I'm typing with my right hand as the left will be in a sling for another 4 weeks or so (see previous post: Disaster Strikes! for the details) and sometimes get a bit lazy when it comes to operating the shift key, hence this title not in caps. It may also create more typos, but I'm trying to get to them before publishing.
Daisy came to me with no respect for my personal space. As we've begun clicker training, I've positioned myself rather than ask her to move. While waiting for the next clicker training disks to arrive, it occurs to me that I am not teaching Daisy about space requirements if I do the adjusting!
It may be time to take an old door mat out to her pasture and work on getting her to stand on the mat with "STAND" as the command. That will give us something to work on while awaiting Alexandra Kurland's DVD's.
I would like to be working with Daisy in a halter and lead rope, but find it very difficult to halter her with one hand. She has been halter free for about three weeks now, ever since my accident and her head is shooting up when it needs to be down for the fly mask to be put on or for her to be haltered. But then, she' only had a few days of clicker training so far.
Another exercise we could work on is touching the target when I am holding her halter at the same time.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Starting Over
Although family and friends expected me to "get rid" of Daisy, my daughter encouraged me to think the issue over carefully to make the right choice, and not one based on the emotions of the moment.
Lying in bed with an arm in a sling gave me plenty of time to go over the events. The unmistakable conclusion was that I had pushed Daisy beyond her limits and that she is a sweet natured horse who would not benefit from someone romping on her. In such an instance, she could kill herself or them.
It was clear that she must be brought along slowly with true clicker training methods. No more handing her treats, just "because." That had developed a tendency to mug me for more treats. No, she must do what is asked to earn the treat, and to establish confidence and strengthen lines of communication between her and me.
Fair enough, but how would I obtain the education, the "how's and why"s" that I needed? A lifetime with horses, being sensitive to their emotions and training them does not give one all they need to know to do the right things and pursue the most beneficial avenues! There simply is no use trying to re-create the wheel on your own, you might say. So what to do?
Enter GiddyUpFlix! Much like Netflix, they have a large library of DVD's and or a modest subscription fee they will send them to you and you can keep and view them as long as you continue to pay the monthly subscription fee. Such a deal!
. I went for the 3 disks at once, so that I wouldn't get to the end of "Part 1" and have to wait for "Part 2" to arrive. I like to get the global all-in-one picture as well as partaking of the info in bite-sized pieces.
So far the staff at GidduUpFlix has been responsive with custie service and putting disks in the mail.
So I received the first DVD in the mail yesterday. Being on the West Coast is nice because the disks are shipped from Washington state (for the geographically challenged, also on the West coast).
The beginning stage of clicker training is for the horse to learn to touch a target (no not a bullseye, but a Frisbee or foam on a stick or road cone) with its nose. The larger targets are more easily viewed by a horse, as their eyes are up on the top side of their heads and they have to focus by raising or lowering their heads for a sort of "manual" focus.
I used an electric roast carving knife to cut two squares from a foam rubber single bed mattress thingy. They sell these to go in campers and the like so you aren't sleeping on plywood. Ours came out of the motorhome and was pretty well used up.
The two fat pieces of foam rubber were then used as the "bread" and a sturdy 24" dowel was the "filling" for this target "sandwich."
I duct taped the foam pieces together and around the dowel somewhat where the foam left off and dowel stuck out.
Daisy sniffed at the new target but she didn't have any interest in it. I was patient and rewarded every slight try but she just wasn't getting it. Then my daughter, who was watching the proceedings, suggested that I place the treat ON TOP of the target.
See next post for what happened next.
Lying in bed with an arm in a sling gave me plenty of time to go over the events. The unmistakable conclusion was that I had pushed Daisy beyond her limits and that she is a sweet natured horse who would not benefit from someone romping on her. In such an instance, she could kill herself or them.
It was clear that she must be brought along slowly with true clicker training methods. No more handing her treats, just "because." That had developed a tendency to mug me for more treats. No, she must do what is asked to earn the treat, and to establish confidence and strengthen lines of communication between her and me.
Fair enough, but how would I obtain the education, the "how's and why"s" that I needed? A lifetime with horses, being sensitive to their emotions and training them does not give one all they need to know to do the right things and pursue the most beneficial avenues! There simply is no use trying to re-create the wheel on your own, you might say. So what to do?
Enter GiddyUpFlix! Much like Netflix, they have a large library of DVD's and or a modest subscription fee they will send them to you and you can keep and view them as long as you continue to pay the monthly subscription fee. Such a deal!
. I went for the 3 disks at once, so that I wouldn't get to the end of "Part 1" and have to wait for "Part 2" to arrive. I like to get the global all-in-one picture as well as partaking of the info in bite-sized pieces.
So far the staff at GidduUpFlix has been responsive with custie service and putting disks in the mail.
So I received the first DVD in the mail yesterday. Being on the West Coast is nice because the disks are shipped from Washington state (for the geographically challenged, also on the West coast).
The beginning stage of clicker training is for the horse to learn to touch a target (no not a bullseye, but a Frisbee or foam on a stick or road cone) with its nose. The larger targets are more easily viewed by a horse, as their eyes are up on the top side of their heads and they have to focus by raising or lowering their heads for a sort of "manual" focus.
I used an electric roast carving knife to cut two squares from a foam rubber single bed mattress thingy. They sell these to go in campers and the like so you aren't sleeping on plywood. Ours came out of the motorhome and was pretty well used up.
The two fat pieces of foam rubber were then used as the "bread" and a sturdy 24" dowel was the "filling" for this target "sandwich."
I duct taped the foam pieces together and around the dowel somewhat where the foam left off and dowel stuck out.
Daisy sniffed at the new target but she didn't have any interest in it. I was patient and rewarded every slight try but she just wasn't getting it. Then my daughter, who was watching the proceedings, suggested that I place the treat ON TOP of the target.
See next post for what happened next.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Disaster Strikes!
