Looking Back, Looking Forward

First a side note on the coming week: You may not be seeing a post from me next week. It is Spring Break in Greenville County and I am sure the barn will be over run with young people, making this kind of work sometimes awkward. In addition, there is a very high probability that my own horse, and Matilda's paddock mate, the beautiful and much beloved Bella Donna will be sold early in the week. This would make it an emotional week at the barn, not conducive to work. It may be a week for sitting on my sitting rock, staring at the sky and rubbing Matilda's chin. We'll see how things unfold.

With all this and the tremendous success with Wednesday's "L is for Leather" exercise, it seemed like a good time to pause and take stock of where we are.

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"Foundation Exercises" from Teach Your Horse Perfect Manners:

1) Happy to be touched all over with no resistance: Check! although she does have off days, but who doesn't?

2) Coming smoothly towards me off a long line of 10 ft in a straight line: Check! and then some. She comes to me from farther than 10 feet without a long line, but not necessarily in a straight line.

3) Backing up easily, including one step at a time: Triple Check!

4) Moving over sideways from either side, including over a pole: I haven't tried the over the pole thing in a while and I know we still have a tough time getting her whole body (mainly her back end) to shift sideways, but I think we can give ourselves a check here and move on.

5) Standing still for 1, 3 and 4 minutes: no comment, except that we are moving on. We'll keep this one in the back pocket for now.

6) L is for leather in either direction: Check! We'll try this one again to make sure it wasn't an accident, though.

Other stuff we do, but still need to work on:

Touching/Following a target stick. Check!
Picking up and flinging a ball (mostly at herself). Check!
Walking with me, unattached, in the paddock, including stopping and backing with me. Check!
Picking up feet. Just started.
Walking with me on the lead without pulling (She really is an easy lead, but working on being confident that she will not pull me is the key. Mostly it just requires practice.) mini-check.
Not pushing, biting or really touching me (unless I invite her too) mostly Check!
Desensitizing to the longe line and whip. Check!

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Not bad, not bad at all. We started on January 13, so this is a lot for 3 months. Actually I am kind of surprised at how much we have accomplished. It has felt so slow at times, but it should be slow since we are both beginners at this type of learning. That's a lot for slow learners.

Let's look at what's next too!

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"Additional Yielding Exercises" from Teach Your Horse Perfect Manners:

1) Head-Lowering Exercises: Lowers head with minimal pressure

2) Neck Flexing Exercise: Bending head from the poll (just behind the ears) and down the neck with little to no resistance

3) Following Pressure: Following pressure even if you don't know where it is coming from.

4) Disengaging Hindquarters: Walking around the front legs.

5)Moving the Forehand around the Hindquarters: Opposite of number 4.

6)Teaching a Horse to go in Front of You, or Walk Ahead of You.

** these are going to be interesting as some of them require contact or being attached, something I have tried to avoid (much of the time unsuccessfully) and have had lack of pressure and contact in teaching as a goal to achieve. Since all these exercises are designed to be done with person and horse attached, I will have to really think about what requires a line and what could be done without any kind of direction from pressure... with voice and body language only.

In addition, a lot of these are exercises in flexibility and suppleness that could be done every day as a sort of warm up, once learned.

What Else Might Happen?

Continuing to work on all the other stuff listed in our extracurricular activities, as well as walking in a circle around me. I guess you should know by now that anything can happen here. Anything that pops into my head or that I come across in my reading that sounds like fun can and probably will be added to the list.

Thanks to those of you that are reading this and following my adventures with Matilda. There's a lot more to be done and a lot more fun to be had here! I am looking forward to seeing where all this goes. Until next time....

Matilda Rocks!

Wednesdays mornings are quiet at My Barn. This morning the whole place was mine. A good morning to bring Matilda up to the ring to work. In the book I am supposedly following, there is one more exercise to do in this first chapter that I have been avoiding. It is an exercise entitled "L is for leather." In this exercise, I am supposed to navigate Matilda into backing through poles that are laid on the ground in an L-shape, as pictured. The exercise is supposed to help her learn focus, attentiveness to surroundings and careful foot placement. It should also help her start to bend her sides a little.

