LBI's and Asking for the "Right" Try

A while ago I posted a blog that I titled, "Not Creating Dust" about a session with a Mum and Baby in Australia trailer loading. Here is session two!

So after the first session I quit when mum didn't have to retreat ALL the way out of the trailer on her slightly panicked retreat, but only had to retreat to two front feet on the ramp. The Mare's MO had been to panic and RUN out of the trailer, so I was really happy with this.

So we began our session with Kerryn chest roping baby, and asking her to think about putting her nose in the trailer... With all horses, but foals especially, it is important to remember that as leaders our ONLY job is the nose, don't ask for more then the nose! So all Kerryn was doing was continually re-directing the foals nose to the base of the ramp of the trailer.

Now, I was really anxious to begin playing with mum and how she was feeling about the trailer that day... However, it was REALLY important for me not to push her past that edge where she felt like she had to retreat fast, becuase this was liable to scare baby, and in her second trailer loading experience, I did NOT want to risk that. So I slowly and very carefully played with the edge of mum's bubble, asking her to come more and more into the trailer, until I could feel that edge of retreat. It ended up being with two front feet on the ramp. We rested here for about 30 minutes while baby played all around IN the trailer, exploring it, eating it, stomping it, and having a grand time.

During this time, mum went In and out of some fairly intense bouts of introversion, stopping breathing and getting really frozen. But then relaxing, blowing out, and sniffing around the trailer, all things I thought would be really positive... HOWEVER, what I didn't realize was also how left brain mum was going.

Once baby was mostly done exploring, I began to ask a bit more of mum. And How interesting... she started saying fairly obvious "I won't's", not "I can't's" hmmm... How interesting? I continued to play with mum, gradually making her time consistently more uncomfortable as she wasn't trying, and releasing when she did try. Soon she was able to come all the way into the trailer, similar to last time. She still isn't totally confident in there, and has trouble backing out with out panicking, but it is getting better and better. I gave her owner some take home homework of asking her to back with her head down. Perhaps if this piece of the puzzle is really solid she won't panic so much going out of the trailer backwards (her tendency is to throw her head, and in general oppose pressure on her poll. Its interesting when she is Left Brain, I noticed she opposes this pressure by twisting her head to the side, when she is right brain, she throws her head straight up... hmm!).

So, I began to think these past few days... why was it that giving her so much time to stand with just her front feet in was a hinderance to our progress instead of a benifit? What I came up with was that with this more innately Left brain horse, I was not asking for that next try. Pat always says reward the slightest try, BUT be sure each try is at least SLIGHTLY greater than the last... and I have found this particularly important with more left brain horses. Mum got SO long of a rest with just her front feet in, she decided that was all was being asked of her, and when I asked for more, she got offended, and then offensive! She decided this was all the effort she was putting in and that was that! :)

The most important thing was not to get into a tug-of-war or a fight with her in general... I just passivly persisted in making sure that she wasn't getting a rest unless she was truly trying to investigate and understand the trailer... and soon enough we were back on the right track!

Thanks for reading!

Lillan Roquet
Parelli Licensed 3* Instructor and Level 5 Student