. I can confirm, she is taller than Bonitao. I really struggled to get my leg in the stirrup to the extent that she got antsy and started to move around a lot. James coached me through it and finally I got on vowing to improve my hip flexion further with some stretching at home.
Then we just sat and chilled for a while.
After some very very nice neutral lateral flexions we set off to get a forward walk. That was very easy, direction wasn't. James suggested that we play Tit for Tat. This means I let her take us somewhere and then I direct us somewhere else. Great for getting relaxation and rapport. Very soon she was much more relaxed, though we still had the odd "very forward" moment.
To start I also made the mistake of being too critical over her gait. If she trotted I did what it took to slow her down. James suggested being lighter and waiting for her to come back to me.
Once we had some relaxation and rapport I started working on the inside leg isolations. Oops, too much pressure. She a) turned very sharply, b) bought her head around in a very annoyed manner and c) swished her tail a lot. She is very very sensitive to the leg and I had just deeply offended her. We then spent some time exploring the leg pressure she felt acceptable, which to me was barely perceptible. Guess I'll have to get more subtle. James did comment that it looked very nice at this point, so progress was made.
Then came the next shock. We were to go for a short hack. Now I really understood the need for focus on a hack. She was interested but nervous about everything. She did a good job of breaking my focus to make me look at the big digger and, later, the llama. But other than that I managed ok. And so we made it back to the school in one piece. I got off buzzing with excitement. It feels like a new chapter of fun and learning has just opened up for Filly and myself. Can't wait until Monday to be down there again for another ride.
What did I learn. Filly is perfect for me. Principle number 7 is "horses teach humans and humans teach horses". Well Filly is going to be a great teacher, particularly at maintaining focus !! James and his team have put a great start on her, but she has loads to learn to get to and beyond level 4. Therefore, for my stage of learning horsemanship, I could not have a better partnership.

Monday 15 October 2012

JRFS Experience week part 2

Having got the horse to James it was time to get to work. On the Monday we spent the morning watching James and his team start working with the young colts.
Day1 is accept the human as a friend and give them a general assesment. I was like a nervous father waiting for James to tell me all that I had done wrong in her early training and how much he had to undo. In the event she was an angel, with a slightly tarnished but serviceable halo. James worked her for a good time off the back of Princess. She responded to the yields very softly after only a short time. Afterall she had never been ponyed before and I was a little nervous as to how she would take to be in the vicinity of another horse. After James had got her nice and soft with her yields he got off Princess and after getting a good standstill jumped onto Fillys' back and just stood there rubbing on her. After a few minutes that was day 1 over for Filly. I say Day 1 over but you have to remember that all the staff there are well trained so all interactions with the horses are done in a very Savvy way. Thus Filly is being trained all the time she is in contact with a human, not just when in the school.
Day 2 was back check day. John Hankinson always checks the colts out physically before they are properly ridden. In the case of Filly he found a mis-aligned pelvis, which he corrected. He also found that her left front leg below the pastern is slightly out of alignment. The implications of this are that it can be corrected with shoeing, but will never go away. I asked what limitations it placed on riding her and he said, apart from not racing her, none. If they had raced her she would eventually have broken down. After having their backs checked and "crunched" James decided to introduce just the bareback pad so that they called all feel the girth. Once they all had a pad on they were allowed to move around at liberty to get used to it for a while. Then they were moved with more purpose at walk trot and canter, again a liberty and as a herd. So the shy little Filly found herself trotting around in front of two young geldings. One kept getting a little close behind her. Even Ritchie and I could read the signs, but the gelding apparently could not. Eventually he got double barrelled by Filly. He can't say she didn't warn him ! Once they were relaxed and comfortable they were mounted one by one and James again worked them from the back of Princess, but this time with a rider onboard.
Day 3 was saddle up day. Each colt was saddled with a western saddle, and then all let loose at liberty at the same instant. The two young geldings immediately went into a strong bucking fit. Filly initially got out of their way, but after a few seconds decided to join in the fun. 10 Seconds later she stopped dead with the most comical look on her face. She was clearly looking at the others and saying "why are we bucking" :). Once the initial frolics where out of the way they were again all moved around at walk trot and canter until the appeared relaxed. Then, as on the previous day they were all ridden one at a time with some initial ponying off Princess. Today however they were also ridden "solo" at walk trot and canter. As James says this gets walk trot and canter out of the way and now they can start their ridden education in earnest.
Day 4. More of the same really, but with more emphasis on getting them forwards in both their mind and their bodies. Also the start on inside leg isolations with lots of indirect and direct rein patterns.
Day 5. Dentist. On her initial examination it was found that Filly had a wolf tooth and 4 baby teeth that needed to be removed. For this she needed sedation so the vet was called as well as the dentist. She was not happy about the injection, but eventually it was done. Given the amount of dental work carried out she was given the rest of the day off.

