Back to the horses

After a company meeting for 4 days, I was ready to see my horses and reenter my routine.

Touched and talked to everyone, oh the peace the horses bring to me.

Tied Gem in the barn while I fed as I wanted to trim him. He panicked! Surprising that he can panic so in his own barn, but that's his herd and he is unable to protect them from the barn. I didn't plan on setting him up for such concern, but that's what I did.

I got back and he was still very worked up (probably a 10 min period of time while I was gone). I took his lead and asked him to move the fore back and forth and the calling stopped pretty instantly. Then I did yo-yo with him. I was watching for him to breathe and relax. He started to relax some and would lick a very little bit at certain points, but he was still pretty unconfident. Then, I asked him to yo-yo through the barn door - in and out of the barn a few steps repeatedly. He was getting calmer and calmer. Finally, I took him to the play area and asked to sideways over the barrels and jump half-way over. This was when he found relaxation. Interesting to see him get so upset and figure out just which games or actions settle him.

Nice to be talking to a horse after 5 days of meetings with humans. :-)

I started to trim him - the whole start of this evening's plan. He has shed his sole nicely and I'm so happy with the solar dome he's developed. He had quite a bit of wall growth with the sole exfoliated, but a recent rain made trimming a breeze. I only got 1 hoof completed and started a 2nd. I'm pretty tired after a week gone and decided to go in and be with the family and get some more trimming done tomorrow. I have lots of hooves needing attention. I think there are 24 hooves to address this week! Wow.

A gelding who thinks he's a stallion

I've had Cowboy and Gem in stalls for several weeks. Cowboy is in because he doesn't respect the fence when there's spring grass. Gem is in because he leaves so many marks on the other horses. Here's the problem... mares are in spring heats and Rio, the only other gelding, thinks he's the stallion. I'm guessing he was cut late because he mounts the mares much more than Gem or Cowboy. He also has stallion behaviors all the time (low nickering to mares, territorial with the mares). Luckily, he's not at the top of the pecking order. So today, I let the boys out to get Rio in check. They don't have near the testosterone and they'll keep Rio from mounting the mares. His stallion-like behavior is becoming slightly dangerous for the people that come around.

Studying Horse Psychology

A Flashlight and watching each horse's reaction...

I keep a manual flashlight in the barn. It's the type that doesn't need batteries. When you need light, you crank its wheel and it lights up. The more you crank, the brighter it gets. I was using it and decided to try an experiment with the horses. How do they feel about this noisy apparatus? I put it to the test...

Cowboy - first to investigate, least afraid, close investigation
Abby - snorted, but never moved her feet, went back to eating quickly
Rain - next least afraid, actually lipped it
Nina - next least afraid, went back to eating fairly quickly with flashlight in the hay
Z - next least afraid, much more reactive, but very quick to cope, then able to eat from the bin
Rio - next, quick to leave, finally after several minutes, stopped moving. i waited and he looked to me. i touched him while i cranked. my touch helped tremendously! he was not calm, but trying hard.
Tina- the most afraid, initially quickly trotted away with energy. then, eventually smelled it while it was quiet. i turned away, cranked it slowly and she was gone. she would obviously need to most time to adjust.

This was a fun experiment for me. People think I'm crazy, but it was midnught when I did this. There was some down fence and I had to travel the next morning so I wanted to get it fixed. I walked the fence with the flashlight before coming back to the herd and seeing how stimulating the flashlight was.

Some things to consider:
1. How much did the other horses reaction affect the individual horse's reaction?
2. How long would approach and retreat take to turn around the more worried horse's responses?
3. Some horses seemed more brave when I touched them while they investigated. Is that related to the good handling they've had in their lifetime and the way they feel about people? Or is a touch helpful no matter the human history?
4. Does it necessarily mean that more frightened horse couldn't eventually be as confident as the least frightened horse with training and time?
5. Rio and Tina were probably equally concerned about the flashlight. They also spend the most time together. Does that have impact? Does Tina learn to be cautious from Rio? Or would she have acted that way regardless of Rio's response?
6. If I did this every day for 7 days, how much would their reactions improve?

