Lovely weather and A Finn Visit!
Feb. 24th, 2023 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIt was gorgeous out yesterday afternoon so I hopped over to Trys's house to visit the Finnegan. He's got his basic halter skills and since he's not old enough for a Real Job, he's mostly just hanging out and growing up. But, since the weather was very nice, I figured we would have a work session to review known material.
Clearly he doesn't RIDE. He's a wee baby. It's going to be literal years until he rides. But, yesterday, we did lots of skills.
Stand politely to be caught.
Stand politely to be haltered.
Lead politely out of the field gate.
Lead politely down the lane, away from friend horse.
Stop when I stop, go when I go.
Do NOT bull past me, sir, that is NOT OK.
Load on the horse trailer.
Stand on the horse trailer.
Walk off the horse trailer.
(Horse trailer efforts 3x, visible improvement each time.)
Lead politely, with standing-still breaks, back up to the barn.
Work circles, rope tricks, all of that stuff is review.
Pick up all feet.
Be touched and groomed all over.
Are these super-exciting skills? Nope. They're also all stuff he already knows about except possibly for the trailer loading. I mean, he came on a trailer so he knows SOMETHING about a trailer, but I have no idea what he'd been taught prior, so... maybe not an expert at trailers. Generally speaking, four month old colts are small enough to just... shove on the trailer. You don't have to be nice about it. I got no idea how that all went down because I wasn't there for that.
Anyway, we have a step-up three horse slant, so it's a walk on, stand, turn around and walk off affair. I will eventually teach him how to back off a horse trailer, but that was not the project for yesterday. The project for yesterday was general familiarization with our horse trailer, on and off, no big deal.
How did it go? It was fine. Finn was fine. He's generally fine. There just isn't much to say because he's a flipping baby. He is doing reasonable baby things with an age-appropriate level of enthusiasm and attention to the task. It's just not super exciting material.
But... but... tell us how it went!
Fine. The only even-remotely-exciting thing we did was play trailer. I'll discuss that in more detail, for the edges-of-your-seats content that you've come to expect in these parts.
We walk to the trailer door. Trys is there, she's got the trailer door open and is holding it so that it doesn't swing in the breeze. (It creaks every time it moves. Finn is not enthused about that but he holds his ground while eyeballing the trailer door suspiciously.)
I hop on the trailer and stand there. He's standing on the ground with his front feet right where he needs to step up. I let him have some drape in the lead rope. He sniffs the trailer floor a couple of times. I let him stand there with a drape in the rope (no tension on the lead, nice big catenary). He kind of steps side to side like he's not sure what to do. Ok. I click at him to encourage a forward step but still there is a drape on the lead rope. He picks up a front leg kind of like he wants to step up but then reconsiders and puts the foot down. He thinks about stepping back but then reconsiders before he takes the slack out of the lead rope. He picks a front foot up and holds it a second and then puts it back down. Sniff sniff. Side-to-side. I click again. He THINKS about backing up but doesn't take the slack out of the rope and corrects himself on his own. (Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self. GOOD JOB, son!) I click again. He hops on the trailer. This took maybe two minutes of time. Much petting, good boy, good boy.
We hop off the trailer. His hop down is a little sudden but not horrible.
On again, a repeat of the first thing with a bit less thought and faffing about. Maybe sixty seconds of time. Still slack on the lead, tho. Much petting, good boy, good boy.
We hop off the trailer. It's less sudden but still not great. I consider that maybe the issue is handler error and that perhaps two feet of slack isn't enough for him to feel fully comfortable while hopping off. I make a mental note to give him more slack for our next try.
On again, very ho-hum stuff. He's not 100% bored but he definitely has the concept well in hand. Good boy, petting, a little longer standing still on the trailer. I adjust to give him more rope to see if that helps him do a softer, quieter hop off. He does a bunch better. Looks like he just needed a little more slack so that he could feel more relaxed about coming off. Fine, I've made a note.
Many pets, done playing trailer. Adrenaline-filled excitement all around over here, innit?
Okay, so he's a magical and super clever little guy who "just knows" how to trailer load. Whatever. How would it have gone if he hadn't stepped on the trailer?
Trailer loading is 100% leading. If your horse leads, he leads where you go, whether that is onto a trailer or whether that is into a stall or whatever. If your horse leads, he loads.
If I went to lead Finn to the back of the trailer and he didn't approach the back of the trailer, we would have worked on that until he DID approach the back of the trailer.
If I was standing in the trailer and he WAS NOT making an effort to step on the trailer, didn't THINK about stepping on the trailer, didn't look at the trailer, didn't TRY to solve the problem, I would have asked a bit more so that he'd understand that there was a question being asked and make more of an effort on his end. A little more clicking, gradually taking the slack out of the lead rope until it held a small amount of tension, enough to say "Step up, son", that style of thing. I didn't HAVE to do any of that because he UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM AND TRIED TO SOLVE IT on a slack line.
Look, if your horse understands that there is a question being asked and is TRYING TO ANSWER IT, your only job at that point is to let him get on with it and let him know when he's correct.