Sunday 14 October 2012

JRFS Experience week, part 1

We got back from James Roberts on Friday night, reluctantly ! It was a great week with huge amounts to learn and watch, my brain is a little fried.

It started on the Sunday with the job of getting our horses to Wiltshire. A 2 hour journey. We considered taking them both together in the trailer, but as it was Filly's first trailer journey chickened out of that idea and did the extra round trip to take them separately. A total of 7 hours driving.

Bonitao loaded and trailered really well. It was the most relaxed we have seen him. He spent most of the journey munching hay.

Filly was a different story. She loaded easily enough, but when we started moving it was a different story. Unfortunately we have a camera fitted and so Ritchie could watch her as we travelled. This was not good for her peace of mind. For about the first hour she tried to take the trailer apart, I could feel the car rocking. The snag is that if we stopped then and let her out we would have rewarded her for being upset, anxious and fidgety. Whilst there was a small risk involved we had to just keep trucking. James has often said that the problem with the UK is that it is not big enough to travel long enough to get horses really relaxed and confident in a trailer. Bearing this advice in mind we determined that if she was not confident by the time we got to JRFS we would just keep on driving for as long as it took. So long as we were moving she was fine as she had to concentrate on keeping her balance, but if we stopped she kicked off again. After around 1 hour, however, she settled right down. Not happy, but also no longer trying to demolish the trailer. By the time we got to JRFS she was much better, not perfect but good enough that we could stop. She was however soaked in sweat so I had to spend a long time moving her around in the indoor school to cool off and dry.

She was then put in a field. This upset her a great deal. I spent a long time with her as a comforting presence whilst she explored the surroundings and met her new neighbours. She spent a good amount of time cantering away from me towards the gate, then when I did not following galloping back to me for comfort. Once she had settled a little I left her which was a hard thing to do. She immediately tried to push through the rope gate to follow me and ran up and down the fence line whinnying. Like with the trailer it would have been a mistake to give in to the urge to return and comfort her as this would have rewarded the behaviour of being upset and running around. With gritted teeth I just walked away, but asked Josh to go and check on her later. Around an hour later he found her quietly grazing.

Not giving into the human urge to comfort an animal in distress like this is very very tough, but in the end it is the only way to allow the horse to sort out the issue. It is too easy to reward anxiousness and this only positively reinforces anxiousness as a learned behaviour. It makes us feel better but actually does harm to the psychology of the horse. I would like to distinguish this emotional stress from the physical harm. If the horse is physically hurt then of course it is our duty to do all in our power to relieve that pain.

I have noticed that one of the biggest mistakes I make in removing cues from a horse is to release when only the physical action has been achieved. It is also important to wait for the correct emotional state before releasing as well or we teach our horse that, for example, a porcupine cue to disengage the hind quarters means 1) move my inside hind leg and 2) get emotional and evasive about it. The correct time to release is when we have both physical and emotional softness. This might be just a small movement of the leg, but combined with a relaxed emotional state. No tail swishing, ears back etc.

These episodes with the trailer and field, stripped of the physical response and only requiring an emotional response, have really brought this message home to me.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Stretching Filly's back

