Spring in Nova Scotia is always a fickle thing. So far this week we've had rain, snow, sun and wind. It's been cold, warm, and everything in between. It makes any consistent riding darn near impossible. Which makes having no real plans at this point a good thing- I can go with the flow and not feel any stress.
it is pretty when the sun shines though
My vet had recommended that I try adding in a vitamin for Carmen because she wasn't sure that she was getting enough with what I was feeding her of the Fibre Nuggets. I can't give Carmen the recommended amount because she will blow up like a balloon. Her recommendation was to add a little over the months to her feed when I am training and to drop her to just hay and the ration over the winter. I tried to estimate what would be a good balance for Carmen and began to add it. Within 3 days her energy level was over the top. Last sunday we had a stressful ride and were falling into our old habits of arguing. I decided to cut the amount of vitamin in half and she became more rational within a day or so. It might be coincidence so we'll see.
last sunday I was able to give the horses the first bath of the season
I did manages to squeeze a few rides in. Most of the time I'm just focussing on getting her to relax her topline and reach for the bit. It is coming. Pole work is helping.
my new favourite pole lay out. It has so many possibilities
My quieter seat, hand and, well, attitude is helping as well. I had proof of that yesterday. The weather was clear but the wind was unreal. A rainstorm was moving in and you could feel it in the air. And yes I still decided to ride. My plan was to at least lunge and go from there. I could see that Carmen was trying super hard with the ground work but she was still super tight. I had the thought that I could help her more from the saddle then the ground.
I mounted with a plan of just walking and asking her to stretch and breathe. She was super tight and her legs were literally pounding the ground. I gave her some rein, supported when she needed, but never ever pulled or tried to force her. Every try was rewarded with verbal praise, loose rein or rest. We did large and small circles and many changes of direction. I asked her to leg yield to loosen her shoulder and to stretch to loosen her back. When she trotted I let her go and then just asked her to come back to walk. If she had cantered I was going to let her do that too but she never did. The trees were blowing and creaking in the wind, it was wild. Gradually I felt her begin to let go and breathe. Then I felt her back release and we began to move better. I let her feel how good that was for a few minutes, then rested. Then we did a little more and I hopped off.
my daughter turned 30 this year. I always wanted to buy her a pony but she didn't want one. But look at this- heels down and everything!
My goal is to have her end every ride feeling better than when she started. I don't always succeed but today I did. I realized that we had made a jump forward because I was more successful in getting her to relax while riding instead of on the ground.
During this Covid-19 pandemic what are you working on (whether riding or not)?
First of I am so excited that I won Equine Pilots Foal Pool! Also, the filly is stunning.
I had a lesson arranged for Friday afternoon. I spent the morning doing chores around the farm. Winter is hard on things and there are always things to fix and clean up. I also got the stuff out of the shed to take up to the ring.
looks precarious but it actually worked out.
Before my lesson I brought Carmen into the ring to play with some of our groundwork exercises. With TRT the idea is not to desentize horses but to teach them to deal with pressure and stress in a positive way. I have been moving the actives closer to the side of the ring where we have 'issues'. The goal is to break the habit that has developed there.
Not to bore you with this stuff but it will become relevant for the lesson post that is coming later.
I set up a simple tarp (which is actually an old horse blanket with all the straps and hardware cut off) between two cones. This was no big deal, which I expected. I'm enjoying watching Carmen take to my questions as puzzles to be figured out. I would say that she's enjoying them.
I then grabbed the plastic bag on a stick. First I did some work with the bag to make sure she remembered. Then I stuck it in the cone and asked her to go through. The idea is that she goes through without me leading her- instead she leads herself. I am her coach, not her boss in these exercises.
You see that she hesitates and I give her time to figure it out. I am also really working on my body language to be low key and relaxed. You may notice a certain dog who also acts as a distraction. Guinness kept coming in to see if I was done and we could play.
Going on the right rein is a bigger question for her then going on the left. Which tracks with under saddle too. I can also see how she feels good that she figured it out and dealt with it.
I then took the bag out and added the flag. The flag is her least favourite thing. She doesn't like things that flap. I did work with her with just the flag and then added it to the cone.
You can see that this creates more tension and uncertainty. I don't get upset when the gives the 'wrong' answer. Nor do I try to correct it. Instead we regroup and try again. I give her time to think and then increase the demand. Once she did it pretty well both ways I stopped. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be 'better'. Each time we try she starts off at or better than the last time.
I was very happy with her and how she dealt with this. We finished with practicing her draw to the mounting block. I love this so much. The idea is that, rather than being made to stand at the block, we teach the horse to stand themselves there. Carmen has been pretty good about standing while mounting but with this I find her very relaxed and happy to stand there until I ask her to move.
You can see that the grass is a distraction. Hard to blame her there. After two trials I let her go to graze and relax while I put stuff away.
Here she is grazing in 'Troll Corner' with not one concern.
So in my last post I referenced that I've been continuing to work on Carmen's self-management system using the TRT method. The idea behind this is not to desensitize the horse to things but to show them they can be in control of themselves when startling things happen. Things are introduced in a controlled manner to help the horse figure it out.
see Carmen's excitement at being back in the ring?
In the end it doesn't matter that Carmen is fine with flags. What matters is whether she's okay when things happen that I didn't prepare her for. Tristan advocates doing short lessons and leave it when the horse demonstrates that they understand what is being asked of them. It doesn't need to be perfect before you leave it. I have to say that this is indeed working for us. At least on the ground.
