Monday, April 5, 2010
Advanced Animal Handling and Behavior
This blog is about my experience in my Advanced Animal Handling and Behavior class. In this class I was assigned a horse named Black Jack to build a relationship with during the semester, halfway through I switched to a new horse named Shelby and worked on building a relationship with her. In this class we learned about horse behavior, and using Natural Horsemanship methods, including Parelli's seven games, we applied things we learned to teach our horses new things and solve behavior problems.
Parelli's 7 Games
In my Advanced Animal Handling and Behavior class we played Parelli’s 7 Games with our horses while on the ground. Below I have explained how each game works and the principles behind them. First something important to know about are Phases, Parelli described the phases as “Phase 1 needs to be as soft as possible, Phase 2 is double that, Phase 3 is double that and Phase 4 is double that to the point of being effective.”
Friendly Game- The principle behind the friendly game is to develop a relationship of trust and also for desensitization. We usually start by using our hands to touch and rub the horse all over, and when they are comfortable we retreat away from them. Sometimes this can be just touching them for a few seconds and then taking our hand away. This helps the horse understand that they can trust us and we are not going to hurt them. We do something similar with objects, if they are small we can show them the object, take it away, then we can go to the next step of touching their body with it and taking it away and eventually desensitizing the horse to it.
Porcupine Game- The principle behind the Porcupine Game is to follow a feel, move off of pressure. To play the porcupine game we apply steady pressure to an area such as their shoulder, and we start at the first phase which is hair, second phase is skin, third phase is muscle and fourth phase is bone. As soon as they move away from that pressure (moving their leg away) the pressure is released.
Driving Game- The principle behind the driving game is to follow a suggestion. When playing the driving game we want to be able to stand at our horses should and have them walk parallel to us and go where we ask them to go without leading them. We start by raising our energy and looking, then move to the next phase of pointing, then applying pressure with the carrot stick. As soon as our horse moves forward we release that pressure and relax.
The next four games apply the principles of the first three games and put them into a purpose.
Circle Game- The principle behind the circle game is responsibility to maintain gait. We want to send our horse out, allow them to go around and then bring them back to us. To play the circle game we use the same phases as the driving game, then we stand in the same spot and allow our horse to go around us and then after a few times going around us we invite them to come in towards us.
Yo-Yo game – The Principle of the Yo-Yo game is respect. We want our horse to come in or back away when asked. To play the Yo-yo game to send our horse away from us we first face up to them, start by lightly wiggling our hand, then wiggling the rope and wiggling it harder until they back away from us. We start by just asking for one step back and then eventually asking for more. To ask them to come into us we use our body posture to invite them in, then start combing the roping and then pulling on it until they take a step towards us.
Sideways Game- The Sideways games is to gain control of the horses quarters. To play the Sideways game we ask our horse to move their front end or back end. We can start by having them facing a wall so they do not move forward.
Squeeze Game- The principle behind the Squeeze game is similar to the circle game, we send them, allow them and bring them back. The squeeze game is used to send the horses through situations that may be scary, such as going through a tight spot, going over a pole, into a trailer and then allowing them to come back to us. This helps them understand that we will not send them somewhere dangerous and that after they go through it they can return to our side.
Black Jack
January 5th- 9th 2010
Today I met my horse that I am assigned for the semester, I will be the only one working with him and if he gets sick or injured I will be the one taking care of him. Black Jack is a gelding about 4 years old. When I went out to get Black Jack for the first time he was very comfortable with me coming up to him and putting the halter on him, very left brained, getting him to follow me out of his pen was difficult though, he did not want to and when we got to the gate he just stood half-way in it. As soon as we left his pen, he changed to right brained. I noticed he was very reactive and scared of every little noise. Grooming him was difficult because he did not want me touching him so he kept moving around. I think he is probably a right brained extrovert, however in his pen he is left brained, and in the arena he also seemed left brained. He was pretty curious when we got into the arena, he was interested in looking at all the objects that were in there. I am excited to get to know him better and build a relationship with him!
January 11-16th 2010
Black Jack and I have been working on playing some of Parelli’s games, most importantly is
the friendly game because I first need to build that relationship of trust with him. We have also been working on the yo-yo, driving game and porcupine game. Though I can tell these games are new to Black Jack he seems to pick up on what I am asking him quickly. I have found that Black Jack is very uncomfortable with having his hooves picked up. He really pushes back against me and will not lift his feet. I asked the TA what I can do to help this, she told me to take the rope part of the carrot stick, play the friendly game around his leg and then apply the pressure to his pastern area and then as soon as he starts giving into pressure and slightly lifts his hoof quickly release the pressure. This is a method of the porcupine game. I am hoping that as we continue to play this game he will get better about his hooves. I have been working on the friendly game with some of the objects that are in the arena such as the tarps, hula hoops, cones. Black jack is a fairly confident horse once he's in the arena, he doesn't really seem bothered by new objects.What Black Jack learned this week: To learn to trust me and be desensitized to objects through the Friendly Game, Give into pressure around pastern through the Porcupine game, learned to play Driving and Yo-Yo Games.
January 18th-22nd
Black Jack has girth itch on his back, so I am now taking care of him everyday. I scrub him with a betadine wash to try and kill the infection and get rid of scabs. He does not like having cold water poured on his back and then having his skin scratched so he swishes his tail and threatens to kick me. I asked my teacher if there was anything I could do to keep from getting kick and he suggested putting him in the stocks, so far it has made a big difference. I gave him treats while he was in there to try and make it a more positive experience for him so he will want to go in next time. To get him into the stocks I have tried playing the driving game without much success, so I yo-yo him in there which works great. To have him get out of the stocks I can yo-yo him backwards and down. Even though sometimes when I go out to take care of Black Jack we only play a little bit I feel that because of it he and I are getting more connected in our relationship. He really enjoys the driving game, he is more than happy to go where I ask him to. His hooves are definitely still a challenge and he really kicks out the back ones when I try to pick them. We are still working on the porcupine game in other ways, he pushes back and it takes holding the pressure at phase four to get him to actually move off the pressure. I did learn that I should start teaching him the porcupine game with his head, by applying pressure to areas such as his nose, side of face, his poll and right behind his jaw. These are good places for him to understand what I am asking because he will more easily move off of pressure in the those spots. Black Jack and I have been working on the circling game, he seems to do well with what I ask him. I have been working on driving Black Jack from his pen to the barn, thought it was a challenge at first because he wanted to keep stopping for snacks we are making improvements and when I really focus on where we are going he listens to me and drives along next to me. On Saturday we practiced trotting while playing the circling game, I was surprised at how willing Black Jack was to trot. After that it seems like while playing the driving game he has a little more go. Black Jack also really enjoys chasing after the big green Parelli ball that is in the arena, he enjoys pushing it with his nose and running after it.What Black Jack learned this week: Yo-yo in and out of stock to be washed, Move off of pressure on head, Drive from his pen to the barn, Trot while playing the circling game, Play with the Green Parelli ball.
