Sometimes No Plan is a Good Plan

First off, the Midwest Horse Fair!! Well, had a good time. I went on Saturday with a few friends. I caught the end of the Mustang Challenge. I hope to see more of that next year! It was very interesting to see all the different methods used, and how the horses reacted. But for bigger news, I got a saddle! :) It fit the cut-out of Moose's withers that I brought and was within our price range, so it's here. The only thing is that I'm not sure if it's going to fit him. We put it on with no pad underneath, and it really fell forward and pinched his shoulders. But I tried it with a Theraflex I'm borrowing, and it fit a lot nicer once shimmed. So, I think it might work. . . we'll see.

Anyways, I also attended a few clinics. I saw one about trick riding, and that was interesting to see. I also saw Ray Ainsworth, and he was working with a filly that my neighbor's cousin brought up. I was a little disappointed that Parelli wasn't there, because I saw them last year and their demonstration completely blew me away! But it was still a good time.

I played with the horses today at liberty and had a really nice time. I had no plan when I went out there, which is the basis for the title, but ended up doing lots of friendly. I had a noodle, flag, and whip. I was trying to get Bella more desensitized, and to get Moose to allow me to touch him. Having my focus on both horses proved helpful, because then if Moose started going introverted, I just walked away and started desensitizing Bella! But I found out 2 interesting things today. 1) I think Moose's problem with being touched actually is a RB problem, at least with new objects. Because when I touched him with the noodle beyond his face, he jumped forward like the RBI Pat played with in Horsenality segment of the January DVD. Also, I noticed that whenever I actually touched him with the noodle, his eyes got wide. But the moment I took it away, they would relax. 2) Moose taught me a nice lesson today about timing, too. I realized that I was putting more pressure on Moose when he was already unconfident. For example, say I have the flag. I'd let Moose sniff it, and then I slowly move it up -not touching him- by his cheek. He'd lift his head and flick his ears when I reached the threshold, then I'd immediately remove the flag. So, that's not the problem. The thing is once and while, he moves his head to the side to look at something else. For whatever reason, I always thought that then I should make him look at the scary object, so I'd bring it back up by his cheek until he acknowledged it, then remove it again. But in his mind, I was just putting more pressure on him when he got unconfident! So, that was as very nice thing to find out today!

And due to our good day, Moosey actually had draw!! :) I couldn't believe it, because we were at liberty, too. So, there might be hope for our audition after all! Yep, if we can pull it off, I think Moosey and I can pass Level 1. I'm very excited! But hey, I guess the key is just to not have a plan, right?

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho Hi-Ho!!

It's off to the Midwest Horse Fair I go!!

What Happened to the Horses?

Oh man, it was an AMAZING day today. For me. :)

Moosey was in a SUPER good mood, so I even tried playing games while having the 22' around his neck and no halter. I decided that we weren't quite ready for that yet, but he gave a nice effort!

And to put things in perspective for you, I even sat on Moosey today for the first time since we bought him. That's how good he was! And I don't even know what made him so good. . . unless changing the obstacles in our pasture really had that much of an impact on him, lol. It just seemed that he was happy being with me today! And LB, too!

But yeah, I guess that sums up what he thought of yesterday. I would grade myself a big A+, which is quite a relief.

On the contrary (and quite to my amazement), Bella was being a little (big) BRAT today! I mean, calm, loving, friendly, "pet me pet me" Bella tried to bite Mom! We were astonished!

Personally, I still like my theory that someone switched Bella and Moose's brains for a day. Because seriously, that was what happened: Moose was EXTREMELY friendly, loving, cuddly, LB, just a lovely character to be around. I mean, he even had TOO MUCH draw!!! I thought I'd never see the day. . . today, I could barely get him to do a circle, because he kept coming in -normally, me and 3 elephants can't make him come in.

Now, Bella was being the opposite! She had NO draw (for her, that's like saying the sun doesn't shine in Hawaii), was throwing tantrums, and was over-reactive! Well, Mom is usually passive and today she acted like a leader, so "how interesting" that today is the day Bella is sassy! I guess she isn't such an angel after all, silly girl.

Overall, I had a very nice day, I hung out/played with Moose for a long time today. We'll just have to see if today was a freak of nature or if I'm actually more savvy than I thought. And it'll be interesting to know how Bella acts tomorrow.