Even though I haven't been doing targeting lessons once the ring froze, I have been trying to incorporate the idea in things as they arise. For example, when I was using the shop vac and moving the hose it, naturally, spooked the horses. But when Carmen stopped to look at it I would stop moving to 'reward' the behaviour I want.
I've been really focussing on my own body language and level of tension so that I'm not inadvertently adding to it. When she gets super tight in her body I've been drawing her attention to it so that she can let go.
On Sunday I introduced Carmen to the 'clappers'. I honestly thought she would leap out of her skin when I used them. But instead she simply looked at me like 'really?'
On Monday I knew I wouldn't have time to ride but I would have time to do a short session. I brought up my 'box' of toys. I set up my phone on the fence- it's not in good focus but it shows how she is.
The first part is playing with the flag. She's not supper impressed with it flapping but she's not losing her mind. The idea is to reward the release of tension. which can take some very careful observation. sometimes it's just a 'letting go' of the posture. I need to make sure that I don't simply teach her the trick of 'I drop my head and the bad thing goes away'. I want her to be interested, not shut down.
I got a kick out her at about 3:50 mark where she wanted to check out the toy box and see what was in there.
The second half is me setting up the plastic bag (which she has little issues with now) and ask her to work around it. This time I set it up closer to the 'spooky' side of the ring. I like how her posture is mostly relaxed with some brief moments of tension. When she wanted to check it out I let her. I have no idea if that is 'correct' or not but I want to encourage the curiosity in her since it's been a long time coming out. If I'm in a show and she stops to check out a banner I will likely loose as many points as if she bolted but it would feel way better to me.
Our session really wasn't very long. Just enough to set up expectations and success and then stopping when it felt good. I was happy with us. Especially since we were up there at dusk which is not Carmen's favourite time to be in the ring.
So far I'm happy with how things are on the ground. I'm away right now but am looking forward to see how this translates to under saddle.
At the same time I was battling the flu, Mother Nature decided to be passive aggressive and warm up. The temperatures literally went from -13 to +10 (celsius) in 24 hours. It was killing me that I was unable to go out and enjoy the January Thaw.
It' an understatement to say that I miss riding. I honestly think that it's an important part of my mental health. I haven't really been able to ride since last year. Yes I know that was Dec 30, so like 3 weeks, but still last year.
Friday I felt a lot better but not really full functional. Or even half. I decided to not ride (adulting sucks) but made plans to join up with Julia and ride on Saturday.
Irish: me too? Cool.
I started with our ground work pattern and she was fine. I practiced her parking herself at the mounting block a few times. Here's a video showing some of our work:
You can see that she really wants to eat the grass that is on the other side of the block. Carmen is really good and staying true to her goals.
My goal for the ride weren't anything huge- I just wanted her to walk around the ring calmly and in a relaxed fashion. Walking was really all that I was up for although we did do some (very tiny amount) of trotting. When she would get tight I would work on the pattern to help her relax. Part of that pattern is to not hold with the rein. That's a work in progress but it's coming. We finally were able to walk the entire ring with her on a long rein and then stopped.
good for what ails me
Julia and I made plans to ride again on Sunday. I decided to do a little bit of ground work in the morning and then ride in the afternoon. I've been pushing things, asking Carmen to relax in her more tense areas. My tools were the tarp, my dressage whip, a whip with a plastic bag attached and a stick with some ribbons.
When I got into the ring I picked up a rock and threw it out of the ring. But of course I missed and it the board with a loud noise. Carmen jumped and then immediately put her head down to relax herself. Which was really good because I hadn't asked her to do that. She's starting to figure it out for herself.
Carmen can be really good about ignoring me when I play with the tools. Tristan says that you have to 'ask a question worth answering'. Which means that if the horse has zero reaction then you have to up the ante. Not to frighten them but to help them seek to manage themselves when spooky things happen.
I put the bag over her back and she was all like 'yawn. silly human. But in upping the pressure I put it over the other side of her so that she saw me in her left eye but the bag in her right. That got a reaction. Quite a large one. I held the bag there until she stopped (I had to help her by disengaging her hind end) and then dropped her head a bit, then took it away. A few trials later and she realized that when it went over her back, as soon as she dropped her head it went away.
I worked on that from both sides. She was much more worried about it on the right then on the left. Which is in keeping with her spooks under saddle. It helped me to realize something too- I think that when I'm riding and she's focussed on the inside aids (like we always ask) and then something moves on the other side it causes her to react. Knowing that can help me work on a plan to help her figure out how to deal with this.
I also used the stick with ribbons- which was great because the ribbons are kind of like fluttering birds (another thing that really bothers her).
Going over the tarp is no big deal. She feels really confident with that so I used that periodically to help answer the 'easy' questions. I don't think anyone can learn if everything is super hard.
photo fail: it's hard to take a photo while doing this!
While I was up in the ring doing the ground patterns with Carmen Julia sent a text saying she couldn't come. Because I am all alone I decided to not ride. I worried that it would make me more tense and that would undo the work I had been doing. I was disappointed but still happy with the work we did. While I answered the text Carmen decided to chew on the ribbons.
I am feeling much better now and I'm sure that the horse time and time outside have a lot to do with it. Also, Ed's care. :)
I'm continuing to work through the lessons with Carmen whenever I can. The weather is not helpful but I try to apply the principles in just my general day to day work. I can see that it can clearly help her.