I have been avoiding it for 2 reasons: 1) It seemed like it would be hard, 2) I would have to bring Matilda up to the ring or lug 4 poles down to her paddock in order to try it.

I thought that today would be a good day to bring her up to the ring, since we have been stuck in a bit of a rut down in the paddock. The ring offers new challenges for us, even with no one there, the main one being grass. Grass grows just inside the rails all the way around the riding ring. Good to find out if Matilda can work with distractions.

I put the halter and lead on Matilda and we walked around the paddock, practicing walking together while attached, before we walked out the gate and onto the grassy path up to the ring. I kept a short, tight hold on the lead so that if she reached down to eat grass, her head would sort of bounce up. She tried to reach down for grass twice, as soon as we left her paddock. Then she took one step with me: Click! Two more steps with me: Click! And we were able to move along nicely together, just like we practiced, clicking and rewarding along the way for not pulling me around the barn.

We got to the ring and I could tell that Matilda was a little distracted by the new surroundings. I had originally planned to attach her to the longe line, but why bother? We didn't need to do any real distance work today. I left the regular lead on her and asked her to "back", her favorite and most comfortable behavior, to get her into a familiar, working frame of mind. She walked forward, past me. I got in front of her and asked her to "back" again. She looked at me, looked around her and walked forward, past me. Huh. At least she thought about it the second time.

We went through that pattern a few times before she finally took that little, teeny, tiny step back and once she heard that first Click! in the ring, she was with me, 100%. We went through several backs and overs, which she did wonderfully, to get her used to the idea that the same sort of stuff is required of her here, too. We spent some time walking together and I made sure that she stopped when I stopped and backed with me if I did. It was wonderful, so we got to work on the L.

We started with the poles quite wide, a little wider than what you see in this picture, and I guided her through the L, with me walking backwards and her forwards, so that she could get a sense of the shape (and because that is what the book told me to do). I clicked every time she walked through the poles without hitting one. By the third time through, she was trying to walk through the L ahead of or without me, so it was time to start working on backing through them.

We worked in little chunks as I took her to the beginning and walked her forward a few steps, then told her to "back" as she backed up, I clicked and treated. We did that a few times, moving closer and closer to the corner. We worked forwards and backwards through the corner, using a series of "come", "over" and "back" (see how useful all that work is becoming?!) to maneuver her large body through it and then walked forwards and stopped at the end.

I looked at her and asked, "Do we need to do that again, or are you ready to try and back through the whole thing?" She didn't bite me, so I assumed she was ready to try and back through the whole thing. And that's what she did. I told her "back", "whoa", "over", "whoa", "back" (just one step) "whoa", "over" and "back" and she was through. She never touched a pole. She never moved without my asking. I never had to physically move her or hold her, the lead was always loose between us.

We did it a second time. Same thing. I moved the poles in, to challenge her, so that she only had about 6 inches on either side of her if she stood dead center. She still backed through without touching a pole. We did it one more time before we took a break. That last time, she started backing up before I asked her. I was starting to become dead weight on the line.

I walked her over to the side of the ring and stopped about two feet away from the grass. She stopped just behind me and waited until I turned to her and said "Go ahead and eat" before moving forward to graze a little. Amazing.

Back to work. Up until now, we had been going through the L-Shape so that she was always turning to the left, it was time to try the other direction. This was not as successful. Of course, I started with the poles in the narrower position and didn't work her through it the way I did on the other side, but she should have instinctively known what to do, right?

After a few unsuccessful tries (she kept stepping on the poles and walking outside the L) I widened the L to where they are in the reference photo above. I still didn't take the time to do the detail work that we needed (I was running out of carrots), so it stayed pretty rough.

One time, she was really lagging in doing the "overs" that I was asking her to do and I got a little frustrated at her "stall tactics". It wasn't until she had made the full 90 degree turn that I realized I had put her in the wrong direction! She was aimed to exit the L going forward, not backward. I apologized profusely but it's nice to know that she will listen to me and do as I ask even when she knows it is wrong.

