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.