A chilled Filly

Tuesday 28 September 2010

I'm the leader of the pack !!

Well for today anyway.
We started as usual with Billy meandering over to me in the field, followed by the filly (not the Filly) and mare. They all gathered round me to say hi. Having haltered Billy I lead him away to an area of short grass where my legs get less wet.
Started with lots of friendly game again, and he was now quite confident with me waving the stick around whilst facing him. I started by walking slowly backwards, so that he could follow, a classic retreat in the "advance and retreat" method of desensitisation. Then stood still and he carried on walking confidently to me, all the time with the stick/string still waving about (the advance phase as he was getting closer to the threat). It helped that there were lots of flies bothering him and so I could use the savvy string as my "tail" and whisk them off him.
We then did all the usual favourites, porcupine (better), driving (front quarter very good, hind not too bad), and circling.
Circling went much better today, but having trouble using the hind quarter driving yield to get him to stop, turn and face. He really takes offense to any action with the stick when my energy is up and just goes faster. By drawing the circle in and applying a little porcupine pressure on the halter we did get some decent stops in the end, but more work needed.
During this period is when I think I moved up a step in the herd hierarchy. The dominant mare wandered over and started to drive Billy around. I gave my sternest frown, leaned forwards and advanced on her. When she didn't yield a quick underhand flick with the stick and string made her move away, not in a spooky way but out of our space. Interestingly Billy watched this encounter intently and did a lot of licking and chewing afterwards. I thought I then detected a little more respect from him.
We then worked on a new exercise called "rope around", where I pass the rope round the far side of Billy's body, round the hind legs and back to my hand whilst standing near his head. A gentle pull on the rope applies a porcupine (ie steady) pressure to the halter asking him to yield his head away from me and look at his opposite flank. This is then followed by gently walking backwards so that he performs a gentle pirouette and finishes up facing me at the far end of the 22foot rope. It is very important to step backwards as he turns or I will be squarely in range in the kick zone !! Surprisingly he stood very calmly as I draped the rope around his body and performed a beautiful neck yield at the slightest pressure. We paused at this point and then I stepped gently backwards and he performed a very calm pirouette and stood facing me. This is an impressive move psychologically as of course he can only see me out of one eye I then pass through his blind spot as he turns away from me and then appear in the other eye. Sounds simple to us but then we basically only have binocular vision, whereas most of the horses visual field is monocular with a bit of binocular in front. The flicking of an object from one eye to the other can be unsettling for some horses, and objects that are fine when viewed with one eye can seem like a threat when viewed with the other. To simulate this effect for youself I suggest large quantities of beer. It's always worked for me in the past !!
After a few of these it was time to stop, so after a bit more friendly game I removed the halter, but stayed with him a while. I coiled the rope and started to walk away. In the past he has always left me at this point to rejoin the herd. Today however he calmly followed me right on my shoulder all the way to the gate AWAY from his herd. What a feeling that was. In fact the other two then raced over to follow us and even then he stayed on my shoulder.
On leaving the field I watched what would happen next. The mare was clearly not happy with this turn of events and proceeded to reassert her dominance over him. But he still came back to the gate to see me. It is important to note that to date I have never fed him any tidbits so this was not cupboard love.

