First an update on Filly. The ringworm is still on her face, and a few more lumps have appeared on her body. We hope that these are just insect bites, but they have been treated just in case. She is still being dominated by the other filly in the field, but in a relatively gentle manner unless she does not yield quickly enough. I still think this is a good thing as it is teaching her the art of horse body language gently. In the past older horses have not been so patient with her going to maximum pressure almost immediately at he precocious ways. "I'm a beautiful Filly, how dare you try and drive me around !" was her attitude, but without the size or strength to back it up. As a result it has not been safe to leave her with other horse for an extended time for fear that she would get badly hurt. Recall that she has been drive through barbed wire twice and a trough once all resulting in attention from a vet. So on balance I think the current situation is probably good for her future, however much I might want to protect her.
Spent some time with Billy last night. He is picking things up much faster than Filly did, maybe because I am a bit more savvy now, or more likely he is a bit older and more mature. He really seems to enjoy the games, hardly ever trying to put his head down to eat. This is unlike Filly who can eat while trotting in circles ! We started with the routine of me sitting on the ground and waiting for Billy to come to me, which he did from the far side of the field. Slowly for sure, but at least he came. I carefully avoided looking directly at him during this to appear less like a predator. To avoid creating a predictable pattern I did not halter him immediately, but just played some friendly game. When he started to move off I just followed him as a member of his herd would.
It is important to me that Billy is allowed to have his own opinions on what to do within our partnership. I just want 51% of the votes so that I have the veto on the board about what we should do, not 100% and then to micro manage every hoof movement. I'm sure we have all experienced times in our lives when a boss has wanted to leave us no flexibility in our actions. It's demotivating and actually less productive. Why would that feel different for a horse?
Eventually I put his halter on, although he has turned this into a game. He loves putting bits of it in his mouth which makes the fitting a bit difficult. I just wobble it around so that it feels uncomfortable and he spits it out. Having finally got it on with the aid/hinderance of the other filly and mare in the field, we started with the usual games. Friendly, porcupine, driving.
I found that the friendly game could now be played with more vigour than before, really slapping the ground with the savvy string on the end of the stick, and spinning it helicopter style over his head. He has now accepted that this is just one of the weird things that humans do and as long as my body energy is down then there is no need to worry. Afterall that is partly what the friendly game is about, saying "look I'm relaxed, just doing some odd things, there is no need to worry". It let's him work out what my relaxed body state looks like and conversley what it looks like when I am asking for something.
The forequarter and hindquarter porcupine games are getting pretty good now. On the forequarter he sometimes tries a new tactic to avoid it, like tossing his head up high or rotating his neck to get the stick to slide off, and win the game, but to date I have been able to counter 90% of his moves and still win. We get a real long lick and chew at that point (horse language for "I'm thinking"). It is almost as though he is saying "damn, I woked on that move all night and still lost". It makes me laugh quite often.
The driving games are also progressing really well, especially the forequarter which as is usual with most horses gave me the most trouble. Now I just have to move the carrot stick horizontally towards his neck/face and he yields away.
With all this going nicely I decided that we could have a go at the circling game. This game has several distinct parts. These parts are all descended from the earlier games, and finally gives a purpose in the horses mind to all that flapping and poking we have been doing in the other games. We start with the back up part of the yoyo, wiggling my finger and looking stern usually sends him backwards gently. When he is about 10 or 12 feet away we stop and.... rest. Remember that the pressure of a command motivates him to move, but the realease of that pressure teaches him that he did the correct thing. After 10 seconds or so of doing nothing we "send" him on the circle. This is a combination of the porcupine game and the forequater driving game. To start I up my energy to say "attention", pause, then holding the rope move my arm slowly out in the direction I wish him to circle looking that way at the same time. This applies a steady "porcupine" pressure on the halter in that direction. I then p a u s e to let him think about the command. If there is no response I then, using the other hand start to rhymically move the stick on the opposite side of his head/neck, gradually increasing the amount of movement and proximity of the stick and letting the string also flap unitil if neccesary he gets a rhymic tapping from the string on his neck/shoulder depending on how good my aim is. At this point he went very rapidly backwards, and being stupid I got a very minor rope burn. But I kept up the pressure allowing him time to work out what I wanted. He eventually turned in the direction I wanted him to go so to instantly remove the pressure as a reward I actually dropped the stick. Long lick and chew. Next time was much better, no rope burn !! Over time we finally managed to get half circle, which I thought was pretty good for a first session. Then on the last attempt he blew my mind by starting to cirlce with the slightest ask, and continuing behind my back for a complete lap.
Yes I did say behind my back. Unless really neccessary I don't turn in the circling game, I just stand silently in my most relaxed mode and pass the rope around my body. Again it's the principle of not micro managing the circle but trusting him to do it until told otherwise. Also the removal of the pressure shows him that he is doing the right thing. If he stops I just ask politely for it to recommence, not a continuous nag.
To stop the circle I use the hind quarter driving game. So I bend down and look intently at his hind quarters mimicking how horses drive each other with low long necks and flattened ears. If this gets no response I back it up with more rhythmic pressure from the carrot stick/string towards the hind quarters, ultimately resulting in light taps with the tip of the string. Again mimicking the ultimate horse pressure of a light nip. To start with I got rather giddy doing this as he continued to circle, but faster. I turned with him keeping the pressure on until he made the correct movement and swung his hind quarters away to turn and face me. After a couple of cirlces he finally got it and I could recover from my giddiness.
We did a little more practise at just leading him around to stop his "pushy" behaviour and called it a day.
I feel very lucky to be training Billy, he is afterall not my horse and his carers have shown great trust in me letting me play with him. He is apparently an extermely well bred race horse, though I don't know enough to comment on that. A long post today as it is pouring with rain, but with a good forecast for later I guess more games will happen later.
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