What I like about the program is that you are not to strive for perfection: you work on something and when the horse is starting to show understanding you leave it and let them filter it. The theory is that if you continue to drill the horse starts to think that they don't have the answer and it leads to shut down. So our sessions consist of cycling through things, starting with the easy thing. For Carmen that is the leading exercise where she has to measure the space and maintain it no matter at what speed I walk. When she seems to get frazzled we go back to that as a 'reset'.
All progress is rewarded with a rest, even if the horse went backwards. You let them rest if they try to do the right thing, even it is less than what they were doing before.
In our last session I introduced the idea of going by and over potentially spooky things. I put the whip with the plastic bag attached in a pylon. When were walking up to the ring Carmen spied it flapping and went on high alert. However, she never pulled back or balked. When we came into the ring she demanded to walk up and investigate it.
We worked though the leading and ground pattern. Then I reviewed the approach of the bag and other objects. She did not care. I then put down a tarp between pylons to walk over. I didn't expect it to be an issue and it was not. I propped my phone up on a post and did a short video:
Right at the end the phone fell off the post but was unharmed. I need to find a gadget to attach it. You will notice that I don't lead her over/through. We're not supposed to- because then it's not about them figuring out to manage themselves. I'm probably explaining it poorly but it makes sense. When I'm sitting on her I can't lead her either so I can see how it can transfer.
I've noticed that she is expressing more curiosity over strange things rather than being wary. The other day I was trying to repair Irish's stall door to the outside (it was frozen). I felt a nose at my neck and looked over to see Carmen. Hey, what are you doing? Let me see. Also, do you have any carrots in your pockets?
So even if this doesn't result in a perfectly zen magical unicorn it is a good tool to add to the toolbox.
waiting (somewhat) patiently for me finish cleaning her stall during the storm. I'm really happy with her weight this winter.
It's not a surprise that I've been working with Carmen and helping her find relaxation when she's feeling stressed/pressure. Watching the Tristan Tucker videos I realized that in the past, with my groundwork I was looking for obedience with the idea that relaxation would surely follow.
However, with Carmen that didn't happen. It's not that she couldn't relax. More like she didn't really understand how to seek it. Her reaction to stress/pressure was to seek relief by running away.
Working on this I've become so very aware of my own body language. I am a high energy person and tend to stand stiffly when working with horses. I suspect that that is a mix of my own natural tendency and my early learning of 'making the horse listen'. I've been working very very hard on letting myself slouch when I'm trying to encourage her to relax.
Honestly, Carmen and I are so very very similar.
Carmen: seriously? That is news to you? That we are similar?
It's not easy but it's working. I've been working on the three areas that Tristan advises to directly target: Getting the horse to seek relaxation in response to:
1. movement
2. Noise
3. Approach (this was fascinating to me. He says that horses don't really distinguish between a scary thing approaching them or them approaching a scary object. So you have to work on both).
Working on relaxation has changed the entire focus of my ground work. We start with the leading. She's to stay a prescribed distance from me no matter the speed or where we go. If she encroaches I send her back and as soon as she moves back I allow the relaxation to occur. Which means that I sometimes have to wait when she moves back until she releases.
I spend a lot of time standing, slouching and breathing.
I have also started helping her realize how stiff she makes the base of her neck. It locks and then everything is locked. I rub it until she lowers her head and loosens up. At first she was 'get off, that is bugging me!' Now she stretches out almost right away. I've started teaching her to stretch when I touch it with my crop. That way I can try it from her back.
I have attached a plastic bag to an old dressage whip and have introduced that into our work. Initially, Carmen was highly suspicious. I also use an old pill bottle as a shaker for my noisemaker.
She's figuring stuff out and learning that I'm looking for her to relax. Initially, if she's too tight I would reward the first hint of her relaxing. Essentially, I drop all pressure and let her rest. Sometimes I had to rub her neck and help her breathe out. I am gradually asking for more work in a relaxed state.
When I lunge, I'm looking for her to stretch out long and have a supple back. I can see her starting to seek that state which is awesome. Yesterday, I had her cantering and she was getting really excited. I waited to see if it was due to excess energy that needed to be expended. But she got tighter and tighter and began to snort/blow (you know that snort when they are really really worried about something?). I stopped the lunging and we returned to the leading and bending exercises until she relaxed. Then, when we returned to the lunging she was much more supple.
Here's a video of her (hard to do by myself) of me working on her approaching a flappy bag without me being right beside her. My idea is that as I move her more away from me and ask her to deal that we can transfer this to under saddle.
You can see that she's curious. I can also see that she has some confidence in her ability to deal with it and is not feeling that she has to run away.
Today I have a lesson booked this afternoon. It is a windy day which is always a hallmark of greater nervousness on the part of Carmen. This morning I took her up to the ring to do some groundwork without it being tied to a lesson. At first she was a bit looky but it didn't take her long to settle into the work. I am seeing her confidence grow as she understands what I'm asking of her. I was very aware of the subtle signs of tension even though she was being obedient (tight muzzle, clamped jaw). When I see that I try to dial back my body language to help her follow me.
We shall see if this work helps for later. As I type this I haven't had the lesson yet.
On my last blog post N recommended Tristan Tucker on Youtube. Since then I have become obsessed. I am not all they way through his videos but he has a set on 'The Vertical Mare". When I watched it I was all THAT'S CARMEN!
The rider talks about being passionate about dressage. Her horse went for training and came back unrideable. The video clip of her riding reminded me so much of Carmen and I too. I loved watching his teaching style and nature with the horse.
