dancing horses

dancing horses

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Making Adjustments

Adding a kitten to the household has created a bit of a disruption in the status quo.

 Chester (our other cat) is doing surprisingly well with Willow- no hissing or growling, just keeping a watchful distance.

d'Arcy didn't even know she was in the house for about 24 hours. He's is showing a mild curiosity but not not fixated like he has been in the past.

Guinness is experiencing the most disruption. His nose is a little out of joint over the attention I've been giving Willow. Jealousy + Curiosity + no conception of his size= chaos. However, he's a smart dog and is figuring out that barking or charging the kitten is not acceptable. The kitten is learning that if she hisses he slams on the brakes, whines and backs off. She's getting much less worried about him. Today they even touched noses. I am positive that in a few days they will be doing just fine.

Guinness: But, but I just want to sniff her. Why can't I sniff her? 
 Willow, of all of us,  is adjusting just fine. Everywhere I go I am followed by a large dog and a wee kitten. Also, typing of blog posts is much trickier.
I mean can you even? I don't think so.

Remember when I said I had a lesson scheduled for today? Well it was cancelled because another rider had to cancel (a lost shoe). Shanea needs a certain number to make it viable. Which I understand but I was still disappointed. I had to decide what to do - I didn't want to fall into drilling her so I made some coffee and thought about what to do. I really really want to hit the trails in my woods but I want a companion the first few times so I need someone on Irish.

I decided to set up some poles to play with:


The red line is a landscape tie, the middle is  a configuration of poles (the two parallel to B were 2 trot strides apart) and the '+' are two jump standards. 

It was a very windy day and the wind was cold. I guess summer is over. I started with Carmen on the ground.

Suspicious mare is suspicious
I wanted to play with side passing over the landscape tie- starting in hand. It's funny- Carmen side passes very well in hand but as soon as I took her to the tie she struggled. I kept it slow and simple with lots of rewards. She finally figured it out and I gave lots of praise. Other wise we went up and down the ring playing with our ground work.

I then mounted and we began to play. The wind picked up and the trees were blowing a lot. As I would expect Carmen became tense with all the action. At one point there was a little dust devil in the ring. Carmen was not impressed. I was so happy that I had set up the course because it gave us something to focus on. I played with all sorts of patterns at walk, trot and canter. One exercise that was fun was using the parallel poles to set up a counter canter.  The off-set poles were great for practicing diagonals.

We practiced side passing without and then with the tie. We actually managed to do it a few times too.

In the end we had some really nice work and it was all about making adjustments. I think if I hadn't had these obstacles it would have been a lot easier for Carmen to get fixated on the 'spooky things' but it's hard to do that with 'eek who put this pole here?'

I am hoping I can talk Ed into making me a bull and I need to find some barrels......

21 comments:

  1. Next you'll have to raise those poles a bit! See how Carmen likes speed bumps!

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  2. I love setting up poles and obstacles like that - and agree completely that they are so helpful in creating visual reference points or landmarks or boundaries when otherwise it might be easy for the horse or rider to get distracted by something else

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    1. It really does help both of us. I can so easily buy into what she finds worrisome.

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  3. The kitten will always win. Once Guiness learns that all will be peaceful

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    1. he may be figuring it out.He's a smart dog. :)

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  4. Smart to set up the obstacles and giving her something for her brain to focus on! I'm glad you had a good ride, even if it wasn't the lesson you were hoping for.

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    1. I need to this more often. I just get lazy!

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  5. what a fun training session! I haven’t yet worked Aria on any obstacles because I want her responding a bit better in general but this is super motivating for me!

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    1. I think that you should try it- it doesn't have to be anything major

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  6. Sounds like a great ride. I always enjoy mixing things up a bit and riding over poles :)

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    1. I can feel how they lift their belly which is good for building strength and suppleness.

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  7. My whole arena is an obstacle course, so I’m with you there. My horses never spook in it, and I’m sure it’s because their minds are working. You’re right about fixation. Leah was negatively fixated on gate work for a long time until the bulb went off and she began to see why we were doing it. Have fun setting up new games!

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    1. Yes, busy brains need busy work. Both mine and Carmen's

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  8. no concept of his size hahaha too true and funny. Great work on using your tools to keep focus with Carmen! I like to keep at least a handful of things out at all times to use to focus advantage. Always helpful. When I am out in the pastures, I use trees and ant hills, and logs.

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    1. Getting out of the ring is the best for that for sure.

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  9. Such a cute kitten! How do you get anything done with so much cuteness around?! I love putting poles in the arena, it's nice to have a focal point to "aim" on (especially on my young horses who sometimes lose straightness/steering occasionally)

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    1. It's really hard to do housework when I could be cuddling a sweet kitten......

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  10. The idea of the kitten hissing Guinness into a sliding stop is cracking me up. Smart cat! Sounds like they'll be friends in no time.

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