A Bombshell is dropped

I had a nice trip to Larnaca. Arrived there on Thursday afternoon and spent considerable time in the gym and learning to use my new skipping rope. Physio suggested it's use in order to increase the fast twitch muscle in my damaged hip. Then nearly the whole crew went out for a very pleasant meal at the local restaurant after which I retired to my room. Quick text to Ritchie (my wife) with my room number so that she could ring me for a chat.
Around 9:30pm UK time the phone rings and we chat about the days events with the horses. She has had a nice ride on Bonitao. Amy (the head girl) has tried riding him in our western saddle and loved it.

Then the bombshell.

She had been told by Rick that Filly had had her first ride earlier that day with Amy riding. It had all gone very well but to avoid confusing her with Parelli methods I was no longer able to train her at all. I could pet her and groom her in her box, but that was it. Amy and Sue (Ricks wife) had not mentioned this earlier to Ritchie. Ritchie was on the yard for the first ride but no one had let her know it was going to happen so I won't even get to see a video of this "coming of age" event for Filly.
Of course I knew this would happen one day, but it was the nature of the way it was done after all the time I have been playing with Filly that has left me deeply shocked.
I feel particularly upset that they could not let me know this was going to happen and at least give me time to knowingly have a last play with Filly. I had recently had a lesson with Becka (an instructor at James Roberts yard) and she had seen me play at liberty with Filly. She thought I would easily get my Level 3 Liberty audition with her and with only a little refinement Level 4. That would have meant so much to me, not for just getting a certificate but for being able to say "between us we achieved this level of trust and understanding". Liberty was easily our best and most fun activity. Now this has been taken away. I am also sorry for Filly that she will probably never play at Liberty again, able to express her joyful horsenality.
I was also upset that after waiting 2 years for her to be ridden there was suddenly such an all fired hurry to back her that they could not a couple of days for me to be at home and witness the event.
A subsequent comment from Amy was that she was difficult to lunge as she kept turning in on the circle. Well I can guess why. If she feels more than 4 ounces of pressure on the rope she will yield to it and turn to follow the feel. Of course lunging must never be done with the rope trailing on the ground I am told so pressure must have been applied to keep the rope tight, hence she turned in.

The only compensation I have is the knowledge that I have given her a decent start in life. When I started playing with her she could not even go in a field with other horses as she got severely beaten up by them. She had been rejected by her mum and so had not had a good grounding in horse etiquette and would annoy any horses around her. As a result I had to learn Natural horsemanship so that I could teach her how to be a natural horse. That really is starting from a negative level. Slowly we taught her enough so that she could safely stay in a field with other horses, who could then give her the life instruction she had been missing.
She also matured into a horse that could accept human contact and not feel threatened. To start with she used to try and put preemptive strikes in as she was sure the human was going to hurt her. It got to the stage where she totally trusts me, so far as I can tell, and will unflinchingly put herself in a vulnerable position by rolling at my feet.

I am going to miss that happy questioning face looking at me as I approach her stable with halter in hand and the way she would canter to me in the field with sheer exuberance (see video link on right) and then stick to me as we played at liberty. Also the way that she would change from playing exuberantly with me then immediately stop and put her head in my arms for a cuddle.
All in all she was one of my best friends and a teacher without whom I would not have made nearly as much progress as I have. Her difficulties really gave me the motivation to study the subject in depth out of a desire to help her as much as I could.

As for the future ?
I have been told that I can continue playing with Billy, but I won't. It is now clear that Sue and Rick have absolutely no interest in trying natural methods to work with horses, preferring the traditional methods that have produced serviceable horses for them in the past. A shame that they are not open enough to at least have come into the school occasionally in the last two years to see what I was doing, but I was told in no uncertain terms that they were not interested and I was not to even discuss our techniques with the yard girls. As a result playing with Billy would purely be for my benefit and would not help him at all.
I will probably not spend much time petting and grooming Filly either, much as would love to. Parelli is not something one just "does" in the school, it involves all interactions with the horse. The blanket ban on me doing any training with her thus precludes such activities as well. In addition there is a part of me that wants to keep alive the memory of Filly as she is now, not as she will become after traditional methods of training have been applied to her.

Lastly I would just like to say "THANK YOU FILLY FOR ALL YOU TAUGHT ME AND THE FUN WE HAD TOGETHER"

Reinforcement part 2

 I copied my last post to the Parelli Savvy club forum and received some replies including the following from Kris. I pushed my banking analogy to near breaking point to answer the query and have copied it here for the sake of completeness.

