Reclaiming Andi - day seven

Today, unfortunately, she backslid. She wanted the halter on and would approach me to target it but didn't want me to approach that final step (into the Andi defined comfort zone) to put it on. I just walked around the stall with her until she stopped, and once I was within the zone, she tilted her head toward me and was glad to have it on. I think what has happened is that over the last couple of days, I've moved too fast and put too much lag time between the halter and the grain. Yes—we'll get to that point, but I see now that while the lesson was well-learned on the surface, the foundation is still shaky. I'm not going to reduce the lag time, though. I'll simply up the repetitions and gradually continue to increase the lag time, occasionally putting the halter on and off without a grain snack while it's on because eventually she'll be wearing it without a specific reward. Remember at this point, our goal is still to get her to want to have the halter put on and to like wearing the halter.

Reclaiming Andi - day six

Day six was another easy review day, which was fine since it was snowing and cold even inside the barn.

I'd been there a bit earlier with the ferret under my coat. He sniffed her, and she sniffed him back, uneasy at the predator, cautious and unsure but trusting when I encouraged her—another sign of her progress.

I went in her stall with just the halter before I even scooped her bucket. She's calling to me now when she sees me come in the alley, and she came right to me but didn't like my bulky, noisy jacket that smelled of ferret she couldn't see. I quietly insisted she not step away, haltered her, and let her sniff my jacket—all was fine. I left her in the stall and went to get her grain before I fed anyone else.

Reclaiming Andi - day five addition

A fellow trainer called me on a point I mentioned earlier, and rightfully so. I made a simple comment - that I was willing to wait and let her come to me, that I was letting her make the decisions as to how much of what I wanted she was going to do, that I was passive and letting her decide if she wanted me in her comfort zone.

I want to emphasis that this is part of step one. I don't ask for trust and submission without a basis, without first building a foundation.

In the past, I've had friendly, willing babies that went a year or more into training before I realized that they had NO training at all, that we were simply a couple of buddies hanging out and having fun. These horses like people and are bold and enjoy getting out and doing fun stuff. They did everything I asked so I naively didn't realize there would come a time that I would ask something they wouldn't want to do, and because it was a 'new' situation, that we'd have problems with that.

I'm going to try real hard not to make that mistake with Andi. The lines of communication are open. She knows I'm talking to her, and she knows I'm listening when she talks back. I'm going to take the time to build a relationship, to give her a foundation and reasons to trust me, but I will, over time, be sure she understands that while I listen to her and answer her questions, that I have the final say in our discussions.

Ideally, I'll be able to do this subtly and gently over time. It's all fine lines and shades of gray, trying to find that perfect balance ... to ask more than what she'll do easily and just for fun without asking her to do something she'll outright refuse.


Over the next weeks, I'll introduce her to Linda TJ's 'wand' and 'put her in the box'. She'll learn to move her feet for me, to move away from pressure on her body, and we'll start doing some simple gymnastics in-hand. The plan is that the "go forward" cue will become simple habit as we transition from walking the barn alley or the arena to tarps, creeks, and even loading in the trailer. I'll try to find stuff for her to cross that will worry her just enough to think about it before she'll go ahead. Over time, she'll learn that I won't ask her to do something she can't do, and when there does come a time—out on a bad trail or in a trailer accident or any of those bizarre situations that horses and horseman get into—that I have to ask her to do something dangerous or at least very strange, she'll lay that trust in my hand and let me guide her out of something that frightens her or that she doesn't understand.

Reclaiming Andi - day five

 
Day five was a short and simple recap of the previous lessons. I filled her bucket with grain but left it outside the gate when I went into her stall. She approached me; she tensed slightly when I stepped toward her and started to step away but stayed with me when I reached out and tangled my fingers in her mane. I haltered her, and asked her to give to a light pressure on her poll, which she did, and we walked (leading) about three or four steps in each direction, stopped, and backed two steps.

All that done, I fetched her bucket of grain and poured it out for her and let her eat, then removed her halter.

We'll have at least one more day of review before we move on again. I've learned that when they come along so fast, it's easy to leave holes rather than the firm foundation you need in these basics. I don't want to bore her, but I will do all I can to be sure she's solid and steady in each series of lessons before we move on.

Reclaiming Andi - day four addition

I want to take a moment to address the problem of Andi pulling back in order to get pressure to release in an attempt to cue me to click=treat. This problem is two-fold.

One: it's fabulous that she's figured out that her actions command the click, but it's not good that she's trying to be in charge. That will definitely have to be turned around. She's trying to cue me to click/treat. Step three, which she skipped, is putting a cue to the behavior that gets the click.

I want her to 1)release her body to pressure and 1b) come forward when I put a little pressure on her poll with the lead rope.

1. My cue to her is to apply pressure.
2. She releases the pressure by lowering her head and stepping forward.
3. Click
4. Treat

The PROBLEM is that SHE applied the pressure in order to cue ME to click/treat.

