dancing horses

dancing horses

Friday, November 4, 2016

Anatomy of a Fall

I've been thinking a lot about my fall on Wednesday.

Of course I have- what's the point of being me if I can't completely dissect something in my mind to glean every possible piece of information?

The truth of it is that a big spook like that that comes out of no where can feel like a betrayal. Now, before you get you fingers ready to type about all the reasons why I'm wrong and why the fall was all my fault anyway, save your energy. I'm not saying that it was a betrayal, I'm saying that it feels like one.

Could I have sat it out if I was ready? Maybe. It was a pretty fast drop-the-shoulder-and-leap-sideways move. I was literally hanging in the air before I knew what hit me. She wasn't being tense at the moment, nor was she being looky. I was doing what I have been told I have to do- which is relax the rein and let her go.

My ride later that day was not so great either. Just as Cynthia and I were getting the horses we heard the noise of a tree falling and both horses took off galloping towards the barn. We went to look but couldn't see what was going on. This put the wind up the tails of both of them. For Irish it leads to some initial tension but once his energy is put to use he settles. Cynthia did a good job with him.  I had to lunge Carmen for a long time to get her settled and then in the ride I was pretty defensive. But I did get some good work from her and called it a day.

The next day I was pretty sore- my shoulders, neck and hip were not happy with me at all. Of course by then I had spent the night pretty much going over everything. I did not want to ride in my physical and mental state so decided to do a ground work session.

I wanted to work on setting up some spooky things outside the ring and working on that. I also wanted to deal with the pulling back when I come off- I don't want her running off- especially if we're out of the ring.

I grabbed an old broom I had and brought it up to the ring. I chose the broom because I can lay it down or stand it up and it's visible but portable. I also took Cynthia's advice and let the dogs out. They stay out of the ring and pop up randomly in the grass. I attached the lunge line to her halter and then fastened a chain lead up and over the nose band of the halter and tied it to the lunge line. The main aid is the line- if she bolts or tries to drag me that's when the chain comes into play.

When we started she was pretty defensive- her whole body language was one of wariness and she hadn't even seen the broom yet. I think she was expecting an intense work out. I started off slow and easy- I wasn't gong to ask her to run into exhaustion but I did want two things: go forward when I ask and stop when I ask. Those are the non-negotiables. The key one being to stop. I need her to figure out that when something is a bit freaky the right answer is to check it and maybe stop to look- not to run away.

The first time she spied the broom she slammed on the brakes. I let her look for a second and then asked her to go forward. She tried to run past and I made her stop. I didn't keep her working at the location of the broom but up and down the ring- towards and away from it. This is because she can get pretty fixated on something and it affects the work in the other area of the ring too. It wasn't about the 'broom' but about the listening. The dogs were ambling about outside. Periodically Belle would disappear in the tall grass and I would call her and she'd come popping out. Excellent. Irish even tried to help by running around his paddock. Later, he added in squealing.

I picked up the broom to move it and when I lifted the broom part over my head she gave a big leap. I've worked on her fear of brooms in the barn. With Carmen it could be that one time someone threatened (or hit her) with a broom. That would be all it would take for her to see the threat. Or it could not be that at all. It doesn't matter. I knew what to do with this- which was to walk forward 'chasing' the broom. That settled her right away and I could swing it around like some mad witch with no reaction at all.

So the broom moved around, the dogs were being dogs and Irish was being a bit of a toad (but in this case a useful toad) and through all this she became more settled and relaxed and less defensive.

I then added in her yielding to pressure. When I come off (the count is now 3 in case you were wondering) and I try to hold the reins she's reacting to the pressure and trying to run away. I started with me switching direction and having the halter exert pressure. Initially she resisted but quickly started following. I would expect that because Royce did a lot of work on that.

When that was pretty established I added in the falling piece. Carmen was walking around me in a circle when I suddenly yelled 'whoa' in a panicked voice and went down to my knees. She stopped to look at me and I praised her- this is the reaction I wanted. We did a few at the walk and then the trot and then the canter. When that was good I added in flailing arms. Thank god no neighbours could see this scene:
Beautiful grey mare trotting in a circle around trainer. Trainer suddenly yells 'WHOA', falls to ground waving arms like a lunatic and falling to ground. 

yeah, like this
But she got it- she would stop and look at me and wait for me to get up. I then added in sudden flailing and falling with no 'whoa'.  That took a few minutes but she got it. 

what are you doing? are you okay? Should you be doing this if you can't stay up? 
She and I were in a much better place at the end then in the beginning. Which gives me more things to think about....



13 comments:

  1. Sounds like good work. Love the the expression on her face. Sometimes I get the feeling they think we are idiots.

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    1. There's nothing like mare to give you the look that speaks volumes! :D

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  2. Not that I like the idea of anyone falling off ever, but I really like what you're doing with teaching her to stop and wait after you flail and drop to the ground. Preparing for all possible scenarios is something I'm not great at, so I almost always get new training ideas when reading your posts! I admire your thoroughness and long term thinking!

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    1. Thanks! I think it might work but I hope to not test it out. :)

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  3. Hahaha! Oh I want video :P I did a bit of work like this using a sack (actually a garbage bag full of empty plastic water bottles). After desensitizing her to the bag, I placed it on the saddle with a rope tied to it. I walked her and pulled the bag dow randomly. Each time the bag fell, she was to stop, turn and face it and wait (rewarded with carrots!). Then I progressed to lunging (trot, and then canter) repeating the process. After a few sessions like this, I then made sure I did a lot of "emergency dismounts" during regular riding where I would do the fast dismount and then run backwards a few steps and the horse has to follow. It seemed to work! I had a few unplanned falls with her and she always stayed with me.

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    1. I love the idea of jumping off and running backwards! I may try that (after stretching of course :D )

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  4. That would be a funny scene to have watched! Good for you. And, no I don't think feeling betrayed is unusual. I've felt that way many a time myself. Working with horses is such an individual, creative process. Trainers help and can give us extra eyes and extra solutions--but in the end, we're on our own. When they're in self-preservation mode, for whatever reason, they can be dangerous. They're not thinking about saving us--it's every man and horse for himself. You've very brave to keep getting back in the saddle, and you have had a lot of wonderful rides lately.

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    1. You are right- I've had really good rides lately. And today was fantastic (post and photos to follow!)

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  5. That's an interesting training idea. I wouldn't have thought to try falling down with the horse on the lunge, but it sounds very effective.

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    1. I would love to see Nilla's reaction to it! I hope that it works. It may not but at least she may be less likely to kick me.

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  6. Oh goodness I'm so glad someone else does shenanigans like this around their horses. Love this post. I used to train Griffin with music in the background and would break into ridiculous flail-tastic dance moves *just* to see how he'd handle it. Other times, I'd line dance. If I catch him off guard these days, he flinches in place, but then he stands quietly. If horses rolled their eyes as humans do over a variety of emotions, he'd totally do that!

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  7. hey Teresa - this is totally random and after the fact, but i was digging around for some research for an upcoming post (bc yea i totally do that lol) and ended up rewatching some of the old videos that i'll be linking to. among them are stacy westfall's videos on starting a young horse under saddle. one video in particular (linked below) details a bit about how she introduces a horse to the concept of a falling rider, using just a big old western saddle. so here it is in case you're interested (the part in question starts around the 14 minute mark)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVq-Mr1PnI&index=12&list=PL1sV0Jlf0CPQQzwYbWCOlWUEpRE0-jEzy

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    1. I've seen that video- I don't have an old saddle but I may try something else. I love Stacey Westfall.

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