Kicking the bucket!

Or to be more accurate, picking up the bucket, of whatever size and shape, and flinging it around the field/yard/stable.

This is Faith’s new pastime. I’ve just been standing at the kitchen window watching Faith trying valiantly to pick up a large tub trug full of ice, and chuck it across the field. Thing is, she can’t get a great purchase on it (possibly because of wobbly teeth), so at the moment she is more dragging, than flinging.

She has also started doing this with the tub trug of water in her stable, which usually becomes the prime target, having thrown both of her feed buckets over the door and out onto the yard. I just hope to goodness she doesn’t overturn it in the stable, as she will give herself an almighty fright if the floor changes colour! Oh and before anyone mentions it, yes, she has plenty to eat. The EEC hay mountain appears in her stable every night, and I always give her more than she can eat, so she isn’t doing this out of hunger. Having said that, I might see if I can get my mitts on a swede or mangold to see if that will entertain her more.

I don’t really mind these shenanigans, it’s just that the rather expensive ‘horse toys’ I bought for her are littering the place, completely untouched......sigh.....

I Love my Farrier!

There, I’ve said it. Seriously though, he is just lovely and brilliant. He came to trim the neds this morning. I had been running around like a headless chook all morning having to haul water from the house to the stables, and grit the yard, as it had started snowing again, while trying to ensure my little boy ate his porridge up and didn’t spill his juice everywhere. So when he arrived, I was a bit frazzled.

My frenetic mood obviously communicated itself to Faith because she was a little unwilling to let me put her headcollar on this morning, and her demeanour told me that she was expecting something exciting to be afoot.

However, as soon as she stepped out on to the yard, and saw my farrier, she visibly relaxed, and stood like an absolute angel while he rasped her feet. Now there aren’t that many young horses that look at a farrier, and clearly think “Oh that’s alright, it’s you, everything is going to be fine.” I feel it is testament to the fact that my farrier is such a great guy, and so damn good at his job, that the sight of him settled my filly this morning, when I clearly had the opposite effect!

As if he couldn’t get any more wonderful in my eyes, he was going to charge me half price for doing Faith’s feet, because he only had to rasp them. I of course refused, but did remind him that our next appointment was two weeks before I am due to give birth, so he needs to brush up on his midwifery skills, and possibly bring hot water and towels with him next time!

Consistencey is the Key...

Leg densitisation is going very well. I have been using a leadrope folded in half and gently swinging it against Faith’s legs so that she is no longer so alarmed at the feeling of things bumping against her legs (rug straps for instance).

I have had to be really spot on with my timing though, as we have done so much work on foot handling, that Faith will lift her foot at the slightest tap on her upper leg. So initially it was a bit of a challenge to ensure that I was clicking the foot being on the ground, rather than the foot being in the air. Faith learns so incredibly fast that it is easy to teach her the ‘wrong’ thing with a bit of bad timing, but she is also pretty forgiving, and is so eager to learn and do the right thing that mistakes are relatively easy to correct. It is testament to the intelligence of her breed that within a couple of days she can effortlessly distinguish between a tap as a cue to lift her leg, and an accidental tap with a rope. It just goes to show really how incredibly tuned in to our body language and intent horses really are, and how they view what we are doing as a whole rather than just the concentrated aspects.

I shall continue to develop this work to get her used to a rope dangling around her feet etc., as no doubt at some point I shall drop the leadrope/longlines, or fall off and the reins will come over her head etc., and I don’t want her to be alarmed by that.

The last few days had really highlighted to me the importance of consistency in training with young horses. I am sure that our little hiatus with rugs has been partly due to the fact that for a couple of weeks I had really taken Faith’s good behaviour for granted, and was doing very little with her apart from changing rugs and giving her a flick with the brush. She had become quite grumpy with me, and wouldn’t stand still for brushing etc. which I had put down to the sudden cold spell we were having. However, since I have been making the extra effort to go back to doing 15-20 mins or so with her each evening, she has gone back to being amenable and rock steady in the stable, and seems to be happier in herself. So that is definitely a lesson learned on my part. I have to say it is also heartmeltingly lovely to think that she does place some kind of real value on the time we spend together, even if it is just having a chat and a fuss, and practicing foot handling or having a good scratch.

A Gap in My Training

We had a couple of rug related incidents which have shown up a gap in Faith’s rug related training. A couple of weeks ago as I was rugging Faith before turning her out in the morning, Tommy decided that it would be entertaining to run his teeth along the metal grille that divides his stable from Faith’s. This freaked faith out a bit, and she took off round the stable before I was able to do the rug up. Inevitably it slipped back, and for a couple of seconds it ‘chased’ her before falling off on the floor. To her credit she went straight over to it and sniffed it as soon as it landed on the floor, and straight away let me put it back on her.

However, since this incident, she has been a little spooky about having it on, and I confess I have lost my confidence a little with rugging her, mainly because I am heavily pregnant, and feeling a little vulnerable, and defensive of my burgeoning ‘bump’, not to mention the fact that it is also making me a little slow and clumsy. Consequently, I stopped rugging her at night, so that I only had to do one rug change a day. It turns out that she didn’t really need to be rugged at night as nom-nomming on her massive pile of hay has kept her nice and warm. As it has been lovely and sunny for the last week, albeit snowy, I have been letting all the neds out naked to play in the snow, which they have all enjoyed immensely, and once again, big piles of hay have kept them busy and warm.

However, yesterday morning felt a bit dark and cold, and I thought it would be a good idea to rug Faith. However, she had other ideas, and just wouldn’t let me near her with it, so once again she went out in the nuddy, and although she was absolutely fine, I felt rather bad.

So I have started work with the rug from scratch again, and have currently gone back to just rubbing the folded cotton summer sheet over her, and gradually draping it over her shouders and along her back. It is clear that she knows what I am doing, but there is some tension there, so I am keeping up the repetitions and a high rate of reinforcement until it is all utterly boring again.

I must confess, I am disappointed in myself for not being thorough enough the first time, and this time around I am going to make a special effort to get her comfortable with the straps accidentally tapping against her legs, which is another thing that owing to my clumsiness (and my inability to see much below my bustline), had started to happen.

One good thing that has come out of it though, is that I have started to re-think my attitude to rugging, and unless it is wet and windy, I have realised that Faith really is capable of keeping herself nice and warm in a natural and healthy way. I do think that plenty of long fibre food, of good quality, really is the key to keeping a fine coated horse healthy and warm in cold weather.

Snow Problem!

Well the moment I had been dreading arrived today.  I woke up to a blizzard and about half an inch of snow!

Faith just isn't great at putting her feet on strange things, and although she had encountered snow in abundance last year, given some of the traumas we have had about stepping on to wet concrete, I dreaded the prospect of a snowy, slippy yard.

Anyway, I gave the beds brekkie and hay, and Faith's startled reaction to a snowy bucket kind of confirmed my worst fears.

So I spent the next hour sweeping every scrap of snow off the stable side of the yard with my trusty besom broom, and gritted every last inch of it, thus making a snow free path to the yard gate.

I put large piles of hay in the front paddock, and prepared to let the neds out.  Tommy went out first as usual, and started tucking into the hay.  Then I opened Faith's door, and she stepped out gingerly, changed her mind and went back in.  Then she spotted the pile of snow I had banked up on the opposite side of the yard, marched over to it, climbed on top of it, took a big mouthful then proceeded to stroll down the snowy side of the yard and out into the field!  I was gobsmacked and delighted in equal measure!

Tilly followed her out, and they are all three currently naked and frolicking in the snowy sunshine!  Happy days!

All Faith wants for Christmas.......

Is her two front teeth! On Saturday morning, after giving the horses breakfast, then doing the poo picking, I was greeted by an Arab filly who appeared to be wearing lipstick. On closer inspection it turned out to be blood, and immediately I thought she had fallen over in the stable, or bumped herself somehow. I encouraged her to lift her top lip up, and lo and behold her two front teeth had come out, and her gums were bleeding a little.

I was very relieved that not only had she not hurt herself, but she has had one wobbly tooth for what seems like ages now, and I was beginning to wonder if giving her some Highland Toffee might do the trick (that’s what worked for me as a kid!). However, nature seems to have taken it’s course, and she now has two grown up teeth poking through the gums. It’s a shame in a way that horses can’t breathe through their mouths as it would have been the coolest thing ever to teach her how to whistle!

As for training, well frankly we haven’t really been doing any. I am struggling with the fact that it now appears to be pitch dark at about half past four in the afternoon, which makes poo picking in the long foggage, a bit of an ‘against the clock’ event! After doing that, I’m a bit knackered, particularly as I am now really fat. So I have resigned myself to not getting stressed about doing very little with Faith over the next few months. We will just use this time to consolidate the basics, as she is just so chilled out with rugs, grooming etc. So the main event each evening is really just cuddles, and the quest to find new itchy spots to scratch. Apparently, I’m getting quite good at it!

Taken A-back

Taken A-back

Faith had her first visit from the Chiropractor today. Once again she gave me cause to say how desperately proud I am of her.

