[caption id="attachment_619" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="It's a 50', and the top line is 3'2", in case you were wondering."]
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Sunday, July 26, 2009
Round Pen
I finally got a picture for you. Sorry it took so long!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The After-Affects and a Well-Deserved Lesson
So, I've been playing with Moose and things have gone pretty well since Shirley was here! Jumping things is pretty much a non-issue now as long as I prepare him. We had the best circling game I've ever gotten yesterday: his transitions were almost all from a phase 1. He even reared up once, so maybe he's having some fun, too. :)
And yesterday, I got 2 steps of backing by the tail with no help from the lead rope at all! I was so impressed with him that we ended our session on that.
Our figure-8 was really good, too. Moose has done a lot better with that since I started thinking in terms of making a really BIG figure-8, and then making it smaller as we refine it. So, yesterday we did our figure-8 and it was pretty good, but he went around one time and I asked him to yield his HQ, and he didn't. So, I popped him with a phase 4. You should have seen the look on his face! His attitude became "Yes, ma'am!" after that, and he couldn't stop staring at me. It's nice to blow their minds once and while, you know?
And we've figured something out about Bella. In the new Level 1 kit, there's a scene in the Squeeze Game segment showing a girl and her black horse doing a squeeze, and Linda goes and helps the girl out because she's being too passive. Well, that girl and horse is like my mom and Bella.
So, I went outside today intending to play with Bella based on that realization, and she cooperated for a while . . . until she took off like a shot in Circling Game and ran around like a loony for a minute. Once I got her back, my brain was thinking like crazy. What just happened? Why did she do that? I only asked her to trot. . . okay, so maybe me asking her to trot is too much pressure for her, because she starts to pull on the rope when I ask her to trot. But would that cause her to take off like that? Obviously it did, so . . . WAIT. . . was she feeling unsafe? She was calm, so she must be lacking trust then. . . hmm. . .
With this episode firmly in mind (and believe me, this isn't the first time she has fled from me), I decided that I wasn't going to repeat history again. I've gotta change what I'm doing. So, might as well start with an open mind and as I recently learned, just do something. So, I decided that in that instance she lacked trust, and that throwing a phase 4 at her just blew her up.
So, I completely changed my approach by starting with the Circling Game again, and this time treating her like an RBI. "You want to come in? Oh, that's fine, come here. Good girl. Now, back out you go, so I can send you again."She started asking me questions, so that was a good sign. Her Circling Game got completely broken, though, but I just laughed at her. I mean, seriously, what horse can't WALK even 1/4 of a circle without stopping?!? Lol, she's so funny.
Afterwards, I started massaging her mouth, because she keeps her lips so tight, and today was supposed to be worming day, but I've created a program that will work her up to it instead of just being direct-line. 4-7 sessions of massaging her lips and stopping when she really relaxes. It'd be cool if she'd let me hold her tongue, too. Moose let me do that before.
Overall, I've gotta say that Bella really reminded me about the true meaning of "It's about the relationship." I could've forced her to do circles and take the wormer, but after she took off I was conscious of putting the relationship first. So, I thank her for the lesson. It was well-deserved, because horses don't lie.
I wanted to add this in here, too, quick. Other evidence that I might be on the right track: she likes my mom more than me, even though my mom is (no offense) on the passive side; on most days, she rarely licks her lips; she's spooky; she's the type of horse that trusts people easily at a base level, but is hard to get her full trust (versus a horse that won't trust you at all, but then trusts you completely when they do); and she rarely tries to be dominant.
Well, I don't know if my efforts will be successful or not, but I'll keep you posted on my progress with Moose and Bella over the next week.
And yesterday, I got 2 steps of backing by the tail with no help from the lead rope at all! I was so impressed with him that we ended our session on that.
Our figure-8 was really good, too. Moose has done a lot better with that since I started thinking in terms of making a really BIG figure-8, and then making it smaller as we refine it. So, yesterday we did our figure-8 and it was pretty good, but he went around one time and I asked him to yield his HQ, and he didn't. So, I popped him with a phase 4. You should have seen the look on his face! His attitude became "Yes, ma'am!" after that, and he couldn't stop staring at me. It's nice to blow their minds once and while, you know?
