Getting Filly confident again

Filly is having another crisis of confidence. She hates being in the field for long periods so I have had to go all the way back to field training again. Frustrating but I have to do what she needs, not what I would like to be doing.
I chatted to James and he suggested lots of the basic confidence building games, some friendly game and lots of zone 2 / 3 driving games.
I need her to have confidence in me as a leader to start with. She has this in the indoor school, but due to the sodden nature of the field I have not been able to do much outdoors with her recently.
Leadership is important to horses as in the wild it is the leader that keeps them alive. The herd leader knows what to run from, what to ignore, where food and water are. Without a good leader the horse can have confidence in then they are going to try and take that mantle on themselves. But if you are a very young Filly with little outdoor life experience then being leaderless is likely to make you feel very vulnerable and seek the designated place of safety, in her case her box.
The other horse in the field is a very old, but sweet, pony called "Little One". I doubt Filly sees her as a leader. As a result as soon as she feels unsure she looks around for a leader to make her safe, can't find one and runs to the gate where she begs to come in.
I need to get her confident in the field environment again and this is best done by demonstrating that I am a good leader thus giving her left brain time to figure things out.
I used "follow the rail" with zone 2 driving to start this as it is consistent and she is near me for comfort and safety. To start she was very right brain (spooky), but I just held my focus and kept walking the rail. If she got out of position I did whatever it took to get her back again and then walked the rail. Slowly she calmed down, and I got sweaty. I carried on for around 1 hour, with very few rests. By then she was very calm and confident with me in the field.
Chatting with the yard owner we are going to try putting her with other horses in future to give her some horse leadership. Hopefully this will help a lot. As she gains general confidence it is also my hope that her tendency to nip other people will also subside. Since I have upped my leadership it is noticeable that she rapidly stopped trying to bite me.
I had a nice session with Billy last evening. I am still working on the zone 3 porcupine game from the ground to improve the ridden indirect rein and get those hind feet unstuck for forward motion when ridden. This went pretty well, but when I came to mount I found I still had issues with the post mounting standstill and lateral flexion. To cure both, upon mounting, if he moved I immediately went for a lateral flexion to stop the drift (forwards or backwards), whereupon he tried to bite my leg. Placing my foot up alongside his neck makes this impossible for him. As soon as he stopped I got off and stroked him. Over to the mounting block, back on, when stopped off again. Eventually he just stood by the block as I got on and off (on one side, off the other) at least 6 or 7 times.

What was satisfying is that in the early mounts where he had wandered off all I had to do was get on the mounting block for him to walk over, at liberty, and stand in exactly the right position to be mounted. Obviously having me on his back does not bother him at all as he must by now associate standing by the block with me getting on. I find this trust very humbling.

Just got home from another day at James Roberts observing. Again a fabulous day with so much information, even though I had heard the Plan to Plan lecture 3 times now. What was more important was watching James coach this weeks students through the first few checkpoints on the plan. I realise that I have to be much much more particular about the way I do it, and I thought I was being particular. He really impresses the need to do everything with horse in a Savvy way. Quick question. When does a training session start ?

Answer : as soon as the horse notices your presence for the first time. From that point until after you release them again everything matters. A tough standard to adhere to.
This does not mean that you have to be solely focused on the horse all the time, you can chat to your mates for example, but you should be aware of the horse and be on the lookout for little things all the time. If they nudge you or lean on you whilst you are chatting are they being affectionate or seeing if they can gently win the porcupine game and get one step closer to assuming leadership ?

Website is coming on, but as I have work exams on Thursday and Friday there will be fewer blog posts and website improvements for a few days.

Website goes live

So much to tell you and so little time.
To start with I spent yesterday with James. More of this later. The good news is that he has looked at the website I have been building and said it was ok to publish. There is a link down the right hand side of the blog. It is not finished yet, there are still many boxes to complete, but I will add to them slowly as I get the knowledge and time. I may need to edit some as my savvy grows as well. All changes I will announce on the blog. Please let me know by email or blog comments if you think there are mistakes, it isn't clearly written, or more information that should be entered.
It is important to note that in effect each box is a test. Each test must be passed for the level you are working at prior to moving onto the next box. For example in the riding section if you cannot "follow the rail" to the level required for level 2 then don't continue onto the other patterns until you can. Each step builds on the last. This takes great discipline but remember "take the time it takes so that it takes less time". Please also note that the usual disclaimers about horse safety, training and equipment apply to the site !
Back to the horses. We played a nasty trick on Rick the yard owner. The whole yard was in on it including Sue his girlfriend ! I had asked Rick to help me with Billys first ride, and 2 days ago he said he had time. I prepared Billy thoroughly and he past all the tests in the plan up to "mounting with savvy". Some I had to work on for a while as he was a little unconfident. Eventually Rick came into the school to help and I asked him to hold the end of the 22 foot line and stand back a bit. Billy gets worried if there is another person near the mounting block and refuses to stand still. Rick looked a little confused at this as he is used to helping get the horse to stand whilst the rider mounts for a first ride. With Rick safely away Billy nudged into my knees with his side and after a brief scratch I got on. Not even a flinch. Rick is not daft and commented "If this is the first ride you must think I'm stupid", or colourful words to that effect !! But his initial face was worth the effort.
I did need Ricks help however. Lateral flexion and backup are going well as is indirect rein (I thought, more later), but getting Billy to move forwards with aids from me is not good, actually not happening. I needed Rick to check that he did not have any confidence issues moving forwards with me on, and for this wanted I a strong guy who could at least control Billy long enough for me to get off if it went wrong. In the event Billy followed Rick around the school with a lowered head totally confident, thus passing the test with flying colours. Now what to do. Every time I asked for forwards he would kick out, prance and put in little bucks. His feet were stuck. A pub dinner with Sue and Rick to celebrate riding Billy followed.