I explained to my Chiro, that I wanted to just take this treatment slowly, as I wasn’t sure how Faith was going to react, and that if she had to come back three times to complete a treatment, then that is what we would do. My priority was that Faith should find this a positive experience. I explained to her that while Faith could be quite a reactive horse, she is inherently a very, very gentle soul, and I didn’t want her scared. Not that I thought she would be, as my Chiro is an absolutely lovely lady.

Well, having done all that build up, Faith stood, quiet and relaxed like a little poppet. She gave the Chiro a good sniff all over, and had a little sniff and nibble of her wooden box that she stands on, and that done, she was perfectly happy to let her get on with the job.

Faith was brilliant with all the tail work, brilliant when my Chiro stood on the box and worked along her back. She stood like a rock while she had her neck ‘tweaked’, and even did some absolutely brilliant belly lifts!

All the while, I was of course clicking and treating all this saintly behaviour. About fifteen minutes into the treatment I felt the need to explain to my Chiro that I was clicker training Faith, and it wasn’t that I had developed some kind of nervous tic. I nearly fell over when she said; “Oh yes, I thought that was what you were doing, I wasn’t just being polite and not mentioning it!”

So the upshot is that her back is absolutely fine, and her pelvis is nice and level. She does have a few tight spots around her hindquarters and inside her thighs, as well as the little bit on her neck that needed a tweak, other than that she is in rude health. But there is nothing there that I can’t work on and help with a bit of massage, and nothing that isn’t perfectly normal for a young horse hooning about in the field.

So we agreed that she should have an appointment every six months until she is started under saddle, at which point I will start the usual three monthly routine.

But I am endlessly proud of my little Faith, and looking forward to helping her loosen up her tight muscles through massage.

Teething Troubles!

There was something odd about Faith this afternoon. When I finally managed to drag myself out into the blistering cold to do the mucking out, she gave me a big neigh and mooched over to the yard gate, and stood there looking fed up for about half an hour.

Eventually, when I got them in at about 5pm, I could see she wasn’t quite herself. She was very restless when I was grooming her, but still pretty cooperative. But there was something odd about the way she was taking treats from my hand, and bizarrely she seemed to be getting strands of hay stuck in her teeth.

My first thought was mild choke, but her gullet was perfectly relaxed, and she wasn’t having any trouble swallowing. But my mind just kept going back to the way she was taking her treats, it was just odd.

Anyway, I left her to have some hay while I poo picked the field. I was about halfway round, when I had an epiphany, her teeth, she must be losing one of her teeth! Now I wasn’t certain, as I didn’t have a particularly clear idea about when horses start to replace their milk teeth, but I thought the theory was worth investigating.

So when I got back to the yard, Faith had eaten most of her hay, and was standing at the stable door waiting for me to put her stable rug on. So I rugged her up, and when I had finished I held a treat up to her nose so that she had to stretch out her top lip to get it. Sure enough, her left central incisor was tilting backwards into her mouth. I was pretty confident that she hadn’t had a knock or a kick to it, as there was no sign of trauma or swelling, just a slightly tilted tooth.

So instead of her normal HiFi Lite and high fibre cubes for tea, I gave her just high fibre cubes soaked in some warm water to make a mash. She seems to be managing her hay fine, as it is pretty short chopped hay in this bale. When I went back into the house, I checked my vet book, and it did say that at around 2 ½ years, a horse will cast it’s central incisors. Now Faith is only 2 years 4 months, but I always thought she was precocious!

So my little girl is growing up, and I am doing my best to put aside thoughts of her potentially choking on her loose teeth. As mum pointed out to me with a slightly despairing air, horses have been casting their milk teeth for millions of years without choking on them, and Faith will be just fine!

Groping in the dark and navel gazing!

This isn’t going to be as suggestive as the title may imply, so don’t get excited!

I post this blog on a couple of forums, as well as having my own blogspot. I do this because I really value the feedback I get from people who are very experienced with the art of clicker training, as well as those who are either new to it, or haven’t considered it as a training technique before. I really, really appreciate the time and effort people go to when writing comments on my blog, and it is a wonderful opportunity to look at my training through someone else’s eyes.

I am particularly blessed to have the support and advice of a few people who are very, very experienced in this field of training, and who have a unique ability to interpret things from a point of view that is totally horse centred. I admire this skill pretty much above all others in the horse world, and it is one that I am earnestly trying my hardest to develop. I am aware that my zealous attempts to nurture this skill, must often make me sound like a sanctimonious pain in the arse, but it does all come from a genuine intention to be totally honest about my own interactions with my horses, and a real desire to be a better horsewoman.

It is because of this, that no matter what small achievements I make through clicker training with my own horses, I still feel very much that I am right at the beginning of my path, and often groping blindly around in the dark, literally finding my way by ‘feel’ alone. That is another reason why blogging this process has become so important to me, as often I only really ‘learn’ what I have done, by looking at what I have done, if you see what I mean.

This was really brought home to me yesterday, when a wise person on another forum commented on my last little video clip of the step work I was doing with Faith. She noted Faith’s actions in lifting her foreleg a couple of times in the course of the training session, and congratulated me on noticing this displacement behaviour and taking the training back a couple of stages and rebuilding.

Well I couldn’t help but chuckle at this! Yes, I had noticed the behaviour, and I had taken things back a little bit, but that was probably more luck than judgement, and definitely more ‘feel’ than any kind of conscious decision. I certainly had not interpreted the foot lifting as any kind of displacement behaviour. In fact, if truth be known, I had to go off and Google ‘displacement behaviour’, to actually check that it meant what I thought it did! But, yes, that now makes sense. Faith at that moment was experiencing conflict between her desire to stay and be rewarded, and her anxiety at me climbing the steps.

Of course, the answer to this problem, is to take the training back a few steps to an anxiety free stage, and build again from there, so that there need be no conflict when that stage is reached again. So although, if I’m honest, that wasn’t my thought process during the making of that clip, it will be from now on. Another lesson learned through the generosity and observance of others.

Just a quickie!

Just a quick update.  Did a bit more work with the steps tonight, and Faith was brilliant.  I could easily touch her from poll to dock from 'on high' with her standing perrfectly relaxed.  I also did some more work with her tail from both sides, and again, she was great.

Our Chiro appointment is booked for the 27th so we have just over a week to carry on with this until it becomes totally boring! 

The next step!

So we continued our work in preparation for our Chiro visit (date to be confirmed) and used this evening to build on yesterday’s work with the steps.

It went OK, but both Faith and I were lacking in focus a little bit this evening, so we weren’t quite as productive as yesterday. I often find it goes like this with Faith, she is generally totally brilliant the first time we do something, then we might have a little lull for a couple of sessions, before regaining our mojo, and making further progress.

I did manage to get some video, but I have to apologise for the rather abrupt ending, as the camera decided, about a third of the way through the session, that the memory stick was full!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv_DpAAeFr0

Fail to prepare...prepare to fail!

Given that I recently e-mailed my Chiropractor to make an appointment for Faith, I decided that it would be a good idea to prepare Faith for some of the things that she will need to expect during a chiropractic treatment.

So after giving her a good groom on the yard, I practised running my fingers lightly over the vertebrae of her spine, and over the top of her pelvis. I then repeated this a few times, being slightly firmer each time. No problem.

I then started stroking down the dock of her tail in a kind of ‘milking’ action, each time exerting a little more pull on the dock, not enough to really give her tail a stretch, but enough for her to be very aware that I was doing ‘something’ with her tail. Again, Faith was perfectly relaxed about this and even seemed to enjoy it.

Then I needed to work on getting her used to someone standing on a step beside her, as my Chiro, being a very petite lady, always brings a box to stand on, even for working on ponies like Tilly. So I got my mounting block out, which is just a set of plastic steps with two levels. First I put it on the ground in front of Faith, and we did a little targeting with it. Then I got on the first step, and gave her some scratches over her poll and the top of her neck. Then I moved it halfway down her neck, and did the same, then got up on to the top step. At this point, Faith discovered how entertaining it was to nibble the buckles on my boots!

So we worked like this until I got to just behind her shoulder on her off side, at which point I decided to start working on the nearside. She was absolutely excellent until I got to the same point behind her shoulder on the near side. She wasn’t so much tense as just wanting to step back and put me slightly in front of her shoulder. So I moved up towards her head a bit more, and gradually worked my way back to behind her shoulder again. Once I had got on to the top step, and had one second of her standing still, she got her jackpot and we called it a night.

Clever with cones!

Yes, I’m afraid, another lazy blog. This is a little snippet of us doing some work this evening, picking up cones. It is ages since we did any of this, and I am always impressed when Faith remembers stuff that we haven’t practised for a while, but I guess that illustrates the power of clicker for you!

Anyway, as Faith is far from being a shrinking violet, she loves to show off just how clever she is, so I will let the vid speak for itself....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HaaXsSYcx0

A little vid or two...