In this he talks about how 'high and sensitive horses' do not always know how to control their body and relax. That the mare will need to learn how to control her body when she goes into tension. Watching this mare was like watching a bay warmblood version of Carmen. Looking at the owner really wanting to do the right thing and working really hard reminded me of me (but alas I am not that thin or pretty).
I know the danger of watching a video and thinking that you know how to do it. However, a lot of his things are very familiar. Slightly different variations but it all the good quality groundwork. On sunday. My goal was simply to have her stand relaxed, then walk behind me maintaining the same direction and then, if all went well, to have her bend and relax (turn on the forehand/haunches).
Carmen moseyed up to me in the field and I put on her rope halter. We headed up to the ring and I asked her stand. She was curious as to what we were doing but the standing and walking is pretty familiar to her. The bending around me she knows but me keeping the ask until I felt the tension ease is knew. It was easier on the left than the right. Which is fascinating because she is also far more spooky on the right rein.
The idea, as I understand it, is to help the horse to figure out how to control their body and learn that they have the tools they need to relax. A few things he said stood out to me: 'she has a lot of feeling in her body. When it doesn't feel good it's not going to look good and it's not going to feel good for you (the rider). 'it's not the thing- it's that knowledge of what to do with herself when she's faced with that kind of pressure'. 'it's not that we look to wave a magic wand. it's a restart to help her trust the process of receiving and accepting knowledge.'
It was fascinating. As we worked slowly and calmly I could feel the tension leaving her body as we worked. It honestly wasn't long at all. I think we worked maybe 15 minutes and then headed back to the barn. I made sure I was totally in the moment with her and pushed away those stray thoughts that intrude at the best of times.
Likely this is resonating because it's pretty much where I landed with Carmen- that I need to help her understand and seek to relax. I'm thinking this will help me make the connection.
totally relaxed getting her tail brushed (not from sunday but how she was)
Carmen is a sensitive mare and I'm just beginning to truly learn what that means.
After our session, I was puttering in the barn and Carmen was hanging out in her stall munching hay and by all appearances she was focussed on the highly important job of eating hay. I was definitely in my own little world, and while I had been relaxed I began to think about my week. I walked down the alley thinking of something work related. I moved my hands in a slight gesture and she immediately reacted- her head came up and she came to the door to look at me. I thought she wasn't paying attention but she was clearly aware of me. I took a deep breath and relaxed the tension out of my body and she relaxed right away. you okay mom? yes', sorry to startle you It's okay. But you wouldn't have a carrot on you would you?
Clearly I need a reminder to park my distractions at the barn door and focus on being truly present.
While I am appreciative of the milder than normal fall temperatures this endless rain is driving me nutty. It's interfering with my horse time in a big way. Friday and Saturday were rainy and stormy. Saturday night was really windy as well- we even lost power from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Fortunately I had Guinness to wake me up in the morning although I was a bit confused with the clocks going back- my fitbit had set to the correct time but I hadn't realized it so thought he was trying to get me up at 5:30. Poor Guinness was busting a gut and getting a bit frantic about the whole thing.
Sunday dawned sunny but the wind was still fierce and not anything you would want to stay out in for any length of time. Or ride in. I was feeling optimist thought so in the morning I dragged the ring (I always do that after a rain) and set up a small obstacle course. The wind didn't start to die down until late afternoon. I tossed around the idea of riding and in the end decided to take her up and play with some ground work instead.
What did you have in mind? I was thinking treats...
I started with the walking around the ring and staying with me. She was right with me and not too worried despite the wind blowing. The course wasn't anything special- some poles to walk and trot over, a slalom of cones and two poles for backing through or side passing over.
I led her through the cones using my body language to weave through and she was right with me. There was zero tension in the lead line and I began to think I that I didn't need it all. I asked her trot too and she was bemused but followed along with the air of humouring me.
I stopped and rubbed her head and then I reached over and unsnapped the lunge line. Using my hand I asked her to walk with me and weave through the cones.
And she did.
Carmen definitely knew that she was free, she stopped to sniff the cones:
what is this? Is it edible? I shall knock it over. (I took this after I snapped the line back on)
When I first learned about round pen work (way way back) I was taught that you chase the horse until they figure out that staying with you means less work. I get that idea but I didn't want to do that. I wanted her to choose to stay with me. Carmen hesitated a few times and I simply stood, breathing quietly and she came with me.
It was fun playing with moving my body and having her match me. And it felt really really cool.
I snapped this as we were walking
I put the lunge line back on and we played a little more. I walked her over a pole and then asked her to sidestep over it and she tried to figure it out rather than stiffen and get annoyed.
I was ready to finish but wanted to try one more thing- I walked her on the right rein over the poles by the 'scary side'. I came around again and unsnapped the line. Keeping my body language the same I walked forward over the poles and, after a brief hesitation and a peek at the trees, she walked beside me.
My inner 12 year old was dancing inside. I don't know if I'm reading too much into this but having her work quietly and calmly with me when she could easily leave felt like a breakthrough. When a horse chooses to stay when they have the freedom to go away seems like a gift.
while I would love her neck to be out more I still quite like this photo
In my last post I talked about two good sessions that I had with Carmen.
What I hadn't written about was the next ride after that. It was after work and Carmen seemed less then enthused about the whole thing from the get go. However, during our ground work she was tuned in and listening. I was okay with not riding but she seemed to be okay so I decided to get on. When we started walking she was okay except for the far end by the trees (like you see beside us in this photo). I worked her slow and carefully and she seemed to get over it. The issues were on both reins but worse on the right rein.