Rio joining the herd

Today, I put Rio out with the herd. He's a cute little Quarter Horse gelding here for a couple months of training. To my surprise, Tina is playing a crucial role in keeping Rio far from the herd until he's accepted. Tina is really changing here. Last night, Loma came to give me a dressage lesson and she was really surprised by how calm Tina was. I like to see how the horses adapt and they all do things their own way. Tina came here timid and submissive with a lot of extroversion. I'm seeing her show confidence and comfort in her own skin with the herd. She's showing her full potential.

I'll be riding her in the large arena very soon. She's ready to leave the round pen and start riding some patterns. Good for her!

Rio looked to be doing fine with the herd on his first day. He respected the boundaries set by the herd and found Rain to be his buddy. The two of them were hanging together the first day. That's unusual - most of the time, my herd keeps the new guy standing out alone for a week or so. Rain was accepting Rio the first day.

Gem on the 45' line and more trimming

Beautiful, warm and calm afternoon/evening! I wanted to work with Gemini online to start building up for a level 3 assessment. He had lots of energy today! We started by driving from zone 3/4 and heading out to my front pasture. We got far enough away that he was just slightly on edge. We went from driving to falling leaf, circle game and then some COD's. His COD needs work, he's losing his momentum and turning like he should with falling leaf. He doesn't know the difference yet. With the circle game, he got emotional and went at full gallop back to the barn. He can get a lot of speed on the 45' and I tried to pump my grip - slipping it then grabbing it. That can sometimes work to get a horse to stop running for a moment. I ran out of rope too fast and he went back to the barn. That is called being BUCKED OFF from the ground! LOL I got him, brought him back to the same pasture spot and started again. Again, when he was cantering on the 45', about 30' away from me, he 'bucked me off' and ran for the barn. Darn! Twice and he's learned how to get it done!

OK, got him back out there and this time, kept him closer - about 20 feet maximum away. I was looking for him to be more with me, putting some pressure on Z3 to keep his body bent into the circle and playing at a slower pace. Now, we were getting somewhere. We got some better COD's, but still not great. However, we were able to canter circles at about 30' - together! Finally. No galloping away and leaving me in the dust. That was good, then we could move on to something else.

I wanted to help Chrissy with her figure 8's as she still doesn't feel like she's getting good ones. She's been doing lots of driving from Z3, which is a great game for her. Her horse is still challenging her authority quite a bit and she's struggling to be clear and deliberate with her ask. We talked about Suggest, Ask, Tell, Promise. She tends to get stuck at Ask, never getting to Tell or Promise. She's working on her assertion which will translate directly to leadership. It's not about whacking the horse. It's about a clear intention and request with the willingness to follow it through.

She was starting to get some really nice figure 8's. Once she clearly pushed his Z1/Z2 around the obstacle, they were on easy street. That's been the hardest part for her. Which makes perfect sense for a Left brained horse to be sticky in the front. We talked about her playing with Rain and I think that's not a bad idea. It might help Chrissy understand the nature of a horse to play with another horse and see the response she gets.

Before I put Gem back, I asked him to yield his hind toward me for mounting. I just want to teach him to bring his hind around and not get upset by that type of request. He was much better than the first time we played with it, but still defensive. We'll keep working on it.

Finally, I wanted to trim Nina. I ended up getting only one hoof done because my wrists were so sore. Trimming two horses the night before had my tendons irritated in my wrist. I spent a bunch of time just working on softening her to the idea of trimming. In the past I've allowed her to brace during trimming and forced her some to comply. I made a mistake and I realized that Nina has developed a negative reaction to trimming time. I'll get that fixed up right away by taking the time it takes and allowing her to understand it's her choice, but holding her foot up is a much easier way to go. I also won't brace against her! If she wants her foot back, she can have it. I need the horses to all cooperate and it starts with me having a natural attitude and letting the horse choose to cooperate. Trimming is hard work and it's so easy to become predatorial about the process. I've caught myself thinking, "Dang it, just hold still!". That's not a natural approach to horses at all and it's doubly ineffective. Always learning...

We'll get the other 3 hooves trimmed over the next 2-3 days, focusing first on her willingness and choosing to cooperate. We'll focus secondly on getting the trim done. My horses should always be getting easier to trim, not harder. I'm actually proud of myself for admitting my mistake and moving forward with the correct attitude.

