A quick visit turns into an enjoyable activity

Before I talk about the horses, I will mention that we bought and installed a new shed ... and now I have a tack shed! Yay! The horse gear is being stored there and not in the back room, on the back verandah, in my car, and diverse other places. Also big dog stuff is in there, like dog crates. It was a bit of a job to put together but not too bad.

It's near the gate to the carport which is really convenient for loading and unloading. And an added benefit is that it improves the privacy from the neighbouring property.

Today we went to the horses on the way back from doing some quick Christmas Eve shopping to fill a couple of "pressie gaps". Just a couple, low stress. I went to the nearby shopping centre as it has an ABC shop. It's a new shopping centre and quite a nice one, not like the run of the mill centres, is more pleasant to be in. And it wasn't too crowded while we were there.

The horses are not far from it so we went straight there afterwards.

Wart doing well in the spelling paddock still. Happy to see us.

Was going to just bring out and feed the other two, and measure Darcie for a new rope halter that's made to actually fit her, but Ellie hopped on Orion bareback and we all went for a walk. Darcie was a wee bit boggly at first but not for long.

With Darcie I practiced leading with her in a good position, and having her respond to me pointing my arm forwards by speeding up. I didn't have a stick with me so just flooped her with the lead rope end if I needed to.

We went to the place where there are some little banks and drop-offs and Ellie was riding Orion up and down them.

I put our "sending exercise" to good use, by sending Darcie up and down them. We started at an easy place and went to a more challenging place. When we got to the challenging place Darcie started to play! She was pigrooting and jumping about a bit in a playful way after jumping up the bank. She didn't look stressed at all - I think she was just having fun.

Oh and I didn't have the stick with me so I just broke off a little bit of a weed that grows kind of straight, and has leaves sticking out of it, looking sort of like a feather duster and about the same size, and used that as an indicator. It was a cue only, never touched her. She knows the exercise pretty well now.

The first couple of times she wanted to keep going around me and do the full circle but I bumped the lead rope a few times to stop her from doing that, and she soon figured it out.

After she did it a few times she found it a bit less exciting and was going up and down in a more sedate way.

We also did a bit of desensitising, just as a part of the whole thing ... a bit of "slap and tap", also getting her used to me jumping up and down beside her - first a bounce with a bit of distance, then jumping, then getting closer - and also having the rope dragging along underfoot - this is something she was worried about the very first time but now she takes little notice.

I would say we didn't do a formal "training session" as such, but did just work things in to our visit, and put some of our learned exercises to use in new environments and with new challenges.

Ellie told me that she wants to teach Orion some groundwork, partly to give him more of a workout as she's seen the lunging exercises particularly gives them some work to do, and Orion is still looking a tad fat. I tried an unused full size rope halter on him and it fits him really well - much better than the off the shelf one I've been using with Darcie fits her. It's purple which Ellie thinks is a bit girlie for Orion and would suit Kallie the Pally, his half sister, better, but they will cope.

A blow up, and some desensitising

Well today we had a blow up. Or Darcie had a blow up.

We'd gone to see Wart first as usual. Zante was funny because she didn't understand at first to run alongside the car in the big paddock, while we were driving around looking for Wart. But she got the idea after I drove with the door open a bit, talking to her, then talking to her out the window.

Anyway we had the horses tied up and eating, and I was about to pick out Darcie's feet, and I decided that her chestnuts were kind of overgrown and that I should pick them off smoother. Well I learned something, and that is, horses might pick their feet up when you squeeze their chestnuts, but then if you want to pick the old skin off them, they still think you want to pick the feet up, and they can get antsy. So that is a technique I'll not be using again. Instead I will desensitise her to touching and picking at her chestnuts.

So, she was antsy and I wasn't going to stop handling her chestnuts until she stood still. Then Ellie, right near Darcie and to the rear of her, tripped over something. Darcie spun a bit and her quarters hit into the rail. By this time she was feeling pretty trapped, and she jumped over towards me. I can't have her jump into me so I swatted her butt. She was really blowing up by now, wanting to escape, and I thought for a moment that she was going to leap over the chest rail of the tie stall. Instead she pulled back, and the tie ring did its job - she pulled a length of the lead out of it, but then stopped pulling back and came forwards again. It all took less than a minute.

I took her back into the tie stall but she was too hyped for me to pick out her feet, and so I started a little desensitising there, since she'd blown up there, she needed to be desensitised there, but she was too hyped for that too. So I took her out to where there was more space and did desensitising to the plastic bag on the stick. At first she was very jumpy at it, even though she's met it a few times now, but then she settled. I wasn't being timid with it, I was flapping it past and on her body with some vigour. Sort of flap up, brushing her on the way past, flap down, brushing her on the way past, and so on. Anyway we did that all over her body and legs up to near the top of her neck. By the time we got to her head she just stood there for most of it, but when it got to the top between and blowing over her ears, she started to toss her head, so we kept going with that area, first on one side and then the other, until she stood there calmly.

So then we did tap and slap, and she was as jumpy as anything at that. Xia was not helping here at all. I was firmly patting Darcie behind the wither, with rhythm, and not stopping while she was moving, and she was going around and around in circles, and Xia was wanting to get in on the action, and was doing what she could to keep Darcie moving. I told her to leave it and she basically ignored me, so I told her to leave it and gave her a boot and she ran back for a couple of seconds and then came back in again (yes, her family work cattle as well as sheep, and a bit of a boot from me was nothing to her when she was hyped - ack, hyped horse and dog) and I couldn't stop patting away at Darcie because that would have taught her that moving away gets the patting to stop. So I didn't wait for her to stop for fifteen seconds, I grabbed a momentary stop, and went after Xia, and she ran to the car, and I got her by the scruff and basically shook her a bit and yelled in her face. After which she was my good little doggie (I's your good doggie) and stayed in the car. Also later when I wanted her to lie down she dropped like a stone and stayed down. Not timidly, oh no, but she was doing what I wanted without the "what's in it for me?" look that she gets. Kelpies. They will push you sometimes. I am just so not used to being tough with a dog - you would NEVER do anything like that with one of the Vizslas. But they would not be as driven and disobedient either.

Ack. Anyway.

So after the Kelpie stopped zooming at Darcie's legs and circling her incessantly, I was able to focus on the horse more, and we were able to get her standing and relaxing for the tap and slap, but it took a while, and when I changed sides, she was just as jumpy as she'd started on the first side. This was in contrast to the first time I did it, when she was much quieter on the second side.

I wanted to do some backing up but I also wanted to take the plastic bag off the stick before we did that, so before I removed it I took her into the stall she'd blown up in (the one that she's photographed in, a few posts back), and did some desensitising with the plastic bag in the stall, both sides. Then I took the bag off.

So then we did backup. Again I had the carrots, and this time I had apple too, all chopped up. I wanted to click and reward her for the backup. I wanted to look for the head to drop but it didn't at all so I clicked and rewarded for a good straight active backup, and I rubbed her head with the stick while she ate the reward. We were doing the "tap the air (etc.)" backup. I found the online TV show clip with the dressage dude useful because CA comes in and the dressage guy's horse is backing up without enough activity, so CA shows him how to get the activity. We went for the activity. Darcie does know the exercise. So I gave her the easy choice, and then if she didn't respond, I went to the hard choice. Basically tap the air, then go straight to a swat of the clip. She's not going back on the tap the air enough - she needs to move back more promptly. Something I can see is that we need to do much, much more backing up. (She is actually better with the other methods, probably coz I use them more, but we could be doing them better.) So it's a time for going back over the foundation moves and getting them all right. Including all the backup methods.

After that we did lateral flexing, and again, I was using a click and reward to tell her, yes that is what I want. She was wanting to look at Orion instead - he was grazing - so she got a couple of bumps with the halter when she was leaning on it. She's not as light as she could be. Sometimes she's light and sometimes she wants to look somewhere else. So I bump her for two eyes when she does that. I should probably do something more, like a back up, give her a reason to keep her attention on me. Yes, that's what I'll do. As soon as she looks away instead of a mild bump, for a bit I'll get her to hustle in a back up or something like that.

Then after the flexing I took her back into the stall and did some more desensitising. Some tap and slap, rubbed her body, rubbed her head, picked up each leg and handled it and rubbed it. Basically took her back to what we were doing when the blow up happened. Then did some more head rubbing for a bit, and then we let them go. I would like to be able to use a "learning tree" (or equivalent) but it's a bit hard to manage on these days when I'm training in the afternoon - or any days really - I can't just stay there for an hour or two after a lesson. And I can't tie her up and leave her and come back later, either. So. I'll have to think about it.