Her sire would do this. One method of using the clicker is to 'extend' the trick. For example, I taught him to stand at my shoulder by click/treating when he positioned himself with his shoulder next to mine. Once he was doing this, I would take a step. In order to stay in position, he would have to take a step. (click/treat) Once he's done that, it's simple to take two or three steps (click treat) when he stays in position. You'd think you could go to ten steps or half a mile (which actually is the idea),but he would only go about 3-4 steps then bolt off and come back into position to try to get me to click/treat. (If I had fallen for that, I would essentially be treating him for bolting.- Tricky, tricky boy! Too smart for his own good sometimes.) I also wanted him to stand beside me as long as I wanted. You do this by not clicking immediately when they stand properly. You want a few seconds/minute. If I waited too long, he would circle and come back into position, clearly upset and anxious, worried he had done something wrong (since he wasn't getting the click/treat) and trying to get me to click/treat by redoing the trick.

We worked through it. He will free lunge both directions, stop, reverse on voice command, and jog at my side, over and through obstacles, and he'll even weave a pattern with or without poles on voice or hand signals.

One interesting aside is that I thought I had taught him the vocal commands left and right, but he actually learned toward and away from me, so when I'm working on his right side, I have to use right for left and left for right to get him to turn the way I want.

Because he's learned that some behaviors earn the click, he tries endlessly to please me. If he sees me standing in the window of the house and wants me to come outside and play, he'll start going through his tricks. He likes you to pull his tongue, so usually, that's the one he starts with. He'll stand at the gate and stick his tongue out. It's funny, but it can be very obnoxious as well, depending on the trick. Fortunately, the tongue tricks are mostly harmless, although he actually licked a judge at a show one time when she accidentally cued him.

So Andi is already self-tasking and experimenting with behaviors, seeking the click, which is really amazing, but in this specific case, she's already learned what could escalate into a terrible and dangerous behavior in pulling back on the rope, and it's something that will have to be dealt with.

Reclaiming Andi - day four

She’s asks for the halter, stands easily to have it put on, and appears totally comfortable about wearing it. She still gets a little tense if you approach her instead of letting her approach you. That's a training hole that cannot go unaddressed because it will be a huge issue later if she doesn't get over it. At this point, we're going to keep a very close and concerned eye on this behavior, but we’re going to move along because I think this is something she's going to get over with time.

To recap, she's approaching the person, asking to wear her halter, standing quietly while it's buckled on, and following the person around the stall.

The next step is leading (leading being the obvious external goal, the bigger goal being to get her to learn to give to pressure). Leading, as I see it, mainly involves moving forward beside the handler. I want her to walk beside me, stop, back up, turn left and right, and eventually turn on the fore or the quarter or bend her spine up or to the left or right without moving her feet.

I have an odd bit of failure here. Once I attach a lead rope to her halter, I can't apply pressure to her poll because when I step away with the intention of applying pressure via the lead rope, she follows me.

Smart girl . . . she's already leading, turning left and right, and stopping beside me when I stop (of course!! how would she get a treat if she kept walking past the treat pocket). While a lot of trainers would take this and shout it to the rooftops, it raises a red flag with me because unless we back up and find a way to apply pressure so she can learn to give, this will create huge (extremely dangerous) triggers and behaviors in the adult horse.

This means I have to find a couple of creative ways to cheat. I step away quickly and tug. I extend my arm out and pull the rope without moving my feet. A horse’s natural inclination to put pressure on the poll is to throw their head up and back. I use a heavy bungie leadline so there isn't a hard set for her to hit, just a gradual pressure that she applies herself and can release herself. I'm able to get her to apply pressure a few times, and the INSTANT she comes forward, click treat.

Andi's doing so well! I open the stall door, and we walk and stop and turn up and down the alley a few times. A few minutes later, we go down to the end to chill for a few minutes near the older mares, and I get a mind-boggling example of how smart this girl is.

She chills with me for a few minutes, but her baby attention span is short enough that she's soon mugging for treats. Mine aren't allowed to mug, so while I scratch and pet when she comes closer to nuzzle me, I gently dissuade her from sniffing around and trying to get in the treat pocket.

After thinking about this for a couple of minutes, she steps away, one step sideways and a step back, taking the slack out of the lead and raises her head, applying pressure to her poll. Her ears fly forward, and her sassy little bright eyes sparkle as she comes forward so I can treat her for the release. I'm dumbfounded, and while my brain is trying to deny or at least process her behavior, she does it again and then again! She's experimenting, trying to figure out why she didn't get the click treat. She steps right instead of left or maybe two steps back the next time.

She's figured out that her behavior (in this case, pressure on the poll and release) causes the click, and she's trying to get me to click and treat.

I shouldn't be surprised. You'd think that after all these years, I'd expect that from these horses, especially given her sire, but she hadn't shown me anything at all like this before.

Today has been a huge success, a moon-leap kind of step forward. The lines of communication are most definitely open. She's answering my simple requests with questions on top of questions, and she's expecting answers.

I've always liked this filly and thought she had huge potential, but she really blew my socks off today.

Reclaiming Andi - day four photos

So, in about a week, we have gone from a filly who just about couldn't be caught to one who is begging for her halter.













This is the best photo I can get of her if I'm in the stall with her.

What a huge difference. I think the title says day four. We put her up in the stall Wednesday and started consistent work with her on Thursday. This is Sunday, so yes, four days.

Reclaiming Andi - day three

Continuing on with step one—we started clicker training.

