Gwen's choice

I haven't been able to do much with my horses lately, as you might have ascertained by my lack of posts. Other aspects of my life have crowded into my horse time, add to the very swollen left knee that my handsome boy seems to have acquired and I haven't had much to talk about that wasn't depressing. Summer of maladies, 2012.

Gwen, it would seem, does not appreciate the fact that I'm "ignoring" her. She came up to me yesterday after eating her dinner and said, "I want to do something." Well it's hard to argue with that. I dug out her mat (a piece of plywood), put it on the ground and waited for her to put her feet on it. Mind you she wasn't wearing a halter or anything, so there was no way I could direct her to stand on the mat besides body language and her memory of what the mat means.

For those of you who may not know, standing on a mat is a foundation clicker training exercise. Horse get a high rate of reinforcement for placing both front feet squarely on the mat. It teaches impulse control and how to ground-tie. For many horses who really love standing on the mat you can use it to help a horse get comfortable in the "scary corner" of arenas or trailers or trails. It's a very handy exercise.

So there we were, looking down at the mat when Gwennie did what she normally does at first sight of the mat (which btw is not good) and pawed at it. Normally I back her up or step her forward to approach the mat again when she does this, but without a halter I couldn't do that. Fortunately this wooden mat doesn't stay put when she paws, it skates over the ground- which doesn't get her rewarded. So she tried that a couple times before her lightbulb went off and she planted one foot squarely on the mat. Reward!

Then I waited. "You have to put the other foot on it, babe," I said, pointing to it. Up went the other foot, plopped down squarely next to the first. Reward, reward, reward! I then slowly walked around her, rewarding her for remaining still when I left her head. At one point, she fidgeted and a hoof came off the mat. No reward for that, so I walked a few feet in front of her and asked her to target on my fist. She came off the mat to my hand for her reward and I figured that would be the end of it- that she would take the opportunity to walk off and graze. But no, she turned around and went right back to the mat! And she didn't paw at it!

To me, these are the moments when clicker training is the most rewarding. When the horse obviously chooses to do the exercise, when they're involved 100% and having a good time. It was also one of those moments when one of my horses approaches me and I know exactly what they want. It kind of feels like a thought pops into my head that's not my own, it feels strange but completely true, know what I mean?

Here's a picture of a horse standing on a mat by his own choice. This is not Gwen, sadly I had left my camera at home.

Drought

It's been a rather dry year here in upstate NY. While we haven't had it as bad as much of the country, we're still inches below normal when it comes to precipitation.

Because of that my horses' hooves have pretty much morphed into desert hooves. Because of the lack of moisture they haven't been wearing away the excess like they normally do, instead the dead tissue has been building up on top of the sole, making a really thick callus. You might think this is a good thing, but thrush can worm its way around that dead tissue creating pockets of disease, this callus can also create lumps over the sole that can bruise the sensitive corium underneath.

I'll let my lovely model, Gwen, show you what I mean.

Left fore before trim

Right fore before trim

Because of the reasons I mentioned before, those lumps needed to come off. Unfortunately since it's been so dry I've practically needed a chisel to get that excess off. Thank goodness it finally rained today and I took advantage of the moisture to get in a half-decent trim. It still took a bit of grunting and groaning, but I finally managed to get it off.

Left fore after trim

Right fore after trim, the angle on this one makes her foot look a bit funky

I could have taken a bit more off, but being a little conservative probably won't hurt anything. Comfortable is better than pretty, after all.

How's everybody else doing with the drought? Or with the super-duper excess rain? Whatever the case may be...

Waylaid

I was so looking forward to summer, those long, warm (hot) days when I would be able to put in some serious time in the saddle. Most especially with Gwen, we're never going to get anywhere if I don't get on her back more often. So I was seriously bummed when my horses came up with HIVES a few weeks ago.

They started out small, just some bumps along their haunches where they lie down to sleep, but then they spread...