Last Monday I did not have my full attention on Saisy as I led her from the pasture. A friend had unexpectedly stopped by the barn area just before this, and she had angrily jumped on me out of the blue. I don't mean she literally tackled me...it was a verbal attack, unexpected and very cutting. The force of her attack had shocked me as I didn't think I warranted it, and I was left hurt and replaying her emotions in that attack, like playing a song over and over again to clarify unclear words in a song. Was my request to leave a volunteer position a half hour early so I could remove Daisy from her pasture so they could mow the tall grass there wrong? The only time that the owner of the property could do this was that day and time.
I looked at Daisy, covered in a hard, black, and in some places sticky substance all over her nose and body. A white horse now turning grey-black. She must have a bath as the stuff was making her miserable and drawing flies.
I walked through the pasture, pulling up the weeds and grass but did not find what was causing this to coat her hair. (A friend said later that it is the sugar in the tall grass's stalks...the Juice" or sap. I don't know but that sounds reasonable to me.)
As I led a reluctant Daisy out of her pasture, she froze. She didn't want to leave the closest thing she had to a "herd"--two horses across the driveway from her pasture and up the road a bit. She'd watched them for hours and days, probably longing to join up with them. Daisy always thinks like a wild horse as she has taken care of herself,for the most part out at pasture most of her life.
I had been thinking that it would be an interesting experiment to take her over to meet them, standing outside their pasture so they could meet, and I could circle her away from them if it didn't go well. Daisy always does better when I recognize her need to figure things out for herself and investigate when she feels the need. For example, when I was keeping her in the stall and miniscule turn-out area, and would put her lead rope on and lead her down the barn aisle towards the outside, she needed to stop and stare intently at the now vacant stall where Buck used to be. She became exceptionally fond of the big, calm, older gelding who had confidence that she lacked in their surroundings,
She seems to be saying, "Don't rush me" when she needs to stop and peer into the open tack room door. It has been well said that horses are paranoid, fearful, scaredy-cats. As the ultimate prey animal, that's how they are hard-wired to think and feel. Daisy needs to check out her surroundings to be sure something is not lurking within the shadows. Unless or until she is comfortable transferring leadership to me, she will continue to be in charge of her own safety, at least in her mind.
So, I got Daisy moving by moving back along her body and giving her a light whop with the end of the rope, instead of short-circuiting her thought processes with a treat as I'd usually do. I kept feeling the sting of my friend's words and disapproval Eas I in the wrong? How could I have managed to get that tall grass mown on another dsay when clearly, it had been stated that the one day was the only option?
Daisy shot past me. I turned her in a circle. She was upset asshe'd shoot past me again and she was not able to go back towards the other horses, nor return to her pasture.
Horses are gifted empaths, who, have a much more difficult time blocking out awareness of your emotions than they do of being aware of them! Daisy knew I felt upset, unsure, and wasn't focused on her. I was an unfit leader at that point for any prey animal. I didn't stop to disengage her hind end which was pushing her forward in her anxiety. I didn't disconnect the road her fears and frustrations were taking her down at an ever increasing rate.
I had been viewing a Parelli DVD, over and over, watching Pat send a horse's back end away from him with the end of the rope. Now Daisy was going around me, crow-hopping. I could have stopped rthe action there and should have. I chose instead to try to swing the wimpy, soft dock line, a quaryer of an inch too slim in diameter, at her big and rapidly approaching rump. No good. It was like using a long piece of cooked spaghetti.
She lashed out at me with both heels, and connected with my left arm, dead center (see photo below to view that massive, muscled hind end!). I flew about 10 feet through the air. She pulled the rope out of my hands and trotted off to investigate the two other horses. I knew from the looks and numbness of my left arm that it was hideously damaged. Fortunately, my daughter had bought me a cell phone lanyard and insisted that I always hang the cell phone around my neck when with Daisy.
I called for help, then struggled to my feet, my left arm dangling in a sick way, managed to grab the lead rope and jerk Daisy back into her pasture before collapsing under a tree.
It was a tough rest of the day, culminating in surgery that evening. I was fortunate that the rigjt surgeon was contacted and that he was able to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. Having an orthopedic surgeon of that caliber in our small town area is a huge blessing to the community. I believe that he gets mostly senior citizen joint replacement work so this must have been the odd challenge that he could really sink his teeth into.
Initially a friend placed an ad for Daisy on Craig's List for me. She was honest, which is always the best policy (too bad the seller wasn't honest with me!) but everyone who called and heard the tale shied off, recommending that I put her down or rehome her at a rescue place hor horses.
My daughter, who is very sensitive and a remarkable empathy herself came home from tending Daisy and remarked that she felt a twinge when she read over the Craig's List ad I put together yesterday. We chatted about the curious set of odd events which had brought about the blow up and subsequent injury. "You watched that Parelli video and pushed her too fast" she remarked. That was true. Although treats work best with Daisy, I worry about needing her compliance someday and finding myself without them. So I'd decided to try a different method. And I'd insisted that she do my biddibg without getting her trust yet.
Pat Parelli says, "It takes as long as it takes." I'd forgotten that. Humans tend to want to "school" horses, i.e., give thenm a task and insist that they accomplish it. Why? Because I said so. That is "predator" thinking. Behaving like a predator blocks the process whereby a horse comes to give their safety up into our hands. They can become resigned that they have no way to fight us and win, but that is not the same thing.
I learned valuable lessons from this incident. And those lessons are the opposite of what my lifetime of impressions and learned responses to horses' antics has been. I grew up in a very egocentric horse area where the horse people dominated their horses to a high degree. The horses were used to feed the human riders' egos and oten the horses were used until they became lame, then a new horse was acquired and the old one dumped. I read cover to cover constantly of training theory while growing up...everything from "Western Horseman" magazine to Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School. There were only occasional nuggets of natural horsemanship scattered throughout.
One lesson that I will never forget from this point forward is to be aware of a horse's escalating emotions and immediately "pour water on the fire" rather than allowing them to continue to escalate!
