Confidence

So I've been working with Reno for the pas de deux. He's starting to figure out that he isn't allowed to lean on my hands, and that when I say slow down, he should slow down or else. Its just a lot of repetition. Its not what I'm used to but in a way its kindof nice. You know what you're going to be doing and you do it, over and over again. Particularly once you find something that you know is or will work, thats almost relaxing to just do the same correction over and over again.


I've been thinking a lot about what to do with Colonel, what his deal is and why various things haven't worked. Robert mentioned two things about confidence that have inspired me in my latest approach. One, he observed that Colonel lacks self confidence. Two, that Star had developed confidence in me and, subsequently, in herself. I also drew inspiration from this post.


Basically, thinking back on what I did with Star in the early days, I remembered spending a whole lot of time just walking around in the field de-spooking her. The occasional in-hand jump. Going over the bridge. Slowly slowly slowly getting her used to all the new objects. When we rode, I wasn't an especially strong rider so I frequently just avoided pissing her off. After any kind of good fight with her, once I'd won, I often had her stop and I caught my breath, then we'd do a little casual walking around. Lots of quiet time. The effect of this seems to be that she seeks the quiet times as a reward, and she seems to have faith that all the excitement and conflict happens for a reason, and will end when I win. She's also seen a lot of scary scary stuff and discovered that she lived through the process of coming up to it one foot at a time, sniffing it, and then eating some grass. She also learned that even when its scary, when I pull on the lead rope, the pressure isn't coming off until she at least does a tiny tiny step forward. I think this taught her that she still has to listen to me, even when there is scary stuff around.

Colonel could use a healthy dose of that. When we're riding, after he's been good and gotten a little tired, we stop, we just sit there. We take lots of time just being quiet. I've been trying to keep my corrections less confrontational, keep him calm so we can get back to a quiet place. I want him to know that there will be calm after he behaves himself. Right now his happy place involves moving forward, the effect of the racing blood in him, no doubt. He doesn't like to be taken out of that happy place by being contained with the reins. When he gets frustrated, even if he's frustrated about being tired, he wants to run to make himself feel better. I want to bring out the lazy in him again. Put a really nice stop on him before doing anything more sophisticated.

I've taken him on two of my field walks like I used to do with Star. The first time we set out, it was like walking a dog. He put his nose to the ground and took big, violent snorts, sniffing everything. He kept up and he kept his head in the correct spot while we were walking along. He stopped when I stopped and just kept sniffing. I led him up to some jumps and he couldn't care less. Finally I found something that scared him that we could work through. The burn pile. I started leading him forward towards it, he stopped sniffing the ground and pawed. He took off at a trot, immediately turning away from the burn pile, it was a sharp turn and he pushed against me with his shoulder. Not perceiving the danger, I stood my ground and was promptly knocked to the ground, face first. I dropped the rope when I hit the ground, and Colonel continued to run off. I felt the rope slide underneath me and without getting up I scrambled to get my hands out from underneath me to grab the rope. When I got it and held, at first it just pulled through my hands. (Gloves are very important for field walks, Star taught me that.) I pulled the rope toward me, my body moved a little, pulled by the rope, but I hung on and Colonel whirled around to face me. He backed and dragged me another couple of centimeters. I pulled on the rope and held it while I got off the ground and dug my heels in for another good yank on the rope. That turned out to be sufficient to get him to stop. I led him up to the burn pile, he snorted hard at it, but quickly decided that he could eat grass and snort at the same time. Eventually he relaxed and we moved on.

We crossed the bridge and he became agitated again. I found a nice tree to stand next to, hoping that it would keep him from crowding me and/or knocking me over again. Colonel braved the dead tree branches, snapping them with his shoulders as he pushed his head through towards me. He was totally unfazed by the sticks that poked him in the face. I asked him to back up by shaking the lead line and telling him "back." He backed up, paused and then immediately came back in under the tree. Eventually he calmed down enough to graze and we got out of there. I let him graze in the field a little, standing behind a driving hazard fence. He trotted around a little bit, trying to get next to me, but again, calmed down and ate. The whole way walking back home he kept wanting to walk ahead of me. Every time he got ahead we stopped, and I calmly asked him to back up. None of my you-did-the-wrong-thing attitude, just corrected the behavior. And continued. There were times when I couldn't take a step without him charging ahead of me. Stop. Back. Continue. Over and over and over again.