Gwen got lumps all over her back

and the hock she likes to sleep on looked horrific

Coriander started getting them over his shoulders and neck

and then they moved onto his face, poor boy

At this point I was getting really freaked out. My imagination started going and I was scaring myself thinking about them asphyxiating due to swollen shut airways and being blinded by their eyes puffing shut. I don't know about you, but when my horses don't feel good, I'm a wreak. I pretty much stop eating and sleeping and just fret all the time.

So I got the vet out to look at them and she was all "this is no big deal, bathe them and mow the pasture and they'll be fine." I bathed them (boy did they ever love that, NOT) and Mark went out the very next day and mowed the pasture (he's awesome), and thank goodness- the hives started going down almost immediately.

PHEW

While the vet was out we did vaccinations. I mentioned to her that Gwen always has a bad reaction to vaccinations, she often has lumps for months after getting the shots. Because of that we decided to give her one at a time in her pectoral to see how she reacted. She got her rabies vaccine in her chest and the very next day it looked like she was smuggling an ostrich egg in there. ARGH! Sorry I don't have a picture, I only took one with my camera so I could text it to my vet with this message: !!!! (paraphrasing).

Fortunately the swelling was gone after a week and by that time they had both recovered from their skin allergy and feeling well enough to ride. I climbed up on Gwen and it was like sitting on a firecracker with a lit fuse. I got off after about five minutes because I felt completely NOT SAFE up there. But the very next day and she was completely different, she was relaxed and wanted to explore. I rode her into the back fields away from the pasture for the first time ever and she was great, I even braved a trot!


She might make a trail horse yet- as long as I can keep her healthy...

Super quick update

Gwen cantered under saddle for the first time yesterday- and I'm here to talk about it!

We were trotting uphill in the field across from the pasture when she spooked a little at a bird in a tree. Instead of flying sideways she just picked up a canter. I let her go for a few strides before I brought her down from a trot. Let me tell you, it was lovely. She was smooth and round and everything that I knew she'd be.

I did not ask her for it so I didn't reward her. I'm not ready for her to think that cantering is great and she needs to do it all the time. But when we're ready- she's going to be brilliant.

Also, she's learning lateral movement.

We're making progress!

Tough love

When I got Gwen almost three years ago, she was wilder than a march hare. It took 10 minutes to get a halter on her, and once I did leading her was like flying a kite or trying to reel in a marlin. She'd spook at everything and then try to bolt, constantly, and the only thing on her mind was getting next to her brother at all costs. Because of that, I adapted a certain way of handling her (including clicker training) to help her learn she could be comfortable with me, that she could be safe with me.

The thing is, she's not that horse anymore- but I've been treating her like she is. I've been letting her get away with what seemed to me like little things that added up to something big. Like walking off without my direction and swinging her hindquarters around instead of halting square. It took an outsider looking at the situation to say to me, "you've got a submission problem."

Whoa.

That totally blew my mind.

But she was absolutely right. I have not stepped up expectations with Gwen's progress, I've still been walking on eggshells around her for fear that if I ruffle her feathers she'll blow up like that wild thing she used to be. The thing is, by NOT laying down the line I've been making it more likely that's what she'll do.

It was pointed out to me that since she's a flighty, nervous animal who is incredibly insecure, she needs me to be in charge to feel safe. But because she's a mare, she'll test me. If she steps over the line and I don't step up, she'll get nervous, and then she'll get scared, and then she'll be gone.

Of course laying down the law doesn't mean I have to get nasty or aggressive with her, I just need to correct her when she makes a decision without me. If she takes a step I don't ask for, I need to put her back. If I'm riding and she tries to fixate on something, I need to move her body so she can't. I need to ask her for more, lots more, to keep her busy and to keep her mind from wandering. A Gwen that has her mind on me is not a Gwen that's spooking and bolting across the countryside. That's the Gwen I want.

It's time for me to help my baby girl grow up.

I've been too busy to take any photos of the Quarters lately, so enjoy this dandelion instead.

Gwen's first abscess

Gwen tried to kill me this weekend. Seriously, I'm still trying to put my heart back together.

