Progress....I Think

It's been just over 3 weeks since I brought the girls 'home', and although it seems like such a short amount of time, it also seems that I should be further along with each of them.

I know I'm being too hard on myself.

I have come a long way with each of them. Some days are good, some not so good. But I DO know that I am being very patient....never aggressive; and that's good news for all of us :)

Sierra seems to push my buttons like Spuds does...it seriously must be a RBI thing. And speaking of that...I really think that these horses eat to get out of things....its not that they are starving or are food-driven (or are they??), it just really seems that they do it to get out of pressure. Because after I have her mind focused on me and we are in-sync, she never wants to eat. Very interesting.

Things I have done:

• Friendly with stick, ropes, tarp, ball, saddle pad (Sierra)
• Move away from steady pressure, front and hind end
• Move away from rhythmic pressure, front and hind end
• Circling
• Figure 8
• Yo-yo
• Squeeze
• Sideways (started)
• Can pick front feet, working on hinds
• Lateral flexion
• Used Cricket with Spirit (one session)

Spirit seems RBI, but not nearly as tense/anxious as Sierra is. Maybe because she doesn't have baggage? She 'pays attention' to me, but is more focused on everything else going on...it takes a bit to get her completely focused on me instead of things around her. But she is a total sweetheart and learns very quickly. Sierra really wants to do the right thing, she tries really hard. They are both good horses, and I just keep praying that God will send me the perfect new human for them!  

Revelations

Sierra is definitely a RBI; very willing to please, wants to do the right thing, gets upset when she is 'corrected', hides her nervousness inside (eyes big, head up, flanks tight).

Sarah had given me one 'nugget' of information from the 2012 Parelli Summit since I wasn't able to go. Linda was talking about her RBI horse, Hot Jazz, and she was saying that she walks him around the arena until he blows out...basically releasing all of his inner energy/adrenaline.

When a horse is on adrenaline, they are thinking with the right side of their brain, their prey/instinctual side. When put in a situation, they will fight or flight without thinking. There is no training when they are in this mindset....well, you can surely try but it won't go so well. This is when people get hurt, horses get hurt, and it doesn't end well for either one. Lose/lose.

However, when a horse is thinking when the left side, they are thinking through the situation, not being instinctual. They can problem solve. When humans are involved, they become a partner. This is when training is 'easy'.

I remembered this tidbit of information when I was working with Sierra a few days ago. I had used it with Spuds and it seemed to work really well. I had taken Sierra into the round pen, let her go and started working with her at liberty. She hardly wanted to move her feet, kept asking me to come in and was being difficult.

So, I decided to just walk her around until she blew out. I thought it was going to take a while, but I was prepared to put the time in. I knew it would reap rewards. About 5 minutes later, she blew out about 3 times in a row. Success!

Not even kidding, she was a different horse after that. More confident, yet still willing to learn. All attention on me. Being a partner.

I will do this before any session with her. I want her to be a partner when we are together, not a prey animal. This golden nugget of information reaps big rewards.

In the meantime, I am working with Spirit's feet. She is being fiesty about me picking them up. Seems she got away with not submitting her feet to people, so they just let it go and now she thinks she doesn't need to cooperate. It also doesn't help that she is acting very sore on her front left. I need to get her foot picked out to make sure she doesn't have anything in there that could be causing her lameness. I will keep taking my time, being assertive yet patient, and I know we will get there.

When my baby was just months old and I would be trying to get her to sleep, I had to have the attitude of "I'm going to try this first, but if it doesn't work, I am willing to do this." For example, I am going to try and rock her to sleep, but if it doesn't work, I will be okay with nursing her to sleep. Same with horses..."My goal is to pick her foot out...but if that doesn't work, I'm okay with just getting her to lift it and stand quietly for a few seconds."

I find this attitude very important when working with horses (and kids!), because it puts out an expectation, but you won't fall back to being disappointed if it doesn't work out the way you intended; disappointment leads to frustration which leads to anger which leads to nothing good. Just like horses don't act like a partner when they are acting out of fear/instinct, humans don't either. When we get angry/frustrated, we can't think through the situation and figure out how to solve the problem.

I choose to use patience and assertiveness, rather than anger, dominance and frustration. Everyone is better off for it :)

Slow.....Down.....

My sessions with the girls have been really good...they both connect to me and learn very, very quickly. Because they are both so introverted, I really have to slow things down and not overwhelm them with too much...the last thing I want is for either one of them to shut down, which is very possible with their horsenality type.

I got Sierra's front feet trimmed. She was okay with her right one, but her left one she would rip out of my hand. So, I worked on that by putting the rope around her leg and releasing when she holds it nicely. That seemed to work, because the next day I went out and got that foot trimmed like it was nothing. She is definitely RBI, once she knows that you have the patience for her and slow things down and you know what you're doing, she is all good.