James HELP ! I went to the Foundation Station with Ritchie yesterday just to watch. No courses on, just observe him training young and problem horses with his staff, and do some advanced training of his staff in the afternoon. As always there is way to much information to impart in a blog, yesterday could fill a book in itself, but one snippet gave me insight into the Billy problem.
He was teaching Clare and her horse to ride with contact and getting the horse to start moving forwards with contact was proving difficult, as with Billy, backup and prancing were good. I had seen this picture before. Getting a horse to start moving with contact means moving the hind feet first, getting them to step off with a hind foot lead. The hind feet are the driving feet and push the horse along. The front feet are really just balancing feet to stop the nose dragging on the ground. To unstick the feet James got Clare to do a very slight indirect rein first by squeezing with just one leg and then once that leg moved, squeeze both to get the forward movement.
Chatting to James afterwards he confirmed that I should do this with Billy. My mistake in the indirect rein had been to add rhythmic pressure with my hand on his hips if the squeeze from my leg did not work and compounded the problem by thinking I had passed the indirect rein test. Of course hand tapping is not part of the test, but the leg squeeze is. I had not yet taught Billy to move at all off leg pressure (porcupine), but of rhythmic pressure from my hand (driving game). The fix is going to be to ensure I can get indirect rein from leg pressure so that leg pressure starts to mean something to him. I can train this on the ground of course by playing the porcupine game with my stick or fingers in the spot where my heel will apply the pressure. Simple and obvious really once you work it out.
I hope this also emphasises the need to really pass each test in the plan before moving on or the rough spot will just pop up somewhere else, not be obvious and could cause a serious problem.
One thing James keeps repeating is know what the finished product is supposed to look like before starting the fundamentals. He advocates repeatedly watching level 4 dvds even if you are only at level 1. This experience has really consolidated in my mind what he means.

Blog back on line

Back from a brief time away. I have not been lazy however as I am busy writing a website that describes the plan as explained to me by James Roberts. To say it is a lot of work is an understatement. There is so much to explain and research to do to get it all to make sense. It is of course improving my knowledge greatly so is well worth the effort.
Back to the horses. Most effort has been put into Billy recently, and the riding is progressing well, except for one aspect. Going forwards is an issue, which is a bit problematic for a race horse. On the other hand back up is amazing !
Last night I decided to get help from Ritchie and I will describe the session in some detail as it was interesting.
I started playing around 14:45, with deadline of 16:00 so that we could go to the cinema. (Kings Speech : very good). I got Billy from the field and managed to draw him to the gate which given the mud at the entrance was a Godsend. Not strictly "having the horse catch me" but not bad. He stood quietly on the other side of the gate as I haltered him and then willingly walked to the yard with me. After a foot wash I got him into the school and continued with the plan. There was a lot happening on the yard and he was edgy about all the noise. Touch all over was kind of all right, but he would not standstill. Place the feet was even trickier but we managed in the end. Alarm bells were beginning to ring. For the prepare to ride section I asked for some circles with the odd transition, halt walk trot and back down. This was actually quite good, but with a little trouble on the right circle. He has always been a little unconfident in this direction.
He still seemed on edge though and did not appear the calm relaxed horse I was used to. He had spooked several times, but to say the flight distance was short would be an understatement, which is a big improvement over the old days were a couple of laps of a field was common.
Rope around was really not good at all with a resistant Billy, not the usual willing to please horse.
He did not look like a horse I would want to ride. Thank God for the plan which allowed me to test this from the ground.
What to do now ?
I had noted in the past that he was worried about going to the end of the school that opens to the outside, and this direction had definitely been an issue when trying to ask for forwards whilst ridden in the past. Rode my first bareback buck a while back !! I needed an exercise that emphasised going forwards, had me close by for confidence (circling was out) and was repetitive and calming.
I don't know where the idea came from but I selected zone 3 driving. This consists of "leading" the horse not from alongside his head, but from abeam his withers or even further back, where one would sit when riding. This is done online (although I have done it at liberty with Filly) with the carrot stick resting on his withers in a neutral, friendly position. If he moves too slowly I lift the stick, move it to his rump (phase 1), wave it up and down (phase 2), lightly tap (phase 3), stronger tap (phase 4). The stick returns to the withers as soon as he is back in the correct position. Should he try and turn across me then the stick can be used alongside his head to drive him back to a straight line, again with phases. If he turns away then a feel on the rope to bring him back to straight is all that is needed.
To add purpose I also simulated "following the rail" by just walking accurately round and round the school. Eventually I want him to do this with NO corrections at all whilst ridden.
To start he was very very worried when walking towards the spooky end, and some "ninja" stick and rope work was needed to keep him moving, but slowly he calmed down and we got some really confident laps.
This was not before he gave me a black eye however. To make him go deep into the corners and not cut them short I was asking for him to go deep into the corner and then we would stop and rest. Thus the corners become a place of rest and relaxation. He didn't understand this to start with and with me standing by his side he decided to try to come out of the corner and past/through me. To be fair he lifted his head over mine (he did knock my hat of though, a grievous crime), but unfortunately the heavy lead rope snap whacked me above the eye. Sore !! I am proud to say that I did not let it out focus me and we continued with the session whilst I wiped blood from my eye.
Eventually we had a calm Billy and after a quick run through the plan again it was time to get on. The idea was for Ritchie to help by using the 22 foot line to back up my requests for forward aids, but Billy was not happy having her near us as I got on. As soon as she retreated 10 feet or so he neatly positioned himself against my legs and I could mount. Interesting !! Maybe having two of us near him was putting to much pressure on him.
I started with all the usual post mounting exercises, starting with the most important, "stand still". Lateral flexion
Ritchie was at the end of the loose 22 foot rope throughout this process. Now it was time to ask for forwards, which had caused so much trouble in the past. The idea was for me to apply my aids in slow phases and Ritchie could add an additional phase by applying a draw to the rope. This worked well and after a few attempts we were getting him to move forwards with phase one pressure from me. This just means lifting the rope to get his attention and "smiling with all four cheeks". i.e smile and tense the buttocks. Amazingly light for so early in his riding training.
In the end this was a very successful session, and it really showed the value of the plan to check the horse is safe to ride prior to mounting. In this case is revealed that the initially calm Billy was not as confident as he appeared to be. This allowed me to do something about it before I mounted, saving physical damage to myself and mental damage to Billy

