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Oct. 1st, 2004 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo I went and played with Thyme again today. *sigh* I don't have much experience with horses that shoulder me out of the way (basically, running over me) because Meat and Nick don't do that. They might do other things, but they don't run over me. That's just damn rude, is what that is. Little Miss Groundmannerless is gonna have to get over that crap.
Also, both Meat and Nick are pretty reactive. A gesture of the rope tail in their general direction is sufficient for a reaction. It doesn't actually have to hit them and if I were to actually whap them with it, they'd take it rather personally and be all offended. A teeny gesture really is sufficient. These days they mostly do what I ask them to do before it ever gets to the whapping stage and they have made sincere efforts to *try* for what I might want ever since they understood that whapping was a real possibility if they didn't move for the gesture prompts.
(The amount of whapping here is about what you'd use to swat a mosquito on your own bare arm. It is not a permanent-damage sort of whapping.)
Thyme doesn't seem have a middle ground... she alternates between ignoring me and acting like I'm trying to kill her. There doesn't seem to a level of prompt where she will HEAR me and give me a try without the request upsetting her and making her think she's going to die. I try to ask the same way every time (little ask, bigger ask, bigger ask, whapping ask) so that she can figure out that if she anticipates (horses are good at anticipating), we never have to get to the whap stage. I'm going to have to recheck myself to make sure I'm being consistent -- she should be getting this more easily.
Today we worked on the stuff we did yesterday plus also circles with the stick, backing up, driving between two cones (went pretty well), loading on the trailer by herself (went really quite well), and leading at the jog. Yesterday's skills are still pretty green, but we're improving at the reverse during circles and are quite reliable on backing up from a halt now. (Backing up from going foward does not yet work.) I think she's got the general idea with the driving game, but she's also not very scared by much, so more work is needed. I believe we'll try sheets of tin tomorrow.
Nick was actually easier to teach the driiving game to because she was so scared of everything. It's easy to teach go-forward when the horse is scared of everything, because you have lots and lots of opportunities to make sure the horse understands the cue. I took Nick out of the field this morning and threw her a can of grain. Then we went through the cones just to see. Last year, Nick would have spent a good thirty minutes dancing around the cones like a fool. This year, she went right through, first request in either direction. She didn't go through *smooth and easy* -- she tucked her chin and snorted and trotted through like they were going to eat her -- but she went through the first time I asked without giving me bullshit.
Asking a horse to go through (over/into/whatever) an obstacle is a several-step process. First, I lead out with my leading hand (the one in the direction I want the horse to go). Then, if the horse does not go, I lift the tail end of the rope. If the horse goes, I put the tail end of the rope down. If not, I swing the tail end of the rope. If the horse goes, I put the tail end down. If not, I swing the tail end so that it whaps the horse gently. If the horse goes, I put the tail end down. If not, I swing the tail end so that it whaps the horse firmly. It's important to do this the same way, every time. Eventually the horse will only need the leading hand to head towards the obstacle. Some of them learn faster than others. Today, with Nick, I only got to "lift" and that once only, even though she didn't really like the cones.
Also, both Meat and Nick are pretty reactive. A gesture of the rope tail in their general direction is sufficient for a reaction. It doesn't actually have to hit them and if I were to actually whap them with it, they'd take it rather personally and be all offended. A teeny gesture really is sufficient. These days they mostly do what I ask them to do before it ever gets to the whapping stage and they have made sincere efforts to *try* for what I might want ever since they understood that whapping was a real possibility if they didn't move for the gesture prompts.
(The amount of whapping here is about what you'd use to swat a mosquito on your own bare arm. It is not a permanent-damage sort of whapping.)
Thyme doesn't seem have a middle ground... she alternates between ignoring me and acting like I'm trying to kill her. There doesn't seem to a level of prompt where she will HEAR me and give me a try without the request upsetting her and making her think she's going to die. I try to ask the same way every time (little ask, bigger ask, bigger ask, whapping ask) so that she can figure out that if she anticipates (horses are good at anticipating), we never have to get to the whap stage. I'm going to have to recheck myself to make sure I'm being consistent -- she should be getting this more easily.
Today we worked on the stuff we did yesterday plus also circles with the stick, backing up, driving between two cones (went pretty well), loading on the trailer by herself (went really quite well), and leading at the jog. Yesterday's skills are still pretty green, but we're improving at the reverse during circles and are quite reliable on backing up from a halt now. (Backing up from going foward does not yet work.) I think she's got the general idea with the driving game, but she's also not very scared by much, so more work is needed. I believe we'll try sheets of tin tomorrow.
Nick was actually easier to teach the driiving game to because she was so scared of everything. It's easy to teach go-forward when the horse is scared of everything, because you have lots and lots of opportunities to make sure the horse understands the cue. I took Nick out of the field this morning and threw her a can of grain. Then we went through the cones just to see. Last year, Nick would have spent a good thirty minutes dancing around the cones like a fool. This year, she went right through, first request in either direction. She didn't go through *smooth and easy* -- she tucked her chin and snorted and trotted through like they were going to eat her -- but she went through the first time I asked without giving me bullshit.
Asking a horse to go through (over/into/whatever) an obstacle is a several-step process. First, I lead out with my leading hand (the one in the direction I want the horse to go). Then, if the horse does not go, I lift the tail end of the rope. If the horse goes, I put the tail end of the rope down. If not, I swing the tail end of the rope. If the horse goes, I put the tail end down. If not, I swing the tail end so that it whaps the horse gently. If the horse goes, I put the tail end down. If not, I swing the tail end so that it whaps the horse firmly. It's important to do this the same way, every time. Eventually the horse will only need the leading hand to head towards the obstacle. Some of them learn faster than others. Today, with Nick, I only got to "lift" and that once only, even though she didn't really like the cones.