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Kris Hughes wrote:

It is the question of the subject becoming sensitized or desensitized to the stimulus. I have a long history of working with the less overtly sensitive type of horse (draft type ponies) and observe them becoming disinterested in both niddle and piddle as delivered by me. I also notice that I then tend to operate in a way that can oversensitize more highly strung horses - usually not in a good way!

Off to check out your blog ... 

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My reply

As time wore on the banker got used to seeing the notice go up on the noticeboard announcing his imminent sacking. He realised that he had probably become too valuable to the bank and that they had never made any serious attempt to sack him and so he started to ignore the notice and just trade as he pleased. Confusingly he still got the odd bonus, though they seemed to relate to no particular activity on his part, so these began to mean less as well. In fact he was now in a place that meant there was little the bank could do in order to motivate him to trade more actively in the way they wanted him to.
Slowly the bank managers realised their mistake and agreed amongst themselves to be much much more careful as to when a piddle bonus was to be awarded. It had to be done when the banker had actually done something they liked, rather than just on a whim. They also realised that the notice provided no pressure to him as he was totally desensitized to it and thus the niddle reinforcement method stopped working. But how to resensitise him to the dismissal notice. Drastic action was called for. They had to follow through on the threat and dismiss him. Not permanently as they still needed him, but temporarily. In addition they had to pick their moment. If they sacked him for a small transgression he was likely to just leave and never come back. They had to pick a time when the new phase of pressure was justified and would be considered (after careful reflection) by the banker to be so.
It didn't take long. As the banker was now desensitized to all that the management could do to him he had become a bit maverick. He was no longer trading just in metals as they wanted him to. One day he bought futures in a new firm setting up to export bikinis to Greenland. Just the opportunity they needed. He was summarily dismissed and given a book on global climate to read just to show the stupidity of his actions. This placed him under huge psychological pressure. He knew that with this reckless behavior he was unlikely to get a job at another bank.
After a few days a letter was sent to him asking if he would like to renegotiate his contract with the bank. Much relieved he returned, but to the realisation that not only did the notice on the board have real teeth, but he had to work much harder to get a bonus in future.
Management also realised their mistake and stopped issuing dismissal notices for very little apparent reason but reserved them for when they were needed and justified. The result was that the banker realised that the notice did actually mean something, was not just an idle threat but something that could really be carried through. He was confident when the notice was on the board with just a few letters of the signature that it was not an imminent dismissal, just a warning, so the notice did not make him so afraid that he wound up unable to think. However he now knew the bank could follow through on its' threat. This opened up new levels of communication which could be subtler and lighter than before and may even just be a blank piece of paper where the notice was usually placed. Thus confident he went on to make more an better deals. In time even his piddle bonuses reappeared, but only when really deserved.

I've pushed the banking analogy as far as my imagination extends now so back to real world of horses.
There is much talk about desensitising horses to all sorts of things, balls, tarps, lawn mowers etc. People are even proud about the objects to which there horse will not respond. The truth is that due to their nature it is relatively easy to desensitise a horse to all manner of stimuli, but in very few cases is it actually desireable.
If only we could replace the word "desensitise" with the phrase "make confident about" then we would leave our horse light and responsive to our signals, rather than dull. Thus we can play with a stick and a flag for hours, waving it around with low body energy in friendly game and like the banker (where the bank had no energy to follow through) they quickly learn to ignore the stimulus. The trick is to stop using the stick and flag in friendly game as soon as they are confident in its presence but not dull to it. How to gauge this ? I would suggest that this point occurs when they actively move towards it with curiosity, not away in fear or unconfidence. Thus the horse still recognises that the flag is there and reacts to it, but not in fear. From then on the flag should be kept as a communiucation device, not a freindly device. It is a fine balancing act which may require more friendly game with it from time to time to reestablish confidence, but better that side of the line than dull.
I must admit to making the desensitising mistake with Filly and the stick and flag. To resensitise her to it I would have to make it extremely aversive, probably more so than I have the emotional control to do with a horse I love. My solution has been to store this experience away and find another means to communicate with her other than the flag. Stick and string is what I tend to use exclusively now. My other horse, Billy, I was very careful about and we still have good, confident communication with the flag.

p.s Should you go to see James Roberts don't make my mistake and mention the word desensitising. A short repost or longer lecture may result !

Reinforcement

I have been thinking long and hard about this subject trying to fully understand it and now, with the help of Equitation Science, I think I have got it ! I am going to use this blog to try and explain my understanding of it and maybe if I still have it wrong someone can use the comments section to correct me.