More success with Billy. Filly RB over ridden horse

Another two good days with Billy.
Yesterday I followed the plan all the way to mounting (excluding saddling of course) and he behaved impeccably. As soon as I got on the mounting block, and with no aid from myself he walked calmly over and gently nudged against my legs as if to say "get on with it, mount up". I got on twice yesterday, once with another horse in the school and each time he was very well behaved. I pushed a little harder and managed to get several steps of backup and very nice lateral flexions. Strictly the order should be reversed but I wanted to move away from the mounting block such that if he moved sideways with the lateral flexion he did not bang his legs. He is still a bit clumsy like that I did not not want pain to be the result of my sitting on him.
We are not neglecting basic ground work however and I am incorporating new things into the preparation to ride. Yesterday I worked particularly on his sideways which had made him unconfident in the past. As I had noted with Filly previously the mere act of having been on Billy has greatly improved his confidence in me and the rapport we have. I thought I had just imagined it with Filly, but I am seeing the same effect again.
Filly was still being difficult and attempting to dominate yesterday. Touch all over was a bit better with much less tail swishing and biting attempts. Placing the feet is actually a dream with her, no issues at all. Again choosing my moments carefully I re asserted my right to be the leader and all went well thereafter. It is a continuous battle, but I feel lucky to be training her. She really stretches my savvy level, not to mention improving my reaction time. I am working on some basics again that she has become a bit slack on, but now incorporating them in the plan.
As a slight change in tack I also spent much more time just cuddling her. She always craved contact but the biting issue had tended to put me off a bit. Whenever she tried to bite I just wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big long gentle cuddle. This disarmed her and we got on much better towards the end. I guess a top horseman would have worked this out a while ago, but I don't have that much experience. All I can do is try different tactics and see which ones work, and in the process gain that much needed experience for myself.
Back to today's training with Filly. This started well but then another horse entered the school to have a first ride. This seemed to really really upset her. She reared up, span round and acted generally in a very RB way. I could not get her to settle. I apologised and rapidly departed the indoor school for the outdoor. I thought she was being frightened, but one of the others in there thought she was just being naughty, which made me analyse the situation more closely. She was calm whilst the other horse was just being lunged and we had made good progress with lateral flexion moving onto indirect rein on the ground. We had also played some YoYo game over a pole. (With the other horse being lunged I had restricted space). It wasn't until the rider got onto the mounting block that she started to play up and it coincided precisely with that moment. It got worse as the rider lay over the other horse, bringing a comment about bad timing. I don't see why these events should suddenly make her feel aggressive towards me. In addition her ears had become fixed and her eyes unblinking and wide. This seems like classical RB behaviour to me.
In the outdoor school with her adrenaline running high I made her move her feet a lot with travelling circles at trot and canter. To start they were very unconfident with lots of pulling back, but slowly the familiar pattern calmed her down and she did some nice controlled circles. She did try to crowd me at times, but a sharp slap with the end of the rope on the barging shoulder corrected that. As I was taught a while ago, have a look at the flex of the horse as it come towards you. If it is curved so that it is pushing its shoulder into you it is trying to dominate by invading personal space, so react by protecting that space. After 10 minutes of this she was calm enough to go back into the indoor school, now empty, and actually get on her. Nice lateral flexion, but due to my weight no more was attempted.
Back to Billy again. I prepared him for his fourth ride, and again we flew through the plan with no hitches at all. Even placing the feet is getting good. I recruited one of the other horse owners to just watch in case there was a problem and got onto the mounting block. Not as good as yesterday with coming over to me as I actually had to give two taps with the carrot stick to get him in position to mount. Mounting went OK, but he did move a couple of steps, I suspect because he had not braced his feet enough prior to me mounting. My fault for not preparing him well enough.
Today I wanted to ask for more movement, so started with lateral flexions. A little bracey to start, but eventually they past the 4 ounces of pressure test easily. A lateral flexion is where the horse is asked to stand still and just turn his head round so his nose is near your leg. I'll put the whole plan on the web soon with all of this explained. Next I asked for and easily got several steps of backup. Stopping him going backwards was a little tricky, but basically I just totally relaxed in my seat and acted like a sack of spuds.
We then moved onto indirect and direct rein exercises. I had done many of these on the ground in the prepare to ride section.
The indirect rein starts with a lateral flexion, but then I look down and back at his hind quarters. This shifts my weight on his back and acts as a phase one cue to move his hind legs away from my gaze. Then my leg goes back and applies a little pressure behind the girth area. No kicking please. After a few seconds of no response I took my hand and lightly tapped his flank until his hind quarters moved away from the pressure, at which point I rewarded him by instantly removing all the cues and becoming the sack of spuds again.
I could go through all the exercises we did, but suffice to say all went very well and they will be written up soon in the new website I am slowly putting together.
Dismounting was easy with no movement on his part and a nice cuddle.