And we've figured something out about Bella. In the new Level 1 kit, there's a scene in the Squeeze Game segment showing a girl and her black horse doing a squeeze, and Linda goes and helps the girl out because she's being too passive. Well, that girl and horse is like my mom and Bella.
So, I went outside today intending to play with Bella based on that realization, and she cooperated for a while . . . until she took off like a shot in Circling Game and ran around like a loony for a minute. Once I got her back, my brain was thinking like crazy. What just happened? Why did she do that? I only asked her to trot. . . okay, so maybe me asking her to trot is too much pressure for her, because she starts to pull on the rope when I ask her to trot. But would that cause her to take off like that? Obviously it did, so . . . WAIT. . . was she feeling unsafe? She was calm, so she must be lacking trust then. . . hmm. . .
With this episode firmly in mind (and believe me, this isn't the first time she has fled from me), I decided that I wasn't going to repeat history again. I've gotta change what I'm doing. So, might as well start with an open mind and as I recently learned, just do something. So, I decided that in that instance she lacked trust, and that throwing a phase 4 at her just blew her up.
So, I completely changed my approach by starting with the Circling Game again, and this time treating her like an RBI. "You want to come in? Oh, that's fine, come here. Good girl. Now, back out you go, so I can send you again."She started asking me questions, so that was a good sign. Her Circling Game got completely broken, though, but I just laughed at her. I mean, seriously, what horse can't WALK even 1/4 of a circle without stopping?!? Lol, she's so funny.
Afterwards, I started massaging her mouth, because she keeps her lips so tight, and today was supposed to be worming day, but I've created a program that will work her up to it instead of just being direct-line. 4-7 sessions of massaging her lips and stopping when she really relaxes. It'd be cool if she'd let me hold her tongue, too. Moose let me do that before.
Overall, I've gotta say that Bella really reminded me about the true meaning of "It's about the relationship." I could've forced her to do circles and take the wormer, but after she took off I was conscious of putting the relationship first. So, I thank her for the lesson. It was well-deserved, because horses don't lie.
I wanted to add this in here, too, quick. Other evidence that I might be on the right track: she likes my mom more than me, even though my mom is (no offense) on the passive side; on most days, she rarely licks her lips; she's spooky; she's the type of horse that trusts people easily at a base level, but is hard to get her full trust (versus a horse that won't trust you at all, but then trusts you completely when they do); and she rarely tries to be dominant.
Well, I don't know if my efforts will be successful or not, but I'll keep you posted on my progress with Moose and Bella over the next week.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Honey, I need you to do this
My lesson with Shirley on Wednesday went great! I learned SOO much, it was completely worth it.
Anyways, my lesson was the first one (of 3 total). I decided that I wanted to work on our Circling Game, because Moose can't even make it around half a lap at the WALK before calling it quits. So, Shirley had me show her our HQ driving game first off. I moved his HQ around, and it moved fine, but she pointed out that his feet don't cross over like they should. So, our goal was to get him to cross over 3x in a row. He would do 2x just fine, but he'd cheat on the 3rd, so we ended up going round and round and round for whoever knows how many circles. We did it from both sides, so I'm sure Moose was dizzy by the time we were done.
Afterwards, I showed her our circles. And interestingly enough, Moose took off like a shot when I sent him the first time (he isn't used to having so particular of a leader, so I think it was too much pressure for him), and ran around like a nut for a little while. (I don't remember the exact order of things after this, just an fyi). I also wanted to play with having Moose jump some barrels, because I could never get him to jump anything. So, while he's running around and not really thinking, he eventually encounters the barrels. At first, he'd swerve around them, then he'd jump them unconfidently, then he'd stop in front of them and ask me a question, so it was a process.
Shirley played with him for a little bit when he was in this mode (it's not RBE like "I'm gonna die!!", it's more like "can't think, gotta move!"), but I ran in to get some fly spray at that time. When I saw him again, she was playing with yielding his hindquarters.