If he's NOT TRYING TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, you do need to get him on board with your project, but if you can SEE HIM THINKING THROUGH IT and trying different appropriate things, fucking let him do that.
Clearly he doesn't RIDE. He's a wee baby. It's going to be literal years until he rides. But, yesterday, we did lots of skills.
Stand politely to be caught.
Stand politely to be haltered.
Lead politely out of the field gate.
Lead politely down the lane, away from friend horse.
Stop when I stop, go when I go.
Do NOT bull past me, sir, that is NOT OK.
Load on the horse trailer.
Stand on the horse trailer.
Walk off the horse trailer.
(Horse trailer efforts 3x, visible improvement each time.)
Lead politely, with standing-still breaks, back up to the barn.
Work circles, rope tricks, all of that stuff is review.
Pick up all feet.
Be touched and groomed all over.
Are these super-exciting skills? Nope. They're also all stuff he already knows about except possibly for the trailer loading. I mean, he came on a trailer so he knows SOMETHING about a trailer, but I have no idea what he'd been taught prior, so... maybe not an expert at trailers. Generally speaking, four month old colts are small enough to just... shove on the trailer. You don't have to be nice about it. I got no idea how that all went down because I wasn't there for that.
Anyway, we have a step-up three horse slant, so it's a walk on, stand, turn around and walk off affair. I will eventually teach him how to back off a horse trailer, but that was not the project for yesterday. The project for yesterday was general familiarization with our horse trailer, on and off, no big deal.
How did it go? It was fine. Finn was fine. He's generally fine. There just isn't much to say because he's a flipping baby. He is doing reasonable baby things with an age-appropriate level of enthusiasm and attention to the task. It's just not super exciting material.
But... but... tell us how it went!
Fine. The only even-remotely-exciting thing we did was play trailer. I'll discuss that in more detail, for the edges-of-your-seats content that you've come to expect in these parts.
We walk to the trailer door. Trys is there, she's got the trailer door open and is holding it so that it doesn't swing in the breeze. (It creaks every time it moves. Finn is not enthused about that but he holds his ground while eyeballing the trailer door suspiciously.)
I hop on the trailer and stand there. He's standing on the ground with his front feet right where he needs to step up. I let him have some drape in the lead rope. He sniffs the trailer floor a couple of times. I let him stand there with a drape in the rope (no tension on the lead, nice big catenary). He kind of steps side to side like he's not sure what to do. Ok. I click at him to encourage a forward step but still there is a drape on the lead rope. He picks up a front leg kind of like he wants to step up but then reconsiders and puts the foot down. He thinks about stepping back but then reconsiders before he takes the slack out of the lead rope. He picks a front foot up and holds it a second and then puts it back down. Sniff sniff. Side-to-side. I click again. He THINKS about backing up but doesn't take the slack out of the rope and corrects himself on his own. (Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self. GOOD JOB, son!) I click again. He hops on the trailer. This took maybe two minutes of time. Much petting, good boy, good boy.
We hop off the trailer. His hop down is a little sudden but not horrible.
On again, a repeat of the first thing with a bit less thought and faffing about. Maybe sixty seconds of time. Still slack on the lead, tho. Much petting, good boy, good boy.
We hop off the trailer. It's less sudden but still not great. I consider that maybe the issue is handler error and that perhaps two feet of slack isn't enough for him to feel fully comfortable while hopping off. I make a mental note to give him more slack for our next try.
On again, very ho-hum stuff. He's not 100% bored but he definitely has the concept well in hand. Good boy, petting, a little longer standing still on the trailer. I adjust to give him more rope to see if that helps him do a softer, quieter hop off. He does a bunch better. Looks like he just needed a little more slack so that he could feel more relaxed about coming off. Fine, I've made a note.
Many pets, done playing trailer. Adrenaline-filled excitement all around over here, innit?
Okay, so he's a magical and super clever little guy who "just knows" how to trailer load. Whatever. How would it have gone if he hadn't stepped on the trailer?
Trailer loading is 100% leading. If your horse leads, he leads where you go, whether that is onto a trailer or whether that is into a stall or whatever. If your horse leads, he loads.
If I went to lead Finn to the back of the trailer and he didn't approach the back of the trailer, we would have worked on that until he DID approach the back of the trailer.
If I was standing in the trailer and he WAS NOT making an effort to step on the trailer, didn't THINK about stepping on the trailer, didn't look at the trailer, didn't TRY to solve the problem, I would have asked a bit more so that he'd understand that there was a question being asked and make more of an effort on his end. A little more clicking, gradually taking the slack out of the lead rope until it held a small amount of tension, enough to say "Step up, son", that style of thing. I didn't HAVE to do any of that because he UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM AND TRIED TO SOLVE IT on a slack line.
Look, if your horse understands that there is a question being asked and is TRYING TO ANSWER IT, your only job at that point is to let him get on with it and let him know when he's correct.
If he's NOT TRYING TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, you do need to get him on board with your project, but if you can SEE HIM THINKING THROUGH IT and trying different appropriate things, fucking let him do that.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-25 02:53 am (UTC)