January 25th-30th
This week in our class we had three tasks that we had to do with our horse, all by playing the
driving game. The other game involved in these tasks was the squeeze game. We had to drive them into a trailer, drive them between two ground poles, and drive them over the bridge. Since Black Jack does well with the driving game, I wasn’t too worried about the poles task, he did that one very well. The bridge was a challenge, every time I would drive him up to it he would go around it rather than over it. The TA helped me to help Black Jack succeed, this included giving him the correct length of rope so he physically couldn’t go around the bridge, and when he did try to go around the bridge to stop him and back him up and then give him a break to let him know that was what I wanted. Eventually I was able to drive him over the bridge. The trailer loading was a big challenge, Black Jack was convinced the one red trailer was going to eat him because it was dripping, I was able to get him to sniff it and stick his head in, but then it spooked him so after that I could not even get him near enough to it to sniff it. I then took him over to a white trailer, which was not dripping. I was able to drive him up to it, and he would paw it and I would reward him by releasing my pressure, and then he would step in it and I would release, and eventually he would stand with his two front legs in the trailer. I had a really difficult time getting him to put more than just his two front legs in the trailer, if I asked him for more he would panic and back up from the trailer and then do a little rear like thing. I would then take a break from the trailer go do something else and then come back to the trailer. I then asked him again and he climbed all the way in he trailer and stood in there comfortably until I asked him to come out, but after that I couldn’t get him in the trailer again so I asked my instructor for help, and we went over to the red trailer that Black jack was scared of. Twitchell showed me that I needed to reward Black Jack for every little step he made such as standing 4 ft from the trailer, then sniffing the trailer, then pawing the trailer and all of a sudden Black Jack just climbs up in the trailer that he was terrified of just a short time earlier. Doing things right takes so much less time than doing it wrong over and over. Also I was getting stressed about trying to get Black Jack to finish the tasks by a certain time, and that probably just made it worse, so as soon as I stopped worrying about the time Black Jack responded better to what I was asking him.What Black Jack learned this week: Playing the squeeze game, To be driven into a trailer, to be driven over a bridge.
February 1st-6th
Black Jack and I are working on all of the obstacles and tasks we have to do for our midterm next week. I have been having trouble getting him to play the Yo-yo game with me. I learned that sometimes I need to go to phase 4 quickly so that when I release that pressure it is a bigger reward for Black Jack and he will understand what I wanted him to do better.
What Black Jack learned this week: Treats are motivation to do something that would otherwise be boring, to yield his hindquarters away from me. Trotting while playing the driving game.
February 8-13th
This week Black Jack and I spent a lot of time preparing for midterms! I was able to come out to play with him on both Monday and Wednesday night. For midterm we had 6 obstacles to complete. The goal was to get our horses to be able to perform each obstacle smoothly.
-Drive horse over a tarp on the ground.
- Drive horse over a small jump.
-Drive horse over the bridge
-Drive horse through a Z shaped ground pole course
-While standing in one spot drive horse around 3 Cones ^ ^ ^ in a figure-eight type pattern.
-Drive horse over three parallel poles on ground and then turn them around and have them go back the other way while standing in one spot. Then yo-yo them towards you so front feet are over the pole nearest to you, stop them, then yo-yo them back so their rear feet go over the pole furthest away from you.
In our practice Black jack did very well with the tarp, the jump and the bridge. He somehow figured out that he could go over the jump and then go right up over the bridge.
We had a little difficulty with the Z pole course and the poles on the ground, but after a few times of practice I was able to figure out what he needed to succeed at those. The cones were a big challenge for us, even with the treats it was still difficult. While we were practicing we were both getting frustrated with eachother so I figured it was best to get him to do his best rather than try and get him to do it perfectly.
Twitchell told us that we could do the course in whatever order we wanted, so I decided to save the cones for last. He told us that if our horse is having trouble with an obstacle we need to decide if we want to keep pushing them or move onto something else because if we keep pushing them on one obstacle that might damage our relationship for a later obstacle. When it came time to do our actual midterm Black Jack did excellent on the first four obstacles, fairly well on the poles on the ground we didn’t do to well with the cones, but he went through them sort of.
As we were warming up for midterms I decided to pick Black Jack’s hooves, this is the first time he has stood nicely and let me pick out all four of his hooves at once. I didn’t even have him tied up and he just stood there. I was happy to see we had finally made real progress with that.
I learned before midterms that I might have to switch horses because Black Jack’s girth itch is not improving as much as it should be and so it would not be good for him to be ridden. I went out on Saturday to play with Black Jack one more time. We tried to use one of the longer lines to play, we're not quite there yet for driving, but he did well with the circling game. We just played and did some of the things we did for the midterm.
What Black Jack learned this week: Successfully walk/be driven over a raised pole, move back or front end over to accomplish obstacles, pick up all four hooves in sequence.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Shelby
February 14-20th
This week I was assigned a new horse, Shelby. She’s very different than Black Jack. Though I will be starting all over with a new horse, the things I have learned so far in class with Black Jack will help me with Shelby so there will be some areas where we will make faster progress. Shelby hasn’t been in the arena for a few weeks so she was pretty fresh in there, she was bucking rearing and just running around while playing the circling game. She is a lot more Left brained than Black Jack, but I haven’t played with her enough to know if she is introverted or extroverted. So since Tuesday was the first day we started riding I first started playing the passenger game with my Classmate and the horse she had because Shelby was not quite in the right mind frame to be ridden yet. After that I spent for most of the class time playing with Shelby so I got on her to play the passenger game. I definitely have a lot of work to do on getting a balanced and independent seat. I seem to have become more dependent on the saddle and stirrups.
Thursday we worked on pre-flight checks. Shelby did very well with the lateral flexion and then we also did something where I wrapped the rope around her to help with sticky feet. She did pretty well when I was rubbing her and jumping up next to her while having my hands on her back. She did try to bite a little but she responded well when I asked her to stop by tapping her face. Even though Shelby is not a very tall horse, I am not a very tall person so I had a difficult time actually getting on her bareback. I brought her over to the mounting block and that worked well, until she started walking away with me hanging at her side. Then at some point while trying to get her to stand next to the mounting block something scared her, so she tripped over the block and from then on was uncomfortable having it next to her side. So basically I was getting frustrated and she was too, so I jumped up with my hands on her back, and she stood still, and I called that good and we moved onto something else.
I still have a lot of work to do with Shelby, because I know pretty much nothing about her horsenality and don’t particularly care for her yet, though I am sure I will once I get the chance to play with her more.
What Shelby learned this week: Playing the driving game, Lateral Flexion and standing still while I attempted to climb on her bareback.