Totally lazy blog today. Managed to get a little vid of a quick session Faith and I did on the yard yesterday.
The first vid shows us having a little brush (Faith, not me).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAmw6sE8Zvg

The second is us doing a short bit of work on my own version of WWYLM. This is a warts and all vid, and it does show quite a few areas that need improving, particularly the two occasions where she cuts across me and doesn’t halt when asked. Also our rein backs are not very straight. However, we have only done this about four times now, so I also think progress is being made, particularly on the right rein, which is our rather dodgy and uncoordinated side!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWi2DfaYHiE

I am also quite pleased with the way that when she tries to swap sides, she will, nine times out of ten, respond to a hand signal to ask her to remain on the side that she is on. I will be putting voice cues in when we get a little better, ie, ‘whoa’,’ back’,’ walk on’, as this exercise is going to be the foundation I think of all the liberty work we do in the future, so I will eventually be working on increasing the distance between us. But that is all in the future, right now I want to get things absolutely spot on in the confined space of the yard, before venturing into the field or the school.

Spray that again?

Another lovely Autumn evening this evening, and a good opportunity to get Faith out onto the yard again. She has been taking advantage of all the mud to do her best hippopotamus impression, and her lovely Arab mane was heavily caked with the stuff.

Now I’m not someone who is a huge stickler for grooming, but I do like to see a well kept mane and tail. Arab hair is very fine, and prone to tangling easily, so although Faith doesn’t have the sort of mane and tail that would compare with Tommy’s huge masses of hair, it is still much more high maintenance. Consequently I buy a lot of mane and tail conditioner. I don’t actually remember what we used to do in the days before this uber product, but I think it involved a lot of patient teasing out the hair with our fingers. Nowadays, I splash gallons of this magic potion around, particularly in Faith’s direction.

Up until now I have always sprayed it onto a goat hair body brush, loading it heavily with conditioner, and then brushed it into Faith’s mane and tail. This is quite a good way of doing it, and surprisingly effective, if a little time consuming. So tonight I thought I would see if Faith would tolerate me spraying it directly on to her. This is also good for getting her used to things like that in case I ever have to apply wound spray or some such thing.

Well she was absolutely fine about having it on her tail, no problems at all. She was a little less keen about having it on her mane, but I managed to get three good sprays on, clicking and treating each one, before she decided enough was enough, and went off to discuss things with Tilly over the stable door. I am pleased with that though, it is a good start to build on, although no doubt when we are successful, Faith’s cosmetics bill will inevitably skyrocket!

We also did a bit more WWYLM, working predominantly on our dodgy side. I was a bit more on the ball this time, and we definitely did better. Faith seems to have really processed what we did a few nights ago, and although still not as good as the left rein, we are definitely making improvements, both of us!

Hell Hath No Fury........

....like a filly scorned. At least, that is what poor Tommy is finding out at the moment.

Faith is very much in season. Fortunately she is still very sweet and well mannered as far as handling etc. are concerned, however the full force of her hormones is directed at Tommy. The poor chap has to put up with her body slamming him, kicking him in the chest when she presents herself and he fails to deliver, she sticks her bum in his face at every opportunity, and today even pinned him against a fence until he mounted her (in a very half hearted manner).

I have asked wiser people than me if this is normal, as all the mares I have owned, even in mixed herds like this, have always been considerably more ladylike in their conduct. Some of the replies I received via various forums have been hair raising to say the least, and it seems that Tommy is frankly getting off lightly! One particular breeder of Arabs recounted how one of their fillies would ‘make use’ of various stationary objects such as trees and fences to ‘satisfy their instincts’. I am beginning to realise what a sheltered life I have led!

However, I am very pleased to report that Faith’s rug is managing to withstand all these gymnastic activities, although I was rather dismayed to see her physically digging herself a rather large hole in the mud this morning, the better to plaster herself in clay. However, after Tommy had clambered on top of her, and rather ungracefully slid off again, I was most gratified to see that it had stayed in place, with no slippage whatsoever. I think I shall write to Horseware and suggest they introduce a new strapline to their adverts. I was thinking something along the lines of “Rhino Wug – withstands the antics of even the most persistent little strumpet!”

Is this my best side?

It turned out to be a lovely evening this evening, despite a grim forecast, so Faith and I got to work on the yard again. I decided to work a little bit more on WWYLM, without the aid of cones this time, as they were proving to be irresistible to a certain filly who likes to pick them up and pass them to me. Also in the interests of encouraging patience, I thought I would mix it up a little with some Grown Ups are Talking.

We were doing really well on the left rein (with me standing on her near side). She would walk with me keeping her head by my shoulder, stop when I stopped, and also back up a few steps when I backed up too. Then I would just stand with my hands in a neutral position (easy now I have a convenient bump to rest them on), and ask her to stand quietly beside me for a few seconds, then click and treat. We built this up to about 20 seconds at a time, and all pawing, leg waving etc. behaviour was ignored, and she only got a click and a treat when standing quiet and relaxed. I thought this might be quite a nice build up into ground tying eventually as well.

Flushed with this success, we tried it on the other rein, going the opposite way. Well this is where it all fell apart. I am obviously doing something differently with my body language on this side, but I’m not sure what it is. Faith put on her snarky face, and although she walked with me well enough, but when we stopped, she would come past my side, and round in front of me to stand facing me, so I am obviously not effectively setting up a boundary with my body language very well on this side. I do have a habit of holding my left shoulder slightly higher than my right, so this might have something to do with it, but I must, must try and get these sessions videoed to try to spot exactly how I am different from one side to the other.

Anyway, we managed to end on a good note, and then I gave Faith a lovely groom, so we were both relaxed and happy!

Singing in the rain

This is going to be a quick one as it has been a long day, and I’m knackered. The weather was blustery and showery today, so I was pleased when Faith stood to have her rug on like an old pro’. She went out into the field calmly, and had a munch of hay. Then after about ten minutes she felt her rug was far too clean, so she lay down in a patch of mud and had a lovely roll. Then she got up, shook herself and carried on munching.
So she was totally calm about her first day out in a rug, which was brill. This evening she was a tiny bit twitchy when I took it off this evening, but absolutely no problems at all.

So here are some photos of Faith being totally not bothered by the whole rug experience...

The Autumn Collection

Building on last night’s success, I decided to try Faith with her outdoor rug on tonight. It had been a lovely warm dry day, so they had all had the sun on their backs all day which was nice. I did exactly what I did last night , and just started off as I normally would with rug desensitisation, and in no time I had the rug on Faith and all done up.

Again I hung around for a few minutes just to make sure all was well, and when it became apparent that Faith couldn’t be less bothered, I scooted off to do the poo picking.

When I came back, I let her out on to the yard to mooch about a bit while I took some piccies. Then it came to taking the rug off. Now just bearing the past existence of the Velcro monster in mind, I borrowed Tilly’s fly mask and just did a bit of my usual Velcro desensitisation stuff. When I felt that Faith was sufficiently relaxed, I just undid the Velcro at the front of the rug, and she didn’t bat an eyelid.

It is supposed to be horrible weather tomorrow, but what would really brighten my day would be if I could send Faith off into the field clad in her lovely snuggly rug. Keep fingers and toes crossed for us please!

Other than that, I will let the piccies speak for themselves!

In Vogue

In Vogue

Well sort of, if wearing someone else’s clothes counts! It has been a filthy day here, and the neds have been out in the wind and rain all day. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to try Tilly’s best wicking rug on Faith, and hopefully get it on her properly, and keep it on her for a bit.

Well they all came in soaked, although Faith was still toasty warm under her new winter woollies. I took the rug into the stable, let her sniff it, then started working with her as I usually do with rug desensitisation. Well the long and the short of it was that she was happy to have it on, and happy to have it done up, and equally happy to have a jackpot and an extra slice of hay!

I pottered about the yard for five minutes or so, waiting to see if she would have a reaction, but none was forthcoming, so I took myself off to poopick the field, and when I came back she was still calmly munching her hay! So she had the rug on for about half an hour, then I took it off, and she was perfectly dry underneath. All in all a total non-event, just how we like it!

I did manage to get some piccies. The rug is Tilly’s so three inches longer and a bit bigger than Faith’s own rugs, but still not too bad a fit.



And finally, one of the top three most snoggable schnozzles in the world (the other two belonging to Tommy and Tilly of course!).

No really....that's enough now!

It feels like forever since my last training session with Faith, although it has only been about a week. I don’t like long gaps between sessions, a couple of days, and I start feeling withdrawal symptoms. However, I try not to get too hung up about it, after all, like most amateur horse keepers, I find that life often gets in the way. This week ‘life’ has taken the form of feral kittens belonging to my next door neighbour who has five young queen cats who she refuses to get spayed, as she finds that she can get £25 a kitten. Consequently these young cats are having litter after litter, and frankly they look old before their time. One of them got run over the other week, and another of the cats adopted her litter as well. Unfortunately she brought all of them over to my stables, and they set up camp under a massive laurel hedge in my garden. I managed to catch four of the seven kittens the other night, and returned them to my neighbour. I saw the other three yesterday, bouncing around my yard, but neither I, nor seemingly mummy cat have seen them since, which is worrying.