Finally, Tina was showing some interesting behavior. The west pasture lines the neighbors property with numerous miniature horses and a couple paints. My herd will sometimes go and hang out with that herd of the fence. Well, yesterday and today, I noticed my herd coming in to the barn to eat or whatever, but Tina has stayed out in the west. She stayed out there when the other herd was nowhere to be seen. She stayed out there all alone, against the fence. What does that mean? She's ok to stand alone, acres away from her herd? She could still see the other herd (though I couldn't) and preferred that to coming in for feed? Very interesting. Chrissy drove her back on the ATV and we closed the west pasture gates for now. Surely, there's something she really likes about that other herd - all my horses feel that way about that other herd. I also wondered if she didn't know how to get back on the track as I saw her call once or twice to my herd. Horses aren't great problem-solvers and the west pasture is fairly new to Tina. Maybe she thought she was locked in? Just interesting behavior.

Playing with the Geldings

Had a great day with the geldings! I spend so much time with Z and Rain lately - Z as we finish L3 and Rain because she's Kendall's mount and just an all-around fantastic horse. I leased Gemini out for a month or two, but it didn't work out so now he's back in my development program. I have Cowboy and I'm working on helping him be more productive in the human world. He's a great horse, a nice mover, but he's pretty dominant and can easily get his own idea about things. For him, my main goal is to eliminate the brace.

Gemini now lives in a run/stall. I learned recently that when I put Gemini away for a week, all bite marks ceased. All this time, the only horse actually leaving marks on other horses was Gemini! I thought they were biting each other all this time. Wow! So, obviously he's not the benevolent leader I thought and he needs some time alone. It's fine, I'll play with him and develop him and he can live in the large run/stall until I can turn him out in one of the pastures (after the spring grass growth). He's fine and all the horses look better w/o bite marks. :-)

I put him in the arena so he could run and roll as hard as he wanted. He tore off bucking and farting, rolled wildly, then ran some more. He looked awesome. Then he hung out eating the grass growing around the arena's edge and I went for Cowboy. I haven't spent much time with Cowboy lately and he does well whenever we play. I want to help him overcome the brace and I want to help him feel comfortable with humans. He's doing quite well and his displacement behavior is more mild all the time. When he starts to get concerned and "swallows his tongue", I offer him a treat. He's so food motivated, that he snaps right out of his shell!! I groomed him for a while, tacked him up and then we played on the 22'. We now have a nice figure 8 pattern and he's not feeling threatened from the squeeze in the figure 8. He really wanted to eat grass, so we had to have some "discussion" about that. He's welcome to eat grass - but if I ask for something, he'd better pay attention because Phase 4 will come. He figured that out darn quick.

I hopped on and we went around at all gaits. He tried to eat grass and again, I tried to make it clear that it's his choice. What was funny to me was that he would go to eat grass, I would ask for forward and when he decided eating grass was better, I instituted phase 4 by reaching around and spanking his rump. The first time, he was startled and when back to work. The second time, less startled but he went back to to work. The third time, he actually lifted his rump in defiance before going back to work! I had to giggle. The fourth time, he showed defiance, but much more mild. The fifth time, he responded to phase 1 - he didn't move forward but he responded. That time, however, when I raised my arm to phase 4 his rump, he moved out and went back to work! So, I'd call that a phase 2/3. In short order, we had established some rules of engagement. It's his choice to eat grass while I'm asking him for something, but it will have a consequence. I learned some things about him and I believe he learned some things about me. I thought about going in to the arena so that grass wouldn't be such a challenge for our progress and I decided not to. This is one of Cowboy's challenges and it was appropriate to go through these motions so he could figure it out. I have expectations and I respect him enough to let him make the choice. I'm clear and precise in my ask and he has a job to do. By the end, we were doing beautiful trot/canter transitions, figure 8's in the green grass, sidepassing and absolutely no tongue swallowing. He had gotten with the program fairly quickly and I found the perfect place to quit. I'm so much better at making good use of time with the horses - I know he'll be better next time we play. He'll soak on that and so will I.

Then, I wanted to get back to Gemini for some groundwork. Gemini is a fantastic horse for groundwork - he wants to please but he can show some great exhuberance that makes it so much fun! We worked on sideways, lead from Zone 3 (first time for us), change of direction at the trot, maintain gait on the circle, figure 8 (beautifully done by Gem!), and some transitions on the circle. He was having fun and was so locked on to me. Whatever I asked him for, he gave it a hearty try. I was so pleased with him. I am thinking to stay off his back for a while and just get our relationship stronger and his groundwork excellent. Then, I really think he's a restart at this point. His bucking response is alive and well and the 4-6 weeks as a lease horse only reinforced it. I'm going to take him back to L1 riding and get everything solid once we get good strong L3 groundskills going. I think it's a good plan and I'll be spending good time with him this summer. I really love that horse.