Monday 27 September 2010

Make up with Billy

 Filly happily back in a box

Nasty day weather wise, damp, cloudy but calm. I went to the yard after work and having checked on Filly who seemed happy to see me, collected the halter, rope and carrot stick to play with Billy. As he is kept in a field away from the farm at the moment I had to play there, but once I had started became so engrossed I forgot about the weather, except for the very wet rope !
Like my other sports, ice climbing and gliding, training horses using Parelli methods requires such concentration that everything else becomes blocked out. You have to be focused. The weather just becomes one of those inputs taken into account to try and see the world from the horses point of view and adjust my actions. I expect the same is true of other methods as well, but never having used anything but Parelli I cannot compare.
I decided that after yesterday a more gentle rapport building day was required. We are taught to balance "love, language and leadership" and suspecting that I overdid it on leadership yesterday I concentrated on love and language today.
We started with friendly game. What I wanted to achieve was the understanding that when I waved the stick and attached string with rhythm and relaxation this is just friendly. Thus we are building language as well. I spent a long time just walking around, with Billy following, waving the stick around, with as low body energy I could manage and remain upright. By continuously moving the "threat" away from Billy it reduces the pressure and after a time he was walking alongside me very relaxed. I then turned to face him and waved the stick again. Now of course my eyes added to the pressure and it took some time before he could just stand quietly and watch me in a relaxed way. Slowly I am building the word in the language that stick waving with low body energy is friendly. It can then be used as a reward when he performs an action correctly.
I then moved onto porcupine game, finding that hind quarter was very good, fore quarter a bit tricky and backup non existent. It was interesting watching him trying to puzzle out what pressure on the chest meant. He tried knocking the stick away with his nose, which was inventive, chewing it which was annoying, moving sideways which required some "ninja" stick moves on my part to keep the pressure on, and finally... backwards.
We did a little bit of circling game which was good to the left, but challenging to the right. He got quite unconfident and would only go about 1/4 circle and then stop and face me, and some of that prancing sideways. I worked on being very very slow in the initial phases of pressure and slowly this got results, and we got one full calm circle. Time to stop circling.
It is SO hard having achieved the aim to not have "one more go" just to see it work again. I have found the hard way that is almost always the wrong thing to do. Giving him a chance to have a long long think about it means that the lesson sinks in deeper.
We finished with lots of scratches and he cuddled his head into my chest, with no pushing and remained there for a long while breathing gently. On removing the halter he stayed with me until I walked away, at which point he remained in the same spot and starting eating. No running off today !!

Sunday 26 September 2010

Difficult day with Billy

Morning session today as I soon have to go to work. Filly a bit brighter and putting more weight on her bad hoof, so pleased with that.
Went to play with Billy, taking a few cones along. Set them out in the field to see what he would make of them. Well, getting him to touch them was not a problem. He came straight over and started playing with them.
I then put the halter on and we started playing. I find it so difficult to find the middle of the road balance of enough pressure to motivate him, enough time to let him react, and slightly too much pressure which makes him go really right brain extrovert, and threatens to give me more rope burn. When I get it right is feels so good, when I get it wrong it's like a small nuke going off. The trouble is that I have learnt enough now that I can't blame him for being "naughty", but have to blame myself for being un-savvy, and being a male that hurts the pride !!
One of the biggest step forwards in my Parelli journey occurred early on when I not only understood, but really "internalised" the fact that a horse CANNOT BE NAUGHTY. Any behaviour that looks like "naughty" is just a natural reaction to either a stimulus I have caused, or an external one, such as a bag flying past. Horses can only act according to their instincts. To be naughty would suggest that they have a very high level mental capacity which let's them predict how I would perceive an action they make. To be naughty you have to be naughty to someone. Technically this is called "Theory of Mind" and horses are nowhere near having that. It is possible that a few apes and dolphins do, but horse no.
This of course leaves me with the realisation that undesirable behaviour is my fault. Either it is an a)inbuilt reaction that I have so far failed to modify, or b)it is a reaction I inadvertently created. This leaves me with nowhere to hide intellectually speaking.
I am hoping that today's problems where mode a) and not mode b) but time will tell I guess...