Another lesson is that I need to learn more about clicker training. I started using a clicker followed by a treat, but soon quit holding onto the clumsy clicker. Yet the sound, followed by a treat got through to Daisy remarkably well. It was what gave her the first feelings of relief and confidence that this human did something pleasant to her consistently. She latched onto the concept of try to figure out what the human wants and rest assured that there would be no punishment for boo-boos, and instant and clear confirmation when she got it right, followed by a tasty treat. She was onboard for that by her third click!
For those who can sit down and buy Parelli DVD sets, I salute you. My piggy bank is simply not that big! So I joined GiddyUpFlix for $11.95 and have made a list of the DVD's I'd like them to send me. While one can pay a higher subscription price to be sent more disks at a time, I'm starting out small with one disk at a time, but if this works as well as I suspect it will, I'll probably soon upgrade to 3 disks at a time. (Note--soon upgraded to 3 disks at a time--which is vey helpful if you finish the first video in a set and want to see the next two right away.)
The library of DVD's is immense and has many natural horsemanship trainers' videos, including the Parelli's. Wow!
So, while the compound fracture and dislocation is healing, I have a lot of DVD's to be watched, one at a time as they are mailed to me (free shipping both ways), then I put the viewed one in the mailer and when they receive it, they send the next one.
I have made a viewing lust of DVD's from their "problem horse" category (LOL).
The ad for Daisy has been pulled for now. She needs to be de-slimed. My daughter says that she looks just awful and is miserable with that hard and sticky black stuff all over her. There is a spray-on product we will buy which takes off green stains and probably this black stuff which may just be jucier green stuff after it dries on the horse,
It's problematic when you want to wash a horse or do some other thing with them, yet they have not given their complete trust to you yet. Fortunately this miracle wash product is spray on, wipe off I think. I'll post a review soon after we try it. Although Daisy casts a jaundiced eye towards all spray bottles, she will stand still for being sprayed if the treats are forthcoming on a regular basis. She gets her right side sprayed, then gets a treat. After the front legs are sprayed...here comes another treat.
It's hot and muggy these days, and I've had trouble with the polyester cushioning material inside the half cast...heat makes me break out in a terrible rash inside the bandages. So I've stayed inside. But I'm going to have to go out in the heat and help my daughter clean up Daisy. I do hope they will use some other material when the hard cast is put on, although folks who have been there tell me that one's skin dries out, flakes and itches regardless (sigh).
I looked at Daisy, covered in a hard, black, and in some places sticky substance all over her nose and body. A white horse now turning grey-black. She must have a bath as the stuff was making her miserable and drawing flies.
I walked through the pasture, pulling up the weeds and grass but did not find what was causing this to coat her hair. (A friend said later that it is the sugar in the tall grass's stalks...the Juice" or sap. I don't know but that sounds reasonable to me.)
As I led a reluctant Daisy out of her pasture, she froze. She didn't want to leave the closest thing she had to a "herd"--two horses across the driveway from her pasture and up the road a bit. She'd watched them for hours and days, probably longing to join up with them. Daisy always thinks like a wild horse as she has taken care of herself,for the most part out at pasture most of her life.
I had been thinking that it would be an interesting experiment to take her over to meet them, standing outside their pasture so they could meet, and I could circle her away from them if it didn't go well. Daisy always does better when I recognize her need to figure things out for herself and investigate when she feels the need. For example, when I was keeping her in the stall and miniscule turn-out area, and would put her lead rope on and lead her down the barn aisle towards the outside, she needed to stop and stare intently at the now vacant stall where Buck used to be. She became exceptionally fond of the big, calm, older gelding who had confidence that she lacked in their surroundings,
She seems to be saying, "Don't rush me" when she needs to stop and peer into the open tack room door. It has been well said that horses are paranoid, fearful, scaredy-cats. As the ultimate prey animal, that's how they are hard-wired to think and feel. Daisy needs to check out her surroundings to be sure something is not lurking within the shadows. Unless or until she is comfortable transferring leadership to me, she will continue to be in charge of her own safety, at least in her mind.
So, I got Daisy moving by moving back along her body and giving her a light whop with the end of the rope, instead of short-circuiting her thought processes with a treat as I'd usually do. I kept feeling the sting of my friend's words and disapproval Eas I in the wrong? How could I have managed to get that tall grass mown on another dsay when clearly, it had been stated that the one day was the only option?
Daisy shot past me. I turned her in a circle. She was upset asshe'd shoot past me again and she was not able to go back towards the other horses, nor return to her pasture.
Horses are gifted empaths, who, have a much more difficult time blocking out awareness of your emotions than they do of being aware of them! Daisy knew I felt upset, unsure, and wasn't focused on her. I was an unfit leader at that point for any prey animal. I didn't stop to disengage her hind end which was pushing her forward in her anxiety. I didn't disconnect the road her fears and frustrations were taking her down at an ever increasing rate.
I had been viewing a Parelli DVD, over and over, watching Pat send a horse's back end away from him with the end of the rope. Now Daisy was going around me, crow-hopping. I could have stopped rthe action there and should have. I chose instead to try to swing the wimpy, soft dock line, a quaryer of an inch too slim in diameter, at her big and rapidly approaching rump. No good. It was like using a long piece of cooked spaghetti.
She lashed out at me with both heels, and connected with my left arm, dead center (see photo below to view that massive, muscled hind end!). I flew about 10 feet through the air. She pulled the rope out of my hands and trotted off to investigate the two other horses. I knew from the looks and numbness of my left arm that it was hideously damaged. Fortunately, my daughter had bought me a cell phone lanyard and insisted that I always hang the cell phone around my neck when with Daisy.
I called for help, then struggled to my feet, my left arm dangling in a sick way, managed to grab the lead rope and jerk Daisy back into her pasture before collapsing under a tree.
It was a tough rest of the day, culminating in surgery that evening. I was fortunate that the rigjt surgeon was contacted and that he was able to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. Having an orthopedic surgeon of that caliber in our small town area is a huge blessing to the community. I believe that he gets mostly senior citizen joint replacement work so this must have been the odd challenge that he could really sink his teeth into.
