Taking the lead

Yesterday was a lovely day and so after riding Bonitao I went to Filly's field and let her catch me. We then wandered down to the big field at the end of the farm. This is currently unoccupied and makes for a good extended play area. Recently it was spread with muck for fertiliser and as Filly is a very fussy eater she does not even try and eat the grass, except in a few special places where the muck missed.
To say that the walk yesterday was fractious would be an understatement. She was very dominant and repeatedly pushed into my space, walked around in front of me etc. Not good, but how to correct the behaviour ?
I had plenty of time on my hands so could afford to play a dominance game for as long as it took. The game I chose was falling leaf whilst walking forwards into her space. To play this game I send her on a circle whilst I walk in a straight line forwards. As she passes my left side I ask for a change of direction so that she passes in front of me at trot (or canter, I don't mind) and circles around to my right side. Again I ask for a direction change whilst still walking forwards. The upshot of this is that she is doing repeated half circles in front of me. This takes some dexterity with the stick and rope with lots of changing hands on each turn, worth practising with a partner at slow speed before playing with a 300kg horse with attitude !
As I am always a) directing her feet and b) pushing into her space it is a very dominant game to play. Filly realised this and she was very upset that I was asserting my position as the leader of the herd. To start with she tried to crowd me on each pass, particularly just after the turn where she would almost charge me. The solution is to remember that "The attitude of justice is effective". If she come at me with a phase 3 charge and expression I am "justified" in using phase 3 1/2 back. Thus as she tried to crowd me I tagged her with the stick with the zone of her body that was causing the most offence, normally the shoulder. An underhand flick was most effective. After several passes, not believing that I could play the game so well, she started to make and effort on the turn to move her shoulder out of my personal space. Now we had some sort of order in the pattern.
I was still not satisfied. Although she was now physically moving out of my space, she was still testing her limits and her expression of ears back and extended neck was a phase 3 driving game look. Thus the game continued. If she gave me the look on the turn I attempted to tag her with the string on the shoulder, if not she was left in peace.
After around 35 or 40 minutes of this a change suddenly happened. The first sign was an extended lip licking session and two or three long adrenaline releasing snorts. Then suddenly on a turn she hesitated, but with an enquiring look. I passively asked for the turn and she gave it with a pretty expression, so I turned all my energy off and let her continue her circle. On the next turn she was on my right side and the old dominance returned as her left eye came on me, answered with a tag of the string. The next turn on my left was sweetness again, followed by dominance on my right. Thus I had achieved my aim but only on one side. Let the games continue. Another 10 minutes or so were required before she relented out of the left eye. When the change finally occurred it was very sudden. I had to stop my swing in mid "tag" and turn it into a friendly swish with low body energy. (I only actually tagged her physically twice in the whole session, the rest of the time she was out of range).
Lots more licking and chewing ensued. I then took her to one of the nice grazing spots she had previously taught me about and let her relax and dry off. By now she was very very sweaty. Interestingly the sweat was not in the normal physical exertion places, this was primarily an emotional sweat.
A quick roll in the indoor sand school followed by a groom finished the day off nicely.
Today I went expecting a repeat performance, so left plenty of time. The difference however could not have been greater. She walked quietly by my side to the field, except for a few unconfident moments. We then walked around the field with her responding to the slightest pressure. She did have a moment where she wondered if it was worth a quick challenge, but this was quashed with just two or three falling leafs. A couple of times she tried to "graze" into my space, but a slight nudge with my elbow and she thought better of it. We went to some enormous puddles and she accepted my leadership and after a moment or two of uncertainty walked through them.
As for the rapport aspect, I felt she was closer to me than she has been for a while. She was looking for a leader in the big field and I was mentally and emotionally strong enough to provide. When she did come into my space, at my invitation, it was with a gentleness that had been missing for a while.
Have I permanently fixed her dominant streak. Of course not and nor should I wish to. It is partly what makes Filly, Filly. I would never want to deprive her of her right to express herself and turn her into an automaton who performs pretty manoeuvres for the judges but has no character. I am asking for 51% of the partnership and when you are sailing that close to the edge it is inevitable that occasionally it will slip the wrong way, the trick is spotting it and knowing what to do when it happens. Not getting mean or mad but just accepting the situation for what it is and dealing with it firmly but fairly. "The attitude of justice" really "is effective"

