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Horse training has been at a stand still lately.
The weather has been very unpredictable. And I went back to work. Only part-time after the training period, so hope to be back out with horses soon.
Tried to take Cookee to a second clinic. Different with no unknown horse up front and no lamb smell. She still wouldn't go in. We really think it might be her teeth need floating. Time to call the vet.
I have been working a little bit with Fitzin. He can be so calm, then, so tense. Trying hard to never leave him until he is calm and at least a little bit confident.
We have been moving panels and horse shelters around to open up some fresh pen areas. Right now Fitzin and Goldee are in the biggest pen together. Their space includes our arena. They have plenty of room to run and play. Our two most dominant but most scared horses. Very interesting.
Fitzin is the leader. We really thought it would be Goldee, the mare, not Fitzin, the gelding. Very interesting to watch.
I hope to get back to blogging here consistantly again, soon. Training at my job should be done soon, then I can get back to horses. Yeah!
So keep checking in, new stuff should be showing up.
Birthdays!
April, ahhhh, so many birthdays.
We have Layla, Will, Maggie, Seattle Great Grandma, Joni, Jon's Dad, Buster.
What a busy month.
Then May comes along.
Another busy month. I'll let you know more about that in May.
Also, this month was a horse clinic. Natural horsemanship. Fell apart because, Cookee, our princess horse, decided to not load in a trailer. She's loaded before with no problem.
Who can tell about horses.
I am very depressed. Looked forward to this clinic for a couple months. Way too many questions as to if we could actually get there.
Thursday, found out Honey Hubby would be able to get off work to go. Yeah!!!
Then, Cookee, our princess, wouldn't load in the trailer. Why not?!!!!
She's been in a trailer before. Loaded right up. No questions, just followed me in.
Who knows about horses?
I sure don't.
With all Hubby Honey and I have tried to learn over the past couple years about Natural Horsemanship we really thought we had the answers.
"Pride gowith before a fall."
Okay, we have now had our fall. Definitely bruised egos.
Goldee, the mustang mare, loaded so easily. We never would have thought Cookee would have been our problem. Bear, yes. But, not Cookee.
Back to square one.
Back to the beginning.
Back to where the foundation got screwed up.
It's okay. Cookee is a very intelligent horse. We did something wrong, not Cookee.
One more lesson in Natural Horsemanship from the horses of High Desert Way Ranch.
More challenge, more learning, for us, the people. I love it!
More later.
Fitzin and Goldee
Maybe not in those exact words, but hopefully, you understand what I'm saying.
Yesterday was proof.
Hubby Honey (if you don't know who that is you might have to go to my ranch blog or to the website) was charged and bitten by a horse.
He has been working with this horse for a lady to teach it how to trailer load. Typical of a lot of horses, it just doesn't want to go in. Hubby Honey and I have had some pretty good luck gettin horses to load. No butt ropes, no whips, just eventually goin in. Yes, there are some techniques we use, the horse doesn't just go in, but our methods are not forceful. In the trailer is just the better place to be. I'd say we use a combination of Clinton Anderson, the Parellis, and Chris Cox, with some Joyce Gay thrown in there somewhere.
So far we have always gotten our man. I mean, horse, into the trailer. Where's some wood to knock on, oh yah, I have my head. "Pride gowith before a fall." I hope not, but this could be a first. GOWITH? How does a person really spell that word?
Anyway, back to Hubby Honey. He had been working with this horse for a couple hours, trying to make it a training thing, not just a get into the trailer thing.
The horse had put its front feet into the trailer a couple times. Hubby Honey was trying to find a good place to end the training session for the day. I didn't get to be there to see this, but according Hubby Honey, he had the horse about ten feet in front of him, he had it coming forward then backing up. On the last come forward, the horse charged at him, bit him in the shoulder, then attempted to run on by. Hubby Honey (being sure to stick to the three second rule in horse discipline) got the horse turned back to him, once again asked for a backup, a fast as we can go backup, and a fast as we can go, as far as we go backup. Then asked for a circle, then a stop and a turn, another circle, stop, turn, circle, stop, turn, then more backup. If that horse didn't learn who was the alpha of that herd of two, well, I just don't know what to say. It sure should have.
He then took the horse to its home pen, and when it relaxed and put its head down, he released it and left the pen.
He is supposed to go back today, but the weather here is really icky. The wind is just blasting through our valley.
So, if not today, tomorrow, he and that horse will have another date.
This why I watch Goldee so closely. I have never really pushed her up to this point. I have moved her around in the round pen, and asked for the turn when and where I want it, and then her face towards me. But, so far, the lessons have been short. She does have a tendency to pin her ears at me occasionally. So, I watch closely.
