Progression? I wish. . .

Well, the first 2 days I got Moose I was ecstatic! And boy, do I mean ecstatic!! Oh, man, you should've heard me talking, my mom listened to me blab for about 2 hours on Saturday just saying how brilliant he was and how excited I was to finally have him here. I mean, he followed me back to the stall (without any prompting) after I took his halter off: translation, HE LIKED ME!!!! Oh, I was psyched! After all, Dancer hates me. So, it's nice to feel loved, you know? *

Sunday wasn't as great. Nothing horrible happened or anything, it's just it didn't go as I wanted it to. I got really confused! I mean, I can't tell what his horsenality is and it's driving me nuts! He's a fast learner, smart, mildly mouthy, mildly friendly, and curious (when I saw him in Prairie Du Chien he was non-spooky, and confident, too): LBE traits. But he's also extremely quiet/obedient, a little hesitant, and a little distrustful: RBI traits! So, which one do I treat him as?!?!?! *exasperated sigh* Plus, I was always told that/saw that horses start testing their owners in new environments to see what their limits are. Is it okay if Moose isn't doing that? I know I might be rushing this one, but he seems kind of RBI and not at all dominant! So, that notion is getting me confused, too. But again, I can be patient here: it's only been 4 days, lol!

WELL. . . Monday. . . one word: ugh. Apart from having to go to school, I also managed to ignore my gut feeling. Again. This time it said Moose was unconfident. So, I followed that feeling for a little while and just brushed Moose. Though, that (in my eyes) didn't seem to get anything done. Afterwards, I decided to try some of the games. He won't let me do Friendly (tossing the rope over his back)!!! He was backing up and trying to walk away from me, with a couple of little rears thrown in for emphasis. Of course, as soon as he stopped I stopped. Later, I looked up rearing on the Parelli problems area, and it says horses rear because A) they're being held back or B) they feel trapped or cornered. So, I can conclude that Moose must have felt trapped, RBI, since I wasn't holding him back at all. But if I can't convince him I'm not a threat, then how can I possibly do the rest of the games? And I know his needs are safety, comfort, play, and food. Another little thing I've noticed: when I'm near him on line he won't eat. So does that mean that he's not comfortable, or he's not safe?

And the thing that really got me is that when we went outside later to put some Neosporin on a cut on his back foot, he wouldn't let me :( He started walking away from me!! And it was RB kind of walking away, not like LB dominance. So, "oh boy!"

* Furthermore, I guess I'm just frustrated/sad, because Moose actually liked me for 2 days, and I'm scared of him not liking me! I didn't even realize how much I missed being liked (by horses) until I got him! I mean, Dancer won't let me catch her, and while I won't give up on her it's still extremely disheartening! RBIs seek comfort, remember? So, sorry if I'm rambling. . . Just kind of upset with myself that I don't know how to get the horses to want to be with me. . .

Horsey Hide n' Seek

Dancer let herself be caught today! YAY!! Score one for Erica! I was in the pasture with Dancer's halter and I decided to go sit on a barrel. I had to think for a minute on how I was going to try to catch her today. And thanks to a sudden burst of intuition, I came up with the idea of playing hide and seek!! So, I got off the barrel and hid behind it. Then, I sprinted around to hide behind another barrel and the silo and a tree and another tree and . . .you get the idea.

So, Dancer picked her head up and looked at me two times total. But I couldn't get her curious enough to actually come see what I was doing. And eventually, I got tired of running and Dancer stopped caring about the wierd person running around the pasture. So, I changed my strategy a little bit. This time, I played a little catching game with her: I walked up to her and drove energy towards her HQ until she looked at me. Once she gave me two eyes I sprinted back to hide behind a barrel. Next time, instead of running back behind the barrel, I turned around and walked back. After that, I gave her a treat and then walked back. Next time, she let me walk all the way up to her to give her the treat. Since she was being really accepting, I tried putting the lead rope around her neck to see if she'd let me. She did, so I walked with her a little ways and then put the halter on!! I was so excited that she actually let me!!