The footing here in NY has been awful this winter. We've gotten quite a bit of rain which turns the pasture to mud, which the horses then slog through and rut up. Then we get a hard, hard freeze and all those ruts get frozen solid, making it very difficult for the horses to get around. There were days when Butch, the belgian boss-hoss would just stand in the run-in all day waiting for me to bring hay to him because the ground was simply too difficult for him to walk on.

This brings me to last Saturday, I'd just spent the morning struggling with a draft horse who really didn't want her feet done, when I went out to spend a pleasant afternoon riding my two lovely horses. Unfortunately Gwen came up to the gate hobbling on three legs and acting like her left hind was broken (Kristen, I'm feeling ya right now). She stood around without any weight on it and when she walked she just stabbed her tippy-toe into the ground, holding as little weight as possible.

I immediately picked her foot up to see if something was horribly wrong with it, there was a small flap on her frog sticking out, it wasn't enough to cause her so much pain, but I cut it off anyway and stepped back to see her reaction. Just the same. Then she very carefully lifted her hind leg up and to the side, took her little muzzle and pointed to her hoof, "it hurts there, fix it please," she said.

My heart promptly broke and fell all over the ground.

I put some bute in her feed and went to text my vet. Vet said check her for scratches, put her in a stall, cold hose, feed her bute, and check her temperature, call back in two days if she hasn't improved.

• Check for scratches: check, no scratches.
• Put her in a stall: anti-check, not going to happen
• Cold hose: anti-check, hose has been put away due to freezing winter temps
• Feed her bute: check, already done
• Check her temperature: anti-check, I don't have a thermometer- add buy a thermometer to my mental wishlist
• Call back in two days if she hasn't improved: enthusiastic check!

Well guess what? On Sunday morning that darn mare was 70% better! At first sight, she was weighting the foot with only a slight limp. Upon hoof inspection I found the smallest drop of draining fluid coming from the tiniest hole in her medial heel bulb. All that drama over the most miniscule abscess ever?

Seriously, it's like she's taking up scaring me to death as a winter hobby...

I interrupt this Christmas vacation...

To bring you this important announcement:

We have trot! Under saddle!

That is all. Now back to my regularly scheduled vacation...

I took my human for a ride

and I dids a good job!

I knew something was up when my human starting putting the leather things on me while I was eatings dinner. She got a new leather thingy for my back that I'm trying out from someone who lives a long ways away. I've never met the person who lent it, but I like her for sending me such a comfy leather thing to try! (Thank you, KK)

When I was done eatings, my human grabbed the metal steppy thing and took me up to the field with all the sharp green trees in it. She put the steppy thing next to me and stepped up, but the horses over there were making noises so I had to pay attention to them. I forgot my human was there until I noticed her scratching my withers and calling my name, then I remembered that I'm supposed to put my head down when the human is on the steppy thing. After the human sat on my back I had to wait while she bent over and did something with the leather thingy (It's SO nice having stirrups with her), and then we got to go!

I headed up to the top of the field but then I had to stop because the ground got all funny (deep, muddy ruts with ice), so I had to put my nose next to the ground so I could figure out how to walk over it. Once I got past the funny ground we got back in the grasses and I was happy. I wanted to stop and eat the grasses but my human made me keep going.

Then we turned down the hill between the sharp green trees and I had to be real careful, it's hard to walk down hill with a human on your back! Plus there were branches from the trees on the ground that I had to sniff. But I made it, all the way down the hill and I didn't have to trot once! (She's been having a hard time walking downhill without trotting, we've been working on her balance)

My human asked me to turn back towards the pasture where my herd is and then she let me eat a bunch of really yummy looking grasses before we headed back up the hill. I tried to take the shortcut back to the barn and jump the ditch but my human made me walk up along side it instead (I was not relishing the idea of eating driveway dirt). Then I wanted to stop and eat grasses again but my human made me keep going until we got back to the metal steppy thing.

Then my human said "whoa" so I stopped and she jumped off and gave me treats and told me I was wonderful. She might have been crying, my human is so dramatic sometimes.