We had another very dominant horse here. Mr. Billy Whitesocks Johnson. I had been working with him for a while. One day he had charged at me and bit me in the arm. I backed him up as far and as fast as I could. We seemed to reach an understanding. But, I never, really, truly, trusted him after that.
He was eventually sold. He was supposed to be for the grandkids. He was kinda short, 13.3 hands. Looked like a mini Freisen. Is that how it's spelled? Anyway, black, with a gorgeous, long, full mane and tail.
But we couldn't take the chance.
Guess I should say something in here about Fitzin since his name is in the title.
Uhmmmm, let me see? Oh yah, Fitzin is also a dominant horse. When we first got him he raised a hind leg at me one day. You have to remember he was a very unconfident horse, still is. But he gave it a try. Before he got me, I got him. It was pure luck. He's never shown a sign of aggression towards a person again. The other horses and the dogs are another story.
He and one of our dogs, Niki, actually have a game they play. The dog runs on the outside of the fence, the horse chases her on the inside. They spend a lot of time just running back and forth together.
There have been some times I have seen Fitzin charge a dog, he could have gotten it with his front feet if he had really wanted to, but he didn't, which is good. I'd hate to have to put down a dog then turn and shoot the horse.
Tools and Objects
If you are following here, by now all this should be happening.
The next step is to add tools and objects to the lesson.
Now when rubbing Goldee, I'm taking a rope of some sort in with me. This doesn't have to be a lead line or rope, but it sure can be. She, at this point, doesn't want to have anything to do with the rope touching her.
My procedure here is to not let her touch it. I put it out about six inches in front of her nose, if she reaches to sniff it, I let her for a short moment, then take it away. I try to keep her curious. I once again do a bunch of approach and retreat. If she is calm and reaches to sniff, I take off the pressure.
I don't do this very many times. I don't want her to get bored with the game.
As she gets more familiar with the rope, I will try to approach her to rub her on the shoulder with it. In the beginning only touching quickly and then retreating.
Try always to leave before she does. Try always to leave while she is still calm. A horse learns the last thing done to it.
Fitzin, another one of my horses, who has a personally very close to Goldee's, is why I keep repeating the aproach and retreat method. He came to us as pretty much an unhandled horse. I believe I messed up his mind by approaching, but leaving while he was still scared. He is now scared of pretty much everything. He learned the lessons very well. "If I am scared and all tense, she takes the pressure off, so that must be what I am supposed to do."
I am now working with him in pretty the same exact manner I am using with Goldee.
He can already be handled though. He will come to me in the pen. He can be haltered and lead. He can be brushed and have his feet cleaned. But, he is always braced. Always has his head up in the air and is ready to run in an instant. And, he does. He has taken a couple people skiing. He has stomped on my foot as he bailed out of the lesson. No one has been seriously hurt, but could have been.
I am trying very hard to retrain that brain of his. Now that I have learned how to refine some of the natural horsemanship methods I've learned, things are getting better. For more talk on the brain, go to: High Desert Way Ranch(ette) to March 26 and 27, 2008.
Fitzin with Dredlocks
I will keep you informed.
To be continued.
The Start of Leading
Now it's time to move on.
At this point I will actually be working on two things: leading and hindquarter disengagement.
With her standing a little ways from the fence, facing me, I start to walk around her and towards her rear end. Hopefully, she has gotten comfortable facing me, and knows that is her safe place. And, hopefully, as I approach she will step away from me with her hind legs to keep facing me. If she does, I immediately take pressure off by turning away from her and walking straight out in front of her a couple steps.
If the horse doesn't move away with its rear end, don't keep walking closer! Stay out of the kick range!
If you need to add a lunge whip or natural horsemanship stick and string, do it. Just like when we were first trying to have the horse move away from us to go around the round pen, pressure gently. At this point I still don't have a rope on Goldee to help control her movements. This is a very good way to test your ability to read your horse. Too much pressure and the horse will just run away from you. Too little, and if the horse isn't moving, it still won't move.
This is where things can get rather complicated. This is where I say, if you are very inexperienced, find a professional trainer to help. Or be sure you are starting with a horse that has been handled.
If the horse just won't move its hip away, time to go back and work on facing up some more. If something you are trying to do just won't happen, go back a couple steps. Reinforce those earlier steps before coming back to what isn't working now.
But if the horse did move away with its hip, take the pressure off and you just relax.
Then,
I let this soak in for a few seconds, then repeat this movement. All I look for right now is that she moves away with her hind legs. Eventually, I will want her near hind foot to step across in front of the far hind foot. Then I will take the pressure off.
Repeat this maneuver on the opposite side. Don't look for perfection in the beginning. This lesson should really be broken up into two separate lessons or more depending on the progress of the horse. If the horse starts by crossing over in the beginning, great! Once you are getting the crossover, do not go backwards though and then just let the horse step away. Once it has learned the crossover, this should always be expected.