Get Respect from Filly. Sitting on Billy

Played with Filly first. She was not in a sleepy mood today at all, but very disrespectful. Touch all over in the flank area again difficult and the teat area got pretty violent. However with gentle persistence we got to the point where there was no tail swishing. I did use a bit of clicker training to achieve this. Whenever she stood quietly I clucked with my tongue and she got a small piece of carrot.
Placing the feet was as usual with her very good.
I then moved onto the prepare to ride part concentrating again on getting good circles with no nagging on my part. She was very difficult about this, and the feel she gave me was of disrespectfully pushing the boundaries.
Well respect is important for me so I had to up my game, but it required patience. I waited until she tried to give a cheeky little kick and then, much as a fellow herd member would do, put her in her place with a sharp rap with the savvy string on the leg that she kicked with. An instant change in the dynamic. She came to me respectfully, without trying to bite or push. She became much more obedient to the slightest aid, and actually looked as though she was more content.
I have had to do this before and had a similar result, but the truth is that I HATE having to give such a sharp correction.
I guess I have to bury my feelings a bit in order to get respect and rapport with the Filly. As Pat says in one of his videos, if you are playing tag with someone and they never actually try to tag you then you are not fun to play with and respect goes. I guess I was guilty of being the damp squib in the game and she decided to see how limp I really was.
Next up was Billy. I had it in the back of my mind that today I MIGHT be able to get on him and so came armed with my hat and Ritchie. Everything went exceptionally well and soon I was stood on the mounting block with Billy actually pushing into my legs gently. I started with just lying on him with no reaction at all. Next attempt I swung my legs up as in the blurry photo on the previous post and lay there until he was yawning and his spine was getting painful to lie on. Then I tested throwing a leg over but not actually getting on, he just looked a bit bored.
With no real decision on my part I got on. It just felt the right moment. His head briefly came up but soon relaxed as I pretended to be a sack of potatoes and relax on his back. After a time I asked for a lateral flexion by putting gentle pressure on the lead rope (yes he was bareback with only halter and lead rope). He misinterpreted this as the cue to back up and did so for two or three paces. No criticism on my part, I just have to train the lateral flexion better, he did what he thought I had asked.
After a while I dismounted, he turned and put his head into my chest and breathed deeply completely relaxed.

On Billys' back again

Just time to play with Billy today. Besides after falling asleep yesterday I thought maybe Filly needed a break.
As always I started with the Plan to ride check-list but this time spent a little more time on the prepare to ride section. This involves ensuring that Billy is confident doing online what I want to do riding. Now at the moment all I want to do is lie on him, however some of the first riding actions will be indirect rein to disengage the hind quarters and slow him down IF he tanks of, backup off halter pressure and looking a bit further ahead, follow the rail.
For indirect rein I am making sure that the hind quarter porcupine is working well. He has a tendency to move backwards when I ask for this, but I have found that keeping one hand on his withers discourages this and we are starting to get some really nice yields.
For the backup I am using porcupine on his nose to apply gentle pressure to get him to move backwards. I am also lightly pulling the halter back. Both are working really well.
For follow the rail I am asking for multiple circling laps at walk and trot, not breaking gait with no input from me. Again very good.
I am beginning to run out of excuses for not riding him.
We moved to the mounting block and after a little trouble getting a nice standstill in position I lay across him, at which point he rapidly left. The beauty of doing this bare back is I merely slid off and landed on my feet and could get him back to the block in short order, making it the safe comfortable place. The next attempt was completely successful with a perfect standstill and total relaxation.
With this success under my belt I decided to try the lying horizontal again. I really physically struggle to get my legs onto his back and my legs rub and bump him all over. However he stayed totally still again and relaxed. What I didn't mention is all of this was accomplished with Ritchie and Bonitao playing at the other end of the smallish indoor school. It did let Ritchie get a photo however !!

A very chilled Filly

Only a quick note about Filly today. I started playing with her around 6pm in the indoor school. More work on "touch all over" around the flank area. A few kicks with the hind leg, but she soon settled down and accepted the touch. Let's be clear as to why this is such a difficult area. It is full of important tendons and muscles and is therefore a prime area for predators to attack. A good clawing there can cripple a horse and make it into and easy meal, hence horses try to protect the area at all costs. Touching her there and not harming her proves to her that I am not a predator that wishes to kill her. (I am a predator of course, just not one that eats horse meat !!).
We then moved onto "place the feet" which was easy, and stand still which was very very easy. I should have read the signs.
We then did lots of circling, trying to get 2 laps without intervention at the chosen gait. This did not go well. She kept breaking gait, slowing down each time. I should have read the signs.
She was very difficult to motivate to do anything, even liberty and playing with the ball. We spent a long time playing yoyo to and from a cone to give it purpose. Still no real animation. I should have read the signs.
I left her at liberty and sat down to consider the situation. She did not come over to me, but just quietly sniffed around the school. I was feeling very depressed by now, she did not seem want to be with me. I wandered over to her and gently stroked her. She did not try to move away, so what was going on. Maybe she was feeling ill ? She then surprised me by very gently putting her head on my arm and just standing there. Her head got heavier and heavier, the breathing deepened, and she started twitching.

She had fallen asleep !! Wow, what trust. She put her head in my arms and felt confident enough in me to go to sleep. Now what to do. It felt rude to wake her so we just stood like that for 10 minutes until she woke up gave a long lick and chew, put her muzzle in my hands and promptly fell asleep again. After another quick horse nap she woke up and I took her back to her bedroom.