I don't subscribe to it in a religious sense as some people seem to do to one system or another, but I have found it to be a very handy communication tool.

Remember, my main goal is to open the lines of communication so I can ask her to learn and do stuff with me, and she can let me know if she understands what I'm asking or if she's uncomfortable or ready for more.

I went into the stall with her halter, the clicker, and a pocket full of grain (Notice I don't have the bucket. I want her to come to me now, not to the bucket.) ((I'm actually combining a few steps and making a fairly complex lesson day for her.)). I want her to figure out that when she hears the click, she gets a treat, so I click the clicker and offer her half a handful of grain. I've never had a horse take more than about 28 seconds to figure this out. Usually, the light dawns with the second 'click/treat' or at most, the third.

Andi is no exception. By the time she heard the third click, her nose headed for my pocket, .but that was just an aside. Remember, she's wearing her halter to eat.

At this point, we back up a half-step and get her to 'target' the halter. I do that by touching the halter to her nose and clicking (treat). I do this twice then simply stand, holding the halter close to her . . . success! She stretches out her nose to touch the halter. (click treat).

Within minutes, she is following me around the stall asking to nose the halter.

To reach the next half step, when she noses the halter, (click) I put the halter on before I treat. This takes a few more repetitions because it's a little more involved. There is some lag time between the click and treat, and she has to figure out if I've betrayed her in some way, changed the rules, or simply added to the game. I give her time to whirl it all around in her head, and we do a few more repetitions.

Halter off.
Offer halter.
Nose halter.
Click
Halter on.
Treat.

This step takes her about five or six repetitions to get comfortable with and to totally accept what we're doing.

**this photo was taken after the fact (obviously we're in the arena, not in the stall) but I wanted to show her approaching the halter and (grrrr at my slow digital camera) touching her nose to it. oh well. But isn't she cute? The young man in the photo is living and working here and learning to work with the horses, so he's training in groundwork along with Andi.

Reclaiming Andi - day two

Next, we have her looking for the bucket and standing comfortably and eating. I move a few steps left or right or away every few bites, and within minutes, she's following me (the bucket) around.

The next step is the halter. She's already worn the halter and decided she didn't like it, so the goal we need to keep in mind with this is not only to get her to wear the halter but also to get her to want to wear the halter and to like wearing the halter.

Starting today, she has to wear the halter to get her grain. This is initially somewhat of a drawn-out process. I go in the stall with a bucket of grain and the halter and just hang out. She sees the bucket and wants to approach, but she doesn't want to approach the halter. I give her a few chances to go ahead and approach me, but she decides she'd rather not eat than wear the halter.

My next step is to go ahead and put it on her anyway. I don't want to traumatize or upset her in any way, but I'm going to firmly insist she needs to do this. I manage this by just walking her in the stall. (Remember this is a largish stall) I approach, and she walks off, but I continue to approach, slowly and quietly and easily. I don’t sneak up on her, which would increase her tension, but just approach her slowly, steadily and consistently. Eventually, she stops in a corner and lets me slip her halter on. At that point, I stand with her and let her eat the entire bucket of grain. Once she's done, I remove the halter.

This step is a little harder for her because she has to unlearn her dislike of the halter before she can learn to like it and want to wear it. This part of the routine takes about three days before she can be haltered easily. She will approach a person easily enough now but still doesn't want to be approached. I'm dealing with this by walking in with the bucket and halter, letting her approach me, slipping the halter on, and letting her eat.

Reclaiming Andi

Normally, when a foal is born here, it receives attention multiple times a day for a week or more then daily (at least) attention for the months until weaning. By that time, they're already trained and performing tasks that many grown horses don't even do, such as being halter-broke, leading, having their hoofs picked and trimmed, and loading in the trailer.

Marah's baby, Andi, is my 'divorce baby,' and her training has fallen through the cracks of my life. She got all the usual new-baby snuggles, but at a week old, she was turned out to pasture and not handled much at all. Much to my shame, she's seven months old this month and just now being halter broke.

Usually with the little ones, it's a case of showing them the halter, letting them sniff it, rubbing them down with it and slipping it on and off a few times until it's a non-issue. Andi wore the halter a few times; she would sorta leap alongside when you tried to lead her, but I was never consistent enough for her to learn to give in to pressure and be happy and comfortable about it so she developed an aversion rather than a liking to being handled.

In addition to all the toil and turmoil of divorce and trying to finish the new house, I've been working a lot of overtime - up until about two weeks ago.

Now, Andi's not at all feral, and she's not panicky and wild-eyed. She’s perfectly comfortable with being around people in her Andi-defined comfort zone of about three feet out—arm’s length. She simply doesn't want to be touched.

My solution to that has been to bring her up out of the pasture and put her in my large stall and start over from day one --handling her multiple times a day.

If you ask 20 horseman their opinion on this matter, you'll get 47 answers on how to handle a young horse like this: anything from rope, throw, and tarp them; withhold feed and water; bury them up to their heads in sand; round penning; to trying to give them away; or simply turn them back out and let them be wild.