February 22-27th
Tuesday we worked more on pre-flight checks. Shelby was getting really agitated with me jumping up and down next to her back, because that was as far as I could get since she had no saddle. After I had someone help me mount her I realized that the reason she was getting
annoyed was because I kept doing the same thing over and over and it seemed pointless to her. As soon as I actually got on her she was just fine. I just walked her around in a couple small circles. She seems to be very sensitive to the stimulus to be asked to move, I didn’t have to use much pressure to get her to walk. Grooming Shelby can be a little difficult, at first she would stand still but now she has started moving around, her hooves are also difficult to pick up, she kicks her back legs really hard to try and get out of it. I will work on that and hopefully we will make improvements! Thursday was the first day I really rode Shelby. We spent a lot of the class on “running our reins” that is where we slide out hand down the rein so that our seat remains in the same place but we use the reins to change the direction of our horses. This is something I definitely need to work on! While we were listening to the teacher Shelby did not want to hold still and kept wanting to walk around. This makes me think she is more extroverted. Once we started walking around we were doing good, but just turning in circles over and over got very boring for Shelby. She started to trot, so I asked her to slow down and since that wasn’t what she wanted to do she did a little buck and somehow I stayed on. The teacher then told me since that was more of a dominance thing and since she was getting bored I should work on letting her trot and turning her and giving her something to do and making sure she knew I was her leading her. She started bucking while trotting and I couldn’t hang on bareback so I fell! I was excited because I have ridden for awhile and hadn’t actually fallen off yet, so now I can say I have! It was easier than I thought to decide to get back on, so I did and tried again, unfortunately I lost my balance again just a couple minutes later and she must have kicked up because I found my legs wrapped around her neck and then I slid down underneath her neck. Fortunately when I dropped off she went backwards away from me. Twitchell got on her and showed me what I should do, so after watching him I got on to try again. I wasn’t nervous about riding her at a walk but I was a little nervous at first when I asked her to trot, after falling off twice I was able to recognize when I was about to fall and was able to stay on this time. It was important for me to work on running my reins while trotting her because I needed to keep my seat balanced. By the end Shelby was doing much better and was listening to me more rather than trying to do what she wanted. Saturday I decided to ride her in a saddle just because I did not want to fall off again, but she was much better. She was a little bucky at first, but then she was listening to me and trotting nicely.
What Shelby learned this week: To move and walk when I raise my energy and increase my phases, to listen to me when I use my reins to turn and direct her. When I ask her to bend as soon as she gives into the pressure it will be released.
March 1st-6th
On Tuesday when Shelby and I went into the arena she started off by what seemed out of nowhere trying to kick me and then she bolted and started bucking. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I kept her going in a circle, and that didn’t seem to help because she tried to kick me again. The TA told me I needed to have a focus and just go with her, so I switched to the driving game and that was a little better but didn’t seem to help calm her down at all. Twitchell then told me that I needed to slow down my phases of asking her to go and change directions, I didn’t think that would work because it seemed like she wasn’t listening to me at all. He took her and showed me that when he slowed down his phases she started to slow down and listen to him better. He made sure that when she did what he asked her that he rewarded her to let her know that was right. I spent that class on the ground with her because we really need to work on our relationship on the ground since we went straight to riding. Thursday we had a similar problem, I am learning that I need to slow down my phases because I have been skipping the lower phases and that just makes her overreact. I have found that when I slow down Shelby slows down and I can bring her mentally back to me, but I still need to have her mentally with me when she is going fast so that is something we need to work on. I learned how to properly play the circling game with Shelby today, before she had been coming into me and would stop next to me rather than circling around me. I learned how to switch the carrot stick and lead rope behind my back so I could use the carrot stick to ask her to move away and keep moving forward. When I walk Shelby into the arena she has started to get scared of every little thing and has tried to bolt away from me, and sometimes tries to run overtop of me. I tried to take a carrot stick out with me to help, It didn’t seem to help very much the first time I took it out. But on Saturday I was a lot more assertive with her, it seems like she really needs someone to tell her what to do. Shelby can be a difficult horse to work with because sometimes she needs that more assertiveness and other times I need to be really soft and slow with her otherwise she gets overwhelmed.
What Shelby learned this week: How to successfully play the circling game at a walk. To move away from me when I ask her, to drive nicely from her pen to the barn. That I would lower my phases and allow her to think about what I was asking her to do.
March 8th-13th
Shelby has been doing great when driving into the barn, she is no longer trying to run me over and because I am focused and confident she feels safer and is not spooking at everything. I am still working with Shelby to figure out when I need to be more assertive and when I need to be slower and more gentle with her.
Shelby is still difficult when I ride her though, she likes to throw her head and do little rears, I am getting better at staying on her bareback though. It is difficult to ask her for much when I am more concerned about trying to stay on. Friday was an awesome day for Shelby and me! I am wondering if the reason I have been having problems with her on Thursdays has something to do with me coming to class with a different attitude. I don’t think I am acting different but I might be. So I decided today to go with a positive attitude and expect that things were going to go well. I’ve realized that she really does not like the circling game and that we should limit our use with that. I did a lot of the driving and squeeze game today. I was trying to get her to walk over a pole that was raise, and she was very nervous about doing so. I lowered the pole to the ground just incase she physically could not lift her legs over it, she was still scared of it on the ground. I started by playing the squeeze game by sending her between me and where the pole was. Eventually I sent her to go over the pole and allowed her to go as far as she wanted. I learned that if I waited, even though it might look like she wasn't doing anything, she is actually processing what I asked her to do and showed me that she understood by licking and chewing. Eventually because I had built her trust in me she walked over the pole! I have been driving her to places she will find interesting, outside I drove her to the hay on the ground, and inside I drove her to objects she could sniff. Friday I worked on playing the driving game and asking her to trot, and I made sure to really watch her and stay connected with her, I found that all I had to do this time was raise my energy start jogging and click a little bit and she would do a nice slow trot rather than take off at a high speed. She was really listening to me while we were playing the driving game, I was changing directions and she was changing right along with me. At one point I was running from one end of the arena to the other and she was trotting alongside of me and she kept looking at me to see where we were going, it was awesome. I want to have this connection with her everytime. I think if I work on having that connection with her we will be able to learn so much more together. On Saturday I worked on seeing if Shelby could trot in a straight line without resisting by rearing up or bucking and didn't have much luck. It seems everytime she is going in a straightline I have to bend her so I don't end up getting thrown off. I worked on having her read my energy to take one step forward and one step back. She did great with one step forward I didn't have to raise my phases much, and she also was able to step backward but I did have to increase my phases to pulling back with the reins. For our final ideally we are supposed to have them take 1 & 2 steps forward and 1 & 2 steps backward without using the reins. I have been having difficulty getting Shelby to stand next to the mounting block, I have to sneak it behind me to climb on her, so I decided to see if I could get on her from the ground. After several attempts and advice from friends, I figured out how to jump on her from the ground bareback, and she learned that she needed to stand still while I did so!
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over a pole, to be really connected to me while playing the driving game, take one step forward and backward with me in the saddle, stand while I mounted her bareback from the ground.
March 15th-20th
This week with Shelby was interesting, on Thursday I decided it was time to start riding Shelby with a saddle because while I am getting better I staying on bareback, we really aren’t getting anywhere. We are doing great on the ground, she is focused on me and is matching me when we play the driving game. But when I get on her back that connection is gone. She would rear up or buck everytime I asked her to trot, and then when I would ask her to walk she would want to start trotting. So it just seemed like no matter what I was asking she didn’t want to do it. The TA decided to get on her, and the whole time Shelby had her teeth bared and was trying to bite everyone and everything she passed. She was doing her usual bucking and rearing thing and I really didn’t understand why she was so angry. The TA was trying to get her to change to enjoy what she was doing, and it seemed like in a certain corner of the arena she was doing well. After getting her to relax more and be in a better state of mind I took over riding Shelby, we worked on just walking around the arena. I hadn’t realized that I could just pull back on her reins and get her to slow down, because while I was riding her bareback I had been working on turning her to gain more control and trying not to fall off. It takes time to learn what I need to do when with Shelby. On Friday I worked with Shelby on the ground with a long line, we worked on trotting and loping. She was generally listening to me but I have noticed she is uncomfortable with me on her right, and she did have her ears pinned back. Saturday Shelby was the same as she was on Thursday, lots of bucking and acting out against the other horses. I was working on teaching her that even though she was bucking and rearing I wasn’t going to stop asking her. By the end of the day she was doing better, not perfect, but there was a definite improvement. She did very well in that corner of the arena she was interested in on Thursday. Everytime we got to that corner I could feel that she was more attentive to me and relaxed so I would give her a release there. We were on the same page by the end of our time together, I drove her around all the horse pens outside after class and she listened to me the whole time even though there were areas she was nervous about, she seems to be trusting me more as a leader on the ground atleast.