I couldn't decide, after Gemini, if I wanted to play with anyone else. I've been reading a book about the Power of Now and starting to think about quieting my mind and finding time to sort of meditate. My mind is overly active and I rarely quiet it and simply enjoy the moment - the details of the moment, really living in the moment. I decided to try to do that with the horses.

The dogs are always with me. I enjoy the dogs, but they can be quite annoying with the horses. UDT can be tough with the dogs. So, I decided to take a chair and sit in a run with the gate closed. This way, the dogs could hang out, I'd be with the horses but not touching them, and I could try to explore the Power of Now. Nina, bless her cute soul, was just aching to be close to me. She was pawing the ground, reaching her feet through the panels, pushing the panels with her chest - she wanted to be closer to me. I scooted my chair closer to the rail and rubbed her face. Ahhh - she felt better and closed her eyes in total relaxation. Zarah did something super surprising. She stood at the gate to the run, looking at me through the gate, ears perked forward towards me. She wanted to come into the run and be with me. Wow! Z and I have really reached a new place.

All the horses had appeared from wherever they were when I setup camp in that run. Rain wanted to be close, but Nina had chased her away. She stood as close as she was comfortable and took a nap. Cowboy wasn't interested in my presence, nor was Abby. But Nina demanded closeness and Z asked politely, can't I come in?

I got up, opened the gate, Z walked in with ease, I closed the gate behind her and went back to my chair. This was upsetting for the dogs, but oh well. Z came over immediately and hung her head over me. She got as close as possible and just hung there. Wow - what a wonderful thing to have a horse feel that way about you, a predator, a human who's often asking for difficult maneuvers. She hung out with me for quite a while, until I had to go in and get back to life. I focused on living in the moment - hearing her breath, focusing on the areas I scratched that made her feel the best, managing Nina's demands for touch all the while, watching Z just feel comfortable and relaxed in my presence. It was maybe one of the most rewarding moments of my horse experiences. I've won Z over. I owe it to Parelli and to my tremendous desire to get to this point. Just an amazing moment. I've achieved something great and anything else I accomplish with Z is icing.

Mourning the death of a good blanket

Today I was reminded that 1) horses are prey animals, 2) if the horse isn't confident about something, don't just get by... FIX IT UP RIGHT! and 3) respect and honor the horse.

It was darn chilly this morning and I've been protecting the filly I board more lately as she's growing and has a tendency lately to drop weight easily. I want to keep her warm and fat and happy. So, I wanted to put a blanket on her - something I've been doing more with her. It protects her from the herd bites, too.

I've known she's not 100% confident about the blanket, but it's always felt like something we manage. Today, she called me a damned fool who should know better. I had it half on, she lost her confidence and started to move her feet. The more she moved, the more the blanket worried her. Next thing I knew, she was full speed ahead and the blanket was getting caught-up in her legs.

I stayed calm, hoping she'd come running to me - which she normally does. She was so worried though, that she was completely running on adrenalin. She would run for the herd, they would run the opposite direction as they wanted no part of her frenzy and couldn't figure out what was attacking her. It was interesting watching that part and seeing the Cowboy was the one who would turn and run back to her to figure out what on earth the deal was.

She ran to me a few times, asking for help, but wasn't calm enough to stop and get that help. Finally, after what seemed like 30 minutes but was probably more like 90 seconds, she stopped and waited for me. I put the halter and lead on her, took off the blanket (which was now complete confetti with pieces and part laying all over the place), and checked her out for injuries. She had a little skin scrape on her hip and another on her muzzle. Otherwise, she was a little tired and sweaty and starting to settle down.

I walked her around, calmed her down more, and put her into a stall and run for the rest of the morning. Now, I have to get her to understand that the blanket isn't going to eat her. We'll have to get past this slowly and right.

Cowboy and Nina Day

I was determined to spend time with Cowboy and Nina today. I have some work to catch up on and with daylight savings kicking in, feels like the day was getting away from me. However, I got out there, did my horsey chorse and got to work with Nina first.