So I wasn’t surprised when upon seeing me appear with the bumbag this evening, Faith greeted me with a big neigh! It was nice enough to work on the yard again this evening, which makes a nice change, and after a lovely groom, I started up with the rug again. Faith was brilliant as usual. I had the rug fully along her back, although undone, and we were walking back and forward nice and calmly. I also got her used to me bumping the rug and buckles etc. against her legs, and rattling the big clips at the front.

We then did a bit of work on getting her to respect my space, even when she was wearing the ‘snarky face’. I just do a little bit of an emergency stop in front of her with my hands out in front of me, and she immediately stops and shifts her weight back. I then ask her for a few steps of rein back, and then we walk on again. She was foot perfect, and I think bringing her up abruptly like this has just made her realise that I mean what I say, and caught her attention and focus a little more even just by using a bit of visual pressure.

I often get on my soapbox about not doing ‘too much’ with youngsters, but I often find myself out to be a total hypocrite. Most of the time, even during a week unblemished by distractions and gaps, I will end up training for up to 40 mins a session. Now if somebody told me they trained their two year old for 40 mins a night every night, I would probably begin to swell with righteous indignation, but the fact is, I totally lose all track of time, and get so immersed in the moment, that that is what we end up doing. Having said this, I do try to do at least two different activities, broken up by a grooming session, and hopefully I am a sympathetic trainer in that if I can see that it’s not happening for whatever reason, I will change the activity and end on a good note. But it is still so easy to get carried away with the clicker, and I can’t help thinking that because the horse is more often than not hearing ‘yes that’s right’, instead of ‘no, don’t do that’, the training becomes more compelling and absorbing for them as well.
This was certainly borne out this evening when Faith showed to me that she wasn’t particularly interested in going back to her stable for tea. Instead, she mooched around the yard for a bit, then went over to her rug, which I had left folded on the fence, picked the corner up in her teeth, and stood there with it in her mouth just looking at me, as if to say, can we do a bit more of this Mum? There is no denying it, and I really don’t think I am fooling myself, when I say that this little mare makes it quite clear that she actively enjoys our training sessions, at least as much as I do.

So we met halfway, and did a bit of WWYLM for a few minutes, which strangely enough ended up with me walking into her stable with her beside me, where she got her jackpot and a hug.

That Filly will be the Death of Me!

We had a rather windy, cold, wet, autumnal day here. I was having a rather bad day as the dishwasher had broken down yesterday, closely followed by the hot water heater. So I had loads of washing up to do, but no hot water to do it with. So I was in rather a stressy mood, plus I had my 20 week scan today, so was rather apprehensive about that as well.

Therefore, the last thing I wanted to see as I walked across the road to Mum’s house to have a shower, was the sight of a massive chunk of my huge willow tree having become detached from the tree itself, and lying in the front paddock. Worse than that, I could see Tommy and Tilly standing around snacking on the fallen part as if it were manna from heaven, but no Faith. I rushed over to the gate, and my heart stood still as I could just make out the Faith’s outline underneath the fallen part of the tree, standing, but not moving.

Instantly I assumed that she had been injured, impaled or trapped, and how the hell was a small, heavily pregnant woman like me going to get her out? I bundled John into Mum’s house, and dashed across to the stables. As I ran/ waddled quickly through the garden, Faith’s fate became clear to me. While Tilly and Tommy were happy to stand around the peripheral edges of the fallen branch, Faith had actually climbed right in between the branches and the fence, and was not only munching away quite happily, but was also effectively sheltered from the wind and rain as well!

I didn’t know whether to cry or scream! But looking at how large and unstable the branch was, I decided that the horses needed to come in for the rest of the day until we could chop the fallen part of the tree up, so at least it was all on the floor, and couldn’t fall any further.

They don't come with instructions...

But sometimes they do tell you loud and clear what you need to be training! So this evening, with this morning’s debacle between Faith and Mum in mind, I decided to work on WWYLM.

I altered the layout slightly with three cones going down each side, and none over the drain, in an effort to keep the fluidity of movement at the top and the bottom of the yard, which is normally where Faith gets a little stuck.

Well she was very focused and we were going great guns, apart again from at the top and the bottom of the yard, where she has a tendency to want to cut across and go behind me. So I used arm gestures and got her to target my hand to keep her on the right track, and I think we had about a 70% strike rate with that, which bearing in mind this is only our second attempt, and she is completely at liberty, isn’t at all bad.

However, at one point, Faith obviously thought I was being a little pedantic in my requests for her to stay on track, and we had a disagreement whether her attempt to stay with me was click worthy or not. Faith’s response to this was to develop a very big shoulder and a sour expression, and try to walk over me. Now although I am trying to keep –R to a minimum, I am absolutely not going to be walked over, that is not an option for Faith. So I made myself very big, held my hands up, stomped my feet and growled. This stopped her in her tracks, and I asked her to back up a few steps simply by gesturing at her chest, and she backed up a few steps smoothly. We then carried on for a few minutes, which gave us an opportunity to end the exercise on a good note, which she did, earning herself three clicks and treats between then and the end of the exercise.

Then it was grooming time, and she stood like a rock while I fussed around her grooming her and picking up her feet. She shows no impatience during this activity, partly because she likes being groomed, but also I think partly because we have been working on ‘standing nicely while being groomed’ from day one.

So although I felt a bit down about Faith’s behaviour today (even though to be honest this morning’s incident was not entirely her fault), it has highlighted the fact that now would be a really good time to work on patience activities, ground tying for example, which will be our next activity.

I must admit, I do get a bit narked when people accuse clicker training folk for being a bit ‘namby pamby’. Yes, I could have got all heavy with her about invading my space, but actually the behaviour will be addressed just as effectively by teaching her that patience can be a positive thing. I have no intention of letting my horse walk all over me, but at the same time, I place a high value on teaching her how I do want her to behave, rather than merely trying to suppress the behaviour that I don’t want.

So in the same way, Faith has encouraged me to take a step towards teaching her something that she needs to know, and I will happily oblige her!

Hmmmmmm......

As I was doing the big muck out again this morning, I was interrupted by mother approaching me with a mixture of contrition and high dudgeon. She was a little bit cross because as she had been walking the dog around the outside of the field, on her special ‘dog walking path’ that we created for her outside the perimeter fence of the horses’ grazing, Faith came up to the fence on the scrounge, and finding that Mum had nothing for her, she had turned around and lashed out. Fortunately the only thing she came into contact with was the fence post, and Mum had given her a good growl, at which point she backed away from her looking slightly alarmed.

Now she was also contrite, because she also admitted that she regularly gave the horses bits of apple over the fence as she walked the dog, despite my numerous and insistent requests that she didn’t.

Now personally I have never encountered behaviour like this from Faith. She can get a little snarky and visibly frustrated during training when I am withholding treats looking for either the right behaviour, or varying the schedule a bit. But she will often come to the paddock gate for a bit of a fuss, and yes, she gets the odd treat from me too, but when I walk away, or tell her to run and play, she never looks in the least upset or bothered, and just tootles off.

Now I am starting to wonder whether I am sufficiently addressing the matter of emotional control with Faith. I must admit when we are training, if she is finding something a bit hard, and is getting frustrated, I might ask for another behaviour which she can do easily, so I have the opportunity to reward her, before returning to what I originally asked for. This normally works well both in terms of training progression, and distracting her from snarkiness, but at the same time not giving her something for nothing. I wonder if this is the right thing to do, but at the same time, I am conscious that she is only two, and as such has a fairly limited attention span, so keeping her motivated is an important factor in keeping her attention as well.

But then I also think that OK, Faith wasn’t in a training situation, there were no clearly defined rules or boundaries, and there was also the sense of competing for food and attention with the other horses who had received treats, so maybe, I’m making a fuss about nothing. I don’t know.

Bovvered!

I carried on with the belly strap desensitisation tonight, and built on yesterday’s work even further. So this evening I was able to rub the rope over her barrel and under her tummy working quite far back on both sides, and diagonally across as well.

I kept the reinforcement rate high, but quite frankly she couldn’t have been less bothered. Which is just how I like it!

The Law of (Positive) Double Effect!

Now that Velcro is less of an issue, I decided that the next step in rug desensitisation would be to tackle belly straps. Now I have been given some great advice on this, and I really wanted to try it out. However, now I’m being really honest here, as I get fatter, and less agile, certain aspects of this desensitisation process have worried me slightly, and this is one bit that I have been concerned about.

However, one thing that I hadn’t factored into this training equation, is the fact that there appears to be a law of positive double effect. By this I mean that by taking everything slowly and tiny step by tiny step, not only has Faith’s trust and confidence grown in me, but my trust and confidence and trust has also grown in her as well. Even though I have been around horses all my life, I have in recent years had a huge crisis of confidence, not just in my riding abilities, but in everything I do as a horse person. Clicker training has enabled me to build up my confidence in myself as a trainer piece by piece again, and made me unafraid to take a step back sometimes, and take things as slowly as is necessary for both me and the horse.