There are two types of reinforcement that are used in training animals (or humans), "piddle" and "niddle" (bear with me on these strange words). I would like to use the analogy of a banker working in a bank where he cannot directly speak the language of the bosses to get the idea across. Again bear with me on this, all MAY become clear !
So this mythical English speaking banker has arrived at his new job in a foreign land. Snag was no one told him they didn't speak a word of English, but he knows his job and so figures he can work out what the bosses want. He is a little perturbed when his dismissal notice appears on a noticeboard in the office, but relieved to note that the signature of the boss is not attached. This has placed him under some psychological discomfort and he realises that this must mean that he is not performing the job as expected. He tentatively goes about his business and tries to appease the boss by buying a few Greek debt bonds and is alarmed to see that the first two letters of the signature has been added to the notice, so rapidly sells them. One letter it tipexed out. Phew I must be headed in the right direction. He has just had his first taste of Niddle reinforcement, and whilst the notice is still there, feels a little more comfortable. The next day he scans his investment strategy possibilities and buys some subprime mortgages from the USA. Five letters of the signature appear. That can't be right and so now feeling very uncomfortable he sells them to a suitable sucker and four of the letters are suddenly removed. That feels much more comfortable and he has had his second taste of Niddle reinforcement. He also now has a good idea of what the boss does not want, but the notice is still there. He now tries, tentatively, buying a few ounces of gold for which he pays a fair price. All the signature is now removed and the signature space is blank. Ah ha, feeling much more comfortable now but relalising that more must be needed to get rid of the notice altogether he buys more gold and some platinum for good measure. The notice is removed altogether and replaced buy a nice fat bonus cheque, which not only removes all his psychological pressure but makes him feel valued and secure at the same time. He has undergone his third niddle reinforcement and received his first piddle reinforcement. He relaxes and puts his feet up. After a few days the notice returns causing a little concern, but he also realises there is a way to make the notice disappear. There must be more work to do. This time he scans the market, sells his platinum and buys some copper. Notice is gone. So this is a metals trading exchange he is in. Now he has a good notion of how to behave and it becomes easier and easier to get that notice removed from the wall (niddle reinforcement), he also gets more piddle reinforcemts in the form of bonus cheques, dinner vouchers etc.
After a while he has been doing so well that he is continually getting piddle reinforcements and comes to regard them as part of his basic salary, feeling undervalued and annoyed at his employer when he fails to receive them for doing nothing.
This causes his employer a problem. To get to the point at which niddle reinforcement again works he has to give the banker a shock to his system, remove all the piddle rewards and again place the notice on the board. He realises that he is now risking having the banker resign altogether as the banker now perceives the removal of the piddle reinforcement as a pay cut, but has to take the risk. On this occasion all is well and the banker gets back to work, but the employer realises he must not take this risk too often and gets better at balancing the niddle and piddle reinforcements.
From this it can be seen that niddle and piddle reinforcements all lie on a continuum. The middle point of the line is no reinforcement at all (the few days when he did nothing in the analogy). On either side of this "neutral point" lie two different regimes. If niddle reinforcement is on the left side of neutral and piddle on the right it should be apparent that to move along the line from left to right the banker must make and attempt at doing the correct thing and is rewarded by being made to feel more comfortable. If they are to the left of neutral this may involve the removal of some of the discomfort that it being applied. Removal of discomfort is by definition going to make him feel somewhat more comfortable.

Lets get back to reality. I've purposely used the words Piddle and Niddle to overcome the layman's disquiet of the words positive and negative. To the average person something that is "negative" has the unfortunate connotation of being bad. In the animal behaviorists dictionary this is not the case and the terms have a more defined meaning. I hope it is obvious that I am using the word Niddle for negative and Piddle for positive. So niddle reinforcement is negative reinforcement.

Niddle reinforcement occurs when an applied discomfort, such as pressure on the bit, is removed, hence the term "negative". It is used in it's mathematical sense of "to take something away" (in this case discomfort) rather than in its popular sense of "being bad".
In Parelli terms, then, let us consider the phrase "Pressure motivates, release teaches". Applying the pressure is NOT reinforcement, it is asking for the response. Thus applying discomfort is NOT negative reinforcement, subtracting the pressure when the correct response occurs IS negative reinforcement. The release of the pressure is the niddle reinforcement that teaches the correct response to the original applied pressure.

Positive reinforcement lies on the other side of neutral and involves adding something nice, like a treat, to reinforce the offered behavior. The trick, as the employer above discovered, is to carefully balance the use of piddle reinforcement and niddle reinforcement so that the neutral point stays at neutral.