You gives me treats now!

A real ride

Honest to goodness, I had an actual ride on Gwen today.

First of all, I took her over to the mounting block and got on without putting a flake of hay down first. She stood like a stone until I was mounted and she was rewarded. Brilliant.

Then walked up the hill around the barn, and she halted when I asked her to before turning into the Christmas tree field. Excellent.

We turned into the field and hit a bit of a snag- I wanted to turn around and head back, she wanted to graze. Grazing wasn't on my agenda, so we had to do some hip yielding until she decided to just stay in the direction I pointed her. Points for me on sticking to my guns.

Then she walked down the hill and turned toward the barn when I asked her, and halted again when I asked. Awesome.

Oh, and guess what? She backs under saddle! I asked her on Sunday and she just glided backwards- there was no pushing through the reins or trying to slide left and right, she just stepped back. So cool. I asked her again today with the same result, flowing backwards. All of our ground work has really paid off.

We've now got go forward, turn, halt, and back. The building blocks for making a riding horse.

It was a simple, short ride by most standards, but considering how far we've come I had to crow about it!

Establishing a pattern

Since the 13th when I got my nerve back again, I've been trying to get on Gwen at least once every other day. She's doing quite well. I'm doing quite well. Her soft attitude about carrying me around has come back, there's no more giraffe neck when I stand on the mounting block or slide onto her back, and my heart no longer pounds like a frightened bird every time I'm looking down on her. We've got our mojo back.

I'm trying something a bit different this time- I'm setting up a pattern so that she knows exactly what to expect when I'm sitting on her. Initially I slid on, clicked and gave her a treat, slid off. Then I added in a neck flexion in each direction (not to my knee, just to 3 and 9 'o clock). After that I added in a step forward, then two steps forward. Yesterday I added in a hip yield to the right and she was right there, tonight I'll see if I can add one to the left too.

So far I haven't asked her for anything new, just going back over the things she already knows. I think this is good, it gives me a chance to really carve those essential skills into stone and it gives her confidence. Best of all, I think she's actually enjoying it. She marches right over to the mounting block now, ready to go, and when I slide off (which is relatively quickly since it only takes about 3 minutes to go through the pattern) she looks at me like, "is that it?"

"Are you really leaving for the day?"

I think it's best right now to leave her wanting more. I have plans to add the other hip yield then ask her to walk forward and follow her nose in each direction, after we get those I'll ask her to back up. Any other suggestions? Other than picking the poo out of the run-in, I'll be doing that tonight.

Unfortunately (fortunately) her lessons will be on hiatus for a week. The husband and I are going on a little vacation to celebrate our wedding anniversary next week. I'm a little bummed about leaving her when we've been making such progress but it's not often that you get a partially expense paid trip to Hawaii (husband has a work conference there and I'm piggy-backing on it), so it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

Aloha everyone!

Back in business

On Thursday I sucked up my courage on got on Gwen again. I slid on, C/T, slid back off onto the mounting block, C/T, three times. She was wonderful and fabulous and only wanted to know which side her treat was going to come from.She didn't even wait until I was settled before her questing little muzzle started sniffing around for food. Just the cutest.

I did wuss out and use the bareback pad instead of the saddle.

I know what you're thinking, "in what world is choosing a bareback pad instead of a saddle wussing out when getting on a nervous mare who's greener than grass?"

Here's the thing, my Ansur- which I love- is kinda tall. I can't just slide into it gracefully, I have to wiggle into it. I can just slide on top of the barepack pad with a minimum of fuss, so until she's rock solid with mounting and dismounting again I want it to be as smooth as possible. I'll probably introduce the saddle when I she's ready to start moving forward and do hip yields again.

I put the old Crosby back on her Saturday and ponied her off Coriander, we did a bit more trotting and cantering this time. Uphill, downhill, and round the hill. I'm trying to get her used to the feel of a saddle over varied terrain and movements. No more bucking when the saddle surprises her!