What Shelby learned this week: Bucking and Rearing does not work when trying to get out of being asked to move forward. If she trots nicely and relaxes she gets rewarded.
March 22-27th
Shelby and I have actually made improvements. When I compare how she is during grooming to how she was before I see a huge improvement. She will stand still to be brushed, let me brush her all over. And now when I go to pick up her hooves there is no resistance at all! She now just relaxes her back legs and legs me pick them up. I think that says a lot about her trust for me, because having someone holding your feet is a frightening thing for a horse. In class on Tuesday we started off by doing some groundwork and when I first asked her to trot she got angry and started to take off, but then she came back to me. I think that playing the squeeze game with her has really helped out relationship because she now knows that it is good to be by me. When I got on her she started off by rearing up when I asked her to walk, so everytime she reared up or bucked a little I continued to ask her and got her to where she was walking nicely. Twitchell got on her to try and see something, he worked with jumping her and going over the jump several times in different patterns. It really changed Shelby’s attitude, her ears went forward instead of flat against her head. She needed something to focus on rather than the person annoying her on her back or the other horses around her that were annoying her. Watching him ride her over the jump in different patterns helped me understand what I could do to have more consistency and variety in the things I do with her. Even though the ride seemed like it was going to be difficult because of how we started out, it was the best ride I have ever had with Shelby! We were working on jumping, so we had poles on the ground that we had to use focus to go over, and Shelby was listening so much better when I have something to focus on! This was the first time Shelby ever consistently trotted nicely, it was wonderful! Twitchell was helping me know what to do to help Shelby so we were going over the jump and weaving through poles, and it kept Shelby’s focus. I asked him why she was so much better on the ground than she was when I got in the saddle, and he gave me a few suggestions. One could be that I am a better leader on the ground, or maybe that since before she came to the school she hadn’t had much groundwork so she learned how to do that but went back to old habits when I was in the saddle. I think after today it was because I am a better leader on the ground. At first I wasn’t as good of a leader on the ground, which is why I was having problems with her rearing and bucking on the ground, but once I learned to focus and do the things that would help her get centered on the ground she improved also. I think I now understand how I can do that on her back so that she feels that I am her leader while I am on her back. Thursday started out great, she didn’t rear up or buck in refusal to go forward. We were working on the question box. This is an area in a square shape that everytime we enter it we want to change something about what we are doing to keep our horse listening to us and wondering what we are going to ask them next. Shelby and I were doing very well for awhile, and then started getting angry. The TA mentioned that my reins were too tight and that I should loosen those up and work more on sliding my hand down the rein to ask her to turn, after doing that she was much more relaxed and listening to subtle cues. She started getting upset again and it seemed like it was mostly at other horses, she started to try and bite and really kicking up at them. I was trying to change her focus but it seemed like she was still angry because she was bucking and really pulling her head down which was a different kind of bucking than the last time. I asked the teacher if he wanted to ride her so I could so what he would do in that situation but he told me just to walk her around. She started to relax and calm down. He told me that the reason she was getting upset was I was asking too much out of her. At first I didn’t understand,but then thinking back maybe the question box wasn’t the best for her because she was doing what I asked her and then I’d ask her for more and she would get mad because she thought she was doing what she was supposed to. So she was just taking out her anger on the other horses around her. We also worked on circles during this class. We worked on not micro-managing our horses, instead of constantly holding the reins we would only use them when our horse started to go off course. By just using focus Shelby did very well with walking circles, I didn’t trot her because that just put her in the wrong mind frame and she just wanted to attack all of the other horses. It seemed that just walking her around and doing what she could succeed at kept her in the right mind frame and kept her happy so she didn’t react out of anger. On the ground our relationship is doing very well, she has started to want to be with me, I had to leave the arena so I tied her up and I could tell she wanted to be with me because of the way she was looking at me and the little whickering sounds she was making at me. Even though Shelby throws something new at me everyweek I am really enjoying working/playing with her. I think even though I was at first disappointed that I had to switch to a new horse she is much more beneficial to me than Black Jack. Friday was a good day for Shelby and I to build our relationship on the ground. There were four other horses loose in the arena, and she kept her focus on me even though she could’ve just said see ya and ran off to be with the other horses. Since moving other horses feet shows who is the leader, I would tell the other horses to go away anytime they came near us so I think that helped Shelby realize I was the leader. When I was riding her I asked her to trot and she started into a lope, so instead of asking her to slow down I just let her go for a little bit and then by herself she slowed down to a nice trot. This was a big improvement from Thursday. We kept our time together short just so she could be successful for the day and have a good experience. Saturday we played some games while doing groundwork, we practiced the sideways game, I had her face the wall and moved her front quarters and hindquarters away from me. for riding we worked some more on just doing things that would be enjoyable. Saturday we worked on circles and I worked on not micromanaging Shelby. She responds well to leg pressure but sometimes thinks that means to go faster so I have to bring her back down. Today when I asked her to go a little faster and she started loping I let her go again, but this time instead of slowing down she went faster and faster did a few small bucks and didn’t respond to the pressure of being pulled back and the only way I could get her to slow down was to pull her head around. She is however making improvements, she isn’t going around the arena with her ears pinned flat trying to bite anyone, and she hasn’t reared up at all lately either
What Shelby learned this week: Being next to me is a good spot to be in, to listen to me when there are other horses loose in the arena, To play the Sideways game, leg pressure on one side means to move over not go faster, to walk in circles by following leg pressure and corrections from reins, to go over the jump, to walk over multiple ground poles.