Filly update. Play with Billy

Filly looked a lot happier yesterday. She was tentatively putting weight on the bad hoof and was back to her normal ways in a box. Amy said that she and Rick had changed the poultice and there had been some signs on an infection being drawn out of the split. Hope it has not got to a difficult part of the hoof to treat. The vet had muttered darkly about maybe having to drain it, which sounds nasty.
On a brighter note her reaction to a carrot stick was interesting. I had collected a halter and stick to go and play with Billy in his field. I happened to walk past Filly's box so that she saw it. Now bear in mind we have not played for nearly 2 weeks due to her ringworm. She gave the most enormous whinny and started weaving her head at the stable door. The weaving is her signal that she wants to play. That was a most gratifying moment, despite her pain she STILL wants to play. It broke my heart to have to refuse as she is on box rest. As soon as we are sure that the ringworm is dead I will play in the box off course. It will give me an opportunity to work on all those neglected areas of her training, such as lowering her head and keeping it there. Now there's a challenge with the Filly !!
After this pleasant interlude my wife, Ritchie, and I walked down to Billy to play with him. He did not walk so far to me this time, but then due to Filly problems I had not been there for a few days. We started playing with all the usual games which went well, and then moved onto circling again. Now that is going really well. On only the third session he is so sensitive, but quiet and confident on the circle. And unlike Filly they are actually round. She still tries to cut the corner behind my back to make a nice Easter egg shape.
One look at Ritchie made it clear that she was desperate to play with him. It was interesting watching him adapt to a slightly different style. She's a bit shorter than me and that changes the body language a bit. My friendly pose is her stern pose !! He picked it up pretty quickly however and she soon had him doing nice circles at walk. She then moved on to leading him, which the girls at the stable say can be a bit of a challenge !
He does try to get in your space a bit. but is so sensitive that moving him away is easy. That might be part of the problem. If you put a bit to much pressure on him he rapidly becomes unconfident and starts prancing around, which being a largish horse could be intimidating. He also tries to overtake when you halt, but a tiny bit of pressure with the carrot stick out in front of zone 1 stops that immediately. Too much and he gets upset.
For non Parelli folks here is a diagram of the zones of a horse we use as a shorthand  Parelli Zones
You should also realise that each zone has a "bubble" around it so you can imagine your horse as one of those sausage balloon animals child entertainers tie. The result is that when I say pressure on zone 1 that does NOT mean that I have clunked him on the nose with a stick, just moved it out in front of him !
Going to work this afternoon so must go and play now

Saturday 25 September 2010

Filly has a broken nail

We all know the fuss that human fillies make about broken nails, well if you are a horse it is actually worth making a fuss about.

I went to the yard yesterday with the intention of quickly giving Filly an apple and then playing with Billy. As I approached Filly's field it became apparent that something was very wrong. She was standing with her rear right hoof off the ground, but grazing. She did not come over to the fence, but stayed where she was with hoof hovering. I rolled and apple towards her, not wanting to get to close because of the ring worm, she looked at the apple, stretched her neck towards it, looked at me and gave a pained plaintiff whinny. She was clearly in pain, but then confused me by briefly changing leg. Sod ring worm she needed help !
I quickly ran to the yard to get more experienced help. The head girl came down to look her over, but could find nothing wrong with her legs and decided to call in the yard owner, Rick.
Whilst waiting for him to arrive I had a longer look at her and noticed a line running up the front of her hoof. Initially it looked like a bit of old grass, but when I ran my finger over it it became obvious that the hoof had a nasty split. Rick arrived and with a stick we picked out her hoof and to my horror found that the split when across the bottom of her hoof most of the way to the frog. This has to be sore.
Rick set off to the yard to disinfect and prepare a stable for her (we are pretty sure the ring worm is dead, but are taking no chances). He asked me and my wife to get her to the yard.
We could not get her to move. She would not put that hoof on the ground. Eventually with wife on the lead rope pulling and me at the back pushing we got her most of the way to the gate. Rick reappeared and with his help we started to get her walking.
Having got her through the gate she seemed to get the idea that she was going to a stable, and the walking became easier. You could see the effort this required in her face, tight lips, unblinking eyes and general tenseness.
I could not believe how brave she was on that walk. By the time we got to the yard small amounts of blood were coming out of the split. She looked so relieved to be in the box and immediately started eating hay.
In the meantime that vet had been called. She examined the wound and said it was particularly nasty, and hopes that it has not caused and fracture of the bones. She found the hoof to be very unstable, able to move the bits independently. After many injections which she just accepted with barely a movement the vet pared away some of the hoof to allow the injury to drain properly, and also to see how far the split went. The result was indeterminate. The hoof has now been poulticed and we will wait until Monday for another examination.
Throughout all this she was very calm, to the extent that the vet commented on how good she was for a 2 year old. I feel very pleased that she must really see humans as partners trying to help her, not as predators trying to harm her. Even when the humans are causing her pain, she seems to understand that we are trying to help.
I will keep you all posted on her progress, but feel positive that the outcome will be good in the long term. In the meantime there are all sorts of bits of Parelli trianing that can be done within her stable to keep her mind occupied and not waste the time as mere "box rest"