We trotted downhill and I got a chance to be impressed with Coriander, he's really learned how to regulate himself going downhill which was made clear by Gwen's cluelessness. We started trotting downhill and she just couldn't stop herself from picking up speed until she was passing us. That made Coriander cranky and he shot a hind hoof at her, over which we had to have a conversation. No starting fights when the human's on your back!

After the ride I put the pad on her again and got on a couple more times. She was calm as a cucumber and I was feeling pretty confident. Unfortunately Saturday night the local town shot off some fireworks less than two miles from their pasture, and she's been a mess ever since. Hopefully she'll be back to normal tonight.

If not I'll be standing there shaking my fist at the sky shouting, "why fireworks, why?"

Speaking of bucking, I've been watching a lot of capriole lately, remembering just how heartily she can buck, and thinking that the capriole looks a bit like bucking. I bet she could capriole with the best of them. Future plans...

All the time in the world

I asked Gwen to line up with the mounting block on Thursday. She said thanks but no thanks. That was okay, I was kind of expecting it anyway, she was traumatized by the bucking episode too. I brought her out on Friday and she was a little... erm... unfocused, so I started with some Connected Groundwork exercises. I found something interesting when I went to do the heartgirth press (pressing with my whole forearm behind her front leg), on her right side she immediately walked away from me. On the left she stayed and bent around my arm. Curious, I massaged the inside of her front legs and her armpits- the right side felt swollen and tense compared to the left. I asked her to line up with the mounting block again and she was happy to do so on the left but swung her hips out on the right. I don't know if she tweaked something or if I hit her on the way off but she's definitely sore on the right side. I'll wait until she's feeling better before I try to slide on again. She'll let me know.

Kate G. came out on Saturday and showed me how to start her with ground driving. We started with a long leadrope attached to the halter at both ends. Using my dressage whip we asked her to go forward and turn while we were at her shoulder, gradually we added another lead rope and moved our way back until we were at her hip. She did fabulous and finally started to understand that I meant for her to follow her nose. We'd been having a bit of a misunderstanding before where she thought she could just turn her nose but continue moving off in another direction. That had a lot to do with how we got into the bucking situation. I didn't feel comfortable debating this issue from her back so I'm glad to have found another way.

Sunday I got hammered by a frack-a-lackin migraine (grrrr) but fortunately felt good enough to go out and play with her today. She did a great job of remembering the lesson from Saturday and we were able to pick up where we left off. Here's another benefit of ground driving: Even though she wanted to stop every three steps and graze I insisted that she keep moving, walk forward, and turn. That was another thing I was worried about debating from her back- I let her graze while I sat on her for a long time just to get her comfortable carrying me around but eventually I have to get more demanding than that. It's good to know that she won't get upset about it when the time comes.

And... guess what? I even ended up all the way behind her at one point and she was still listening! We might be ground driving for real sooner than I expected. Time to drag out the lunge lines!

I feel like we're starting back at the beginning again, but that's okay. For one thing: Every time we have to go back to the basics, they'll just get that much stronger. For another: I'm not in a hurry. She's seven now; with any luck I'll have at least 20 more years to play with her and get her trained. I've got all the time in the world.

There's a light...

I had the vet out today to give the Quarters their vaccinations and physicals. On a gut feeling I asked her to check Gwen's eyes while she was out.

The good news is Gwen's eyes are fine, BUT she had a very negative initial reaction to the test light. When the vet tried to look in her right eye she LEAPT away. Interesting. The vet said she'd never had a horse do that before. So even though her eyes look perfectly healthy it appears that she's very light sensitive.

This explains a lot. White is very light reflective, if she's light sensitive and a glare came of the Great White Trailer of Death and flashed her in the eye it would have been quite painful- which would explain the bolt and her not wanting to go near it again.

My vet suggested that I take her out with a fly mask on to help cut any glare that might hurt her eyes and I'm going to give that a try. It probably won't help with the Great White Trailer of Death because she's already afraid of it but it might help somewhere else.