We had our horse Osteopath, Dusty, come over and have a look at Filly about 2 weeks ago to check over her general condition. It was not a good diagnosis. Nearly every muscle in her body is tight, no wonder she couldn't race. Still if she was in perfect condition I would never have been able to buy her and Dusty assures me it is all fixable given time.
The main areas of tension were the top of her left hind quarters and all the muscles in her chest. What caused this we have no idea, but she tends to be a tense little Filly at the best of times so I guess the tension just became chronic.
Dusty showed me how to massage and stretch her, which I have been doing every day I have been able to. The massage was basically along either side of the spine, for which I used a vibrating hand massager. She was suspicious until she found how nice it felt. Also the chest area, and the shoulders. Basically if was a muscle it got massaged :)
Dusty also showed me how to stretch her legs, easing the hind legs backwards and lowering them to the ground and her front legs both backwards and forwards keeping the knee straight. Filly was not keen on this to start with and so for all our safety I used a 22 foot rope wrapped around her leg just above her hoof to achieve this. She was already used to this feeling as I had long ago taught her to lead by the leg, snag was I now needed her to stand still and just give the leg not her whole body to the tension on the rope. In effect this was friendly game and that is how I treated it with no intention of motion in my body.
Using the rope was much less stressful for all, Dusty even remarked she might use the idea in future on difficult horses.
James has also taught me how to open a horses back up and give it a stretch whilst circling it. The idea is to just drive the hind quarters out on the circle a little so that she is travelling on 3 or even 4 tracks with her feet instead of the usual 2 tracks. In effect she is going slightly sideways. This helps her bend her back laterally a little which in turn helps the vertical flexion of her back. Again this is an exercise I taught her a long time ago so it didn't take long to get it re-established. This is another example of the power of Parelli over traditional horsemanship. With all the yields on the ground we can perform we have the chance to help not only the horses mind, but its' physical body as well. How a traditional trainer would achieve this lateral flexion without forcing it with side-reins etc I have no idea.
Dusty paid another visit on Monday and was very very pleased with the progress Filly had made. The muscles had softened considerably, though still tense. At least now they don't feel like rock and can actually be manipulated properly.
We are all going to James Roberts tomorrow. Filly is going to be re-started by James over the next 3 weeks and I am taking Bonitao for an experience week. Can't wait to see what James makes of Filly, but slightly nervous about it as well. Will report back when I can. Time is rather tight at James' yard and I may not have time to blog until I get home.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Trailer training Filly

With the trip to James Roberts looming it was time to start trailer training Filly. Her previous encounters with trailers havn't been great. They have only been used to take her to and from the vet ! Thus I anticipated trouble.
Two days ago I took her to the trailer and she was not impressed to start with. I had anticpitaed this problem so had already spent some time in the indoor school playing the squeeze game. In this game I ask her to pass between me and a wall and then having gone through the gap, turn, face the gap and wait. This is designed to modify the natural flight distance of the horse. So instead of running for about 3/4 mile when frightened they learn to go just a short distance before turning and facing the threat for a re-evaluation. In this case the threat is a claustrophobic gap, similar to the walls of a trailer really.
So with Filly being uncomfortable even next to the trailer we went straight to squeeze game which gave her orchestrated periods of time to face and think about the trailer. A couple of passes and her natural curiosity kicked in and the trailer was subjected to detailed scrutiny.
I then lowered the ramp so she could see inside. I thought that this would cause problems, the trailer looks like a big cave after all, and caves are the natural habitat of wolves and bears, not horses. However I did not anticipate her curiosity and in fairly short order she had her nose in the trailer without me even asking. One of the hardest things to do when training a horse is knowing when to quit, but this was clearly a good moment. Keep the curiosity there for the next encounter with no scary moments.
Yesterday we had another trailer session. As she is so comfortable in my presence I decided to stand inside the trailer and ask her in using the YoYo game. Normally I would trailer load from the outside to avoid being a predator asking the horse in to its cave for lunch. Filly, being largely hand reared, is an exception to this rule. I also decided to use a combination of classic YoYo with clicker training. Thus if she made an effort to come into the trailer I clicked and she got a small treat, nothing if she backed out. However for each click and treat the effort had to be slightly better than the previous one. I must add that at no time were the treats available or visible until she had received a click. This is the difference between reward and bribery. It did not take long until she was all the way inside and receiving a large handful of treats as a bonus. Job done for day two.
Today we just added the fact that the partition was in place, meaning that the gap she had to stand in in the trailer was much narrower. Same procedure as yesterday and she was in. Again job done. I backed her out and was standing around chatting when she decided to give it a go on her own. I let her stand half way in the trailer for a while before asking her out and taking her to her field.
The combination of negative and positive reinforcement used for this exercise is very powerful, but I can see how if it were mishandled it could cause more trouble than it saves. The timing of the release of pressure (negative reinforcement) and the addition of the click denoting positive reinforcement has to be handled with care. Accidentally give the click a little too soon and you have just powerfully rewarded pulling back on the halter for example. But done right and it really accelerates learning, especially with a horse with Filly's horsenality.