March 29-April 3rd
Monday night I went out to play with Shelby, It has been awhile since I have been out there at a different time than usual and she was acting very different. I don’t know if it was because it was about the time she was going to fed or just because of the different time. I had a hard time driving her to the green barn compared to usual because she was being hyper alert and paying attention to everything but me. Once we got in the arena she was doing better, but was still jumping at every little sound. While riding her at a walk she started to trot and then lope really fast. She was very bucky Monday, but a different kind of buck than last week because it isn’t to try and get out of going, I am not sure what it means because she seems to be enjoying going fast. We worked on walking over a little jump today, and she did so well! This was difficult for her and me last week because I wasn’t able to keep my energy up to keep her going, and she was a little unsure whether she could actually go over it. Every time she made an attempt I would reward her, and then ask again and she got her first two legs over, and I rewarded that, and then she got her back two legs over that. I could tell that she was feeling good about that just because of the way she was moving after that. I also worked on having her move her shoulders and hind quarters over. She does well with moving her shoulders over, and for the first time she actually moved her hindquarters away from the pressure I applied. Tuesday Shelby was her normal self again while driving in. She was listening to me very well while playing the driving game in the barn. Today the TA gave her some bute before to see if maybe the reason she was bucking was because of pain. We made two big accomplishments today, I was able to drive her over the jump from the ground. I myself have never been able to get her to walk over the jump from the ground, but she did it multiple times today! Then I was finally able to get her to go over the bridge again. She has been over it once before when I first started working with her, but since then I haven’t been able to get her to go over it because she would go around it. This time I decided to be more patient in my time and just keep trying, it seemed like it was going nowhere because she would try to walk around it. But I did the same thing I did with Black jack and rewarded her for each thing I asked her to do, and eventually she put one foot on the bridge! Then when I asked her for more she jumped on the bridge and right off, that was more than she has done in weeks! After that we went to something else for awhile and then came back to the bridge, this time when I asked her to go over the bridge she walked right up there and stood on the top for awhile.
We also worked with a partner in class to figure out some things, I told Raquel about how she goes faster and faster and she asked if I am tense when she starts going, and even though I try not to be I think I am. This time when I was walking Shelby and asked her for a faster walk and she started trotting and loping I really tried to relax and slowly and gradually pull her back, and it worked! I am not sure if the difference is me, the bute or both.
Thursday Shelby was doing well on the ground, she has learned that it is okay to go over the jump while I am on the ground and also to go over the bridge. It seemed like she was started to get annoyed with me so Instead of asking her to do a bunch of things I decided to really play with her, we found a volleyball and she enjoyed sniffing it and chasing it. She would roll it with her nose or kick it and then go after it again. We worked on walking over the jump and Shelby would not go over it she was trying to walk away from it, so Twitchell helped to react faster and get her to move faster. I had been doubling up on my reins to try to direct her rather than sliding my hand down the rein. I am finally starting to understand how to run my reins through my hands. Once I was quicker Shelby listened to what I was asking her to do and we went over the jump. Shelby started to go off into a lope and I again gradually brought her down. We were working on doing circles to prepare for our final and we’d be riding along nicely and then all of a sudden she’d charge, bite or kick at another horse. I was trying to trot or lope her in a circle, and she must have kicked up or bucked because all I knew was I wasn’t on a horse anymore and I was either going to hit the wall or the ground. Fortunately I hit the ground which still hurt. Twitchell got on her her and rode her around, she was loping even though he wasn’t asking her to and still trying to get after the other horses. I noticed that he was a lot faster to react to her than I was so she wasn’t able to get the other horses. I still don’t understand what her problem is, and I wonder if maybe the bute did make a difference on Tuesday.
Friday I went out to see Shelby Twice, in the morning we just did ground work which went really well. In the afternoon there were only 1 or 2 other horses in the arena. She was much happier than she had been on Thursday. She was trotting very nicely and we even went over the jump at a trot several times. By the end she seemed to start getting a little mad at me, she turned her head and tried to bite me. That made me wonder if there might be some sort of pain issue, or if maybe she was just angry. We ended at a good point for riding, she was trotting nicely and slowed to a stop well.
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over the bridge and jump at a walk, to move hindquarters away from pressure while I was on her, read my body energy when asked to slow down from lope to trot, to stay with me while playing at liberty.
This week I was assigned a new horse, Shelby. She’s very different than Black Jack. Though I will be starting all over with a new horse, the things I have learned so far in class with Black Jack will help me with Shelby so there will be some areas where we will make faster progress. Shelby hasn’t been in the arena for a few weeks so she was pretty fresh in there, she was bucking rearing and just running around while playing the circling game. She is a lot more Left brained than Black Jack, but I haven’t played with her enough to know if she is introverted or extroverted. So since Tuesday was the first day we started riding I first started playing the passenger game with my Classmate and the horse she had because Shelby was not quite in the right mind frame to be ridden yet. After that I spent for most of the class time playing with Shelby so I got on her to play the passenger game. I definitely have a lot of work to do on getting a balanced and independent seat. I seem to have become more dependent on the saddle and stirrups.Thursday we worked on pre-flight checks. Shelby did very well with the lateral flexion and then we also did something where I wrapped the rope around her to help with sticky feet. She did pretty well when I was rubbing her and jumping up next to her while having my hands on her back. She did try to bite a little but she responded well when I asked her to stop by tapping her face. Even though Shelby is not a very tall horse, I am not a very tall person so I had a difficult time actually getting on her bareback. I brought her over to the mounting block and that worked well, until she started walking away with me hanging at her side. Then at some point while trying to get her to stand next to the mounting block something scared her, so she tripped over the block and from then on was uncomfortable having it next to her side. So basically I was getting frustrated and she was too, so I jumped up with my hands on her back, and she stood still, and I called that good and we moved onto something else.
I still have a lot of work to do with Shelby, because I know pretty much nothing about her horsenality and don’t particularly care for her yet, though I am sure I will once I get the chance to play with her more.
What Shelby learned this week: Playing the driving game, Lateral Flexion and standing still while I attempted to climb on her bareback.
February 22-27th
Tuesday we worked more on pre-flight checks. Shelby was getting really agitated with me jumping up and down next to her back, because that was as far as I could get since she had no saddle. After I had someone help me mount her I realized that the reason she was getting
annoyed was because I kept doing the same thing over and over and it seemed pointless to her. As soon as I actually got on her she was just fine. I just walked her around in a couple small circles. She seems to be very sensitive to the stimulus to be asked to move, I didn’t have to use much pressure to get her to walk. Grooming Shelby can be a little difficult, at first she would stand still but now she has started moving around, her hooves are also difficult to pick up, she kicks her back legs really hard to try and get out of it. I will work on that and hopefully we will make improvements! Thursday was the first day I really rode Shelby. We spent a lot of the class on “running our reins” that is where we slide out hand down the rein so that our seat remains in the same place but we use the reins to change the direction of our horses. This is something I definitely need to work on! While we were listening to the teacher Shelby did not want to hold still and kept wanting to walk around. This makes me think she is more extroverted. Once we started walking around we were doing good, but just turning in circles over and over got very boring for Shelby. She started to trot, so I asked her to slow down and since that wasn’t what she wanted to do she did a little buck and somehow I stayed on. The teacher then told me since that was more of a dominance thing and since she was getting bored I should work on letting her trot and turning her and giving her something to do and making sure she knew I was her leading her. She started bucking while trotting and I couldn’t hang on bareback so I fell! I was excited because I have ridden for awhile and hadn’t actually fallen off yet, so now I can say I have! It was easier than I thought to decide to get back on, so I did and tried again, unfortunately I lost my balance again just a couple minutes later and she must have kicked up because I found my legs wrapped around her neck and then I slid down underneath her neck. Fortunately when I dropped off she went backwards away from me. Twitchell got on her and showed me what I should do, so after watching him I got on to try again. I wasn’t nervous about riding her at a walk but I was a little nervous at first when I asked her to trot, after falling off twice I was able to recognize when I was about to fall and was able to stay on this time. It was important for me to work on running my reins while trotting her because I needed to keep my seat balanced. By the end Shelby was doing much better and was listening to me more rather than trying to do what she wanted. Saturday I decided to ride her in a saddle just because I did not want to fall off again, but she was much better. She was a little bucky at first, but then she was listening to me and trotting nicely.What Shelby learned this week: To move and walk when I raise my energy and increase my phases, to listen to me when I use my reins to turn and direct her. When I ask her to bend as soon as she gives into the pressure it will be released.