In the meantime I'm working on keeping myself calm when she's upset like Racheal suggested. I took the Quarters next door so Gwen could get a look around before they have to go over on Thursday (horse dentist requested stalls and those only exist next door), and she was pretty good about it. There was one moment in particular, though, where I felt her getting anxious about something. I concentrated on keeping myself calm and sort of blank: she looked at me, looked at her brother, saw neither one of us was bothered, sighed and started grazing. It's a start.

Thank you! That was a bit of advice I really needed.

Gwen says thanks too

One step forward, two steps back

When the clinic ended Monday I was all fired up and ready to go (As Wolfie said I was pumped), I had a plan and I was ready to put it into action!

The last time I hopped on Gwen was on May 10, she had into heat the weekend before so I thought she would be out of it and safe to get on. Not so much. She was a bit spooktastic- I sat through three of them before I decided to get off while I could still do it under my own power and give her a few more days to come down from the hormones. When I pulled her out after the clinic it had been a week since I'd gotten on her and I wanted to take her for a little walk to feel her out before I put my bones up on her.

Good thing I did! Just that morning Mark moved his big, white trailer from below the pasture to above the barn. As soon as Gwen saw it she flipped out, pulled the lead rope out of my hand, and bolted down the driveway. When she stopped running she then commenced rearing every time she stepped on the rope.

Well great, all it takes to unglue my mare is introduce a new, inanimate object into her environment. To top it off, she's now rearing in response to pressure. Excellent.

I followed her, caught her, brought her back in view of the Great White Trailer of Death, and asked her to lower her head. She did, but it was like she said, "fine, I put my head down. Now can I get out of here?" I took her farther away from it and asked her to lower her head again. She sort of responded so I called it a day and put her back in the pasture.

Wednesday I tried to do some CAT work with her and the Great White Trailer of Death but she wasn't having it. She knew that the signal was to lower her head but she was having none of it, she kept throwing tantrums. Fortunately these tantrums weren't "hook a sailfish on the open sea" tantrums, they were more "throw your head up and down in anger" tantrums, I guess I should give her a little credit for that. But I ended up feeling incredibly frustrated with her, and she was quite frustrated with me. I left her that day feeling like I didn't want to see her again for at least a week.

As I drove away I asked myself what the heck was wrong with me. I mean, this is Gwen, her default mode is scared, it's not like I should be surprised by this. Why was I so frustrated?

When I thought about it, I realized I wasn't frustrated, I was disappointed. Actually, I was crushed. She'd been doing so well that I'd allow myself to have dreams of riding her out on a trail or even going to a show someday. Her bolting away from that trailer totally killed those dreams. She wasn't just startled by it, she was terrified. I can't take a horse out on the trail like that. Sure, I could get her used to a certain trail and get her reasonably safe to travel on it, but what if a tree falls down between rides? She'd be out of there in a flash.

I needed to reevaluate, I needed to accept her for the horse she is and not the horse I want her to be. I also needed to get our relationship back on track.

On Thursday I walked into the pasture with a bucket load of treats, the bit, and some tools to teach her the color game. I didn't take her out, I didn't even put her halter on - I just focused on having some fun. That was exactly what I needed to do, at the end of the day we were happy spending time together again.

On Friday I dug out a mat (aka a piece of plywood) and set it down under the barn and then placed a line of cones out to the driveway. I asked her to stand on the mat, reinforced her like crazy for it, and then had her step around the first cone and back to the mat. We worked our way down the line of cones coming back to the mat every time to get reinforced. As we worked down the cones, the Great White Trailer of Death came into view, she'd get a glimpse of it and then we'd turn around and walk to the mat. This worked out well, plus it touched an one of my goals for her- standing on the mat (you reinforce the horse like crazy for standing on the mat and eventually the horse will associate the mat with comfort and well-being, something Gwen needs).

Saturday I continued where I left off on Friday, only this time I moved the mat out from under the barn so it was only 10 feet away from viewing the Great White Trailer of Death. She was much better. PHEW! Progress.