The rope halter was a bit tight in the knot after the pull back but didn't take too much effort to loosen the knot. The reef knot tying the tie ring to the rail needed some more effort to loosen but it came apart OK. There are benefits to tying proper knots. :)

Using the clicker to fine tune our moves

Today during the drive to the agistment, I decided to use the clicker to get the foundation moves better - yielding hindquarters and forehand, back up, flex head and neck to each side, those sorts of things. CA asks for very clear and distinct movements with the feet for the yielding exercises, and these form the basis for more complex exercises. Also I want to work on her backing up with her head lower, and flexing more quickly and lightly, and so on. One big reason I decided to work on these foundation moves was because we are not progressing much with "changing eyes" - she's trotting too much in the lungeing part, and not yielding the quarters easily, and I think it will help to go over the pieces of it before putting it back together.

Ellie didn't come with me today, and the dogs I brought were Cedar (7yo Vizsla) and Pickle (4yo Border Collie). So we didn't have Xia with us, which meant that we didn't do desensitising to dog underfoot! ;)

After we (the dogs and I) went and fed and checked Wart, I brought Darcie and Orion out of the paddock to eat. I trimmed Orion's feet. Then I let him go again.

I had two carrots and no knife so I used my teeth to put the carrots into little pieces. I had a clicker - I always have one or more clickers in the car - but no pockets or treat pouches, so I carried a small number (varying between 7 at first, and then 6 for most exercises, and 4 at the end) in one hand. It was a bit awkward carrying carrot pieces, clicker, lead rope and stick, but I managed. I will get a treat pouch for the carrots. I have one for the dogs but it has dog food smells in it and I don't think it would be nice for horses.

The first thing we did was flex head and neck. Seven pieces of carrot on each side = seven click/treats. Darcie has done clicker work before so it took her pretty well no time to remember what we were doing. Flexing to the left, the main problem was that she flexed as soon as she saw my hand move, which means I can't teach her to give to pressure on the halter. I might have to find a way to block her vision so she learns to give to the pressure and not anticipate on the hand movement. She didn't do it so much on the right, but the right is her worse side (in flexing and also in flexing while lungeing). When we get better on the right, she will probably start doing it on the right, too.

The backup we didn't get right at all. I was waiting for a drop of the head during the backup, at least a little one, but didn't get it. I'm going to have to think about how to do that one. Maybe just click and reward a single step at first, and reward low, and then start asking for more steps.

I was leading her around in between these exercises with the rope hanging a bit and the end dragging, as she's been worried in the past about dragging ropes, but she's getting better now. I keep it up so that she will get better and better about it. At one point, though, her front foot went over the rope, and she started backing up in a worried way when she felt the pressure. (Time to get some hobbles and hobble train her.) Anyway I had a split second to decide how to handle it, and I decided that "run up and rub" was the way to do it, so that's what I did - just ran up to her and rubbed her head. She is used to run up and rub now and she just stood there, and after I rubbed her I took the rope from around her leg and led her forwards again.

The clicker was great in helping to get the correct movement in yield the forehand. The required leg movement is for Darcie to step across and in front with the front feet, while pivoting on the back feet. Initially she did move the hindquarters towards me a little, so I drove them away, but I was clicking for two of the correct steps with the front feet, and it didn't take long at all for her to be doing it right. The clicker just made it all more clear for her. If we'd not done the exercise before I would have clicked for one step, but she does know it enough for me to start on two steps. We did six click/treats on each side.

I did the same thing with yield the hindquarters - again, the hind foot needs to step across and in front of the outside hind foot, while she pivots on the forehand. Again, I found that there was some good consistent improvement in how she was stepping. The clicker makes these things more clear, as it marks a particular moment in time. I was asking for two steps, as with the yield the forehand, as she has done this exercise many times before. A difference between the previous training of this, and today's, is that I was holding the lead in the way that I will hold it when I put it back together into "changing eyes".

Then we did lunging on the small circle at a walk. Again, six pieces of carrot for each side. Going around to the left was easy - she was walking a nice circle and I was clicking for softness and bend. To the right was harder. She is stiffer on that side, more tense, holds her head higher and stiffer, tends to bend less, is harder on the leadrope, and trots more. So I was clicking and rewarding for walking, bend, and a lowered head, with ears at about wither level. We didn't get anything as nice as to the left but we did get improvement.

I decided to end up today by rubbing her head, and clicking and rewarding when she held it low and still and towards me. There is a spot just at and below her eyes where she was moving it. I stood on the leadrope, rubbed with one hand, and had carrot and a clicker in the other hand. She could move her head around and I'd just keep rubbing until she got her head where I wanted, and then I'd click and reward. She was getting better, starting to understand what I wanted. As I was doing it I found a little lump on her forehead about 2cm in from her right eye. So I was right, the reason for the blood in the nostril, and her sudden dislike of having her head rubbed in that area, was injury. I just checked back over the blog and realised it's only two weeks since I noticed the blood. I think I might give the vet a call to ask how long it might be for her head to heal, and whether I should get something for it like DMSO or something. And in the meantime I will rub her higher on her head, which she is fine with.

She was very good about having the halter off when I let her go. I give her a little carrot when it's off. And she waited around while I put stuff away, so I gave her a bit more feed in a bucket. Then I took the dogs for a walk up the alleyway and she followed us, on her side of the fence. I only had grass to give her which was a bit boring, but she kept following, and she did eat it. But when I turned around and walked back to the car with the dogs, she didn't follow in that direction.

Another thing I saw is that she's rounding out and looking like a horse and not a baby, or an adolescent, any more. She still has a lot of maturing to go, though. I'll have to try to get some side-on photos - not easy to do that as if she sees you she tends to come up.

Nooooo! I can't step in muuuuudddd!

It has been a while because various family members have been away this week. But this afternoon we got in another training session.

LOL, when we went to find and feed Wart, we saw Banjo at the gate. Ellie opened the gate and I started to drive in and there over the crest of the hill came a cantering and whinnying Wart! I think he was pleased to see us. :)

I measured him for a rug, using a dressmaking tape, and the funny boy went, oooh what is THAT thing on me???!!?? We think that now he's in the big paddock, he's turning into a brumby.

It was very windy which meant that chaff kept blowing out of the feed bin. But I do think he got most of it. However we made sure we wet down the feeds for Orion and Darcie. Chaff is too expensive to have it spread onto the ground via the wind.

I groomed Darcie and did her feet. She was very good with her feet today. They need trimming, so I'll do that next time. We measured both Darcie and Orion for rugs, and I measured various bits of Darcie's head to have a rope halter made. I was surprised that Wart's size was so close to Orion's size in rugs, as I would have expected him to be smaller than he was. I guess the fat bulks him up a bit.

For Darcie's training, we started with face rubbing. She's been moving her head so I've been making sure that I rub the bits she likes less until she holds it still. Then we started with changing eyes again, but this actually turned into "you CAN go across the muddy bit". We did that until she went over the muddy bit without stopping before it, and without trying to avoid it and get too close to me, and without rushing it. Crossing the muddy bit became a bit of a sticky point (pardon the pun) and was the most challenging part of the training session. I had to basically push her through her resistance. It took a while but we got there. I would not say it was perfect but it was enough and we didn't have all day.

Then we did more "run up and rub", which we had started the previous training session, and she was great. She remembered it from last time and didn't take one single step back, or even throw her head up. She just stood there. She was also good for "skip up and rub" but was a bit weirded out by "kind of jump/hop/wobble up like some semi animated scarecrow and rub", although it didn't take too many repetitions for her to stop moving.

After that we moved to sending exercise and we got some nice calm sending in, through quite a small gap.

Then some more run up and rub, but starting to angle out the side, until I could run from 90deg from her and rub her on the side. She flinched the first time at the full 90deg but didn't move, and that was about it. The hardest thing in that was for her to understand to stand still and not keep moving her hindquarters away and keep her head to me in this exercise. One time I had to keep moving around her and wiggling the rope until she stood still, but she seems to have understood pretty well. Next time will show how well she learned it.

When I got to rubbing her body from a 90deg run up, that seemed to be a good place to practice flexing her head and neck to that side. She wasn't as light as the previous time we did it. Same when I did run up and rub, then head flexing, on the other side. But it has been a week. So I would not expect perfection.

Then we finished up with some more head rubbing, and then some grazing on lead, before they went back into the paddock to be released and have a carrot. Darcie is getting better about holding her head still when the halter is being taken off, which is good.

Some more photos

These photos were taken on the day of the previous post in the blog.

The first photo is of a bunch of horses at the dam. I made three photos into a panorama. If you click it, you will get a larger version (this applies to all photos in this blog). It was a hot and humid day and you can see a bunch of them in the water, getting cool.