As for Billy. Good progress. I did all the normal preparation to ride and then lay on his back with no problems at all. To up the pressure I managed to swing my legs up onto his rump, thus lying face down with my face on his neck and my feet on his rump with my knees together. His head was a little raised to start but soon softened and I could reach under his neck and gently stroke him. I then dismounted on the opposite side to mounting him. Throughout this he did not move a muscle, even though there was a good deal of commotion on my part as I got my legs up. I like Pats video on this with his young trainer jumping up and down from a smallish colt. He placed a lot of emphasis on quickly getting on and off again. How on earth do I do this with a 17 hand horse ?? I have to use the largest mounting block to get on !! Another day of this and I will be willing to sit on him properly. I am purposely taking this all very slowly to help counter my lack of experience.

Big lesson of the day. READ THE SIGNS. If things are different to yesterday, stop and analyse why. Allow for the fact that the horse could be horse tired (dog tired does not seem an appropriate phrase).

Difficult day with Filly

After getting home from a night flight I chilled for a while and then left for the yard.
I knew I would only have the mental stamina for one horse and chose Filly.
Initially we started in the indoor school. I am not letting her roll immediately these days as it come in useful as a nice reward after a difficult section.
Sticking to the plan "touch all over" was the first task. I have been having real trouble in the flank and teat area, but a few days ago having watched Pat in a colt starting video I went in to touch her with more energy. She had always been putting a lot of energy with attempted bites and kicking to stop me touching her and for some reason it had not occurred to me to match her energy in this area. I guess because I never thought of friendly game as being a high energy game. Even Pat hesitated to call it friendly game on the video. Anyway, matching her energy with vigorous rubbing and sort of brush slapping ( a bit like strumming a guitar) she rapidly stopped resisting my approaches. I was still getting tail swishing, but not the spirited attempts to kneecap me that occurred before. As she moved away from this pressure I just followed, keeping it up until she could stand still at which point I stopped the commotion and just stood with my hand on her flank or teat. I would not recommend this procedure unless you are reasonably athletic and have good reactions, you are very likely to get kicked !! But it works.
Ritchie had done some of this for me yesterday as a follow up and I found that she was much much better today. Still the odd kick attempt, but they felt like she was trying to save face rather than actually connect. By the end she was very calm.
A desired byproduct of this is to get her less stroppy about hind quarter porcupine, and also to move the porcupine spot to a place it is reasonable to place a heel while riding. I am pleased to report that this also seems to be working.
After touch all over, place the feet was next and accomplished with reasonable ease. At this point Sue came in with one of the young colts they are starting and it was apparent that I needed to go to the outside school and into the wind.
Filly has had very little training outside recently and so she went totally right brain for a while. I tried travelling circles to get her mind back but with only partial success. She seemed happiest when close to me so I changed my original plan and decided that some follow the rail with zone 3 driving might do the trick.  To start this was also very difficult so to add a place of rest I adapted this to corner to corner training. In this pattern we walk along the rail of the school but don't turn at the corners. We use the corner as a place of rest. This was also challenging to start, but being a predictable pattern for her she soon relaxed in the corners and we had a tolerable session. She did try to come through me a few times whilst standing in the corner but found that I just used commotion to get her back and the corner was really a place of tranquility. In the end this worked very well for 3 of the 4 corners, but the other must have been much more spooky and we only got to an uncomfortable truce there. As it was getting dark I finished at this stage.
Back in her stable I made a point of being the one to feed her and when she had finished I just went and crouched quietly in the corner to spend some undemanding time together. I also rubbed her gently in the difficult spots and was pleased to see virtually no reaction at all. Leaving my hand there the front end got some carrot slices.
I really think that this undemanding time after a difficult session is so important and from my observation find very few people make the time for it. Of course it is not time wasted as I am sure it will reduce the training time tomorrow. I have heard Linda Parelli suggest that on a quiet day take a book and sit in the stable and read. There is also one clinician GaWaNi Pony Boy who strongly suggests spending a whole day with your horse just observing and being there. An Iditarod Dog racer slept in the kennels with his dogs to get the rapport needed to do an 1100mile dog race. (Great book by the way "Winterdance").Even I have not had the time to do that but just 20 or 30 minutes I find can make all the difference. By the end she was snuffling me and blowing in my nose with no animosity at all.

I don't think I could sleep near Filly anyway, you should here her snore !!

p.s James has given me the OK to write about the Plan to Plan course so I will make a start soon. It is going to be a lot of work so please bear with me while I write it up in a manner that even I might understand (which is part of the reason for doing it of course)