The next step is to get the horse to take a step forward, towards you. This can take some time. How fast this happens will depend on how trusting and confident the horse is in you. Now as the horse crosses over with its hind leg, you back away from the front, and watch for any forward step with the front feet. If the horse doesn't step forward, don't wait, go back towards the hip. Try to continue this until you get some forward movement. When you do, take a couple more steps away from the horse, and just relax.
If this has to broken into more than one lesson, no problem. Goldee and I have been working on this for awhile now. She still has problems coming towards me more than maybe two steps. So, I will just continue working at it. The more comfortable she gets, and the more confident, eventually, it won't be a problem.
End every session with just some petting and rubbing. With Goldee there is still a lot of approach and retreat needed with the touching.
Be sure you always leave the horse relaxed and calm.
Next Lesson: Adding tools and objects
Standing and Facing
I do this by being very careful in my timing. While she is in the turn, I watch carefully. Anytime she will look at me, I back up and take off the pressure. If she continues in the turn, I go back to my position in the center of the round pen.
I keep working at being sure she is calm, using the left-side of her brain, the thinking, learning side.
If the horse has one place in the pen where it seems to want to stop, use that to your advantage. Goldee continually wants to stop in the corner closest to the other horses. If she will stop there and face me, I let her. If she takes her attention off me, I then again encourage her to move on around the pen.
Anytime I can get her to stop, I let her. I then reward her by taking off the pressure and taking a step away from her. Then I give her a minute or so standing and facing me before I again encourage her to move around the pen. I continue to ask for the direction she leaves me in.
Try to balance how much time the horse spends going each direction. My horses seemed to all favor going to the left. In my reading, one author thought this was because, like humans, horses can be left or right legged (handed). Made sense to me.
Goldee has started to actually take a step or two towards me now once she is facing me. I am excepting this from her, but when she takes her step, I take a matching step away from her. It was Monty Roberts that called this join up. This is a good thing. The horse is trying to see you as its leader. Goldee is starting to try to trust me.
By now a lot of you may be asking, why don't I just rope the horse and speed all this up? Well, first of all, I can't throw a rope. Second, I want the horse to think most of this is her idea. The more, the better. If I start forcing things, yes, I may get some results more quickly, but I see no reason to hurry. By letting the horse think the results are its idea, it is thinking. It is using the left-side of its brain, the thinking, learning side. If I am forcing things, the horse is not ready. It will be reacting to the circumstances instead of thinking about what I want and finding the answer on its own.
At this point, if you have a horse that can be touched, continue giving lots of pets. Brush it, especially finding those extra itchy spots.
If you have a horse like Goldee, which still isn't very comfortable with being touched anywhere, I will continue using approach and retreat. Touching and then retreating. Staying just long enough that the horse does not leave. Trying each time to give just one more pet or rub before I leave. Goldee has actually started to lower her head some now as I rub on her shoulder. But I can tell by the braciness in her neck that she is still not comfortable. She is trying so hard to trust me. But if I stay too long, she will be the one to leave. So, I must keep watching, keep trying to time my leaving to keep her thinking, not reacting.
These are things I will continue working on. Trying to earn her trust. Trying to have her start to come towards me more and more, start to follow me. Start to stay with me longer and relax while I am touching her shoulder and neck. Then if she starts to show some confidence about being touched, to slowly expand the touch zone. But to continue to always be aware of the acceptable touch zone. Again, approach and retreat. Always try to leave before the horse does. Try to leave with the horse still thinking, still trying to trust.
Next lesson: The beginning of leading.
Facing Up
So, now I have Goldee back in the round pen.
Today our lesson is to get Goldee to start facing up to me.
When she makes her change of directions, I want her to turn in towards me. I don't want to see her rear end. I want her face. I want to see her start questioning what it is I want from her.
Now when she makes her turn, if she faces me, I back one step to show her I will take some pressure off if she does turn into me. If she turns with her rear end to me, I will take a step, maybe more, towards her, with the whip or string from the stick and string I will slap the ground near her back feet. This makes it very uncomfortable for her to turn her rear end towards me.
I must be careful here with Goldee. Because she is still unconfident with me, not trusting, I do not want to get aggressive with this move towards her. This is just to let her know, no, that is not what I wanted.
Watch your horse. If the horse is getting over excited and trying to find a way out of the round pen, actually looks like if it could jump, it would, back off.
Remember, we are trying to keep the horse using the thinking, learning of side of it's brain, not the reactive side.
If the horse being worked with is a very confident horse and really trusts you, you can use a bit more pressure in the beginning to let the horse know you don't want to see it's rear end in the turn, you want it's face towards you.