I touched up her hooves, trying to keep her from flaring. Her hooves are very wide and short by nature, so I try to stay ahead of the wall that grows in the quarters and shape the toe to help the toe grow out nicely. She actually has pretty nice feet. She was so calm today and when I went to get her, she was laying down sleeping along with Gemini, Cowboy and Rain. I sat down next to her and just scratched her all over. She was loving it and rested her head on me. We sat there for a solid 5 mins. She can be such a sweet horse.

Once I had her hooves trimmed, i went ahead and tacked her up. Getting the saddle on her has become a non-issue, which is fantastic. She accepts it willingly and doesn't move her feet. Then, I checked on our friendly game, asked her to cross some obstacles, and just generally tried to see where her head was. Again, she was calm and easy - even the wind was ridiculous today. I played with her and the tarp for the first time and she was non-plussed. Part of that is her personality, part of it is that she trusts me and she's confident with me. I took her into the round pen for some squeezing over barrels. She is not confident about going over things. My guess is she feels clumsy (she certainly looks pretty dang clumsy!). She got a little emotional about it, so I spread them apart and just asked her to squeeze through the opening. That was much easier and we moved on. We played with the circle game at different gates, with her following my body. When I trotted, I asked her to trot (like a jog in place), when I canter, she should, too (kind of like a skip). She's really great at that and we started to transition back down and up together. She gets that game! After a time, it felt like a good time to climb on. I asked Steve to hold her while I mounted from both sides repeatedly. Then, he led her around while I bellied her. I would have liked to swing a let over, but it seemed to risky with Steve as my ground person. He's doing everything I ask beautifully, but he's not a "horse person" and it would take a split second for Nina to act out and catch Steve off guard. Both of us could end up hurt in a hurry.

She was very calm and I'm proud of the good start she's getting. A few more weeks and I should be riding her around with ease. I tied her to the hitching rail and asked her to stand there for a while. She's calm about being tied and she cocked a leg and took a nap. She stood tied about an hour. She's a good girl.

Then, I got Cowboy out and tacked him up. I'm watching him very closely to see when he's shows stress so I can address it. I'd like to understand him better since he'll be my next L3 partner, most likely. I brushed him, messed with him, checked him over (he's got lots of bite marks from Gem). Then, I tacked him up and watched to see where he showed displacement behavior. He was ok with the pad, ok with the saddle, but when I started to cinch, he got stressed. Next time, I'll have a treat. He's very LBI and highly motivated by food. I tried to go very slowly and minimize the stress. He seemed to be settling when I took my time and then I mounted up out near the play area. I was completely comfortable hopping on and really felt trusting of him. The more I know him, the more I trust him.

We started out in the arena and I was planning to do a passenger lesson. He kept dropping his head because he was stressed and fiddling with his mouth. I didn't want to stop him, but he wanted to slow down when I allowed it. Hmmm... a dilemma. I wasn't sure where to go with it, so I tried to ask for more action. We cantered around and he seemed fine and confident - more than he was at the trot. Then we'd go back to a trot and he'd go back to displacement behavior. After about 10 mins, I decided to try the front pasture instead. Maybe he's been pushed too hard in arenas?

He did seem better and the displacement behavior stopped, but he was very inclined to be with the herd. So I walked him away and trotted/cantered him back. We did that a few times before I got interrupted by a visitor. Darn it! Once I got back on to get started again, I tried to simply walk him around the property. He was going along ok and trotted without being asked at one point. I realize he will NOT do that in an arena. He seems to go lights out in an arena in no time flat. He is much more interested and alert outside of the arena, in the open.

We trotted and cantered some around the property and found ourselves back at the barn pretty quickly. How interesting! I've always thought of him as the horse that doesn't need the herd. The horse that will willingly leave the herd for a trail ride. Not so at this point. We'll have to build back up to it. That's ok. Typical stuff.

At one point, he stopped and so did I. We just stood there together for probably 5 minutes. We were next to a pine tree and he just relaxed. I'd like to think he was waiting to see what I wanted. I'd also like to think it was relaxing to carry a rider who was happy to do nothing.

I'll keep getting inside his head. I have lots of tricks and tools in mind and I'll try them all until I figure out which one intrigues him. I do know that I've got to start incorporating treats into our sessions. He needs a reason to feel motivated. He's an unmotivated horse and I need him to show some life. Right now, I think he'll be tough with some of the L3 stuff because of his introverted nature and lack of desire to move fast. I'll be learning how to build that with creative play - a good challenge for me.