Well, I can't say much else was exciting, because after I got the halter on, I just let her graze for an hour before the farrier showed up. But it was quite an accomplishment to have her want to be with me again!!

The Moose stops here!!

Yes, he does. I couldn't say when: it might be a week, it might be in a month! But Moose is a horse! And he's mine . . . :)

Basically, my mom and I went to look at a horse yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_201" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Isn't he huge!?!?!"][/caption]

It was a 4 and a 1/2 hour drive!! So, the ride was a little long, but well worth it! The horse's name is Moose (he looks like one, lol) and he's a 17hh Thoroughbred who has never raced! Well, I played with him for a while and it was really difficult to figure out what his horsenanlity was! There was a ton of flies swarming him so he was constantly nipping at them, and he kept licking his lips because he was slobbering. So, it was kind of hard! I think he is a LBE, but he had more whoa than go so I guess we'll see.

Well as for the 7 games, he was a quick learner. Friendly had no problems, nor did Porcupine or driving. He had problems with the circling game, so he didn't understand sideways or squeeze either. Apparently, this was the first time he'd ever been in their round pen before, so he was pretty confused. Also, he had only been ridden once (the day before we saw him) in about a year, so I'm sure it was strange to be out of his normal routine, too.

[caption id="attachment_203" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I think I look the right size for him, don't you?"][/caption]

Well, after I played with him, I rode him around in the ring a little bit. His trot is so SMOOTH! It's almost like you're walking, not trotting. Boy is that different than riding my lesson horse, holy cow! But height-wise, OMG he was HUGE!!!! While riding I actually felt SMALL (and I'm 5'8")! I could barely put my arm over his back while on the ground, and he comes up to about my nose!! It was amazing, lol! And I bet you couldn't guess how much we paid for him! HINT HINT: think 4 digits!

Well, the ad I saw him in said that he's never spooked before, so we took him on a little trail ride. Well, I have to say he did pretty well. Most of the horses I know go RB every time they're ridden outside the pasture, and he wasn't bad at all! His ears were flickering quite a bit, but he had a low head set and I couldn't feel any tension in him. Also, we ran into a stream going by and I wasn't sure what he did about water. HA! He walked right

[caption id="attachment_205" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Friendly game. If you look at his head only, you can see why he's called Moose!"][/caption]

through it like it wasn't there! Actually, he wanted to stay and play like another little mud puppy I know (Dancer, lol)! Anyways, while riding I noticed an interesting thing about him. Sometimes, when I'd ask him to move over, he'd move his head over fine, but his legs still kept walking in the same direction. So, I'll have to fix that, because I kept running into branches, lol.

But I felt so bad for him, since the flies were so awful and they didn't have bug spray! I saw a fly there that was about 4x as big as a horsefly, no joke! They said that the only time they've ever seen him buck (there was no rider aboard) was when one of those flies landed on him. I can see why, jeez!

SMART smart smart . . .

I had another session with Arruba yesterday. I'm very excited. Things went really well this time!! At the beginning she was a tad RB, but I backed her up a bit and she got loads better! She never got away from me either!!! Actually, I just prevented it in the first place. I never did circling game, I only worked on games 1-4. Also, I realized that in order for her to run away, she had to take her head way over to the other side and then start going. So, I never allowed her to turn her head where she needed it to be!!!

And I never realized just how smart that horse is!!! Holy cow!! Friendly game she aced, it's kind of funny actually, because I can slap the ground with the rope while she just stands harder than I can with Dancer! I also worked on porcupine game a lot. She usually gets around phase 2/3 still, but she's getting better!! Driving game was nice on the hindquarters, I actually had to up the pressure on phase 4, because I realized that my pressure was more like phase 3. Once I did that, she learned very quickly what I wanted. Her yo-yo game is fantastic (in my opinion) from just 2 sessions. Like the title says, she learns amazingly quick! It'll be interesting to keep her entertained.