Initially a friend placed an ad for Daisy on Craig's List for me. She was honest, which is always the best policy (too bad the seller wasn't honest with me!) but everyone who called and heard the tale shied off, recommending that I put her down or rehome her at a rescue place hor horses.
My daughter, who is very sensitive and a remarkable empathy herself came home from tending Daisy and remarked that she felt a twinge when she read over the Craig's List ad I put together yesterday. We chatted about the curious set of odd events which had brought about the blow up and subsequent injury. "You watched that Parelli video and pushed her too fast" she remarked. That was true. Although treats work best with Daisy, I worry about needing her compliance someday and finding myself without them. So I'd decided to try a different method. And I'd insisted that she do my biddibg without getting her trust yet.
Pat Parelli says, "It takes as long as it takes." I'd forgotten that. Humans tend to want to "school" horses, i.e., give thenm a task and insist that they accomplish it. Why? Because I said so. That is "predator" thinking. Behaving like a predator blocks the process whereby a horse comes to give their safety up into our hands. They can become resigned that they have no way to fight us and win, but that is not the same thing.
I learned valuable lessons from this incident. And those lessons are the opposite of what my lifetime of impressions and learned responses to horses' antics has been. I grew up in a very egocentric horse area where the horse people dominated their horses to a high degree. The horses were used to feed the human riders' egos and oten the horses were used until they became lame, then a new horse was acquired and the old one dumped. I read cover to cover constantly of training theory while growing up...everything from "Western Horseman" magazine to Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School. There were only occasional nuggets of natural horsemanship scattered throughout.
One lesson that I will never forget from this point forward is to be aware of a horse's escalating emotions and immediately "pour water on the fire" rather than allowing them to continue to escalate!
Another lesson is that I need to learn more about clicker training. I started using a clicker followed by a treat, but soon quit holding onto the clumsy clicker. Yet the sound, followed by a treat got through to Daisy remarkably well. It was what gave her the first feelings of relief and confidence that this human did something pleasant to her consistently. She latched onto the concept of try to figure out what the human wants and rest assured that there would be no punishment for boo-boos, and instant and clear confirmation when she got it right, followed by a tasty treat. She was onboard for that by her third click!
For those who can sit down and buy Parelli DVD sets, I salute you. My piggy bank is simply not that big! So I joined GiddyUpFlix for $11.95 and have made a list of the DVD's I'd like them to send me. While one can pay a higher subscription price to be sent more disks at a time, I'm starting out small with one disk at a time, but if this works as well as I suspect it will, I'll probably soon upgrade to 3 disks at a time. (Note--soon upgraded to 3 disks at a time--which is vey helpful if you finish the first video in a set and want to see the next two right away.)
The library of DVD's is immense and has many natural horsemanship trainers' videos, including the Parelli's. Wow!
So, while the compound fracture and dislocation is healing, I have a lot of DVD's to be watched, one at a time as they are mailed to me (free shipping both ways), then I put the viewed one in the mailer and when they receive it, they send the next one.
I have made a viewing lust of DVD's from their "problem horse" category (LOL).
The ad for Daisy has been pulled for now. She needs to be de-slimed. My daughter says that she looks just awful and is miserable with that hard and sticky black stuff all over her. There is a spray-on product we will buy which takes off green stains and probably this black stuff which may just be jucier green stuff after it dries on the horse,
It's problematic when you want to wash a horse or do some other thing with them, yet they have not given their complete trust to you yet. Fortunately this miracle wash product is spray on, wipe off I think. I'll post a review soon after we try it. Although Daisy casts a jaundiced eye towards all spray bottles, she will stand still for being sprayed if the treats are forthcoming on a regular basis. She gets her right side sprayed, then gets a treat. After the front legs are sprayed...here comes another treat.
It's hot and muggy these days, and I've had trouble with the polyester cushioning material inside the half cast...heat makes me break out in a terrible rash inside the bandages. So I've stayed inside. But I'm going to have to go out in the heat and help my daughter clean up Daisy. I do hope they will use some other material when the hard cast is put on, although folks who have been there tell me that one's skin dries out, flakes and itches regardless (sigh).
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Why Level 1 doesn't work well unless you quickly incorporate Level 2
The Parelli complex has been set up with the assumption that you have far more money than you want, and that you are just dying to get rid of a pile of it, which the Parelli company will kindly remove from your bank account or the old sock under the bed. Going under that assumption, they have outlined a great way to progress, but most of the explanations and "what to do next" and "how to do it" are contained in DVD's that you must purchase.
Now, I'm sure that those expensive DVD's are VERY nicely done, and clear, and just what the doctor ordered. However, by the time you pay for your monthly Parelli Connection (on the Internet), and get yourself a carrot stick with a rope, and a rope halter, and a 22 foot longe line and a 12 foot lead rope, without which it's darned near impossible to progress, many folks will find themselves out of money, and possibly short on food as well until the next few paychecks can repair the hemmorhage to their bank account.
I fall into that category, and didn't purchase my stuff from Parelli (well, other than the Parelli Connect membership). I'm using a homemade longe line which is 7 feet too short, and a quarter of an inch too small in diameter, making it difficult to latch on properly during those times when Daisy gets a gleeful gleam in her eye, and turns tail and hauls bootie for the opposite end of the small arena, jerking the thin longe line right out of my hands. Of course, she always turns around and trots back to me with the glow of success in her eyes. I just sigh and pick up where I left off. Punishing a LBE for a playful move would rain on their parade, pop their balloon, and nurture a sulky animal. It would be about as mean as stepping on a puppy. However (!), I WILL eventually acquire a longe line rope that I can hang onto and when I can, I will quickly take a grip and a stance at the beginning of her game, and she will come to a screeching halt.
