An odd title given my last post, but bear with me.
After landing from Calgary we went to the horses at around 3pm. Not feeling like doing an intense training session I decided to take Filly for a walk to the fields.
Again I concentrated on a focussed walk to the field, a different one today, and she was much better with very few spooky points or pulling on the lead rope.
Once in the field she started calm, but had a few minutes of right brain running around which I quickly changed into travelling circles at canter. She soon went left brained and realised she was surrounded by grass, but I kept her circling for another 5 minutes just to assert my authority to cause her to move.
Lots of grazing followed, which given she is not allowed, by the yard, to go into field at the moment was a nice treat for her.
She suddenly lifted her head and stared in a particular direction, clearly becoming right brain. I managed to not follow her gaze, but remained relaxed. However she became worried again and more travelling circles enused. I managed to sneak a look and found that a large 4x4 car was entering the field. I studiously ignored it and we carried on with the circles until she calmed down, whilst casually walking in the general direction of the now parked car. Not at it in a direct line, but meandering across the field. Once she calmed down I let her graze for a bit and then started doing fouccused walks back and forth past the car, getting a little closer on each pass. I always turned away from the car so that I never looked at it directly, but focussed on objects in the distance. She started by being alert and staring at the car (I assume, I wasn't looking !) but slowly relaxed. Suddenly she got curious and more or less dragged me to the car. She never touched it, but happily grazed right next to it even when the owner returned, started it up and drove off. She watched it leave and almost seemed upset that it was going !
This of course was an example of the natural power of focus. By not looking at the car I, as her leader (well sometimes !), signalled that it was not worth worrying about and soon she was not only calm about the new object, but curious. This was one of the most dramatic examples of this principle I have witnessed and has really driven the point home for me.
After landing from Calgary we went to the horses at around 3pm. Not feeling like doing an intense training session I decided to take Filly for a walk to the fields.
Again I concentrated on a focussed walk to the field, a different one today, and she was much better with very few spooky points or pulling on the lead rope.
Once in the field she started calm, but had a few minutes of right brain running around which I quickly changed into travelling circles at canter. She soon went left brained and realised she was surrounded by grass, but I kept her circling for another 5 minutes just to assert my authority to cause her to move.
Lots of grazing followed, which given she is not allowed, by the yard, to go into field at the moment was a nice treat for her.
She suddenly lifted her head and stared in a particular direction, clearly becoming right brain. I managed to not follow her gaze, but remained relaxed. However she became worried again and more travelling circles enused. I managed to sneak a look and found that a large 4x4 car was entering the field. I studiously ignored it and we carried on with the circles until she calmed down, whilst casually walking in the general direction of the now parked car. Not at it in a direct line, but meandering across the field. Once she calmed down I let her graze for a bit and then started doing fouccused walks back and forth past the car, getting a little closer on each pass. I always turned away from the car so that I never looked at it directly, but focussed on objects in the distance. She started by being alert and staring at the car (I assume, I wasn't looking !) but slowly relaxed. Suddenly she got curious and more or less dragged me to the car. She never touched it, but happily grazed right next to it even when the owner returned, started it up and drove off. She watched it leave and almost seemed upset that it was going !
This of course was an example of the natural power of focus. By not looking at the car I, as her leader (well sometimes !), signalled that it was not worth worrying about and soon she was not only calm about the new object, but curious. This was one of the most dramatic examples of this principle I have witnessed and has really driven the point home for me.
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