Until I asked her to trot there. Then is was resistance on top of resistance that kept escalating. Interestingly, I again was not afraid but was getting annoyed. Once she gave half-rear and I reached forward and bopped her between the ears with my hand. we.do.not.go.up.
Anyway we were going downhill and I couldn't get her out of the pattern of balking, throwing her shoulder and running sideways. I finally dismounted, put her back on the lunge and went back to work. By the time that was done she was sweaty and puffy. I hopped back on to walk her out. Again, heading over to the side she was having an issue with as part of the walking. When she stiffened I dropped the rein and said do what ever you want. Funnily enough she did nothing. Sigh. When will I learn to not fight this horse? What is the line between not engaging in a battle but not giving in? After I was a bit discouraged but did recognize that 2 out of 3 rides had been good.
After the ride I saw that my lovely turquoise browband had broken, I lost a lot of beads and it was flapping on her head so that definitely could have contributed. I can also appreciate that the browband I had made to impart serenity had completely shattered while we are going through all this......
Lots of things could contribute to her attitude: it's hunting season and the woods around us are having a lot more activity. Also, I believe that Carmen is associating the pain in her gut with being in the ring. Which makes sense. I know that it was ulcers and those are getting better but I can't expect her to go 'oh, it was my stomach, not the riding? Well okay then. Thank you for the medicine. I feel so much better now and am ready to be your zen unicorn. Grand Prix here we come!' (although, Universe, WHY NOT?)
I had a lesson booked for Thursday and I was curious to see how it would go. In the barn Carmen was much more mellow than the day before. However, her neck was a bit tight so I spent some time massaging it until she relaxed and blew out. I then put on her bridle and headed up to the ring. I started as I have been lately by walking her all around asking her to stay with me and to tune into my feet (if I stop, back up, turn etc). Then we went out on the lunge. She was really good and responsive to my body cues. Shanea arrived just as I was getting ready to mount. I gave her the update and then hopped on.
Walking off Carmen was totally relaxed until we passed A and headed up the far side by the trees. She said 'nah uh' and threw her shoulder in and walked sideways through my aids. Shanea advised me to not argue but set the terms. So I straightened her shoulder and then had her leg yield properly. This way she was going the way she wanted but I was in control of how we travelled.
This was only an issue on the right rein. To the left she went down that side with minimal fuss. Any ideas? Because I'm chalking it up to the theory that 'horses are weird'.
Shanea then set up some poles to give her something else to think about. Going the left- no problem. To the right- problem. I didn't want to escalate this, again.
So I stopped and asked if Shanea would lead us over the poles on the right rein. At first Carmen tried to walk over her so Shanea shifted sides so she was between Carmen and the trees. That worked really well. The exercise was to trot the far side and around the short, ask for a walk, pick up our escort over the poles and then trot off. It was a weird solution but makes sense because it's connects the ground work I'd been doing with the under saddle work I'm trying to do.
And it worked:
Yeah, I know, she's just trotting over poles. Honestly, if you could have seen us on Tuesday as the spinning, hot mess you would realize how much of a miracle this feels to me right now. It wasn't that we didn't have any discussions- it wasn't always great (I wish I had a video of that to show you for comparison) but it was like the walking with her helped her to understand that it was all okay. I also stopped holding her and put my leg on. When she realized that she could go 'fast' through there it seemed to set a light bulb off in her head. Mine too. I realized that I was holding too tight to prevent her from flying sideways. One she tried to 'passage' over them but that didn't work.
I was kinda ready to stop there to reinforce the win but Shanea threw out the suggestion of canter poles. I have done those before and I thought let's try it. As we cantered around I felt Carmen 'lock on' to the poles and go.
Although she wasn't always sure of what to do with all four legs:
But she didn't get pissed off and figured it out:
Again I was ready to end it but Shanea said 'she seems to be having fun. Let's try it on the right rein'.
While I was wondering if I was setting myself up for failure (you know-the 'just one more' that leads to wreck and ruin) but I realized that she was right- Carmen was enjoying herself. For the first time in a long time in the ring.
So I picked up the right lead canter and up we came. Carmen looked at the poles, locked on and dug in:
While it is not perfect by any means I love it. It's been a long time since Carmen and I had fun together in the ring and it made me happy. Shanea and I even discussed setting up a small grid and cross rails for her to play with.
Stay tuned, there may be jumping videos at some point.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
~Martin Luther King Jr~
Thank you everyone for listening to me vomit up all my frustration and disappointment yesterday. I was bouyed up by all the support and positive advice I received. Thank you for not saying that I suck (that's what my internal voices are for).
I have been thinking about the groundwork and how to make it meaningful so that she learns to tune in rather than shut down. I like N's idea of doing patterns in hand and googled a few on my break at work today. I can see how it would add focus for me and her.
Today I was in the city all day which makes for a long day. In the morning as I walked the dogs Carmen came over to the fence to greet us as we walked by. Clearly she is not viewing me in a negative light. The same thing happened when I came home and walked the dogs again. I prepared the stalls and fed the horses (I'm making some changes to her feed too but that is probably a different post).
After we ate I decided to take her out to the ring to do some work. Since the dogs had been in all day I decided that they could come with me. It was getting dark and was quite windy. I figured that and the dogs might make things interesting.
My goals were simple:
respect my space
respond to my directions
focus on me
I started with the leading up to the ring. I made sure she followed along and did not try to graze (confession: I've been letting that slide). At first I took her to the centre and asked her to walk a circle around me. She was ignoring me and looking into the next field so I firmly increased pressure and she trotted off. After a few minutes of lunging and changing directions I asked her to walk beside me and the discussion about 'where' her spot was really short. We alternated between me sending her off to work on the edge of the lunge line, to leading, backing up, turns on the forehand and haunches.