I have what I consider an advantage in that I have all the time in the world and, IMO, a good focus on what I want. My main goal, aside from halter training or anything else, is to open lines of communication with her, gain her trust and get her to come around and want to work with me. I have obvious ulterior motives for all this. Her sire is a proven performance horse (and his sire and uncles and so on), as is her maternal grandsire and his dam. I have big plans for this filly, and I know through long experience that I want her working with me from the start, or we'll end up nowhere.

Since she's used to being grained, I provide (in her stall) full buckets of clean fresh water and free-choice hay, but she only gets grain out of a bucket I'm holding. She's not being starved or tormented -- I'm out there at least twice a day and she's getting her usual amounts -- but she has to make a choice to come close enough to me to eat out of the bucket.

This is a no-brainer and takes her about 30 seconds to figure out. She doesn't stand and eat at first. She’ll come in, grab a couple of big mouthfuls and pace around behind me while she chews, but by the second day, she's standing quietly and eating out of the bucket as long as I don't reach out to touch her.

So the first part of step one - to get her to come to me - has been accomplished. She's approaching the bucket while I hold it, and we'll use that baby step over the next week to work in a simple transition to get her wanting to wear the halter and follow us around.

Another one

We had a fantastic double weekend a couple of weeks ago. More shooting!

We rode to a 2nd place in our division two weeks prior, and again at the last shoot, this time we were only down by 3/10's of a second. Close enough to both laugh and cry. But it was a good day getting better -- no question about that.

After the shoot, I went on out to camp on some private property adjoining the local national grasslands. The property owners are horsemen and long time friends of mine. They purchased this little guy as a coming 2yo, just about three years ago. I've seen him a couple of times, some photos and regular updates as he has been started under saddle, but I hadn't been able to spend any real time with him until recently -- and what a wonderful treat to see him all grown up and going down the trail. We did a short (6 miles) trail ride since we were all on young horses and I had the pleasure to ride him around camp when we got back.

This is the most rewarding thing in the world, to see grown up babies out in the world and doing good. And especially once I got on him. He's the perfect blend of his sire and dam, with his sire's lightness and length of stride and his dam's strength.

He's well loved and well cared-for, he's happy, healthy and well-adjusted. He's willing and his training is just were it should be given his age.

And so, at least in this part, all is right with my world.

For your Holiday Viewing Pleasure

... a bit of silliness brought to you by GWAIHIR the Valiant & Co. wishing you and yours lots of good food, friends and family, and safe travels as we dive into this holiday season.

Watch this space for news regarding upcoming sequels featuring GWAIHIR the Valiant.

* GWAIHIR The Valiant and the Tale of his Victory over the Medium-sized Orc

and

* GWAIHIR The Valiant and the Tale of his Victory over the Very Large Orc

(* GWAIHIR The Valiant and the Tale of his Victory over Hoards of Orc is still under contract negotiation)

Cowgirl Boot Camp

The shooting has fallen by the wayside, to some degree, because of family stuff keeping me busy, and in hindsight, I'm doubly glad that I got to attend the Cowgirl Boot Camp managed by the CMSA Club Texas Smokin Guns and taught by the wonderful Tammy Sronce. Her sponsor, Maytex generously donated a stack of saddle pads that were given away as door prizes. (Beri loves hers!)

Beri and I are the first grey from the left!

We had a wonderful time and learned lots. Lots of stuff I knew (*argh*) but wasn't using, as Tammy politely yet firmly pointed out.

Horsemanship is key to this sport. You have to have a horse that has a good mind and is light and responsive to the aids, and I haven't required Beri to be as light as she needs to be. And yes, even though we've missed the last few competitions, we're working on our being light and responsive to the aids.

Tammy also gave me a needed 'wake-up' call to a couple of issues with my guns. One thing I was doing that is really quite dangerous was cocking before I crossed Beri's neck when I was going for a cross shot.

I wonder how many cowboys in the Old West ended up shooting their own horses in the back of the head?!?!

The other main thing she helped me with - it's been making me nuts to look at my photos and see how I was leaning so far forward - she helped me settle down and "let the balloon come to me".

I can't say enough nice things about working with Tammy, but we also have another incredible resource here in North Texas and that's Curt Moore at the Shootfire Ranch. He's offering a beginners clinic October 18-19, in conjunction with the Texas Smokin Guns. Check their website for details. I've cliniced with Curt before and highly recommend him.

Otherwise, the club will be at the Equine Expo in Fort Worth and also doing a demo at Teskey's on September 20th. Any of you writers who are writing westerns or even modern cowboys - this is your check to get out and hear the gunfire, smell the smoke and ask questions.

The Boy and his Mare

I hope readers don't get tired of seeing photos of my kid and the little mare, but I can't help bragging on them when they continue to improve, not just in skill, but in teamwork -- which is so key to so many things in life.

Jared has struggled with a lot in the last couple of years, some troubles at school, homeschooling (learning appropriate study habits, discipline, self-tasking), but the main thing I've seen him overcome is the pass/fail mentality that seems to plague so many kids these days.

So many things, he has tried, didn't do great the first time out and decided it wasn't so much fun.

I attribute a great deal of his progress to the wonderful family atmosphere of the CMSA and especially to the people who have reached out to us in the Texas Smokin' Guns club. It's a tough sport and it's made him a tougher kid.