Below is Wart enjoying his feed.


This is Banjo the Clydesdale, Wart's friend. He'd been brought out of the paddock and hosed down when this photo was taken.


This is where we bring our horses out of the closer paddock and tie them up and feed them and groom them and tack them up, etc.


This is a home made tie ring that we use. There are two (both halves of the bit) and we use them whenever we tie the horses. We just tie the tie ring to what they will be tied to, and then hook the lead into the tie ring. I do need to make at least one more, since we have three horses, but normally we only have two out at a time.


This was taken after Orion had been ridden and Darcie had been trained. They were both a bit sweaty and had a hose down.


This is Darcie after being let go back into the paddock. I wanted to get a side-on body shot of her but she saw me and walked towards me. I thought she looked pretty in this photo.


This was a part of a quite funny sequence. This was the funniest in the sequence so I've put it here. It looks like Orion is pulling a face and Darcie is wondering what it's all about.


The treasure at the end of the rainbow ...

A hot day, and some new exercises

Last night I did some DVD watching, since we are ready for some new exercises. I also had a look at the overview I started making for Series 2 of Gaining respect and control on the ground, and realised that we've already done some of the things on it, like helicopter exercise, and desensitising to a plastic bag, and the pat pat patting I was doing is something that CA calls Slap and Tap. Although of course it's all very thorough when he discusses it, which is useful. He speaks from experience. "Some horses do this", and "A few horses do that, not many, but sometimes you get one that will", so you have an idea of what might happen and what to do.

It was interesting today, when we were doing one of the exercises, Darcie was doing just what the mare on the DVD did, which was think that all my body movements meant to move, so I did the same sort of desensitising to my body movements as CA had done on the DVD. Actually I sort of started doing it, and instantly recognised that I was doing the same sort of thing, and so more consciously did the same sort of thing.

We went up a bit earlier today and it was quite hot and humid. I had to get to the Uni library near the paddock before it shut, otherwise we would have gone up when it cooled off a bit. Banjo was being led out of the paddock when we arrived, but this time Wart had not followed him up to the gate. We found Wart at the dam with a big group of other horses. He was upside down beside the dam when we came into sight, rolling in some dust. Other horses were in the dam, pawing at the water, and one was even lying down rolling in the water. When Wart saw us he came up for his food and happily ate it. When I say came up, I mean trotted and cantered up. He does love food and attention time.

After visiting Wart, we went to the paddock that Darcie and Orion are in. They were right down in the far corner and were not all that motivated to come up, probably because it was sooo hot and sooo humid and do I really HAVE to move? They did come up in the end, and I was glad that Orion was there, because Darcie mostly came up due to him coming up. But you could see they were thinking about whether the prospect of food was worth the walk up in the heat and humidity.

Darcie was initially quite flinchy to touch today so the desensitising exercises I'd chosen to do today, which were "run up and rub" as well as more "slap and tap", were definitely suitable ones! I also consciously did much more rubbing of the face, and would only stop when she held her head still. Again, watching the CA DVD helped make that a more conscious choice.

I groomed her and picked out her feet. She's still a bit waggly with the back ones, so I need to make a concerted lesson (or series of lessons) with those.

We started our training session today with "changing sides", where you teach the horse to step across with the forehand when you want to work with the other side of it, instead of the person walking to the other side. It builds on the yield the forehand exercise. It went very smoothly, both kinds. First the hand under the chin to move the head across, then push (with visual pressure, not touching the horse) the forehand over. That was all very low key and went well.

Second was the point with the lead hand and then push the shoulders over (same kind of push as before). With this one, at first she wanted to spring off into LFR when she saw the pointing hand, so it took a couple of goes for her to understand the difference, that I didn't want her to spring out into movement around me. Although I do love her responsiveness. Also when pushing her across I had to go a bit further at first until she gave the desired front leg movement, of pivoting around the hindquarters and stepping across and in front with the front legs. She was tending with the second method to go backwards, or to move the whole body. But it didn't take long.

Then we started with the desensitising exercise of "run up and rub", where I go to the length of the leadrope out in front, then run up to her and rub her head. You kind of pull the leadrope with one hand through the other as you go, so you can stop the horse from turning away, but you let them run backwards if they want. And when you get up to them you straight away start rubbing the head and keep it up until they stand there quiet.

The first time I ran up to her she was pretty horrified and tried to decamp! But I kept her facing me and as soon as I got up to her I started rubbing her. The next time she was about the same, the time after that she moved much less, and after about four or five goes she didn't move backwards at all. So when she was good at that, I started skipping up to her. She was good with that, too, until I got right up to her, and the first couple of times she moved back a little, but then learned to just stand there. She still puts her head up a little when I skip up to her but she'll stop that soon enough. The running up, she just stands there, she is really great. (It took her less time to get used to it than it was taking the mare on the DVD, LOL!)

After that we started with Changing eyes, which is an exercise where the horse learns to walk around you quite close with a good bend, then you change hands with the rope and stick, sliding the hand up the lead a bit when you take it into the new hand, and move towards the hindquarter and the horse yields the quarter, then you plant your feet and the horse moves the forehand across and walks around you the other way, while you let the lead out a little bit to the length it was before. So that is a combination of LFR, yield the hindquarter, yield the forehand, and changing sides. There is a bit of coordination involved for both handler and horse! I just reviewed the DVD and I saw that I didn't remember to consciously slide my hand up the lead when changing hands. The first time I did it, I could see the lead was too long, so I guess I did work it out, but I forgot that it was an actual part of it.

At first Darcie was doing what the mare on the DVD was doing, which was wanting to trot, and she even put in a little bit of canter, despite being so close to me (it's only a stick length of lead rope). So I was just letting her go, while making sure her head was tipped in, and tapping away her shoulders or barrel if they got too close, but letting her relax, relax, relax. Also I was doing the desensitising to my movement so she didn't think every little movement meant to go faster. One thing she did at first was, when she saw me swap hands with stick and lead rope, she would think I wanted her to go faster. So we did some desensitising to those movements too.

Another thing she was doing was guessing that maybe I wanted her to stop and yield her quarters, like in LFR stage 1. So if she did that I just pushed her front end across and asked her to keep going. It didn't take too long before she figured out I wanted her to make small circles around me.

Being a hot and humid afternoon probably helped because she decided in not too long a time that walking was a better option than trotting. It was maybe ten minutes or so before she was walking fairly consistently.

Then we started with the yielding the quarters. To do that, you swap lead and stick, so if you are going to the left, you put the lead into the right hand and the stick in the left. The right hand points at the quarter as you move in that direction. I found I needed to put my non lead arm up in each direction to keep her from walking past or into me, and to get the hindquarter moving over and the front end pivoting more. At first she was wanting to walk forwards more than pivot. So we just kept it up, I had to bump her back a little at first, and then when I got a couple of good steps, where she pivots on the front and steps across behind, with the close foot going in front of the far foot, then I would plant my feet and do the "changing sides" where she moves her front end across past me, and then starts to walk around me in the other direction.

At first she would start off in a trot in the new direction but she started getting that I wanted her to walk.

I should say that during all of this, Xia was desensitising her to a dog running around her and getting fairly underfoot. Darcie was a bit cranky with Xia for a bit but then just started to ignore her.

After a while we were getting it pretty reasonable. Still the hindquarter yield was not as good as it should be, she was not stepping across immediately in the way she should, but it was very improved, and she was nice and relaxed.

I just realised that this exercise is actually a shoulders in at the walk on a small circle. He asks for the hind foot to step under the body. I remember while watching the DVD last night, hearing him say it should step in the line of the outside foot. And he wants a bend in the body and through the neck. So that is a shoulder-in on a small circle. This exercise helps with whole-body flexion and with hindquarter engagement. There is an article about it on the Sustainable Dressage site, here, where she is calling it "shoulder-in volte". It's fascinating, the convergences in good training. I will check, but I'm pretty sure it was in a book by Nuno Oliveira that I read not long ago, where a shoulder-in on a small circle was mentioned as a suppling and calming exercise, and one to be done very often.

Next time I do it with her, I will more consciously be looking for a shoulder-in bend.

She was quite sweaty after all that. I got her to yield her hindquarters (as per LFR 1) and halt, and gave her a good head rub.

Then we did flexing of the head and neck to each side. She was AWESOME. So light and responsive.

Then we finished up with "tap and slap". The pat pat patting one. I started just behind and below the withers and she tensed up at first but then relaxed - and THEN showed me that it was actually feeling quite nice, since she started to stick her head and neck out a bit and wibble her top lip! I moved along her back and she started to move a bit when I did the top of her quarters but soon stood still. Also she moved her head a bit when I was doing the top of her neck but she learned to stand still with that one too. She's getting pretty good for it.