There was an overall difference in our work this evening. She was softer. The corrections we able to be lower in intensity. There's a lot of possible reasons for this:
the stomach meds are working
the dogs added security. She definitely wasn't worried about them even when Guinness was trotting at her heels (we're working on what he's to do when I work the horses. He's like a young child 'mom, mom, MOM').
the work I did sunday
Clearly I have altered too many variables to identify one #no_scientific_method #throw_everything_at_the_problem. Probably some combination is working. I brought her down by the barn to do some ground work there too. At first she just wanted to graze and became annoyed by my asking her to turn her attention to me. But after a short discussion she stopped even trying to graze and kept her attention on me. Not in a 'oh my god why are you so mean' way but in a 'what do you want' way.
Either way, this feels like the right path. We shall see.
It's not that I couldn't think of a title but because all of them sound too freaking depressing:
Starting Over (used that one before I think)
Ground Zero
The Wheels are Off the Bus
All of them can be summed up with 'what the hell is wrong with my horse?'
I almost didn't write this post but I decided that my goal to be honest here should be honoured. I am not posting all my thoughts or everything that has happened but this is it in a nutshell.
So from that you may gather that things are not going well.
That is an understatement.
I vaccinate between giving up and formulating a plan.
The 'issue' is going around the ring. As you know, Shanea has been putting on some training rides and I've been following up. The rides are stressful for Carmen but they shouldn't be. All we are asking her to do is:
leg on means go
walk/trot/canter in all parts of the ring.
do not bolt
Honestly, given where she is with her training those are well within her wheelhouse.
While I am not convinced that it's ulcers I have started her on medication because I figure the anxiety she's showing is going to lead to them.
Shanea and developed a plan where she would come Thursday evening and ride Carmen and the next morning I would ride in a lesson. Thursday night was awful. It all started with geese flying over head honking. Carmen would not give in. All she wanted to do was fight and Shanea is very good at not fighting. After 90 minutes she began to show some submission. At 2 hours I told Shanea it was time to get off. It seemed to me that we had gotten as much from Carmen as we were going to.
Friday morning was cold and breezy. Carmen was a twitchy mess in the barn. After walking her around the ring we both acknowledged that riding would be foolish. I went and got my lunge line and took off her bridle. After some ground work she began to relax and seemed rideable.
Shanea got on and again, Carmen was full of feeling and thoughts. Most of them involved the word 'no'.
This is literally the best she became:
On Saturday I took her up to the ring with just a halter and lunge line. I had no intention of riding until I was able to get her relaxed in the ring. It took a while but I got there. I then put on her tack and got one. The rideable part of the ring had been reduced to 1/4: essentially X to C and down the long side to B. The rest of the ring was nope. I rode her encouraging her to go to these places and I won't go into all the boring detail. Essentially I kept up pressure and then relaxed it when she gave. The was bolting, spinning, head shaking, etc and I rode through it all without feeling at all afraid.
But honestly, it's depressing: 'yay, you can go to F without losing your mind, just being super stiff'.
I think that there are many things playing into this dilemma:
1. I no longer am riding with Irish and so she's feeling less secure.
2. fall weather
3. the grass (with the cooler weather it gets higher in sugars).
Today I took her up to the ring in a saddle and halter. I hung the bridle on a hook but I really wasn't planning to ride. In reviewing the ground work I could see some holes in what I was doing. I am not sure how to phrase it all so bear with me:
Carmen is not truly giving me her full attention. I can get it but really, to her mind, I am not important, even when harassing her (her words) with the lunge whip.
she will run through me rather than give way.
I give up too soon.
Carmen needs to learn how to manage her emotions without me having to force her. I can bully her into things and 'make' her do it but that won't pay off in the long run. But I also can't let her just make all the decisions about how much we do or where we go. I know I'm not explaining it correctly but Warwick Schiller explains it that we can't truly control a horse until they learn to control themselves.
no matter what happens though Carmen does not act aggressively towards me
Carmen is used to throwing her shoulders around and getting away and having that door shut is pissing her off.
I was determined that I was going to give Carmen the room to make some decisions but try to set it up so that the release was in the relaxing. If she wanted to run away I let her run but controlled where. I would offer her rest and she could accept it or not. If not I let her go and directed her feet again. If she stood I left her alone. As you can see she has figured out how to stand but not to relax:
I don't have video of later because it's really hard to train and video. However, she clearly began to understand as we went on and, as her focus shifted to me she began to relax. I finished by asking her to walk just behind me, close to the rail. She was not allowed to lag behind, step behind me or pass me. It was amazing how this 'simple' exercise stretched her capacity. She tried first to come behind me and put me between her and the rail. I used my lunge whip to put pressure on her to come back to the rail. She would then try to push past me and circle around. Before I would let this happen but not this time. I used my whip in front of her face to stop it. I would not let her pass and if that meant that she was hit in the face because she walked into the whip so be it. She tried to bump me with her shoulder but regretted that life choice rather quickly.
I know that this all sounds harsh but when I watch Irish with her, he does not let her pass him even when she really really wants to. And she completely accepts this, although not always happily.
I am not riding her right now because there's no point. I will continue to do groundwork. I am also trying to figure out where to go next.
So I've been doing a lot of thinking and analyzing.
(okay, at least try to act surprised at that!)
I am not really any further ahead then I was before but my head is much calmer.