Billy takes the weight

Well my weight anyway !
A long day with horses today. Starting with helping a friend loading a horse to go to vet hospital for some scans. I only went there to deliver a very late Christmas present ( Imprinting the New Born Foal).
Returning to the yard I started with Billy as dinner time was fast approaching. Do NOT play with Filly over dinner, if she can't get oats then bits of Tim will do just as well !
The aim today was to get Billy happy at taking my full weight. Putting the plan to use again we quickly got to the stage of Billy being ready for me to lie on. The pattern was very similar to the last session. He was willing to stand next to me on the mounting block and happy to have me lean over him, but when I added weight he attempted to escape by moving of rapidly. I would like to distinguish "drift" from "escape". Drift is a mostly left brain wandering off as I mount, not desirable but rideable even when lying on my stomach. "Escape" is a more right brain, unconfident rapid movement away from pressure and I tend to roll off. So far I have mostly landed on my feet. During an escape I rapidly manoeuvre him back to the mounting block so that the psychological pressure of me being on his back is not removed until he is back in position next to me on the block when reward and rest is given. If I did not do this he would learn that comfort could be obtained by getting me off his back.
Out of 5 attempts to lie on Billy with all my weight 3 were totally successful with him not moving at all. These were the last 3 so progress was made. In fact he looked very confident towards the end.
I also did lots of work on his basic porcupine yields. He is very good with fore quarter yields but hind quarter are more problematic. They need to improve before we ride him as I want to be able to do a hind quarter yield when on him so that I can easily disengage his hind quarters if he moves off a bit too fast.
After dinner I turned to Filly. I wanted to run through the plan all the way to mounting her, and it went very well. The touch all over has improved dramatically. She is much calmer as I touch her flank and teat area. Not an Angel yet, but the Devil is in retreat. Very soon I was sat on her again and she seemed very confident. She loves the neck flexion I ask for as soon as I mount. This involves putting pressure on the lead rope to get her to turn her head towards me. Of course this gives her the perfect opportunity to bite my leg. To thwart her I but my foot up along her neck ( a trick I learnt from a video of Pat Parelli ). In this position she cannot flex enough to get at my leg and soon gives up. "Foiled again, but fun trying" I can almost see her think. The only habit I need to break now is the couple of steps she takes as I mount.
In preparation for her to "follow the rail" I also did lots of circling. I am trying to get to 5 circles at the same gait with no input from me at all. This teaches her the horses responsibilities "Maintain gait, maintain direction, look where you are going". I send her on the circle and then relax and become neutral. I only come out of my relaxed state IF she breaks one of the responsibilities. For example if I have asked her to trot and she is trotting then I stay still, quiet and just pass the rope around me. If she should walk or stop however I bring my life up and uses phases to remind her that she is meant to be trotting. Slowly she tries to work out what she must do to keep me quiet in the middle. When she eventually follows the rail I want her to go around the edge of the school with no input from the rider, thus transferring the responsibilities to her ridden life.

Putting the plan to good use

Yesterday was my opportunity to put the contents of the clinic to good use. Now I have been using the plan for many weeks now and getting good results, but the original lecture only lasted an hour and so did not have all the detail that the clinic provided. Being trained as an engineer and now being a professional pilot I find that my mind works best when I can really grasp the reasons behind anything I do. The clinic gave me the theoretical foundation I was partially missing. It is all in the Parelli training material I have watched over the last year but in disparate places. What the clinic did was pull all these pieces into a coherent whole. I guess I could have gotten there eventually on my own but it would have taken much longer.
The short term goal is to get both Filly and Billy to fully, in an LB sense, accept a human on the back and as a leader.
Ritchie was on hand to help during theses sessions which made things much easier.
First up Billy. To start with the training began in the box. I made a point of ensuring that he caught me. This may sound odd as he was in a box but if your horse turns its' back on you they have not caught you. I waited patiently at the door until Billy came to see what I was doing and put his nose on me. Patience was all it took, for maybe as much as a minute !!
I had watched Josh very carefully as he haltered his horse in the demo. He made sure the horse participated in the haltering by getting him to tip his nose towards Josh. It looked very calm and natural in contrast to my attempts with Filly, say, who would much rather eat hay. Billy cooperated nicely. Getting a good standstill is also important as the leader is the individual who controls movement of the other. When Billy tried to push past me to leave the box as soon as the door was open I backed him back in, and then made him stand there for several minutes, very gently correcting any attempt, even a forwards weight shift, to move. We then headed to the school. All the usual routine then followed (touch all over, place the feet, standstill). I then performed several online indirect/direct rein patterns and found that he was getting very light in feel. A couple of rope arounds to ensure that seeing me out of each eye in rapid succession did not cause a problem and we were ready for the main exercise of the day, mounting him. Billy is not ready for me sit astride yet but I wanted to make progress with lying over him. Being 17 hands this needs a mounting block as I am not and Olympic high jumper. To prepare him for me jumping around near him I first did lots of drunken man walk. This means walking in a very unsteady fashion towards his withers, gently bumping into them and giving him a scratch, whilst his responsibility is to stand still. Test past with flying colours.
Next I got on the mounting block and guided him with the lead rope and hind quarter yields towards me so that he was in the right position for me lay on him. Note I did not take the mounting block to him, he came to the right position when I was already on the block. This way it is his decision to stand next to a predator looming over him, not me suddenly popping up from the ground and imposing the position on him. Lots and lots of stroking ensued with Ritchie backing me up with another 12 foot rope attached to the halter in case he ran off. Slowly he relaxed and the head lowered. I gently eased some weight onto his back watching his head and ears. He looked a little unconfident so I came off again until he relaxed. Over the next 30 minutes or so I got more and more weight on his back. He did move off a few times and I hustled him back into position so that the right place was a place of comfort and everywhere else a place of commotion. On one escape attempt, at Ritchies suggestion, I in effect said "if you want to move your feet, let me help". We did several minutes of trotting circles and indirect/direct reins and magically arrived back at the mounting block in position in time for a rest. Great idea of Ritchies and things went smoother thereafter. I never got all my weight on him, but about 80% I would guess and more importantly he could see my head out of one eye and my legs with the other. He relaxed enough to swing his head round and very gently lick the back of my knees. Quit while your ahead !! Interestingly he relaxed much more when Ritchie took her rope off and sat at the school edge. Maybe the presence of two predators was too much for him and made him feel claustrophobic.
Filly. Quick description as the post is getting a bit long, but then it was an exciting day. I had been having lots of problems with Filly's touch all over, especially in the flank and udder area so this was what I wished to concentrate on. James' had really instilled the need for touch all over and I realised I had not been particular enough. I made good progress by just being very persistent and keeping my hand in the offending areas until she had stopped moving and trying to cow kick me, and then kept my hands there even longer. If she tried to move away I just followed until she stopped, which was exciting ! After several minutes of this (when I am training time means little and I loose track) she was a much more relaxed Filly. Amy is due to ride Filly soon and wishes to use a saddle so we needed to get her accustomed to it. We used Bonitaos which fitted tolerably well to get her used to a full saddle with flapping stirrups. I made her move around a lot with it on her back, circling at walk trot and canter. Canter bothered her for a bit as the stirrups flapped but soon she ignored them. We then did a nice liberty session where I could make her move even quicker with no problems at all.
I stepped up into the stirrup several times to let her get used to the new sensation. A bit unconfident to start, but soon she got the hang of it. Another good note to finish on !!
Sorry for the long post, but it was a good day for me and I wanted to record as much of it as reasonable so I can look back on it when we get into darker times.