He always did pretty well endurance riding with me, but in a lot of ways, he started in the sport, basically, riding at a level with most adults. He's a pretty good hand with a horse, in camp and on the trail. He can walk, jog, gallop, cross creeks, and handle about any kind of terrain.

So when he first tried shooting, it was fun, but tough, and all the other kids were a lot better than him - and that's hard for a guy, especially when he'd been doing so well elsewhere. In endurance, I was continually holding him back, his skillset was at or above the level of competition we intended for each day.

In CMSA, he's continually having to learn, practice and refine both his riding and his shooting. It set him back and we've had some false starts and some off days, but over the last year, he's seen his scores consistently improving. And even better than that he can see and feel how much his horsemanship is improving, and how much better he's working with this particular mare and that is the most rewarding thing.

We had a tough weekend at the last event. We were rained out on Saturday and so we camped and competed in the heat and humidity on Sunday. It made for a long weekend, but well worth it for the success we had.

In a way, I wonder if the shooting means more to him because it's harder, because each step and each success is harder earned than endurance ever was for him and it occurs to me I've heard all this before in plotting classes. That we should 'throw rocks' at our heroes, that we should exact costly vengeance on them before they meet their successes; and I think about all the nicey-nice *bleh* books I've tossed aside unfinished.

It makes me realize how important it is for our heroes and heroines not just to have struggle and fight overcome the odds, but I understand now that, in many ways, 'character arc' is more about growth than change. In _Writing to the Point_ Algis Budrys says that characters don't actually change, because that would be false to the consistency of the readers observation of people. But that being under stress (conflict) reveals hitherto concealed facets -that the character reaches deeper into themselves, tries again, tries a little harder, learns a new skill based on existing ones, and uses that to snatch victory from the grasp of the villain. And I have to say, that as I go along, it makes more and more sense to me. Perhaps I'm finally learning to reach a little deeper myself.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day with lots of snuggles and smooches from their kids. Ours was pretty relaxed, mainly, dinner with my mom and family. I snuck off a little early and came back to mess with the horses a little. I didn't have time to ride, but I got MIREE up and worked with her.

We had a wonderful short ride yesterday, and as young as she is, I won't ride her again for a few days. It probably sounds funny, like she's not on a training schedule, but she's not. Not really. But that's the beauty of starting my own colts under saddle, is that I can do it on the horse's schedule. I don't have to answer to the demands that someone wrote in a book, StepOne, StepTwo.... and I don't answer to anyone who's writing a check for me to push their horse along. (although, I have to say, when I was riding other horses, I'm not sure if it was luck, or if I was just hard-nosed enough about it, but I never had anyone try to lean on me to push their horses.)

But the wonderful thing I have found out about riding just a little bit and then giving them time off, is that they tend to think about it all and come back stronger. Miree has been doing well, but still a little unsure under saddle - but yesterday, she was all brass and confidence. A totally difference ride from last week and the rides before. She was steadier on her legs, more sure of her balance with me on-board, lighter in my hands and more responsive. A wonderful and dramatic difference.

So after such a good riding day yesterday, I put on her driving stuff today. We're ground driving and still dreaming of a harness and cart. But, to date, while she's been wearing the bit, she's been driving with the noseband - a kind of hybrid bosal I like to start colts in. Well, today, I went ahead and attached the reins to the bit ... and she went along as if she'd been doing it forever. Of course, she's not 'giving' and 'bending' the way she'll learn to do, but it's simply incredible to be working with a little mare that has so much try and so much heart that she actually reaches out with open communication to figure out what it is the two of you are supposed to be doing.

She tentatively shifts one way, then the other, her entire being focused on mine. Tension and pressure, a frown, mean "that's not it" and softening and praise mean "good girl!" ... and she gives the same tension or softness back to me depending on if I'm being good or bad.

And that's the part that you never hear about when people talk about a partnership with their horse - that a partnership is a two way street. For all that Miree gives, she demands as much. I'm just glad that she's generous and forgiving and willing to work with me and give me the time I need to learn to be her partner.

A horse of a better color...

So Saturday morning, early, my youngest son and I loaded up a couple of the mares and went to a cowboy mounted shooting event in Decatur.

The trip was pleasant enough, not too long (except for the infuriating road construction south of Fort Worth), but we found the arena easily enough - which sometimes is difficult for me. I have an odd propensity to be able to drive 100s of miles without a misstep and then spend hours looking for that last turn. I don't know why that is. Probably because I tend to overthink stuff. Anyway - the sign at the gate said "Lonesome Dove Feed" and we were looking for "Lonesome Dove Arena", but we could see a bunch of trailers and people riding so we pulled in. Thank goodness it was the right place.

The day got off to a good start. We brought BERI and MIREE. BERI to compete on, and MIREE simply for the experience. I used to always haul my babies on 'away missions', but she's managed to turn three without having traveled as much as the others.

Anyway, I've decided that MIREE's going to be my shooting horse because she's a nice western color. And isn't that how you pick out a good horse? by the color?!?!

