#horseanality

Also had a chance to put some of last nights learning into action. I learned on the video that I'm supposed to squeeze with my calves by turning my toes out and heels down. This was like some kind of magic trick as Red suddenly got it. I only had to use a cluck a handful of times to get him to go and only had to lead out a foot once.

So although it is slow, this is progress, and I guess something will just click and he will get the idea.

What a horse, what a day!

So much got done today, I feel really positive. I had been feeling like I’d gotten a little side tracked with things and become too focused on this whole circle thing and had become boring. Well today I was anything BUT boring.

I had made a list on the tasks I had yet to complete for Level 2 and decided I’d hammer as many of them out today as I could. And it worked out really well.

Friendly game from Zone 3 has come along nicely and while he still has a favoured side (he keeps trying to put me back in Zone 1 on his right side), he is getting better and better, his head is getting lower and an even bigger plus is that I have inadvertently become able to toss a rope over his head without him even realising what is going on.

Porcupine game was fun. He tried to play back! That’s a development for him. When asking him sideways he often moves only his hind end and pushes into me with his shoulder, so today I got right up to a phase 4 and had my thumb nail dug into his shoulder and he whipped his head around to bite me. He only got as far as his lips touching me before he thought better of it and then moved, followed by a big lick and chew. We also worked some more on lifting and leading by a front foot. I can’t say he’s too impressed with this game either, he plays reluctantly.

Driving game I worked on Stick to me from Zone 2 & 3 and progressed to driving from Zone 4 and even a bit from Zone 5. It was a juggling act moving back and forth between Zone 3, 4 and 5 to accommodate his comfort, and also moving myself wider away from his body and closer in depending on what zone I was in. I didn’t really have any particular place in mind to drive to but eventually of his own accord he followed his tracks around his paddock and I was happy to accept that.

Yoyo game, well I found a small hill in his paddock and we worked on getting him to back up and down the hill. He did surprisingly well and the only real issue he had with it was the tree next to him that suddenly came to life in a gust of wind.

Circling game, we worked on maintaining gait while going over obstacles at a walk, we worked on change of direction at a walk and trot and we worked on canter circles as well, achieving a complete circle of canter in both directions. I am sure he is becoming more and more belligerent on a circle, as well as with the Figure 8 pattern. I shall explain soon.

Sideways I felt was kind of a flop. I need to clear away the debris around the fences as I have no length of fence long enough to work along or to get any speed up. Sideways without a fence I had to break down to small bits and use targets to go to as well. If I tried to expand the distance he’d start moving forward instead which isn’t what I want. However, I’m happy that I made that little discovery and I can work with it next time.

Finally, the squeeze game. THIS was the best of them all. He’s actually quite good with the squeeze and can go between and over a lot of things, so today I changed him up and I squeezed him out of his paddock through the gate! This is an enormous step for me. I have this ever-playing nightmare in my head that he’ll take off on me outside of the paddock and he’ll go off into the bushes, never to be seen again. As it so happened, he didn’t actually want to come out of his paddock. He stood there at the open gate for ages. When I did eventually ask him out, he came out confidently, disengaged to face me and looked around in wonder. He even looked off over the fence to the horses across the way as if to say “hey guys, look at me!” We went in and out the gate a few times and then worked few circles outside of the paddock before going back in.

I finished up with a Figure 8 pattern and this is always where the Left Brain horse shows up. He gets so belligerent. Goes over and around the barrels. Gets halfway around one side (the right side) and then digs his feet in and refuses to make the cross over to the other side. I ended up going right up to a phase 4 and tagging him a good one on the shoulder which sent him into a bit of a frenzy, but I tell you what, he went around that barrel EVERY time afterwards. I also remember Linda talking on one of the videos about more directing Zone 1 in the Figure 8, so I also focused on putting a bit of directional pressure there too to make sure he kept heading where he was supposed to be heading.

He wanted to do a lot of Touch It pattern. So much so that it almost became impossible to do anything else because he'd track off to go and Touch and item, or you'd try a weave or figure 8 pattern and he'd stop at the barrel and Touch It with his nose or foot. And when I sent him of circles he'd throw wobblies at me half way around and stop and toss his head. I can't decide if this behaviour is "no, I don't want to", or "Nooooo, I can't do this anymore!" it really has me baffled. Perhaps I can try to find a way to get someone to film it and let others see it and perhaps tell me. He's also doing something similar after I send him. Again, I can't decide if I've somehow insulted him with my send perhaps being too strong, or, if it's not strong enough so he's trying to be dominant and argue with it. I suppose I could play with my own energy and try adjusting it. Try stronger and see what I get. Try softer and see what I get. I suppose the worst that can happen is I'll have a small rodeo on my hands.

He was quite left brain when I turned up and was running around the paddock like a goon. I suspect the high winds had a lot to do with it. To add to it all, I had forgotten my treats today and so I had to convince him that scratches were sufficient. I think I succeeded as I managed to catch him with ease.

I started out around his head again. The improvement is remarkable and he is offering to drop his head at the slightest touch from me. He even let me groom his forelock properly today.

Then I got the big ball out and played a little bit of friendly game with it before setting it up for a round of the Touch It pattern on the 22ft line. I went back and forth between two items and Red was offering sideways (without a fence, even!) towards the items. It made me laugh because I think it's so cute when he offers things like that. But once I got him going back and forth, he began to get bored and impatient. He'd get to the item, sniff it, look at me and then shake his head. At first I thought it was a fly bothering him, but the shake also came with him chewing on the items and I figured he was bored. So I played Point to Point between the two items, at a trot at the end of the 22ft line. That seemed to spark his interest and more impressively, he trotted with his ears forward and focused on the item we were heading to.

Next I played with the A Million transitions pattern on a circle and got him going until he was trotting a full circle with ears forward, and then I added in a change of direction as the transition instead of upward or downward. He was a little worried by this at first and had his ears back a little to show it, but they came forward and he was so responsive to everything that I was getting the changes with minimal use of my stick.

I decided after this to take him for a walk around his paddock. He followed nicely but still doesn't show any sign of wanting to graze.

I went to go and finish up with a groom. I brushed him down and cleaned out his feet and began stripping his mane out and he began stamping his feet, fidgeting and generally looking like he wanted to get moving. So I obliged. Even though I had planned on finishing I figured it would be beneficial to us both for me to pay attention to what he was telling me.

I backed him up and sent him through a small squeeze a few times, and then I sent him off in a circle through the squeeze, then I stopped him and asked for a change of direction and he took off in a launch into what began as a canter but quickly came down to a trot. He had a spectacular look on his face and I was wishing for photographic eyes. His ears were forward, he was a attentive and he was ready for play. I bought my own energy up and began asking for figure 8's through the cones, into circles around the barrels and then to a weave between the barrels and cones. Not once, NOT ONCE, did he get even a little worried. I was driving him from zone 5, sending him with higher phases to get him to use his energy and he just flew about and responded to what I asked. It was a massive work out for me and a reminder that I really need to be a bit fitter, but even with my huffing and puffing, we had a blast.