5/29/18
Went out. yesterday and Fri. and
worked on Mikey learning how to ground tie.  Used Goodnight's method...with long lunge line. He's getting it.
Duchess: lead her about on Fri. and lunged her she on Tues. (yesterday)
Plato: cardio on Fri. and on Tues. he in a stall (mosquitos had been a problem) so I massaged his hind quarters.
Lily is gone to a new home. Yeah!

5/22/18
M: all tricks; took target far away and he came to it (ball on whip); back; still working on whoa...may add julie goodnight method of teaching to ground tie (with clicker added)
P: hand walked and trotted 12 min.
D: hand walked 12 min.
L: treated navel with Swat (she to be sold on Fri. to Tanya who lives in BR OR NO)

5/21/18
Mikey: began work with him using the dressage whip as a "baton" and directional placeholder. Also worked on lifting his 4 legs; yielding all 4 quarters, back, whoa. use of clicks/treats. Brushed him.
Duchess: lunge, gently. She starts gimpy with that left hind.  She is much better about yielding her forequarters to a nudge/tap.
Plato: wow! he likes to move! he even cantered for me briefly on the line! I walked him 12 min. Yielded all 4 quarters. Brushed him.
Lily: a bit "shy" about being caught. only using lead rope over her neck for now. Swat on her navel; around eyes; brushed her a bit. she likes treats. using them to encourage head down for now. trying to teach her head down more than anything else for. now. some TTouch.

May 18, 2018

Mikey: worked on asking him to slow down his picking up his front leg because I want him to HOLD it up for longer (3-5 seconds) and not just stomp it down!   My (click/treat) timing is slightly getting better…I’m trying to reward him just for measured, calm pick ups of his front legs. I also worked on whoa (I would walk a large circle around him).  He decided to add one tiny step back just as I clicked and treated for a successful whoa and then thought I wanted that tiny step back throughout...I had to clear that up for him. Also worked on  back and yielding his haunches to a touch of the whip. He seems to really enjoy the sessions.

Plato: He was (it seemed) excited to see me. He even trotted!  I carried my dressage whip and am using it much like a conductor with his wand…he has to stop when I raise it vertically…he has to back should I wave it horizontally in front of his face; and he must yield whatever quarters I indicate should I tap him lightly on those particular set of quarters (hinds/ fores). I made him move about for 12 minutes in his pasture…some transitions, some back steps, some yielding of his haunches and a lot of trot/walk transitions with me trotting alongside him…was encouraged to see his brightness and forwardness despite the heavy heat!  Did give him some treats throughout.  As I told you I gathered up the old hay string left in his new paddock and tossed it in the garbage can near the outdoor arena.

Duchess: she seemed to have thought about my request(s) that she move her forehand sideways should I touch, prod, lightly tap with the whip on the meat of her shoulder. She was SO MUCH SOFTER about yielding to this request.  She got my methodology from what I did on Tues. and did not take offense or get flustered such as she had on Tues. when I began this process of asking her to yield her forehand during ground work. I also lunged her at trot and a bit of canter.  She was (at first) wonky going left but I let it be and took time with her and I switched her back and forth direction-wise and by the end she was trotting better (less lame) even going left (counter clockwise).  I noted that in canter( to the left) she guarded her hind end a bit and was using both legs a bit like a bunny rabbit so I only had her canter 1/4th of a circle in that direction.  Going to the right she was much better in all three gaits. Very pleasant about answering my requests to halt and walk.  

Lily: I started lightly teaching her to p ut her head down. She also allowed me to simply walk up to her and slip a lead rope around her neck and then. lead her over to the water trough area because that is where I “hid”my fly spray. She allowed me to spray her body (I got real good up under her belly—the summer sore area) and I wiped fly spray on her face…particularly around her eyes. I praised the heck out of her.  Then slowly slipped the lead rope off of her. She seemed surprised that I did not make her do anything else other than that.  I am hopeful that tomorrow when I see her again I will have a better relationship with her and once again will work on the head down idea with her.

Tues., May 15, 2018

Mikey: took my old dressage whip with the tennis ball stuck on its end and played with fluttering it against his pastern to try to influence him to keep his front leg raised for longer than a half of a second to my request of “up.”  He kept reading this as if it was a fly and would stomp down.  I then took off the tennis ball and merely rested the tip end of the whip against his pastern and sort of lightly pulsed it against his pastern and he got better.  I got some diplomatic, slow leg raises and at times I was able to mightily reward him (give him 2 treats at a time rather than one…which is called “jack pots.”)  It was raining when I was working with him but we stayed under the tree in his paddock and he was fine. Also re-worked with him on 1. putting his head down to my lightly resting my hand on the upper crest of his neck (he was pretty good once again with this) and 2. backing to my request.  As usual, much use of clicks and treats throughout.  He was an eager student.

Plato: Walked him for 12 min. in his paddock and also did some yielding of his quarters for suppling.

