Another fun session with Mini. The good news is that Mini is now confident enough and interested enough in my presence that he came to me in the field. On approaching him he looked up when I was around 5 or 6 paces away. I immediately stopped, relaxed and waited. After a few seconds he walked up to me and was readily haltered.
I wanted to continue on the work of softening the yields, especially in zone 1. We started with the circling game, just checking that he was able to uphold his responsibilities when left alone. This was very good and so we moved on. To test "follow a feel" on zone 1 we worked on changes of direction. This was sticky at best. The phrase "isolate, separate and recombine" floated into my mind. So after a quick analysis of the problem I felt we needed to work on the draw towards me. After all that is one of the first moves in a change of direction. So as I asked for changes of direction I backed away from Mini and drew him to me. not releasing the pressure until he was coming willingly and with a relaxed expression in my direction. Then let him rest. After 10 minutes or so of this we had a nice draw with impulsion and enthusiasm.
We could now return to changes of direction on the circle. Hey presto we now had nice smooth changes at trot, something I had always struggled with with Filly.
I also made a point of doing some friendly game with the carrot and bag. Then something interesting happened. He sidled into my space as I continued to wave the stick, his nose sliding past my side. He then continued to pass me by and turned his hindquarters into me, clearly positioning for a nice pre-meditated kick to put me in my place in the herd. Fortunately Filly was a good teacher for these forms of surreptitious manoeuvring and he was easy to read. As he was clearly giving me phase 2 or 3 pressure I was justified in replying with phase 4 before he got a chance himself. A quick tap with the stick on the offending zone 4 and with a snort he turned his hindquarters away. He was not finished however and a short time later had another attempt at the same move (at least Filly tried different ones each time !), with the same result. This was of course an application of Principle number 5 "The attitude of justice is effective". And it was effective, he did not make another attempt during the rest of the session.
A crack of thunder brought the session to an early end, but I feel we had progressed well in our relationship.
The more I play with other horses the more I am grateful to Filly. She was the perfect teacher for me in my early days of Natural Horsemanship, even though it felt difficult at the time. I still live in hope of re-uniting with her sometime in the future, in the meantime my memories of her help me play with other horses effectively.
I wanted to continue on the work of softening the yields, especially in zone 1. We started with the circling game, just checking that he was able to uphold his responsibilities when left alone. This was very good and so we moved on. To test "follow a feel" on zone 1 we worked on changes of direction. This was sticky at best. The phrase "isolate, separate and recombine" floated into my mind. So after a quick analysis of the problem I felt we needed to work on the draw towards me. After all that is one of the first moves in a change of direction. So as I asked for changes of direction I backed away from Mini and drew him to me. not releasing the pressure until he was coming willingly and with a relaxed expression in my direction. Then let him rest. After 10 minutes or so of this we had a nice draw with impulsion and enthusiasm.
We could now return to changes of direction on the circle. Hey presto we now had nice smooth changes at trot, something I had always struggled with with Filly.
I also made a point of doing some friendly game with the carrot and bag. Then something interesting happened. He sidled into my space as I continued to wave the stick, his nose sliding past my side. He then continued to pass me by and turned his hindquarters into me, clearly positioning for a nice pre-meditated kick to put me in my place in the herd. Fortunately Filly was a good teacher for these forms of surreptitious manoeuvring and he was easy to read. As he was clearly giving me phase 2 or 3 pressure I was justified in replying with phase 4 before he got a chance himself. A quick tap with the stick on the offending zone 4 and with a snort he turned his hindquarters away. He was not finished however and a short time later had another attempt at the same move (at least Filly tried different ones each time !), with the same result. This was of course an application of Principle number 5 "The attitude of justice is effective". And it was effective, he did not make another attempt during the rest of the session.
A crack of thunder brought the session to an early end, but I feel we had progressed well in our relationship.
The more I play with other horses the more I am grateful to Filly. She was the perfect teacher for me in my early days of Natural Horsemanship, even though it felt difficult at the time. I still live in hope of re-uniting with her sometime in the future, in the meantime my memories of her help me play with other horses effectively.
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