Ellie was hosing down Orion, who'd also been a bit sweaty. Darcie has not been hosed since I got her (our old agistment had no taps), and maybe not ever. I introduced the hose to her. It was turned down pretty low, but I could put my finger over the end to make it go in a bit more of a spray when I wanted. She was pretty good about it, moved a little at first. The most annoying bit was when she'd move around and the hose would get hooked up on a leg. The grass was quite tall right there and it held the hose up so that made it get hooked more easily, instead of being simply stepped over.

She was really quite unhappy about having the water up between the hind legs, up near her udder area, but learned to stand still after a bit. And when I moved to the other side, and got to that bit from the second side, she didn't move at all. I even had Ellie hold her while I hosed a bit under her tail. The only bit I didn't do was her head, which I will do another time, when she's more used to the water. I did let the hose trickle past her lips, which she was sort of worried about and sort of interested in. She moved her lips and tongue to kind of roll the water around her mouth. I think she might learn to drink from a hose, in time.

So after that, we let them graze while holding their leads for a bit. Darcie was not sure about grazing on the lead - she was waiting for me to ask her for something, so I took a bit of grass in my hand and led her nose down with it. Then we took them back in their paddock and let them go. And went and got a bucket with a bit more feed and fed them through the gate as usual, so that they don't rush off immediately. Orion had been about to roll when he saw the gate, and he postponed the roll for some food. Darcie was actually in a roll when I brought the bucket up, so she got up and walked over FAST so as not to miss out.

Today I took the camera up and got a few more photos. I'll post some when I load them onto the computer and edit the ones I want.

A windy day, and a funny error!

First, before I talk about what we did with the horses, here is a task.

Pick the carrot.



Easy, right?

What about if your sensing equipment was one of these?



It might be less obvious at first, right? But, after you chewed it and tasted it, you would realise if you made an error, wouldn't you? .... Wouldn't you?

Well ... more of that later.

When we arrived, Banjo's owners were leading Banjo out to give him a feed and a brush. Apparently Wart has bonded to him quite a bit now, and follows him when he's led to the gate. He was standing near the gate and as we came up the laneway he was playing "noses" with the 2yo gelding over the fence. But as soon as he saw the car he knew what we were there for and came over for his feed. And the after-feed carrot.

When we went up to the paddock with Orion and Darcie in it, there was a teenaged girl in it trying to catch a horse. Her dad was there seeing how she was getting on. We called our two and they cantered up to the gate. (She never did manage to catch the horse - apparently they had just got it back, it used to be her pony and they heard it was being sent to the sales so they took it instead. And it had always been difficult to catch. They are going back tomorrow with electric fence tape to make a yard to run her into.)

So - Orion and Darcie both came out of the paddock and walked themselves over to their feed spots. Ellie groomed Orion while he was eating, and tacked him up. She is still practising cantering with him, so that's what they did.

I was pleased that we are starting to put the training into everyday use with Darcie. That's what it's all for, really. I wanted her to move her quarters over so I could walk up beside her safely in the confined space, so just stood off behind to one side a bit, tapped my finger in the air, and clucked. She moved the quarter over, so I told her she was good and gave her a rub.

It got quite windy (well, VERY windy) during the feeding and she was a bit toey. We started with LFR 1 and let her get some steam off, then moved to a bit of LFR 2 which is coming along great now. She's starting to rock back on the quarters and move the front end over. Not perfectly and not totally consistently yet but it's all coming along.

The father of the girl was watching, waiting for his daughter to either catch the horse or give up. So it was quite good it was coming along! At one point he said that he liked the way we are gentle with our horses but firm when we need to be. He and his daughter are pretty practical horse people and do mainly rodeo events and are pretty competent with horses, so that was a good thing to hear from him.

At some point during the LFR his daughter came up and they decided they would come back the next day with the tape to catch the horse.

After LFR I did desensitising. I used the stick to rub all over her body. I also swooshed it up and down beside her on each side. A new place on her body was right up between the hind legs and touching her udder area, too. She tucked her tail and crouched a bit at first but then relaxed.

She was still a bit touchy about the face, especially the nose part just below the eyes. When I was rubbing her forehead above the eyes she'd relax and put her head right down. I really do think she'd had a whack on the face and it was sore, and it may still be a bit sore. There was no more blood though. And it was only a tiny smear in her normal clear nasal mucus the other day - any more and I would have been more concerned. I'll just persist with gently touching and rubbing her face until she's back to normal. And for now, I'm rubbing her on the neck with the stick instead of the face - I want to make sure that her face is not sore before I rub it with the stick again.

After the desensitising we did the sending exercise. This also is coming along really well. She's giving me space when coming into the gap, not coming into my space at all, and yielding her quarters nicely. She's also being more relaxed about it - responsive, but not as tense as she was the first time.

Since that was all so good and I didn't spend heaps of time doing it, after a rub we moved on to the first go at circle driving. It's really good the way that it all builds up. This exercise came along really really well. She was a bit unsure and tense at first, but as she figured it out, it all came together. At first I needed to tap behind the wither to bring her up in line with me a bit, but soon she worked out to do it just on the point of the arm, with just the occasional tap to reinforce when needed.

The circles were a bit like eggs at first, or something like that, but the distance and her bend and everything just seemed to fall into place. Particularly on the circle to the left. On the circle to the right, at first she was going with her quarters out a bit, in avoidance due to a bit of stress because she didn't know what we were doing, but as we kept going and she worked it out, the stress reduced and she was getting more in line with the bend of the circle.

The change of direction looked as if it might be a bit tricky but it all flows well and was no problem. I didn't find any trouble with either my coordination or with Darcie's response - her yield of the quarters is getting really sharp and responsive.

In fact pretty well everything she is doing is snappy, she's giving me snappy responses. I think part of that is me, as I tend to drive a horse on the edge a bit, in that I tend to teach it as much as it can take in and expect snappy responses and don't let it slob around. This would be because I've had quite a bit of time in the past having to teach groups of horses as much as I can in as little time as possible, while still ending up with a sane and sensible horse at the end. So I've developed a sense for how much a horse can take and teach things perhaps a bit faster than some other people might do.

I used to do intensive days, giving each horse maybe 20 to 30 minutes of intensive learning, then a couple of hours' break while I teach other horses, and fit in three to four of these intensive lessons in a day, doing things like spending a weekend getting a group of unhandled TB weanlings fully handled including leading at different paces, loading, feet, grooming and so on. There was one TB stud that I worked at for a while, and after I left they would get me back for these intensive sessions to train their new staff in handling the youngsters, and they would also get me in to do the difficult ones, like the one that would attack their handler each time she went in the yard with him. (He turned right around in no time at all - he'd had some forced foot trimming as a foal and needed to learn that people could be predictable and trustworthy, as well as requiring respect.)

Anyway, this needing to get things done effectively in a short time taught me a lot about how much a horse can learn and how fast it can be taken while still keeping everything pleasant and safe. I actually think it's good to give horse a bit of stress in these conditions, in a way that it can find its way out of the stress by doing what the handler wants, like stand still or move this way or that, because some day there will be a stressful situation that is not controlled, and if the horse knows what to do when stressed, instead of exploding or becoming unmanageable, it will know to look to the handler for guidance.

So, after we did circle driving, I did the patting desensitising again, which she tensed up a little at, at first, but then relaxed, and then we did some flexing of the head. She was SO soft flexing to the right. Soft and pretty quick. Not so good to the left. Needed a bit of jerk, jerk to stop her leaning, and a nudge nudge reminder to bring her nose in to her side. But we didn't need to do too much of that and she finished soft and responsive. I need to make sure I remember to do this EVERY DAY.

We gave them both one more scoop of food and while she was tied up eating, I took Xia and Zante for a walk up the laneway. While working Darcie, Xia had been doing her usual circling around, while Zante had mostly been in the car howling that it wan't SAFE to come out with all those hooves out there. She'd run into Darcie's hind legs when Darcie was in the big paddock one day, and copped a hoof in the side. So she knows they can hurt. Much more sensible than Xia - but then Xia is from Kelpie lines that work cattle as well as sheep, so a hoof in the side, or being run over, doesn't put her off at all.

It was so windy and while walking I got that itch in the feet, I had to RUN! So we ran the rest of the way down the laneway, and all the way back again. It must be such a primeval urge, to run in the wind. I know how the horses feel when they do it, I think.

So, then it was time to take them back. Darcie is starting to toss her head when I want to take off the halter so it's wait, wait until it's still and tipped towards me, then start to undo, and stop undoing if she tosses it, and so on, and then a bit of carrot when she does it right.

