Moving Forward

Wednesday last week was the only day that I could make it to the barn. I went in and knocked all the dirt off of Matilda's back and sides while she munched hay, as usual. I didn't pick up her feet as it had rained the day before and they were super muddy. I just figured I would work on that another day. Getting ready to work, I got my little pail, went to the center of the paddock and called her to come. She totally ignored me. Hadn't done that in a while. After debating for some time whether I should try to coax her into work or just come back later, I decided to just come back later.

It started out as another mish mosh of a day. When I came back to the paddock to work, my horse, Bella, was in with Matilda. I ended up standing outside the fence and clicking and rewarding both horses for looking away from the carrot or backing up. I'm fairly sure this was confusing to everyone and it didn't last long, especially when, every time I took out a carrot,
I could see Matilda doing her job and backing up as Bella continued to grab for the carrot.

I put Bella back safe in her stall so Matilda and I were aloneto work. We started with some review of our now familiar exercises. Matilda was slow in response, but did well. I was absolutely tickled when I asked her to "back" and she started side stepping left and right! It was the first time she did lateral movement without me having to apply pressure to her side. Not what I was asking for, but very cool and something to keep in mind for later on.

To keep building on the work we did last week, I brought in the halter. She did a lot of the work Wednesday with a halter on, while I carried the longe line and whip. Again we were not connected to each other, just adding another layer to the appearance and feel of longing.

Adding the halter seemed to create another breaking point to Matilda's behavior. Once again, I pulled out the longe whip and as I approached her she took off, not quite in a panic, but at a good pace of mixed trot and canter. I noticed that she was pausing to shake her head. I guess we hit a nerve and caused a flashback of sorts by adding this new element.

I followed her with the whip and line, not driving her as I had the first day I had introduced her to it, but following slowly at a walk while holding the whip and line up for her to see clearly. As before, the "chase" went on for a while but came to an end as she quietly accepted my approach and I went through the process of touching her all over with the tip and lash of the whip. Clicking and rewarding throughout.

Once she was quietly accepting the whip, we began trying to send her forward. I won't go into the details except to say that it was the exact same process as described in my last post, from tickling to tapping to cracking. The only difference being that this time when I cracked the whip and she finally moved, she trotted. No walk. We worked our way through this sloppily. She wouldn't always let me get close to her right away and I would have to do a little bit of "chasing". Sometimes she would take one step at the walk and I would click to reward just as she picked up a trot and ran away or I would click but she wouldn't come back to me to get the reward.

I spent an extra long time with Matilda that day and we worked back to where we had been the previous week, only better. I could gently touch her hind quarters with the tip of the stick portion of the whip (no cracking necessary) and she would walk forward, turn to the right, stop and face me until I asked her to come in to me. But I didn't stop there.

If I am standing on Matilda's right and send her forward, she should turn right so that eventually she would be going around me. Therefore if I am on the left, she should turn left. I noticed Matilda only turned right, so I got a head start on the left turn too.

I started standing on her left and tapped her gently on the rear. As soon as she started forward, I had to back up, stick my hand in the bucket (a now familiar noise to her) and say "Matilda over here" to bring her attention and head around to the left. Following up with a click as she turned her body to face me. We couldn't do a lot of this, but it was a start.

We worked long and hard on Wednesday and I haven't been able to get back to the barn since. I intend to be there tomorrow, however, and am seeing a lot of review in our near future. I am excited to see where she is and what she remembers after the long weekend break.