Epiphanies. And Why I Hate Them. Part 4

Smokey was not crazy about his stall. Not. at. all.

"If you are constantly fixing it for him, he'll never learn it." Mark was talking a rider through a transition. "Start small."

Here's the man (who liked to be in control) and his dream horse.

I watched with interest as he peeled away the noise the rider was making, the changing of cues in an effort to get the right response. Instead, just stick with the cue and reward when the horse gets it right, even slightly.

Rescue Mare and her Rider, working on transitions

The rider kept her cue and the next canter transition was smoother. "What you're doing is filling in holes in his foundation."

The Tiny Lipanzzer

The rider noted that she had trouble keeping her horse in the canter. I leaned forward. I have this trouble with Smokey too.

Mark started talking about riding at the canter. He explained in great detail the way the energy rolls off a horse at the canter. There are two energy forces at work, one moving like a pulley coming from the hindquarters going forward and the other a spiral from the bottom. If you aren't moving with the horse, you are blocking that energy, forcing the horse to work through it. A young horse get's blocked, older horses learn to power through it - like the horses that stop when we lean back.

Mark noted the times he's seen riders kick out one leg in front of the other during the canter, almost like they are leading with that foot.

I swallowed. Yup. Guilty. It's what I'd been told to do. He told a funny story about a martial art master who said, after trying to get a group of students to do a move correctly, look in the mirror. "If you look ridiculous, technique is wrong."

That's what I like about Mark. He makes you laugh and he's happy to be the brunt of the joke. Lessens the sting.

"The key is to soften your back. Just think of it soft. Kicking the leg out - it's a sign of a tight lower back," said Mark. "You're a rock in the saddle."

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The day rolled to a close and I was looking forward to riding in the arena and getting up to a canter on Smokey. Maybe we'd manage an entire circle. What would THAT be like?

We saddled up and I tried lunging Smokey on a line. Fogettabutit. We headed out to the round pen - which was really too slick for a decent session. He expressed his anxiety and I let him run it out a bit. Soon I had a horse I thought I might be able to get on.

We did fine in the arena, after a bit, but we had to keep moving. Soon we were cruising right along. The barn owner was anxious to try the trails around the arena, but Stephanie and I wanted to stay in the arena. At home there are plenty of trails, and no arena with incredible footing, lights and walls to contain the enthusiasm of our horses.

So she hit the trails and we stayed in.

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Later there were adventures with steers, but I'll keep it brief (I will be posting a longer version on crib notes later). Suffice it to say I was hoping to have Smokey desensitized to cows, but got way more than I bargained for when they were tieing steers to tables right outside his stall and grinding away their hooves.

And then one broke loose.

Yeah. I'd say Smokey got some desensitization. If he'd been any further back in his stall, he'd have gone through the wall. But like a rubber necker on the freeway, he was also fascinated by this weird animal that was tied down to a table to get shod. I'm sure he thought what I did.

Can't you just learn to lift your hoof, dude?

I ended up on a pile of hay with a guy who had a bad shoulder (I can't afford to get it banged around, he said wryly. I felt the same), watching as they manhandled one particularly onery steer.

Once again I felt a little guilty about the work that goes into making me the meals I set down on the table. Those cows are TOUGH, but not as tough as the kids handling them.

I promised to remember this night when I cooked up our dinner the next day - hamburger meat.

It was the least I could do.

Finding Your Nose, Unwinding, and Two Despooking Tips

I've been working with Lily on various things, mostly just getting her back into regular work. I was stuck with her on side passing.

Lily is highly trained. I know little about her background, but I do know she is trained to have about 7 speeds, neck rein, travel collected, back up straight, and do long division with her tail and a piece of chalk.

So when I couldn't get her to side pass I was shocked. I can get Smokey to side pass. I can get Woody to side pass. I know the signal. So why would Lily go in the opposite direction?

Loren, the horse dentist, was in town, doing follow ups on horses. She was happy to see how well Lily is doing, healthy and in good spirits. I asked her to watch her move to see if she felt she needed any other chiro work.

After a bit of riding I showed her the problem I was having side passing. Loren walked me through some dressage tips. (See anything here familiar, folks?)