Thursday 23 September 2010

Progress with Billy

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.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Billy shows he can be an RBE

Quick update on Filly first. She seems to have settled into her field now with the other filly. Very interesting watching their interactions though. Filly is definitely not the alpha. There were piles of hay in the field and it was noticeable that she always yielded her place when the other came over. Not even letting the other filly get close before moving on. I am actually quite pleased about this. It is to my knowledge the first time that she has spent a long period of time not being the alpha. She has of course be seriously attacked by other horses in the past, but I'm fairly convinced that this was because she did not know how to yield to a dominant horse in proper horse style. Hopefully this has now been cured. As to her ringworm she still only has the one small outbreak on her face, but this is dry and the lump appears to be receding. It is hard not being able to stroke her however, and it is clear from her look that she can't understand why I won't get within 5 feet of her.
As a result of this I am of course starting to work with Billy. Why do people insist on saying they "work" with their horse ? For me horses are a hobby, so it is more accurate to say that I "play" with Billy. Anyway I went to the field and again Billy left the other two and walked over to greet me. I started by putting the rope and halter on the ground for him to thoroughly investigate, and he really gave them a good examination. It's really only polite to let a horse have a good look at what is about to tie them up with after all. Haltering went much easier after this procedure ( I stupidly forgot to do it last time ) and we started with the ever popular "porcupine" game (steady pressure from a stick). First of was hind quarter porcupine. This resulted in him reversing about 100 meters. I kept the pressure on and eventually the hind quarters swung away and I removed the pressure. The look of "OH, that's what you meant" was obvious. Pause to let him lick and chew on it and the next attempt was only 10 meters back and then yield. Progress !
We then moved to fore quarter porcupine. Filly really really resisted this one, but Billy was much better. Still a bit reluctant but OK. Only asked the head and neck to move this time, but we will work up to feet later. Also played lots of YoYo. Getting pretty good at the back up. Started having to go as far as phase 3 on the rope wiggling, but came down to phase 2 after a while.
This had all taken place with the other horses nearby. At this point they noticed something at the gate and shot over there in hopes of an apple I guess, leaving Billy with me. Now horses like Comfort and Safety. Well Billy was obviously comfortable in his own field, but with the rest of his herd, including his "leader" the mare, leaving he no longer felt safe. I am not enough of a leader to him yet to act as substitute. So he went into Right Brain Extrovert mode (RBE). Right brain means that he has become unconfident and liable to be "spooky" and extrovert means he wants to move his feet, and he did. Suddenly I had a 450kg animal pulling on the end of the rope. Fortunately using a rope halter this is almost as uncomfortable for him as me. I follow the principle that as soon as he stops moving I take all the pressure off the rope as a reward. If he runs around then there is pressure and the rope wriggles to add to the commotion. As soon as he stops moving then the pressure goes away and so on. After about 5 minutes of this he learned to stand still. A few long snorts ( I always think of the snot coming out as his adrenalin leaving him ) and he settled down. I then approached him and he remained calm so I took off the halter, played some friendly game and let him return to his herd.
This horse is going to be a lot of fun to train. He is very quick to pick up new ideas, with enough spirit to never be boring

