On Friday evening the horse had arrived with its lovely owners, who I had observed struggling for a fair while trying to get the horse into the small 8x10 stalls at the fairgrounds. I could tell they were getting frustrated so I offered to help, and they accepted. The horse was very introverted, to me on the cusp of LBI and RBI. In the past I have had strong set ups from Pat NOT to "train" the demo horses when dealing with them in the barn as it is very easy for people to see this and then think that that is why Pat is successful in the show. Which of course we all know isn't the case! But in an attempt to give people as few reasons as possible to brace, it is always something I take very seriously.
As such, I didn't switch halters, or spend a long time trying to teach the horse to yield, I just set about helping her to get into her stall for the weekend in a natural and non-confrontational way. Unfortunately this was easier said than done! This little horse had learned that it is pretty easy to pull a human around with your head so we spent a long time dealing with that! The horse would pull back and I would keep the pressure on, walking with him until he chose the apropriate response. After about 45 minutes .... And me starting to struggle with feeling like a failure, we got into the stall. Phewf!
Now, the interesting thing about this whole lesson is that it was at this point that I choose to break principle #2 ( don't make or teach assptions).... I assumed that it was MY lack of skill and ability that caused me to struggle with this little horse so much... Those of you that were in Denver know that that was not the case! :)
The next day in the show it took Pat the better part of 4 hours to help this horse make a change in his willingness to listen to human leadership. The horse demonstrated some extreme Prey animal behaviors such as goat kicking (when they leap in the air and kick out with hind feet). He also demonstrated some learned, dominant behaviors like not yielding to pressure on his poll, and using this strongly to his advantage.
When Pat came out of the arena and de-briefed with some of the instructors I shared that it had taken me 45 minutes to get him in his stall.... Pat said, "well that would have been nice to know!"
Haha! I laughed .... Took a few deep breaths and took stock of the assumption that I had made ... a moment in time to remember that assuming that YOU are the one who lacks the skill is sometimes JUST as damaging as thinking you have all the answers ;)
Thanks for listening ...
Thanks for listening ...
