Finally Billy has been bought up to the main yard, so I don't have to walk to a field at the other end of the village. Great news.
With the move came a request from Rick, the yard owner, to put a rug on him. Now bearing in mind that he has not had a rug on for nearly a year, and I suspect he is a innate RBE and it was getting dark I felt this could be fun. And I do mean fun. I recruited Ritchie, my wife, to share in the games. The good news was that he was in a field on his own, so no chance of interference from others.
For this rapport was going to be paramount so I spent a long time getting him to repeatedly catch me. Remember I always get horses to catch me, not the other way round. It would be too predatory of me to catch him and damage the rapport.
Safely haltered I then got Ritchie to drag the rug around the field on the ground. This really raised Billy's curiosity. A predatory object does not retreat from him, it attacks. So dragging the rug away definitely cued him into this object not being a predator. If it is not a predator then it is an object of curiosity. Ritchie further teased him by dragging it just out of his reach every time he tried to sniff it. This drove him mad with curiosity. When we finally stopped the rug he immediately sniffed, pawed and chewed it. Horses get a lot of information from there mouth, so chewing is not necessarily and attempt to eat it, just to gather data. We repeated the dragging several times until we were absolutely sure that he had made friends with the rug on the ground.
As soon as the rug leaves the ground, of course, it is a somewhat different object in his mind. I switched places, with Ritchie taking the lead rope and I picked the rug off the ground and again backed away from him, the retreat part of "approach and retreat". He was pretty confident with the rug and us by then so happily followed the rug. Stopping moving we allowed him to "approach" the rug. This is a soft part of the approach section of "approach and retreat". Almost a midway point. To up the pressure a bit further I approached him whilst carrying the rug. The rug approaching him now takes on a slightly more predatory aspect, but he was confident in it now and stayed still.
I now opened the rug out so that it was wide and flapping. This caused some worry, so back to the retreat phase again. At one point I flapped it a little to hard getting a proper "spook" and a rebuke from Ritchie. She was a bit close to him at the time !! More retreat proved that no damage had been done and he was soon sniffing the open rug.
Now to get it on his back, which again is a predatory move in his mind, as this is were lions attack, and so needs to be done gently. Horses are reassured by rhythm, so I repeatedly, gently swung the closed rug onto his back. He was a little unconfident to start, but the nice rub as the rug was pulled off and the retreat of the rug from him soon reassured him. Leaving it on his back, scrunched up I then rubbed him all over with it, a nice sensation which further served to reassure that this object on his back meant no harm.
This whole backing sequence was then repeated with the rug open and as he was getting used to the sensation when others might say job done, we continued. We were after a complete desensitisation to the rug, not just an unconfident acceptance. This takes discipline and patience the first time it is done, but I believe that the cumulative saving in time over the years more than justifies the little extra time taken in training. By now it was pretty dark, so we drew the session to a close.
We have also been working with Filly. This is the first proper training in nearly six weeks due to her various injuries and illnesses. To start with she seemed a bit "dull", but this was just her saying "make me". I had lost some ground in being her leader, not surprising given her horsenality and the lack of playing.
This became particularly obvious when playing the weave pattern. Pushing on her zone 1or 2 bubble to get her to go around the far side of a cone was strongly resisted, with ears back and ribs pushed towards me. I got stronger with her and eventually as a last ditch effort she reared at me. This let me escalate immediately to phase 4 on the pressure, at which point she did yield and go around the cone. She then had a long lick and chew.
I had my old Filly back !! It was as though she had said "ok I have given it my best shot to be herd leader and failed, I had better fall back in line". We still had a few ears back expressions, which made me up the phase a bit, but soon she was weaving with the slightest pressure.
Interestingly she also looked much happier and interested in life as well after this. I think that maybe she was looking for a strong leader and feeling insecure without one. I provided and she was content again.
Finally the "fall" in the title. Ritchie let me ride Bonitao in a bareback pad and halter, but not having stirrups I had to get on from a mounting block. I fell off the mounting block. Pause to allow you all to stop laughing ....
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