Then, we did sideways. I'm just starting sideways, so he did pretty well. Then, I showed her my squeeze and we combined the two. I did sideways, and then backed up and did squeeze. Once I got the feel down, Moose did really well. Shirley commented that this exercise is great for horses to learn where their feet are, and to be a little more nimble. I could see his progress, too, because when we started with the HQ driving game, he kept tripping on himself.
Now, I think we did our circling game again along with jumping the barrels. He was circling at the trot without breaking gait, and even jumping the barrels without hesitation! It was wonderful. And he was pulling on me less than the first time, too.
Then, we did Stick to Me, and once Shirley had him go between me and our round pen fence, it got WAY better. He understood to go when I go, and stop when I stop. It was so cool to see him mirror me like that!
And I was pretty surprised by this, but Shirley told me that Moose is not an RBI. She thinks he's actually an LBI, just a pretty mild one. She said half-way through my lesson that she hadn't seen him go Right Brain once during this whole thing! So, I guess I do have to more forward more. I was always going slow for him, because I wante to keep his confidence.
Here's what I learned:
Afterwards, 2 other friends had their lessons. Dancer's owner Lisa went first and it was nice to see what Shirley had them do. They started out with Circling Game, too, and then spent the remainder of their time working on Sideways game. Dancer is very dominant, and Shirley had Lisa assert her leadership, but it was a gradual thing versus just fight through it. So, from that session I learned that passive persistence pays off and the importance of defending your space.
Then, another friend named Lisa had a lesson. But in this one, Shirley played with the horse the whole time, but that's because the horse was an untrained 2 year old. The theme of this lesson was that you can't keep babying these horses (see link). Yes, they're untrained. Yes, some of them are untouched. But you have to move past that and treat them like normal horses. Of course, you have to be cautious, but you still have to act like the calm, confident, competent leader that they need.
And a friend took some pictures of Moose and I, so they will be added to this post as soon as I get them!
Anyways, my lesson was the first one (of 3 total). I decided that I wanted to work on our Circling Game, because Moose can't even make it around half a lap at the WALK before calling it quits. So, Shirley had me show her our HQ driving game first off. I moved his HQ around, and it moved fine, but she pointed out that his feet don't cross over like they should. So, our goal was to get him to cross over 3x in a row. He would do 2x just fine, but he'd cheat on the 3rd, so we ended up going round and round and round for whoever knows how many circles. We did it from both sides, so I'm sure Moose was dizzy by the time we were done.
Afterwards, I showed her our circles. And interestingly enough, Moose took off like a shot when I sent him the first time (he isn't used to having so particular of a leader, so I think it was too much pressure for him), and ran around like a nut for a little while. (I don't remember the exact order of things after this, just an fyi). I also wanted to play with having Moose jump some barrels, because I could never get him to jump anything. So, while he's running around and not really thinking, he eventually encounters the barrels. At first, he'd swerve around them, then he'd jump them unconfidently, then he'd stop in front of them and ask me a question, so it was a process.
Shirley played with him for a little bit when he was in this mode (it's not RBE like "I'm gonna die!!", it's more like "can't think, gotta move!"), but I ran in to get some fly spray at that time. When I saw him again, she was playing with yielding his hindquarters.
Then, we did sideways. I'm just starting sideways, so he did pretty well. Then, I showed her my squeeze and we combined the two. I did sideways, and then backed up and did squeeze. Once I got the feel down, Moose did really well. Shirley commented that this exercise is great for horses to learn where their feet are, and to be a little more nimble. I could see his progress, too, because when we started with the HQ driving game, he kept tripping on himself.
Now, I think we did our circling game again along with jumping the barrels. He was circling at the trot without breaking gait, and even jumping the barrels without hesitation! It was wonderful. And he was pulling on me less than the first time, too.
Then, we did Stick to Me, and once Shirley had him go between me and our round pen fence, it got WAY better. He understood to go when I go, and stop when I stop. It was so cool to see him mirror me like that!
And I was pretty surprised by this, but Shirley told me that Moose is not an RBI. She thinks he's actually an LBI, just a pretty mild one. She said half-way through my lesson that she hadn't seen him go Right Brain once during this whole thing! So, I guess I do have to more forward more. I was always going slow for him, because I wante to keep his confidence.
