El spookio grande

[glenatron]

Today it was blustery, which meant the hedge along one side of our school was doubly full of monsters. I've got things to a point where if the weather is normal Zorro doesn't worry about it at all but when the wind is up a little he can find it a bit anxious and will fixate on the hedge and refuse to go near it. We've worked on this a lot over the last year and I'm happy that mostly we're fine and on days like today I use it as an opportunity to work on extending his comfort zone, learning to recognise the signs that he's got a plan to go somewhere and on sitting out the spooks when they happen. In that respect it's actually very handy to have a tame spookzone where you can work on that kind of thing without having to worry about being out on the trail or the road.

The highlight of this for me was realising that after a lot of circles and serpentines ( to allow us to get into the scary zone and out again in a safe way and to keep his attention and to stop him getting straight if he did want to scarper ) I was only having to start turning my body to get him turning with me. That was a very nice feeling. Other things he's getting pretty good at include rollback turns and circles on the forehand and quarters under saddle, although the former he tends to throw in as a way to avoid backing up straight. We're also doing pretty well at the going forward then backing up then going forward again without stopping in between. It's all slow and simple stuff but our communication is getting better all the time and with another Tom Widdicombe clinic next weekend I think we're well set to do some interesting things.

Comments

[penella22.livejournal.com]

that's so neat that you're off to another tom widdicombe clinic.
one thing that was really driven home to me yesterday at parelli play day is that SO MUCH of the issues our horses have are a reflection of the RELATIONSHIP.

I have to wonder if Mr. Zorro would still object to the SHOD if he were simply meandering by it all by himself or merely in the company of other horses?

I have also been pondering the way Sage behaved so well for the more advanced parelli student yesterday. Part of it is her energy is convincing right away, but I also think part of it is that after observing me for so long, Sage has figured out better what tricks he can pull, whereas with her he wasn't sure yet.

Good that you were able to assert leadership and get him turning with you. Very cool...

Oh! and what you said over on blitzen_'s journal put into words so well what I was trying to say in my own comment. I do think if it's not fun eventually you do need to look at that question and think about things.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

:)

If it's windy he tends to keep away from the sides of the field so I think actually he just doesn't like the moving leaves generally. I suspect your fellow student also had an element of "someone else's horse" going on- its much easier to set things up with a new horse and with a horse you don't have that emotional history with than it is to set them up with your own, I think.

On Sunday we did a five mile solo hack out around the common. That is probably as far as we've ever been and we managed it without Small as a safety blanket. He didn't find it easy, but we got everywhere we needed to. I had to hop off so I could be his reassuring friend/reliable leader on the ground a couple of times but that only covered a couple of hundred yards in total and he was great. That was a pretty big step for us both, I think.