When we got the right back turn close enough (she was only stepping on or outside of the poles 2-3 times), we decided that there were only enough carrots to get us back to the paddock safely, so we stopped for the day. I realized that I had left my camera in my car and wanted to take my lovely reference shots before we went back down to the paddock, so I unclipped the lead and let Matilda graze in the far corner of the ring while I went to get the camera.

When I returned to the ring, I began to worry that I had done a bad thing. I envisioned myself walking up to Matilda in order to snap on the lead only to have her run off and have to chase her down. My concern was such (she has broken out of this ring before, you know) that there was only one thing to do: stand in the middle of the ring, stare at the L-Shape and ignore the potential problem while deciding where to stand for my artistic reference photo.

I stood there pondering, with the lead hanging over my shoulder, for a moment. When I looked over, to see if Matilda was still munching away in the corner, I was shocked to see her slowly coming towards me. I just looked at her and said, "Are you KIDDING ME?!" She stopped about a foot away from me: CLICK! and I clipped the lead on and asked her if she wanted to go ahead and try the L to the right one more time, if I agreed to help her more. Once again, she didn't bite me so I assume that means "yes."

We did it one last time, this time I held her head a little to help keep her "back" straight (it tends to go on a diagonal). We went very slowly and carefully, we must have both realized during our break that we had been a little sloppy in our previous attempts, and made it through the entire L without hitting or stepping outside of poles. Actually, she clipped one with her front hoof as she took her last step out of the L.

We walked back down to the paddock with one big pull and one stubborn stop when she wanted to go left up a hill instead of right down to the paddock, but we got through that stand off without injury and she didn't try anything after that.

I was so delighted and impressed with Matilda today. I was prepared to struggle through this new exercise, prepared to be patient and determined not to get frustrated. Matilda just breezed through it. Next quiet day, you know we will be back in that ring. We'll work through backing to the right slowly and properly and it will be as good as backing to the left. This is the last thing in our first chapter of exercises in Kelly Marks' book (except for standing still, which we will just have to chip away at over time). I have to look at the next chapter to see what we will need to accomplish. I have a sneaking suspicion that we may have incidentally touched on some of the next to do list already. I'll look at it over the weekend and see what is to come!

A Ho-Hum Day?

I went to the barn yesterday, but had forgotten that it was big equipment day. New sand was being put into the ring, large trees were being cut down and the grass cut. The horses didn't seem bothered by the commotion, but I bagged the day anyway. I did give Matilda one of the apples that I had forgotten to bring her last week. I didn't even ask her to do anything for it!

Today was a ho-hum sort of day. I remain unclear as to what to do next, so we spent our time reviewing and refining. I made sure that Matilda moved back when I said "back" and over when I said "over". She just does better and better.

I tried to get her to back further away from me, but she just wasn't happy going more than a few steps. If I moved with her, walking into her while telling her to back, she goes and goes.

We continued walking together. I am clarifying that she needs to walk on my right (even though the carrots remain on my left) if she wants to get rewarded. She only bit my left leg once!

She also stops when I stop and if I back up, she either backs up with me or adjusts herself to face me. That's pretty neat, I must say.

I didn't feel like bringing a lot of stuff into the paddock with me today, so I had to be creative in order to mix things up. I decided it would be cool if Matilda lifted her feet high in the air, one at a time, like circus horses and elephants. I don't know that there is any functional reason to do that, but we might get some groovy looking dances going.

I love starting work on new stuff. I love watching her work out exactly what she needs to do to get that click. Today I only clicked if she lifted her right foot. It didn't matter if she was moving forward or backward or side to side, every time the right foot lifted there was a click. It took a lot of clicks for her to even remotely figure out what was going on. By the time I ran out of carrots, however, she was almost exclusively moving the right foot.

I am really nervous about asking for more before I am 100% sure Matilda understands what's going on. I wanted to start asking her to hold the foot up longer or higher, but I just wasn't convinced that she was ready for me to push her. If I push to soon, she can get frustrated and all the foot movement goes away. She will give up and the behavior is extinguished. So for today, I remained content to reward any foot movement. I did see signs of the foot hanging in the air a little longer here and there but nothing really dramatic.

Another fun thing today was my husband Ron's visit. He hasn't been to the barn in an age and it was good to see him out and about. He got to see some of Matilda's back and over behaviors and seemed suitably impressed. He also had the opportunity to ask her to back and she performed for him too! I even let him give her the end of work apple.