Here's what I learned:
- The title was the theme of all the lessons today
- It's okay to have expectations for Moose
- I need to be a better leader and get Moose through his can't think phase, instead of avoiding it
- Every horse needs a leader, even the self-confident/dominant ones
- It's not rocket science!
- Your horse will show the same amount of enthusiasm that you put in.
Afterwards, 2 other friends had their lessons. Dancer's owner Lisa went first and it was nice to see what Shirley had them do. They started out with Circling Game, too, and then spent the remainder of their time working on Sideways game. Dancer is very dominant, and Shirley had Lisa assert her leadership, but it was a gradual thing versus just fight through it. So, from that session I learned that passive persistence pays off and the importance of defending your space.
Then, another friend named Lisa had a lesson. But in this one, Shirley played with the horse the whole time, but that's because the horse was an untrained 2 year old. The theme of this lesson was that you can't keep babying these horses (see link). Yes, they're untrained. Yes, some of them are untouched. But you have to move past that and treat them like normal horses. Of course, you have to be cautious, but you still have to act like the calm, confident, competent leader that they need.
And a friend took some pictures of Moose and I, so they will be added to this post as soon as I get them!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
7 years ago . . . And now
7 years ago. . . I never knew Moose existed. I've now owned him for 10 months. And guess what happened a few days ago!?! Moose's old owner called us! It turns out 7 years ago Moose was owned by a lady named Stephanie in Dubuque, Iowa:
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dubuque+iowa&sll=42.187883,-91.881592&sspn=175.05107,360&ie=UTF8&ll=42.795401,-90.43396&spn=1.410774,2.334595&z=8&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
She was kind enough to tell us a little about how she got him. As I said above, she owned him since he was 7 (he's 14 now). Technically, she co-owned him. It was her and her friend, and they both did different things with him. She did mostly dressage and eventing, and her friend was into hunter/jumper. So, he did a variety of things. She had him for 5 years . . . Eventually, her friend -and co-owner- decided to move to Florida. So, they decided to just donate Moose to a children's farm in Prairie Du Chien instead of going through all the hassle of selling him (they didn't want their friendship ruined over a horse).
And if all you blog readers think back far enough (or cheat and read the older posts), you'd know that I picked up Moose from Prairie Du Chien. So, I've got the past 7 years of Moose's life figured out. He was at Stephanie's, then at a children's farm, then at his previous owner's, and now here. And since I'm not planning on selling him anytime soon, it's my hope that he has a forever home with me. :)
Now, onto other news! The round pen is completely finished. I promise I'll put up pictures. Just got to bring a camera outside for once. Dancer and Bella have changed their attitude towards me a little bit, in a good way! They like me better now, which is always good.
Moosey and I are doing well. I'm suffering through a case of Mental Block, though. I'm running out of things to do on-line in L1, and now I don't know how to teach him (and myself) Level 2 On-line. So, I think I'm going to be watching the new L2 kit from the library again. Hopefully, that should help!
And I actually got to teach Moose to play sideways game for the first sucessful time ever today! (Tried in the past, and it didn't work. He was scared of the electric fence). He's still an unconfident learner, but if I just take it slow, he does a LOT better. And I realized another key to success with him, is to WAIT after I do anything that should make him think. I noticed a long time ago that he doesn't lick his lips much, but I came to the realization recently that that is because I'm not providing him with enough time to think. And I got one full lap of Circling Game at the trot today! Gotta love the little successes.
Oh, and I sat on Moose today again, too. And he was relaxed about it. That's a pretty sweet achievement for us both, because then maybe I can start getting over my unconfidence of riding him!
And something else even: I am now going to be playing with another lady's horses, because she doesn't have enough time to play with them herself. She does Parelli, so almost all the horses know it. And there is horsenalities abound! I went by her place yesterday to meet her, so I haven't played with anyone yet, but it's going to be very cool. She has Rocky Mountains, Quarters, 2 Perlinos, a yearling, one horse that is blind in its left eye, a Standardbred that trots faster than some horses gallop, a Quarter that's smoother than her gaited hroses, a dwarf cat, and even a cat named Smokin' 22!! If I remember correctly, she has 13 horses. It's going to be very fun! I'm pretty excited.
