You've done it before. Almost everyone has in one form or another. Say you're putting a a puzzle together, and you have it all finished except for 2 spots left. After looking at the remaining pieces, you realize that you only have 1 piece left. Oh boy!
Or let's say you're shopping at your favorite store. You just checked out all your merchandise, and head out of the store. Upon reaching your care, you find that you lost your keys! Time for emotional fitness.
Well, of course not having something that you need stinks, but at least in these scenarios you find out exactly what you're missing pretty quickly! Because I can't say this is exactly 'quick' on my part, and poor Moose will be receiving lots of hugs/carrots because of it. The 'it' I'm referring to is that I realized 2 days ago that I had forgotten that slow and right beats fast and wrong, REWARDING the slightest try, and just simply NOT BEING DIRECT-LINED!!!
And god, this whole thing completely BLIND-SIDED me! It's almost embarrassing. . . I mean, it couldn't have been LESS subtle than someone slapping me in the face and saying "NO, you're wrong!" Because I didn't even realize all this until I was watching my trainer Vicky and her daughter play with their horses.
Experience 1: Vicky was playing with 2 jugs tied together on a 3 foot long(ish) string. She was playing with a horse named Casey who is fairly advanced. Well, Casey was a little concerned about the jugs being over her back, so Vicky just waited until she licked her lips. It didn't take too long, 5 minutes or so. But once she did, she took the toy off of her. And put it away!! She even said that since her horse was concerned, she stopped once she thought about it, because she wants Kasey to have a good experience with the toy.
Eek, here I am sheepishly reminded of a time about a month ago when I got a sudden notion to play with the carrot stick and flag. I tried unsuccessfully to play Friendly with it, and Moose was okay, but barely. For one thing, he hated it around his ears, and had lots of opposition reflex (though that's kind of the norm for him). But yeah, I kept working with it for 2 WHOLE HOURS. *Hits hand against head* Silly, silly me. Way to convince my horse I'm not direct-lined, lol.
Yet another thing that blew my mind was that Vicky's daughter Alyssa rewarded her horse so often. She was playing with a green as grass 2 year old named Goliath. Well, I think I've been so focused lately, because I haven't verbally rewarded Moose in ages!! I have rewarded him, don't get me wrong, but it makes me wonder if I shouldn't be making it more obvious when I reward him. See, I haven't thrown a party, per se, for him doing the right thing in ages.
Also, it dawned on me that I'm trying to run before I can walk, in more ways than one. For starters, we've been having an issue trotting on line calmly. I discussed it with Vicky, and she said to just start out asking for as little as 2 steps of trot and then praise him. DUH Erica!! Lol.
Ah, well. *Steps down from soapbox* All in all, I think 'working' at Vicky's is going to do wonders for me. Heck, I already had like a 5 BFO's from just this night, and that's only one day!! I think I'm going to be immune to BFO's by the end of summer, lol.
And just a random tip I heard today. Take your horse with you places. Got to clean the barn? Take your horse with! Need to sweep some spiderwebs? Bring your horse along! I couldn't give you the scientific rationale on why that helps, but Vicky said it's something that the old cowboys used to do to help bring up their youngsters. Sounds like an interesting idea!
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