After we went out I went back with one last piece of carrot for each of them. Ellie gave Orion his, and I gave one to Darcie. And she dropped it. She knew where to look for it and put her nose down and then swept it up again with something in her mouth and crunching - and there on the ground still was the carrot. So WHAT was she crunching? I went in to the paddock and picked up the carrot and went up to her and not until I showed her the carrot did she spit out what was in there - a rock! I'd suspected it was a rock but when it came out all wet and slobbery, that confirmed it. (And yes, the rock in the photo is the very rock - but cleaner, as I washed the dirt off it.)

Ellie and I were laughing at her quite a lot by this time. Darcie actually did check the carrot a bit with her front teeth before taking it into her mouth, so I think she did finally work out that what she had previously was not, in fact, a carrot. But she is such a food driven thing. Maybe she thought it would start to taste like carrot if she just chewed it enough.

Getting things working right

Today, we worked on the sending exercise, did a little of LFR 1, which she is pretty good at now, and worked on LFR 2. Both the sending exercise and LFR 2 are improving nicely. We also did stick rubbing desensitising, flexing the head, and I did a new sort of desensitising, which was patting her over her body.

Oh and there was desensitising to the dog running around and getting underfoot, that she always gets when Xia is with us. Xia is SURE that she should be helping to move Darcie, particularly in LFR 2, where she sees me blocking Darcie with my body to send her back the other way.

The sending exercise is coming along. She is getting more relaxed about it but still moving smartly. I am not as close to the barrier (still the car) as I could be, but I want her more relaxed at the current distance before I get closer and it gets squeezier. Plus I will want the barrier, when closer, to be something OTHER than the car. When we have this down well I'll start sending her over things, which should be worthwhile and interesting.

The LFR 1 is coming along great. Sometimes she does put a little pressure on the line, so that's something to work on. We did a bit of it both ways, with a halt and a rub and then sending off the other way. Then started work on LFR 2. We still have a way to go with that before she's reading my movements as well as I want but it's really coming along.

The flexing is not as good as I'd like, or as good as it has been. We've done a fair bit of it over the time I've had her, and she is sort of going, ner ner I don't have to do this, a bit. She bends her head around and then just stays there. I'm asking her gently then giving little jerks to get her more responsive. I've also done a little of the jab behind the elbow - this is something that I learned to do with the Neil Davies stuff, to get the head coming around, so it's interesting to see the convergences. That's one reason I like that CA is an Australian, his stuff builds on things that I have already met and done. It's a bit different, and a lot more detailed, but there is some familiarity there as well.

The rubbing with the stick was fine, except that she doesn't like it rubbing just behind and over her ears much, but getting better there. I wanted to do something more and different so I tried patting her with my hand. I started on her neck, near the base, as it was easy to reach. WELL. She was NOT keen on that and walked backwards for a bit. I just pat pat patted until she stopped, then until about 15 seconds after she stopped - at which time she dropped her head anyway. So we built from there until I pat pat patted her all over her back, body, hindquarter, neck, gaskin and forearm on that side. She was really relaxing as we progressed and I think she was realising that a percussive massage like that can actually be rather nice. When I started on the other side she tensed and moved away a little at first so I did the same advance and retreat (that is, pause and rub at the times she shows relaxation, or retreat back to places she was already comfortable with it) and as we kept going she became more and more relaxed with it on that side too.

One thing was a bit worrying, and that was that she had a little bit of blood in her right nostril. She was also more touchy about having her head rubbed. I think something had clocked her on the head, maybe another horse. I could not see a mark on her head, or any swelling. But being as touchy as she was, I think she may have been sore. I will keep an eye on it.

I didn't say anything about Wart. We did see him before we went to the other horses. Xia and Cedar were with us and ran alongside the car. I wanted to see how fast they could go but as we got to the part where I could drive a bit faster, we spotted Wart. He and Banjo were sort of together - they were in the same area, but about 30 metres apart. You could see they were buddies though, as there were no other horses in sight.

After Wart finished his food we did run the dogs and they kept up with the car when the speedo was reading 40kph. We didn't go a great distance at that speed though.

There was a spectacular sky this evening. There were wispy clouds at a high level and small puffy clouds at a lower level and the display was glorious. I was wishing I'd brought my camera. You get a good wide view of the sky when up at the paddock.

Some photos from Saturday

Here are the photos I talked about in the last post.

I only got one of Wart coz it started raining. If you look you can see his paddock mates under the trees behind him. This is a wide angle view so that I could get him and also the horses under the trees.



I took a few of Orion. Here are a couple.





And a couple of Darcie.

Making progress, forging bonds

It has been raining for a few days. But we had a break in it today and went up. Searched for Wart for a while and eventually found him and Banjo tucked into a section of the paddock that is little traversed by people. He followed for a time but halted at the main group of horses, came a bit further, and that was enough for him. So not to the gate. I just fed him there.

I'd taken the camera up and got one photo of him and one of the main group under the trees, but it started to rain so that was all the photos I took at that time. There were some lovely teeny native iris peeking their heads up from the grass and I would like to get photos of them next time.

Then we went up to get Darcie and Orion. By this time the rain has stopped - it was only a shower. I'd planned to take some photos of them coming up. Had to move a bit fast there since they saw the car and came up before we called them. Got a few. No side-on ones of Darcie since she came straight to me.

Orion and Wart were in the habit of being let out the gate and they would walk themselves over to where they are fed. We did that with Darcie for the first time today. She did a bit of a dog leg but Ellie showed her the food and she went to it.

She was much better about having her feet cleaned out today. A bit wavy with the one I hadn't put the rope on last time, but that was about it. The one that had been the problem last time was fine.

Ellie saddled up Orion and rode him while I trained Darcie. She did lots of trotting and cantering, and reported that she is getting much more confident about cantering.

With Darcie, we did some LFR 1. A bloke went past on a spooky grey while we were doing that. It reminded me I don't want to ride horses that think the world is freaky. The horse is not totally at fault there as they ride it kind of cranked in, in a way that is more suitable IMO for an arena than out on what should be a relaxed ride.

Anyway she is getting really good at LFR 1. Still needs a bit less pressure on the halter at times, but coming along, and the yielding hindquarters and halting is going great guns. She's reading just my body much more now.

At the end of that we did desensitising to rubbing and waving stick. I want her to learn the different between the stick moving while I'm pointing with my arm, and clucking, and when I have a neutral position. It seems to make it easiest for her if I rub with the stick a little before starting with the waving, as it signals a change in what we are doing, from "sensitising" to "desensitising". I think as we do more, she will more clearly read the differences in my body that indicate when the stick is driving and when it's to be ignored.

Then we worked properly at the sending exercise. I didn't really have a suitable fence so I used the side of my car. Started at a distance from it at first. As we'd just done LFR 1, she was easy to get yielding her quarters when asked, so that was a good head start. At first she needed a little tapping or waving behind the drive line as well as the point of the arm, and she also needed a couple of times to be pushed away in the front before going through the gap. I also made sure we did LOTS of rubbing her face with the stick between each try. I wanted to keep it quite low key. There is no issue with her responding!

She progressed really well and we moved closer to the car. She started to do nice arcs towards the car and then through the gap, with a good hindquarter yield at the end, on each side. I was particularly pleased with the way she was giving me that hula hoop space, arcing away and then across instead of just coming into my space as she passed. Also, she was picking up well to move just on the point of the arm. Towards the end of that session the stick really only came into it when I was yielding her quarters, and as an indication, not as a correction - it didn't go anywhere near touching her.

We could have done a bit more, but hubby had to go to work and we had to go home, since Connor (eight years old) was at home.

We took horses and a carrot each into the paddock. I flexed Darcie a few times on each side before taking off the halter. It was effective and I reckon I'll make that a habit. I need to get into the habit of doing more of those.

So that was the progress. Forging bonds means that I am definitely feeling like Darcie and I are forming a working partnership. She is comfortable with me and I am learning to trust her more as I work more with her, reduce her reactiveness, learn her responses, and so on.

And I managed a few more shots with the camera before we left. I hope some turned out OK. I'm about to have a look and I'll upload a few decent ones later on.

Learning new stuff. Horse and me.

Today I learned some things.

1. It's best to teach things before you need them.
2. The rope halter helps with this stuff.
3. It really is worth it to not quit too soon.

And the story.

It's been a few days since doing horse stuff. I've been trying to get some of my work done and also having a few little health issues. Today though I went to visit a friend I'd not seen for a while. And got home and had a rest and thought about working and said stuff it, let's go up see the horses.

So Ellie and I went up.

First we drove into the big paddock and looked for Wart. Xia and Cedar ran with the car. They had a good run because we drove around a fair bit. Eventually we saw Wart and Banjo the Clydie coming down through the trees towards the dam.