With Star a firm correction showed quick results and it would be quite a while before she would re-test any particular rule. Irish ran into me with his shoulder once and I whirled around and made him think he was going to be eaten, never did it again, ever. Colonel just shuts down all thought when treated that way. He panics and does whatever he can to get away. Like I said, his happy place is moving forward. So working with him is a pretty big paradigm shift for me.

I took him out yesterday and led him to the burn pile. Nothing, I led him to the bridge and over it. Some agitation so I found myself a tree. He snorted and tried to trot around a bit but much more quickly this time he calmed down. He found himself an apple on the ground and ate it. We stood there for a while, I ate an apple myself. Could not get that boy out of my face the whole time I was doing it. He makes Reno look altogether disinterested in food compared to his begging face. Still, his begging face is a calm face, so I was pretty happy with that.

We went off in search of an apple tree with yellow apples instead of red apples. Failed on that front, and as we were walking around Colonel became more and more agitated. So we stopped. It was a long time before he nibbled a few bites of grass. So we walked a few steps and again, very agitated. So we stopped and he anxiously checked the horizon in all directions. Snort snort snort!!! He pawed, he paced. I had him practice backing up off of the shaking of the lead rope. Ever so slowly he calmed down and we went over the bridge again. Same routine walking home, he charged ahead of me, we stopped and backed. I added a new requirement for moving forward. His head needed to be lower than mine.

Star always needed to be sacked out to various objects. With Colonel its more like sacking a horse out to life. He doesn't care about trees, or bushes or rainbow tires. He cares about security, he gets tense when we stop moving. I dont know how long it will take to teach him to deal with standing still, to teach him to take control of his own mental state and keep his feet where they belong no matter what. Too bad there's nothing to sit on out beyond the creek, this could take a while.

Equine Recital

Alyssa and I have been practicing for the equine recital on Dec. 6th. (Anyone who has ever heard Robert talk about Luca for longer than you thought possible is invited, by the way. You know who you are.) Every trainer gets 30 minutes to show off what their students are doing. Alyssa and I are doing a pas de deux (or pah dee dough, depending on who you ask) with Reno and Keno. While Keno is successfully forced to behave beautifully when I'm looking, Reno is having trouble with the whole for-God's-sake-stop-trying-to-bite-your-brother,-you-bastard! concept. We dont actually have a plan, or music yet. Still, I'm optimistic since they do have a pretty well timed pace and Alyssa and I have been getting pretty precise with our riding. Next thing up is coordination.

Robert is very pleased with us. I'm pretty pleased with us. Robert and I are both enjoying the faux competition with Cari. She might be doing a pas de deux with these two very cute fijords. So Robert and I get all secretive about our plans, and whisper when Cari's around. I've explained to her the joke so hopefully she wont suffer too much being the straight man for our entertainment.

I had a decent ride with Colonel the other day. It occured to me that I had previously just been focusing on the ass kicking part of the training. Thats the part that tends to make faster, more obvious progress. Thinking back on Star though, I spent a lot of quiet time with her, walking around the field sniffing stuff, sitting quietly on the wall, walking and trotting without too much worry about precision or straightness. So I'm going to try to slow it down with him and have a little more compassion for his fear and lack of self confidence. It always seems like bullshit to me when he gets all "oooh, I'm skeered of something or other so I'm going to pitch a fit now" but Robert thinks its not and he would know. Apparently Colonels mother was a spooky creature.

A new working student canditate is coming to the barn today. Very exciting.

Spookfest Show

I'm behind on my posting so I'll just do the highlights. I'll write more later.

The costume was completed and I'm very happy with it. Star tolerates it, mostly.


















Here is Keno and Alyssa in the warm up arena. Alyssa has all the actual test photos.