So anyway, I started the process with Faith totally loose on the yard as usual, and using a long leadrope folded in half, just draped it over her back, and ran it down the length of her back to get her used to the rather tickly sensation. Then I draped it over her back just behind her withers, and let it hang further and further and further down her far side, and swished it about a bit so that she felt it against her leg and knee. Then gradually I lengthened the rope so it was no longer doubled, and let the soft end touch the floor, and again wiggled it so that it touched her pastern and hoof.

Then I leaned down with the rope still draped over her back, and patted and rubbed her tummy. After this I leaned down again and gently took hold of the leadrope and brought it towards me underneath her so that she could feel it under her ribcage. I then pulled it back and forth gently, so that she could feel the sensation of it rubbing under her ribcage. I did the same on the other side, obviously doing all this in tiny, tiny steps, and keeping the reinforcement rate really high.

Well that little mare didn’t even react, and in fact stood through all this in the middle of the yard, calmly resting a back leg, with a soft relaxed expression on her face. Then it was back to her stable for a jackpot and a hug. Fabulous!

So my next move is to continue with this, but gradually work back along her belly a little bit, and even cross the rope back along her belly in both directions to simulate the directions of the cross surcingles. But today was an excellent start, and I am really, really delighted with our progress.

The Pleasure is Mine!

Well it would seem that the Velcro monster has finally been vanquished!

I had intended this evening’s session to take place out on the yard, and take advantage of some wonderful advice I had been given regarding the incremental desensitisation of Faith’s belly area for the belly straps on her rug. However, my hubby who is currently suffering from Manflu has decided that laundry is in fact a form of therapy. He had strung up two lines of washing across the yard, which is unfortunately the only appropriate space we have available for washing lines. Also the load consisted mainly of my rather voluminous maternity pants, which appear to take up the vast majority of the airspace above the yard, therefore we were confined to the stable.

So I decided to carry on where I left off with last night’s training session, and keep going with the Velcro. Well joy of joys, within a few minutes I could rip the whole strip with it laid across her chest, from both sides, while she nonchalantly rested a hind leg. Fabulous!

Once again, I came away walking on air. There is nothing like the feeling that you and the horse are working together on something, both listening to each other, and responding to each other with equal consideration. I cannot describe the joy and excitement that this training is giving to me. If I can get this excited over desensitising to Velcro, then frankly the future looks wonderful. Faith is undergoing the most incredible change, from a highly reactive horse, to a horse with an ‘all is well’ sense of calmness. I just can’t get over how the simple, mundane, everyday stuff that we are doing is just revealing and yielding so much, and the sense of real communication is just wonderful. I just love, love, love everything that we are doing, no frustration, no arguments, no fear, just communication, and the knowledge that your horse is working with you because they choose to, not because they have to. It is liberating and exhilarating.

Mixing it up a little

I had an absolutely brilliant session with Faith this evening, so much so, that I came away walking on air.

Despite being a rainy, dull, dark day, this evening turned out to be a lovely sunny autumn evening, which meant that we could get out of the stable, and back on to the yard to do some training.

Having recently bought an Alex Kurland DVD concerning the; ‘Why Would You Leave Me?’ game, I have been itching to get Faith out of the stable of an evening to give it a go. Now we had started on this before, but obviously, having not seen the DVD, I wasn’t aware of the pre-WWYLM game, which makes use of a circle of cones. The idea is that the trainer walks the circle with the horse on a leadrope, and at each cone stops, clicks, and treats. Eventually the horse cottons on to this and starts to become more ‘connected’ to the handler. The idea is then once the horse gets the idea, you can increase the time between clicks.

Alex Kurland adds a further dimension to this, so that the horse is doing more than just walking alongside the handler on a loose rope. She likes to think of the handler holding an imaginary box in front of their body, and the horse should keep his nose ‘in the box’, so he is walking along beside the handler with his neck wrapped around the handler’s body. The idea is that the horse will then stay like that without any contact on the rope. This then leads into exercises such as Three-Flip-Three and Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder.

However, on a purely personal level I don’t like the look of the horse being flexed like this for such a long time, and walking with this constant flexion. I think it looks uncomfortable, and certainly too much for a young horse like Faith. Don’t get me wrong, I think lateral flexion is important, and I would like my horse to give me a relaxed flexion that is free from resistance and tension when I ask for it. But for me, the constant flexion of the ‘nose in the box’ is not something I am looking for. Added to this, I also want to do this exercise completely at liberty to begin with, as I anticipate that this is really going to be one of the foundations for all the liberty schooling that I intend to do with Faith.

So anyway, my yard isn’t particularly big, so rather than setting the cones out in a circle, it had to be a kind of elongated rectangle. I have also just purchased some new cones, the kind that are slightly raised discs, and I happened to be using the fluorescent yellow ones this evening. I was a bit concerned at first that Faith would come out of the stable and be wary of the cones, and not want to approach them. However, my fears proved to be groundless, as she walked straight up to the first one, squished it between her front teeth, scraped it along the ground a couple of times, then handed it to me!

So we started doing the exercise, and we were getting it really well. We did have a few issues with Faith wanting to cut inside the cones at the top and bottom of the rectangle. However, I simply made it clear with hand gestures that I wanted her on the outside of my body, and she got it almost immediately! After going around the rectangle three times perfectly, stopping and click/treating at each cone, we left it there.

Then I gave Faith a ten minute break from thinking stuff, with a lovely groom, and I am very pleased to see that her winter woollies are starting to come through at last. This seems to mean another colour change, with her winter coat being a little darker than her end of summer coat. Lord knows what colour my horse will be in the Spring!

Then I did some Velcro desensitisation with her. She had obviously processed the work we did the other day, as she was really good with the Velcro being placed on her shoulder. After about ten minutes, I could rip the long Velcro strip apart in three stages, with her standing quite comfortably. Brilliant, just brilliant! I then called her to follow me back into her stable, and gave her a big jackpot and a hug. What a clever girl.

I was just so thrilled with her calmness, and focus this evening, even when she trod on the plastic cones a couple of times and trailed them under her feet, there was absolutely no startle reaction at all. I am ridiculously proud of this little mare.

Crash Test Training!

Disclaimer: No children or animals were in any way hurt or put at risk during the production of this blog. Although I may now have a few more grey hairs!

Not long ago it was my son John’s third birthday, and for his birthday my parents bought him a lovely little bicycle. I keep his bicycle on the stable yard, along with a selection of other toys, and every day when I do the mucking out, John comes onto the yard to play with his toys in the fresh air.

Now although John loves his bicycle very much, we haven’t had an awful lot of success with teaching him to ride it. He knows how to pedal and to steer, but up until today would only do it if he was being pushed lightly from behind. It seemed that he was very unwilling to get cycling under his own steam.

Now today is ‘big muck out’ day when I completely turn the beds and add new bedding. Having recently been diagnosed with SPD, I was very conscious of protecting my SI joint and lower back area from too much strain. As I was concentrating a bit harder than usual on what I was doing, I wasn’t paying much attention to John, until he suddenly appeared in the stable behind me. “It’s alright Mummy.” he said, “Faith isn’t scared of bicycles, she’s a really good girl.”

I walked down the yard to the big double field gates, and there was Faith poking her nose through the bars of the gate and giving John’s little bicycle a thorough inspection. I clicked ad treated her and gave her a big fuss, and continued to click and treat her as she sniffed and nuzzled the bicycle all over.

I then wheeled the bike away to the other end of the yard, and encouraged John to get on. He hopped on and I gave him a little push, and he was away! “Wheeeeee!” He said, pedalling like fury. “Look at me Mummy, I’m going really fast!” Well this was a first. I watched open mouthed as John whizzed down the yard, and banked right, towards the field gate. I ran after him, knowing that he hadn’t yet discovered the brakes, and turned the corner just in time to see him crash straight into the gates, right between Faith’s front legs, giggling helplessly.

Well that little filly didn’t even flinch. She did however take the opportunity to give the top of John’s head a thorough exploration with her nose. Neither of them were hurt, as Faith was protected by the gates, and John had managed to stay seated on his bicycle. Once again I clicked and reinforced Faith loads and loads, and gave her a big fuss.

Once again I wheeled the bicycle to the other end of the yard, and the whole process began again. Three times John crashed into the gates directly in front of Faith’s chest, and three times Faith just stood like a rock, and waited to be clicked and treated. John thought this was hilarious, and Faith realised that she was onto a good thing too. Tommy then came over to see what all the hilarity was about, and the next time John came whizzing around the corner, it was Tommy standing at the gates waiting for the crash!

So for the next ten minutes or so, Tommy and Faith took it in turns to stand at the field gate, while my small son pedalled straight at them at speed, and each time they got clicked and reinforced for standing there calmly! Both the horses could have wandered off to graze at any point, but they were clearly finding John’s antics far too interesting. Anyway, as amusing as this all was, it wasn’t getting the mucking out done. So John and I had a serious chat about steering.

