We had to spend a lot of time working from the ground the last few weeks. Once I had gotten up on Matilda, I wanted to keep getting on her every day and came to the barn with that expectation every day. After a few consecutive days of disappointment and frustration, I sort of gave up the idea and committed myself to just working from the ground until school started again.
We've kept up with the "back" and "up" (for lifting the feet) but I've mostly worked on fine tuning the "over"s. She has gotten really good at moving just her front feet again, when I touch her shoulder, and doing a full body lateral shift when I touch her at the girth. Her hind end has been the problem. She almost always has to step forward, then a tiny step away from me with her front feet before taking a huge step away with her rear feet followed by a step backwards. We went through this dance step many, many times over the last weeks before I finally started giving her some help by holding her head.
I really want her to do this movement all by herself, without me giving any physical help in adjusting her body. For now, however, I have to bend her head a little bit towards me and hold it back while asking her to move the hind legs alone. When I do all that she performs the movement beautifully. The second I give her her head, we go back to the dance step. We'll keep plugging away at it until she understands.
I have also added a dressage (long) whip into the mix. I figure that it will be both impractical and unsafe for me to keep my balance while I ask for her to move her front legs around her rear - or vice versa - by swinging my leg up to her shoulder or all the back to her hip, pressing in, and saying "over". It would be much easier if I could do the same thing with a light tap of the whip, don't you think? The larger, full lateral move can easily be done with pressure from my leg so no worries there.... If it will work in transition to the saddle at all.
So, we have been going through the same exercise from the ground with me standing either in front or beside her, tapping her lightly with the whip and asking for "over". She quickly understood what I was asking for when I tapped her shoulder, tougher with the rear end. She doesn't even like the whip going back there. If I am holding the whip while I move to stand beside her, she cranes her neck around as if to say, "And where do you think you are going with that?" I have to tap lightly with the whip, then press with my finger in order for her to move. She has begun to respond to the taps occasionally, but only just. There's a little ways to go with that one.
I hoped to start on teaching her to "walk on" by voice command only. I had, in my head at least, worked out a system that I thought would work from the saddle, but was not sure I could translate it to the ground. My short time in the saddle made it clear that she either did not understand or did not know to listen for the voice commands. I thought she had been listening at least some of the time during our longe work, but I was evidently sending more signals through body language than I thought.
It came to me an instant, however, and we started to try it. Standing next to Matilda, I would say "walk on" as I walked forward. She of course would walk with me and I would immediately click and reward. We did that 3-5 times, back-to-back in rapid succession. Then, just as quickly, I said "walk on" and didn't move - she did! HA! Click!
We went back and forth, sometimes I would walk with her and others I would stand still, but she always walked forward. We have only gotten a few shuffling steps in a tight circle around me (she'll never go far from that reward) but it has been a start.
On Friday (the 26th) we began working "whoa" the same way. I stopped beside her and said "whoa" as she stopped. After several times, I said "whoa" and kept moving forward very slowly. This proved more difficult for her to grasp, but she showed small signs that the synapses were starting to fire on this one too.
As soon as I gave myself over to a couple weeks of ground work only, I really enjoyed it. One day, we even had the time to work in her paddock like we did in the very beginning, no halters or leads. Absolutely her choice to hang out with me or go off on her own. I felt like she really enjoyed that and I will try to make room for "play days". That being said, she can no longer stay there but must continue working to join the rest of the world. Despite my own failings and confusion, I will continue to try to make it as pleasant as possible for sweet Matilda.
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