Friday, July 29, 2011

Riding Matilda Part 2, My Turn

I went to the barn with an agenda on Friday. Never a good thing; fortunately I got away with it. I wanted to get on Matilda so badly after seeing Loryn up there the day before. The barn was crowded, as it always is these days. With camp every morning almost all the lessons have to happen after one o'clock and there is rarely, if ever, a time that the ring is empty. If I am lucky, I can find a time when there is only one lesson or one practice ride going on. I know that it's good for us to work with all those distractions but I was admittedly out of sorts on Friday for unknown reasons, feeling hurried and impatient. Wanting time to myself. Snarky...

I try to be as unobtrusive as possible when I work with Matilda, working around lessons and other riders. This wasn't possible on Friday. I had to ask to take over one end of the riding ring, pushing four other riders to share the other side. Like I said, the barn was crowded on Friday.

It was just me and Matilda. We started with some review and I noticed that her "over" was really imprecise. A couple of weeks ago, I put my finger on her shoulder and asked her to "over" and she stepped over with just her front feet. This afternoon the same action got a full body lateral shift with a step back at the end. We did it several times before she even came close to doing it correctly. I was not impressed. We worked on it a little while, going up and down her sides and asking her to step over. I asked just until she gave me something that (if I squinted my eyes and tilted my head to the left and with the sun behind her) looked a little bit like what I wanted. Did I mention I was not impressed? Next time I am at the barn I will most likely spend all of our time reworking those ground commands. As much as I want to work on new stuff, I guess I have to set aside days to reenforce those things.

After I hurried through our review I put her on the longe line. I shouldn't have been surprised to find her quick and unfocused. A perfect reflection of my own attitude.

She walked when I asked, but I had to ask her to "whoa" at least a half dozen times before she stopped. I clicked for stopping and tried again. Same thing. I could tell she just wasn't listening and I could see the possibilities of me getting on Matilda's back fading into the ether.

As we struggled through our workout, I stumbled across another take off trigger, too. At the end of one of our circles, I dropped the longe whip on the ground and went to her to give her a reward for half decent behavior. I asked her to "walk on", which she did nicely, but when I bent over to pick up the whip she tried to take off! Huh, I thought, that's weird. Then it struck me that all of my desensitizing exercises with dropping and picking up the whip had been done while she stood still. This was the first time I had tried to pick up the whip while she was already in motion. All plans had to go on the back burner in order to fix this.

I asked her to "walk on" and bent down to the whip, she picked up that quick trot and I had to stand up quickly and use both hands to bring her back to the walk. I let her walk for a while then bent my knees to about the half way point, she picked up the quick trot with a head toss. Sigh. Up again to bring her down to the walk. OK, third time's the charm. I barely bent my knees, she sped up the walk but this time I was able to click before she trotted. It's pretty much a given (as much as these things can be) that when she hears the "click" she stops (thank You, Lord). She did so in this instance and I rewarded.

I asked her to walk again and after a few circles did another knee bend - click. Again, with a slightly deeper knee bend. We probably did this 10-12 times, with me getting a little closer to the ground each time, before I could pick up the whip while she continued to walk. The whole time I could feel my mental fingers drumming away on a mental table top with impatience.

Of course we had to do the same thing on the other side. Fortunately it took less time, as she was already familiar with the exercise.... I guess.

Now for the moment of truth. Did I dare?? The four riders had left the ring, but two more had come in for lessons. One little girl on a pony (I think it was a little girl on a pony, I was only half paying attention... you know, like Matilda) and one teenager on a young horse still in training. Not the ideal situation. Especially since Matilda was not listening to me on the ground.

But how could I not?! So, on went the helmet and Matilda and I walked to the mounting block. I clicked for lining up almost perfectly with the mounting block. I clicked for standing perfectly still while I hoisted myself up.

I wanted to see if she would respond to simple voice commands so I said "walk on" without giving any indication with my body of what I wanted (This is harder than it sounds. It's sort of auto-pilot-motion memory to squeeze with your legs as you ask for the walk.) and she just stood there. I said, "Matilda, walk on." and she stood there. I said, "Matilda, waaaalk ooooon." And she moved forward! No, just kidding, she still stood there. Finally I gave her a little squeeze with my ankles while asking her to walk on and she did (click!)

Then I asked her to "whoa" and she kept walking. So I squeezed back with the reins and asked her to "whoa" and she did (click!)

