Who stole my horse and replaced her with this she-beast?!

To be perfectly honest, I swore more today than I have since high school. Maybe college. I vaguely remember writing, in the early days of this blog, about not pushing Matilda when she was unfocused and not with me. Apparently, I have yet to learn this lesson. I still feel like that would be giving up or quitting. The truth: it is just smart.

I could tell Matilda was not with me from the start. I don't know how one knows these things. I mean, as we started the review, she was doing what I asked but there was a vagueness about it all. It's just something you know sometimes, I guess.

I was, however, still blinded by the afterglow of last week's triumph and pushed on in the name of progress. Big, bold me, thought surely I could push Matilda through... whatever... and make some progress. Surely... not.

Matilda was on auto-pilot. She started walking and wouldn't stop. I had no part of her. I still started pushing the lunge whip through my hand in order to get it fully extended behind her, like on Wednesday. I got the whip about 1/2 way to the end when everything fell apart. She picked up the crazy trot and was on her way to crazy canter when the lunge line broke close to her halter.

At least I didn't have to worry about her stepping on the line as I watched her canter away, clearing a 2'6" - 3' jump in the process. It was truly amazing watching her take that jump at full speed.

I got a different lunge line and reattached her, but that first break away was enough to remind her of her own potential. The moment we got back in our circle and I leaned over to pick up the lunge whip, she took off and I hadn't a chance. I went after her, detached the lunge line and, for some reason that is still unknown to me, picked up the lunge whip to "gently" approach her with it.

Dumb. She took off again at a full gallop and broke out of the ring through the gate (don't worry, it is only braided baling twine, as far as damage goes). There is nothing like the sound of "LOOSE HORSE" ringing through the quiet Monday barn. Once she was free, she simply ran around the back of the barn, where two people who had heard my cry were able to grab her and hold her until I came with her lead to collect the mad beast.

Tempted as I was, I could not leave things there. Instead, we went all the way back to the beginning. Chain across the nose, clicking for letting me touch the whip, clicking for letting me touch her with the lunge whip, clicking for walking only 3 feet away from me with the whip behind her.... Then we finished with me forcing backs and overs on her. She knows this stuff, for crying out loud, but when I asked, her feet were glued to the ground. I was getting nothing.

I left the barn angry at the universe and extremely frustrated. I will be back tomorrow, not nearly as enthusiastic. I am going to have to slow way down and be very careful. She's gotten away from me twice this week, there cannot be a third time. I have to start retraining that brain all over again. sigh. I have got to be more patient and aware and willing to walk away. Double sigh.

I am left wondering if this was just today? or is it going to be like this every Monday unless I find some other time to get to the barn between Wednesday afternoon and Monday morning? Is that just too long a break? I don't know the answers to these questions yet. It was an exciting day and I wish I had some video of Matilda running wild. It is beautiful to behold.... I hope I never see it again. Not like that anyways.

A Triumphant End (aka Almost a Spa Day)

Tuesday was much like Monday. There was review, there was stretching. I had taken a moment to look at the book that I am supposed to be following to see what else I am supposed to be doing and remembered that two of the yielding exercises in the current chapter are turning around the hind legs and turning around the forelegs. I decided that turning around the hind legs should be an easy one to add into the mix, but I wasn't sure about the other. It had been a long time since I had tried to get Matilda to step out with her hind legs and I seemed to remember that it was not an easy task.

First I stood in front of Matilda and asked her to "over" as I stepped around her in a circle. Piece of cake, she stepped out with her right front leg, crossed over with the left front and we did that until we completed a half circle. We did the same in the other direction. I don't even have to touch her for that one.

Then to check how the hind end moves. I walked back towards her rear end, turned into her hip and put one finger in the middle of that substantial haunch as I said "over." She took a step with her right hind leg and crossed over with her left. I was able to do the exact same thing on the other side.... not bad, so I stopped there. No point in pushing perfection.

The longe work on Tuesday was exactly the same as on Monday, but with less trotting. She was starting to give in to the work, I could feel it! We went through the exact same process of clicking while she walked, then saying "whoa" as she was in the process of stopping. I had to continue holding the longe whip close to the lash, as she was watching me all the time. If I started pushing the whip closer to her, she would immediately try to pick up that crazy trot and I would have to drop the whip and pull her into me to stop her.