There's a lot to be said for a rope halter. Originally, I didn't want to use one, as my predominantly Right Brain Introvert horses wanted to feel safe, secure and all wrapped up in a soft coccoon. LBE's (Left Brain Extroverts) have no such insecurities! They must be able to FEEL the pressure of a halter to understand what you want, at least in the beginning. I have no doubt that Daisy will come eventually to respond to a feather's touch, but that will be down the road a bit. At the moment she needs the "cues" as surely as a dancer needs phyiscal cues from their partner. And lacking those cues and the cause-and-effect thing of the rope halter, she simply becomes hedonistic and does her own thing.
This, however, does not mean that she doesn't care about me. And I hope if others are reading this, who have a Left Brain Extrovert on their hands, that they will take heart. Daisy is a loving, caring horse and I believe that once a human becomes non-scary to the horse (who is a claustrophobic fear-a-holic by nature), and once patterns are established that the horse can depend upon to happen today, tomorrow and forever after that, and if the horse is treated in a caring and loving manner, they tend to respond by bonding with their human.
Bit I digress...What I started out to say was that Parelli gives you quite a bit of instruction (written and video) on the Level 1 Seven Games (Friendly, Porcupine, Driving, Yo-Yo, Circling, Sideways and Squeeze). But unless you purchase a comprehensive DVD, it is not stressed adequately that a horse can become pretty sour if you concentrate on just those seven games, and don't incorporate Level 2 at the same time. Level 2 has you using elements of those games to get your horse to, for instance, go around two road cones, in a figure 8 pattern, Or using the Squeeze Game to help a horse release claustrophobic fears of a trailer.
Why should horses be all that different than humans, in that no one wants to have their nose stuck to the grindstone all the time. Give us a something to hang a concept on, and we "get it" a lot faster and more happily. I read about a nun in a parochial school who taught math by teaching the kids how bets are wagered at the track! This was in a different age and time than the one we now live in, but the kids ate it up and became marvels at figuring. It gave them something to "hang their hat on," instead of leaving the concepts dangling.
While watching a free video of Pat working with a horse to get it to do the figure 8's around road cones, walk over a tarp with a lack of concern and so on, it became clear that many of us (me included) tended to take a closer, tighter micro-managing grip on the leadrope when the horse was cutting capers and behaving in an unreliable fashion. As long as you have a longish rope and a rope halter, it works far better to give the horse a bit of rope when possible, letting it caper around you and move it's nervous feet, while guiding and directing with the carrot stick, forcing the horse to start focusing on you as you incorporate some of the seven games.
A horse which is thinking, "Uh oh! Watch out for the road cone" or "Oh my, look at that enormous, scary ball" and which is worked closer and closer, allowed to evade but is brought back time and again, gets into a rhythm, relatxation, retreat cycle which allows you to bring the horse nearer and near until they find that what scared them is no longer an issue.
And all you need to blow it is getting into a "forcing" mode. Traditional thinking says that the faster and sooner you can force the horse to submit, the better horseman you are. The truth is that it takes as long as it takes. Take the time to do it right the first time. A true horseman (I refer to myself as a horseman, but I'm a woman...just as I tend to call all post office mail deliverers postmen even when they are women) understands where his horse is coming from and understands the process it will take to bring the horse out of its natural fears. Dominion and submission is about "look how fast I brought that about." Natural horsemanship is more about thorough. It's about helping the horse work through the issue so that the issue no longer exists. This isn't always done in one session. Indeed, shorter sessions work better. Everyone has a certain window of best learning time. It's more effective in the end to use that window, and not push on the days when the horse has drawn a curtain over the window!
So what can I do, with only a puny round pen, to take Daisy into Level 2 exercises? Well, the pen is large enough for a small tarp. She is annoyed/bothered by things she has to walk over, but it will hold her attention which otherwise wanders because going around and around in a round pen is BORING! And repeatedly asking her to reverse direction is aggravating. She wants to know what the point is. Can you blame her?
I plan to take out an umbrella (we should get a lot of mileage out of opening and closing that, then leaving it open on the ground and playing the Squeeze Game past it. Ditto for a plastic bag on a Carrot Stick. But I don't want to focus primarily on "scary objects" only, because horses need games where they can move their feet and think. So some poles may be utilized as well. Parallel to her line of travel and she can go between a pole and the arena fence (Squeeze Game). Crossways and we have cavelleti's.
Anything which allows me to work with her on about 10 feet or a bit more of lead rope will allow her to start managing her actions and learning more about communication signals from me.
Now, I'm sure that those expensive DVD's are VERY nicely done, and clear, and just what the doctor ordered. However, by the time you pay for your monthly Parelli Connection (on the Internet), and get yourself a carrot stick with a rope, and a rope halter, and a 22 foot longe line and a 12 foot lead rope, without which it's darned near impossible to progress, many folks will find themselves out of money, and possibly short on food as well until the next few paychecks can repair the hemmorhage to their bank account.
I fall into that category, and didn't purchase my stuff from Parelli (well, other than the Parelli Connect membership). I'm using a homemade longe line which is 7 feet too short, and a quarter of an inch too small in diameter, making it difficult to latch on properly during those times when Daisy gets a gleeful gleam in her eye, and turns tail and hauls bootie for the opposite end of the small arena, jerking the thin longe line right out of my hands. Of course, she always turns around and trots back to me with the glow of success in her eyes. I just sigh and pick up where I left off. Punishing a LBE for a playful move would rain on their parade, pop their balloon, and nurture a sulky animal. It would be about as mean as stepping on a puppy. However (!), I WILL eventually acquire a longe line rope that I can hang onto and when I can, I will quickly take a grip and a stance at the beginning of her game, and she will come to a screeching halt.
There's a lot to be said for a rope halter. Originally, I didn't want to use one, as my predominantly Right Brain Introvert horses wanted to feel safe, secure and all wrapped up in a soft coccoon. LBE's (Left Brain Extroverts) have no such insecurities! They must be able to FEEL the pressure of a halter to understand what you want, at least in the beginning. I have no doubt that Daisy will come eventually to respond to a feather's touch, but that will be down the road a bit. At the moment she needs the "cues" as surely as a dancer needs phyiscal cues from their partner. And lacking those cues and the cause-and-effect thing of the rope halter, she simply becomes hedonistic and does her own thing.