March 1st-6th
On Tuesday when Shelby and I went into the arena she started off by what seemed out of nowhere trying to kick me and then she bolted and started bucking. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I kept her going in a circle, and that didn’t seem to help because she tried to kick me again. The TA told me I needed to have a focus and just go with her, so I switched to the driving game and that was a little better but didn’t seem to help calm her down at all. Twitchell then told me that I needed to slow down my phases of asking her to go and change directions, I didn’t think that would work because it seemed like she wasn’t listening to me at all. He took her and showed me that when he slowed down his phases she started to slow down and listen to him better. He made sure that when she did what he asked her that he rewarded her to let her know that was right. I spent that class on the ground with her because we really need to work on our relationship on the ground since we went straight to riding. Thursday we had a similar problem, I am learning that I need to slow down my phases because I have been skipping the lower phases and that just makes her overreact. I have found that when I slow down Shelby slows down and I can bring her mentally back to me, but I still need to have her mentally with me when she is going fast so that is something we need to work on. I learned how to properly play the circling game with Shelby today, before she had been coming into me and would stop next to me rather than circling around me. I learned how to switch the carrot stick and lead rope behind my back so I could use the carrot stick to ask her to move away and keep moving forward. When I walk Shelby into the arena she has started to get scared of every little thing and has tried to bolt away from me, and sometimes tries to run overtop of me. I tried to take a carrot stick out with me to help, It didn’t seem to help very much the first time I took it out. But on Saturday I was a lot more assertive with her, it seems like she really needs someone to tell her what to do. Shelby can be a difficult horse to work with because sometimes she needs that more assertiveness and other times I need to be really soft and slow with her otherwise she gets overwhelmed.
What Shelby learned this week: How to successfully play the circling game at a walk. To move away from me when I ask her, to drive nicely from her pen to the barn. That I would lower my phases and allow her to think about what I was asking her to do.
March 8th-13th
Shelby has been doing great when driving into the barn, she is no longer trying to run me over and because I am focused and confident she feels safer and is not spooking at everything. I am still working with Shelby to figure out when I need to be more assertive and when I need to be slower and more gentle with her.
Shelby is still difficult when I ride her though, she likes to throw her head and do little rears, I am getting better at staying on her bareback though. It is difficult to ask her for much when I am more concerned about trying to stay on. Friday was an awesome day for Shelby and me! I am wondering if the reason I have been having problems with her on Thursdays has something to do with me coming to class with a different attitude. I don’t think I am acting different but I might be. So I decided today to go with a positive attitude and expect that things were going to go well. I’ve realized that she really does not like the circling game and that we should limit our use with that. I did a lot of the driving and squeeze game today. I was trying to get her to walk over a pole that was raise, and she was very nervous about doing so. I lowered the pole to the ground just incase she physically could not lift her legs over it, she was still scared of it on the ground. I started by playing the squeeze game by sending her between me and where the pole was. Eventually I sent her to go over the pole and allowed her to go as far as she wanted. I learned that if I waited, even though it might look like she wasn't doing anything, she is actually processing what I asked her to do and showed me that she understood by licking and chewing. Eventually because I had built her trust in me she walked over the pole! I have been driving her to places she will find interesting, outside I drove her to the hay on the ground, and inside I drove her to objects she could sniff. Friday I worked on playing the driving game and asking her to trot, and I made sure to really watch her and stay connected with her, I found that all I had to do this time was raise my energy start jogging and click a little bit and she would do a nice slow trot rather than take off at a high speed. She was really listening to me while we were playing the driving game, I was changing directions and she was changing right along with me. At one point I was running from one end of the arena to the other and she was trotting alongside of me and she kept looking at me to see where we were going, it was awesome. I want to have this connection with her everytime. I think if I work on having that connection with her we will be able to learn so much more together. On Saturday I worked on seeing if Shelby could trot in a straight line without resisting by rearing up or bucking and didn't have much luck. It seems everytime she is going in a straightline I have to bend her so I don't end up getting thrown off. I worked on having her read my energy to take one step forward and one step back. She did great with one step forward I didn't have to raise my phases much, and she also was able to step backward but I did have to increase my phases to pulling back with the reins. For our final ideally we are supposed to have them take 1 & 2 steps forward and 1 & 2 steps backward without using the reins. I have been having difficulty getting Shelby to stand next to the mounting block, I have to sneak it behind me to climb on her, so I decided to see if I could get on her from the ground. After several attempts and advice from friends, I figured out how to jump on her from the ground bareback, and she learned that she needed to stand still while I did so!
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over a pole, to be really connected to me while playing the driving game, take one step forward and backward with me in the saddle, stand while I mounted her bareback from the ground.
March 15th-20th
This week with Shelby was interesting, on Thursday I decided it was time to start riding Shelby with a saddle because while I am getting better I staying on bareback, we really aren’t getting anywhere. We are doing great on the ground, she is focused on me and is matching me when we play the driving game. But when I get on her back that connection is gone. She would rear up or buck everytime I asked her to trot, and then when I would ask her to walk she would want to start trotting. So it just seemed like no matter what I was asking she didn’t want to do it. The TA decided to get on her, and the whole time Shelby had her teeth bared and was trying to bite everyone and everything she passed. She was doing her usual bucking and rearing thing and I really didn’t understand why she was so angry. The TA was trying to get her to change to enjoy what she was doing, and it seemed like in a certain corner of the arena she was doing well. After getting her to relax more and be in a better state of mind I took over riding Shelby, we worked on just walking around the arena. I hadn’t realized that I could just pull back on her reins and get her to slow down, because while I was riding her bareback I had been working on turning her to gain more control and trying not to fall off. It takes time to learn what I need to do when with Shelby. On Friday I worked with Shelby on the ground with a long line, we worked on trotting and loping. She was generally listening to me but I have noticed she is uncomfortable with me on her right, and she did have her ears pinned back. Saturday Shelby was the same as she was on Thursday, lots of bucking and acting out against the other horses. I was working on teaching her that even though she was bucking and rearing I wasn’t going to stop asking her. By the end of the day she was doing better, not perfect, but there was a definite improvement. She did very well in that corner of the arena she was interested in on Thursday. Everytime we got to that corner I could feel that she was more attentive to me and relaxed so I would give her a release there. We were on the same page by the end of our time together, I drove her around all the horse pens outside after class and she listened to me the whole time even though there were areas she was nervous about, she seems to be trusting me more as a leader on the ground atleast.
What Shelby learned this week: Bucking and Rearing does not work when trying to get out of being asked to move forward. If she trots nicely and relaxes she gets rewarded.