I guess if this is what a ho-hum day is like, we'll take it!

An Overview

I realize it has been a while but I promise I am not so far behind as one might think. The week of March 28, I didn't make it to the barn at all so I had nothing to report.

Last week, I did get to the barn three days but found myself to be a bit at sea. (I even forgot to bring Matilda's apple two days in a row! ACK!) Matilda and I have reached a plateau of sorts and I am floundering, trying to figure out where to go next. I can see where we are, sort of. I know my long-term goals, but finding a short term goal and planning a course to get from here to there, out of where we are now, is escaping me. I go back to the barn tomorrow and I still am unclear as to where to go next. This concerns me.

I do, however, have accomplishments to tell you about, things that happened or that I came to know in those last three days:

First and foremost, all of Matilda's beloved behaviors are beautifully intact. Even after that week off, she remembered everything. They are also becoming more and more reliable; I mean that when I say "over", more and more often I am getting an "over" without having to stand and watch a half a dozen "backs" first. She is very slow in coming to me when I ask, but I am really not worried about that. It's not like with a dog, I can't foresee any circumstance in which I would want her to gallop, canter or even trot up to me and stop in front of me, just short of running me down. The fact that she comes at all is something of a coup, let her take her time.

Wednesday we spent a lot of time playing with the ball (since I couldn't figure out what I really wanted to do, that seemed like a safe bet). I am happy to report that she can pick up the ball with ease and fling it. Most of the time she flings it at herself but hey, who am I to judge. We did hit a spot where she was flinging it in my general direction. I could trap it (a soccer reference for A) and kick it back to her. We did it several times and it was really fun until she flung it to the side and it rolled into the paddock next to her. Kim has got all the electric fences working at My Barn so I had to go all the way around from gate to gate in order to retrieve the ball. We lost our momentum and she flung the ball at her knees thereafter. sigh. It was fun while it lasted.:D

I think that the most important stuff to tell you about happened on Tuesday. It was Tuesday that I realized just how confused I was/am. I stopped to think about it but I can't do that. If I try to stop and think, Dear Matilda starts offering behaviors. Back and forth, weaving side to side. When I don't acknowledge or reward those behaviors, those ears start to pin back and the shoving and nipping start. In order to keep my arm bruises to a minimum, I just started walking and she walked with me, of course. We walked and I clicked and rewarded for a while before I really started recognizing what was happening.

Remember a while back when she would constantly cut me off and could only walk nicely next to the rails of the paddock? Well, no more. I walked all over that paddock, in weaving and zig-zag patterns, and she stayed with me, her shoulders just behind me. She doesn't stay on my right, in fact she seems to prefer walking on my left. That's not proper horse etiquette, but it's good dog etiquette. Maybe she knows it is more comfortable for me. At this point, who knows??

When I tuned in to what was going on, I was truly amazed. I would turn suddenly into her, lightly bumping her shoulder, and she would STOP and wait for me to pass before picking up her walking position again. Once, I stopped short and she bumped into me. Dear Sweet Matilda then took an immediate step back and stopped until I walked on and she could walk with me. It was as if she bounced off me, not into me.

In all our time walking together on Tuesday, not once did she touch me or the carrot pail. She was incredibly respectful and I was amazed and delighted. She was pushier on Wednesday but I don't care. I am holding onto Tuesday.

So, where do we go from here? I'm just not sure right now. I can't go from C to Z with nothing in between and it's the in between parts that are temporarily out of my grasp. I'll see what unfolds tomorrow and take it one day at a time. In the meantime, I will love this horse and be grateful for the signs of respect that she is giving me.

Oh, one more accomplishment: I finally found her sweet spot. Under her head, from her chin to her throat. I can rub and scritch that spot all day and she will never get sick of it. On Wednesday I sat on the sitting rock in her paddock to try and think things through before I started working with the ball. She had her head in my lap as I scritched and rubbed and rubbed and scritched. She would move her head away for a moment or two, but then put her nose right back on my knees so that I could start the rubbing and scritching again. :D If all else fails (which it won't) at least I have that.