Recovery from what ? According to Ritchie I may have had actual flu, not man-flu. Not pleasant and therefore no horse play for a while. Recovering now so a gentle day with the horses was called for I thought.
Then came the text message. Bonitao had barged past Amy, out of the stable and into a field, where they could not catch him. He has run off before, but never from within the stable so this was a new development.
Once I had finished my coffee I set off to the yard to sort things out a bit. A quick chat with Amy to make sure she was OK and it was off to catch Bonitao.
If a horse could ever look guilty, it was Bonitao. As soon as I entered the field he started walking tentatively towards me, but stopped 10 feet away. I kept lowish energy but circled around towards his hind quarters forcing him to turn and watch me. When he did I let all my energy out and waited.
I did NOT want to catch Bonitao, I wanted him to catch me. We played this cat and mouse game for a while and then suddenly he was on my shoulder mirroring my every move. I did many turns away from him, asking him to keep up, to improve his flexion towards me and his draw towards me. I did a few turns towards him to generate respect for my space but moving my space into his.
Once this was acceptable I attached the rope halter and lead him back to his box. He followed very calmly and quietly with slack in the rope.
I now wanted to address the issue of the stable door, so started by playing "YoYo" game through the entrance. This consisted of backing him into the stable and then drawing him back out one hoof at a time. We then did the same the other way around, so backing out of the stable and drawing him back in, again one hoof at a time. I wanted to expose him to calmness whilst in the doorway as much as possible.
Once this was good we then moved onto standing in the doorway and asking him to lower his head. This puts him in a very relaxed, but submissive, posture. I asked for the head to remain low for significant periods of time to really reinforce the relaxation in the doorway.
Once I was sure he was happy with the doorway on his own I deliberately stood in the doorway and asked him to come past me into the stable, then turn and face the gap he had passed through. A classic squeeze game. This was repeated many times in and out of the stable with me standing on either side of the gap. Finally I was convinced that he was totally happy and relaxed in the stable, the passageway and the doorway.
I then started on checking out his leading to and from the field. I think a mistake folks make is that they lead a horse like this tentatively which makes them feel like they have no leader. For a right brain horse like Bonitao this makes him worried and he takes the leadership upon himself. Therefore I lead him with authority. We are going Somewhere and if he has to trot to keep up that is his problem. We did this several times to and from the field, with the odd stop and back up to check responsiveness and the odd grazing break.
All went well so I put him out in the field and came home to lunch.
Then came the text message. Bonitao had barged past Amy, out of the stable and into a field, where they could not catch him. He has run off before, but never from within the stable so this was a new development.
Once I had finished my coffee I set off to the yard to sort things out a bit. A quick chat with Amy to make sure she was OK and it was off to catch Bonitao.
If a horse could ever look guilty, it was Bonitao. As soon as I entered the field he started walking tentatively towards me, but stopped 10 feet away. I kept lowish energy but circled around towards his hind quarters forcing him to turn and watch me. When he did I let all my energy out and waited.
I did NOT want to catch Bonitao, I wanted him to catch me. We played this cat and mouse game for a while and then suddenly he was on my shoulder mirroring my every move. I did many turns away from him, asking him to keep up, to improve his flexion towards me and his draw towards me. I did a few turns towards him to generate respect for my space but moving my space into his.
Once this was acceptable I attached the rope halter and lead him back to his box. He followed very calmly and quietly with slack in the rope.
I now wanted to address the issue of the stable door, so started by playing "YoYo" game through the entrance. This consisted of backing him into the stable and then drawing him back out one hoof at a time. We then did the same the other way around, so backing out of the stable and drawing him back in, again one hoof at a time. I wanted to expose him to calmness whilst in the doorway as much as possible.
Once this was good we then moved onto standing in the doorway and asking him to lower his head. This puts him in a very relaxed, but submissive, posture. I asked for the head to remain low for significant periods of time to really reinforce the relaxation in the doorway.
Once I was sure he was happy with the doorway on his own I deliberately stood in the doorway and asked him to come past me into the stable, then turn and face the gap he had passed through. A classic squeeze game. This was repeated many times in and out of the stable with me standing on either side of the gap. Finally I was convinced that he was totally happy and relaxed in the stable, the passageway and the doorway.
I then started on checking out his leading to and from the field. I think a mistake folks make is that they lead a horse like this tentatively which makes them feel like they have no leader. For a right brain horse like Bonitao this makes him worried and he takes the leadership upon himself. Therefore I lead him with authority. We are going Somewhere and if he has to trot to keep up that is his problem. We did this several times to and from the field, with the odd stop and back up to check responsiveness and the odd grazing break.
All went well so I put him out in the field and came home to lunch.
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