Moving to a longer line

I arrived at the yard a few days ago to find the outdoor school empty. Seizing the chance I grabbed the 45 foot line and Filly and hurried to "claim" the school. It is a while since I used the 45 foot line as the indoor school is to small and the fields are too muddy for anything other than very gentle play.
The advantages of the 45 foot line are to give the horse more freedom to express themselves, it allows for a larger circle which many horses find it easier to canter on and it extends the range at which the horse can be influenced. Pat says in a video that he considers the 45 foot line to be a medium length line and he has longer ones.
The downside is rope management. 45 feet is a lot of rope to handle whilst a horse is cantering around you, especially if they are not at the full length of it leaving coils in you space. The 45 foot is also much thinner than the 22 foot line to make it lighter. As a result the selected rope is much stiffer and also exhibits much greater coil tension (i.e it is easy to get into some really interesting knots !)
I started with the 22 foot line and we just wandered around the school to get her used to the environment again. This did not take too long so we moved to the 45 foot line.
I have been very consistent on the backup part of the YoYo game to send her out to at least 20n feet. That way she has a known target distance to aim for and knows that the pressure will not relent until she gets there. The surprise on her face as she passed 22 feet and had to keep going was there for all to see. As we past 30 feet astonishment that I could physically influence her at such a range was evident, giving way to disbelief at 40 feet ! As a reward for getting so far I clicked and then walked to her to give her a treat.
We worked on YoYo for a while so she got the idea of my new influence bubble before moving onto circling game.
This started at walk but this soon got boring for both of us. It takes a long time to walk around a 45 foot radius circle. We moved into trot and this opened up new possibilities of play for her as her energy came up. Pretty soon she offered canter, then enjoying this new sense of freedom, gallop. I still had to influence her as to where the end of the rope was, but after a few laps she got the idea and stayed at the appropriate distance on her own. She was very exuberant during all this with the odd big bug and squeal. It looked like she was having real fun. All of this was left brain with an eye to my directions. The slightest nod of my head and she turned sharply in on the circle and stood breathing hard and excited by me side.

As a first session on the 45 foot line I think it was a great success.
We both had great fun and it was a good antedote to the dissapointment of not being allowed to use Parelli methods to load her in a trailer to take her to James.

It tough on a traditional yard

I've put off writing this for a long time, since the blog started really. Practising Natural Horsemanship on a Traditional English yard is not easy. You need to be tough and have real conviction that what you are doing is right for both yourself and more importantly the horse. One of the major problems is fitting in around the other horses and owners. As you are the odd one out you have to fit in around them, not vice versa. For example I was working in the outdoor school with Filly one day, using the stick with bag attached. We were just doing circling game, with changes of direction when a traditional rider appeared. I was immediately told to stop using the stick and bag and had to leave. No one questioned whether it was wise for the rider to be on a horse that got upset by a bag moving around, as I am sure such an object will never be encountered in the real world !
I was planning to take Filly to James at the weekend, just to give her a drive in the trailer. This had been agreed before hand but it was made clear to me that I could not use our methods of loading her in the trailer. We work on the principle that it is "not about the trailer". If she does not load I would work with her to gain confidence in me as a leader such that eventually she would load quietly and calmly, Then ask her to come out again without shutting the door so she understands that the trailer is actually just another toy. Once she was really confident in the trailer then the door is closed and we can go for a drive. Today I was told I could take Filly but there would be none of that "running up and down the ramp, just load her and go". Well this goes against all my principles so I have decided not to try and load her at all.
The upshot of all of this is that I tend to play with Filly when it is quiet, or in the little used indoor school just to avoid all the negative vibes I get otherwise. It does help that my wife, Ritchie, also practises Natural Horsemanship so we can support each other. I really take my hat off to folks who don't have support and still stick by their principles under difficult circumstances. Looking at the Parelli map as to the number of people who are taking up Natural Horsemanship there is hope that it will slowly gain acceptance and we will be less isolated. I'm sure there will be a "Tipping Point" at which suddenly the majority of folks will at least be more tolerant and interested in the practise.

After the audition and audition result.

