Tuesday, November 16, 2010

It’s great to see our girls doing so well. After grooming and tacking up in the barn, we headed to the arena. Nadine was working with Dolly, Cec with Sally Ann, Glenn with Mana, and I with LT The Cute.

Our ground work today focused on WHOA. Stopping is, of course, a fine thing! Our expectation was that the horses would stop nicely in position within three strides. Just like we would do in the saddle, we were instructed to exhale, drop our energy and relax, and say “whoa.” A nice stop behind earned praise. A pushy, halter-draggy, messy halt earned a correction and a backup.

We then worked on shoulder/hind end releases and looped the lead rope like reins, teaching the horses to bend their head to pressure from either side. We also worked on backing up using the “reins” to cue the horses.

LT continues to work on testing her boundaries a bit. She does not seem to have enough respect for personal space yet, and resists being told what to do from time to time. Her resistance expresses itself in a bit of rearing, which Megan describes as a learned behaviour. Waving her front feet in the air a bit in response to pressure has likely resulted in people not insisting on good behaviour from her in the past. It’s expected that a session in the round pen to teach her appropriate responses to pressure will eliminate this behaviour.

“She just needs to learn that that moving away from pressure means that the pressure stops,” explained Megan. “Then she’ll stop reacting with so much drama.”

Nadine’s comments about mounting up on Dolly:

After leaning over Dolly, I put my foot in the stirrup and put my hip towards the saddle…..I did not yet mount. I did that a few times, and then I had Megan at Dolly’s head to mount. At this point I needed that for a confidence builder. Dolly was wonderful. She did look back at my leg to “check in”.

This training session ended with a great discussion about our personal space, and what we allow with horses. Megan explained that the personal space she expects the horses to respect is greater than our personal space, and she said that that is not uncommon with novice trainers.

Sunday November 14

Such an exciting day for all of us – today we mounted the three mares for the first time! And, they all did excellently well.

Today’s lesson was all about mounting and dismounting. We tacked up the horses and did a bit of ground work, and then worked on leading them to the mounting block, standing beside them, and leaning over and on their backs. We did this on both sides, and then without further drama, simply slipped a leg over and sat quietly for a moment. The horses were encouraged (using halter and leadrope tied over like a rein) to take one step back. Then, we dismounted, and repeated this.

Glenn and Mana didn’t mount up, but practiced at the mounting block and on the ground. She was very accepting of the lean-weight-over exercise; the two are continuing to build a solid and respectful relationship.

(November 11 & 12)

Sometimes, despite my best efforts, trivial matters (like work) interfere with other more important activities (like updating this blog). My apologies to our loyal readers. I’m sure all three of you were on the edges of your seats, wondering what we’ve been up to.

Thursday and Friday’s training sessions were spent building the horses’ comfort levels with the saddles. Tacking up is now happening in the barn instead of the arena, and all of the girls stand calmly for grooming and saddling, both in the tie stalls and the alleyway. They’ve worn the saddles for longer periods of time, and have moved at walk, trot, and canter while wearing them.

We also included an entertaining display for our spectators. As I’ve described previously, we are working to build the horses’ responses to pressure. Every session, we practice shoulder releases, hind end releases, back ups, and so on. Friday, we threw in trotting on the lead line. We started with encouraging the horses to keep up as we walked slowly, then very slowly, then faster, and then very quickly. Finally, we built up our energy and started jogging – with lots of up-and-down knee action and eyes firmly fixed frontwards, correcting with the lead ropes – while the horses one and all threw their heads up and said “WHAT THE…??”

But, by the time the trainers were nicely warmed up and huffing and puffing, the horses were all trotting.

We’ve also introduced bridles and bits, although haven’t attached reins yet. This is where all the playtime with the ropes has paid off, since all the horses readily drop their heads and let us touch their mouths. Slipping in a bit is no problem! In fact, during Friday’s session, Sally Ann was in no hurry to let go once training time was over, and it took Nadine close to a minute to encourage her to spit the bit out again.

Today’s lesson made it easy to understand how all our efforts so far will translate into a trained riding horse.

First, handling. Petting, touching, tapping, patting, and fussing with our horses builds trust – for both horse and human! We learn what our horses enjoy (and don’t like so much) when it comes to handling. Of course, horses that stand politely and patiently are easy to groom and tack up. And, that trust and tolerance comes in extra-handy for when the vet comes with cold instruments and pointy needles, too!

Next, pressure. Moving away from pressure when asked by body language and touch builds respect. Horses need to learn to do what people ask of them without (a lot of) questions or objections. People need to learn to ask consistently and communicate clearly. Horses need to learn to react without overreacting. People need to give horses time to understand and learn, building expectations at a gradual pace.

Third, specific responses to specific pressure. If I apply pressure to a particular point on your body, Horse, I am asking for a certain type of movement. These exercises are very clearly setting the horses up for success once they are ridden, where leg pressure demands a very specific action on the horse’s part.