So I set John off down the yard again, and this time he banked left instead of right, and went straing into the tack room. “Wheeeeeee” said John, Boooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg went my metal feed bin as John pedalled into it at speed. The horses wandered off to graze as I picked my giggling son up off the floor.

Nothing to hide.

Yesterday I did some more Velcro desensitisation with Faith. I try to do something different with her every day, partly so she retains her enthusiasm, but also because I am a great believer in latent learning, and giving horses a few days to process new stuff often reaps its own rewards. We have spent the last few days working on head lowering using both my hand on her crest, and sliding a hand down the leadrope as a cue. Faith is very quick, and has learned this well, but now we need to build some duration on it.

Anyhow, I put that aside yesterday, and got the Velcro out instead. I was very pleased to be able to break through a glass barrier that we have been encountering, and was able to rest the Velcro on her shoulder, and tear it slightly. Now just as with the head lowering, we need to build that up bit by bit, until I can rest the strip on her shoulder and tear it apart completely.

Now I do watch her body language very carefully while doing this, and yes, admittedly she is still keeping her weight on the far outside leg when I rip the Velcro. But for the moment, for me, this is OK. I have pushed the boundaries an increment further with what I am asking her to do, so there are some other criterion e.g. standing square, that I am prepared to loosen until she becomes more comfortable. With the Velcro strip touching her body.

It then just occurred to me how important it is that we use the horse’s body language as a barometer of their mental states in this way, and how useful that information is to the trainer. That got me thinking about the idea of solving a problem by training incompatible behaviours. So for example if a horse is a bit toothy while you are working with them in the stable, you could train them to keep their nose on a target, which is obviously incompatible with them taking a swipe at your bum when you pick their feet out.

I recently purchased an Alex Kurland DVD where she is working with an Icelandic pony who has a fear of being saddled. She uses the head lowering as an incompatible behaviour both to help the pony calm down and relax, and as it is not a forward moving exercise, allows her to incrementally work towards saddling the horse.

Now I am a HUGE admirer of AK’s work, don’t get me wrong. However, there is just a niggling little question in the back of my head about how far we should mask one behaviour using another. If your horse is taking a swipe at your bum when you are picking his feet out, I would want to know why. Is he uncomfortable? Does he trust you enough to let you have his foot? Is this just the result of an unlistened to request beforehand? If we are teaching incompatible behaviours are we really solving problems, or are we just masking them, and actually creating conflict for the horse.

I could use head lowering to get a rug on Faith, but how far would I be able to tell how comfortable she was with the process? Would I potentially be setting up a conflict for her if she felt she couldn’t use her body to express how she felt, because I was asking her to do something else with it?

I don’t know the answer to this, but again it’s a potentially useful and powerful tool, but one that needs to be wielded with much thought and caution.

Like owner, like horse.....

Like owner, like horse...

I have just recovered from hysterics at my first sight of Faith having a roll. Judging by the state of her when she comes in from the field, particularly when we have had a bit of rain, I knew she liked to have a good roll.

However, today was the first time I have actually seen her doing it. At first I thought she was having a fit, then I thought she had been stung by the electric fence, then I realised that she was just making completely sure that she was covering herself with as much mud as is physically possible. She is a pretty grubby little filly at the best of times, despite being groomed every day and plastered with mane and tail conditioner. However, I think today she is putting in an extra special effort as we are expecting a guest this evening. This guest happens to be the proud owner of an Andalucian mare who is never anything other than immaculately groomed and turned out. The owner herself is a total glamour puss, and never goes near the stables without a full face of stunningly artistic makeup, a brand new set of nails, and top to toe designer equestrian gear, she even manages to smell glamorous for Pete’s sake!

Despite my best efforts, I have never been blessed with the ability to remain even vaguely smart or clean near horses. I had an absolutely tortuous childhood being forced to do every single tack and turnout class that myself and my motley ponies could be entered for, and I think I have been scarred for life. But it would appear that despite warning Faith that she needed to be as clean as possible for our visitor who is just ‘dying’ to meet her, my instructions have clearly been ignored. I think my best bet now is to go straight out into the field and have a roll around in the mud myself, and hope it acts as a kind of camouflage, so that my glamorous visitor fails to find me. Particularly if I stand next to my grubby filly!

Begin at the beginning...and relaaaaxxx!

I have been freshly inspired by watching my Alex Kurland DVDs recently, and am busy adding to my growing collection. I watched her Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder DVD the other day, and was deeply impressed, not only by the groundwork that was done but with the ridden work as well.

I have never paid much attention to the ridden bits before, but AK used them to show how building up the groundwork layer by layer develops into ridden work that is so smooth and fluid, and completely lacking in tension, unlike 99% of the riding you see today. I know there are people who have concerns relating to ridden clicker work, and rightly worry about setting up conflicts in training a horse to do something that might look good, but isn’t necessarily biomechanically correct or healthy. I do understand and sympathise with those concerns. I myself started riding with the clicker without really giving this any thought. However, seeing how AK’s ridden work is built on so many layers of groundwork, that the ridden work just seems to flow so naturally, and as I say, completely without tension. So I do think that with really, really thorough preparation, and the total elimination of tension through the many layers of groundwork, riding with the clicker can be a totally holistic and natural progression for horse and rider.

With this in mind, I decided to work on some of the stuff that AK does in her second DVD called ‘ground manners’. Basically what we were starting to look at was yielding the quarters and the forehand.

Now Faith will back up from a simple gesture to her chest, but she has not really learned to move her quarters or shoulders in response to light pressure. So, for once using the headcollar, and working in the stable, we started on the exercise where AK teaches the horse to back around the stable. The idea is that every time the horse approaches the corner, you gently ask the horse to flex to the outside (i.e. the wall), while still gently encouraging them back with a hand on the chest. The horse will then yield the quarters to the inside and step around. The idea is that this should become a smooth, fluid movement with the absolute minimum of pressure and zero tension on the part of the horse.

Now Faith was a little tense and suspicious at first, and we would get a little stuck on the corner. The idea is not to escalate the pressure, but just to hold the flexion in a relaxed, soft way and let the horse work out for itself that it needs to step around with the quarters. I felt that this relaxed, inert softness was very important, as the last thing I need is Faith to ‘ping’ back at me from a stable wall. So I gave her a slight clue in that her body was angled slightly so she wasn’t straight back into a wall or corner, and when asking for the flexion, I kept my body as soft, relaxed and inert as possible, and kept my eyes down. As soon as she even shifted her weight to the inside hind, I clicked, released the headcollar, stepped back so she had to come towards me, and gave her a treat.

After a couple of attempts going clockwise, she stepped round a full step on the corner, and I left it there, and repeated the lesson anti clockwise. Again, after she had given me one lovely big step around with her quarters, we left it there.

I gave her a couple of minutes to think about all that while I gave her a little brush, then I did little work with a slightly different version of yielding the quarters. This time I stood her up in the middle of the stable, and gently asked her to flex to the right, I then pointed to her hip, directing my energy, and just inertly softly held that position until she stepped through and under with her right hind and moved over. As soon as she gave me that step, I clicked, released the headcollar, stepped back and treated. Same again on the other side, and we were done.
So we will carry on until that single step is relaxed and fluid, and we will build on it bit, by bit, by bit. Always in the back of my head is AK saying “Tension is your horse’s enemy”. Not a bad mantra to bear in mind I think.

Never underestimate your horse!

I mentioned a post or so ago about how I thought I had been making cone work a bit too easy for Faith. This was brought home to me yesterday when we were working with the cone in the stable. I had decided that I would no longer keep my toe on the base of the cone to prevent it falling over, thus hoping to shape a more accurate attempt by Faith to pick it up.

Well I don’t know why I had bothered keeping my toe on the cone in the first place. Yes she did knock it over, but she simply picked it up very delicately by one of the flimsy corners and presented it to me in the most smug manner she could summon.

At that moment, I was reminded of something I had recently read in one of Marthe Kiley-Worthington’s books. She was discussing the relationship that people often have with their horses, and she mentioned the existence of a kind of ‘mother-child’ relationship. By this she means that people often treat their horses as if they are in a kind of perpetual childhood, and treat them as if they are infants with limited intellectual or problem solving skills.

I have certainly been guilty of this, and will almost certainly continue to do it to a certain extent, even though my horses seem to point out to me on a daily basis that they are intelligent beings, capable of impressive problem solving skills.

Hopefully if I continue with clicker training long enough, my horses will be able to shape my behaviour and bring about a satisfactory change...in a completely positive way of course!

Horse vs Machine

One thing that constantly amazes me about Faith is her boundless curiosity. My other two neds have pretty much seen everything, and frankly if something isn’t at least as interesting as the grass in front of their faces, then it isn’t worth bothering about.

However, Faith has to investigate absolutely everything. We had an amusing incident with the tractor the other week. Michael was moving a pallet of bedding on to the yard using the forks on the back of the tractor. He had to drive through the front paddock to get to the yard, and the horses just happened to be in there.