He's such a great-looking horse and I'm completely interested in developing him. What of Gemini? He'll be with Krissy for a while starting soon and I will watch from afar how he's doing. He could/should be #3 for my levels horses. That's where my head is now, at least.

Side note: Z and I are doing much better. She came up to me multiple times today while I had a lead in my hand. I'd like to think I'm more interesting to her lately and maybe taking different horses out of the pasture for play time makes her feel less like fleeing when I show up with a lead rope. It's good, I'm watching and learning - she's teaching me tons.

Mending a relationship

Not sure what it was, but Zarah has been avoiding me over the past week and I've been working to mend the relationship. Today, we made great strides. It was the first day in several days that she offered to walk to me. I'm not sure exactly what I did to make her think avoiding me was the best move. My guess is I pushed her too hard by taking her on the trailer, on the trail alone, or something like that. I was maybe doing too much with her. Anyway, I'm mending the bond and I'll pay close attention to be sure I don't do it again.

I put Kendall on Rain for a bit and she rode around the yard, crossing obstacles and just having an interesting time with Rain. In the meantime, I tended to Cowboys cut on his heel bulb. Zarah was in a stall finishing her grain. After Cowboy, I went in to see if she was interested in some time with me. She looked at me, I waited and about 10 seconds later she walked to me. Ahhhh... So nice.

I gave her a few cookies and haltered her. I led her into the barn and just brushed her for a while. She was relaxed and calm. She enjoys being brushed. This was the first time I'd interacted with her in many days. Her hind feet are starting to look very bull-nosed again. They were looking really nice for a while. I'm guessing the lack of movement is a problem. When I'm using her and riding her often, she lifts her hinds more than when she's in the pasture.

Anyway, I took her into the round pen and decided to try to teach her a trick. I chose the head-shaking trick. It was cute, she didn't have a clue. I've taught her to hug and we've tried to develop the bow. Seriously, I'm always working with her on specific tasks for the program and never just teaching her a silly trick. I could tell, she didn't really know how to feel about it.

She wasn't quite getting it and after some time, I smiled at her and we left the round pen. We'll see tomorrow if she thought that was interesting or not. I'll know by how she responds to me when she sees me tomorrow.

My fascinating herd...

For the first time, I've put all 6 horses out together. I've been keeping the 2 geldings separated - keeping 1 in the stall/large run while the other is with the mares and for the most part, Cowboy's had to be the one in lock-down. After all, he's only been here about 2 weeks. These are, for all intensive purposes, Gemini's mares.

Well, yesterday, Cowboy had a 2nd day with the mares while Gemini had to watch. I hate to do it, but I'm trying to be safe as possible and also try to get to a point where all the horses can find there place in a herd together. That seemed to go ok. This morning, no one had a bite mark or a worry. However, there was obviously lots of feet moving outside of the run where Gemini spent the night. The snow is majorly shuffled in that area. Nina seems a little defensive with Cowboy and she's staying pretty close to Abby. Which is very interesting.

So, I decided to let Gemini out and see what would happen. It was amazing and it went like this...

Gemini immediately went to roll. After 12-16 hours in a run, he needed to ROLL! As I stood there, my two mares Rain and Zarah trotted over to me and hung with me. They DO NOT like Cowboy. They both are offended by his very presence. They've obviously been buddying up. When Gemini was let out, they followed him around a bit but what was very interesting was that Nina and Abby followed Cowboy. Do I have 2 bands?

Gemini trotted around with some energy and Z stayed by his side like a faithful soldier. Rain followed him a little, with only a little energy, and then she did an amazing thing. She stopped, turned back to me and stood and stared at me. It was as if she was saying, "Aren't you coming?". Then, I just stood there and waited and about 2 mins later, she came trotting back to me from a whole pasture away!! She left the herd and came enthusiastically back to me! When Z took notice of what she was doing, she followed suit. When Gemini realized his mares were leaving, he jumped on the bandwagon and then all 3 were trotting back to me! Wow.

Cowboy stayed way out there and so did Nina and Abby. He slowly came back from across the pasture and his mares slowly followed him. I'm going to try to sit out there and watch more of the herd behavior after a couple of my work conference calls. I'm fascinated. The good news is that it seems there's little physical unrest - no biting, kicking, rearing. There's definitely antics, but it seems to be harmless at this point.