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dubuque+iowa&sll=42.187883,-91.881592&sspn=175.05107,360&ie=UTF8&ll=42.795401,-90.43396&spn=1.410774,2.334595&z=8&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
She was kind enough to tell us a little about how she got him. As I said above, she owned him since he was 7 (he's 14 now). Technically, she co-owned him. It was her and her friend, and they both did different things with him. She did mostly dressage and eventing, and her friend was into hunter/jumper. So, he did a variety of things. She had him for 5 years . . . Eventually, her friend -and co-owner- decided to move to Florida. So, they decided to just donate Moose to a children's farm in Prairie Du Chien instead of going through all the hassle of selling him (they didn't want their friendship ruined over a horse).
And if all you blog readers think back far enough (or cheat and read the older posts), you'd know that I picked up Moose from Prairie Du Chien. So, I've got the past 7 years of Moose's life figured out. He was at Stephanie's, then at a children's farm, then at his previous owner's, and now here. And since I'm not planning on selling him anytime soon, it's my hope that he has a forever home with me. :)
Now, onto other news! The round pen is completely finished. I promise I'll put up pictures. Just got to bring a camera outside for once. Dancer and Bella have changed their attitude towards me a little bit, in a good way! They like me better now, which is always good.
Moosey and I are doing well. I'm suffering through a case of Mental Block, though. I'm running out of things to do on-line in L1, and now I don't know how to teach him (and myself) Level 2 On-line. So, I think I'm going to be watching the new L2 kit from the library again. Hopefully, that should help!
And I actually got to teach Moose to play sideways game for the first sucessful time ever today! (Tried in the past, and it didn't work. He was scared of the electric fence). He's still an unconfident learner, but if I just take it slow, he does a LOT better. And I realized another key to success with him, is to WAIT after I do anything that should make him think. I noticed a long time ago that he doesn't lick his lips much, but I came to the realization recently that that is because I'm not providing him with enough time to think. And I got one full lap of Circling Game at the trot today! Gotta love the little successes.
Oh, and I sat on Moose today again, too. And he was relaxed about it. That's a pretty sweet achievement for us both, because then maybe I can start getting over my unconfidence of riding him!
And something else even: I am now going to be playing with another lady's horses, because she doesn't have enough time to play with them herself. She does Parelli, so almost all the horses know it. And there is horsenalities abound! I went by her place yesterday to meet her, so I haven't played with anyone yet, but it's going to be very cool. She has Rocky Mountains, Quarters, 2 Perlinos, a yearling, one horse that is blind in its left eye, a Standardbred that trots faster than some horses gallop, a Quarter that's smoother than her gaited hroses, a dwarf cat, and even a cat named Smokin' 22!! If I remember correctly, she has 13 horses. It's going to be very fun! I'm pretty excited.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Angels and Demons
I apologize, because this post has absolutely nothing to do with horses (and this is not the post I mentioned in last post), but still. I just saw the movie Angels and Demons today, and omg: this movie is INCREDIBLE! It's a suspense movie, and Tom Hanks is in one leading role. It's kind of like the Da Vinci Code, but it's WAY more intense, because in this movie the main characters are fighting to keep the 4 Cardinals from dying, and to stop Vatican City from blowing up. This preview about sums it up, so please watch:
I strongly recommend you go see it! But a note of caution: the movie is rated PG-13, so it would't be appropriate for youngsters. And there is one scene that is a little gross (a dead guy has mice and maggots crawling on him): At 32 seconds in the preview is the start of it, so when you see that scene in the movie, turn your head if you don't like that stuff.
I strongly recommend you go see it! But a note of caution: the movie is rated PG-13, so it would't be appropriate for youngsters. And there is one scene that is a little gross (a dead guy has mice and maggots crawling on him): At 32 seconds in the preview is the start of it, so when you see that scene in the movie, turn your head if you don't like that stuff.
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