These exercises are also the hardest to learn, since they require the coordination of hand, rope, body, feet, and mind to execute – and I’m just talking about the trainers! There were several times today where I almost felt that Dolly was rolling her eyes at me, with an imaginary thought balloon over her head: Oh, THAT’s what you want. Why didn’t you just ASK me??

Thanks for your patience, Dolly! You’re cool.

Finally, today we worked more with the saddles. Pad on. Saddle on. Saddle off. Pad off. Pad on. Saddle on. Cinch on. Cinch off. Saddle off. Saddle on. Switch sides. Walk around…. lather, rinse, repeat. The horses took it all in stride. Thank goodness we were using the youth saddles, because otherwise my feeble upper-body condition would have been REALLY obvious.

At some point during our training session today we talked about the timeline of our training program. Cec thought that some readers might wonder what’s taking us so long. “I can imagine people saying, ‘Get on them already!!’,” she laughed.

But, that’s easy to explain. It’s us newbies that are slowing down the progress! Each of the steps just takes so long when it needs to be explained, demonstrated, tried, corrected, repeated, occasionally re-demonstrated, and then tried again. Throw in about a million or so questions, and we find ourselves wrapping a half hour of training up in about 70 minutes or so.

It’s not the most efficient process. Cec and Megan deserve medals for their patience. I’m not kidding.

This morning’s session introduced each of the horses to the saddle, and that was a non-event for all concerned. Saddles went on and off from both sides, and were calmly cinched up. This was followed by some walking and trotting on the lead rope – LT with her ears back the whole time as she got used to the feeling of the stirrups flapping against her sides.

Megan also did some remedial work with Serenity Dolly in the round pen, working to improve her connection with her handler. She also did some remedial work with me, trying to improve my body awareness and presence on the ground. As I get better at that, my communication with the horses will improve.

It’s a work in progress – and uphill work at that. Fortunately horses are forgiving of mistakes.

So a week of training has come and gone and everyone’s done pretty well so far. But one thing has become abundantly clear: Serenity needs a new name. There’s just not that much that’s serene about her! Instead, when it comes to someone telling her what to do, there’s quite a bit of Do Not Want followed by a fair amount of You’re Not The Boss of Me and the occasional Bite Me.

Anyway, her current nickname is Dolly, but hey, feel free to pass along your suggestions.

Today’s training built on the previous moving-from-pressure exercises. Trainers got the horses moving away from pressure exerted by a moving rope. A short end of rope was whirled or swung gently and, if the horse didn’t move, was used to tap the horse’s body to increase the pressure. Halter pressure was added in the beginning, until the horses got the idea. With the exception of Serenity Dolly, almost no force was required to have the horses respond as desired.

Glenn and Mauna continued to make progress on Mauna’s respect for the personal space of the human around her. This is requiring a lot of reprogramming on Glenn’s part, and he is working hard. Mauna is a pretty big two-year-old, and she’s full of energy. It is easy to imagine that energy becoming a huge handful if she’s not taught good manners!

LT got a day off today, and I had the fun of working with Taco. He’s an Appaloosa gelding who’s trained to ride, but who seems to have had some rough handling prior to his arrival at St. Andrews in September. He is very cautious and easily startled. In fact, when Cec stepped in to settle Miss Dolly’s refusal to move away from the rope with a firm tap or two (see You’re Not The Boss Of Me, above), Taco froze and stood shaking. Poor baby. There’s such a vast difference between a correction, even when the correction is firm enough to be effective, and a beating. With time, Taco will learn he never needs to fear the latter at St. Andrews.

I spent time getting him more comfortable with having the rope touch him, and desensitizing him to some more brisk movements, both with my body and with the rope. Even hopping became acceptable, although hopping with an arm raised was TOO MUCH.

Today’s training session started with some grooming time while tied in the barn. The girls took this completely in stride, standing for their brushings like old lesson horses.

Once in the arena, we reviewed previous lessons, and then started working on the new things for today – introducing the saddle pad and a short lunge whip. Using the advance and retreat technique we’ve learned, the horses were allowed to sniff the pad, it was briefly rubbed on their shoulders, and then taken away. This quick introduction made the horses curious. The general reaction was — What is that thing? Why does it keep disappearing?

In no time the horses were accepting the pads on their backs and walking around. Easy!

The lunge whips were also introduced, and with virtually no concern the horses allowed us to rub them all over with the whip and the line.

Poor Sally Ann was very sore again today. She had seemed to be on the mend, but today was a definite setback. We’ll see what happens after another corrective trim.

We shot some video today – I will do my best to get it edited and posted ASAP!

