I was able to go into the pasture with Daisy today because my daughter was with me. I'd given the surgeon my promise that I wouldn't go in with Daisy by myself until the fiberglass and ace bandage cast was off.
Both of us wanted to see if I could halter Daisy and have her pick up her feet calmly. In the past she's picked them up pretty calmly, but she does tend to get fussed over things occurring around her, and can swing round and bump a person, knocking them down.
Initially, I stayed on the outside of the pasture gate, and had her lower her head and keep her nose on the target to the count of 5. That was all she was up for and as she was too antsy to hold for 10 seconds, it was important to click BEFORE her head came back up again, so I went for 5 seconds. After a few click--treats for the head down, we both went into the pasture to halter Daisy.
She does not care for her rope halter, and I cannot say that I blame her. They are designed to make the horse feel pressure at the slightest tug. When I left her halter on her for a while, out in the pasture, it started to wear the hair off her face! She is very sensitive behind her ears and it hurt her there.
So I went back to the nice, flat, broad nylon web halter with the two homemade "fuzzies" on the crown and nose pieces. She liked that halter a lot, but prior to clicker training, she tended to haul me around almost effortlessly, like the caboose at the end of train cars.
I held the target below the noseband on the nylon web halter and had her touch the target through the noseband a few times and clicked/treated for that. Since I've had her, she's never willingly put her snoot through a halter. When I put the strap around her neck first, THEN put her nose through the noseband, she puts her ears back defensively. Daisy has a lot of bad memories that I'm having to work through. My goal is to break down things that I want her to do into bite-sized nibbles, and not lump the little pieces of a lesson into huge lumps (okay, sorry about the overused "lump" as a verb AND a noun...I just couldn't think of better way to put it).
It helped to have her touch the noseband and the target just below it several times. I was able to slip the soft noseband over her nose without trouble. And she got a click and a treat for deciding to let me do that.
I still see unsure ears as I work with her. I brushed her and her ears swiveled back to keep track of me. She often stood with her ears "akimbo" (on the sides of her head, not to the front or to the back) and I get a feeling from her of, "Okay, I'll see what comes next...you haven't hurt me---YET."
It takes about 10 or 15 minutes of clicker work and treats before Daisy really relaxes, and heaves a sigh. She is a very tense mare. I don't think she tenses up when she sees me (she comes to the gate, whinnying for me, or for the treats). I think she is tense all of the time.
I was re-reading Linda Tellington-Jones's book "Getting In TTouch with Your Horse" which is more about horse traits and personalities than it is about TTouch for the horse. I knew Linda in the 1960's, before she developed and expanded TTouch. She is truly a world class inventor/explorer into the realms of working with and bringing comfort to animals and she knows how to promote her subject. Not always as positively in the past as I would have liked, but she does get the message out!
It occurred to me that I should try doing Ttouch on Daisy to lower her head and reconnect her front and back which seems to have lost cohesiveness. I may even try a session of wrapping some track bandages knotted together in a wrap she has used to help an animal reconnect it's front and back halves.
But that will have to wait until after MY bandages come off!
Essentially, it was a good session today. Daisy picked up all four feet repeatedly, and appeared quite surprised, but very pleased to be rewarded by the click and a treat each time. She craves knowing that she did the right thing and getting positive attention for it. She wants to know that she will not suddenly be punished for not understanding something. No one would feel confident in such a position!
I finally got an email back from the Parelli folks. I'd written to the email which was purported to go to Pat Parelli. Of course, it was answered by one of his staff, about 3 weeks later. They were sorry to hear of my sad tale of woe with Daisy, but said that it is a story that has become all too familiar these days. Too many horses acting up or out, and too many riders/handlers getting hurt. They suggested that I consider either euthanizing her or finding a trainer who would accept her (and they enclosed a link to all certified Parelli trainers). This mare has been much too abused for anyone to have a successful outcome using traditional Parelli methods. I hate to even consider the outcome of that! And it would be a crying shame to put Daisy down. She's only 12 and there is a sweet, sensitive, loving horse locked away inside of her.
So clicker training is my only hope. Since Alexandra Kurland has successfully helped Fig, a bay thoroughbred mare turn around and Fig was at least as bad as Daisy, possibly worse, this appears to be the way to go. Daisy responds very well to positive reinforcement, and that triggers an intense desire to figure out what I want and to do it. She has had so little positive reinforcement in her life, much less any which made sense to her, that she is surprised and delighted with our little 15 minute clicker sessions.
Today's work was making sure she remembered how to pick up her feet, also pressing the point of her shoulder to get her to back up, and pressure on hip and wither to get her to sidestep over. Also on starting to "milk the lead rope" to get her to drop her head to the bucket lid. She was still figuring that one out when I stopped the lesson on a good note and rewarded her with a big handful of treats. The end of a lesson should always end on a high note!
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