We spent about 10-15 minutes in just this way: walking, stopping, dismounting and re-mounting. All with relaxed loose reins and as little physical encouragement as possible. (Remember, one of our new goals is for her to respond to voice commands only from the saddle.) We now know that Matilda and I have to work on our coordination in getting carrots to her from the saddle. It's a little awkward but every time she stretches that head around to get a carrot from my hand, she is stretching her neck, loosening up and learning to bend. Bonus!

I wish I could end on this positive note, but as I finished my last dismount (click!) the food cart went past... Whatever little bit of good Matilda there was immediately vanished. I tried to hose her down but she would not stop moving and punching me. I finally just took her out to her paddock and turned her loose. We'll save working through feed time for another day. I was so frustrated by the time I took her out to the pasture that I did not realize until I was on my home how easy it was to lead her out. I know she was focused on getting to the food, but she never got ahead of me or punched me to try and get me to move faster. It would be quite simple (and some horses do) for her to try and rush and pull me along, but the whole way back to the paddock her head was near my shoulder... of course there was no time wasted either:)

On a second sad note, I have lost some of my contact with Loryn. Stupid school is already getting in motion and preparations intrude. We will try to figure out how to get together at least once a week but I am sad. I feel like the three of us were just hitting our stride together. stupid school. I am grateful for how she has motivated me to pick things up through this summer. I wouldn't be where I am without her involvement. We'll find a way to continue working together in some fashion. In this I am confident.

A new week begins. I see a lot of "walk on" and "whoa" in my near future. At least I will be in the saddle for some of it and that's where I want to be.


P.S. School is important. School is good. If you are in school, stay in school. Blah blah blah ;)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

On Top of Matilda (to be sung) aka A New Thing

FYI - We are leaving Kelly Marks' book behind. It has served its purpose and we are taking all the things that we have learned and running with it! I'll talk more about that later in this post.

We went to the barn on Tuesday but only so that my 6 year old niece could have a lesson. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw Matilda in the upper ring with a saddle on! Loryn was working with Matilda, not just going over "over" (hee hee) and moving away from pressure, but teaching Matilda to move away from small, gentle taps of the whip with the saddle on. Loryn informed me that she was not at all distracted by the saddle. Kismet -

Loryn was reading my mind. I had written in my last post that I was thinking of putting the saddle on Matilda for the lunge work and there she was, with a saddle on her back!

So today Matilda worked with a saddle. Loryn briefly showed me what she had been doing and then we put Matilda on the longe line. (I had indicated my hopes for the day to Loryn and I think she was as anxious as I was to press on!)

There was another horse in the ring and we had a slow start. I asked her to walk and then whoa. She kept walking for a long time after I asked her to stop, but I clicked as soon as she stopped and then I had her. She gave me everything I asked for within moments of my asking.

Now that she is doing so well with her walk, trot and whoa transitions, I am trying to focus on and reward some specific aspect of her lunge work. Right now it is softness on the line. Matilda likes to use the longe line to help her balance, just like we might balance by pressing against a wall, I believe she presses to the end of the longe line as a way of trying to balance herself. This means that I have to use my body weight to hold her head in, in an attempt to keep her from that spiraling out of control business. So, my goal now is to only click if the longe line is soft (or relaxed) and she is maintaining the circle on her own. Right now I can only get a few steps before she presses to the outside but a few steps is better than no steps at all.

Now we get to the fun stuff:

As long as Matilda had a saddle on her back and there were two of us there, somebody had to get up on her, right?! This was what Loryn and I had talked about and why we were so eager to get through our basics. We had talked about just clicking for Matilda standing still while Loryn simply mounted and dismounted, yeah right.

Our barn uses a mounting block and it is very difficult to dismount on top of a mounting block so we had to ask her to move forward a little too, right?? right??

This was Loryn's first time on Matilda and Matilda's first time with a rider in 2+ years. I think we were both really excited. I had the lead for Matilda's halter and Loryn was on her back. I wish I had pictures but, well... I had the lead rope and I am super paranoid and not getting distracted for a photo op.

OK, I am going to digress from the narrative to explain our new ideas and direction now so that you understand what we were doing....

One of the things Kim and I have talked about (in a vague sort of way) is the possibility of Matilda becoming a therapy horse. As I thought about how to transition Matilda from longe work to under saddle work, it hit me. If Matilda is to be a truly phenomenal and unique therapy horse, she needs to be able to listen, understand and obey basic directions from the saddle- whether by voice, leg, hands or any combination of the three.