This, however, does not mean that she doesn't care about me. And I hope if others are reading this, who have a Left Brain Extrovert on their hands, that they will take heart. Daisy is a loving, caring horse and I believe that once a human becomes non-scary to the horse (who is a claustrophobic fear-a-holic by nature), and once patterns are established that the horse can depend upon to happen today, tomorrow and forever after that, and if the horse is treated in a caring and loving manner, they tend to respond by bonding with their human.
Bit I digress...What I started out to say was that Parelli gives you quite a bit of instruction (written and video) on the Level 1 Seven Games (Friendly, Porcupine, Driving, Yo-Yo, Circling, Sideways and Squeeze). But unless you purchase a comprehensive DVD, it is not stressed adequately that a horse can become pretty sour if you concentrate on just those seven games, and don't incorporate Level 2 at the same time. Level 2 has you using elements of those games to get your horse to, for instance, go around two road cones, in a figure 8 pattern, Or using the Squeeze Game to help a horse release claustrophobic fears of a trailer.
Why should horses be all that different than humans, in that no one wants to have their nose stuck to the grindstone all the time. Give us a something to hang a concept on, and we "get it" a lot faster and more happily. I read about a nun in a parochial school who taught math by teaching the kids how bets are wagered at the track! This was in a different age and time than the one we now live in, but the kids ate it up and became marvels at figuring. It gave them something to "hang their hat on," instead of leaving the concepts dangling.
While watching a free video of Pat working with a horse to get it to do the figure 8's around road cones, walk over a tarp with a lack of concern and so on, it became clear that many of us (me included) tended to take a closer, tighter micro-managing grip on the leadrope when the horse was cutting capers and behaving in an unreliable fashion. As long as you have a longish rope and a rope halter, it works far better to give the horse a bit of rope when possible, letting it caper around you and move it's nervous feet, while guiding and directing with the carrot stick, forcing the horse to start focusing on you as you incorporate some of the seven games.
A horse which is thinking, "Uh oh! Watch out for the road cone" or "Oh my, look at that enormous, scary ball" and which is worked closer and closer, allowed to evade but is brought back time and again, gets into a rhythm, relatxation, retreat cycle which allows you to bring the horse nearer and near until they find that what scared them is no longer an issue.
And all you need to blow it is getting into a "forcing" mode. Traditional thinking says that the faster and sooner you can force the horse to submit, the better horseman you are. The truth is that it takes as long as it takes. Take the time to do it right the first time. A true horseman (I refer to myself as a horseman, but I'm a woman...just as I tend to call all post office mail deliverers postmen even when they are women) understands where his horse is coming from and understands the process it will take to bring the horse out of its natural fears. Dominion and submission is about "look how fast I brought that about." Natural horsemanship is more about thorough. It's about helping the horse work through the issue so that the issue no longer exists. This isn't always done in one session. Indeed, shorter sessions work better. Everyone has a certain window of best learning time. It's more effective in the end to use that window, and not push on the days when the horse has drawn a curtain over the window!
So what can I do, with only a puny round pen, to take Daisy into Level 2 exercises? Well, the pen is large enough for a small tarp. She is annoyed/bothered by things she has to walk over, but it will hold her attention which otherwise wanders because going around and around in a round pen is BORING! And repeatedly asking her to reverse direction is aggravating. She wants to know what the point is. Can you blame her?
I plan to take out an umbrella (we should get a lot of mileage out of opening and closing that, then leaving it open on the ground and playing the Squeeze Game past it. Ditto for a plastic bag on a Carrot Stick. But I don't want to focus primarily on "scary objects" only, because horses need games where they can move their feet and think. So some poles may be utilized as well. Parallel to her line of travel and she can go between a pole and the arena fence (Squeeze Game). Crossways and we have cavelleti's.
Anything which allows me to work with her on about 10 feet or a bit more of lead rope will allow her to start managing her actions and learning more about communication signals from me.
Fllies and Frustrations and Leg Wraps, Oh My!
After speaking with the owners of the barn property, and realizing that they were not willing to do anything to mitigate the harrassment of the other boarder's horses towards Daisy, I decided to take matters into my own hands and do everything that I could to make things better.
The first stop was our local feed store where I picked up a fly mask and commercial fly spray (sigh). I hadn't wanted to use chemicals on her, but they were of less concern at the moment than the damage the flies were going to do to her. I didn't want flesh-eating fly larvae embedded in her skin, didn't want her to become allergic to fly bites and mosquito bites (have known other horses to developed this condition and it's a bugger-bear to treat), and didn't want her to develop an eye infection from all the fruit flies drinking her eye fluid. She had started to develop a small amount of yellow gunk at the corner of her eyes.
Fortunately Daisy seems to have worn a fly mask before. She accepted it, including the sound of the velcro being torn away from itself, with equanimity.
I put Bag Balm on the wounds on each pastern, then a spot of toilet paper, then a leg wrap. She was less saguine about the leg wraps. When she felt something going around her leg, she would lift her leg up in protest. It was the wrapping of the fetlock area which really bothered her. When the leg wrap went further up her leg, she was fine.
I sprayed a gnat on Daisy's hair, and the thing instantly died. The flies dissippated to a large extent, once the two wounds on her front legs were covered up. After spraying the fly spray on her body, the rest of the flies left en masse. Her delicate pink skin under the white hair was no longer the delicacy they'd envisioned.
While using relatively harsh chemical fly spray (Endure)--which is said to work even when the horse sweats--on my horse doesn't fill me with confidence, the feed store owner has been using this stuff, she claims, for years now, and her horse is still kicking. I hope to be able to move on to a less manured area with fewer pests, but for now, fly spray is the best defense.
By the way, I was using Avon Skin So Soft, a bit of Dawn detergent, baby oil and water, with a few drops of eucalyptus oil added for good measure. The concoction stinks to high heaven (shoot, just the Skin So Soft is enduringly smelly!) but after two days in the canning jar, it didn't repel the flies anymore. And even on the first day, although I followed the recipe to the letter, after a few hours, and a good roll in the grass, it stopped working.
