#training diary

Training Diary - WildSoul (completed).

lunged him without saddle first to see if saddle was somehow related to The Incident yesterday (saddle will still be checked just in case) and he was all good for that. arena got harrowed this mo so only had 1 pole in the ring instead of the few jumps which he definitely coped better about. lunged over the pole just fine, did have a hairy/spooky moment when he knocked it and the noise scared him

hopped on and he was a wee bit fizzy-brained but settled on the flat, had a nice little trot. started aiming him towards the pole to walk over and he was very all over the place about going near it, jumped it and rushed off after so came around to do it again. knocked it (again) and gave himself a fright so definitely leaning towards the "pole makes scary noise when i bang it therefore if i don't go near it i won't hear scary noise or bang it" mindset (as much as i love jay he is, Unfortunately, a Bit Of A Dick and and has a shitty attitude to things he doesn't wanna do)

trainer-also-workmate offered to ride her horse over the pole and let Jay follow when he got worked up and tense about it near the end which was a VERY good call, he followed almost-perfectly and only had a wee No Brain Engaged moment when she knocked it in front of him

almost 99% certain it's because he gave himself a fright yesterday knocking the jump so many times so he just refused to do it again but chiro and dentist are in the next few weeks anyway

Sweaty baby! After a week of some of the most solid rides we’ve ever had, today we had what I like to call an “occupational therapy” day... These days are not really planned, and occur when you stumble upon a trigger of great anxiety for your horse. Everything you had actually planned to do goes out the window, and you end up spending the day figuring out what triggered it, and how you can bring them back from orbit.

Today’s trigger was working on one side of the very large outdoor arena while the nearest horse was working way down on the other side. We have hacked out alone, we have walked all over that arena, and we have done conditioning days out there where we followed a buddy horse. But this was the first time he was asked to do focused work as the only horse in the immediate vicinity. While we were at a walk everything was perfect, but as soon as we started to trot I could feel him vibrating under me. Head tossing, whinnying, jigging, you name it we got the whole gambit of anxiety responses.

Hello, it is I

Get ready for a recap of last week! Felt like a great, strong week, so I’m really just hoping I can replicate that this week hahaha

Her target right now is my leg, and so that will need to be transferred to either a towel or some other object but I’ve been able to touch feet (not a fav), ears, move shoulders and legs, and otherwise prod with decent success. She is much more comfortable in this position than a lot of others.

As a result of a need to maintain position throughout a procedure we have also been developing some new marker words. Adding the marker to this behavior has been much clearer on my end then when I first started trying it out and I’m excited to keep refining them. It’s so nice to have clean behaviors and cues and it’s fun what you can do with markers.

okay so i didn’t even watch this i’m just. going for it here. 

this is the trick we’ve struggled the most with. her desire to do a sit is super strong, so backing up has been... tough. i really feel like i’m putting way too much pressure on her pushing into her with the lure, but otherwise she just.. sits? 

i tried a few different things here: a few times i tried luring with my hand with no treat, but she seemed to think that she had to paw it then. i also tried towards the end to lure higher as opposed to under her chin. 

i KNOW my timing is crummy, i’m a rookie and out of practice. i will work on this. i used a folded up blanket to get her to back up on, we do have a nice little wooden platform but she will scurry her ass around the damn thing to avoid stepping up on it. plus she loves doing pivots on our other platform and always wants to put her front paws on it which is the opposite of what i want. we’re in the bedroom because nearly everywhere else is hardwood and she slips around more.

anyway, i would appreciate feedback, please, even if it’s small! i am at a complete loss as to how i can help my pup understand what i want her to do.