At one point I realized she was picking up the pattern too well and she had figured out that if she started to trot I would let her stop (my mind was interpreting what I was doing as "make her stop"). I came to this understanding when she picked up the crazy trot, trotted three steps and stopped, turning into look at me before I could even drop the whip. Not cool. What did that mean? It meant the next time she picked up crazy trot, I had to drive her through it, using the whip to keep her moving forward while my teeny arm held her nose down and in at the end of 10 feet of rope, until she came down to the walk. After that, I had to continue to use light motions from my shortened whip to keep her from stopping and turning in to me. Once we got through all of that, I got a few good steps of walk and Click!

In any event, the system that was used on Monday worked on Tuesday. I saw more walking and a little less trotting and hope springs eternal.... I noticed, however, on the way back to the paddock, that Matilda was pulling this way and that, trying to get to the grass. She rarely pulls on the way to the ring, but going back is a problem. I made a mental note to be sure and reserve some carrots for the trip back next time. I usually don't, so we haven't worked our way down before now.

I couldn't get to the barn until late in the morning on Wednesday and I figured that the ring would be full and I wouldn't really be able to work Matilda. I thought maybe we would have a spa day for Matilda. I've been meaning to attack that mane and it is certainly hot enough here (mid to high 90s) to justify a bath... with actual soap.

Much to my surprise and joy, I arrived at the barn to find a big one hour gap in the lessons! Cancel the spa day, back to work!

I followed the same plan as Tuesday, starting with stretches, backs and overs. We did a full circle around her hind legs in both directions (still don't have to touch her for that) and half circles around her forelegs (index finger alone moves that bulk around!). I must confess that I am now finding the longe work so rewarding that I am rushing through our yielding/ground work exercises because I want to see how she is going to progress on the longe line.

Her longe work on Wednesday was AMAZING! I worked her out about half way down the line, letting her get a little further away from me, and I was able to get the longe whip all the way out. We went from holding the stick two inches from the lash to about 5 feet! Just like you are meant to hold it. I was even able to wiggle it behind her and lay it across her haunch while she continued to walk. Now it was about 98 degrees, but I am not above using the heat to achieve a goal. (Don't worry we weren't out there that long)

With this incredible burst forward, we started working on her walk/stop transitions. Instead of clicking while she was walking, I started saying "whoa" first and then clicking when she stopped. We achieved the ultimate goal, she stopped when I said "whoa" and walked (walked, I tell you!) when I said "walk on" with a wiggle of the whip behind her. Brilliant. No more turning into me when I told her to stop, she stopped with her head pointed in the direction she had been walking. Perfect.

I was so impressed, I had to call poor Kim away from her work to watch. I was showing off with the whip, when I pushed a little too far and she picked up the trot. BUT when I said "walk" she took about 4 more trot steps, then came down to the walk. With the longe whip still wiggling behind her. I told Kim, "I know she's too keyed up to do this now, but she's even been stopping when I say 'whoa.'" And Matilda stopped while we watched. I know my mouth was hanging open.

With all of this excitement, I had to give Matilda a mini-spa day. I attacked the mane. Here is a sort of before and after shot... and I am not done yet. I think it still needs some work, but I am practicing my straightening skills as we go.



We did click and treat every two steps from the stable to the paddock on Wednesday. With that frequency of click and reward, there was no pulling, no trying for the grass. She walked when I walked and stopped when I stopped, but that was 4 days ago now. I'm not really worried about it, since Matilda has already proved that she has a good memory.

One of my next projects is to find a halter that actually fits Matilda. I apologize for the sideways picture (I am still getting used to a new phone), but I think you can see that this halter is being kept on by strategically placed bailing twine in two places. I have tried all the halters at the barn on Matilda and this is the closest fit. As she behaves better and is seen more... well, we all have our pride, don't we?

I go back to the barn tomorrow and I can hardly wait to get into the ring with Matilda and see what the day holds. There's a part of me that is itching to hop on her back and see what happens, but I promise I will not (Mom and Husband). I have a plan in mind and I will see it through to the end... But I'm starting to see what the end looks like. It is good.