I really want to get in this space not the other one
I also spoke with Shanea and reviewed the ride. She didn't think that I made any mistakes and she felt that sending her forward was the only answer. We discussed safety and I said that I was going to work on ground work until Shanea came again (Ed is away so I am literally all alone).
I was 99% convinced that Carmen's responses was not based on fear but decided to test it a bit. Carmen is really good with the ground work so I decided to introduce a distraction- I let the dogs be out while I worked with her.
I figured that this would accomplish 2 things:
1. help me work her through being distracted
2. get the horse and the dogs used to being together and no one dying. (#1 goal of working with animals: avoid death).
I expected the ground work to go well and it did. She gave zero cares about the dogs, even when they wandered into the ring. And, even more importantly, when they moved around in the tall grass.
this is the most tense she got. Guinness is in the grass behind her.
I decided to finish with getting her to stand and throwing the ball for Guinness. I used to do this with Irish when he was a three year old and it helped a lot. After startling a few times (but nothing big) she yawned and chewed and cocked a leg.
I took her down to the end of the ring that has been causing all the issues and see if she would graze. Carmen will not graze if she's tense. She just stands there rigidly looking around. If she's less tense she will bite the grass and then raise her head quickly to look around. You can see the tension in the way she chews. But when I offered the grazing she sighed, dropped her head and went to work.
Guinness wanted me to throw the ball and Ripley (my son's dog) was hunting mice in the grass. I called Ripley to see how Carmen would react (and to make sure that the dog didn't wander too far). You can see the explosion in the video below:
See it was so fast it was almost like she didn't react at all.
I threw the ball for Guinness down in the grass that she was acting so terrified of the last few rides. Once again look closely because you might miss her reaction:
I feel vindicated on my hypothesis that her reactions are not being driven by fear. She lunged fine as well so I have ruled out discomfort (well largely but I don't see any glaring reason to get the vet out).
Which leads me to believe it's more about evasion then anything.
I know that I can get her to do almost anything from the ground but translating it to under saddle has not been so smooth. So Shanea and I are planning to try to combine the two to see if we can get Carmen over this hump.
“Horsemanship is the art of mastering our own movements, thoughts, emotions and behavior. Not the horses.” Mark Rashid
I had a different title for this post but I found out that I have used it before (I am now at the point where I have to double check on previous posts. #notoriginal). Aslo, it has become rediculously long so I have split it into two.
Since I started working the plan on Carmen's spooking I have seen it working but it's not easy. I also realized that I have probably not laid it out but have referenced it a few times. It took a bit of time to develop but that was okay. Carmen is a complicated horse and I can over think things so in that we are well matched.
For the purpose of this I'm going to not address the 'true' spooks which are in response to truly scary/startling things (like deer runningthrough brush). I'm going to talk about the learned behaviour of spooking to get out something she doesn't like.
Carmen, for many reasons, finds working in the ring stressful. Some of it relates to her history before me, some of it is our history and some of it is that she just has many many feelings, often all at once. The spooky spot in the ring moves around but is usually one (or more) of the corners. Which corner(s) can depend on the day. When Carmen is working it creates a bit of stress and she looks to relieve that stress. Her go to move has been to spook and to escalate that behavour until she gets the relief she is seeking. It's pretty firmly entrenched. It's not like she's thinking "oh I knw if I'm bad enough she will come off so here hold my beer'. She's simply reacting.
This meant that I had to help her find a way to acheive the same result with a different behaviour. Because the truth is that she will never ever stop spooking at the bushes/birds/trees/invisible monster in the ring because it's never been about those things.
I had to figure out what were things that are called 'setting events'. Essentially things that make the behaviour more likely to occur. And the things that reinforced the behaviour. I ended up making what is called a 'competing pathways diagram'. Essentilly it boils the behaviour down into what I want, what I don't want and what I can live with, along with the consequences that maintain the behavour (either for good or ill).
Look, I know that this really nerdy, just bear with me.
What it all boiled down to was that I had to figure out how to reward what I wanted and not reward what I didn't want. Part of my strategy included using lunging/groundwork especially when windy and/or she was in heat. In my ground work I'm trying to help her find a different answer to pressure other than 'run away'. And on the ground it's really working.
I don't know if Johanna remembers this but she got us started on the groundwork and how it helps way back in May 2015.
For example, earlier this week I took her up to lunge and, even though I was dressed for it, I had little intention of riding. My goal was have her seek out to rest and relax rather than to go into self defence mode. I rewarded every time she stretched out and relaxed her topline with praise and/or rest and when she was tight and rushing I just calmly kept her working forward. I would have her standing and if she was relaxed I left her alone. As soon as her head came up and she became rigid I calmly made her go forward until I saw relaxation in her body and then offered a rest again. I could see her really starting to figure this out. To the point where we standing in the spooky corner (I was about 15 feet away) and something rustled. Carmen's head started to come up and then I saw her stop, put it back down and peek at me as though to say 'this is it right?'.
from the trail clinic this summer. See-not afraid of stuff
I really regret not having a strong understanding of ground work earlier in my riding life. It has made such a difference. It has helped me to understand horse behaviour and the link to my own. I am so much more cognizant of my emotions and how they translate to my body language. Horses can read us a mile off and react to what they read. By learning to keep my body calm but not submissive or too soft I can affect how Carmen feels about things. Often when I am nearby and something startling happens she will look at me to see how I react before reacting herself. That seems huge to me.
jsut a horse, standing in a water box, waiting for me to decide what was next
Finally the weather is allowing me to do some things with Carmen.