It's possible that the more times she works through her fear of something new in her environment she'll stop being so scared of novelty, but I can't bet on that. What I can bet on is that she's going to be who she is, no matter what.

Gwen and the bit

The dentist is scheduled to come by at the end of the month to float the Quarters' teeth. The last time she worked on Gwen she wasn't able to get the speculum in her mouth so she asked me to get Gwen used to a bit. With that in mind, I went out and purchased one of these for her:

full cheek so she couldn't pull it through her mouth, double jointed so it wouldn't stab her palate, and a lozenge in the middle that couldn't be sharp against her tongue in any way. I bought her a headstall, took off the caveson and popped this puppy on it. Then I went in her stall, waited about an hour for her to open her mouth and then put the whole shebang on her head.

ZOMG WAS SHE EVER MAD!!!!

She tore around her stall, trying to spit it out and rub it off, pawing in anger. I pulled it off as soon as I figured she wasn't going to calm down about it. I tried again a couple days later with the exact same results, and the added bonus of her starting to become difficult to halter. So I shelved it.

A couple months later I found a different bit through Craiglist and decided to give it a try. It has a solid rubber mouthpiece like this:

only this bit isn't loose ring, it's a weird kind of full cheek. Instead of having little balls at the tips, this one bends out at the tips. She hated this one *slightly* less, but she was still storming around her stall in anger and I was freaking out she'd find a way to hurt herself with those sticky-outy bits on the full cheeks. So I shelved it.

But now it's time for Gwen to revisit the bit. Remembering that she seemed to hate the solid mouth slightly less, this time I bought Happy Mouth's mullen mouth loose ring bit:

BTW- these don't taste like apple, I tried.

and I've completely changed my approach. Knowing how much happier she is when I don't restrain her in any way when introducing new things, I'm just taking the bit and pockets full of treats out to her in the pasture. On the first day I started by holding the bit out and asking her to target it with her nose. Then I touched her on the face and neck with it. She didn't mind that, so I laid it on my hand and clicked her for letting it touch her lips. I left it for the day when she went ahead and picked it up in her lips. She got a click and treat for that plus tons of praise.

The second time I went out, I did just a little bit of targeting with it and then continued where we'd left off before. Very soon into the session she picked the bit up in her teeth. This freaked her out. She raised her head in the air, lips all ascew, mildly panicking because she couldn't figure out how to get it out of her mouth! Finally she tossed her head and sent the bit flying. I admit, I laughed. It was too funny to see how happy she was to figure out how to drop it. I went over, picked it up, and started at the beginning again. She surprised me by quickly progressing back to picking it up in her teeth, where again it took her a moment to figure out how to let go. I decided that doing that twice was good enough for the day, so I gave her a hug and left.

Hindsight being 20/20, I can see that if I hadn't started her with the bit by tying it in her mouth she probably wouldn't have been so upset about it being there, even when she did it herself. But I can't change the past, maybe her being able to gleefully toss the bit across the pasture will help her forgive my mistake.

I hate working on a deadline, but I'm hoping that by the end of the month she'll have decided that it's not so bad to have something in her mouth. Those molars are in need of some attention!

Attack of the killer robins

Somehow, last week I managed to dodge the rain and ride. I rode Gwen on Wednesday, both Quarters on Thursday, Coriander on Friday, and both the Quarters again on Saturday.

I've been doing things a bit differently with Gwen. Traditional horse trainers would seriously wag a finger at me for what I'm doing, but I don't care. It's my horse and my neck so I'm going to do things my way. I'm letting her graze, a lot, then I take short breaks to ask her to walk forward and do a little bit of steering, followed by more grazing. So far this is working out pretty well. I rode her in the pine tree field across the driveway from the pasture on Wednesday where's there's plenty of grass and the herd is in view. We made our way slowly down the field, she'd graze a while and then I'd pick another patch of grass and ask her to walk to it- she really enjoyed it.