Discoveries, Failures and Successes

It's been almost a month since my last post and the reasons are simple. I just haven't had much time for Matilda this month. I've checked in with her weekly, but only 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there to make sure she hasn't lost too much in the time apart. But now it is the end of May. My car is fixed, a job that I was studying up for has begun and summer is here. Time for me to get back to the project at hand: Matilda.

After the last post and before I checked out for the month, my sister had asked if I knew what had happened to Matilda to make her so scared of the longe whip. When I went to answer her I was surprised to realize that I had no real idea. There were a lot of scenarios that ran through my mind, but all were based on assumptions with no real knowledge. (You know what they say about when you assume??) So I went to Kim and asked her why Matilda was so difficult to handle. The answer sort of knocked me for a loop.

Kim basically said that she thought there had been some inconsistencies in how Matilda had been handled and that Matilda had learned over the course of a couple of years that there were people she could get away from and so she always tried and so she often did.

I was a little bit floored by this revelation. All my visions of Matilda accidentally being popped by whips until she simply feared them and tried to escape them flew out the window. Most of my sympathy went with them. I felt so... used.

This is such a good thing because too much sympathy does an animal no favors. Too much sympathy leads to coddling, coddling to affirmation of fear and bad behavior and affirmation leads to an animal that either won't leave it's comfort zone or knows it can get away with bloody murder and does so.

Does this mean I am changing my plan of positive reinforcement with the clicker training? Absolutely not. Does it change anything? Absolutely. From here on out, at least in my mind, there are two separate things going on with Matilda and I:

First, continuing to work on ground manners. This will go on exactly as before, using Kelly Marks' book to help Matilda go forward learning to give people space, yield to pressure, etc.

Second, longe work or Matilda's cardio workout. I will still use the clicker and positive reinforcement, but I have given myself permission to be much more assertive with things in order to push Matilda into work a little faster. She will have to give me A LOT more of what I want at the end of the longe line in order to earn that click and reward!

Last week I decided to check on this longe work to see where we stand. Admittedly not my best idea, seeing as how I had barely seen Matilda for over two weeks, but by now we all know about the slightly reckless side to my nature.

I started her out going to the right and she did surprisingly well. She was not really in control, neither was I, but we looked like we were doing what we meant to do. Matilda picked up the "I want to run away" trot as soon as I had the longe line in one hand and the whip in the other. (It's funny how putting the pieces together - line and whip in the ring - made it seem like we had done almost no work at all prior to this. But there again, two plus weeks with no time together did us no favors.) I managed to keep her where I wanted in relation to my personage, despite her throwing her considerable weight to the outside, pulling away from me. After much asking and waiting and hanging on, she finally slowed to a walk and I was able to use the whip to keep her at a walk for a couple of trips around the circle - until I asked her to stop. (Her instinct, when she realizes that she is not succeeding at pulling away from me, is to stop and turn into me. Getting her to simply walk, not trot or stop, is a tricky thing as it turns out.)

Then I put her on the left... supposedly her good side. Not pretty. We immediately started what I thought was the same process, with her picking up a fast trot and pressing to the outside. This time, however, I could feel a difference. There may have been little to no control on the right, but on the left there was a distinct feeling of being totally out of control. The more I tried to gain control, the worse it got... let me explain. With most horses that have been longed, if you put a little pressure on the line (and therefore on their nose) they slow or stop or turn into you. The longer you hold the pressure, the more they should slow down. With Matilda, the more I held, the faster she went until she was in a full on canter. The faster she went, of course, the more momentum she had to move away from me until she was all the way at the end of the line. It's a little scary, that feeling of no control, especially as you get dizzy after being spun in circles with no end in sight.

Ultimately, I had to let her go and watch her run happily across the ring, dragging the 30 foot longe line behind her as I said a quick prayer that she wouldn't step on it or get it caught on something. I had lost that battle... one I should not have engaged in to begin with.

I couldn't let it end there. I took her lead and walked up to where she was happily munching some grass. Her lead has a 6' chain on the end (called a stallion chain) and I attached the lead to her halter with the chain going across the top of her nose. This is a practice frequently used to help control an unruly horse and one that I never intended to use on Matilda. However I had to win before we parted for the day and I was short on time, tools and energy.