Thursday was warm(er) (9 degrees celsius) and so I hurried home from work because I wanted to ride. I decided to throw a flake of hay into the field to keep Irish happy while Carmen and I worked. As I brought the hay out both horses started running around like two fools. There was a lot of snorting, prancing and farting going on.
In the past I would have tried to stop them. This time I just ignored them and carried on with my chores. When they settled I went and put a halter on Carmen and brought her down to the barn. She was 10 feet tall but came behind me. As we entered the barn I could see that every fibre of her being was telling her to bolt and run. But she never took the slack out of the lead line or pulled back. A fact that I didn't appreciate until later when I was reflecting.
As much as I wanted to ride I thought that it might be better to do ground work. I am so glad that I did. Not because she was bad or hyper but because she was 100% with me the whole time. We alternated between lunging and work in hand and she was completely tuned in. I was very very happy with her and glad that I didn't worry about riding and made it about communication.
Friday I was off but it rained all day. I consoled myself with baking:
Ed: "what are you making now?"(exasperated tone) Me: "molasses bread" Ed: "OH MY GOD. I'M GOING TO BE 300 POUNDS. YOU HAVE TO STOP." Me: "I'm bored. Plus I've been looking for a recipe to try. So this is really for science." Ed: inaudible muttering + eye roll.
And in keeping with current trends, the warm rainy day was followed by a drop in temps and everything freezing. But as sun was out and as the day went on I realized that my ring was thawing and I could ride. This time when I went out into the field everyone was calm and dozing in the sun. As I led Carmen back to the barn she followed along and then put on the brakes and refused to move. I looked back at her puzzled wondering if I would need to do some work on leading when she lifted her tail and had a poop. Her expression was priceless- excuse me for just a second. Then she followed along like a doll.
I did set her up to lunge first to be sure that we were still in sync. As you can see she was wild:
My marshmallow excited to be returning to work. Or dozing in the sun. You decide
It was pretty clear that other then using lunging to warm her up (not a bad thing) it was not required for any other reason so I hopped on. I was determined to keep focussed on active riding and not shortening the rein.
And we didn't do half-bad. Not that anyone watching us would have been impressed at all. We are both clearly out of shape marshmallows and we needed extra time to figure stuff out.
What I did love was that we were able to stay together with only one little spook that was over and done quickly. Otherwise we were able to keep the conversation going. When I asked for her first trot to the right she was tight and considering getting pissy. I know that it's a strength issue so I said 'it's okay, I know that you need time to build up strength, don't worry about it, we'll get there'. And right after that she relaxed and let out a breath.
What's cool about things is that I can see big gains in our relationship. I love that she wanted to run away but didn't. Many times when she sees me she gives a little nicker. It's very quiet and sometimes I can't hear it, just see her nostrils quiver. It's adorable and not always about food.
Now we just need to get in shape.
hey I'm pretty sure that you still have candy canes in there
I swear that Mother Nature is messing with us this year. After bitterly cold temperatures we are having a bit of a reprieve. Yesterday was about 6 and today was a balmy 17 degrees (celsius). Because we have no snow, yesterday was enough to thaw out my ring so I had some high hopes for today. While it was a bit soft in places and had a few puddles, the footing was actually pretty good.
I tacked her up and she was reaching for the bit before I had the bridle ready. Given that the the last time I rode was Christmas eve lunging seemed to be a good life choice. I've become very good at reading her so that while she started off pretty calm and obedient I was sure that there was a layer of tension under it all. Sure enough she suddenly bolted in response to...something. A bird? Waving grass? Invisible trolls? Who knows. I immediately stopped moving and stood calmly. Funnily enough I wasn't worried at all. I knew that was in there so it was more of 'I knew that was in there'. We worked a bit in the spooky corner (between E and C, which surprises no one). We just kept working until she seemed to be more 'with' me. It took somewhere between 10 to 15 minutes. I decided that riding would be fine so I took off the lunge line and took down the stirrups.
I also needed to think about my goals for the ride. I decided that it made sense to work on my riding goals (from January 10th post). Mostly I wanted to focus on the first two: having a relaxed and effective seat and being 'present' in the saddle so that I was always giving her directions.
And do you know what? That really worked out well for us. Keeping my brain on what I was doing and giving her directions seemed to help me stay relaxed. Carmen started out tense but nothing too major. Whenever I felt her attention shift away from me I insisted that it return. I played a bit with riding a diamond pattern in half of the ring. This required me to keep her straight and then execute a 1/4 turn on the haunches at the pivot points. I could feel her becoming curious about what we were doing which was fun. We only walked and trotted. I had done some canter on the lunge but wanted to keep this easy. Whenever I felt her bulge her body away I made sure that my seat was clear that I needed her to go back. She did give one big spin/spook (yes between E and C) but I was prepared and actually leg yielded her back in mid-spook. That was the end of it.
We finished by practicing a few shoulder ins to haunches in and vice versa. She did really well. Probably because I was present and giving clear directions. I could really feel how my seat needed to adjust to help her position her body. I rode for about 25 minutes and called it a day.
#nobodydied
After I gave her a good groom and she gave a shake like they do after they roll. That's when I knew that she had enjoyed it all too.
this is how spent the rest of the day because she exercised and
was without food for almost a whole hour!
I don't know if I'll get t ride again, even though it's staying warmer until Sunday night. Tonight into tomorrow we're going to get torrential rain so I will have to check the ring. I spent the afternoon making sure that the rain had a way to drain away. Guinness 'helped':