What a cool display of herd behavior. I love watching and learning about them and how they think and work.

My RBE horse on the trail

Yesterday, I had scheduled to coach someone with their horse in my neighborhood. I decided to use Z as transportation to the lesson. I had plenty of time and was committed to get off of her if she hit too big of a threshold leaving the property. Sometimes, she leaves fine and confidently and other times, her feet get stuck and she shows her LBI side. I've been playing a new game when her feet get stuck, where I let her eat grass whenever she starts to move freely. It's working well and we have lots of nice green grass available.

It's typically the first 1/4 - 1/2 mile where she's hesitant to leave and I used to just push her through it. Now, I ease her through it and always check in with her and get her opinion on things. I'm just much better at handling it than I used to be and subsequently, Z is almost always happy to see me these days.

We made it to the lesson in great time and worked on canter-walk transitions on the way once we got through the initial hesitancy. I took off her tack and left the 22' on her so she could mosey and graze while I played with my neighbors horse. That went fine. I tried putting her into the arena alone at first and she wasn't too thrilled about that. So, she got to mosey and that gave her confidence. When it was time to go, I played with her for a quick 2 mins, then tacked her up and off we went. For some reason, she went completely RBE.

I'm not sure if she wanted to simply race home or what exactly was worrying her, but I rode her for about 1/4 mile before I concluded that she needed me on the ground and making her feel safe. I got down, snapped the 22' back on her and we got moving. Lots of falling leaf, sideways, circle over obstacles (gotta love those yuccas!) and backing. She blew and blew the whole time. She seemed to be back on the planet and feeling ok again, so I hopped back on and asked her to walk home on a loose rein. She obliged and blew some more.

We had a nice, quiet walk home and it was getting dark. We stopped at a place where the nicest grass in the county grows and she got to chomp for a while. She was back with me and we calmly walked up to the barn and prepared to go our separate ways until morning.

Today, when I went to feed, she trotted up to me. Then a bit later, when I was in a run scooping and she was standing with me, she moved behind me when Gemini showed up. She was looking to me for protection. I chased him off and she sighed. This Parelli stuff really works!

Z and 2 eyes

I've been noticing more that Z doesn't look at me with 2 eyes sometimes when I'm asking for yo-yo, backing or other ground tasks. Yesterday, after D and I got back from Hidden Mesa, I spent a little time with Z in the round pen. We worked on Liberty cantering and transitions at Liberty. We've got that down fairly well. We practiced coming in with confidence and giving me 2 eyes. I continued to draw backward until she gave me 2 eyes and happy ears. We did that a few times then switched to developing the bow some more. I pushed too far one of the times, but for the most part she's cooperative and getting lower each time.

Today, I played with her a little in the barn aisle after spending the day at the Horse Expo. Some conversation with Teri Sprague about her RBI behavior, I decided to try a few things before calling it a day. We just did some yo-yo game and each time she came to me with 2 eyes, she got a treat. That worked wonders. Bizarre - am I reading RBI behavior when it's really LBI? Does she switch so often that I have to get better at watching for it?

Cloverleaf!

Today Z started to walk away in the pasture after eating and I went to catch her. She does really fine with I go to catch her. She sees me coming behind her, stops and walks towards me. This is how it always is. I just don't like that she walks to the far pasture and I'll just have to keep giving her reasons to wonder WHAT I'm going to do versus assuming she should disappear. She is such an RBI and she would prefer to meld into the woodwork than be out and about. I respect that and I continue to try to harmonize with that. I'm an extrovert, so it's a challenge.

I put her in the round pen for a few hours while I ran errands. When I got back, we took a break together, then worked on cantering at Liberty. Much better!! Major improvement!! We'll keep working on that. She's got to go at least 4 canter laps at Liberty for us to get our tasks done. She can go a couple now. She's more collected and thoughtful in her liberty canter than ever before. She's carrying herself well and using herself effeciently. I'm so pleased.

We did a little circle game over obstacles on the 22 before the round pen. That was all fine. We still need to get the straight backup at Liberty more consistent.

