The Power of Persistence/ Phase 3 X 3 Vs. Phase 4

Moosey and I had an incredible day a few days ago, along with my mom and Bella, too.

I experimented a lot with Phase 3 with rhythm instead of Phase 4. I don't really know what to call it, but it's the difference between Phase 4 and just a hard (in this case) Phase 3.

Because I realized today that when I do Phase 4 with Moose, he usually gets unconfident. So, that means my timing is off and that he was unsure when I got firm on him, not goofing around. So, what I did today was just do a Phase with rhythm, instead of the next phase. For example, Moose has a pretty good Yo-yo game. I do Phase 1 and he backs, but not with a lot of speed or a "Yes, sir!" attitude. So, I got a little more particular and upped to Phase 3 and asked told him to back, and then just kept repeating Phase 3 (which in this case was lightly doing that big move that's taught for yo-yo game in the Levels packs). This way I knew he was being dominant, but didn't take a chance with making him be unconfident either. I just matched his unwillingness to move, and didn't go into Phase 4 "Ka-pow", I just kept doing Phase 3 like I was until he made a change. Basically, I'm still looking for that middle ground of confident, but responsive. It seems to me like he's either unconfident or confident and unresponsive. So, I'm looking for a confident responsive horse! But I need to remember that in Moose's case, confidence comes before responsiveness.

And I've mentioned Bella's issue with trotting before. Yeah, I've been through some really bad days with her before, and came to the conclusion that we're just going to need to take one step at a time, and out-persist her. (That's going to be our biggest arrow here. I say 'our' because I'm trying to help my mom out with Bella.) So, we were first getting established in the walk. Our goal was to get 2 laps at the walk without her stopping. It took maybe 15 minutes, at a guess, but eventually she did it. So, that's great progress for Bella! I was so happy, because normally I can only get her to do 1 lap.

And I had another interesting thought (which I'll elaborate on in the next post): Moose has a Z3 issue. Remember that whole bareback pad incident? If not, it's here. Well, it turns out he doesn't have an issue only with the girth, he doesn't like things in Z3 touching him period.

I got creative today and tried to play with Moose using a broken hula-hoop -so it's like a hula-line now- and I set up a test for him. Once I had rubbed it all over him and done some Porcupine and Driving with it, I set it on his back and jogged off to play Stick To Me. He didn't go until I had used the whole 22' line, so I knew he was unconfident, but then he trotted off and kind of jolted forward and made a wierd sound and looked like he was going to kick. I stopped right away and took the hula-hoop off. Well, test failed, so I've found out a little bit more about him. Now I just have to figure out how to solve that. . . hmm. . .

The only downer about that day was that I pulled a nail back! Oops! My whole life I've had short nails, with an objection to long ones, so this summer I decided to grow them long just to see if I could. Well, I can, and now cutting them back to normal length (on the fingernail that got bent back) feels very awkward. Strange how my comfort zone has changed. But it was my fault anyways that the nail got pulled back: Moose and I were playing Stick To Me with the 22' and we turned, so he stepped on the excess 22' behind me, and I must've been holding it funny, because it bent my middle finger's nail back.

Expect a lot, Accept a little, Reward the slightest try

I have great news about Dancer's catching problems!! I was halfway across the pasture from Dancer today, with her halter in hand and Dancer trotted to me!! It was an amazing moment, because she looked so cute! Her ears were perked forward and she really looked happy to see me. It really made me think I'm on the right track with her, and that's such a relief!

Also, I was thinking about Dancer. She has proved to be a challenging little pony, lol. But I was thinking about how she has so much to teach me, because she's the kind of teacher who is looking for perfection from the beginning. Hence the title, because it seems like that's what she does!

Also, I'm happy about our progress together. I can see that I've still got a ways to go with her, but it's already come so far from what it was in the beginning when I was clueless. I still haven't got her respect 100% yet. I think it's going to take a LONG time for that (not that I'm not going to take that time, of course I am!!), but I know I've at least gained a few brownie points since then. Currently, Dancer respects me enough to keep her ears up when I'm with her, and watch my personal space, so that's definitely progress. If I had to guess, I'd say she respects me at near 65-70%.

I thought it was really inspiring when Heidi came to play with Dancer some months ago. What Heidi established with Dancer in a matter of minutes is something that I wish to be able to do. Plus, Heidi had Dancer's full respect! Basically, that showed me what I wanted Dancer's relationship to be with me.