More Adventurous

[glenatron]

So after Wednesday's antics, it seemed Zorro had got a bit anxious about the side of the school by the monster hedge of doom- on Friday I was focussing on groundwork and I had a real fight to get him to pay me any attention in the school at all. He was really trying to escape, offering a whole set of resistences, going as far as rearing ( he can balance a very neat three quarter rear ) and striking out at me. It was fairly hectic. Eventually I settled for a little bit of what I asked for as a good stopping point and went to think hard about what he needed from me to make him feel safe.

On Saturday we spent the day working on approaching the scary side of the school in the most non-confrontational way we could, with plenty of gentle movement, lots of approach and retreat and me staying between him and the scary stuff at all times, rewarding him with lots of rubs and scratches when he was able to stand with me close to the scary edge of the school. That really helped him and we got pretty much to where we could stand together a metre or so from the edge of the arena. It will take a couple more sessions to get things to where he feels brave enough to go there on his own, but it was definitely a step towards what we needed.

He was a lot more generally mellow as well, which may relate to the fact we just moved their fence a few metres further along the field so he wasn't as hungry as he has been.

Today, as documented by sleepsy_mouse we both rode out down the lane and on to the common, which has been our ambition for probably most of the last two years, being permanently thwarted by circumstances beyond our control. It was a bit of a nerve-wracking trip for me- although I've handled everything Zorro wanted to put my way in the last week I'd be lying if I said it hadn't knocked my confidence a little. Consequently we are both a little more on edge with each other which meant we were both a little jumpy. We had a few slightly anxious moments on the way, but by the time we got back pony and I had settled and I think next time will be a whole lot easier. It felt pretty awesome to actually be out on the bridleways even if we did only do a short loop on them. Jasper quite wanted to go on a rampage and Zorro quite wanted to stop for a picnic, but neither did and I think we can be well pleased with them and maybe even a little bit pleased with ourselves.

Comments

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Well that certainly sounds like a success to me. Bravo for both of you!
Glad Zorro felt better after his ground session. Sage gets quite upset too when he is not getting enough grass. He exhibits a very specific kind of stress.

Anxious moments make sense. My first trail ride was full of them. By the next trail ride I had kind of processed the fact that hey, I survived the first one, and it wasn't half bad! So I enjoyed the second one much more. Hopefully you and Zorro will too.

Striking out at you while rearing, eek. What an unhappy boy! What a good human you are for for not lashing out at him when he did that, and for thinking about how you could help him feel better about the whole thing. I'm sure he's thankful. :-)

It's nice you guys finally met your goal, hooray! I'm happy for both of you.
:-)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

In fairness he got a firm tap off the handle of my stick as he struck out, but it seemed to me entirely necessary to make it explicit that a dangerous behaviour like that is simply not acceptable towards me or any other human. I managed to catch it fast, too, before his foot had come back to the ground so it should have been very understandable what caused it. When it comes to the dangerous stuff you have to have something effective in your armoury- the Parelli guys always talk about being ready to use phase 4 if you need it and that's pretty much where I had to go there.

It was my fault anyways, I hadn't realised how concerned he was and so I was pushing him into a place where he felt unsafe. The approach that I was using might have worked in the end, but it would have been stressful for him and hard work for both of us, so it seemed both fair and logical to find an easier solution.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

well, we all make mistakes and go home and process what happened and then we learn and do better next time. I pushed Sage too hard on Sunday, or at least, I was being too emotional / controlling.

I think a firm tap is good, and still very different from lashing out at him. With good timing like that he knows you observed the behavior and were aware enough to respond to it quickly, and that it wasn't something that is allowed. But you were also a good leader and listened to him, and for that I'm sure your stock will go up with him. Now lets just hope my stock goes up with Sage tomorrow morning...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

My stock seems improved- yesterday there was a thunderstorm while we were visiting them and after a particularly big rumble of thunder that made him a bit anxious he came up to me directly.

Admittedly, he then tried to bite me three times and wandered off, but I felt it was a start...