I called Wart and he saw the car and started following it. Trotted then cantered. Funny boy. We beat him to the gate and parked the car in the laneway, then slung his feed bin from the fence as usual. He enjoyed eating and the attention, and I gave him a bit of a groom and checked his feet.

I think he's maybe not quite so fat which is good. Probably he's moving around more.

Then we went up to the other paddock for Orion and Darcie. Ellie stood on my car and spotted them (they were a little over the hill). I called them and they came up fast! So did all the other horses. Our two REALLY WANTED to come out. They were trying to get past the others to get to the gate. So we put their headcollars on and took them out.

While Wart's weight is heading in the right direction, Orion's is going the opposite way. We need to think about what to do about that. Maybe we need to find him a diet paddock for a little while.

Darcie was fighting for her back legs a bit when I was cleaning her feet out. The near hind most of all. So I put the rope around it and just held it up - if she put pressure on it I kept the pressure up - sometimes she was able to get it down (horses are stronger than people) but I kept up the pressure and would get it up again. After a bit she stopped pulling at it and I let her put her foot down. So we played with that for a bit until I could get her foot up with the rope and just hold it up with her holding it there gently. Then I cleaned her foot out.

After the horses ate, Ellie popped onto Orion bareback with his headcollar and a leadrope as reins. I rode a lot like that when I was her age. :)

We went for a little walk down the laneway. Darcie didn't want to walk in a patch of wet ground. I started to do a little work with her and it ended up being a training session in the sending exercise. Except I didn't have the stick and string with me, so I used a loop of lead rope instead of it. And the area was not very large. So it was a bit too much pressure too soon. Hence me learning lesson one. Teach a thing before you need it. And don't use it under higher pressure situations until it's taught. It got her confused and a bit hyped but nothing we can't overcome and there won't be any lasting problems from it.

Anyway we kept up our walk. She was wanting to walk too close to me a bit too much rather than walk over things she didn't want to walk over, so I can see we need to keep going with these exercises to keep her out of my space.

When we finished walking I thought we'd train the sending exercise properly, but she was still a bit confused and amped over it, so we did lunging for respect stage 1 for a bit and got that working OK. Then we moved on to stage two. It was not going great. And I learned my lesson 2. After I switched from the nylon to the rope halter, she was responding much more easily to my bumps on the lead rope to stop her running forwards instead of turning.

My lesson 3 was a part of that too. I was really puffed because I was working as well as Darcie. And Darcie was getting sweaty and blowing. I did some desensitising with the rope and was thinking about stopping because things were coming along OK although not as good as I would have liked. And then I remembered "if they have the energy to get it wrong, they have the energy to get it right". And "don't give up too soon".

So I switched Darcie to the rope halter and we went back to it. And she responded better. And I was getting my body movement right and she was watching me more and starting to understand what my different movements meant. One type of movement for stage two - put weight back onto the quarters and turn the shoulders across, and another type of movement for stage one - turn the hindquarters out and stop with the head facing in. Once we got some nice consistent responses we stopped there. At first she had been coming in too close to me on the turn, but she did start to get some nice roll-back movement at the end.

So even though we didn't keep going all that much longer, we had kept going long enough to get some of the right sort of responses for the exercise. And finish feeling like some stuff was achieved.

Although we were not quite done. I finished on some desensitising. We did plastic bag on stick. She was pretty good except she didn't want it touching her front legs at first, but soon got over that. I did neck, body, legs. Then we did "follow the plastic bag while it goes from side to side, then bounces around in front of you, then whizzes around and around overhead". I walked backwards and she followed - walking towards the retreating plastic bag helps her to feel more brave about it. You could see her feeling more comfortable and getting closer to it.

After that the plastic bag on the stick was rubbed all over her body, including up near her ears, and around her head. She didn't like it under her jaw at first but then was OK.

While I was moving it around her head I found she didn't like it moving past her eye. So I whizzed it up and down past her eye and she backed up from it a bit, and I kept up the rhythm, and she stopped, and I kept it going up and down, and after some time she dropped her head and I stopped the bag. So we did a bit more of that on that side, and moved to the other side, again looking for signs of relaxation - a sigh, the head dropping a little. She didn't run backwards from it this time.

Well we were done then. Darcie was very sweaty. I spent some time just rubbing around her head, which she enjoyed.

I took her into the paddock. She tossed her head around a bit when I was starting to undo her halter. I'm not sure if she was trying to get it off, or if she was rubbing her head on my hands. Could have been either. But we need to have a "taking halter off" behaviour, so I asked her to tip her head around to me with her neck flexed while I did it. I'll see if that's a good one.

Another thing I learned was to have treats in my pocket when letting go. I like when they hang out for a bit after being let go. Usually we go over to the car, get something for them, and then go back and give it to them. But Orion had already been let go and was further down the paddock, and Darcie left to go to him after I went out of the paddock. If I'd had something with me I would have been able to give it to her before she left.

So. Horse learned things. I learned things. All good.

Monday, rainy Monday

Raining yesterday, Monday. No work. We just caught them out and fed them.

They didn't come up when called - there were people next to the fence further down, and all the horses were hanging about there. Ours thought about coming up but it seemed they preferred to try their chances where they were - lazy sods.

When we got down to them, Ellie caught Orion, and I talked to the people for a bit. Then I turned to catch Darcie and ALL the horses (apart from Orion who was walking with Ellie to the gate) caught stupidity and ran around snorting for a bit. I thought Darcie was going to be hard to catch for about the third time since she arrived with me.

The first time was when she'd just arrived and had found a place to get out, and was spooky and weirded out in a new place. That time I just eased up on her and kept her calm and caught her. The next time, I had been too blase about putting a headcollar on her. She was normally so quiet and cooperative that I forgot she wasn't all that handled. A bit, but not heaps. So she pulled back and silly me tried to hold her with the lead rope around her neck, when she'd not been trained to it. So that time I got her over it by just catching, rewarding, and releasing her. It didn't take her long.

So this time I was walking towards her and she was heading off all snorty and head in the air, and showing a better trot than she normally has. (Her trot is functional but would NOT attract the attention of a dressage trainer.) But it turns out she was just playing, because then she circled around and came back up to me, stopping at the distance I prefer her to stop (not running into my space) and just stood there, still a bit head-up, while I went up and rubbed her head and put her headcollar on. Then she just led up to and out of the gate as quiet as you would want.

Another good thing happened while they were eating. They have hard plastic feeders that hook onto the fence. Orion sometimes scoops his with his nose when he's done, and it flies off the rail. It did on this day, and it flew over and landed very close to Darcie's hind feet. Just forward of them and to the side a little. She didn't even flinch. She just looked over at it and then put her head back into her bin and kept eating.

Wart is getting more comfortable in the big paddock. He was still quite near the gate, but he and Banjo, who seems to be his new paddock buddy, were away from it a little more than last time, and in the trees.

Banjo is brought out by his owners for food most days and he likes to hang near the gate, but gradually was found further away from it, with horses. I think he was looking for company which was why he was often with the herd that has Trigger, Scotch, Nigel, Chalky and the others in that group. And Darcie when she was in there. I preferred that herd as they are in the main older and quiet and sensible horses. The other herd runs about a bit more, and the horses in it don't have as much done with them.

So if Wart and Banjo both like to hang near the gate, they might like being near-the-gate paddock buddies.

In some ways, I like having Wart near the gate, as it makes finding him easier than if he could be anywhere in the 150 acres. But on the other hand, I put him in there partly so that he would get used to the area, which he won't do if he just hangs out near the gate. I guess I'll see what he does as time goes on.

Some new stuff, and getting some old stuff right

Well yesterday, Sunday, we didn't do anything. I was not well.

But today (Monday) we went up and did some training. I started doing the progression like the other days, but as we began the yielding the hindquarters, I decided that we were not getting it as good as I wanted. I thought she was walking forwards too much and wanted her to pivot more on the front end. She was stepping around with the hind end but I wanted her to pivot and not do a small circle with the front end.

Also when she was getting closer to a pivot, her head would get in too close to me, or even in front of me. Part of it was me working out my position relative to her, and part was just bringing her head in too close to me, or at times bringing her shoulder over in towards me.

So we worked on that. When she walked forwards I backed her up. If she was backing up without being asked (instead of pivoting) I reached back and tapped her forwards. I was doing a better job of putting my hand up and making a wall of it that she could not go past, in towards me. A couple of times I had to tap her shoulder away from me.

I was putting quite a bit of pressure on her, to the point before where she "blew up", but making her really work and move. And as soon as she got what I wanted (step across with the hind foot, with the close hind foot in front of the far hind foot, and pivoting and not stepping forwards with the front feet), she was rubbed to a stop.