With the audition sent in I found that I mentally relaxed. As a result Filly and I started having more fun. It is annoying how preparing for a test can actually interfere with the very things that the test is actually about. In this case rapport. I hade become too focussed on getting that perfect sideways, circle, squeeze game etc, and had stopped being "childlike" and just playing.
Well the audition was submitted and I went back to the yard to play with Filly with no pressure on. The result was that as I was now more enthusiastic so was she. Suddenly all the above list I had been struggling with came easy. We have spent several happy days now doing all sorts of new things. To start with I felt that if she was putting some effort in so should I. I have taught her to transition to canter at Liberty just by simulating cantering myself. I would like to say that we do canter at "stick to me", but she is a race horse and I am not that fit. We have reached a compromise. She stays by my side for walk and trot, but does a larger circle for canter, coming back to me for trot. That way we both get a good run around !
I have also worked on her canter lead changes. To say that she is a natural is an understatement. She has never yet missed one front or back. They are acheived simply by asking for a change of circle at canter. The only fly in the ointment is that her expression is not great as she draws towards me. Other than that it is just a matter of me getting my timing right with the re-send in the opposite direction.
We played with a few fun things tonight at liberty. To give the various driving games a purpose I started to get her to do 360 degree turns whilst in front of me. Start by driving zone 1 and 2 around until the tail is facing then switching the stick hand ask for zone 4 to drive away to complete the circle. The first one worked really well, but then she got bored and wandered over to the rolling spot.
Not all is sweetness however. As we were leaving the school I aksed her to backup as I stepped backwards opening the gate. She was not very responsive to this and a difficult 10 minutes of remedial backing training at stick to me followed. My basic method was to walk with her between me and a wall, then start to backup. All the time I am twirling the rope end in my outside hand so that is is passing in front of her nose. This is in effect a sort of freindly game as I am not using the rope to ask her to do anything. As I backup, of course, the twirling rope gets closer and closer to her nose. If she fails to follow the suggestion to follow me back it eventually bumps her on the nose. There is a huge and important difference between this and me just hitting her on the nose with a rope if she fails to respond. The difference is choice. She knows the twirling rope is there and is coming towards her. It is her choice to stick her nose in the fan. If the rope came out of nowhere and hit her as a punishment then she has no choice and I have just done soemthing nasty too her. After a few goes at this her backup improved, but I continued to work on it until we got a few steps with impulsion. Going through the gate next time was much better.
I have received the results of the audition and Fillly and I have been given Level 2+/ Pre-Level 3 Online.
I will try to post the result form in all its gory detail when I can work out how to do it !

Audition submitted at last

Well today was finally the day. I have submitted my first audition. Not very happy with all of it to be honest, but the feedback should be useful whatever the outcome. Rather than bore you with a detailed description it is easier to just give you the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZvzsnqtu2w

If James Roberts views this, please take note of the place the feet !!

Time for some resolutions

Happy New Year to all.
Over the festive period we have of course continued to play with the horses. Our little problem with Bonitao is sorting itself out. If you remember we had trouble with him bolting when lead to the field. After a lesson with Becca we broke the pattern of him bolting by sending him sideways to the field, or even backwards. This ensured that we easily had control over his head and if he looked towards the field it was easy to give a little pressure on the lead rope to remove the evil intention with minimum force. This was clearly not a long term solution so after much thought I decided to make the gate entrance a place of "safety and comfort". This was achieved by placing lots of carrots there, allowing him to eat some of them, then leading him into the field to do some work. Circling and falling leaf patterns were usually used with an emphasis on not letting him stop moving until we arrived back at the gate. Thus the field became a place of work and the gate a place of pleasure. He now makes a real effort to get to the gate, but not past it. We have to remain very consistent with this to bury the previous pattern of behaviour under new experiences. The old pattern will surely remain but with vigilance we hope to prevent its re-emergence.
For me this has been a very rewarding experience. In the past I have been learning and trying to apply the Principles of Natural Horsemanship, but it has largely been in play. This is the first time I have been able to use the principles to correct a potentially very dangerous situation. The real trick, if there is one, is not to get frustrated or tense. I really emphasised the idea of "How interesting" even when he gave me serious rope burn. Not getting frustrated was the key and this was best achieved by genuinely using the situation to get the best learning experience I could. In some ways, perversely, I wish the situation had continued longer so that I could have learnt more. As for remaining relaxed I used a tip from Pat Parelli and whistled if I felt uneasy.

So my first resolution is to learn as much as possible from all such situations. Mentally turn "Problems" into "Learning Opportunities" and be genuinely thankful for them. Afterall I would learn nothing from a perfectly behaving horse.

As for Filly, we are progressing well. Lead by the tail took a massive leap forwards (or should that be backwards?) two days ago. She will now not only lead backwards with rearwards pressure but also do very nice hind quarter yields with lateral pressure. My aim of doing figures of 8 backwards with just the tail for guidance (notice I did NOT say control) is getting closer.
Figures of 8 at trot have improved greatly since I made them more interesting. We now set up 2 cones and 2 jumps. In this configuration there are now 6 possible figure 8 patterns, some with jumps involved. Randomly using each possible pattern Filly now has to really pay attention as to where to go next whilst upholding her responsibilities (Maintain gait, direction and look where she is going). The result has been a much happier expression on her face and a greater willingness to play. We don't even have to stay around the obstacles. Travelling circles take us away from them and back to them again adding to the interest.
As we both love liberty I even tried to do the 6 patterns without a halter. As usual we were probably better than with the rope on.

This leads to my second resolution. Be more progressive and PLAYFUL. After all we are supposed to be entertainment for our horses as much as they are for us. I have found that if I bias the entertainment in their direction I actually have more fun too !

The third resolution is just to get better at listening to horses. I feel that I can read them pretty well, but I don't always listen and respond to what I just read. This can really hold me back as I wind up in a mental fight with them and as they are bigger and stronger I can only win that fight at the expense of Fillies' dignity and with the use of force. Not how I wish to relate to Filly.