March 22-27th
Shelby and I have actually made improvements. When I compare how she is during grooming to how she was before I see a huge improvement. She will stand still to be brushed, let me brush her all over. And now when I go to pick up her hooves there is no resistance at all! She now just relaxes her back legs and legs me pick them up. I think that says a lot about her trust for me, because having someone holding your feet is a frightening thing for a horse. In class on Tuesday we started off by doing some groundwork and when I first asked her to trot she got angry and started to take off, but then she came back to me. I think that playing the squeeze game with her has really helped out relationship because she now knows that it is good to be by me. When I got on her she started off by rearing up when I asked her to walk, so everytime she reared up or bucked a little I continued to ask her and got her to where she was walking nicely. Twitchell got on her to try and see something, he worked with jumping her and going over the jump several times in different patterns. It really changed Shelby’s attitude, her ears went forward instead of flat against her head. She needed something to focus on rather than the person annoying her on her back or the other horses around her that were annoying her. Watching him ride her over the jump in different patterns helped me understand what I could do to have more consistency and variety in the things I do with her. Even though the ride seemed like it was going to be difficult because of how we started out, it was the best ride I have ever had with Shelby! We were working on jumping, so we had poles on the ground that we had to use focus to go over, and Shelby was listening so much better when I have something to focus on! This was the first time Shelby ever consistently trotted nicely, it was wonderful! Twitchell was helping me know what to do to help Shelby so we were going over the jump and weaving through poles, and it kept Shelby’s focus. I asked him why she was so much better on the ground than she was when I got in the saddle, and he gave me a few suggestions. One could be that I am a better leader on the ground, or maybe that since before she came to the school she hadn’t had much groundwork so she learned how to do that but went back to old habits when I was in the saddle. I think after today it was because I am a better leader on the ground. At first I wasn’t as good of a leader on the ground, which is why I was having problems with her rearing and bucking on the ground, but once I learned to focus and do the things that would help her get centered on the ground she improved also. I think I now understand how I can do that on her back so that she feels that I am her leader while I am on her back. Thursday started out great, she didn’t rear up or buck in refusal to go forward. We were working on the question box. This is an area in a square shape that everytime we enter it we want to change something about what we are doing to keep our horse listening to us and wondering what we are going to ask them next. Shelby and I were doing very well for awhile, and then started getting angry. The TA mentioned that my reins were too tight and that I should loosen those up and work more on sliding my hand down the rein to ask her to turn, after doing that she was much more relaxed and listening to subtle cues. She started getting upset again and it seemed like it was mostly at other horses, she started to try and bite and really kicking up at them. I was trying to change her focus but it seemed like she was still angry because she was bucking and really pulling her head down which was a different kind of bucking than the last time. I asked the teacher if he wanted to ride her so I could so what he would do in that situation but he told me just to walk her around. She started to relax and calm down. He told me that the reason she was getting upset was I was asking too much out of her. At first I didn’t understand,but then thinking back maybe the question box wasn’t the best for her because she was doing what I asked her and then I’d ask her for more and she would get mad because she thought she was doing what she was supposed to. So she was just taking out her anger on the other horses around her. We also worked on circles during this class. We worked on not micro-managing our horses, instead of constantly holding the reins we would only use them when our horse started to go off course. By just using focus Shelby did very well with walking circles, I didn’t trot her because that just put her in the wrong mind frame and she just wanted to attack all of the other horses. It seemed that just walking her around and doing what she could succeed at kept her in the right mind frame and kept her happy so she didn’t react out of anger. On the ground our relationship is doing very well, she has started to want to be with me, I had to leave the arena so I tied her up and I could tell she wanted to be with me because of the way she was looking at me and the little whickering sounds she was making at me. Even though Shelby throws something new at me everyweek I am really enjoying working/playing with her. I think even though I was at first disappointed that I had to switch to a new horse she is much more beneficial to me than Black Jack. Friday was a good day for Shelby and I to build our relationship on the ground. There were four other horses loose in the arena, and she kept her focus on me even though she could’ve just said see ya and ran off to be with the other horses. Since moving other horses feet shows who is the leader, I would tell the other horses to go away anytime they came near us so I think that helped Shelby realize I was the leader. When I was riding her I asked her to trot and she started into a lope, so instead of asking her to slow down I just let her go for a little bit and then by herself she slowed down to a nice trot. This was a big improvement from Thursday. We kept our time together short just so she could be successful for the day and have a good experience. Saturday we played some games while doing groundwork, we practiced the sideways game, I had her face the wall and moved her front quarters and hindquarters away from me. for riding we worked some more on just doing things that would be enjoyable. Saturday we worked on circles and I worked on not micromanaging Shelby. She responds well to leg pressure but sometimes thinks that means to go faster so I have to bring her back down. Today when I asked her to go a little faster and she started loping I let her go again, but this time instead of slowing down she went faster and faster did a few small bucks and didn’t respond to the pressure of being pulled back and the only way I could get her to slow down was to pull her head around. She is however making improvements, she isn’t going around the arena with her ears pinned flat trying to bite anyone, and she hasn’t reared up at all lately eitherWhat Shelby learned this week: Being next to me is a good spot to be in, to listen to me when there are other horses loose in the arena, To play the Sideways game, leg pressure on one side means to move over not go faster, to walk in circles by following leg pressure and corrections from reins, to go over the jump, to walk over multiple ground poles.
March 29-April 3rd
Monday night I went out to play with Shelby, It has been awhile since I have been out there at a different time than usual and she was acting very different. I don’t know if it was because it was about the time she was going to fed or just because of the different time. I had a hard time driving her to the green barn compared to usual because she was being hyper alert and paying attention to everything but me. Once we got in the arena she was doing better, but was still jumping at every little sound. While riding her at a walk she started to trot and then lope really fast. She was very bucky Monday, but a different kind of buck than last week because it isn’t to try and get out of going, I am not sure what it means because she seems to be enjoying going fast. We worked on walking over a little jump today, and she did so well! This was difficult for her and me last week because I wasn’t able to keep my energy up to keep her going, and she was a little unsure whether she could actually go over it. Every time she made an attempt I would reward her, and then ask again and she got her first two legs over, and I rewarded that, and then she got her back two legs over that. I could tell that she was feeling good about that just because of the way she was moving after that. I also worked on having her move her shoulders and hind quarters over. She does well with moving her shoulders over, and for the first time she actually moved her hindquarters away from the pressure I applied. Tuesday Shelby was her normal self again while driving in. She was listening to me very well while playing the driving game in the barn. Today the TA gave her some bute before to see if maybe the reason she was bucking was because of pain. We made two big accomplishments today, I was able to drive her over the jump from the ground. I myself have never been able to get her to walk over the jump from the ground, but she did it multiple times today! Then I was finally able to get her to go over the bridge again. She has been over it once before when I first started working with her, but since then I haven’t been able to get her to go over it because she would go around it. This time I decided to be more patient in my time and just keep trying, it seemed like it was going nowhere because she would try to walk around it. But I did the same thing I did with Black jack and rewarded her for each thing I asked her to do, and eventually she put one foot on the bridge! Then when I asked her for more she jumped on the bridge and right off, that was more than she has done in weeks! After that we went to something else for awhile and then came back to the bridge, this time when I asked her to go over the bridge she walked right up there and stood on the top for awhile.