I was looking for a very precise movement.

We did get a nice step or two in each direction. It's not consistent yet but we will work on it. Another good thing is that she is really getting the difference between "move" and "stand still". Each time I'd rub her to a stop, I'd then rub her over with the stick. Instead of standing there being nervous, she was really good at just relaxing and dropping her head and chewing. So even though she was highly motivated to move away from the stick, she was able to switch quickly into relax mode. I thought that was really good and useful.

From there we went straight into LFR - 1. She was getting that pretty good an it seemed natural to move to LFR - 2, where I swap hands with the lead and stick, step into her path, and she rocks back onto her haunches and changes direction. A couple of times she did a nice rollback type of turn. At other times she was not so good. A couple of times I had to move her away from me as she was cutting in too close after the turn. And a couple of times I had to keep asking for the turn as she didn't get it at first.

I'm pretty sure I was clear with what I was asking. We need to get our communication worked out, with her understanding what I am asking. And we need to be consistent about her not cutting in close to me after the turn. But I am confident we will get it. I'll review the DVD section on it after I finish writing this. I was actually planning to do the sending exercise today but LFR - 2 just seemed to flow on from what we were doing and so I went with that.

We mixed it up a bit once she was twigging onto what I wanted. Sometimes I'd ask for a turn, sometimes for her to turn into me and stop (LFR - 1). Sometimes after she stopped I'd ask for a new direction, and sometimes the same direction. Sometimes I'd rub her, and sometimes just stand her for a little bit and then get her to move. Basically I want to get our cues clear, and I want her to be really attentive and watching me, not trying to predict, but just to respond to what I ask.

Not perfect yet but we'll keep working on it.

After we were done with that we did a longer session of desensitising. We'd been doing shorter sessions while we were doing the other stuff. Just to let her go into calm and relaxed mode, to keep her at the optimum learning level. Responsive but not too hyped. Looking for the difference between asking her to move and asking her to stay still. We are working out our "language".

Anyway so we did the stick and string, throwing it over her, slapping the ground, whirling it over her head, etc., and then I put the plastic bag on it and we did the same stuff. It was only the third time she's seen the bag and it's been a while but she accustomed to it really quickly and even let me rub it over her head before we were done.

Also I got Connor to run around her while I was doing the other stuff with her. He's eight and it's good for her to get used to a child running around her. She was getting used to a dog running around her because Xia, my Kelpie, feels she just HAS to run around her in circles when we do stuff, for much of the time.

So, pretty pleased with what we did today. I am pleased by the way she can switch from "active" to "relaxed". Before we do more stuff, I have to review what I am doing so that I can be sure I'm doing it the right way, and helping her.

While Darcie and I were working, Ellie rode Orion. She took him down to the arena and was practicing his circles. He's better on one side than on the other. She was working on getting him good on both sides, also on getting him to do even circles, not to fall in towards the gate and fall out when coming away from the gate. After that, she gave Connor a lead on him, which he enjoyed.

Oh, and Wart was not at the gate of the big paddock today. He was closer down towards the dam near the gate, and there were other horses there as well. He was thrilled to come up for his feed and did follow me up to the gate, along with Banjo, who seems to be his buddy now. He seems to be settling into his new paddock, although he is largely staying close to the gate area for now.

Early stages, but already benefits all around

I've been noticing overall benefits in general handling of Darcie.

For example, I can get her to shift her hindquarter over when I'm behind her and want to come up beside her, in the place where we tie them up to feed and groom them, which is something like a tie stall with a rail at the front and one on each side. She has been known to kick dogs and other horses at times, and needs more work on her legs for me to think she's reliable about not kicking at unexpected things, so I don't want to come up behind her. I can just stand off to one side and behind a little, and cluck, and over goes that hind quarter.

Also, things like going through gates. We have to get through a gate that swings and which I need to hold at all stages of going through it, including putting a foot on it to hold it in place while I use both hands to do it up. It's a horrible gate. Anyway, now I can point and get her where I want to be more easily (still needing work), and also easily get her to move her quarters over when I want her to pivot, by leaning and looking towards her quarter, or doing the lean and look and shaking a finger at her.

Backing up when I want her to back up has more options now, also. Including getting her out of my space when I want to. Although I find she's not behaving pushy at all.

Just when you think you can't ... you do, and it's good. :)

Well after a busy (and enjoyable) day, I thought we were too tired to do horse work as well. But then, being up there, being with them, all of a sudden the tiredness goes away. It was so peaceful up at the agistment, in the late afternoon, after a showery day but no rain at the time, and nobody around but us and a bunch of horses. Oh and two dogs (Xia and Pickle: Kelpie and Border Collie, respectively).

The first thing was to see Wart and how he was. Happily, he is settling down. He was with Banjo the Clydesdale, both near the gate, but there were no more hoof track marks along the fence, so that means that Wart was not pacing any more. He looked more relaxed overall and happily ate his food.

We then went to the paddock that has Orion and Darcie in it. They were together and both came cantering up to us when we called them. Darcie is starting to look like a tame horse, with regular brushing, and her thick mane and tail looking nice.

So the horses were out and had eaten and were groomed and I asked Ellie, do you want to do more or will we put them back? She decided she would ride bareback with the headcollar for a bit and so I did some training with Darcie.

We are getting better at all the things. Not perfect yet. But we are starting to work together more smoothly. We added flexing the head and neck. We've done that before but not for a while, and we need to get better at that.

We also did some more of the putting head down exercise. She's starting to get that.

Overall everything is getting more relaxed, but she's responsive. As we work out our cues and understand each other even better, it can only get better. It's like we are developing our communication, and our relationship. I like the relaxed way that things are going. Calm and responsive. It's nice to stand there rubbing her over the head, stroking her forelock, rubbing around her eyes and forehead, while she stands there with her head down at about the level of my chest, just all relaxed and enjoying it.

Oh, I did find a "don't touch me there" spot. I was rubbing her over with the stick, up between the hind legs and everything, around her head, and when I got to her ears she tossed her head up. I can handle her ears totally with my hand, but she didn't like the stick there. So we worked with that for a bit. She's not completely relaxed with it yet, but she's not tossing her head any more.

When we took them back out to the paddock, because we have been getting better at Darcie's head dropping on cue, I was able to ask Darcie to drop her head to take the halter off. So that was a good thing.

It was a good day. :D

Day 2 - a short but worthwhile training session

Firstly, before I get to the training, WART IS NOT HAPPY about being in the big paddock. He was near the gate and when he saw us, he whinnied and came straight over. The ground next to the fence around the gate has lots of hoof marks and is chopped up a bit, from him walking up and down next to it. He also had some minor sweat marks, although it was a hot day so I don't think he was exercising TOO excessively.

He tucked into a feed of chaff with a few pellets in it. I need to get him a fly sheet and mask as they are hassling him.

I feel like a horrible "mother" as you can see he WANTS TO GET BACK TO HIS PROPER PADDOCK, and ORION. But I can't really do that. I think he will adapt but it might take a few days. Eventually it will be good as he will get used to that big paddock, and feel safe there, and that will make it better to ride there.

Anyway ...

So, training. We didn't have a lot of time as we had to go out to dinner. Ellie was with me and she rode Orion bareback with a headcollar and leadrope, practising bareback trotting, although we need to get her a bra that holds everything more stable as she was having some discomfort.

Because of time limits I didn't go to any of the working areas, which are a bit of a walk away. I just trained Darcie in the area near the paddock gate. There is a bit of open area there, not much, just enough to do some lungeing for respect (LFR), and there is also a moderately wide laneway area. It was a challenge because I had to make sure we didn't run into anything, so space was a bit restricted, but we managed.

We ran through the same things as yesterday. I'd reviewed some more DVD between yesterday and today, looking at the yield the forehand exercise, and realised I'd not been paying enough attention in yield the forequarters to how the front legs were stepping - the close one needs to step across and IN FRONT of the far one. I think, by the feel, that yesterday it was stepping behind.

The first thing we did was some desensitising and initially she moved a bit, and acted a bit nervous! Which she generally doesn't do. However this time it was a new place, and also I had not round penned her before so she was fresh. But she soon figured out I wanted her to stand still and was calm. We also did a bit of desensitising between the different exercises, and at the end, as the previous day.

So then we practised yield the hindquarter, and I checked where the feet went, and was pleased to see that she was stepping across and in front with the hind foot, which she had been taught to do originally. I hadn't checked that yesterday. We did the four back up methods, plus another new one, that CA does with Scooter in the download clip of the TV show, where the handler doesn't move with the horse but the horse backs up along the line, and then comes forward again when asked. Darcie picked that up really well.

