A much changed Filly recently. Even the girls at the yard are reporting that she has been much more cuddly recently, so what has changed ?
I have been taking two lines of approach to this problem. First I had analysed that her problem was most likely a loss of confidence as I reported a few days back, and as a result I needed to do things to raise her confidence. Secondly I took the decision to not react much to her mouthy porcupine games, and therefore stop them being fun. At most I just drive her out of my space is she tries to bite and usually I just block the attack with my arm.
For the confidence building side I have been taking her around the farm and exposing her to different environments. This was designed to achieve two things. 1 to give her a bit more confidence in the big wide world and 2 to give her more confidence in me as a worthy and safe leader.
Part 1 was achieved by just taking her to many places with potentially scary visual and aural stimuli. I running stream was one of the most challenging. Sparkly light on the water to confuse her vision, and the sound of running water to reduce her ability to hear her environment.
Part 2 was done by making sure that I acted as a good leader. This was done by making sure I maintained my focus when walking. I walked in a relaxed, but purposeful, manner whilst staring at an object in the distance to walk towards. This shows her that I know where we are going, I am not just wandering around. In addition by not looking at everything she stares at I am giving her a strong signal to ignore all these spooky things. Look at this the other way. If I continually look around at everything she stares at I am saying "we have to be careful, there are lions in the hedges". A foal learns what is scary by mimicking the mare. If a new object appears in the area and the mare ignores it and keeps grazing the foal will do likewise. If the mare looks up and stares at the new object the foal will do likewise, and if the mare tenses and moves off then the foal has fixed in its mind that the object is scary.
The lesson is clear, as a rider or handler do not stare at things you think might scare your horse, if you do it WILL scare your horse !
Last night we went in the school and I just played lots of the seven games with her. I concentrated on the squeeze game over a jump, which she initially kept trying to avoid. Using the driving games I made it easier for her to go over the jump rather than around it and soon she was popping over confidently.
She seemed to really enjoy this session and I was rewarded with lots of very gentle, friendly cuddles.
I did some work with Billy with Ritchie's help. All the steps up to mounting went very well. On his back however he is still a little difficult. He does not see me as the leader in the position and still tries to bite my trousers. We managed some nice lateral flexions, and a few indirect reins. He did over some forward walks on his own which was good, but I also got Ritchie to lead me round the school on a 22 foot rope for a while. All very confident and calm so progress. if slow, is being made. My hope is that he will suddenly get it and progress will be very rapid for a time.
I have been taking two lines of approach to this problem. First I had analysed that her problem was most likely a loss of confidence as I reported a few days back, and as a result I needed to do things to raise her confidence. Secondly I took the decision to not react much to her mouthy porcupine games, and therefore stop them being fun. At most I just drive her out of my space is she tries to bite and usually I just block the attack with my arm.
For the confidence building side I have been taking her around the farm and exposing her to different environments. This was designed to achieve two things. 1 to give her a bit more confidence in the big wide world and 2 to give her more confidence in me as a worthy and safe leader.
Part 1 was achieved by just taking her to many places with potentially scary visual and aural stimuli. I running stream was one of the most challenging. Sparkly light on the water to confuse her vision, and the sound of running water to reduce her ability to hear her environment.
Part 2 was done by making sure that I acted as a good leader. This was done by making sure I maintained my focus when walking. I walked in a relaxed, but purposeful, manner whilst staring at an object in the distance to walk towards. This shows her that I know where we are going, I am not just wandering around. In addition by not looking at everything she stares at I am giving her a strong signal to ignore all these spooky things. Look at this the other way. If I continually look around at everything she stares at I am saying "we have to be careful, there are lions in the hedges". A foal learns what is scary by mimicking the mare. If a new object appears in the area and the mare ignores it and keeps grazing the foal will do likewise. If the mare looks up and stares at the new object the foal will do likewise, and if the mare tenses and moves off then the foal has fixed in its mind that the object is scary.
The lesson is clear, as a rider or handler do not stare at things you think might scare your horse, if you do it WILL scare your horse !
Last night we went in the school and I just played lots of the seven games with her. I concentrated on the squeeze game over a jump, which she initially kept trying to avoid. Using the driving games I made it easier for her to go over the jump rather than around it and soon she was popping over confidently.
She seemed to really enjoy this session and I was rewarded with lots of very gentle, friendly cuddles.
I did some work with Billy with Ritchie's help. All the steps up to mounting went very well. On his back however he is still a little difficult. He does not see me as the leader in the position and still tries to bite my trousers. We managed some nice lateral flexions, and a few indirect reins. He did over some forward walks on his own which was good, but I also got Ritchie to lead me round the school on a 22 foot rope for a while. All very confident and calm so progress. if slow, is being made. My hope is that he will suddenly get it and progress will be very rapid for a time.
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