I walked her back to where she had escaped and picked up the longe whip. She immediately started trotting, but with the chain across her nose and the short distance between us, she simply could not pick up the speed and momentum that she had before. With this configuration, I was able to get her to walk around me, while I held the longe whip, until I asked her to stop. Thus ended the day.

Today I went in fully realizing what I was facing, which is always helpful. I brought Matilda up into the ring and we went through a nice long review together. I wasn't sure things were going to go well, as she was super distracted by people being around. She is going to have to get used to it, as summer is here and there won't be lonely barn days for about 3 months:)

All her old moves were there, albeit rusty, and we have started working on some stretches. She stretches her neck by lowering her head all the way to the ground and then bending the neck from side to side. We have just started this, but I am hoping that there will come a day when she and I can do some morning stretches together.

Then came time to start the fabled longe work. I knew that I needed some sort of help with control, but didn't want to use a chain across the nose. After talking to Kim, I decided to hook her up to the longe line so that the line, which is just like a wide flat cotton leash, went across her nose. I hooked it up so that when I pulled on the line it would add pressure across the top of her nose, encouraging her to bring her nose down and in, rather than just pulling her head to the side as is the case when I just attach the line to the side of the halter.

I also kept her closer to me. No more than 10-15 feet of line. The smaller circle makes it harder and more uncomfortable to speed up.

This combination worked for us today. We still went through the same exciting process of Matilda trying to get away, but she was not able to do so. Through some trial and error, I also found that if I picked up the longe whip close to where the stick meets the lash, so that the whip was further away from her, I could work her down to a walk. She still tried to escape from it as soon as I would pick it up but she would give up, not so if I pick the whip up by the handle. When I pick up the whip by the end and hold it out in front of me, she runs and presses until I drop it because I need both hands to hang onto her... then she stops and turns into me, knowing that I can't encourage her on.

After a lot of work, I was able to get her to walk around me on both sides, while I held the longe whip an inch below the lash. I was able to use the whip, in that position, to encourage her to walk on without her running off into that super chaotic trot thing she does. She was only rewarded if she walked until I asked her to stop.

Since I wanted her to understand that the walk was what I was rewarding her for, I would wait until she settled into a nicely paced walk, made a couple of trips around me at that pace, then I would have to click, say "whoa!" and step into her with her carrot at the same time. I think I got the timing right on that one. It's all about multi-tasking.

So, that is where we are. It was a small success on the day, walking on the longe line while I held the whip in my hand, but a success it was. It's a starting point for this next phase and that was all I needed to get my foot in the door. It will probably be quite a while before I actually ask Matilda to trot on the longe line. I think I will work on building the walk until she can walk at the end of the line (maybe 30 feet out) with the longe whip doing it's full job before I even look for the trot.... I'm sure I'll be seeing it in any event.

Longing Matilda

I know, two weeks. I have seen Matilda in the last two weeks, but the visits have been a hodgepodge of stuff. Mostly she had to punish me a little, because I left her alone for a week, by being a stubborn cheese head last week and I didn't want to write about it. I think the only accomplishment from last week that I care to mention is that neither of us were injured during the course of our "working" together.

BUT it is a new day in a new week and we approached it with enthusiasm and purpose!

I am really bad at these self-portrait things, but I tried to get a photo of myself with Matilda. At least in this one you can get a better idea of how huge she really is. With her head like this, on my shoulder, her nose is down around my waist.... Makes me feel brave to see it:)

Oh, I remember one thing that came out of last week: Matilda and I decided that we should spend as much time working in the riding ring as possible. The added distractions of just being in a different place are important and we both need to learn to focus, even if cars are pulling in and horses are being led past. Plus it gives us time to practice being led politely to and from the barn. We will work there when ever the ring seems to be free from riding lessons.

Since the barn is closed on Monday's, we worked in the ring today!

It's hard for me to keep in mind the many tasks that Matilda and I are supposed to be accomplishing at the same time. Lately, the exercises in Kelly Marks' book have been taking the foreground, but again with all of our recent accomplishments and the (sort of) closing out of a chapter, I thought we might revisit the idea and dream of safely and reasonably longing Matilda.

