Day 12: Running and Brushing

Lucy was not a happy horsey this morning when I went out to work.  I worked her after I messed with Aztec.  Mind you, work is a loose term.  I watched her run in circles in the round pen.  That is what I'm calling working Lucy.

So here's how the morning went:

I went out and moved Lucy to their stall, so I could move Aztec in and out of the pen without worrying about Luce getting out.  She was completely cool with that.  Went right in.  After working with Az, I walked in Luce's stall and touched her neck.  She jumped.  Not big, but enough for me to pet her slower.  I finally clipped onto her halter with a lead, and I tried to walk her over to tie up, like I did with Az.  Nope.  No ma'am, she said.  She planted her feet and wouldn't budge.

So after waiting her out with pressure on the lead, she finally took a step.  I threw the rope down.  (I tend to over exaggerate when I'm first training horses.  I want them to get the right idea with as little confusion as possible.)  I literally dropped that lead like it was hot.  She chewed.  Yay, progress! I thought.  I recollected myself and picked the rope back up.  I asked her to move and lead.  And what do you know?  Another stand off.  Now, I realize that I can maybe out wait her, but I most certainly cannot win a battle with this girl.  She's huge and really headstrong. I did wind up dragging her over to be tied.  And then that ball game began.

After I finally got her through the pen door and into the barn (where she's been a hundred times before), I pulled her over to a tie out ring.  I slipped the lead rope through the ring, and pulled her up close so there was just enough slack, but not too much for her to potentially get caught up if she continued on her nutty streak.  I *quickly* tied a quick release knot and back up slowly, so as not to freak her out, since all of a sudden quick movements send her over the edge to a point of no return.  And.... drum roll, please....

She stood there.

No fuss or carrying on.  Nope.  Little turkey stood like she'd been tied up a thousand times.  No big deal.  I was pretty excited to see that she didn't lose it over not being able to move about.  She was chill as I could have hoped for.  I left her tied for maybe ten minutes, then I moved into the round pen.

Let me tell you, that was no fun whatsoever.  Got in, and she wanted to run.  Asked her to stop and disengage, and she wanted to run me over.  Asked her to move out, she took off ninety miles an hour.  There was no winning with her.  When I tried to avert my eyes and pet her shoulder, she bolted.  I moved my arm, she bolted.  I blinked, she bolted.  Like, for real?  What is this mess? Finally I gave up.  She was dripping sweat, I was sun touched, and Aztec was staring at the gate, seeming to say "you fool.  If you just stand there, she lets you back out. Calm the heck down."  So I put her in a stall with just a teeny bit of water, since she was too hot to drink all she wanted.

BUT, this evening when I went out to feed them their dinner, I worked her again.  She was still in the stall, so she was easy to catch.  This time, she followed me, like she learned to a week ago.  She walked right into the pen and faced me.  I touched her forehead and ears and neck, and she was calm as could be. I decided against asking her to move too much, since she wasn't already trying to act silly.  I did put a grocery bag on the end of my extension stick and rubbed it all over her.  Never flinched.  She did try to eat it, but that was just cute.  So I let her.  Not swallow it, but chew on it.  It was so funny. (:

I also brushed her while she was calm.  She stood perfectly still for that as well.  Never seemed fazed by anything I did.  My guess for her actions:  severe horsey bipolar disorder.

Day 11: Fussing and Running

Ok.  So, I have been kicked before and all that jazz.  But I have to say, I was a little heartbroken when Lucy kicked me today.  We walked at liberty to the round pen, and then when I approached her shoulder to halter her (she was sideways to me), she swung her hind end around, pinned her ears, and all in one motion kicked out.  She got my left knee.  Hard.  It wasn't one of those too excited, too much energy, wrong place, wrong time deals.  I could tell from her reaction to me after that she had intended to hit me.  I guess she didn't like her time off.

She paced around with her ears back glaring at me.  It took me a split second to push her around.  I swung the extension stick at her and made her lope circles.  She continued to try to kick, and (unfortunately), every time she threw a leg out, I popped her pretty hard on her bum.  She was blatantly disrespectful (which I knew she was.  She's pretty pushy.).  She ran mindless circles until sweat was coming off of her. Everytime I gave her permission to stop, she would come at me.  So I pushed her out and away back in circles.