Confuzzling Day

Horses are so ridiculous! I played with Moosey today, it was good overall. It didn't start out very well, though. I decided to use the 22' line today, since I haven't used it for a month or two. Apparently, having that extra rope says to my predator side "Make that horse move," because Moose started having lots of opposition, and then just ran off. Since he seemed to be on adrenaline, I decided to really make him use it this time. We did Falling Leaf all over the pasture, and he even worked up a sweat (silly, out-of-shape pony)!

I wasn't sure if he had calmed down completely yet, so I let him in to check. He seemed fine, since he came off adrenaline a little bit. I let him get a drink then, too. I thought about ending the session right there - I was starting to feel frustrated again, because of this darn adrenaline thing - but changed my mind. I figured we should do one more thing first. Just then, my mom walked up. I talked to her for a few minutes, and observed that Moose looked LB! And that means that I was actually doing things right, which halted the frustration in its tracks.

Next, I tried Stick to Me. We haven't done it in a while, and I needed something to do, so what the heck? It went AMAZING! I was so impressed, because as soon as he understood he was supposed to stay near me, he did superb!! We walked and trotted around together like we were joined at the hip. So proud of my man! :)

But I'm not going to get too hyped up yet. I need to see Moose's reaction to me tomorrow, since it's his opinion that counts, after all. My fingers are crossed. . .

Go spring!

I had a nice day today. It was a little windy, but the weather wasn't too bad. I mostly futzed around today, and played with things that are on a list of mine titled "To Do . . . Whenever I Get Around To It." I didn't have anything else better to do today, so I decided to go right off and try a few things on there. Besides, it dawned on me that if I want these things done, I have to actually do them. Like soon. Or they won't ever get done. So, it was nice to actually start fixing some of those issues. Specifically, I focused on herdboundness today.

I haven't posted much lately, namely due to the fact that I've been VERY frustrated with myself/Moose lately. It just seemed like progress had come to a dead stop, and I wasn't getting much out of our play. Now that I look back on it, I was more or less direct line (poor Moose), but hey. . . I wanted that Level 1 string, you know!! Well, it finally dawned on me that maybe if my horse wasn't doing a Figure 8 well, I should go try something else instead of making him do it 100 more times just to get one 'good' lap. You can tell our relationship was my #1 priority then, can't you?

One more thing to add, I had my mom play with Moose a couple days ago. She was nervous, and hence very passive with him, but not too bad. The issues she had with him were some of the same one's I am having. The only major thing I noticed was that I don't think he ever went on adrenaline the whole time she played with him. Now, that could be because she was being very passive, or because she just plain wasn't on adrenaline. . . Just something to ponder.

The Missing Puzzle Piece

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!

The Adventures of Mr. And Mrs. Brain

To say the least, the horses and I have had some interesting experiences this week.

For starters, on either Monday or Tuesday Moosey cut himself on his face. So, I haven't been playing with him on line due to the cut being close to where the halter would sit. I probably could play with him if I wanted, but I'd prefer to take the safe route and let it heal for a little while. Because of this, I am trying to play with either Dancer or Bella instead.

Yesterday, I picked Dancer. Suprisingly enough, she actually let me halter her without walking away. Though, she had her ears back the whole time. Since I didn't want to push my luck ( she hasn't let me halter her in FOREVER) once I had the halter on I just let her sit there and think about it. I brushed Moosey while I let her think. He was being extremely LB, which was just my luck, right? The day I can't/won't play with him is the day when he's the most confident. :) How ironic! Anyways, Dancer licked her lips twice so I took the halter off and called it a day.

Today, Moosey was the same: very very LB. He was in an even better mood, though. He was actually interested in me today, and followed me around a little bit. I admit I had a few bad feelings toward that cut, lol. But I decided to leave him and took out Mrs. Bella instead.

Now, here's the plot of the adventure: Bella was RB today!! And I'm positive she was this time. It was really windy out today and on windy days, Bella is usually on adrenaline. At first, I was just behind the barn with the horses, so I didn't know it was so windy. But after I haltered her up and walked over to our little obstacle area, she started staring at somewhere out of the pasture. And staring. And staring. And staring. . . and then I had a lightbulb moment: "Hey, she's not paying any attention to me . . . Omg, she's RB!" And as soon as I realized that her staring and not looking away was RB, I started interrupting the pattern. It went alright, I had to really pump up the volume a few times, but each time she would lick her lips afterwards and stare at me, so I took that as a good sign. (Besides, normally she takes forever to lick her lips. How interesting!) After she seemed reasonably left-brain again, I took her back behind the barn to take her halter off. She FINALLY started releasing adrenaline. It seemed like she must have been really keyed up.

On a considerably random ending note, I can't WAIT for Spring!!