I mean, what if someone who had no leg strength wanted to ride? Wouldn't it be great if they could be confident in rein or vocal aids while building leg strength? Or someone who had poor motor skills - they could rely on the vocal aids while figuring out how to move and control their limbs independently. The possibilities are infinite if we can figure out how to make this work.

So, I asked Loryn (and I will be also) to brain storm how to proceed to teach Matilda to stop (whoa), walk, trot and turn left or right by voice, leg and/or rein aid. I am really excited about this new idea. We'll still be working on "regular" riding so that she will be a good horse for Loryn to ride in lessons and such but this will be an entirely new dimension for us to work towards. We need to come up with long term and short term goals to meet each week. So cool.

(You can tell how excited I am by the poor sentence structure:))

Back to the narrative:

Loryn was up on Matilda, I had the lead. Our goal? to see how Matilda listened and responded to the vocal commands (NOT trot but walk and whoa) with minimal leg aids.

The difficulty? being next to her with the lead in my hand and not telegraphing "walk on" and "whoa".

Loryn would ask Matilda to "walk on" with minimal pressure from her heels then to "whoa". She had nothing to pull back on to support the vocal command. I did my best to walk next to them only after Matilda started walking and to slow to a stop only after Matilda did. Every few starts and stops Loryn would dismount, walk Matilda back to the mounting block and re-mount. I would click and reward when she stood absolutely still for mounting and for stopping on command. (stop is always the most important command for a 1600 lb. horse)

It was all brilliant. She was absolutely calm and quiet with everything we threw at her. I really believe that we are starting a new chapter in this journey. Now I am thinking about how to teach Matilda the difference between left and right. I think it will all start with the vocal commands and we will be able to build the other aids from there. Using the heat as our ally and the clicker as our enforcer, we press on to see just how far we can go, how much she can learn. The sky is truly the limit.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Giving Matilda Room to Move

The extreme heat has narrowed down the time that we have to work with Matilda. I must say that, forced to make a choice, I want to spend my time working on the longing-type work.

Last week I made it to the barn on Tuesday and Friday. I not only focused on the lunging work (yes, I do keep intentionally changing the spelling of that word), I put Matilda on the 25 foot longe line. More freedom, less control... but very hot weather was once again on my side.

Both days, I started close, with her only 2-3 feet away, and worked her out to about 20 feet away with mostly walk/stop transitions. I began asking for walk/trot transitions when she was about 15 feet away but continued to feed the line out to 20 feet. I continued the process of clicking randomly for upward and downward transitions, for trotting a few steps or walking without any kind of tension on the line... or any combination of those things.

Tuesday we had one near take off. This one was due to the madness of other horses coming in from the pasture and it was relatively easy to bring her down. By that I mean throwing down the longe whip and using two hands and all my body weight to drag her head into me while giving her an extremely firm "Matilda, Whoa" seemed to do the trick.

Matilda is so quiet in the work and from the heat that I am becoming more and more comfortable in my handling of her. We had a horse being brought in for a lesson and I wanted to get her to the paddock before the trailer came down the hill, past the ring. I actually tried to get Matilda to trot with me by jogging beside then in front of her, outside of the ring, down to the paddock. This is something I never would have attempted one month ago... heat or no. You can see how well it went:

My new favorite picture.... It's sort of like trying to move a brick wall.


Friday was flawless. While working on her left, I was able to get a series of smooth walk/trot transitions (going from the walk to trot to walk to trot, etc.) without stopping. Clicking only after I asked for and received a solid stop. Throughout all these transitions I was able to flick the whip however and wherever I needed to keep her moving. She never flinched at it.

If you looked at the videos a couple of posts ago, you'll recall that it took me a couple of minutes to get her to trot in one of them. This has all but stopped. She picks up the trot within a few steps of my asking for it almost every time. I credit the upward transition clicking for that one. On Friday she was going up and down through her gaits readily.

Sometimes she still tries to walk into me when I tell her to "walk on" but that only occasionally. I do click for walking out into whatever circle we've established when I give the cues. I expect that walking into me behavior to extinguish itself.

We are only working about 30 minutes in the current heat. Enough time for a short review and 15-20 minutes of circle lunge work. Matilda seems really relaxed and willing.