To move right:

• Don't lean. At all.
• Drop your right heel and open that leg all the way to your hip
• Drop the right rein, keep the left rein lifted slightly
• Apply pressure - or just tighten - the left upper and inner thigh

Boom. Lily crossed over like a tap dancer.

My jaw dropped. I had, in what seems now like how a clown would execute a side pass, been doing this:

To move to the right:

• Leaning on my left side, quite exaggeratedly
• Applying pressure with my left calf
• Incidentally applying pressure with my right upper leg to keep from falling over, therefore "closing" her right shoulder.
• Trying to neck rein her over.

After I marveled at my new side passing horse Loren said it. "She's a horse that'll teach you a lot."

It was like suddenly discovering my nose on my face. Maybe I have at least one instructor who I'm already paying. In hay.

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Smokey


As for Smokey, here's where I am:

I can't forget what cowboy Dave told me. "I can train a horse, but I can't keep you from unwinding a horse." There's a line that'll stick in your head. This IS what I worry about. I don't know how to get from here to a place where I'm not unwinding. Am I unwinding Smokey? I see other riders and I know my skills are better than they were a year, a month, a week ago. It all builds. With Lily could I do more building? Perhaps this is more about not getting that one element - trail work - in and less about my saddle abilities.

I thought about how Smokey "deserves" a better rider. Then I heard about a horse in a terrible situation, even though they'd been with a great rider. So I wondered about the value of that guilt trip.

I thought that this may be a lesson about an element of me that can "cut and run" too readily and it's a lesson I'm going to keep repeating until I learn it.

I thought that if all this horse and I do is tool around the arena and local trails would that be enough.

Still thinking...


From Ray Hunt (found on this cool blog)

Clinic spectator: "Ray, how did you get such good judgment with a horse?"

RH: "Experience."

Spectator: "How did you get so much experience?"

RH: "Poor judgment."

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Your Despooking Tips

There are two horses in the barn right now with HUGE plastic bag phobias. They are learning to live with plastic bags in their paddock, tied to fences. But here are the two things I do that the trainer has started to do as well.

1. Plastic bags in the round pen. While having bags in a pen or paddock and just having the horse deal with them is one thing, it's not the same as them having to listen to you while the plastic bag is doing its morphing thing in the wind while you're directing the horse.

I like having a plastic bag tied on the round pen in different places at different heights to teach a horse that they can listen even if there's a scary thing close by. It's made a nice difference with Smokey in the last two weeks.





2. Treats or grain from a plastic bag. You know how dogs will fly into the kitchen if you open their treat jar? Well, even if you don't train with treats, you can use a plastic bag to carry grain and empty it into the bin. Pretty soon the positive association will be there. Remember Pavlov's dog? You can make this work for you, even if you aren't trying for a Nobel Prize.

The Office - Pavlov's dog from Rauno Villberg on Vimeo.

Again, these are ideas. Your mileage may vary.

Also there were some round penning questions in the comments last go round. I'll post some answers (at least in so far as what I do) on my next post.

Lily and Sierra hit the trail

Sorry I've been gone so long. It's not going to get better, I'm afraid. I've recommitted to my writing (I have one novel with an agent and am working on a second I just figured out the plot for) and have to redirect my energy there.











So I'm going to go for quick, brief, entries.

Horse Haiku, if you will.

(Not true Haiku, for all you purists out there.)

















Saturday Sierra had her first trail ride on Lily
Lily is the horse I dreamed she would be.
Level headed. Responsive. Spook free. Patient.
My daughter glows.




We rode with our friend Rudy at his house
with his daughter too.
She's starting to become... horsey.
Dad's pumped.










Saturday I rode alongside Sierra, riding Canyon.
Charged by horses on the other side of the fence,
He had to canter in concern for 20 yards or so.
He did not buck. I did not freak. I let him canter a bit.
We got through safely.
Progress.











Despooking is starting to pay off.
Scary sheets bear carrots.
Green balls are squishy.
Courage is a long road.
A road worth riding.

Trust is a long road too.

Spook. Spook. Spook. AAAAAAAAhhhhhh!

