Jumping into Circling & Porcupine: Creating Relaxation

Great play with Flo yesterday! We had the indoor all to ourselves :). This was basically session 3, and she was SUPERB to catch in the round pen; I can tell she would still be tricky if she was in a big pasture, but in the round pen she is now doing really well! She still puts her head UP when I go to lift the halter over her nose, (eventually our hope would be that she would drop her head DOWN into the nose hole) ... but 1% better each day!

We then headed up to the indoor. I thought I'd begin with circle game since she felt that she needed to move her feet. SO I started with a circle to the left (her easier way) ... and tried to figure out what the parameters of the game were. (This is something I OFTEN think of when playing with a horse ... WHAT do they have to do to get a release? That's what makes it a game, that's what makes it fair.) As she cruised around, I noticed a few things; first, she would speed up headed back towards the gate every time ... often breaking gate upwards. She was also pulling on me, near the gate as well. Being particular is one of the most important things with horses, and I often find that if we have MORE than one goal at a time it can confuse them. So I started with selecting "maintain gait" ... i.e., I didn't want her to speed up towards the gate and slow down going away from it. So I hung in there until she made a shift, and was able to maintain the trot all the way around me (she was still speeding up and slowing down, but she wasn't breaking gait). Then we went the other direction which is much harder ... she doesn't like humans being in her right eye. She also made a huge shift this direction!

After I sat down (something I like to do to give them a BIG release of pressure), and just managed the rope while she wandered. And then, the COOLEST thing happened ... she got confident enough to lie down! However, as you can see in the video... She had SO much adrenaline she had to get up, lie down, get up, lie down. However, it was AMAZING that she was confident enough to lie down ;).

Next she had some tie time while I played with Damo ... She was super, stood relaxed like an old hand! I then decided it was a good time to help her find more relaxation at the trot, and improve her porcupine game... SO, it was on to Ponying! Damo and I began at the walk on her good side (left), and she did super. We then made the transition up to the trot, which was SUPER hard. I used my horn to reinforce the porcupine game, and spiraled so that I was asking her to come forward at an angle. Damo was an angel... keeping her hip out to the outside so that Flo was coming towards my knee, not towards Damo's tail. It took her quite a while, but eventually she chose to come forward into the trot, and we were able to spiral back out and trot a few laps around the arena until Flo found relaxation at the trot.

Then we switched gears to improving rhythmic motion again. Now Flo had me in a new "strata" (I was now above her, on Damo), and she struggled with understanding rhythmic motion and finding relaxation, but we got there and I was able to throw the rope over her withers. I was also able to flip it down over her hindquarters a few time and ask her to follow the feel in a circle. She was soft, and had really made a choice (in our ponying discussion!) to follow a feel ... (See Video below!) ;)

We were also able to do a little bit of ponying at the canter! She got a bit impulsive, but still did super. She is a super nice horse ... it will take time to build her trust and confidence, but as with most introverts, once we put the time in the rewards are SO worth it!

Thanks for following our journey!