At one point we were standing next to a pine tree when a robin EXPLODED OUT OF THE TREE AND CAME AFTER US, BLOOD COVERED CLAWS AIMING STRAIGHT FOR OUR EYES!!! Okay, not really, but it did burst out quite unexpectedly. Gwen lurched to the left... and stopped. I was so pleased I almost hugged her but decided to settle for a click and treat instead. I was so proud of her I almost burst.

Thursday I let her graze down the driveway right next to the pasture. (I took a little gamble and sat on her with only the bareback pad, she seemed quite happy with it.) When we got to the end of the fence line, I asked her to turn around and walk back up to the barn without stopping to graze. She did it! She was a little confused at first because she wanted to stop and eat but I gently put my legs on her and asked her to keep moving. Eventually she just strode right on up to the barn!

Saturday was more of the same. She's really starting to understand what my legs mean and she's started listening to lighter touches on the reins. She's also really good about following my body- I love this about green horses, they're very honest in their reactions to a rider.

I'm so glad I was able to sneak in a few rides last week despite the nasty weather, and I'm so happy with my baby girl. I have a feeling she's going to develop into a fabulous working partner!

Gwen's first ride

I think this picture is hysterical- we're making the same face!

A step in the right direction

Fortunately the weather cooperated and I got to work with Gwen last night. I almost had to chuck out my plans though, when she didn't want me to put her bridle on. Immediately I was worried about her being in heat, riding a Gwen in heat is a no-no in my book. Fortunately I figured out she was just hungry, when I showed her that she was still going to be able to eat hay she was fine with it.

I spent a few moments just sitting on her, letting her eat, until she started looking around at me. "Okay, you're up there, now give me some treats." I very gently tapped her with my calves and said "walk" (see, I do take your advice). She thought about it for a second, then slowly stepped forward. After rewarding her for that, I asked 2-3 more times until I got a much bolder step forward. Click, treat, and dismount. Good girl!

I'll let her cogitate on that for a day or two before I climb up again. When she steps forward boldly as soon as I touch her I'll start asking for another step. Eventually I have plans to set up some cones so she can get the concept of traveling from point A to point B, but I'm taking it super easy for now.

I don't know what I'd do without clicker training, I wouldn't have the guts to climb up on her without it.

Why am I risking my neck again?

I know at least one of you is out there wondering why I'm trying to ride Gwen. Considering that last year I suffered a bad injury falling off her and that I already have a great horse to ride, what's my motivation? Well for one thing if something were to happen to me, as she is right now she'd be dog meat. If she's to stand a chance in that awful scenario then she has to be ride able. Fortunately she's finally registered (Three Shades of Gwen- thanks so much Wolfie for the Best Name Ever!), but it's been shown over and over that registration alone isn't enough to protect a horse.

Public service announcement: Register your foals before they're yearlings, folks. It saves a lot of hair pulling down the road.

But aside from that compelling reason, I'm trying again because I think she wants me to. Raise your hand if you just rolled your eyes because I'm anthropomorphizing my horse, but I really believe it. For the past couple months when I've taken Coriander out to ride she's looked at me with a rather pleading look on her face like, "why aren't you taking me?" I'd look her in the eye and tell her that I wanted to but that I was too scared to try. Did she understand my words? I doubt it, but she might have understood my intent.

I present this tidbit of information as my proof: In the almost 30 times in the past three weeks that I've mounted and dismounted her, not once has she stepped away from the mounting block when I started to swing a leg over. Someone might say, "well that's because you're holding her still." Nope, not at all. I keep a finger on the leadrope or the reins to make sure they don't slide down but I have never put any tension on her face to get her to stand still. She does that all on her own. Sure, the clicker training helps, but I can't use clicker training to make her do something she's afraid of. She's shown me that over and over. (If she or Coriander didn't stand still at the mounting block I wouldn't get on. At this point that would be very strange behavior for them and a sure sign that something was wrong.)

So what do you think? Should I expect men in white jackets to come looking for me or what?

My belated valentine

This photo documents the actual moment that I fell in love with my Gwenevere.

It was love at first sight. I promptly declared, "she will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine."

And the rest is history (and future).