If too much piddle reinforcement is given then the employers idea of a bonus can quickly be seen by the banker as a right. Thus unbeknownst to the employer the banker has a new neutral point in the reinforcement continuum and the withholding of what are bonuses, in the employers eyes, will be seen as application of pressure in the bankers eyes. The neutral point from the point of view of the banker is now in what was originally the piddle region of the scale. The snag with horse training, of course, is that it may be impossible to give the bonuses continually at the right time to keep the horse feeling that it is in the neutral spot. It could be at the end of a 45 foot line after all. (The banking community is having similar problems as we speak of course ! How to readjust the lack of a bonus to be the neutral state).

With this post I have hoped to convey that positive and negative reinforcement are in effect the same thing, but they lie on different sides of a neutral point. One of our responsibilities is to ensure that neutral point occurs in an appropriate and consistent place. I have also tried to explain that "negative reinforcement" is nothing bad, it is just a scientific term. I had someone explain the other day that they think negative reinforcement is awful and they never use it. I asked if they ever put pressure on a bit, with the leg, even with the eyes. Of course they did. This showed that they did use negative reinforcement, but just did not understand the term and it's application.

I believe that it is the popular use of the word "negative" and it's connotation of something bad, that leads people to think that it is the application of pressure that is negative reinforcement, whereas in fact it is the removal of that pressure that is negative reinforcement. To overcome this inbuilt prejudice you may find it easier to use the words Niddle and Piddle, but I suggest you do it under your breath in the presence of others

Rapport

Sorry it has been a while since my last update, but things have been busy around here.
Following on from the audition, I made the resolution to not continue the mistake of being too focussed on the performance, but become more focussed on the rapport.
I believe that many people mistake rapport with just making the horse love you. Having played in my mind with the concept I now realise that rapport is made up of all three of the "Love, Language, Leadership" trio. Think of it as a three legged stool. By improving each element it's leg is made thicker and stronger and less prone to accidental damage. Eventually the legs are strong enough that you can put real pressure on the stool and sit on it without it falling over. Neglect a leg and you wind up breaking the stool and lying flat on your back on the ground ! (I originally put a slightly ruder sentence in but changed my mind :-) )

Sure "Love" is part of it and Filly and I spent a long time with me just cradling and stroking her head this evening, but "Language" is also important.

If you don't have language then you both get frustrated with each other and rapport is damaged. Of course to get Language it is sometimes necessary to use a high level of pressure (phase 4), not often but it happens. I used to worry that this would break the rapport but in fact it enhances it as our ability to communicate gets stronger.

Leadership is also a vital part and this comprises two parts in my opinion.
The most important is to have a plan so that you can act like a leader even if that is just a plan to play hard for the evening and have fun. Having a plan changes your body language and makes you act like a leader. I don't mean "I am going to do friendly game for 3 minutes, followed by two minutes of porcupine, then 3 minutes of driving etc etc". That's not a plan as it doesn't lead anywhere except to a bored horse. A plan is "by the end of the session I want to have my horse left brained, forward thinking and have the rapport intact. We will work on my ability to ask for a good squeeze game and use her play drive to achieve it. I don't even want her to realise we are training, we are just playing and I will use whatever elements of NH I need to to achieve the goal".
The second is to use the "attitude of justice is effective" principle, especially with a left brain dominant horse like Filly. Today for example we were doing squeeze game at liberty. As she came past me in the squeeze she flicked her tail and tapped my jacket with it. That was like giving me the finger in horse language, I was quick enough to respond almost instantly with my "tail", the string on my stick, and tag her with just an ounce more energy than she had me. The look on her face was a picture. Ears pricked she looked at me with new respect and did not flick her tail on subsequent passes. The key here was a) timing and b) I tagged the zone that had offended me.

To achieve these lofty goals I have been playing with way more energy on my part, particularly at liberty. We now turn and burn with quick fire changes in the games. From stick to me at canter over a jump, to direction changes, to circling game, to squeeze game, to YoYo. All the games (except maybe porcupine) are involved, but not as individual games but as part of a whole. Filly gets really excited. Her direction changes are exuberant and expressive. Sure she leaves my side at stick to me for a second or two, but that is just exuberance and I can't canter fast enough to satisfy her play needs ! The slightest nod of my head and she rejoins me. This is not slow precise training, just fun and rapport building and as a result her liberty squeeze game became really really good.
The proof that this attitude helps building rapport is that after all the high energy and adrenaline charged activity she calms down in an instant as I drop my energy and stands with her head in my arms for a long cuddle. No prey animal is going to let a predator wrap their arms around its head unless there is some degree of trust and rapport there are they ?

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.