Tilly and Tommy have long found tractors, and farm machinery in general incredibly boring, and barely spare it a passing glance. Faith however thought that the tractor was the most interesting thing ever, and totally prevented Michael’s progress across the field by standing directly in front of him, blocking his path. Once satisfied about the front of the tractor, she proceeded to explore every bit of it that she could reach, going around the back and up the other side. Only when she was satisfied, did she let Michael continue on his way, and even then followed him across the paddock until I closed the yard gates behind him.

Well today we had a delivery of 16 telegraph poles. They arrived on the back of a vast articulated lorry, which had a massive crane and a grab. I shut the horses in the front paddock next to the road while the driver unloaded the telegraph poles on to the railway line. Well all the time the poles were being unloaded, I could see Faith straining to get her head and neck as far over the fence as she could to inspect the delivery as it was being made. I am hoping that this natural curiosity and fearlessness of machinery will stand us in good stead when we eventually start hacking around the machine infested countryside of the Fens!

Some thinking time....

This morning I decided to return to Velcro desensitisation, as well as doing a bit more cone work. I am a great believer in latent learning, so I hoped that Faith would have been processing our last few efforts with Velcro, and be feeling more relaxed about things.

As the weather is nice and quiet at the moment, we are taking the opportunity to work mainly on the yard, which is great. So I started ripping the Velcro, and clicking for Faith standing nice and still, which she generally does. I do this on quite a quick repetition, so that Faith can have a really high rate of reinforcement for it. So Faith is fine with it when I stand by her head, by her shoulder or by her tummy. What I really want to be able to do is rest it on her and rip the Velcro. So we worked up to that, I rested the fly mask on her shoulder, ripped the Velcro, and she skipped away. Too much Mum, don’t like that. OK then, I stood by her shoulder, did a few more rips while she stood quietly, and moved on to cone work.

Now I have probably done cone work with Faith maybe five or six times, compared to the twenty or so times I have done Velcro desensitisation with her. This morning her strike rate for picking up the cone and giving it to me was 100%! Brilliant! Now having said that, we still have some refinements to make. The behaviour is not on cue (at least not an intentional cue that I am giving), so the behaviour is not completely under control yet. Also because my cones are really light, I keep my toe on the corner of the base so she doesn’t knock it over, this means her strike rate can be higher, and consequently the rate of reinforcement is higher, which motivates her.

I need to revise my policy on this, as dealing with frustration and developing emotional control is something Faith needs to work on. I am of course bearing in mind that she is only just two years old, so I am not judging her too harshly, still it is a lesson that is best learned sooner rather than later. At the moment she deals with her frustration by giving me her ‘big’ shoulder and getting close to walking into me. She does this quite slowly, and I simply back her up by gesturing at her chest, and when she backs up a couple of steps out of my space, she gets rewarded, and we start again. There is nothing aggressive about it, but she is just clearly telling me that she doesn’t enjoy not getting it right, and finds it frustrating. So yes, I need to allow her to get it wrong a bit more, so that she becomes OK with that. In a sense, I have sacrificed that part of building the behaviour, in order to help get that behaviour established, and now I need to go back and address that.

But I couldn’t help thinking that even factoring all those points in, Faith has learned to pick up a cone faster than she has learned to accept Velcro. Now I wonder why that is. I have noticed that her body language is totally different between doing cone stuff and doing Velcro stuff. If I’m honest with myself when we are doing Velcro stuff, her weight is almost always on her outside fore, and she is looking away slightly. She is prepared to stay (and she is at liberty, so doesn’t have to), but in her heart of hearts, she would rather go. It also might be that cone work is just more fun for her because it is very interactive, (she is doing something, rather than having something done to her), so she is really in more control of the situation. It also might be that I am generally more relaxed about the cone work, because let’s face it, it really doesn’t matter if Faith can’t pick up a small plastic cone, but it kind of does matter if she can’t accept a rug. So maybe I am just giving off unconscious signals of tension when doing the rug stuff.

So what to do about it? Well firstly I am going to stop getting my knickers in a twist about rugs. I am going to buy a cheapy one like Tilly and Tommy’s rainsheets, that has no Velcro, and will more than adequately keep her dry. If I can’t use the ‘posh’ rugs till she is three four or five, then who cares, as long as she is healthy and dry somehow.

I am also going to keep up the work with Velcro, but slow it right down to ensure that she is totally relaxed with it, according to what I pick up from her body language.

So this brings me neatly on to the usefulness of teaching what I call ‘daft things’. Now I am not a fan of trick training, I have always been open about that. By that, I mean I don’t like the idea of teaching horses to do stuff that is essentially a human activity. For example, Alex Kurland (who I very much admire) shows horses who are trained to pick a paper out of a letter box, or put a basket ball through a hoop. I don’t really like that, as it seems to be trying to teach the horse to be a kind of pseudo-human, and I like horses to be horses, because their non-humanness is one reason why I like them so much! I feel the same about teaching dogs tricks as well.

Anyhow, there are some ‘daft things’ (such as picking up a cone) which I think can be ethically taught, because it is fun for the horse, it teaches them how to learn, and also it teaches the trainer how to teach. This is what I have found with Faith’s cone work. In itself it is a useless activity, however, when comparing it to the other stuff that I am teaching (e.g. rug stuff), it has been useful to compare and contrast not only the results, but the processes themselves. For example, the cone work has highlighted the need to help Faith with emotional control, that it is a good time to start teaching her about yielding her shoulders and quarters. It has helped to introduce carrot stretches, it has highlighted that being able to help the horse feel that they are in control of their training, makes them more confident, which in turn speeds up the learning process. It has also made me aware of things like the correct mechanics of treat delivery, and the importance of incorporating failure into the learning process, or rather, allowing it to be part of the process.

This will then inform and develop my training when it comes to the more ’important stuff’, and hopefully make it a more pleasurable and fruitful process for both Faith and I.

Multi-tasking training!

Multi-tasking training!

I have never made any claims of being a domestic goddess, or even an averagely efficient woman, and my beloved husband constantly teases me about having a short concentration span. However, today I hit upon an ingenious plan for multi-tasking training.

The aim of our recent rug desensitising sessions has been to get Faith used to the feeling of the rug on her back when she moves. We have had some limited success with this as it has been either a bit too windy on the yard, therefore limiting us to the stable, or I have been too poorly to do stuff with the rug adequately.

Now today it was a lovely calm evening, and I am slightly less of a snot monster than I have been, so I decided to do some rug stuff on the yard, and...now here’s the ingenious bit...combine it with some ‘picking up the cone’ stuff, to get her moving around a bit more. Tah dah!

Well it worked really well, and she was concentrating so hard on the cone that we really improved on yesterday’s work, with the added bonus that she was also wearing the summer sheet as well. We carried on like this for nearly ten minutes, with Faith backing and coming forward, and stretching down while wearing the rug.

But this is of course the real world, and my chooks happened to come around the corner making a bit of a fuss. This got Faith a little worried and I could see her ears flicking back to the rug, and her mouth became a little tense. So I quickly undid the rug and slid it off before it became an issue. Once the chooks were out the way, I popped the rug back on her for a few minutes and rewarded her for standing quietly, then took it off again, and we returned to ‘naked cone stuff’, and again she did really well.

So I think we shall carry on in this way for a few sessions until the rug becomes completely incidental. I am pleased with today’s progress though. Well done Faith!

Lovely Moments!

A couple of very lovely things happened yesterday. Normally I try to do two clicker sessions with Faith every day, one after brekkie and one just before tea. However, yesterday we were spending the day with friends, and I didn’t have time for our post-brekkie session.

So, having brought the horses in for the evening, given them some hay and poo picked the field, I strapped on my bum bag of treats and headed towards Faith’s stable to do some CT. Well blow me down if that little mare didn’t stick her head over the bottom stable door and give me a full on neigh! I nearly dropped!

So I gave her a brush, and we did some more work with the rug, and she was totally brilliant. Then as the wind had dropped a bit, I let her out on to the yard and we did some stuff with a cone. The previous day she had learned to target it, then touch it with her nose when I put it on the floor and pointed to it, and she had just started to grab it with her teeth. So we reviewed all that, and I started working on encouraging her to pick it up with her teeth. As usual she caught on really fast. At one point she held it up long enough to let me take it from her. Unfortunately it just bounced off my finger tips and rolled under her tummy, coming to rest against her back hoof.

Now there was a time when this would have sparked off a little Faith whirlwind, and she would have done something very fast and dramatic to get herself away from the cone. Not anymore. She simply stood there looking a little perplexed, then shifted forward slightly, stumbled over the cone a bit, which shot out behind her, and then stood quite still and relaxed looking pleased with herself. Brilliant! She is turning into a thinking horse instead of a reacting one, and I am just loving being able to watch and take part in the process!

Stuck!

More rug work this morning. Unfortunately we are confined to working in the stable at the moment because the weather is so windy, which is not really ideal for working with rugs!

So what I have been aiming for, is to get Faith used to the feeling of the rug on her back as she moves. The last thing I want is for her to have a panic at the feeling that something is ‘on’ her, or ‘chasing’ her.