If you look back at previous posts, you will remember that I had desensitized Matilda to the longe line and overly desensitized her to the longe whip - to the point that I can no longer send her forward or move her using the whip. However, I had yet to attach her to the line and yet to show her the whip while being attached to her in any way. I, also, had not done anything with either of those tools in the ring, where any previous bad experience may have occurred. Today was the day.

I put the longe line and whip on the ground in the middle of the ring before I even brought Matilda up, so that she could see them non-threateningly right away. We did our usual review in the ring before I led her over to where they were laying. She nosed them and didn't seem to be bothered with them, so I picked up the clip of the longe line and tried to clip it to her halter. She balked a little, pulling up her head, but she may have just been trying to mouth it.

Once she was attached, I had to get her moving but was not ready to pick up the whip just to "see how it would go". I started walking with her, encouraging her towards the grass, hoping that with the forward momentum I could stop, hold the longe line and turn her head to get a few steps of a circle. But with Matilda, sometimes forward momentum is forward momentum. When she hit the end of the line, her head did not turn in and she did not slow or stop. She just kept moving with me dragging along behind and I had to let go of the rope as if I meant to do just that.

I didn't let go of the rope lightly. When a horse walks away, dragging a 30 foot line behind them, bad things can happen. If she were to step on it and panic, she could really do damage to herself, but I thought it was the best thing I could do in that moment.

Fortunately my phone started ringing at this point and I had some other business to take care of, so I unclipped the line and let her munch for a while. It gave me a chance to regroup. She didn't come back to me, like on previous days. She just kept watching me and eating. With the lack of recent work I really can't expect much though, can I? Since we haven't been working together so much and we were doing new things, I thought she might be a little on edge and didn't want to walk up to her and try to clip the longe line to her halter while she was happily munching. I remembered that balk and didn't want to risk her running away. I took her regular lead and the target stick and used the target stick, along with the "touch" command to get her to lift her head and move away from the grass where I felt I could safely attach the lead.

A new decision to make. With the longe line, I could get more distance between us and be a little safer if Matilda lashed out, but thought maybe I should just use the lead (about 8 feet long) as a short longe line so that she couldn't work up so much momentum and I would have better control. I decided to keep her on the lead. But none of this solved the problem of how to get her to move in a circle around me. Matilda and I have been working on leading and walking together so long that she just sort of sticks with me and refuses to move away. I had to try the whip.

I backed Matilda up all the way to the end of the lead and positioned her so that I was facing her shoulder before I very carefully bent over to pick up the whip. I kept my eyes glued on her, since this very simple action has caused her to lash out and run off in the past. I was able to get the whip and stand up straight without incident.

We worked hard. Part of the time I ended up walking around her while she spun around her center (who is longing who here?) as I tried to get her moving around me. Then she would put her head down and buck or kick before taking off in a run, all the while trying to pull away from me. The whip obviously made her nervous as she alternated between running and stopping and turning to face it, trying to keep it away from her back side.

But then we hit a few sweet moments. She would break out of the run and fall into a nice steady trot. She would circle me just enough times to start making me dizzy before stopping and turning in to face me and the whip. I could pick up the rhythm of it after watching her do it several times and found my place to click and reward. Very tricky stuff. I had to click while she was moving at a steady pace, after she had gone more than a step or two in the trot but before she stopped or exploded back into the run. Then I had to step in and give her the treat as she stopped, before she could turn and look at me.

She never did settle into a walk. She never lost that nervous look in her eye that told me she was very uncomfortable and on the verge of panic. That's ok. I gave her as much freedom as I could, to do what she needed in order to cope, but kept an eye out for those moments when I could let her know she was close to doing what I wanted her to do.

We didn't do this for too long. It was incredibly stressful and trotting on a small circle like that isn't all that good for her, just a few times to get us started and then back to the classics.

We finished up with back and over (she was able to move laterally along a pole today) and grazed a path back to the paddock. It was an exciting day. Another small step to our ultimate goal. We'll keep chipping away at it until she is more comfortable and at ease with this whole whip and moving around me thing. I was very proud of her today. She didn't freak out when I picked up the whip or touched her with it, and I did get some circles out of her. I'd love to see quiet in her eyes, but I can wait. It'll come.

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!