She probably ran around for thirty some-odd minutes before I left the pen.  I hate quitting, but I was afraid she was going to kill herself or go lame.  She hadn't warmed up or anything, and her legs kept bumping the panels.  So I walked out of the pen, opened her stall, and sent her to it.  She was heaving and breathing really hard.  When I walked near her stall, I could feel the heat coming off her.  I gave a a small bit of water (since you're not supposed to give a hot horse big drinks of cold water until they're cooled off).  She was still really pushy with me, even though I could tell she was tired.  So I left her in a stall for a few hours.  When I came back down to feed them all, I fed her half her feed by hand.  Every time she was rude, I pushed her away, then gave her to reproach with a better attitude.  She seemed "sorry."  I know she didn't remember kicking me, just that I ran her in hard circles for a really long time.

My dad came home, saw my swollen leg, and said he was going out to teach her a lesson.  Luckily he listened to my thing about how she wouldn't remember what she did, only what I did to her, and that she wouldn't realize why she was being punished.  He gave in and didn't go down to her.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back out like nothing happened and see where we are.  I know I need her respect.  She trusts me, but she's running over my trust.  I didn't think she would be like this, that Aztec would be my pocket pony and Lucy would give me trouble.  I guess now that she knew I wasn't a threat, she wanted to get my annoying self away  Hopefully I can figure out a way to earn her respect without being the typical bad-guy.  That isn't the kind of trainer I am, and I will not let myself get involved in that. I think some people use extreme force and find it's easy enough, and then they get too comfortable with that method.  I know I'm one to fall into some comfortable routine, so I'm not going to even go there.

Day 8: Off Day (Literally)

Didn't get to work Lucy today since I had to work until 9:15 pm.  I honestly would have rather worked with Lucy and Aztec, but you have to do what you have to do.  Lucy didn't eat all of her feed this morning like Aztec did.  Az is a little piggy, while Lucy could take it or leave it.  She did eat about two and a half qaurts, though, and that was just this morning.  My dad fed her this evening, so she's eating enough.  (:  Can't wait to work her tomorrow after big girl work! 

Day 7: Day of Rest/Rolling (:

Miss Lucy, just like Aztec, has decided that I am not so bad.  She leads like a normal horse and is fairly easy to halter.  She also did really well for the Purina guy, so she got a free day as well. 

Lucy LOVES to roll, so I wet down the round pen I work them in since it was worse than the Dust Bowl.  I opened the gate, and in the girls went.  And Lucy rolled.  And rolled.  And rolled.  She'd go down, roll a good bit, get up , walk a few feet, and drop again.  It was pretty cute to watch. (:

Lucy's freeze brand

Shaking off all the dust

From wild to willing in 120 days <3

Day 6: Touching and Leading

Miss Lucy decided that today she liked me.  She let me walk right up to her and clip the lead on.  (I think she might be a bit bipolar, since yesterday she wouldn't let me in her pen without going bonkers!  But I'll take what I can get.)

Since she gave me the OK to play, I asked her to let me touch her shoulder, just like I did with Aztec.  She did fine.  Let me waltz right up and pet her all over.  No problem today.  After that was (thankfully) uneventful, I lead her to the round pen.  And guess who decided that leading was okay today?  Oh, Lucy Goosey....

She led like a champ.  I worked her more closely than I did Az.  Lucy is a bit more pushy, so I needed to keep her close enough to me that she wouldn't run me over or drag me.  So I grabbed her like you teach a little kid to lead a horse.  I put my right hand about four inches under the clip, and I just started walking.  I kissed to her, and Lucy followed.  When I stopped, she kept going, so I dropped my hand over the lead.  That stopped her, and she backed off of the pressure that was now on her head.  And ta-da!  I now have a horsey that leads without a fuss.

I'm a little leary of tomorrow though.  I kind of wonder if her episode yesterday is going to be like one of those not-so-good Ion Television episodes of Criminal Minds.  The one episode you don't want to see plays over and over and over.  I'm really hoping this isn't the case, that she just needed to test how trustable I am.  Hopefully she got her answer and we can move on and up from here. 

