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.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, December 15, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
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 ...
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 ...
Friday, December 5, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, December 1, 2008
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.
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.
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