Another visit to James Roberts

The horses had a day off yesterday as Ritchie and I went to visit James Roberts Foundation Station for a clinic called Plan to Plan. As the title suggests this was not the normal clinic demonstrating cool things to do with your horse, but it was a very detailed look at his general training plan and how it can be used to put a good foundation on any horse of any ability. This is much more to my likeing, rather than saying "lift your carrot stick at this moment and do this" it was a more conceptual session which could be applied by anyone according to their circumstances.
There was a session of simulating one particular manouver, the "indirect/direct rein online" exercise which I have spoken of before. Good reinforcement of the pattern which really is a foundation pattern in any training regime. I watched the Pat Parelli colt starting video when I got home (from the pub !!) and saw the exact same pattern used there, but not explained very well. James' exercise made it much clearer.
He did describe the areas of the plan where the seven games should be used, but compared to other instructors he really emphasises the seven games as a tool to be used rather than an end in themselves. I certainly got hooked on the seven games when I started Natural Horsemanship and it served me well to learn some basic motor skills and horse reading, but I am glad that someone has interupted my pattern before I made them an end in themselves.
Interstingly he also placed huge store on knowing the 10 qualities of a Horseman and the 8 Principles of Natural Horsemanship. We split into groups to really explore what they actually mean. It is easy to just learn them, be able to chant them even and then almost forget them. James clearly has them at the forefront of his mind as he works, and not just as a benal chant but as an active working philosophy.
He emphasises that the plan is not his, but Pats', however I have watched hours and hours of DVDs and never seen it explained as clearly as James managed yesterday. This is probably because I have never been on a lesson with Pat himself and to clearly explain the plan does require an interaction with the audience that DVDs do not allow.
I'll go into more detail about the plan in the future after I have licked and chewed about it myself for a while, and with James' permission of course !! However if you are really serious about using the Parelli (or any other NH method for that matter) to improve any horse then get yourself on this one day course and be prepared to have your image of NH shifted. He really emphasisis that getting to Level 4 is not a final destination, it should be achievable in a realtively short period of time (a year or less), and not to make the levels ends in themselves but as markers in development towards giving the horse a purpose (job) in life.
This is the second time that I have been to see James and the real conceptual change it has made for me is that NH is a tool to be used to enable you to achieve a desired result with horses. For James starting colts and sorting out problem horses in not a hobby, but a business. He does not fall in love with every horse he trains, he can't, there have been thousands of them. He does respect them however and uses NH to repectfully bring about a change in the horses behaviour and lives. That is the difference I have seen from others in the Parelli program and it has enabled me to see the program in a much broader context. Of all the things I have learned from James this is probably the most important and for this I sincerely thank him.
I have to mention the 2 riders who did demonstrations of the plan with two horses at different stages in their development. First up was Josh who showed us in detail how to prepare a horse to be ridden and what Follow the Rail really means. Second was Vicky who demonstrated how to use the plan to demonstrate more advanced training, in this case flying lead change. I wonder who they were more nervous of, the crowd of 60 on the course, or the man with a crutch, James !!
Just as a last thought. James emphasises having a long view plan. What are you actually going to be teaching your horse in 8 months time (James knows for his !), next month, next week, or even this afternoon ? Talking of which I had better get on with my own plan..... !

Desensitising Billy

Arrived home from Calgary at around 2pm. Must add I had a great day yesterday in the Rockies indulging one of my other hobbies, ice climbing in Johnston Canyon. Thanks to the guys who saw a lonely climber and took pity to enable me to climb the falls. We climbed the pillar system up the center of the photo.
Due to a lack of sleep I settled for a gentle day with Billy today. I still need to work on his confidence in me as a leader and also to desensitise him to a variety of stimuli. As a result I got some of the toys out, the pilates ball and the tarpaulin.
Starting with the ball I reestablished his confidence in it by getting a little helper to roll the ball away from us as we followed the ball ( and helper ) around the school. This uses the principle that predators only approach the prey, never move away. Therefore the ball could not be a predator and became and object of curiosity and possibly entertainment. Once the curiosity was aroused I could then get more extreme with the ball and bounce it towards and away from Billy. Doing this I was also demonstrating my leadership by showing Billy that I could distinguish between a dangerous object and a harmless one by not running away from a harmless ball myself. Doing this procedure in many situations and with lots of objects I can portray myself in his mind as a worthy leader, similar to the matriarchal mare in the wild who must decide for the herd what is and is not threatening. If she gets it wrong they either get eaten or waste precious energy running unnecessarily.
Eventually I got to the point where I can put and bounce the ball on Billys' back, thus preparing him for another large object on him, me !! We have been at this point in the past, but I wanted to reinforce the lack of reaction to the stimulus.
I then moved onto the squeeze game. I wanted to make this a little more challenging in the past and reinforce the habituation to the ball. I put a jump wing around 3 feet from the wall of the school and then asked Billy to repeatedly pass through the gap, turn and face the gap (thus also adding in all sorts of driving and porcupine games). After a while I reduced the gap to around 2 feet. Horses do not like constricting spaces and so to get him to confidently pass through this gap at a confident walk bodes well for trailer and starting gate training. Just to add to the problem I then placed the ball in the gap. He now had to combine his confidence of going through the gap with the knowledge that kicking the ball moves it out of the way. With very very gentle encouragement he worked out the solution in just a minute or so. What a good exercise for his mind !!
Then we played for ages with the tarp. To really test and improve his trust in my leadership I tied a rope to the corner of the tarp so that I could drag it behind us as we walked. In this instance of course the tarp is displaying predatory behaviour by following and approaching his hind quarters. I allowed him to drift on the 22 foot rope as he initially pranced around, but used the natural power of focus to just walk in the direction of the gaze totally ignoring the tarp and Billy. After just a few minutes he was becoming more confident at which point I stopped the tarp and directed him to approach it. Curiosity followed. Several repetitions of this with the tarp visible in each eye in turn overcame his fear. In the end he was pushing the predatorial tarp around with his nose and playing with it.
Job done I returned him to his box and came home for a beer. No playing with Filly today, after a night out of bed my reactions would not be quick enough to cope with her sharp mischievous mind (learnt through bitter experience !!)