The next step was to more closely inspect the covered turn-out area and try to determine what she was contacting with thich was allowing her to tear open flesh on the pasterns. By golly, it was very hard to see, but there is a sort of heavy, sharp, thick wire piece sticking out of the gate. Short, and very sharp. I covered that part of the gate, from left to right, with the bubble "pillows" that come in a long attached length, and taped that thingy to the gate with duct tape. If any of the "pillows" end up deflated, I'll know that was the spot she was pawing or striking to tell the other horses in horse-language, to bugger off and get out of her personal space.
Horses are terrific, effortless empaths, who have more trouble tuning out a person or other animal's feelings than they do picking up on them! Daisy knows full well the feelings and intents of the two marauding boarder's horses. She has felt my frustration and irritation with them as well. And they have felt the love and observed the caring I lavish on Daisy. They would like to remove her and insert themselves in the mix. I don't blame them for wanting better care, but there is nothing that I can do to help them, except continue to progress in "ah-hah!"moments in natural horsemanship, and hope to help spread the information and knowledge in my own little area (isn't that what they call "blooming where you're planted?")
I had the opportunity to mention Daisy's plight to a very well-connected friend yesterday and she said she'd make some phone calls and see if she couldn't scare me up a better place for Daisy. I will make some phone calls also in that regard.
The first stop was our local feed store where I picked up a fly mask and commercial fly spray (sigh). I hadn't wanted to use chemicals on her, but they were of less concern at the moment than the damage the flies were going to do to her. I didn't want flesh-eating fly larvae embedded in her skin, didn't want her to become allergic to fly bites and mosquito bites (have known other horses to developed this condition and it's a bugger-bear to treat), and didn't want her to develop an eye infection from all the fruit flies drinking her eye fluid. She had started to develop a small amount of yellow gunk at the corner of her eyes.
Fortunately Daisy seems to have worn a fly mask before. She accepted it, including the sound of the velcro being torn away from itself, with equanimity.
I put Bag Balm on the wounds on each pastern, then a spot of toilet paper, then a leg wrap. She was less saguine about the leg wraps. When she felt something going around her leg, she would lift her leg up in protest. It was the wrapping of the fetlock area which really bothered her. When the leg wrap went further up her leg, she was fine.
I sprayed a gnat on Daisy's hair, and the thing instantly died. The flies dissippated to a large extent, once the two wounds on her front legs were covered up. After spraying the fly spray on her body, the rest of the flies left en masse. Her delicate pink skin under the white hair was no longer the delicacy they'd envisioned.
While using relatively harsh chemical fly spray (Endure)--which is said to work even when the horse sweats--on my horse doesn't fill me with confidence, the feed store owner has been using this stuff, she claims, for years now, and her horse is still kicking. I hope to be able to move on to a less manured area with fewer pests, but for now, fly spray is the best defense.
By the way, I was using Avon Skin So Soft, a bit of Dawn detergent, baby oil and water, with a few drops of eucalyptus oil added for good measure. The concoction stinks to high heaven (shoot, just the Skin So Soft is enduringly smelly!) but after two days in the canning jar, it didn't repel the flies anymore. And even on the first day, although I followed the recipe to the letter, after a few hours, and a good roll in the grass, it stopped working.
The next step was to more closely inspect the covered turn-out area and try to determine what she was contacting with thich was allowing her to tear open flesh on the pasterns. By golly, it was very hard to see, but there is a sort of heavy, sharp, thick wire piece sticking out of the gate. Short, and very sharp. I covered that part of the gate, from left to right, with the bubble "pillows" that come in a long attached length, and taped that thingy to the gate with duct tape. If any of the "pillows" end up deflated, I'll know that was the spot she was pawing or striking to tell the other horses in horse-language, to bugger off and get out of her personal space.
Horses are terrific, effortless empaths, who have more trouble tuning out a person or other animal's feelings than they do picking up on them! Daisy knows full well the feelings and intents of the two marauding boarder's horses. She has felt my frustration and irritation with them as well. And they have felt the love and observed the caring I lavish on Daisy. They would like to remove her and insert themselves in the mix. I don't blame them for wanting better care, but there is nothing that I can do to help them, except continue to progress in "ah-hah!"moments in natural horsemanship, and hope to help spread the information and knowledge in my own little area (isn't that what they call "blooming where you're planted?")
I had the opportunity to mention Daisy's plight to a very well-connected friend yesterday and she said she'd make some phone calls and see if she couldn't scare me up a better place for Daisy. I will make some phone calls also in that regard.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
I said I'd ignore everything but blood...but this is ridiculous!
Another boarder has horses which often are kept in their stalls, but when they are turned out into their large paddock, they come up to Daisy's small covered area and stick their heads and necks as far as they can into her area, and taunt her. These horses are hungry! They are kept "lean" and they are NOT happy about it.
Daisy strikes out with a foot, trying to tell them in horse language to get the heck out of her space. They, being loose, are fine, but Daisy, in a confined space, has battered her pretty front legs around the front of the pastern area.
She was just starting to heal up when the people started turning their horses loose again. This morning she had dried blood on both front legs and the wounds were larger. This is very frustrating, to board where horses can walk up to a barn/covered turn-out area and raise Cain. However this is the same barn which uses water from a ground water run-off stream, with Round-up, fertilizer, oil and gas running into it, and where the manure pile is open and accessed by the previously mentioned, hungry horses.
I shared my concerns with the owners of this place, but they didn't want to put up a steel stake and wire second fence to keep the marauding horses away from the four stall barn where my horse is kept. There are no other boarders in this barn at the moment, so my horse is the only one getting "the business" from these two horses.
I have requested the "honor" of Daisy being moved to a different place on the property when that becomes available. I'll still have to haul in all her water, as I don't want her coming down with cancer or something equally awful from drinking the bad water, but she'd have pasture, a stall for shelter in bad weather, and she'd not be standing on blacktop anymore. Can you imagine: putting down blacktop in a small covered turn-out area?! And it is not flat, so urine pools in the dips in the blacktop.