*ahem*

But apparently - dun or buckskin or whatever color of bay she is - is perfect for a shooting horse. :) because she did wonderful. I saddled her up and rode her around in the arena during the warm-up. She was very attentive and alert, and wanted to run a little, but I didn't let her because we haven't cantered yet. Actually we've only trotted a few times and we did longer stretches of trotting in the arena Saturday than she has done to date. She's just turning a full 36 months this week so she'll stay in very light work for the rest of the year. The guns seems to be a total non-event for her. I've shot several rounds off her at home but I wondered how she would do with all the commotion and rapid fire of the competition... She was unphased. I'm so excited about what I'll be able to do with her over the next few years, I just almost can't stand it. She's one that has such a good mind and such a passionate "want to" attitude that I have to carefully check myself and be sure I don't ride her to often (no more than 2xs month) or too long (she's up to about 30 minutes walk/jog).

BERI, of course, was our star on Saturday. She's always been the one that I didn't get along with as well as I should with one that I raised. We've had a kind of push-push lead marish thing, which is a little odd since she's not the highest ranked in the pasture. I've just always felt that she liked to push my buttons. We knew from the time she was born that we'd be keeping her so while she was handled properly and trained, she didn't get as much as the 'for sale' horses, and she was spoiled a bit more (a bit too much). She was a 'kid horse' from the time she was young and by the time I started trying to ride her, she'd been well taught to ignore all the thumps and wallers from whoever was on her back. *sigh*

And it seems like she's never understood why she doesn't have her own bedroom in the house.

But as she's grown, she's eight this year, she's really turned into a good mare. She's started dressage and jumping but decided she didn't like jumping. And she can be a pig about what she doesn't like doing, so we took her out of training and let her be an endurance horse again, which she loves (see the BeriCam from a few posts back), and she's really good at.

Saturday she proved herself again. She doesn't like the guns, but she tolerated them well and I think is going to come along and be a good 'nuff little horse for us to shoot off of. We're hoping to make quite a few competitions, so it will be interesting to see where we are by the end of the year.

....and we don't have any photos yet... I'm compulsively checking the photographer site and will link to them when they show up.

bad!mare

One of my favorite peeves is the hero always riding a stallion but I found the most delightful character of Lass in Patricia Brigg's The Hob's Bargain.

Lass is a mare, slender and elegant but stronger than she looks and mean as a snake. She bites, she kicks and is generally most unpleasant to be around. But it's her job to take care of her man. And she's really good at it. She's so wonderfully marish, I can't read her without giggling. Now - of all things, I know horses can't be allowed to have bad manners, but some mares have a natural tendency to be 'in charge' of "life, the universe and everything" and those are the ones you want on your side or at your back when the going gets tough.

We have an ongoing situation here with young

TELPE. She's big for her age and typically awkward and energetic. She has an injured leg from being kicked and we're working her back into the herd after a period of confinement. WITNESS isn't going to put up with any of her silly-half-grown-baby carp.





What WITNESS has done is to herd TELPE to the corner and hold her there. Look this 'snarly' face. See how tight her muzzle is, how she has her nostrils pulled back and flared? And TELPE's listening. Look at that ear pointed straight out sideways on WITNESS.

But the more interesting interaction happened after WITNESS decided that TELPE had properly submitted and would be allowed to play nice with the other girls.

Little MIREE, most definitely her mother's daughter, took the opportunity to practice being in charge.



First she put TELPE in the corner...

You can see she's working on her snarly face, it's pretty good, but not perfect and TELPE is questioning her to some extent.










TELPE didn't stay in the corner so MIREE had to 'get tough'.


What she's done in this photo is get in front of TELPE and start backing up. If you've ever tried to back up a short wheel base trailer, you know what a hard task she's set herself -- but she's getting it done. Can you see the combined look of concentration and irritation on her face, and TELPE's surprise?


Here you can see she got her in the corner, but that durn leg is sticking out. TELPE's not standing square and quiet...
...now she is. Much better -

Oops. TELPE got tired of being good and decided to walk off.
MIREE is nipping her to try to put her back in the corner. Look at MIREE's legs, you can see how she's stopped and turned TELPE and is swinging around to get in front of her.

WITNESS finally got fed up and put them all in the corner. The arrangement in the photo looks casual, but it's not. WITNESS has them boxed in the stall and is guarding the gate.

Good!mare.

Helpy-horsies

I often get emails asking if a horse would do this or that specific thing and most of the time my answer is "it depends". Horses are as individual as people. They can be bold or shy or have unusual likes, dislikes or habits.

I would buy a horse doing almost anything in a book if the author had developed it's character to foreshadow the possibility. One nosey young mare I raised had a long list 'did you see?'s, including changing the station on the radio and pulling the spark plug wires out of my truck. Another one loved to 'help out' with the welding by dragging the cables around and changing the settings. I heard last weekend that one of my grown up fillies has been rearranging the tool shed - the people had been blaming the grandkids, but the truth is out!


Right now, in my herd, I have a high percent of young horses. One thing I have noticed is that from about the age of about 1-2 years up through their 3 and 4 year old years, they are very anxious to have people-interaction and to please. These are the ages when they'll push their way between you and the riding-horse you're trying to halter and crowd the gate or when they'll do things like bite the saddle or pull the bridles off the hangers.

