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.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 18 October 2010
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!
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!
Friday, 15 October 2010
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
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
Thursday, 14 October 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
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
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
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