Duchess: because it was wet out in their paddock I did not want to fully lunge her in case she slipped so I instead worked on some ground work with her. I opted to teach her how to yield her forehand to a light touch. She did not know how to do this so we worked on it consistently. Fascinating to see her process this info.  What I did was have a halter on her…Stand at her side and using (alternating) at first my finger pressure…and also a light tap with the butt end of the whip on the flat of her shoulder…I had to show her all I wanted her to do was take a tiny sideways step with her forehand…. I rewarded her with a treat once she clearly got it.  Note: I am NOT using clicker with the other three horses because I want to make sure they don’t get confused as they won’t be handled with clicker methods out in their normal lives.  She shook her head at times…she also backed up a few steps at times and she also balked sometimes…but I would gently bring her back to the same spot and we’d have a go again. I suspect on Fri. when I come back out she will have gotten an even clearer picture of what I was after as I will revisit this again with her. Also…in the end…after I’d played with Lily a bit…I went back to Duchess and she was better about taking a sideways step (got a treat, too).

Lily: When I first entered their pasture, both Sunni and Lily came up to me and Lily came right up to me and stood in front of me.  I went to stroke the side of her neck and she took off. I then did Duchess first and after that wanted to just apply some Swat to the fly area under her belly…and around the base of her eyes.  However, Lily started running away from me. I stayed calm…merely talked to her but I was not good this day about keeping my mind clear…After about 8 minutes she allowed me to approach her and all I did was lightly wrap my lead rope (no halter) around the back of her neck and used that to ask her to stand still while I very gently rubbed some swat on the rough patch of skin under her belly (a lot of flies were there). She allowed me to also gently dot some Swat in a semi circle under her eyes.  Because I did not use a halter on her there was NO issue about getting the darn thing off of her as all I needed to do was slip the lead rope off of her neck (I did not knot it or fully encircle it on her…all I did was use it to contain her so I could doctor her beginnings of a summer sore).  This gave me an idea, though, of when I begin teaching her to lower her head to take any head gear off of her…that I may begin the process in a similar manner (use of a lead rope simply on her neck so there is no big deal about trying to take any halter or bridle off of her head…). Next challenge: teach her how to lower her head upon command.   

May 12, 2018

Mikey: Seems to have caught on that I want him to lower his head if I lightly put my hand on the top of his poll!  He was very easy about going down with his head and I even got him to lower his head all teh way until his muzzle was below his knee!  A first. Click and treat definitely!

I asked him to back and he did. I worked on whoa…this needs better work. I used halter this time and longish lead rope and would repeat the verbal “whoa” and then lift the line quickly if he started moving around to get him to still his feet. He has a tendency sometimes to follow me around with his chest/head and neck. I got him to successfully settle down into “whoa” about 50% of the time.  

I also made it more clear that if I tapped his haunch on the flat side of his hindquarters that he should yield his haunches…and that a touch on his canon bone (of ANY leg) plus the word “up”meant that he RAISE that foot. He got more relaxed about this and I will continue to make the distinction clear for him that a yield over with the quarters comes from a tapping with the butt end of the whip (2x) on the SIDE of his haunch…or the flat side of his shoulder (to make him move his forehand over laterally…which he did happily today as well)

Now aiming to have him learn how to raise up a leg and HOLD it up for longer than a split second. I even went out to my car and looked through my clicker training book for any hints about this process (I know it involves DELAYING how. quickly you deliver the treat…but he has to give me a chance, an opening that he starts to HOLD his leg up for a tiny bit longer…the book by Alexandra Kurkland (sp) did not have any clues so I will research it online.  I was able to get Mikey to SLIGHTLY hold up his leg a bit longer…but it was not consistent. I did. not give him a click (or treat) for the microsecond(s) he held up his front leg.  I only rewarded for slightly longer holdings up.  But I need to see exactly what is a good process for this. Used one large carrot cut up into about 30 pieces (finger shaped) for most of his treats this time; used some other plain horse treats I got from Stemmons at the very end. But he did not ingest too much because basically he ate the equivalent of one carrot…yet he thought he was getting much more because he had to earn each piece.

{Jessie had a small cut on his(?) upper shoulder, left side, flies were working on it so I applied fly spray around it so they’d leave it alone.}

Plato: curried. him for 20 minutes solid with flexible curry glove. Got about 25 wads of hair and a ton of old dander off of him. Then put halter on and led him all around his paddock for an invigorating 15 min. walk with verve!  Also had him yield his various quarters about 4-5 times in all. Asked him to back up 2-3 x.  We did serpentines, diagonals, whoa’s, etc.  I fed him a couple of treats and left a couple more in the little low tub that I have his mini salt brick in.

