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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment