I was searching around for natural horsemanship articles on line, and I happened to notice a link to a site called Parelli World. "Oh. . . What's that?!?" Naturally, I had to click on it. And it turns out that a Parelli Professional called Jerry Williams has a blog! I read one of his articles and I thought it was very interesting. It's called Degrees. So, check it out!
About Moose, I had an interesting session the other day. He has now started head tossing and shaking whenever I try to put his halter on. I've realized that he's either over-confident, or the halter I have is irritating him (it's not a Parelli halter after all, so maybe he feels a difference?). Also, we had another moment where once the halter was on, his horsenality flipped. Actually, I wrote a post a few months ago about one time when Moose had a MAJOR lick and chew moment. My session was quite similar to that, except that this time I was singing the whole time, so I KNOW he wasn't mirroring me. So, I sent a PP an e-mail about a few questions that it brought up. The real e-mail is a bit long, and here's most of it.
My name is Erica. I own a LBE named Moose and we're working on Level 1. For the past month (or 2), I have been spending undemanding time with him for at least 45 minutes daily, because whenever I went to halter him, he'd walk away and seemed to be unconfident.
But I have 2 questions regarding Moose's behavior. I put the halter on him yesterday -the first time in maybe a month - and he kept tossing his head and trying to avoid it. Well, the head tossing was left brain, because he was chewing on the halter and blinking and such. It looked to me like he didn't want the halter on. Though, I'll mention that I do not own a Parelli halter, but I have one that is very similar. The only difference is that the material used is not as flexible as Parelli's.
Once the halter is on, Moose becomes very obedient, and just not himself. For one thing, he never itches. And I'm not sure if it's past baggage, or anything, but he just shuts up on line. I'm sure he's not being RBI, because he still looks at things, blinks, his tail is fine, etc. It just seems that he gets in this mode where he's very compliant, but not because he wants to be (and I'm not making him, I tend to be passive).
Well, I was getting a feeling that Moose had the Druthers already (even though we hadn't moved anywhere yet). So, I moved him closer to the others horses (Moose, I, and all his buddies were all in the same pasture at the time). We didn't move very far, maybe 5 or 10 feet (and the horses were close to begin with). Then, I decided to try moving his HQ to see what kind of response I get. He walked off, so I tightened up the rope to get him to move his HQ over. Once he took a step, I immediately released the pressure. And he started releasing TONS of adrenaline! I noticed when he was releasing the adrenaline that he mostly blew and itched his head on his legs. Total, I'd guess it took him 7ish minutes to be completely off adrenaline. Afterwards, he cocked his leg (the first time he's ever done that on line)!!
Then, I went to take the halter off, to reward him for being calm. And as soon as I started taking the halter off, he started throwing his head again. I waited until he stopped throwing his head for a second, and then took it off.
So, the questions I have for you are: can itching be a form of releasing adrenaline, or is he just suddenly realizing he's itchy because he's now calm? What do you think is going on with the halter: should I buy a new one, or is he just testing my leadership? And lastly, what happened on line: why does he suddenly release adrenaline and what is causing it? Also, what horsenality do you think he's being on line (and how should I react)?
Oh, and I was singing this whole time, so anything that happened did not happen because I wasn't breathing.
Thanks for your help,
Erica
No comments:
Post a Comment