Okay, so the pressure isn’t building in a pressure-cooker way. But we are definitely increasing the expectations we have of our horses’ ability to move away from pressure. Today’s exercises included putting pressure on the shoulder, and releasing and stroking once the horse moved. We did the same on both sides, and then on the hind end on both sides. Cec demonstrated how we could direct the movement by moving the horse’s head to encourage the correct bend. A bit of halter pressure to move the head towards the trainer made the hind end release a breeze. The opposite flex was equally effective for the shoulder release. “These are the movements we’re going to want to direct once we’re on their backs,” Cec explained.

We also worked on getting the horses to drop their heads, and bend towards pressure exerted from the opposite side by using the rope around the horse’s hind end.

Early training efforts were focused on desensitizing the horses. This work is ongoing, as we constantly introduce new sounds, movements, and actions around them. Today included a lot of jumping. LT took this like a seasoned veteran, even allowing me to put both hands on her back and apply pressure as I hopped like a crazed kangaroo. Selene and Sally Ann coped nicely with this exercise. Serenity wasn’t as sure, and circled Nadine as she got used to the idea. At least none of us were cold by the time we were done!

Cec also encouraged us to repeat each exercise three times, and to be sure to allow ten seconds or so of “thinking time” – where the horses could repeat a movement enough times for it to make sense to them, with enough time to process what was happening without feeling rushed.

Glenn and Mauna worked with Megan to build and reinforce Mauna’s responsiveness to pressure. We wound up the evening with a great explanation and demonstration from Megan on how to reinforce respect for personal space around the horses. After some dismal attempts I finally got it right! It was a nice way to end the session.

It was a late night for the trainers and horses. We started at 10 pm after classes, learning how to stand calm in the grooming and tacking stalls.

Training Notes from Nadine:

Tonight’s lesson was about learning how to walk into the tie stalls, and become comfortable with the cross ties. Every horse walked in and out of every tie stall in the barn.

When we first came into the barn with “our girls” there was already another horse in a stall. Sally Ann had to wait her turn, and she was tied to one of the box stalls. Well she was not 100% happy with that and kicked the stall.

LT and I were already in a tie stall, and the kick definitely was a very loud bang. Well it did wake up the horses in the barn, but all of the horses did very well and the trainers remained calm.

We were reminded that our feet play a very important role in how we interact with our horses and what we are communicating to them. When we enter the tie stall, we walk forward, turn and continue to walk forward out. We do not look at our horses, we just walk.

Glenn was having a hard time with this, when he got to the back of the stall he would turn his feet into Mauna, then turn back to walk out. He also kept looking at her. Megan helped him with his feet placement, as sometimes we do not even realize what we do. Glenn appreciated Megan’s advice, and he got it! He said that he learned a lot tonight.

Once the horses were in the tie stalls, we just let them stand there without being tied yet. If they moved forward, they were gently corrected back. Once they were used to that, the cross ties were hooked up and we stayed by our horses. Megan said that they knew the ropes were there, as they began to move their heads to feel the cross ties out.

The next step was to have them tied as we moved 5 feet back. We had to remember that when we move back, we move straight back with our bodies so not to invite the horses to go with us.

LT moved forward and put pressure on her ropes, Megan advised just to watch her, and if she did not move off of pressure give her a hand back. The second time she learned how to move away from the pressure herself…Smart Girl!

All of the horses were thinking, and they did excellent.

This lesson goes hand in hand with the previous lesson, about moving away from pressure.

Tuesday was an exceptionally busy day for me. By the time I made it to the barn for our 6:00 training session, it felt like I’d lived a week since breakfast. I took a deliberate breath of cool prairie air and used the quiet moment to focus. Horses definitely know if you’re not fully present in the moment, so I put aside the undone things on my mental to-do list and exchanged office shoes for rubber boots.

We were joined today by two boarders who are also working with their horses. Vicki and Glenn are working with Mauna, their two-year-old Thoroughbred. Sara and Buster are working through some of the issues from Buster’s uncertain past. (Spelling of names here is also uncertain. Corrections welcome.)

Of course the horses are not the only ones having new experiences. “Carole!” Megan called to me early on. “STOP being so CREEPY!” Turns out my movements, which were intended to be slow and nonthreatening, were being seen by Sally Ann as stealthy and catlike. As soon as I stopped that, she stopped moving away from me. Progress! Calm, confident, and deliberate are the way to go. No problem – I can be retrained also.

We worked with the rope this evening, introducing the idea of moving away from pressure. Using the rope, we got the horses to lift their feet, bend their necks toward us, and move their shoulders. In each exercise, their reward for a correct response was a release of the pressure.

In my case, the reward for correct behaviour was not having the word “CREEPY!” hollered at me from across the arena.

We also did some exercises that will help the horses once it’s time for saddling. We used the rope to squeeze their barrels (this is how a cinch feels…) and play with their mouths (this is how a bridle feels…).

The great thing about all of this is the lack of drama. There’s no fear or force involved at all. The horses are being introduced to new things and are allowed to think about them and decide calmly how to respond. It’s easy to see how this will make a trusting, thoughtful riding horse.