Duchess: 13 min. of very active lunge work—all trot, canter, barely any walk or whoa…had to “race” her into the right lead at first (1/2 of a very large circle)…after that if she cross cantered, I’d. make her trot…LIFT the lunge line some as I asked for her transitioning into the right lead and she’d get it and then i’d relax the line and go with her.  I also banged on her feet some and made her waggle her legs (one at a time…would pick them up and “play” with them as if I was a farrier (ha).  Put Swat around her eyes (mostly underneath). Praised her a ton while she was working so hard for me. She is a true sweetie. Gaining confidence. I can see points in which her back relaxes and she has looseness to her joints as she trots. I hope with strength and suppleness she will gain moments of suspension in her gaits rather than the flat, Arab like trots and canters she gives forth now because she holds her back so tightly most of the time. Also, granted…the first 2 lunge circles she gave me a trot she was rather gimpy (this was going counter clockwise at the very start) but she seemed eager to go forward regardless and was trotting almost without me asking her to.  She also warmed up rather quickly and began to trot regularly early on in our lunge session. I could tell by her back that she had been used recently in a lesson so that is good, too.

Lily: First approached her with NO gear in my hands.  She came up to me and we exchanged nostril sniffs (one of my farriers advised me that this was a good way to greet a horse…I must be crazy!…) Then I asked her permission if I may touch her shoulder, neck. I used the flexible curry mit and would touch/stroke and back away.  Finally I lightly curried her a bit with it and then took off my gloves and did some T-Touch circle strokes on her neck side and upper shoulder.  I also stroked the crest of her mane but she did. not like me to go too far up (poll area/upper 1/4thof her neck crest). I then went and got my halter and lead and she let me put it on her. I led her over to where I had “hidden” the Swat (in a thin disposable cup I’d gotten from the barn kitchen…I hid the Swat behind their water trough where they couldn’t get to it because Sunni gets into everything I lay out there!  I also had my own bottle of fly spray and her lower back belly was covered with flies. I put Swat around Lily’s eyes very gently…and warned her I was going to spray her (first sprayed away from her body) and then covered her legs and entire belly with fly spray. I applied Swat to the place that the flies were congregating (making a summer sore). Will keep the rest of the Swat in my cooler (I got about 1 Tablespoon of it) and will continue to use it around the Fab Four’s eyes, etc. Then I took Lily for a little walk around the pasture while humming. She was okay with this and mellow (her head and neck were evben down as we walked…) until I continued on into the OTHER back pasture (through their open gate that subdivides their two pasture areas). Her breathing changed a bit and she 2x looked back at Dutchess and Sunni who were happily grfazing closer to their water tank.  I only walked her about 30 meters (in an arc) in the back pasture.  No need to make her anxious.  Then I took her back to her friends and thanked her and went to take her halter off.  The halter is large (it is the one I use for my own horse) but because she won’t lower her head, she considered the fact that I wasn’t smooth enough about getting it over her last (right) ear that I offended her so she shook the darn thing off, whirled and ran over about 15 yards to be closer to Dutches. Once again the humans had failed her! Augh! I put my stuff back in my car and went back into the pasture and sat down on the ground near Lily and Duchess.  Sunni came over and began nuzzling me, my shoes, my hair.  Lily started grazing (finally).  I just sat there and tried to do what that guy recommends in the trust-technique.com tapes…just be present and try not to have any words, thoughts come into your mind…just listen to the sounds around you and feel whatever you are sitting on…which in this case was the hard ground.  (don’t worry…I’m also waiting to be bitten by ants too!).  Slowly, after  about 3 minutes of this “communing with nature exercise”  I rolled and got back up and went back over to Lily and surprisingly she came right to me! I told her she’d done a good job. She and I exchanged another nostril sniff (!) and then she went back over to be by Duchess and continue grazing.

Fri. May 11, 2018

Mikey: clicker commands: back, 4 cone series, lift legs, yield all quarters, head down (moderately successful), come to me, whoa (needs more work on this). used no halter this time Going to work on asking him to keep a leg raised for 5 seconds. worked on separating the two requests about a. yield haunches vs. b. lift hind leg only quietly and small.

Plato: walked 10 min. cavaello boots did not fit him (he is 1/4 inch too large in the toe), lots of brushing, shedding (good) gifted him with salt block and left him treats in his new low bucket so he would have to "find" the small salt brick, made him yield all quarters 4x

Duchess: lunged; stretched pretty good both ways in trot (to my request via the line); made her canter 2x on right lead in a 30 m circle; very good about transitions

Lily: watched Adelle ride her: she dared to stretch at the trot and Adelle and her both were surprised and she suddenly came back up as if to say oh, no, this is not the real me!  Adelle had to stop her and shut her down temporarily because she got into a fluff about it; I went out and did the trust technique with her; she sniffed me again(!) and came right up to me and then I sat down on the ground in front of her, near her and she fell asleep above me (would not graze). I slowly rolled aside and stood quietly and eventually she began grazing. I also did some T-Touch on her neck and fronts of her shoulders. See where she has flies gathering and working on making a summer sore on her so I will address that tomorrow (Swat).