A new step

Last night I started reading a new book, Discovering Natural Horsemanship by Tom Moates.  It's not a step-by-step how-to book, it's more the story of one man's journey falling in love with horses, trying to learn everything he can to improve his relationship with them, his successes and failures along the way.  Even though it's not a training manual there are lots of great nuggets of horse sense to be gleaned from it's pages and when I finished devouring it this morning I found that more than anything else it made me rethink some of the things I've been doing.  For instance, I've been so in love with having horses I can actually ride I haven't stopped to consider if I should ride them. 

I completely passed up any groundwork with Tina and Traveller.  It's pretty obvious though that their previous owner not only didn't do groundwork with them but by and large let them develop bad ground manners, walking off, being spoiled and pushy.  In the months we've had Tina and Traveller I've fallen off of Traveller once when he bolted, he bucked me once, Tina acts like she'd like me to fall over dead, and Traveller isn't interested in hanging around me unless I have cookies to offer.  Something fundemental needs to change in my relationship with these two in order for me to have the type of connection I want to have with them one day.  If groundwork is the foundation and I basically skip it I'm building on a faulty foundation and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how that's going to end up!

When I went out everyone come up to the fence but when they figured out an early dinner wasn't forthcoming Traveller and Tina wandered back over to munch on their hay.  I totally ignored them and spent some extra time brushing and petting Brother then Nugget.  By the time I was halfway through grooming Nugget Traveller had come up just behind her and was watching me.  By inches he got closer and closer to me and I kept right on fussing over Nugget pretending that I didn't notice Traveller at all.  When I was done with Nugget I turned and just started brushing him.  Normally unless he was haltered and tied off he'd move around too much trying to nose me for cookies for me to be able to groom him but this time he stood fairly quiet.

Then I took out one of the little broken up bits of cookie I had in my pocket for him.  As soon as he took it I turned my back and walked off towards the round pen with him following.  There are two things I've learned about Traveller so far, he's scared of whips, crops, stick and strings, or pretty much anything that resembles them  and he hates being made to go round in that round pen.  So my goal for today was to not use any kind of tool but myself and a few cookies to get him to enter the round pen of his own free will and maybe have a little fun.  When I got to the round pen I stood in the gate.  Traveller stopped before I reached the gate, safely out of arm's reach, and was looking at me again.  He really seemed to be thinking whether the bit of cookie I held out was worth getting any closer to that hated pen but after a few moments his mouth won and he came over to the pen for his nibble.  Then I went into the round pen, held out a bit of cookie, and after a moment he again followed.  He was in!

I've always loved watching people with their horses at liberty when the horse willingly follows the person around even tossing their head, kicking out their feet, playing and just genuinely having a good time together.  I don't know how they did it exactly but today at least I was using Traveller's cookie lust!  He stood and watched as I walked two horse lengths or so away.  I held out a cookie bit, he walked up to get it.  I walked off a little ways again, held out a cookie piece, but this time when he started towards me to get it I started walking away.  He stopped right away and just stared at me with a "what the heck" look on his face.  He recovered from his surprise pretty quickly though, started towards me, and I again walked away.  I went faster and faster until he was chasing me around the pen at a trot.  That didn't last very long, I'm not very fit right now, so he got his cookie bit! lol

Because he's so pushy with his head I decided to work on him yielding different body parts starting with that.  I remembered what I knew about stating with very light pressure and increasing it only until they gave even the tiniest bit and then releasing right away.  I touched his neck right up next to his head with my fingertips, pressed harder till he barely moved his head away and removed my fingers the instant he moved his head.  He caught on to this pretty fast, I only had to push my fingers in fairly firmly a few times before I only had to touch my fingertips to that spot and he'd move his head away.

Then I went to his shoulder.  This one seemed much harder for him to understand for some reason.  Several times when I got to the point of pressing very hard he'd try taking a step back.  I tried to stay consistent holding the pressure if he stepped back and only releasing if he stepped either front feet even a little bit to the side.  He sort of got it, not very well but I didn't want to make the mistake of boring or frustrating him by asking him to get it perfect before I let up. 

When I got to his rump he turned into a horsey genius!  I only had to press firmly a few times before I was following his hindquarters in a circle with only a light touch.  I did the same three spots on his other side, played another quick game of chase-me-for-the-cookie and stopped.  He's a very intelligent horse, you can just see him thinking when he stops and watches you, and hopefully I engaged his brain and curiousity a little today.  I think it was a really good session!  Now if I can just figure out the best approach to use with Tina!