I'm in Maryland now, but Thursday I came out just to ride Kenopony. We tacked up okay and warmed up, but when we hit the canter he would. not. pick up the left lead without me holding him together, asking at the exact right instant, etc., which isn't bad for my riding per se but is highly unusual for him. So we worked on that. I got the impression that he wasn't doing it to piss me off, but I also got the impression that he wasn't in pain from getting that lead. I did get the impression that this was not a day he really wanted to work, though moving out was fine. So we did a little real work, and then a lot of loping around in circles. Neckreining, in our dressage saddle and bridle, and me in breeches and field boots. It was good stuff. We did a good walk-canter transition, and he didn't try to kick Xsarena. We went out in the field on Saturday, which was high stress for both of us, and I guess we haven't had a day off in a while. So I'm happy he pointed out to me that we can, in fact, do low-key things and enjoy ourselves just fine. I was very on edge on Thursday, which was pretty apparent, and I'm even happier he didn't decide to pull shit just because he could. Maybe he's growing out of his weasel phase..... nah.

I think I'm getting a dressage lesson while I'm home on someone, which will be nice, and Claire will show me how to braid. I borrowed a helmet and hopped on Sunny. Sunny is enormous. Like, ten months pregnant enormous. He lives on pasture and doesn't get any grain, but Claire put a round bale out last week and I guess he went to town. The girth I used all summer '07, four holes on each side, now fits two on each. Between not getting ridden and being a pig, after a couple circuits around the dressage arena at a trot I'd let him walk and he'd be huffing and puffing. Poor guy. He's also dropping his shoulder horribly, not bending at all, and very stressy, so we worked on relaxing. And not bucking when we pick up the canter. He may be fat, but he fills up my leg pretty good. ;)

Zilch, Zippo, Nada

I got no horsey stuff done today. I got to the barn and cleaned stalls. No one was around so I attempted to lure some kittens out of hiding. I ran into Lil and asked her to show me how the sewing machine works (for working on Star's Halloween costume.) I spent the rest of the day pinning and sewing and re-setting up the sewing machine. I emerged to help vic to feed and to get a signature from Robert for a show entry form, then I went back and sewed some more.

So Sore, and its gonna get worse

Its been too many days to do this in proper chronological order so I'll organize things more thematically.

Robert has been on a mission lately to spruce up the barn. Tons of garbage (literally?) and wood and miscellaneous stuff is being hauled away to be burned or stored more neatly. He also fixed the big green training cart. Niki, Chuck's little pony, broke one of the shafts. I will say though, she had a lot of help from many many many horses pulling that cart around for who knows how many miles over all sorts of terrain. Still, she made the final break and she should be proud.

We've got barn kittens again! I'm guessing they're around 7 or 8 weeks now. Closer to 7 probably. So they are little and fluffy but they're able to toddle around under mamma's supervision. The new mamma is less feral and more careful about where she puts her babies. So the plan is to try to get them semi-tame through the use of canned cat food. First we get them hooked on the stuff. Then we sit closer and closer to it while they eat. We've decided to call the three kittens A, B, and C. 'A' is already eating the canned food, and 'B' has had some as well. 'C' is pretty reclusive. If we can get these guys sortof tame I think we might be able to get them into a container and have them all fixed.

Star is hoping to convince me that she doesn't really need to be doing any work. We cantered around and she was constantly on the verge of trotting. We had a lesson with Robert yesterday doing trot poles. She was displeased. Not that she has any problem with poles, she walks over them just fine, the problem is with work, I think. Maybe I should work her outside more, she is usually more energetic outside (for better or for worse.)

I've done another two rides with Colonel now. The first one I still didn't lunge him enough and he was sortof barely under control. Really liked throwing his shoulder out and his head down. I didn't have time or energy or confidence at that moment to deal with these things. The next ride I wanted to figure out if he was putting his head down in order to buck. I strapped a western saddle to him after a pretty vigorous round of lunging. I lunged him some more and then hopped on. You just cant tire this horse out, it seems. Anyway, it seems he likes to put his head down when he feels contact on the reins, but he's not trying to buck. He was rather surprised to be corrected on the shoulder thing. I gave him fair warning with my outside leg, he ignored it, he got smacked. Things got better pretty quickly.