I think a lot about spooking. I've been working on two methods to deal with it. Now I'm looking at two other methods. Despooking Walker style and Lying down a horse.

I'm relunctant scared to try lying down a horse because I think it might be something only an experienced trainer should do. Lord knows I don't need to traumatize my horse - and me - any more than we already are. LOL

So I'm going Walker style first. I just ordered a video from Marv Walker. I tend to have a very cynical approach to all these videos, since I've discovered most of them don't really give you any information you don't already know from the 500 magazines and books and internet articles. But Walker's are inexpensive and his writing on his website has been on target with everything I've experienced. If only he worked in Texas!

So I'll give it a shot. Here's what he says about despooking(my comments in parenthesis):

There is the desensitizing method where you expose the horse to the spooker until it ignores it. (this is what I've done with Canyon) The horse gets so saturated with the spook that it fails to react to it. (true. there isn't a pink hula skirt in the world that will get a rise out of MY horse.) You put the horse and the spook together and leave them alone. The horse will become used to the spooker and life will go on.

Then there is the sniffer method. (this is what we are doing now) In the sniffer method you concentrate on getting the horse to move up to the item to the point where it can examine it and assure itself that the spook is not out to devour every horse that stumbles across it.

Both of these methods are a hassle.(well, not so much, but yeah, they get to be in trail situations)

If you succeed in the first method you are good to go until the horse comes across something else that spooks it and then you have to go through the whole process again.(Exactly. I don't have a ton of rusty farm equipment or odd shaped trunks of trees around here)

If you survive the second method, since horses really resent being made to approach and sniff spooks, you are teaching the horse to stop and approach everything of concern to it. Every new thing brings what you doing to a skidding halt while you and your horse examine it.(And it doesn't really deal with the whole initial spook thing.)

 He goes on to describe that you make everything that spooks your fault and therefore the horse waits to see if you are going to freak out.  I am getting tired of everything being my fault, but maybe in this case it can work in my favor...

Anyway, it's worth a shot.

Canyon is a wooly bear, the cold snaps have brought out his fuzzy side. I remember stripping off this winter coat in March, piles and piles of hair flotaing around the barn yard like cottonwood seedlings.  I'll get some pictures today... In 30 days it'll be a year since I bought Canyon. Our horseyversary.

First year is paper, right? Hmmm. I'm thinking an oragami horse. How hard can it be?

Maybe I'll stick with a carrot.

Things that no longer scare my horse

I have a spook bag of things I take to the stables to freak out Canyon. It's like Halloween every day!

Okay, maybe not.

Anyway, these items are officially in retirement:


Swimming noodles. He'll even step on them. You can wave them all over, wail on him with them and he just stands there, bored.

You can put the pink hula skirt on his head. It's incredibly amusing. Unless you're the horse, then it's embarrassing.

The silver window sun blocking thing. No problem.

Next we'll be going with tarps and large balls. Bwaaa haaa haa! (that was an evil laugh).

So do you know how to despook your horse to a pink hula skirt? Here are the steps I was taught:

1. Halter up and have a nice, long lead line. 12' at least. Get thee to the round pen or another enclosed area.
2. Scrunch up the scary item as small as possible and rub it on the shoulder.
3. Work it around and around going down the back, legs, belly and up the neck to the head. Touch every part of your horse.
   
4. Gradually let the item get larger and more floppy. Keep doing it until your horse doesn't even flinch.
5. Go to the other side and do it all over again (because you have two horses. the one on the right side and the one on the left).
6. Get progressively crazier, waving it around until your horse sees you as "an annoying little brother" and will just stand there and sigh instead of looking for an escape.
7. Leave the item on the horse's head and take an amusing photo.

• Optional: I wasn't taught this, but I also put the scary thing on the ground, since Canyon has an issue with things on the ground. Then I try to get him to walk fairly close to it. He doesn't have to step on it, but he has to go in a circle around it and remain focused on me.

Reward your horse with a cookie at the wash rack. It's a tramatic thing you're doing to him/her. Cookies make it all better. Okay, maybe not, but when you have a horse that smiles for cookies it's worth the oats.