Thursday 16 September 2010

Small Circular Problem

I went to the yard yesterday to play with Filly and was a bit shocked to find that she was not in her field or the stable. The stable was all cleaned out as well. I thought that maybe she had been moved away and set off to find information quickly ! Finally found the yard owner who dropped a small bombshell. More a small firecracker really. Filly has caught ringworm, not off me I hasten to add. Several horses in her block have it. Surprisingly ring worm has nothing to do with perfectly circular worms, it is a fungal infection. A bit like a fairy ring I suppose. Hers is on her face and is a 1 inch diameter circle just below her right eye. All the hair has fallen out on the edge of the ring.
As a result of this she is in quarantine with another filly in a field at the end of the farm. AND she had to spend the night there. Thank God that by pure luck I have been doing so much training in the field with her recently. At least this gave a bit of a chance to adapt to being out in the dark.
I am actually not to displeased by this turn of events as it is forcing her to spend time with another horse who from my observation definitely acts like the alpha. Filly got a very rapid bite on the bum today when she did not yield away quickly enough. She will probably come to see me as a bit of a soft touch after this !!
We are practising complete hygene at the moment, and I am not getting close enough to touch her. She gets apples thrown from a short distance, but to her an apple is an apple irrespective of the delivery system. All her ropes and tack have been thoroughly washed in the washing machine, so hopefully the outbreak will be contained rapidly and I can get back to training.
Small success the other day. I lay across her back briefly. She was so upset she just stood there yawning, as left brain calm as you can get.
As a result of this small problem I have had time to get to know our new project "Billy". He is her big brother and currently lives in a field with a filly and pregnant mare. I have been playing some freindly game already with him, but today we started playing with the halter on. What a lovely horse. Very quickly we had yoyo game going (moving horse backwards and forwards. Very useful to get them out of your space). Hind quarter porcupine took a bit more effort but eventually started working as did fore quarter porcupine. The porcupine games basically consist of applying a steady pressure, in this instance with a stick, to the part of the horse you want to yield away. Note I say yield not push. The difference is subtle but very obvious when you see/feel it and very important. I really think we are going to have fun with Billy. Even after doing all these strange things to him he followed us most of the way to the gate so I guess we kept the rappor I had previously built up going. And he hasn't had any food from me yet !!

Saturday 11 September 2010

Outdoor School

The outdoor school has long been a source of spooks for Filly. I guess it comes from the fact that she did not have a mum around to teach her the ways of the outdoor life for very long. As a result she does not have an internal library of what should be frightening and what is ok. For a normally raised horse this library is vital to survival in the wild (they are not that many generations from being wild animals after all). If they spook at everything they will waste valuable energy that should be helping see them through lean times. If they spook at nothing they wind up being invited to dinner as the main course. Without this knowledge being passed on from her mum she therfore plays safe and spooks at most things.

At least she did. Since we managed to get her out in the field with a couple of other horses this has improved somewhat. but the outdoor school was still a challenge. Part of my reasoning behind all the visits to the big field was to try and add to her education and it appears to be paying off. In the outdoor school today she was very calm (mostly). Some very nice circling game, falling leaf pattern and figure 8. All of which were "challenging" in the past. We even did the squeeze game with the jump wings again. The added pressure today being the "Place". All ok. (Quote from Pat Parelli "Horses are very perceptive to people, places, changes and things")

Another visit to the field was very pleasant. There were 3 other riders there, one cantering and jumping the little cross country course. Today she looked curious about this rather then spooked. A very pleasant change, and good for my hands ( no rope burn !)

Friday 10 September 2010

Demo Day

Fun day today. After finishing shovelling 9 tons of gravel onto my driveway I joined Ritchie, my wife, and my neighbours granddaughter Isabella at the stables.
Isabella is just starting an degree in biology and animal behaviour and wanted to see how we worked with the natural language of the horse in order to train and communicate with them. Ritchie had done a demo of the seven games before I arrived, so I took Filly to the big field again to get Isabella to try and identify when Filly was left brain, right brain, dominant, etc.
 All the time I was trying to describe what was happening and what I was doing as a result. What a great exercise. I HAD to be so more analytical in my approach so that I could try and commentate in real time what was happening. As it happened we saw all sorts of interaction between Filly and horses we passed in fields alongside the track to the big field. What gave me most pleasure is that for the most part she saw me as the herd leader and followed my lead past the other horses rather than concentrating on them. I did let her stop a couple of times for a longer interaction all of which neatly demonstrated aspects of bevaviour, all the way up to one horse using both hind legs as a porcupine game to get her out of their space, from a distance I might add. It was clearly a mock attack and did not impress Filly at all, who looked at me and went back to her grass eating.
A quick trip round the field enabled demos of LB, RB, dominant and partnership behaviour, with slightly less confidence than previous outings, but OK.
We then went indoors for a few more exercises. I knew that I would provoke a little porcupine from her if I porcupined a hind quarter yield, and so it proved. The head came round on the attack, but a bit of Ninja arm work saw it off in a passive way.
For the first time we managed a complete 360 degree front quarter yield with the hind legs staying in one spot. Again a little passive resistance from my arm was required to prevent being porcupined myself, but such an improvement on recent tries. Maybe my switching from active resistance, trying to match dominance with dominance, to passive resistance which just does not rise to the challenge has made that game less important and in fact meaningless to her.
Isabella left with much to think about muttering about getting a horse.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Sun angle

