Out for walk on Xmas Eve
It has been VERY cold up here recently with extremely hard icy ground so could do nothing with any of the horses. Today though it has warmed up a bit and Mark, my brother with nephew and I take out Holly, Tara and Solly for a nice short walk.
Mirroring/Driving
Squeeze through small gateway
I spent time mirroring Solly, walking when he walked and stopping when he stops to give him confidence in the big field again. He wasn't so concerned about the loch today but he was definitely feeding off the other two horses energy. He was a bit on edge, trying to keep up with them if they went in front of him and hopefully when we've moved and things have settled I can start spending LOTS of time with him to help him to accept me as his leader.
Squeeze across icy stream
When we got to the loch it was pretty frozen so again we went behind the bridge and walked over a small bit of a stream, had to choose our place well as most of it was frozen too! lol. Solly did very well and followed where I went beautifully.
Backing up through open gateway getting better
Great squeeze over logs
The walk went pretty well, he squeezed through a very small gate, backed through another larger gateway and did some good games albeit his attention was on Holly a bit....she is his field leader so that's understandable. Squeeze was good, back up much better than last time and he did some acceptable circling on a hill which was cool. He also did two great little squeezes over a pile of logs which I was very pleased about.
Bareback...cool!
At the gate out of the loch fields I got on him bareback again and rode back to the horses field. He was light, on his toes and very well behaved. Again he was keeping up with the other horses in front of him but he wasn't frantic or worrying and it was lovely to ride him again.
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Saturday 15th Dec '07
Well this week has been fun. As we're moving soon to an estate where they do shooting I bought a fab dvd of fireworks that is used to desensitize dogs and cats to the noise. I've been putting it on at feed times, morning and evening, to get the horses used to the sound of fireworks/gunshots. Today it was quite loud and I'm so pleased I started a program of doing it for them.
SO, today I took Solly out with Mark and his horse Holly. We decided to do more walking and playing on the ground and today we went around the loch. Solly was much more 'with me' than before, he seems to be getting that I'm safe to be around, the leader and someone to come to if worried about things. Going into the first big field he stopped often with head up so I stopped with him in Z3 and played the friendly game every time. This really helped his confidence and I didn't move forward until he decided to move first, this was a BIG one for him I think. Great stuff, I could see him really thinking about what I was doing and how I was just there for him.
He walked right up to the side of the loch, puffing and blowing a bit from unconfidence and then whilst walking around one side of the water Holly and Mark decided to canter in-hand to a gate. This caued Solly to kick up his heels a bit but nothing serious, just an excited moment.
He squeezed wonderfully three times through the small gateway and he walked very politely with me in Z2-3 to the loch side. Here Mark and Holly showed Sol what could be done with the water, they squeezed through a section of the loch, Holly in the water, Mark going over a small bridge. I decided that we would try to get as close to the water with confidence and then leave it. Solly was a bit unconfident about the water and tried to avoid it by shifted from left to right. I kept his focus in front and later I actually got into the water and he stepped so close, nose down, then playing with the water with his nose and this was where we left that. I was very pleased with him.
Around the back of the small bridge is a stream which Sol went over very well, quietly and with confidence. Very cool. Then we went out from around the loch to another large field, he backed through a large gateway, first time he's done that out and about and he was a little unconfident but I just stopped and waited at each point until he backed all the way. Very cool.
Then we went up and over a hill, down the other side which was fun, getting Sol and Holly to WALK down the hill and up the other side was our goal and it worked well. Then out of the fields and onto the estate road where we decided to get on bareback to ride back to the field. Solly wasn't sure about sideling up to the gate, did it a few times well but hasn't quite learned to stand still BUT I managed to get on and rode bareback home. This was only the second time out for Sol and the first time I'd ridden bareback. Yeehaa...was great. Next time I'll remember the darn camera! lol.
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Tuesday 11th December '07
Today I decided to go out to play with Solly although it was VERY VERY cold with frozen ground. When I arrived he came to me as though he wanted to do something today too so that was a nice start.
I decided to go back a step and do some games but really go slowly as I want to really boost his confidence with what we're doing. Backing up is his hardest one, he does it after a few tries but always has his ears back. I think this is because he's quite a dominant sort of horse but looses confidence quickly so I want to try to ask him back without him thinking I'm 'telling' him to go back! tricky one, but I try hard with this, his ears are still back but his confidence is better so that's a start.
I also work on driving the FQ's as again being a little dominant this is a hard one for him. We play a couple of times and then he 'gets it' which is great. His HQ Disengagement is great, he's learned to 'give me the other eye' when doing this and he gets to stop and do nothing for a while which he likes. Porcupine backing is good and also porcupine DHQ is good.
I managed to pick up all four feet from his right side today, not managed on the left yet, all hooves great except right back foot.
Then I keep it simple and pop in a squeeze between two trees, turn stop and face and then back which he does very well. Then I use the trees to ask him to drive backwards between them. He's a little hesitant so we have plenty of stops with this and I stop trying to drive him and use the porcupine on his nose which he finds much easier with this task. Once he's done this we turn back to the fence and I do lots and lots of friendly with him and put his rug back on.
I think today he was much more confident with me and I know if I go slowly for him then soon we'll be having fun together with more games. I have noticed that when I play with any of our other horses Solly is always close by watching intently so I may do more playing with the other horses and he will learn from them which I've found is very useful when training the others up ;-)
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Saturday 8th December '07
Sol and me in the snow
So, today we had that floating snow effect, like being in one of those xmas snow ball scenes that you shake to make the snow billow about. We decided to go out anyway and I'm so glad we did as it stopped snowing half way into our outing.Solly hasn't been anywhere apart from his field so far with us so this was a BIG ADVENTURE out. Mark rode his horse Holly which helped him but he was much happier being led rather than ridden and for his first time out that wasn't a problem. I started off riding him but I felt his thresholds were too many and in-hand he was much braver.So I walked him and he did very well. He stopped now and then but generally he was pretty good. About half way into the ride nearly at the turning point Mark and Holly cantered off to the river and Solly had a bit of a tantrum so I had to seriously ask him to take notice of me! After that he was okay but I wished I'd taken my carrot stick and string as he got a bit close for comfort with his back legs.
He has a 'pattern' brace which I've seen in other Highlands where the horse lowers it's head and goes away from you and pulls, putting his back end towards you which is a no no. I managed to see it coming and stopped him from trying to drag me over and this is what caused the tantrum...I think we've come to an understanding! lol.
Riding Sol home, very nice ride, trot smooth and comfy
Sol with the Loch in the background
Sol doing a pretty good disengagement of his hindquarters
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Thursday 6th December '07
Well we've had Solly for 3 weeks now and it seems like he's always been here. He's getting along with all the other horses which is lovely. He has a lovely nature and is very friendly which helps. Unfortunately we've had rain, rain and more rain so not been able to 'do' much with any of them apart from feed and keep them warm and dry.Today though inbetween the rain showers I managed to get out and play very quickly with him. Everything is getting better, his leading, disengaging, moving forequarters, backing up (although I have to work on getting those ears forward! lol) and standing still.I also tried on his new saddle which was fun, I just walked him in-hand to the end of a short road, mounted him and walked back which was great. He's not been out and about on the estate they are on at all so this was very brave of him and I felt very safe.