I have guests in town this week, hence the rushed-style post. I won't get to see Matilda until Thursday afternoon. The work last week was fantastic and I am already thinking of adding a saddle to the longe line work, to see how she responds to the stirrups banging against her sides. Could be exciting!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Oh yes, the She-Beast is still there...

"You never had control! That's the illusion!" - Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jurassic Park


Between Thursday and Friday last week, the temperature dropped 30 degrees. It rained all Friday morning. The perfect day to work with Matilda and see what she really knows or will do without the triple digit heat indexes on my side.

I have good news and bad news. Leading up to the ring and working on our basic groundwork exercises went very well. Matilda did everything I asked for up to and including turning around her front legs without walking forward first.

Then I moved into our circle work. Every time I asked her to walk forward, she took one step forward then turned and walked into me. When I would re-adjust and re-adjust to keep her from walking into me and ask her to walk on, she would toss her head or kick out (or both) and trot as she tried to pull away.... Ahhh, just like old times.

Now, it was raining, so her halter was soaked and bunching up funny, the flies were all over and biting her (despite my attempts to beat them off with healthy doses of fly spray) and we were working with another horse in the ring for the first time since we started all this nonsense. Not an easy day for the best of horses.

I felt privileged to get one walking circle around me on either side with no disasters. You know, the ones that take us all the way back to the beginning? Yeah, none of that.

Before I became completely frustrated (which we all know leads to bad things and potential disaster) we called it quits and I led her out to the paddock. The entire way from the ring to the paddock, Matilda nipped and mouthed at my hand and arm. Well, not the entire way. Sometimes she took a break to punch me in the back with her nose. Needless to say I was ticked.

We were both relieved to reach the paddock and say our fare thee wells for the day. That was Friday. Yuck.

Then came Monday. Who likes Mondays? Matilda apparently. (FYI - Monday was sunny, but not quite the heat and humidity that we have been experiencing. The perfect follow up to Friday)

I forgot to tell you that in recent weeks, Matilda has two new paddock mates during the day. I tried to get a picture of them but it is no good. I'll try again later. Forty is her boyfriend:) Bruin is a little, noisy welsh pony that looks like a mini-Matilda. I refer to them as her "family". It's changed the dynamic a little as far as getting Matilda from the paddock.

Like with any family, they fight. I don't want to get in the middle of a horse fight. I can be stupidly reckless but even I have my limits. The problem is that Matilda tends to look to Forty when I call her to come as if asking permission to leave. I'm not going all the way to her to remove her from the mini-herd but she can be a little reluctant to come to me if the other two are with her. Don't get me wrong, she'll do it - I just have to work harder by coming further into the paddock than I really would like. It's just like with dogs: less distance between means better communication. Shoot.

On Monday, there was a double threat. Matilda and Forty were together... eating hay. As I approached the paddock the thought crossed my mind that there was no way I was going to walk up to her and Forty to pull her away. But there was no way she was coming to me. I started formulating a complicated, "Mission: Impossible" type plan....

Just for laughs, I closed the gate to the paddock behind me and said "Matilda, hey Matilda, come" and she did. You could have knocked me over with a feather. She took her time and stopped along the way but ultimately she came all the way to me.

And that is how our Monday went. Everything was beautiful. We even did her circle work with another rider in the ring and it was like nothing. Amazing.

One major thing (for me) was being done differently. Up until now I have only been clicking for downward transitions, ie trot to walk, walk to stop. Monday I started clicking for any and everything. If I said trot and she started trotting, I would click and follow up with an immediate, rapid fire "walk, whoa" and go in with the reward. I clicked for upward and downward transitions, I clicked for completing a full circle at the trot without pulling on the lead. It was totally random. She might go through 3 transitions without any click and then get a click for all of the next 5. I think we both liked this. It kept us on our toes and I am going to be sure to keep on clicking a little more randomly as we move on with our circle/lunging work.

In light of the nipping and punching of Friday, we also went back to the basics of food and respecting my space. With the clicker as my little helper, we worked until I could place a carrot piece in the flat palm of my hand, holding it close to my body, and she would look away, not taking it until I put it under her nose.... apples too. We'll keep reenforcing this one daily. I don't like being punched in the back.

All in all I consider these two days rather perfect when added together. It's important for me to have reminders that Matilda is an enormous, strong animal with instincts and a will of her own. The idea that I can "control" her with a 10 foot lead and 2 inch clicker is rather ridiculous. However, with each unsuccessful breakaway attempt, I am learning to trust my own handling skills more and more.