Quick note tonight. Again I took Filly to the big field and at one point she became a bit right brain. I spent some time thinking as to why as nothing had changed since yesterday when it was all so good. I then noticed that to look across this big open space she had to look directly into a setting sun. I couldn't see in that direction, so from her point of view it must have been full of bogeyhorses ( bogeymen !). When we got to the point that she could look down / cross sun it was all sweetness again. Learning to perceive the world as she does is so important to me to be able to anticipate how she will react, and this one was a real revelation.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Great day at Liberty

For all those who do not know the term Liberty means playing with a horse without a rope attached. Not that she had just been released from prison, though to her it must feel a little bit like that.
We started just going for a walk around the farm, with rope attached. People on a yard are not used to seeing a loose horse wandering around so it's best to use one outside the school. This is a walk we have been doing every day for about 2 weeks now. It involves going past fields with horses in, which given Filly's past was a challenge to start with, then getting to a huge field surrounded by hedges, trees, a large pond, passages through hedges for footpaths etc. A spooky horses nightmare, but a magical Parelli playground. We don't do anything too pushy there, maybe some circles, figure 8s, etc. What I have found works really well is to let her have some say in matters. I walk casually, but purposely around the edge of the field letting Filly have the full 22 feet of rope to play with. Rather like taking a dog for a walk on a retractable lead. If she wants to graze she knows she has until the rope runs out as I walk to grab a mouthful. Then just as the end of the rope comes to my hand she trots up alongside munching away. I rarely have to tug on the rope, she can measure 22 feet very accurately. If we find a particualry good bit of clover then a longer picnic ensues. This lack of pressure has made her much braver (Left Brain in Parelli speak) and any slightly scarey spots she now tends to stop and consider carefully, with a mouth full of course. She then approaches at her own pace with me just providing moral support. She even tried to go down the aformentioned tunnel in the hedge today, but as this contains a narrow wooden bridge over a stream I'm afraid I had to stop her (she's not mine after all).
After all this fun we went back to the indoor school. I let her off the rope while I set up some of the toys and watched as she had a good roll. I had intended to put the rope back on, but she gave me a look that said lets play. So we started with some Stick to Me, a bit like having a dog at heel. Very good with no tendency to leave at all like in the past. Moved on to some circling game, again very good. Better than with a rope in fact. Change of direction on the circle which I had never done at liberty before, again excellent. Over a tarp on the ground. Well this caused a little bit of trouble. Not what I expect most of you are expecting. I could not get her off it. She wrapped it round her legs, picked it up with her teeth and generally scrunched it all up. Finally got her off it with some sideways game.
Now to the whole point of the day. A big squeeze game. To get her used to going in starting stalls ( she is going to be a race horse afterall) I have devised a fun squeeze. Take 2 plastic jump wings, about 2 foot 6 inch. Put alongside a wall of the school. Place poles on wings so that they are parallel to the wall and hey presto you have created a passage that you can vary the width on. We had done this exercise once before with the rope on and had little trouble. Would it work without the rope. You bet it did, and the turn and face at the ends was better than with the rope ! So feeling brave I moved on to the next phase of my cunning plan and draped the tarp over the poles so that it now looked like a solid wall. Again no problems at all and we spent ages playing with it. Squeeze, yoyo, just standing still all done with no right brain (spooky) moments at all. In fact she started playing with the tarp again.
That was enough for one day, but what a day. They don't happen like that every time, but the wait is definitely worth it