I had actually intended to do this with the rug folded into thirds and just draped across her withers initially. However, I had it totally over her back, but undone at the front (there are no belly straps on this one, it is just a light cotton sheet), and she just happened to move her quarters over. So I thought that we would just use the moment, and I encouraged her with my body language to take a step forward.

Now normally she is very responsive to this, and would just take a step towards me, which is all I really wanted. However, glancing over my shoulder, I could see she wanted to, by the tiny tiny shift of her weight forward, but something seemed to stop her and she shifted her weight back again. I gestured for her to come forward again, and the same thing happened, and she began to look a bit tight around the mouth.

So I stepped towards her again and stood at her shoulder, stroking her neck and having a think. Then it dawned on me. I have so far been rewarding her for standing absolutely still as the rug goes on. Now I’m suddenly asking her to move, in one big chunk, the total opposite of what I have been asking her before. Cue slapping forehead with hand and rolling of eyes!

So we went back to doing something which she finds really really easy, and offers readily; picking up her front feet. The idea being that the shift in weight and slight movement will allow her to feel the rug moving with her slightly, and we will gradually begin to mobilize her under the rug, and ‘unstick’ her bit by bit.

I was delighted with this moment of daftness on my part, as it has now shown me how to break it down into smaller and smaller bits for Faith, and start the pendulum swinging the other way. I have to say, I had a grin a mile wide all over my face, and just felt so energised and inspired about this method of training. I love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Beauty

I’m afraid this blog update is going to be a shamelessly self indulgent eulogy in praise of the utter beauty and grace that is LVA Faith.

I have to start off by saying that I think that all horses are beautiful in their own way, particularly my horses. Tilly has an inner beauty and wisdom that shines through her eyes, and often brings me close to tears. Tommy is spectacularly and magnificently handsome, and is the sort of horse that will make me take a step back and say ‘Wow!’ He is the sort of horse that the word ‘gorgeous’ was invented to describe.

But Faith is becoming more and more beautiful by the day. Sometimes it is the exquisitely graceful arch of her neck that takes my breath away. It looks like it has been perfectly carved from marble, and is the combination of living strength and graceful architecture. At other times it is the effortless flow of her movement, where each stride is a mere whisper of a touch against the earth as she floats with silent power over the ground.

But it is her manner that touches me most. She has an innocent, childlike curiosity that is utterly charming. Everything she does is a perfectly honest illustration of her feelings, be it playful, fearful, curious or affectionate. She very much communicates the desire to be close, to understand, and to have a dialogue and relationship. This, together with an innate gentleness, so typical of her breed, makes her a totally captivating person. It is no wonder that I fell in love with Faith more quickly than I have done with any other horse, and the reason that whenever I am with her, she makes me smile from the inside out.

Blue Smarties!

Owing to the horribly dry summer, our grass has not been growing well, and has for a few weeks now been nothing but brown and crispy. So I decided that rather than use up our precious hay resources, which are going to be badly needed this winter, I would start giving the neds some sugar beet to bulk up their feeds. I also decided that breakfast and lunch would be added to the daily routine.

In theory this was a good plan as sugar beet is a vastly underestimated source of fibre and calcium, and would stop them feeling hungry without making them fat. However, when I went to purchase the sugar beet, I had not counted on the appearance of pregna-vision. Now pregna-vision, like its sister issue pregna-memory, is a phenomenon that commonly affects ladies who are ‘in the family way’. During my first pregnancy, pregna-memory saw me trying for half an hour to get the school photocopier to accept my bank card PIN number, rather than the photocopier code. This time pregna-vision ensured that I bought entirely the wrong type of sugar beet, which happens to have been liberally dosed with molasses. Consequently, for the past week, the neds have been receiving three very large meals a day, comprising mainly of heavily molassed sugar beet. Essentially the equine equivalent of feeding them a cartload of blue Smarties!

The results could be clearly seen this morning as the neds were doing laps of the PP track at a flat out gallop. Well Faith was going flat out, and Tilly and Tommy were doing there (rather inadequate) best to keep up with her. Disturbingly, when Faith hits top-gear, you can’t actually hear her hoofbeats. The only warning I have of their impending speedy approach is the sound of Tommy huffing and puffing, and his feet clumping along at speed.

Fortunately the sugar beet is now finished and is being replaced by a much more suitable product called ‘fast fibre’. ‘Fast’ referring to the speed at which it swells when soaked, not, I hasten to add, to the effect it has on the horses!

A sticky situation.

So work continues with the 'velcro monster'. 9 times out of ten she is totally fine with it, then she will have a little spook.

Right now I am working with it while just standing by her head, but I want to be able to place the strip actually on her and rip it off without her being bothered.

WWYLM is coming on, but slowly. I am considering using the headcollar for this, just to give her a little more guidance, and prevent her taking a minute or so out to have a munch on the new hay in the lean-to! I think that asking her to do it completely at liberty is just making it a step too far. After all I taught this exercise to Tommy using a headcollar and loose leadrope, and he became very very good, very quickly. After all, there will be times when she will have to wear a headcollar and be led, for example when we start going out and about, so we may as well make it have very positive associations.

The next step

So we are going great guns with putting the rug on and off, and unfolding it on her back etc. I can now put the rug on when it is folded in half, rather than in thirds. This is very good news, as it isn’t particularly easy to fold a Rhino wug into three, and frankly I have never been that good at origami!

As she was being so calm and good with the rug, I thought I would just see how she reacted to the Velcro at the front. I did it up so that just the very edge of the Velcro caught, then speaking to her all the time, I just pulled it open. She was really good actually, and just took a step back, so she got a jackpot for that. However, she obviously worked out what I was up to and became a little wary, so I didn’t try it again, instead just moved to putting the rug on and off on the other side.

So I think I will just spend next session playing with Velcro without having the rug on, just until the sound of velcro opening becomes the most boring thing in the world.

We also continue to work on feet, as she has become a little reluctant to have her front feet picked out, and has started kicking back with her backs. Her backs don’t worry me at all, as after a couple of little (if somewhat powerful) kicks, which aren’t aimed at me at all, then she is perfect.

With her fronts however, she is happy to hold them up, and held, but I think the force I have to use to get the cement like clay out, disturbs her balance a bit, and she has to pull back. However, rewarding the slightest try, we always get there in the end.

While putting her back in her stable (which she was reluctant to do, as she didn’t want to leave the nice new hay stacked on the yard), she took a shot at me and bit my arm. Fortunately, she didn’t quite get to close her teeth on me, and I think my quick reaction in turning to face her shocked her a little. This is a good reminder though, that I need to be scrupulously careful about treat delivery during clicker training. I also think that continued use of the clicker, and especially exercises like ‘Grown Ups are Talking’ will really help to develop her emotional control. There was nothing aggressive or nasty about the nip, it was quite obviously frustration at being put back in her stable where she didn’t really want to be. Twenty minutes later when lead her out into the field, she was as good as gold, and totally polite about it.

We aim to please!

Had a lovely session with Faith this morning. She had a lovely groom, then we started doing some work with the rug. We did have a little spook and a scoot forward, and I am not sure whether that was because of a scary jingle of the straps, or whether Tommy’s teeth had connected with the top of her tail! It was the world’s slowest spook and scoot though, as she started to, thought about it for a split second then had a little scoot. Whatever the cause, Faith was right back at my side again in one smooth movement. This is a world away from what we would have had a month or so ago, where there would have been a blur of movement and a flurry of mane, and I would have been left thinking “What was that?”

It’s funny that my little boy’s favourite catchphrase at the moment is; “Try that again!” That is exactly what Faith is like at the moment. A little hitch like that is immediately followed by her getting ready to have another attempt, and she really, really wants to get things right, and be a brave girl.

So we carried on with the rug for a bit, and I put it on, unfolded it all, folded it and slid it off lots of times on both sides, and she was perfect.

Then I started doing a little ‘Why would you leave me?’ with her, and she was really good, stopping and starting with me, and I even got a couple of steps back just with my fingertips placed lightly on the point of her shoulder. What a good girl!

Actually yesterday we had a lovely moment when I turned them out into the field. We had had a couple of light showers of rain, so the yard was a different colour, and there was a little water in the drain which runs down the middle of the yard. Now last time I had to turn Faith out in these circumstances, she refused to come out of her stable, and had a huge panic attack in the stable, literally flinging herself from one side to the other and rearing. I couldn’t even get into the stable to be with her. Fortunately Tommy saved the day by coming back from the field and standing in her stable doorway until she calmed down, then he literally led her out into the field touching her all the time shoulder to shoulder. Meanwhile the useless human was draped against a wall!

Anyway, this time, armed with a clicker and a bumbag of treats, we managed to calmly if a little hesitantly venture out of the stable and onto the wet concrete. We then walked up and down the yard a couple of times, them calmly and slowly stepped over the raging torrent of the ‘drain of doom’ just walking at my shoulder, cue a click and a massive handful of treats, and a huge hug, while Faith just looked slightly embarrassed. That sounds like a very little, minor thing, but for me it speaks absolute volumes, and it totally made my entire day!