CAUSE them to think about it ALLOW them to do it ...

Session 10: In session 10 we did 1 hour of tie time. Interestingly on this day she developed some challenges with trailer loading (which had been going really well). I often find that this can happen with Introverted horses ... especially innately nervous horses, like Flo. What happens is that for years she has been just jumping in the trailer because no one was allowing her to have an opinion about what was being asked of her ... no one was letting her have a voice in the conversation. So now that I have been allowing her to have a voice.... she decided maybe she would say, "NO!". I spent about 20 minutes helping her to get past her tantrum, and try. Then I loaded her buddy first, and asked her to try again. She still was struggling. The trailer I was asking her to get into didn't have a ramp, so she had to step up and I could feel that she was struggling making that step. As Pat would say, "We had the nose and the neck, but not the feet!" I began to play with her front feet with the rope, and then when she was confident I lifted her foot onto the step. With this little help she was able to jump in, but I KNEW that we had some work to do to help her get confident making that nose, neck, THEN feet change. She was doing really well with her nose and neck... but having trouble converting that try to her feet. So that dictated my training plan for the day ;)

When I got to the arena that I was riding at that day ... we began by playing with some "hunting the ump" ... seeing if she could convert her nose and neck interest to doing something with her feet.  It took her a little while, and a few tantrums, before she realized that I wasn't going to MAKE her jump, I was just going to CAUSE her to realize that jumping was the MOST comfortable option ;).

Then I continued with helping her to convert her nose and neck try into her feet doing something ;). SO we also played with the pedestal. This Smart cookie figured it out and was about to stand on the pedestal as well! It was SO cool to see her begin to trsust me and figure out that the BEST way to do things was to try and solve the puzzle. And also to trust me that I wasn't going to MAKE her do anything, I was going to CAUSE her to understand my idea.... and then allow her to try to figure it out ;).

She also wore her bareback pad for the first time. Pat always says in the colt-starting skeleton that horses TEND to struggle with EITHER the placement of the saddle or the constriction of the girth ... not usually both. For Flo, it is COMPLETELY about the placement ... the girl doesn't worry her at all, its getting past something being placed onto her back. She did really well though ;).

Thanks for Listening!

Flo: Advancing from a Foundation of Faith

Flo's journey with me is continuing in a beautiful and humbling way. This horse continues to surprise me at her willingness and vulnerability. Over the past few sessions I have zeroed in on what exactly my own goals with Flo are... What Id like her to truly gain from her time with me. I've discovered that I believe that the biggest thing I can offer this special little horse is building a foundation of Faith in humans ... More specifically, Faith in a humans ability to apply pressure, fairly, appropriately and logically. At the moment this is Flo's largest challenge.

Flo doesn't really understand the difference between rhythmic motion (stimuli I'd like her to relax about) and rhythmic pressure, (stimuli I would like her to yield softly from. Because of this she is in a constant state of tension as she attempts to guess whether she should yield or relax. It's my responsibility to give her the CLEAREST messages I can from my energy, so that she begins to take her cue off of that, as opposed to guessing. It's also my job to apply pressure using phases... "Being as soft as possible, but as firm as necessary." In this way she can begin to have faith in me, and in humans and in how pressure and requests will be made of her in her future. This fairness, clarity and focus is what she will be able to depend on :)

On that note, here is a breakdown of our last few sessions-

Session 6:
-1.5 hrs tie time - Tieing horses is so valuable... It allows them to have time learning to respect consistent and fair boundaries (the length of the rope, and yielding to it)! It also helps them improve their patience, emotional fitness, and self confidence.
- in our On Line play, we began playing with backing into her pen. Flo struggles with stimulus behind her, so this is a good challenge, especially as it has a purpose :)! She is getting softer each time. One of her tendencies is when she is first asked somethig, she throws a BIG tantrum... I believe because in her past, preasure has been applied too quickly, and she has been asked to try harder when she is ALREADY trying. Often with horses, this causes them to throw a big tantrum at the beginning. What I try to focus on is that she DOES NOT have to DO the task, but she DOES have to TRY. As soon as she tries, all the pressure goes away. In this way we are building her "try reflex" more and more! Lastly we also did lateral flexion both directions and she did SUPER! 

Session 7: In session 7, Flo had 4 hours of tie time, in multiple locations ;). So once she found relaxation in one spot, I would offer her water, and then take her to stand in a new spot. Horses are contextual learners, so asking them to learn things in different contexts is SO valuable. Then we played on the 22 foot line with circle game, maintaining gait, and changes of direction. We also continued our ponying off of Damo, helping her to improver her porcupine game and her relaxation at the trot and canter ... as well as with people above her.

Session 8: In session 8 we continued with another 2 hours of tie time. Then we played On-Line with improving her understanding of rhythmic motion.

Session 9: In session 9 we did 1.5 hours of tie time.  Then I continued her pattern of backing into her pen, into the arena, and into some different spaces so that her confidence in zone 5 would improve!

I love seeing her beginning to really trust that Im not going to Make her do anything ... and that IF she tries ... the pressure will go away ;).

Thanks for following our journey!