Spirit is doing well also. Being untrained she has a lot of curiosity and forgives quickly. I have to keep my sessions short with her sometimes, when she is licking her lips a lot and having a lot of 'breakthroughs'. I really don't want her shutting down.

I will probably need to do a few sessions with them while they are together, in their pen. They have been running from me when I go to catch one of them, which I figured would work itself out since our sessions have been going so well. But then I realized I need to work with them together because they feed off of each other's energy, and they're so used to hiding behind one another or just running away from things together (being in a herd/no human leadership for so long); I need them to both look to me for leadership, not just in our herd of two, but the three of us.

So, I caught each one individually and gently pushed the other away so that they would look to me and feed off my energy. It definitely took a LOT of patience and lowering my energy; I had to remember not to get frustrated with them, they are just doing what they know! Their psychology is the complete opposite of humans and we have to remember that in order to be effective with them.

That worked well. Spirit calmed down after I led her around a bit and then did lots of friendly with the rope. Although I'm not close to riding her yet, I have to remember that all this work on the front end is going to help me have much better riding sessions with her. I can't be looking at the calendar, I need to take the time it takes. And slow down some more, even when it seems I'm going too slow :)

I worked with Spirit's front feet, again using the rope and just asking her to lift her leg and then releasing when she calmly did that. She scoots backwards when I ask for her foot, so we will be working on that. We ended on a good note, working with both feet. She had her head down, eyes slowly blinking, licking lips...that's when I ended.

Sierra I walked around and did friendly with until she started to calm down and not worry so much about Spirit. It will take some time, but I know we'll get there.

The First Week

I wanted to give the girls a few days to just settle in, get used to the new 'routines'; new environment, new food, new water, new surrounding horses. I was watching carefully to make sure they didn't get dehydrated, since there are automatic waterers in their pen.

They were eating sporadically. Every time I went to see them, they were both just standing in the shelter with plenty of hay still on the ground; this concerned me a bit as I didn't want them stressed out too much. They would always come say hi to me and let me love on them; and they would usually start eating when I was there also, which I thought was kind of interesting.

Spirit would usually be the one that would connect with me first, Sierra would stay back for a while. Then after a few days, their roles switched. I am always interested in horse behavior, so just watching their patterns was interesting to me :)

I decided to work with Sierra first, since she had been ridden before. I just wanted to see what she knew and how she reacted to my energy. I let her go in the round pen and just started observing her behavior. She was calling for Spirit (which I'm very used to, my mares do the same thing when I separate them).

So, every time she would get distracted and not 'care' about me, I would make her change direction. I definitely wasn't worried about working her physically, I was all about figuring out what she is/isn't sensitive to, what made her 'tick' and what made her happy.

She definitely has experience and doesn't seem like she has too much baggage, at this point anyway. Definitely introverted, right-brained in new situations, but left-brained when she's comfortable. She attached to me pretty quickly, asking me questions and turning into me when I 'released' the pressure. I then worked with her on-line and she did really well (for not being worked with for 9 years). I am excited to see what she knows in the saddle.

The 5th day of them being here I went out in the afternoon, and they were both out walking around, grazing on the leftover hay. That was a great sign; they are warming up to their environment and getting comfortable. That made me feel a lot better. Since both of them are introverts, I am paying attention to their eyes, ears, flanks...that's where their energy is going to be.

I pulled Spirit out and let her go in the round pen. Again, I just wanted to get her moving, see if she would connect with me, how she reacted to me etc. She was calling for Sierra, so I would make her change direction or speed up to try and get her connected with me. Not worried at all about exercising her physically, only trying to figure out her horsenality and getting her to connect with me.

It took her about 20 minutes to finally ask me a question (look at me with both eyes, ears perked in my direction); and that was only because I started cutting her off when she would go to move forward. She is very introverted...she would actually stop on the rail, relax her hind leg, but look everywhere else except at me. She was sensitive though, which is really good; she would pay attention to me, not run me over or kick at me, but she would not connect with me.

Now, to some people, her being 'obedient' would be good enough for them. Not for me; I'm after their head, I want them to want to be with me and say "this girl knows what she's doing! I can follow her." She's 11 years old and has been on pasture with a herd for the last 9 years, so she isn't used to having a human as a leader. Not a problem; but it will take time....and a very low energy state-of-mind on my part. I need to build rapport with her so she trusts me; I know once I get that, everything else will be 'easy.'

As Pat Parelli always says 'take the time it takes so it takes less time.'

I'm not about a quick turn-around; getting a horse trained in 30-60 days to get them 'out the door' only to have them come back to me in a few months with more behavior/training issues. I want a connection with the horse so when I do find them a new home, I can work with their new human and tell them how to connect with the horse. Very important in my eyes.

I am looking forward to getting to know these girls even better! I'm sure we will all be learning new things :)

Making the Switch

The big weekend has come and gone....where I drive my older mare, Spuds, up to Nebraska to be with my mom for a few months, and I take two of their mares to bring down and train to sell at the end of the summer.