As per my current plan, basically all the under saddle work has been done at a canter. Colonel's been cantering pretty fast, though not as fast as he sometimes does. Telling him "easy" gets me a slight, temporary reduction in speed. A half halt on the outside rein gets me either a lowered head or preparation to stop. These may be related, I'm not sure. Anyway, I guess I'm going to keep cantering him around and I'll start having him circle when I'm unhappy with the speed and I'll let him straighten out when I become happy again. I'm debating what to do about the head thing. I think I need to get more time on him before I decide on a course of action. Who knows? it may just go away on its own.

Alyssa is out of town for the week and I'd like to put some time in with Keno. If the footing works out maybe we'll go outside and run around some. I can work on my dependence on the western saddle. It makes me feel safe but it makes my riding less precise and I cant jump in it. (I ruined a brand new bra figuring that out.) Keno's a great horsey for this sort of thing, and just generally a fun ride.

I feel bad about not getting Papillon out lately, but I just haven't had much time. I see some practice dressage tests in her future. I turned Lady out in the arena. That was quite a thing to see. She has an even poorer estimate of her stopping distance than Papillon. Fortunately no boards, horses or people were broken during any of her stunts.

Tomorrow I'll be out early to clean stalls, we'll see how much I can get done.

A new beginning?

So I finally got back out to the barn. I'm going to be out most of next week, which will be nice. I decided to use this stretch of time at the barn to get started on a project I've been thinking a lot about recently: Colonel. I'm not sure how its all going to work out, or if its even a good idea, but I've learned a lot in the last year and Star is coming along now such that I can probably get Alyssa to ride her at least half the time. Mostly though, he can jump and he's usually sound so thats big motivation to get him rideable again. Colleen, Robert's daughter, mentioned to me that Colonel wasn't spending so much time sitting in the corner of his stall facing the wall. (He spent much of his time this way basically for the last year.) This was about a week ago that we talked about this. I'd been scheeming ever since, going over in my mind everything I'd read, and everything I'd seen and everything I knew about Colonel. I formulated a new plan.

I got to the barn around noon having goofed off all morning and missed the bus I wanted earlier. Alyssa was tacking up for a lesson with Robert and Cari was in the arena with a lesson too. My main mission that day was to execute the plan in so far as was practical, but there was no good arena space for me to do it. Instead I piled all the hay that had been scattered on the hay barn floor into one pile for Robert to put into the manure spreader. I also gathered up all the equipment I would need later.

Robert had another lesson in the arena but Cari was done, leaving plenty of space for me to lunge Colonel. I took my gloves and the lunge line and headed off for Colonel's stall. These days Rocky and Colonel are out together so I found Colonel in rocky's stall. He was very well behaved, minimal attempts to shove his nose into my face and stuff like that. I totally forgot about the whole double turnout arrangement and left the door open as I left. Alyssa tells me that Cari fetched Rocky and put him back for me.

I ignored the fact that he was walking further in front of me than I wanted, I repeatedly moved him out of my space but I didn't bother to escalate in an attempt to make it stick. I'm following my new conception of geldings as not so much defiant as stupid. Or at least, with the memory of a gold fish and the impulse control of a three year old boy. Colonel though, is probably also pretty stupid, as horses go.

Colonel was very excited to be outside but he was holding himself together pretty well. Better than in previous trials. For lunging he has always been pretty cool, and I took him straight out to the arena so he stayed pretty cool. I didn't ask him to walk or to go out but as soon as I assumed the position he was headed for the circle. I ignored that too. There was a lot of clenching of teeth from me. Usually I'm a very not-a-hair-out-of-place kind of lunger with a horse his age and with his training. As he walked his right fore seemed a little stiff but Robert said it didn't seem to be causing a problem, and that we'd see at the trot. He wanted to trot right away but I asked him to walk and he did. He protested by flipping his head up and down. Sortof funny since the net affect was to send waves through the line to me, and then reflected back to shake on his own halter. I looked really hard and though I still think he was short strided on the right fore he wasn't bobbing his head. I decided that this meant I should work him more to the left so that the pressure would stay off his right side most of the time.