Yielding the forehand was quite difficult with the added criterion of where the leg was stepping, but we were able to quit with a decent step in each direction. She had been doing a bit of going forwards (at the end of the sidestep) or backwards (when asked to side step) so we did some backup for the going forwards and using the stick a little further back to tap for the going backwards. My arms got quite sore during yield the forequarter, holding them up and tapping the air and rubbing the horse and so on. So I was happy to quit when we did, too. I will get fitter doing all this!

Lastly we did the LFR stage 1. She is getting much better about starting with energy, in the correct direction, on the point and cluck. She is also getting much easier to stop and turn into me - she is starting to do it just on me leaning towards her hindquarter, and a step in that direction, with just a hint of taking in the leadrope towards me. However she is starting to anticipate the stop, which means that a couple of times I had to start her off again, by driving her front end back out on the circle.

This was where she had some confusion, and I can see that we need to keep the cues very distinct. When I was doing that, twirling the stick and the string towards her neck, I could see at one or two times that she was getting confused, thinking that it was "stand still while I slap the string on the ground". I was pointing and clucking while twirling, as well as facing up to her, so I figure that the face up, point and cluck will be the difference for her between "go" and "stand still". When I slap the ground in desensitising, I don't face up square to her, and I don't point and I don't cluck. CA talks about the difference in body language between wanting the horse to move, and not move. This is a place where I can see that one needs to be very very clear, so that the horse can tell, oh this is sensitising, and oh this is desensitising.

I need to review LFR stage 1 to make sure I am doing it right. I can see that we are getting better but I want to make sure that I'm doing it all correctly.

My aims, and we know more than I thought.

After thinking about yesterday, I realised we know more than I thought. It's just that she hadn't had any more handling than being fed out in the paddock, for a while. Darcie knows everything on the first CA DVD set of ground training, although not perfectly, except for the sending exercise. Also she knows round penning. And she's done some despooking, having her feet done, going on a horse float, and stuff.

I've decided to go through the groundwork stuff before the saddle training because:

1. A lot of it is required anyway if I do the CA progression,

2. It can only help with having her calm and prepared for each step, and

3. As I've not done much with her for a while, we don't have a working relationship as such. I don't feel I know all her ins and outs (and she mine). I want to develop the understanding and trust that I have developed with the boys. Some regular training and spending time with her will do that.

Darcie's training begins

Well today was the first day of training proper for Darcie. She is a 3yo Australian Stock Horse filly. Black. I've loved black horses before but they have generally been horses I've trained and worked for other people. This time I got one for myself. The colour wasn't really the main issue but since this might be my last horse (depending on how the body holds up) I thought I may as well get everything I wanted. I bought her as a yearling.

This is a photo of Darcie a few months ago when she was getting some despook training - she is becoming accustomed to a flag as you can see. (You can click on these photos to see them bigger.)



I have done training with Darcie before, but the difference is that THIS time, there is a clear goal of having her under saddle over summer.

Previous training has been a bit here and a bit there, and she's been in the big spelling paddock.

Today I swapped Darcie and Wart. Wart (19yo Arabian gelding whom I've had since he was a yearling) went into the big paddock. Darcie, after training, went into a closer paddock, with Orion (19yo Paint gelding with a TB mother, bred by me) and some other horses.

These are Wart and Orion on the same despooking day. Wart is being ridden by my daughter and Orion by her friend. I was the ground person. Orion is now my daughter's horse, but on this day she was riding mine. Her friend is not as good a rider and Orion is a wonderful horse for all kinds of riders. Wart, on the other hand, prefers to have someone that knows how to ride on him.



I took Wart for a walk through the 150 acre paddock looking for the herd, so I could release him with other horses so he could settle. Well he said hello but then he took off back to the gate. He's not happy about the change. He doesn't like change much. But he'll cope. In the meantime he's hanging out by the gate wanting to be taken out and back to his PROPER paddock.

Darcie I led out of the 150 acre paddock and took into the smaller training arena/pen with the five foot high sides.

She's been a bit feral so we just went over the stuff she knows.

I've been working through the Clinton Anderson training progression with her. I like it because it's step by step, very detailed, and it's sensible and practical. It doesn't have any weird spiritual stuff, or energy projecting by me (I would not know how to "project energy") or things like that. And as he's Australian, it's very much along the lines of what I already know, with some US variations.

I used to be a ride anything person when younger but now I break more easily so I like the idea of doing something that's very thorough. And there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Here's a training progression already worked out, and thoroughly tested. I can modify as needed. I imagine that I will add some more positive reinforcement to it. It is traditional horse training in a lot of ways in that it contains a lot of negative reinforcement. But there are clear ways in which one can add positive reinforcement.

ANYWAY.

What I'm about to describe has some CA terminology but since this is primarily a private blog that's OK.

So we revised round pen work. We'd done it in the smaller one before. She knows it pretty well but being a smaller area she doesn't get to move out as much as I would like. It transferred really well into the bigger area with squarer corners. Since she knew what was expected she didn't find the square corners or bigger area confusing.

She was doing her inside turns quite well and hooked on really well at the end.

Then we reviewed some desensitising. First with throwing the lead rope all over her including around her legs (but not actually ON her head), then the stick and string. Also slapping the string on the ground next to her, and also waving it around her head, and we also introduced the helicopter string exercise, spinning it over her, which she'd not done before. She was really good with all of this. Having been just worked previously I'm sure helped, as she was ready to just stand and have a rest, although she was a long way from exhausted! We've done a fair bit of this stuff before and she's pretty good with it anyway.

So then we reviewed yielding the hindquarters, and did some more desensitising. Actually we did desensitising between all the active (sensitising) exercises, so take that as a given.

Then we did all the four ways of backing up. Tap the air, waggle wave, marching, and yielding hindquarters into clip jiggling. These are probably not quite the right names but for anyone familiar with this, they will know what I'm referring to. Not perfect at those yet, and the fourth one was only introduced today, but she's picking it up pretty nicely.

After that we reviewed yielding the forequarters. To the left was pretty good but to the right was not so easy, she tended to back up and also go forwards a bit. At the end of that section she was doing some nice circling with her forehand in both directions.

The next thing was "lungeing for respect stage 1". We've only done that once before but she remembered it pretty well. She was going well, beginning to pick the direction and start with energy. We need to get better at yielding the hindquarters to a halt.

Then we did some more desensitising (along with all the rest of the desensitising that I didn't mention as I went) and I decided we were done. It had been a good session. We need to get the LFR-1 going better before we can start the sending exercise, as she needs to understand yielding the hindquarters in it better.

We have done yielding head and neck quite a lot previously, and if I'd remembered to do it we would have, but I forgot.

I took her out of the yard and hooked her up to the tie ring. I wanted to trim her feet, even just a rough job with the nippers, as they were a little long. However she wasn't leaving her front foot between my knees so I could clip the hoof. She's pretty good with her legs (now, after some training) but she was pulling the feet away from me when I had them in between my knees. Before when trimming her, I'd had someone to hold her which provided extra control, but this time I was on my own.

So I decided that since she's going to be hobble trained anyway, now was as good a time as any to start with the single leg strap. As I've never done hobble training before I had bought the CA DVD on it and it's a nice clear and safe progression. Admittedly I'd not looked at it for a while but I had a pretty good idea of what was in it. I used a stirrup leather as a leg strap, put on as per John O'Leary (horseproblems Australia) which worked well, but doing the CA training session, of putting it on, moving her around (actually we ended up doing a spot of LFR with it as she understood that well and we were both safe doing it) and then waiting for her to basically submit and relax and drop her head, and letting her just be there with it for a few minutes. Once she did that on the first leg I took it off, gave her a break and walked her around, then did the same thing on the other leg.

Then I took her out and put her foot between my leg to trim again, and she held her foot there so nice and light, it was magic. I thought I'd try her back legs too and although they'd had nothing more that day than the lead rope and the string looped around them in the desensitising sessions, they were good too. I have used a rope all up and down them, and pulled them and held them different ways with the rope, as well as the normal leg picking up stuff, and trimming holding stuff. At some point I will tie each one up with a proper restraint just so that it's been done.

Walking her up to her new paddock I saw a horse that a while back had degloved one of its back legs. It's only just gone to no bandage after months of bandaging, and it's not pretty. It reminded me that training leg restraints can help to protect from that kind of injury.

Well Darcie settled into her new paddock pretty quickly. Wart will take longer but he'll be OK and it will be good for him. He's a horse who likes the familiar, so if that big paddock becomes a home for him, it will make him more confident about being ridden in there - it's a good place for doing some "trail riding".

Day one done. A good start.