Friday, August 19, 2016

Fun Times

I'm trying to crank out the posts this week- I got backlogged last week when the Chiro post should have gone out, so I ended up posting a bunch late in this week! I would have gotten behind again.

The day after our lesson, Penn was scheduled to go for a walk. However, mother nature decided we wouldn't be doing that - it rained all day and for most of the evening. Now, I'm not afraid to ride in the rain, however, I was going to be riding in the rain, through mud, by myself. Not cool. So I opted to pull out the tarp and a gym tumbling mat and mess with those in the indoor.

So curious!

Penn is very good at being brave. He walks up to scary things, holds his ground while he investigates, then is usually over whatever was scaring him. Well, I can't always let him look at things, and I don't want to teach him that it's ok to stop and look every time anyway. We have to find a happy medium between investigating everything that scares him and me pushing him through everything scary
I decided to hand walk him over the tarp and mat so he could investigate and be brave with me on the ground to start.



So he enjoyed pawing and biting and pulling on the tarp. Not afraid.

Then I got on and had him walk over both again. This time, he looked at them both and pulled his head down to take an extra good look. A little leg and he kept walking while he stretched and looked.

Picture on both!

I made him stand on both, walk on both, from each side and direction. Then I asked him to walk like a proper dressage horse - meet the bridle, no more stretching down to look.



Not proper dressage horse (I can't manage in hand video and that), but relaxed!

We went to the tarp first, where he jumped a little, then walked over gingerly. I made him do the same with the mat, where he gave the same jumpy response. We circled over both until he stopped reacting. Then I changed directions and we worked it the other way. Then we revisited just the mat and crossed the short width instead of walking the length. I rode a figure 8 over it until he stopped caring. Then I reversed the figure 8, had a flinch, and rode the figure 8 until he stopped reacting again.

I think this is a good way for him to find confidence in himself while I'm creating a space that he has to live in. It's like he's claustrophobic when he's traveling like a dressage horse. It reminds me of the western ranch guys who take OTTBs and train them to be ranch horses - the key step in all of their work is that horse is going to work on a long rein with no contact. They have to work it out themselves. Those horses seem to adjust really well - so I'm going to try that to make Penn brave, then repeating the same exercises in a working dressage frame. Certainly can't hurt!


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8 comments:

  1. emmaAugust 19, 2016 at 10:38 AM

    aww what a good boy :) i'm with ya about the rain. i'm not made of sugar, we won't melt, and often times when a ride needs to happen, it'll happen in the rain if need be. but.... sometimes it doesn't really *need* to happen lol

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    1. Codex DressageAugust 19, 2016 at 10:43 AM

      Nope, it definitely didn't *need* to happen this week! He just needed sat on and to do something mild, so playing with the tarp and mat fit the bill!

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  2. jenjAugust 19, 2016 at 11:28 AM

    Definitely don't want him to think he can stop and stare at everything. T learned that he could do that ... and at 14, he STILL thinks the appropriate response is to do a tiny spook, plant feet, stop, and then take 5 minutes to inspect it. THEY'RE LAWN CHAIRS YOU EEEDIOT, GET OVER YOURSELF.

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    1. Codex DressageAugust 19, 2016 at 11:34 AM

      Exactly! Since he's decided to be looky, I want him to have a system to fall back on. His first answer is to halfway stop, but then he's looking for the door out. I always try to make sure that door is going forward. He's usually on that, but I want to do away with the flinch too. An ear, ok. But no flinch!

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  3. EventingSaddlebredStyleAugust 19, 2016 at 1:09 PM

    You make better life choices than I do when it comes to the rain.

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    1. Codex DressageAugust 19, 2016 at 1:24 PM

      Hahahaha! I tacked Penn up and was like, "OK, time to go out in the rain." Then we just kind of stood there at the end of the barn aisle and I was like, "Nah."

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  4. SprinklerBanditAugust 19, 2016 at 3:00 PM

    I love this idea! Courage isn't a spook per se and he saw a ton of track stuff in his former life, but some things are just legitimately new to him. I've had the best success with letting him stand and look on a long rein until he understands, then going back to work. The more times we do this, the less we need it. He's a brave horse so once he works out something isn't going to hurt him, it's really not a thing.

    Noted: he has a really fantastic work ethic too so I'm not concerned too much about spooking to get out of work.

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    1. Codex DressageAugust 19, 2016 at 4:11 PM

      Yay! Glad not much bothers Courage either. Penn likes to look at things, especially if the work has gotten harder (like it has over the summer). I'd say he has a very good work ethic, he never says no, but for some reason he is always on the look out when he's put together and working.

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