When he started trotting with more impulsion I said, quietly, "aand canter." He sprang forward like a coiled spring unleashed and proceeded to run furiously but he kept his distance, neither pulling nor crowding. Robert shouted from across the arena "that leg don't seem to be botherin' him much." Colonel galloped around, bucking and snorting. People who claim that a horse cant buck while they're moving are full of shit, by the way. I just watched him go, he was having a good time and he hadn't been out in a very long while.

It did seem to support the assumption I had made while planning all this: Colonel is not lazy except in so far as all horses are lazy. He likes to run, needs to run even. I am also nursing the pet theory that part of the reason he is so chill on the lunge line is that he almost always gets to run on the lunge. He's calm because he knows his reward is coming, he will get to run eventually.

When he was cantering calmly, with minimal cool-down, I took him back to the hay barn. He had worked up a healthy bit of sweat. Alyssa helped me brush epic amounts of mud off of him and I saddled him up and put on his bridle over his halter and wound the reins up for lunging again.

Alyssa and Robert came out to supervise and I sent Colonel out on the circle again to lunge. He did a calm twinkle-toes trot, he extended it when asked, he did a very calm canter. I should have lunged him longer than I did, he was still holding the canter too long when asked to come down but I didn't want to keep people waiting .

With zero cool-down from the canter I took him over to the mounting block, took off the lunge line, took off my gloves, unwound the reins, donned my helmet and protective vest, picked up the crop and got on. Robert told me "now remember, this is no time to be a hero." I reflected on those words briefly, because I hadn't told him what I was planning to do next, but I didn't tell him because I didn't want to be talked out of it, and I certainly wasn't going to be talked out of it at the last minute by some generic one-liner.

So, I gave colonel a squeeze and asked for a trot. Immidiately he wanted to do a little shoulder in across the arena. I didn't worry about this to much, I just put a little extra inside leg on him and turned him towards the other wall to begin our "circle." I knew I needed to ask in the next few seconds or it might not seem like nearly as good an idea, so I squeezed again and asked him to canter. No dice, just got a rushed trot. I didn't care, I just kept telling him "canter, colonel, aand canter" with a pretty meek squeeze from my legs. I didn't really want to press the issue, I just wanted a nice relaxed canter. About half way around the circle I got it. I gave him a loose inside rein but I had already grabbed mane with my outside hand and that rein wasn't going anywhere.

There was significant tension, for both of us. Colonel at first didn't seem to be sure he was doing the right thing, and seemed to be anticipating a correction. When he didn't get one he picked up a little more speed but it was still a good pace, especially considering what I know he's capable of. He was trying to stretch his head down and although I had told myself I was going to give him a loose rein, I couldn't resist thinking he was putting his head down to buck, so I used the inside rein to pull his head up a little and then dropped the rein again. The outside rein, as I mentioned before, was fixed, and was fixed a little too short, but he could still go straight and I sure as hell wasn't letting go of his mane. I think I probably didn't need it. I certainly didn't use it for any side to side stabilization. I just pulled up on it to give myself a feeling like I wasn't going to go anywhere/was ready for anything.

He was heavy on his forehand and was giving plenty of lift with his back, both of which make me nervous, but he still wasn't speeding up and since he wasn't going very fast he wasn't leaning into the circle very hard. I'm not sure how many times we went around the half of the arena. I think we were going for at least 45 seconds, maybe a minute. Maybe Alyssa knows, I have no sense of time. However long it was, I started to relax, he was either relaxed already or he relaxed too, I'm not sure, but I decided that was our quitting moment. I picked up the inside rein, asked for a walk and with minimal pressure from rein and seat, got it. Walked over to where Alyssa and Robert were sitting, stopped, got off, and I took him back to his stall. Done. Next time I'll do some cool down, but I just wanted to send him back calm and having been a good boy.

He's got two days off to think about that, and so do I. On tuesday I'll try the same maneuver again, but this time I'm going to try to truly have him on a loose rein. I'll grab mane when I start to feel unstable, rather than at the outset. I might go a little longer at the canter, but I'll definitely cool him down before putting him back. Thats the plan anyway.