Day 5: Back to the Start

Well, Lucy decided that she didn't like domestication, so she ran around for forty minutes without so much as glancing at me.  I went out to work with her and her sister, and she was first in the round pen.  The moment I set foot in the pen, she took off in mindless circles.  She wouldn't stop.  For anything.  She ran so hard I thought she was going to hurt herself.  I finally had to just open the door and let her out. 

I don't know what I did wrong or where I messed up, but tomorrow I'm going to start her over.  Go out there like she's never been touched before and work that way.  Last night, we ended on what I thought was a good note.  Obviously something I did incorrectly stuck with her and carried over to today.  So my plan for her tomorrow morning is to do the same thing I did with Aztec yesterday: advance and retreat.  We are going to add some baby steps in there to see if that is the issue. 

I thought she could handle the work I've done with her.  Obviously I was incorrect in this assumption.  I guess she needed a few more steps in there to get her confidence up a bit more.  But I'm not worried.  She is (or seems) very intelligent, so she should be easy to figure out.  I needed to take my own advice:  don't worry about other people's progress.  I kind of got worked up that other youth trainers are already so far ahead of us, that I forgot to stop and listen to what my horses are telling me.  I wish I videoed my sessions with Lucy, because I'd be willing to bet myself that somewhere in there, ever so subtle, she was telling me she wasn't ready to move on.  But I pushed her because I wasn't listening to her...
I just hope she forgiving.  I'm still learning as well, so hopefully my girl won't hold that against me too much. 

xx Shell

Day 4: Leading, Disengaging, and Fly Spray

Didn't work Lucy very long today, maybe thirty minutes.  Now that she will let me walk up to her and touch her, I feel like a lot of pressure has been lifted off of me, therefore I should take some off of her.  So we just kind of played around this evening.  We fine tuned her leading skills, and I led her all over her pen and then into the barn.  She caught on fairly quickly that when my feet move and I'm facing front, she should follow suit.  She also figured out that if I am facing her and slightly forward, she needs to back out of my space a bit.  That she just picked up out of nowhere, but I was pleased that she was paying that much attention to my body.  Just saves me having to teach her that respect lesson later on. 

Disengaging her hindquaters proved a bit more of a challenge, but not like an Aztec challenge.  More like, a simple challenge (how about that oxymoron!).  I started by moving out from her shoulder sideways to the right (worked that side first).  Then I crouched really low, exagerating my body movements as to prevent confusion (after she masters the skill, I will become more subtle).  But I crouched and took a step towards her hind end.  When she didn't move, I continued the movement, but I begin swinging the end of the lead.  I got progressively quicker in my swinging until she moved her hip.  The first time I didn't have to swat her.  She moved away.  So I let her chill with my back to her, taking away any pressure that she felt.  Then I repeated the steps:  step, swing, swing harder, pop. 

The second time I had to pop her with the end.  She bounced around on her heels until she faced me, and she dropped her head and chewed.   I got what I wanted, so I turned immediately around, giving her space and time to relax and process what she had just learned.  I repeated disengaging her right twice more before I did the same work on the left.  So after four times on each side, I let that lesson be over. 

Then I broke out the fly spray because the knats and horse flies were driving her nuts.  I let her smell the yellow bottle, and she nibbled at it a bit.  When she was sure it wasn't alive and/or going to eat her, she let me spray her legs and under belly where all of the bugs were grouping.  She seemed relieved at this.  Never gave me an ounce of trouble!  She's turning out to be more like Chey than I thought after the first time with her.  She's not afraid, and awfully sure of herself.

I went to Stockdale's this afternoon before I worked her, and bought a peppermint scented Jolly Ball.  Aztec was terrified of it, but Lucy pranced right up to it, sniffed it, then pawed it around.  She kept looking up at me (I guess to see if I was watching her being silly).  She played with the new toy for a few minutes, and was so confident in herself.  She's so willing to try something new, and nothing really spooks her.  Which thrills me to no end!  She's also started eating feed, so clicker training will begin in a few days.  I had to put maple syrup over her feed yesterday, and she lured by the sweet scent to test it.  Now she's eating straight sweet feed minus the syrup.  (:

xx Shell