This just goes to show that now all folks who follow natural horsemanship and the Parelli's ideas are wealthy folks with covered indoor arenas and expensive Parelli equipment (grin). I salute those who are that well heeled, but some of us are not, and one can still utilize natural horsemanship methods...it just takes a bit more thought and effort.
Gee, did I happen to mention that the owner of the two marauding horses who have been tormenting Daisy also has cluttered up the smallish outdoor arena with her trail obstacles, to the point that one can only circle the outside track because the inside is completely filled with barrels, road cones, a tilting bridge, a platform, a long narrow "bench," and poles? The bench, platform and bridge are too heavy for a human to move--it would take a tractor or ATV and a rope. I inquired nicely, and was advised that the boarder who owns all that stuff would not want it shifted.
I have attempted to work on Level 1 games in the arena, trying to navigate around all those clunky obstacles (I moved the lighter weight stuff to one side while I was using the arena, then moved it back after I was done, however the heavy obstacles each took up part of the space of a third of the arena, so taken all together, the arena was STILL unusable for the most part). Daisy clonked herself as she'd come around and being very green, was of two minds. Things to avoid in her path, she wanted to follow her own ideas, naturally, being an LBE, and she'd collide with a large, heavy object. More blood (sigh).
So I took to working with her in the round pen, which has its own problems. Never mind that the boards are rotting and you have to lift way UP on the gate to latch it (groan--it's heavy). Round pens were never designed to give you a whole lot of space, right? So the whole pen becomes an enormous "crutch" to the horse and its education. If you work a horse in a round pen, the fences confine the horse. When you branch out to open space, many times the horse will "branch out" also, and not the way you want it to, either.
I did borrow some road cones and brought a tarp, to give Daisy something to work with, but she needs to be encouraged to do figure 8's around road cones and there is very little space for that in a round pen. She needs the room to be forced to use her mind to think about where she is putting her feet, instead of "falling asleep at the switch" so easily in a round pen.
My daughter suggested that I consider draping padding such as a blanket over the fence, so that Daisy won't be so likely to re-injure her front feet. Ideally, I'd like to fasten wire fencing material (hog
wire) over the entire space where the horses are sticking their heads and necks over, but part of that is a gate (which leads to the aforementioned open manure pile) and the gate should not be blocked. So I'll take a peek in the linen closet and see what we've got that is "expendable."
Daisy strikes out with a foot, trying to tell them in horse language to get the heck out of her space. They, being loose, are fine, but Daisy, in a confined space, has battered her pretty front legs around the front of the pastern area.
She was just starting to heal up when the people started turning their horses loose again. This morning she had dried blood on both front legs and the wounds were larger. This is very frustrating, to board where horses can walk up to a barn/covered turn-out area and raise Cain. However this is the same barn which uses water from a ground water run-off stream, with Round-up, fertilizer, oil and gas running into it, and where the manure pile is open and accessed by the previously mentioned, hungry horses.
I shared my concerns with the owners of this place, but they didn't want to put up a steel stake and wire second fence to keep the marauding horses away from the four stall barn where my horse is kept. There are no other boarders in this barn at the moment, so my horse is the only one getting "the business" from these two horses.
I have requested the "honor" of Daisy being moved to a different place on the property when that becomes available. I'll still have to haul in all her water, as I don't want her coming down with cancer or something equally awful from drinking the bad water, but she'd have pasture, a stall for shelter in bad weather, and she'd not be standing on blacktop anymore. Can you imagine: putting down blacktop in a small covered turn-out area?! And it is not flat, so urine pools in the dips in the blacktop.
This just goes to show that now all folks who follow natural horsemanship and the Parelli's ideas are wealthy folks with covered indoor arenas and expensive Parelli equipment (grin). I salute those who are that well heeled, but some of us are not, and one can still utilize natural horsemanship methods...it just takes a bit more thought and effort.
Gee, did I happen to mention that the owner of the two marauding horses who have been tormenting Daisy also has cluttered up the smallish outdoor arena with her trail obstacles, to the point that one can only circle the outside track because the inside is completely filled with barrels, road cones, a tilting bridge, a platform, a long narrow "bench," and poles? The bench, platform and bridge are too heavy for a human to move--it would take a tractor or ATV and a rope. I inquired nicely, and was advised that the boarder who owns all that stuff would not want it shifted.
I have attempted to work on Level 1 games in the arena, trying to navigate around all those clunky obstacles (I moved the lighter weight stuff to one side while I was using the arena, then moved it back after I was done, however the heavy obstacles each took up part of the space of a third of the arena, so taken all together, the arena was STILL unusable for the most part). Daisy clonked herself as she'd come around and being very green, was of two minds. Things to avoid in her path, she wanted to follow her own ideas, naturally, being an LBE, and she'd collide with a large, heavy object. More blood (sigh).
So I took to working with her in the round pen, which has its own problems. Never mind that the boards are rotting and you have to lift way UP on the gate to latch it (groan--it's heavy). Round pens were never designed to give you a whole lot of space, right? So the whole pen becomes an enormous "crutch" to the horse and its education. If you work a horse in a round pen, the fences confine the horse. When you branch out to open space, many times the horse will "branch out" also, and not the way you want it to, either.
I did borrow some road cones and brought a tarp, to give Daisy something to work with, but she needs to be encouraged to do figure 8's around road cones and there is very little space for that in a round pen. She needs the room to be forced to use her mind to think about where she is putting her feet, instead of "falling asleep at the switch" so easily in a round pen.
My daughter suggested that I consider draping padding such as a blanket over the fence, so that Daisy won't be so likely to re-injure her front feet. Ideally, I'd like to fasten wire fencing material (hog
wire) over the entire space where the horses are sticking their heads and necks over, but part of that is a gate (which leads to the aforementioned open manure pile) and the gate should not be blocked. So I'll take a peek in the linen closet and see what we've got that is "expendable."
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