Billys' Transitions improve

I played with Filly first, but not much new to report. No riding to day. We did manage to have a nice session in the outdoor school with no spooking and some good attentive work despite lots of distractions going on around her.
We did some nice circles and change of direction of circle at canter for the first time. I was very impressed to note that she got all her lead changes right as she came past me to circle the other way, they looked really neat. For a race horse she can do some pretty fancy dressage moves !
Quick trip to the indoor sand school for a nice roll and some liberty and then to bed. She is getting almost too confident with her rolling now and nearly landed on me today. At least she doesn't see me as a predator in any shape or form !!
Long session with Billy in the indoor school. Had a little trouble placing the feet, especially the front ones, but won in the end. We then did a lot of work next to the mounting block getting him confident standing next to it with me on top. A vulnerable position for a prey animal to have a predator looming over him, but we managed lots of relaxed standing. I did lean over him once but he moved of and the mounting block fell over with me on top of it again. Another nice graze on the shin. I have fallen off more mounting blocks than horses now and it is getting a bit annoying !! Ritchie laughing didn't help. Thank God she has lost her voice at the moment or the ribbing would have been endless. Even after all that commotion Billy was happy to stand next to me and have some nice scratches. Just so that he wouldn't start to make assumptions about me standing on the block I made him do some circles and YoYo games from the block. All very nice and calm.
Ritchie then left to nurse her voice back to health and we moved onto doing more circling game from the ground. As before I wanted to work on walk trot transitions but needed a way to get it to make more sense to him. I used a cone. The idea was that a transition would only occur at a cone. This could be walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to halt etc. He quickly picked up on the game and an ear  pricked towards me as he approached the cone checking for instructions. Sometimes there would be no command and I expected him to maintain gait.
I placed the cone on a part of the circle that he originally found a bit spooky and where he would tend to pull back. It was amazing how quickly this cured the spookiness, partly I suspect as this was where he could stop for a rest and so became a place of comfort. The transitions also became much more confident and fluid. Another few sessions of this should really help.
We then moved to YoYo over a pole, partially to give YoYo a purpose and partly to get him to learn where his feet are. Given that he is supposed to be a jump race horse he has no idea as to where his feet are in relation to an obstacle. He managed to hit the pole with all four hooves coming forward on one occasion ! Backing over the pole was almost comical to start with, but with patience he got better and what is more seemed to really enjoy the challenge judging by the look on his face.

We left it at that with a very content, confident horse

Happy New Year

After a very good night in the local pub with all our village friends where our horses dentist lead a very good rock band, we got up a bit late !!
Arriving at the yard there was a note to the effect that the local hunt was going to be passing our way at 2 pm. From experience this does not put the horses into a good learning frame of mind to say the least. As a result I only had a short time to train a horse and selected Billy. We went to the outdoor school and after the usual "touch all over" etc etc I started working on confidence with him. I felt that this was best done by doing a very simple pattern until he relaxed. I chose circles as it does not require me to put any pressure on him at all as long as he maintains gait and direction. Only if he breaks either do then correct as gently as possible but as firm as required.
He did a few circles quite nicely, but then tended to become unconfident, stop and pull back at the same point on each circle. At this point I gently but persistently asked for the circle to continue. After several attempts at this I was still not getting the desired confident circle so just to give him something else to think about I started walking myself, away from the spooky spot to turn them into travelling circles. Of course moving away from the difficult point on the circle also reduced the pressure. Soon Billy was circling nicely and with confidence, even when I travelled back to the spooky end of the school. We then worked a bit more on transitions from trot to walk on the circle (walk to trot is easy) which after a while of rewarding the slightest try (a slower trot) started to work very nicely. Billy is always so keen to please I really think he could not believe that all I wanted was a slight change of speed !
To progress towards riding him I then started playing with the mounting block which started with me doing lots of step aerobics up and down the block as he stood next to me. Once I was exhausted and he was calm I got him to stand next to me whilst I stood on the top step and gave him lots of nice scratches and rubs (remember we NEVER pat horses). I then leant over him and rubbed the other side. He was so confident with this I tried putting one leg up onto his hind quarters. As he was very happy with this I repeated the operation several times and then called it a day.
This was a big move towards fully backing Billy and so a very good day.
p.s I sat on Filly again yesterday and she was even calmer than before. No attempts at biting my shoes at all, a few nice lateral flexions ( albeit with more pressure on the rope than ideal), and a few little hind quarter yields.
I wish all readers and their horses a Happy New Year!!