Then, I mounted and we headed to the arena. She was all over the place. We needed a plan. I set up a cloverleaf course for us about 1/3 the size of my arena (9 paces from center to edge). At first, she was scattered but she quickly came back to me and managed the pattern well at the trot. We did some trotting around the entire course (60 ft circle, maybe?). Then we went back to the pattern in the other direction. We did a lot of resting in the middle on my lawn chair cushion, where I asked her to put her hoof on it. After about 40 mins of working the pattern in both directions, we started working on cantering. She was scattered again and I stayed with her until she got it together with me. She even did a rear end defiant buck a few times. Made me giggle a little.

I'm working on brideless riding so I generally only use the reins if I need to. I'm noticing that there are leg cues that really torque her off. I tried to listen to her and use my legs in a way that I was communicating without making her annoyed. We started to really find a balance. Of course, she became most annoyed at the side facing the gate so I'm positive all the behavior was LB. Nothing was violent or uncontrollable. It was all very calculated and deliberate. We will get better quickly, I'm sure. The weather will allow us to do more canter work and precision work which is just what we both need. I am comfortable now to gallop on her for 30 seconds - one of my tasks. She's fassssssst.

I sticked her again on flat concrete and she's definitely only 15.1hh. I thought she was taller for some reason. Honestly, I wish she was a little taller. It's fine for the L3 stuff - makes it all a little easier... bareback mounting, especially. I wonder if I'll want to continue with her after L3 or switch to one of my others.

Back to our session... we ended with about 10 minutes of training her to bow. She's going down much farther and that was only our 3rd session. I think she understands what I'm after and she just needs the time to feel confident to do it. She doesn't fight it really and I'm trying so hard not to push her to that point. The picture of the shrinking violet horse for the RBI is her most of the time. She swings between RBI and LBI.

It was a great session and I'm sorry it's snowing today. I'd love to try some more things with her and see where we are after she's had a chance to think about it.

Oh, and for fun and to get my cardio in, I took a run early in the day with Delaney on Gemini and Kendall on Rain. We only went about 30 mins (short of what I was supposed to do). We were out of time, though. Both horses did great and the kids giggled most of the time. The horses do a slow jog to stay with me and the kids get a smooth ride. Need to do that more often.

Springtime with Horses!

It's not really Spring, but what a nice weekend it was! The nicest we've had in months. I got to spend lots of time with horses.

Saturday, I showed Gemini to a young lady named Krista. He did great for her and I think she really liked him. That's the first person to come see him. Jen and Amy also came over with Cowboy and Jefe to play in my arena and I was going to ride Cowboy while we trail rode. It turned out to be windy and cold and the trail ride didn't happen. I also had Marcy on Jeffrey and I was trying to get something going with Holly. Holly had a hard time coming off of adrenaline and I spent so much time that I never rode Cowboy. I'm going to try to ride Cowboy this week - that horse is very cool.

Dave came over and we put Jeffrey in the round pen. I showed Marcy and Dave how to play the Stick to Me game and they seemed to really understand it. Jefffrey knows nothing about sticking to his human. He only knows how to do a specific job that he was taught by his previous owner. He's a nice horse - an LBI - and he's going to do the bare minimum. He tolerates Dave's riding pretty well, but he's going to get less and less patient with Dave's hands. He's in one of the most severe bits you can put on horse, with a chain chin piece to boot. Jen and Amy joked that the headgear shouldn't be allowed on my property. Maybe they're right.

Then, Marcy, Dave and I hit the trail. The wind had settled and the sun was out. We did the 8 mile loop at a pretty good pace. Zarah did not want to leave home and I need to work on that with her. I am worried about pushing her past her threshold and ruining her trust in me. That will make some of the L3 stuff very difficult.

I stood on Zarah's back bareback and bridleless! Yeah! Another task bites the dust.

Sunday, Jen and Amy came about 10:30am and we rode about 5 miles on the trail. Amy was more nervous than I expected her to be. I was a little surprised. She handled it well and she's not letting it stop her! About 1pm, Tammy and Chuck showed up and we did a 4 hour group lesson focusing on L2. It's a lot to cover and I thought we'd get to more tasks than we did. I had a great time with it. I'm happiest when I'm messing with horses and teaching others how to get things going. It's my place to be.

Zarah needs some undemanding time from me this week. I'm pushing her too hard. She's a fragile flower, a true RBI now that I'm paying attention and figuring things out. She can be LBI, but RBI is where most her characteristics lie. She's great.