My nerves were getting the best of me on the way up there, it has been a while since I've trailered a horse that far! Always nerve wracking....is the truck okay, did I hook everything up on the trailer, are the tires good, does she have enough hay, is there enough airflow....etc etc.

But, we made it safe and sound!

It seems that Spuds recognized where she was when she got off the trailer; she had lived there for 7 years, it's where Cricket was born.

She walked around nervously for a few minutes and then started releasing her adrenaline by blowing out, shaking and starting to graze.

Introduction to the herd went well. Of course she had plenty of room to run, and run she did! Up and down the pasture, with Emma stuck to her side. After about 10-15 minutes of that, everyone settled down and just went back to grazing. Spuds and Emma by themselves....wondering if Emma was 'protecting' Spuds from the herd? Either way, they are stuck together!

I decided to try and back the trailer up against the roundpen to just unload the girls there so I wouldn't have to worry about putting halters on...who would I take out first, what would the other one do etc. So, I opened Sierra's door first and let her take her time getting her footing and feeling her way out of the trailer (she had to back out).

Spirit turned around and walked out since I could move the divider and give her room to do that. They ran around for a minute, singing and wondering where they were.

After about 10-15mins they calmed down and started grazing on the bits of grass in there. A bit later, I took Spirit over to her new home; she led well and ran the fence with Cricket while I went to get Sierra. Sierra was running around/pacing at this point, but she still let me walk up and catch her just fine. She also led well over to the pen and ran around for a minute exploring her new area. Shocked herself on the fence a few times, but they calmed down soon afterwards.

All in all it was a successful switch. Now I will give them a few days to hang out and get adjusted to their new home :)

Summer Adventures

This summer I have decided to take two more of my mom and step-dad's horses to train and sell, hopefully to their forever home. I am also going to find forever homes for the majority of their herd, as they cannot keep up with the care of them. After taking the two to train, there will be 12 left; if they keep 3-5 of them, I will need to find homes for the rest.

Three years ago I did something similar....sold 15 of their horses in about 3 months.

They (my mom and Bruce), used to breed and sell horses. They would also take in unwanted horses. The 14 are the ones they have left after all of these years.

There is also a possibility that they will be majorly downsizing, so having 14 horses just isn't a reality anymore.

So, I figured this summer is going to be an interesting and exciting one...full of 'impossiblities' and adventure!

I would not be taking on this responsibility if I was doing it by myself and didn't feel at peace with my decision.

With God, all things are possible (especially when it's his idea in the first place).

So, the two horses that I will be working with this summer (at this point) are Spirit and Sierra. Sierra is the mama of Spirit, and they are sweethearts. Spirit hasn't had much training, but Sierra was worked with/ridden before my mom bought them 9 years ago; she might be just more of a tune-up.

I went to visit this weekend to check them out and mess with them a little bit. They have literally been on pasture for the last 9 years....having an occasional hoof trim and worming. So, I don't expect 'much'. I was shocked that Spirit walked right up to me in pasture and was totally okay with me loving on her and eventually putting the halter on. Bruce says she has been more 'lovey' lately, she used to just run away from them. Good sign for me :)

We walked Spirit and Fancy (one of the older broodmares) back up closer to the barns to see if we would trim feet at all. Spirit did well leading, she started to get nervous about being away from the herd, even though she was with Fancy, so I really tried to not get caught up in her adrenaline rush and do what I could to stay safe in case she decided to get completely right-brained (instinctual) on me.

She didn't want to have anything to do with getting her feet done...she started pushing me around with her shoulder and 'dragging' Bruce on three legs, so I decided to not worry about that for the time being.

I started working on getting her to move away from rhythmic pressure from the lead rope, her front hind end. She caught on pretty quickly to that. Then I decided to just walk around the paddock area with her...about 10 seconds after I started that, she blew out, released her adrenaline and licked her lips. Good signs. Then I took her to the water tank so she could get a drink.

I was much more aware of my body language and energy then ever have been before (working with a new horse). I kept calm and assertive (as Cesar Milan would say...haha). Started to do some confidence building with throwing the rope over her neck/back rhythmically, she was having a difficult time with that. Did as best I could and stopped when she calmed down. Then the wind started picking up more and it was getting chilly, so we decided to put them back out.

I walked with Spirit back out to the herd. I let her graze for a minute and then took the halter off. She didn't run away or anything, and I walked away from her. Went back up to her a few mins later and she let me love on her for a few mins again. I think it was a successful first session.

We tried to get Sierra to come up with us initially, but she got away from Bruce and he decided to catch Fancy hoping the rest of the herd would follow. So, I wanted to go love on her for a bit. She avoided me for a few mins and then eventually let me in. I loved on her for 5-10 mins and then walked away.

I think Spirit is a LBI/RBI, she goes right-brained in new situations. But she is sensitive and seemed to be a people pleaser. I am looking forward to working with both of them! They will make somebody very happy!