Heading out
Ocean of Nuance
today was scheduled for hill work and bopping around on the trails.
It's so essential to leave the hustle and bustle, glitter streamers and
small throw rugs, mirrors etc., for the open hills and trails on a
regular basis. Pete likes it and I like it. :)
So I tack up and head off towards the hill and he is tight through the
back. So instead I decided to walk around the pasture perimeters until
we got an actual walk. It took three circuits and it seemed like it was
all new to him (which is NOT). Bu we finally got the walk and did the
hill work which was uneventful... he knows the drill on hill work. I
was half halting him down the hill with legs away just using my stomach.
My stomach muscles got a work out. He was so responsive to it so I
kept at in. Riding a horse who will work off aiding like that even on a
hill ranks up there for me.
Then we walk past the barn to go on the trails. He was fine for this
and seemed to remember this part. We even saw some deer that he was
fine with.
I think Pete is steadier outside the ring than in. But he would
probably be the same in both places absent mirrors, rugs and such.
sharon
Babbling
I was reading back through posts and came across your problem with the
rug. From a horse's point of view, he knows what rugs are, sure, but
he doesn't know how it came to be there. It's not usually there. Maybe
it teleported to the fence. and if it did, maybe it's about to
teleport again - and this time it might land on my head! That's
basically what's going on in there.
I've a lovely 7yo who went away as a 5yo for training. His trainer has
a huge walled garden, and in the middle of the garden is his sand
arena. Between the arena and the wall is about 30ft of grass, on which
he keeps a few chickens, ducks, geese etc. He had been working Condato
for a few weeks in the arena, and the horse never passed any remarks
on the chickens or their little house. One day, though, the trainer
moved the little house to a different spot. When he brought Condato up
for his usual workout, the horse freaked. He started snorting and
bobbing his head, and nothing the trainer could do would settle him.
Eventually, Condato turned for home and bolted at the walk, a la 'I'm
getting outta here, you don't know what that shed might do next!' It
took weeks before he decided it was safe enough to trust the house not
to suddenly decide to move again just as he might be going past :)
So, I think your problem is not with things which happen to be there;
your problem is that your horse knows that's not the normal place for
the object, can't figure out how it got there and is anxious that just
as he passes, the thing might move again - and this time come right at
him! You'd probably find that if he had seen the rug being placed on
the fence, he would never have given it a second glance.
My way of dealing with a horse that is concerned (for whatever reason
and however absurdly) about an object is to allow them to use their
flight instinct, but to control it. So ride him towards the scary
object until he starts to become concerned, then circle away from it
(a quick pat is no harm at this point), so he gets to flee as he
becomes concerned. The circle brings you back around to the object,
and again you see how concerned he's becoming, then circle away when
he's starting to get worked up. From the horse's point of view, you're
letting him know that he does have the option of fleeing, so he
doesn't feel like he's trapped - this lowers his overall level of
concern. While he's circling away from the object, he has time to
think about it and work out that it didn't actually eat him etc. After
a few circles he should begin to realise that the object hasn't moved
or done anything exciting, and therefore should become less of a
threat and therefore the horse should become less concerned. The
circling also works if the horse is just having you on, as it makes
him work harder and therefore makes shying a less desirable option for
getting out of work.
Of course, I'm putting this together based on the reactions of my own
horse, and it has to be said, Condato has a very funny way of looking
at the world, so it might not be the same for your horse. As a foal, I
thought he had epilepsy, as he'd be walking along, then suddenly drop
to the ground, with legs splayed in all directions, then calmly get
back up again and walk away. Took me ages to work out what was going
on - it was his way of crushing flies when they landed on his belly.
Anyway, hope the above might give you somewhere to start working on
your problem.
Carol in Ireland
Ocean of Nuance
> Hello Sharon,
> I was reading back through posts and came across your problem with the
> rug. From a horse's point of view, he knows what rugs are, sure, but
> he doesn't know how it came to be there. It's not usually there. Maybe
> it teleported to the fence. and if it did, maybe it's about to
> teleport again - and this time it might land on my head! That's
> basically what's going on in there.
Yes. And compounding the matter is that he was doing the walk on the
buckle work for about five minutes before he noticed it. He was focused
on the walk work and lost focus at that point. So it may have seemed
like it snuck up on him 5 minutes after we started working.
> I've a lovely 7yo who went away as a 5yo for training. His trainer has
> a huge walled garden, and in the middle of the garden is his sand
> arena. Between the arena and the wall is about 30ft of grass, on which
> he keeps a few chickens, ducks, geese etc. He had been working Condato
> for a few weeks in the arena, and the horse never passed any remarks
> on the chickens or their little house. One day, though, the trainer
> moved the little house to a different spot. When he brought Condato up
> for his usual workout, the horse freaked. He started snorting and
> bobbing his head, and nothing the trainer could do would settle him.
> Eventually, Condato turned for home and bolted at the walk, a la 'I'm
> getting outta here, you don't know what that shed might do next!' It
> took weeks before he decided it was safe enough to trust the house not
> to suddenly decide to move again just as he might be going past :)
Good one. Horses are funny.
> So, I think your problem is not with things which happen to be there;
> your problem is that your horse knows that's not the normal place for
> the object, can't figure out how it got there and is anxious that just
> as he passes, the thing might move again - and this time come right at
> him! You'd probably find that if he had seen the rug being placed on
> the fence, he would never have given it a second glance.
Yes I'm sure you are right.
> My way of dealing with a horse that is concerned (for whatever reason
> and however absurdly) about an object is to allow them to use their
> flight instinct, but to control it. So ride him towards the scary
> object until he starts to become concerned, then circle away from it
> (a quick pat is no harm at this point), so he gets to flee as he
> becomes concerned. The circle brings you back around to the object,
> and again you see how concerned he's becoming, then circle away when
> he's starting to get worked up. From the horse's point of view, you're
> letting him know that he does have the option of fleeing, so he
> doesn't feel like he's trapped - this lowers his overall level of
> concern. While he's circling away from the object, he has time to
> think about it and work out that it didn't actually eat him etc. After
> a few circles he should begin to realise that the object hasn't moved
> or done anything exciting, and therefore should become less of a
> threat and therefore the horse should become less concerned. The
> circling also works if the horse is just having you on, as it makes
> him work harder and therefore makes shying a less desirable option for
> getting out of work.
That's a good appraoch. He actually would work completely normally at
the other end, not concerned. But if I circled down towards the rug
end, he became unglued every time. He could still see the rug from the
to other end but was willing to focus on the work and didn't look
towards it if we were there. That sort of made me more determined to
try to go near it.
> Of course, I'm putting this together based on the reactions of my own
> horse, and it has to be said, Condato has a very funny way of looking
> at the world, so it might not be the same for your horse. As a foal, I
> thought he had epilepsy, as he'd be walking along, then suddenly drop
> to the ground, with legs splayed in all directions, then calmly get
> back up again and walk away. Took me ages to work out what was going
> on - it was his way of crushing flies when they landed on his belly.
Funny boy!
> Anyway, hope the above might give you somewhere to start working on
> your problem.
Thanks. The problem seems to have teleported away. We have to wait for
the next episode to work on this spook/bolt reaction and it's no telling
when it will come. There's only been about 4-5 of these incidents in
the last four years.
Thanks again.
sharon