Progress has been made with Filly over the last week. She has not been neglected !
There were several goals that I had with her, sideways towards me being just one of those. I'll write about the others in subsequent postings. Sideways towards is useful for many reasons and on many levels. So far, apart from "draw" on the YoYo all other games involve driving her away from me to some extent. With Filly having a fantastic draw this has not been a problem as the driving away games have at least taught her to respect my space to some extent. But all things need balance and sideways towards creates some of that equilibrium. In addition of course sideways towards is useful in purely practical ways, such as lining her up to load on a trailer.
Get her to hind quarter yield towards me was achieved a long time ago when I was teaching her to present herself for mounting next to a mounting block. Now I wanted to take this a step further with the forequarters also stepping towards me and progressing on me backing away as she continues to side pass towards me.
To get the fore quarter yield whilst online is of course easy, just a light pressure on the halter. At the same time I ask for the hind quarters to follow by using the carrot stick in phases. To start I just hold the stick horizontally over her hind quarters, then I rythmically move it up and down, then allow it to rhymically bounce on the far side of her hind quarters, then firmer as necessary. As always I started by looking for the slightest try of a weight shift in the required direction and stopping the stimulation immediately it occurred. Slowly asking for more it was not long before I could get a leg to step towards me. Timing this with pressure on the halter we had a step sideways towards. Using the principle of successive approximation this slowly increased to 2 steps, then 3 etc. Last night we achieved around 4 steps with the added pressure of being in a field full of lush grass which kept attracting her attention.
One tip is tieing a plastic bag to the end of the stick. This provides a big visual stimulus for her to yield from. In addition I could tickle her with it as an additional phase rather than immediately using the stick itself.
All in all it took about 3 short sessions for her to get the idea, not without a few fast hind legs kicks at the pressure from the stick. She has always hated the idea of having her hind legs directed and this proved to be no exception.
There were several goals that I had with her, sideways towards me being just one of those. I'll write about the others in subsequent postings. Sideways towards is useful for many reasons and on many levels. So far, apart from "draw" on the YoYo all other games involve driving her away from me to some extent. With Filly having a fantastic draw this has not been a problem as the driving away games have at least taught her to respect my space to some extent. But all things need balance and sideways towards creates some of that equilibrium. In addition of course sideways towards is useful in purely practical ways, such as lining her up to load on a trailer.
Get her to hind quarter yield towards me was achieved a long time ago when I was teaching her to present herself for mounting next to a mounting block. Now I wanted to take this a step further with the forequarters also stepping towards me and progressing on me backing away as she continues to side pass towards me.
To get the fore quarter yield whilst online is of course easy, just a light pressure on the halter. At the same time I ask for the hind quarters to follow by using the carrot stick in phases. To start I just hold the stick horizontally over her hind quarters, then I rythmically move it up and down, then allow it to rhymically bounce on the far side of her hind quarters, then firmer as necessary. As always I started by looking for the slightest try of a weight shift in the required direction and stopping the stimulation immediately it occurred. Slowly asking for more it was not long before I could get a leg to step towards me. Timing this with pressure on the halter we had a step sideways towards. Using the principle of successive approximation this slowly increased to 2 steps, then 3 etc. Last night we achieved around 4 steps with the added pressure of being in a field full of lush grass which kept attracting her attention.
One tip is tieing a plastic bag to the end of the stick. This provides a big visual stimulus for her to yield from. In addition I could tickle her with it as an additional phase rather than immediately using the stick itself.
All in all it took about 3 short sessions for her to get the idea, not without a few fast hind legs kicks at the pressure from the stick. She has always hated the idea of having her hind legs directed and this proved to be no exception.
No comments:
Post a Comment