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.
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