With the difference between Friday and Monday I am also reminded that sometimes bad days are just that. Bad days. We all have them. We meet our co-workers and friends with an attitude that sends them reeling and the next day offer them a hug and kind word that is even more baffling.

Matilda and I are still and always a team. I was so encouraged by all that happened I put her on the true 25' longe line today, giving her more space to build momentum and break away or move beautifully and safely.... but I will write about what happened today later.... :D

Thursday, July 14, 2011

New and Improved Post * Now with Video (links)

It's really amazing how much Loryn has added to this equation. Just meeting her, talking to her and seeing her interest in Matilda is keeping me motivated and focused. It's also helped me to shift my thinking from the theoretical to the practical, pushing to move on with Matilda's future as a riding horse clearly in focus.

This doesn't mean that we don't have time for some fun. One of our favorites is "up", where we lift a hand, say "up" and Matilda lifts the corresponding hoof. She is doing it so well that we are working on speed and sequences of lifting. We have been wondering if we can get her to the point where she will prance on her front feet, going back and forth. So far we've only got her going from left to right once, very slowly, before clicking but we are building. It makes me laugh to watch it.

I am trying to get it on video, but whenever I pull out the camera she stops. I have half a dozen 10 second videos of Matilda standing and staring blankly at Loryn or the camera while Loryn stands with one hand in the air saying "up" over and over.... that sort of makes me laugh too.

More practically, we continue to focus on Matilda's response to pressure. I think I said this in my last post but I will reiterate (b/c I can't remember and don't want to actually go back and look) that we are looking for Matilda to give appropriate responses in moving away from the smallest amount of pressure so that a child could apply a hand or heel to her side and get a decent response. She really does well with this and it is all about fine tuning (ew) and making sure that we are getting the exact movement we want every time.

Right now I can pretty much count on getting one step to the side when I put one finger on her shoulder. She moves one complete lateral step sideways with her whole body when she feels a finger around where her girth will be more than half of the time. Her hind end is where everything comes to a grinding halt... literally. When I start walking towards her haunch, she often bends her head around to watch me as if to say, "And where do you think you're going??" I apply a finger, then a knuckle, then a fist with my whole weight leaning up against her. I have to lean there for about 5 seconds before she steps forward and then, finally, out to the side with just her hind legs. We'll be focusing on the refinement of that skill until it's one finger to her hip equaling one step out with her hind leg. It's just a matter of good timing and consistency with that wonderful Click!

We continue to work on... ummmm.... encouraging her not to pull for the grass when being led around. Work sessions frequently start with a trip around the ring, stopping every few steps and clicking and rewarding if she can keep that giant head up and not reach for the delectable fringe of grass that tempts her just inside the fence. Yesterday she really started to get it. I noted several times with both Loryn and myself that she backed up and turned her head into us and away from the grass when we stopped walking.

I've started giving her those farewell pieces of apple on the trip from the ring to the paddock, since that used to be where the worst pulling occurs... Funny, she's not so interested in the grass once she knows there might be apples....

On Tuesday this week, Matilda was very rushy. I only asked for walk and stop and worked on her standing still while I picked up the whip then moved into and away from her. She tried to take off once or twice but either she responded to my request for a walk or I was able to pull her nose into me to bring her down. I don't know if I should say that I never lost control of her or she never lost control of herself. Probably both. We are a team after all.

This is video from Wednesday, towards the end of our session in extremely hot weather. I wish that I had before and after video, to show you what it was like when we first started. You'll just have to go back and read earlier posts and trust my descriptions and your imagination. I am no fool and know that the heat is giving me an enormous amount of help. In one of the videos I had to work really hard to get anything approaching a trot. (my husband has informed me that it is not a true Matilda trot - more of an upbeat walk :p) I think it is wonderful. When watching them back, I am still surprised at how I can flick the whip behind her heels. I was so proud of the way she listened to me for those downward transitions.

Sorry these are just links, I wanted to embed the video into the blog, but I am not that skilled.

http://youtu.be/aEYAHgeaKGE

http://youtu.be/ofawE_tuHxw

We are still working on the 10' lead. This really is not enough space for her to move comfortably but I believe that we will be starting to push out on the 25' longe line soon. Especially if we have more days like this.