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.
No comments:
Post a Comment