If you have a very dominant, disrespectful horse, then even a bit more pressure can be used to let the horse know you want to see the face towards you. But be careful in working with a dominant horse, too much pressure from you, and the horse may get aggressive.
There is so much psychology to deal with in working with horses. Who'd a thought? What happened to kick em to go, yank em from side to side to make em turn, and pull em to stop?
I guess it's still out there, but natural horse/person communication (horselish) is so much better. It builds trust and confidence. It builds a relationship.
Consistency
This is what I say about consistency. It's really important in working with horses. Sometimes things just get in the way though. Here is Northern Nevada the weather is a big factor this time of year. Two days in a row can be really nice, then we are back to winter with snow and wind and cold.
Also, I had to work out of town for two days. So, if it's not weather, it's life.
These are things we all have to deal with, so I won't continue on the subject.
Just don't give up on me.
I will be continuing Goldee's lesson. So, come on back in the next couple days, and we will continue on. I promise. Unless the weather is terrible, or life gets in the way again.
To hear about my out of town project, and some of the happenings there, go to:
http://blog.highdesertway.com. It's all about a cougar. Interested?
"I'll be back!" Did that sound anything like Arnold?
Where'd Spring Go?
Worked with Goldee in each of the last three days. Really wanted to today also, but it is very windy here today. I try to always work a horse at least four days in a row before a break. This time of year here in northern Nevada that isn't alway possible.
I am continuing to pet and rub her on the face and cheeks. Yesterday she actually let me walk up to her and rub on her face. Before she has always moved her head to the side so I couldn't touch her. I would say that is definitely progress.
I again used a lot of approach and retreat with her. I would touch or rub her face or nose once before walking away. She seemed very calm. Good! This is the same approach I used in touching and brushing her shoulder and neck. Again, I tried to be sure to stop and leave before she did. A horse learns not from what you are doing, but from when you stop doing what you are doing. You taking the pressure off is their reward for doing what you wanted.
Also yesterday, when I was cleaning the round pen, it took her about half the time it had day before to venture into the round pen to investigate the items I had placed there. Then she let me be closer to her while cleaning, and stayed longer to sniff the manure fork.
When it was time to start working with her yesterday, she was calmer than on Monday. By the time we were done on Monday, she was a sweaty mess. Yesterday, with me using the same methods, Goldee wasn't sweaty at all.
So what methods did I use?
In teaching her I am the leader, the alpha, I get her feet to move. I use the Parelli method of asking the horse to move, let's say to the left. In the refined stage of this request the horse should be facing you. But in the beginning stage, we just want the horse to move it's feet, hopefully in the direction we ask. I quietly lift my left hand, pointing in the direction the horse should go. If the horse doesn't move, with a lunge whip or stick and string in my right hand, I raise that, pointing in the opposite direction I want the horse to go. Once again, this is a quiet movement, not rushed or driving the horse.
If the horse still doesn't move, gently swing the whip or string on the stick towards the horse's left shoulder in a very rhythmical motion. If the horse doesn't move within three taps on the ground with the whip or string, tap the horse on the shoulder encouraging it to move. At this point, most horses will move. If you have one that just won't move, I do have one that wouldn't in the beginning, look for even just the slightest lean or head movement in the direction you want the horse to go. Then lower both your hands and arms and put them in a relaxed position at your side. Give the horse a few to let things soak, then start again.
Goldee did move. Only in the opposite direction I was asking for. In the beginning, I really don't care. She moved. We can refine later. So now she is moving around me to the right. Instantly I drop both my hands and arms into a relaxed position at my sides. I have taken the pressure off to let Goldee know she did the right thing. She is bouncing and jumping all over the place, and then tearing around the pen. My intent here is not to teach the horse to just run. A horse can run for a very long time. And when it is running like she was running, she had gone right-brained. To the prey animal side. We want to keep our horse away from that side of the brain. So instead of just letting her run and run, because she is definitely not in a learning mode here, I suggest to her she stops. I do this by cutting her off. Okay if you have a horse that is just running at this point and not even aware you are in the pen, just wait until they start coming down a little.
If the horse is running and unaware of you, you could easily get run over or kicked when the horse decides to turn at the last second. So BE CAREFUL!
Once she has calmed down some, I manage to get her turned. I move back to the center of the pen. Once again I totally relax with my hands and arms at my sides.
If you have a horse who just won't stop running out of control, you need to find a way to get it slowed down and then turned. I have one of these. The same one who at first wouldn't move. Another extreme horse. That is another story.
Back to Goldee.
Luckily, she did turn. Once she stopped her head throwing and bouncing around, before she could really start just running again, I cut her off and made her turn again. Each time they have to turn, for just an instant, they actually have to go to the thinking side of their brain. So the more you can get them to turn, the more they have to think. Then the trick is to get the horse to finally stop in the middle of the turn and face you.
That will be our next lesson.