This age tends to be an in-between age as far as training because they already know the basics of how to lead and tie, let people handle their ears and hoofs and accept a light saddle pad and girth, but their baby bones and muscles aren't ready for a rider yet. They can feel neglected with the lack of training and that's where you can get into trouble with an intelligent horse because they start looking for ways, by their baby horsey logic, not only to help you out but ways get your attention. It can be good or bad, depending on how dedicated they are and what they come up with.


A couple of weeks ago, I was swapping horses between pastures and my trio of young fillies all got in the act.


One of the other young ladies got away from me before I unbuckled her halter and so we were doing the dosey-dance around the cedars in the front pasture. After watching for a few minutes, LUINIL apparently decided that ASILA couldn't figure out which way to go, so she trots out alongside her and starts leading her out to the pasture. (grrrrrr!) I cut loose with a bit of harsh language - shocking poor LUINIL - and when she turned and looked at me, I called her to come. She had the funniest look on her face, and looked at ASILA like "what the heck", and came right to me. ASILA kept running around, being silly and after a few minutes, here comes TELPE, nosing up and standing quiet with me and LUINIL.


What they were doing is showing ASILA that 'by me' is where she should be. Horses have an interesting concept, it's a little hard to explain. They don't really understand "come to me". They can learn the human version easily enough, but as a directive, it's not a natural phrase to them because "close-together'=safe is so deeply instinctively ingrained that it's never needed. "Go away" is, basically, a punishment with the reward being the removal of the "go away" allows them to return. Consider that a horse herd like a little pack of magnets. It takes an effort to pull one away, but for it to return you simply release it.


I'm not ASILA's 'mom', so it isn't natural for her to come to me. She doesn't like wearing the halter and rope and she had no way to know that I was trying to take it off of her. By LUINIL and TELPE coming to stand beside me, they created a .... go back to our magnet example .... 'pull' to bring her in to me. And it worked. After a couple of minutes, she slipped right up between the other two and I was able to take her halter off.


The other 'escapee' was our young gelding LANDROVAL. He had found a good patch of grass outside the gate and would dance around and circle without letting me catch his halter. TELPE came up, as close to us as she could, but it wasn't a strong enough pull for him. He would go to her then dart away again and snatch another mouthful of grass.

The third helpful young lady in this little saga is Miree (MIREYENION) who is practicing to one day be Boss Mare and so she's very much clued in to who is being good and who is being bad. She gets pretty upset when someone is bad - she'll be extra good, I guess to try to offset the badness(?). And she needs a lot of reassurance as to her goodness and the rightness of the universe.


So she was pacing at the gate, getting increasingly agitated with LANDROVAL's badness and when I finally caught his rope and walked him through the gate, as soon as I slipped his halter off and stepped away she lunged and took a huge bite out of his shoulder!!


I usually don't tolerate aggression like that, but I also have a policy not to interfere in 'horse business' as long as they don't kick or bite when a person is close. But in this case - she was right, he had been bad - and she was soooooo proud of herself, I just couldn't help but give her just a tiny bit of praise. She's not normally a biter or an aggressive mare - and I can't help but think there may come a day when I need her to watch my back.

Who's on First?

In response to a comment about horse training in a previous post, Trish said >>>"I was literally laughing out loud! My daughter has been trying to train her Chocolate Lab with both hand and voice cues. He has learned several commands so she started to try for lie down while signaling with the palm of her hand moving down. He gave her a funny look and raised his paw and copied her hand movement -- looking supremely confident."

I laughed until I cried when I read that. I have been there so many times, and there is nothing you can do except hug them and tell say "good dog".

#

More than just the daily living with the horses, I think the time I've spent specifically as a trainer has opened my eyes in new ways. Once you get past the usual sit/stay and start asking for more, you need deeper, more specific, more subtle communication.

One thing that I put in my bag of tricks and pulled out to use as an author is the lesson that you have to really get in their skins and think like they do, you have to understand them in order to write realistically, even if you are using an outside point of view.

Trish's example of the dog learning to wave illustrates perfectly how well a miscommunication can work. You *think* you're talking about the same thing, and you can sometimes get a long way before you have that "Who's on First" epiphany.

I'll never forget the moment this came clear to me. I take a great deal of pride in the fact that my young stallion GWAIHIR does some wonderfully fun liberty tricks. One of the first things I taught him, as a very young foal, was to come and stand with his left shoulder at my right shoulder. Getting him to walk with me, stop and turn was simply a matter of him staying in place when I moved. Once he learned that he should keep our shoulders about 18 inches apart, even a turn to the right was simple because when I moved too close, he moved away.

All that we did, we did mostly with visual cues, some hand cues, but mostly body language which is the horses natural way of speaking. I thought that once he had learned something 'in his language' he could then learn it in mine so as time and lessons went on, I added voice cues to a lot of what we did.

One of the fun things he learned to do was to weave a pattern through a line of cones or poles as I jogged straight down the line. We started this with hand signals, I'd wave him away and then draw him back and I eventually taught him the words "left" and "right".

With all of my human arrogance, I thought I had really done something special. ... until the day I asked him to go "left" while I was standing on his right side instead of on his left. I expected him to curve away from me but instead he moved closer and started becoming agitated when I didn't move away to keep the proper amount of distance between us. I repeated the cue and he tensed, raising his head and backing his ears to let me know he was getting upset with me. Moreso when he was younger, but he gets tense when he thinks he isn't doing something right (and might not get a treat). He's very communicative, both vocally and with his body.