Monday 6 September 2010

My Journey with Filly

Hi All

If you are not interested in horses now is a good time to leave this blog. This is the tale of my journey into Parelli Natural Horsemanship and two young horses.
First about me. I am a pilot by proffession and have spent my life competing in gliders as a hobby. I did spend some time with horses as a teenager but lost interest as gliding took over. It is still a passion of mine and I continue to compete up to World Championship level.
My wife, Ritchie, is also in the airline industry and also spent some time as a glider pilot, but her true love is horses. Some time ago she had a problem with her horse and after much searching found Parelli and that is when her journey started.
For me however I stuck to gliders. Last December 2009 there was a Parelli Celebration in the UK at the NEC. She said that having spent many days being my ground crew at gliding competitions, and living in a tent to boot, I should come to see what her passion was about. It was over two days and I agreed to go for one day and the evening party, privately expecting to come home the following morning. I sat riveted to my seat for two whole days !! This was a different type of horsemanship and it strongly appealed to my scientific, analytic mindset.
We came home and I started working with Ritchies horse, but felt I needed a fresh horse to play with. I know that Pat Parelli says that Green on Green makes Black and Blue, but I like a challenge. My other hobby is climbing ice falls after all ! Asking around the yard the yard owner told me that he had three horses from a bankrupt yard for which he had no time and I could pick one, or two, or three to play with. Ritchie picked the smallest for me to start with thinking she would be the easiest. She was a very pretty 19 month old filly called ...  Filly. Well we didn't know her real name and so she was called "the filly" at the yard. This got shortened to Filly and has stuck.
She has had a difficult life to say the least. Born with an umbilical hernia and rejected by her mum at a very young age she had no horse training in horse manners. As a result whenever she went in a field with other horse they beat her up. She went through barbed wire twice and was found in a horse trough once. To protect her she was then confined to her stable with one hour in the indoor school on her own each day. The yard owner took her to the field to graze whenever he could in his busy schedule, but that was no substitute for proper field time. The theory was that even a greenhorn like me could scarcely make things worse.
Our first few days of playing were "eventful". It was like trying to land a 300kg fish on the end of a 22foot line. And this was just friendly game. I would go to the pub on the way home and on arriving my friend would ask " is it a 2 or 3 beer evening ?" 3 mostly.
Slowly but surely we began to gain trust in each other with the friendly game and we could move on to the porcupine game.
Nobody had really tried to tell her where to go before and she was not pleased with the idea. Especially the idea of a hind quarter yield. This was usually met with her trying to porcupine me with a hind leg. Pilot reflexes came to the fore and she repeatedly missed. More beer.
A few days later we had backup and hind quarter yields going. Finally I could get her out of my space and breathe a little easier.
Around this time I went to a drinks party and the host introduced me to a guest who was also "horsey" After a short conversation she asked what I did. I replied "Parelli, but the filly is too small for me to ride" She replied that "it is just as well you don't ride if you do that stuff". Conversation over !
Back to the yard. We now moved to fore quarter yields. Funny thing how big horses teeth can appear close up, they are herbivores after all. Many many session later we had a mutual understanding that if I asked very politely she would give a yield.
I then to my surprise discovered that actually she takes offense very easily. Once she has the idea of the various yields / body language she will do all you ask as long as you ask gently. The merest suggestion of too much pressure and she fights back, just the right amount and she starts polishing that horse halo and does whatever I ask.
Now we became friends in the truest sense. She started whinnying when I entered the stable and willingly put her head in the halter to go and play. Slowly I built her self confidence and now she spends the day in the field with an old pony who good naturedly lets her be the "boss".
Her football is coming on well, but still having trouble with the offside rule. "Chestnut mare" the others at the stable say "what do you expect".
We now play all the seven games, some at liberty and enjoy walking around fields that not long ago terrified her.
Came the day for her pre operation checkup to remove her hernia. Yard owner to vet "she is a bit different, Tim has been Parelliing her" Vet "seen it all before". Entered stable with Filly lying down, not the best position to check her hernia ! Vet pushes on her to get her up. She surprises him somewhat by rolling on her back and staying there while he examines her. " True, never seen that before"
There is much more to tell, but it is late and I must go to bed now to dream of perfect hind quarter yields