The thing to remember about my confusion in this situation with the left and right is that horses brains are very divided. You have to teach them most things once from their left side and once from their right. So I naturally assumed he didn't understand the cues since I was on the wrong side. So I went around to his left side and we did a few "left"s and "right"s - all nicely done.
So I go back to his right side and slowly, carefully and clearly, ask him to go "left". Again, he moves closer to me. He's getting agitated again, so I ask him to go "right"... thinking I'm giving him the correct cue for what he's doing so we can have a success and go from there. But he moves away - to my left!

My brain dropped into that slow molasses Jell-O 'huh?' mode where time slows down just a little and everything seems a somewhat foggy because you know you're missing something important.

What I figured out is that when I thought I was teaching him "left" and "right", he was learning "toward" and "away". He was getting upset with me for asking him to do something that he couldn't do - in his understanding, I asked him to move into my space, but then I didn't move away and give him that space, and he knew not to get too close or push on me with his body.
And when it comes down to it, "toward" and "away" or "in" and "out" are the more correct interpretations of the body language that we used for this 'trick'.

I had taught him the wrong words for the concept of what we were doing.

It's humbling to realize when they - the animal - is right and you - the human - is wrong, but when you live with them and listen to them and really have open lines of communication, the relationship develops into more of a partnership than anything else. This was a huge mental and emotional step for me as a horse trainer, but also an eye-opening (mind-expanding) lesson that can be used by any author who writes animals, aliens or even cultures that are foreign to their characters.

It boils down to knowing your characters, being firmly in the characters point of view, and even when you're writing from another characters POV, you still have to remember where each character is 'coming from' because we don't all see things in the same light. Even the most common day-to-day elements such as housing, clothing, eating can show extreme differences in culture or even just attitude, and showing that comes down to using details rather than vague adjectives. Remember that when a Texan talks about a "dry summer" it isn't necessarily the same as a "hot" or "dry summer" in Michigan. You could use details of temperature and average rainfall or you could let it be a delightful conflict of misunderstanding. As long as your reader is clued in, it's something you can have use to add depth to your story and have a lot of fun with at the same time.

Complacency (...less about me, more about the horses)

There was a terrible tragedy at an endurance ride a couple of weeks ago, two experienced riders raced for the finish, and then for whatever reason, kept running. The camp was a distance away, on the other side of a paved county road. The two horses hit a car. Both horses were killed, the car was totaled. One rider got an ambulance ride, the other rider and the driver were care-flighted out. This kicked off a flurry of safety posts on the horse-lists and someone found a news article that quoted statistics that said more horseback accidents land people in the hospital than motorcycle accidents, and that the average injured rider is someone with over 27 years of experience, on a well-trained horse, on a bright sunny day in an open field.

On the surface that seems crazy. But, thinking about it, a couple of things occur to me. Mainly that a rider may be more likely to survive a horseback crash than a motorcycle crash. And also that it seems to boil down to the laws of probability. There have been years of my life when I rode four or five hours a day on a regular basis. Even now, I ride, usually, at least a couple hours, three or four days a week. Consider that many horseman might ride, at most, on weekends and maybe a couple of nights a week ... I'd say most only ride a few hours a month. And in view of all that, it stands to reason that the person who rides 500 hours a year is more prone to injury than the person who rides 20 or 30 hours a year.

and, I suspect, that the main problem isn't the hours, but that we get complacent. I know I do - and that's when injuries happen. I got stepped on this afternoon, and not just a little 'oops', but a real honest-to-god tangled up foot under the horse and nothing to do but wait until he got his balance and moved.

I was in the training pen working with GWAIHIR on his tricks and trying to tune up his bow because he's gotten a little lazy about it and I stepped in too close to encourage him to a deeper bow. He was trying to do what I asked and I was in the way. He needed to move his hind legs back and his left hind hoof landed square on my right foot. It's not a good idea to use violence or harsh language in these cases because for the horse to leap away, they have to 'shove off' (the ground) and it's better if you can get them just to lean away and lift their foot off yours. In his case, because he was down in the bow, he had to rock his entire weight back on his rear end before he could step off. and, yeah, it hurts.

But the thing is, someone who isn't accustomed to horses tends to be, on the whole, more careful. So in the case of a character in a novel, it wouldn't be unusual for an experienced horseman to do something inane in a moment of inattention; to walk up behind a skittish horse and get kicked, or to be too casual around them and get stepped on. Many horses will step (sideways) toward you when you tighten the girth and it's not uncommon for them to catch a foot if you're not paying attention.

Another common mistake would be to underestimate a horse that they don't know well, or to overestimate the abilities of a young or untried horse. For example; many horses will cross a very wide creek or wade into river, but refuse something that's narrow enough to jump. Many young horses have no problem leaping up a steep bank, but won't easily go down a steep incline, especially into water. Remember the Man from Snowy River and his mountain horse? It's something they have to learn because going downhill with a rider, especially with any speed, takes a lot of balance and strength that has to be developed if it's going to be in the horse when the hero needs it. I'm waiting for the day they film a scene in which someone is captured because their horse refused a long downhill slope.