We also worked with a partner in class to figure out some things, I told Raquel about how she goes faster and faster and she asked if I am tense when she starts going, and even though I try not to be I think I am. This time when I was walking Shelby and asked her for a faster walk and she started trotting and loping I really tried to relax and slowly and gradually pull her back, and it worked! I am not sure if the difference is me, the bute or both.Thursday Shelby was doing well on the ground, she has learned that it is okay to go over the jump while I am on the ground and also to go over the bridge. It seemed like she was started to get annoyed with me so Instead of asking her to do a bunch of things I decided to really play with her, we found a volleyball and she enjoyed sniffing it and chasing it. She would roll it with her nose or kick it and then go after it again. We worked on walking over the jump and Shelby would not go over it she was trying to walk away from it, so Twitchell helped to react faster and get her to move faster. I had been doubling up on my reins to try to direct her rather than sliding my hand down the rein. I am finally starting to understand how to run my reins through my hands. Once I was quicker Shelby listened to what I was asking her to do and we went over the jump. Shelby started to go off into a lope and I again gradually brought her down. We were working on doing circles to prepare for our final and we’d be riding along nicely and then all of a sudden she’d charge, bite or kick at another horse. I was trying to trot or lope her in a circle, and she must have kicked up or bucked because all I knew was I wasn’t on a horse anymore and I was either going to hit the wall or the ground. Fortunately I hit the ground which still hurt. Twitchell got on her her and rode her around, she was loping even though he wasn’t asking her to and still trying to get after the other horses. I noticed that he was a lot faster to react to her than I was so she wasn’t able to get the other horses. I still don’t understand what her problem is, and I wonder if maybe the bute did make a difference on Tuesday.
Friday I went out to see Shelby Twice, in the morning we just did ground work which went really well. In the afternoon there were only 1 or 2 other horses in the arena. She was much happier than she had been on Thursday. She was trotting very nicely and we even went over the jump at a trot several times. By the end she seemed to start getting a little mad at me, she turned her head and tried to bite me. That made me wonder if there might be some sort of pain issue, or if maybe she was just angry. We ended at a good point for riding, she was trotting nicely and slowed to a stop well.
What Shelby learned this week: To be driven over the bridge and jump at a walk, to move hindquarters away from pressure while I was on her, read my body energy when asked to slow down from lope to trot, to stay with me while playing at liberty.
Horsenality
Determining a horse’s horsenality is done by taking their characteristics and behavior and placing them on a chart designed by Parelli. There are four types of horsenalities and a horse can have characteristics in each of those sections, whichever section they have the most characteristics in is their main horsenality. A horse’s horsenality can change, the goal is to get the characteristics out of the extreme levels and also to get the horse more centered. 
A horse’s horsenality is on a continuum, with the center between the two being the “Learning Zone” where they are willing to listen and follow you as their leader. As they get further from the learning zone on either the Left Brain or Right Brain side their behaviors become more extreme.
A Left Brain horse is more confident and tends to be more dominant. A Right Brain horse is more reactive and frightened. An extroverted horse will show their reactions outwardly, where an introverted horse will hold them in and let them build.
Left-Brain Extrovert
A Left-Brain Extrovert can be playful, smart, charismatic, naughty, mischievous, can have the tendency to kick or bite, mouthy, willful, exuberant, friendly. Left-Brain Extrovert horse is already confident and more dominant and as it gets further away from the learning zone that confidence and dominance grows. They show their dominance more outwardly than an introverted horse. A Left-Brain Extrovert needs play and a focus that aren’t boring to help them be more centered. To center a Left-Brain Extrovert, they need to know that you are the leader. One of the principles of a leader is moving the feet of others. Some of the techniques for this are playing some of the games such as, yo-yo, driving, or sideways games. A Left-Brain Extrovert is quick and smart and they need a leader that will be quick too. If I were asking a horse to play the circling game or yo-yo game I would move through my phases very quickly. A Left-Brain Extrovert needs patterns to give them a purpose, but does not need patterns to be to repetitive or they will get bored.
Left-Brain Introvert
A Left-Brain Introvert is clever, non-responsive, disinterested, argumentative/defiant, has tendency to buck/charge, they are unmotivated/dull, food oriented, easily bored, stubborn, seem lazy. A Left-Brain Introvert is confident and will shut us out. The left-brain introvert does not like riding in circles. A principle for Left-Brain Introvert is that they need incentive, the techniques for incentive can sometimes be motivations by giving them treats after they accomplish something you ask of them, or since they are often “short horses” they like the incentive of getting rest. Patterns help the Left-Brain Extrovert be motivated to think.
Right-Brain Extrovert
A Right-Brain Extrovert is an outwardly reactive horse. They are impulsive, can’t stand still, hyper alert, panicky, have a tendency to bolt/rear, run over you, high-headed, bracy, over-reactive, forward-aholic. A RB Extrovert is very unconfident; they are very fearful, and spooky. They have not yet met the hierarchy of needs, they need a leader to reach Safety so they do not feel the need to panic and run. The friendly game is something that is very good for them, they need a lot of approach and retreat whether it is from you or an object. They need to do things slower, and shouldn’t be pushed too far until they are calm and feel safe. They need something to focus on so that their RB extrovert habits can be broken, since they can only process one thing at a time they need to keep moving to something else. When I am on a RB extrovert horse that gets spooked its best to keep them moving and change their focus. The squeeze game is good for a RB Extrovert because it teaches them that after something frightening occurs they can come back to you for safety. Patterns are good for a right brain horse because it helps them to have consistency and learn to relax as they perform the pattern.
Right-Brain Introvert
A Right-Brain Introvert is tense, quiet, obedient, distrustful, hesitant, has tendency to kick (in fear), freezes then explodes, unpredictable, shy/timid, can’t think, catatonic. A RB Introvert is non-responsive. They can be difficult to read. A Right Brain introvert horse needs comfort. You cannot push a RB introvert before they are ready or they will lose their trust in you. While playing the games go through the phases more slowly because a right brain introvert needs to process the things you are asking of them. These horses have the tendency to freeze then explode. They are fearful, spooky, claustrophobic, over-reactive. A Right-Brain introvert learns to become confident and trusting in you as their leader when you take them through consistent patterns.
Black Jack’s Horsenality
When I first started to get to know Black Jack he was very much a Right-Brain Extrovert, he was scared of a lot of things and would react outwardly. He was more left brained when in his pen and once we started playing in the arena. As I built a relationship with him the behaviors and characteristics he had were more spread around the horsenality chart. He still had a lot of the same Right Brain Extrovert behaviors but they became less extreme, he started showing more Left-Brain introvert behaviors. As he grew comfortable with me and our settings he began to test me by showing dominance. For the most part working with Black Jack he was very centered which made him an easy horse to teach.
Black Jack’s Horsenality Chart at the beginning
Black Jack’s Horsenality Chart at the end
Shelby’s Horsenality
When I first started with Shelby she also showed a lot of Right-Brain Extrovert behaviors, especially when we would walk between her pen and the green barn. But she also showed Left-Brain introvert behaviors. As I started working more with her, she became more left brained extroverted. Because she gained my trust and felt safe with me she did not need to be as scared of everything. Eventually on the ground she became centered and we developed a good relationship. On her back however she still showed a lot of Left-Brain extrovert behaviors sometimes towards me and sometimes towards other horses. Because of the progress we made on the ground, I know that it is possible for her to be more centered when being ridden.
Shelby’s Horsenality Chart at the beginning
Shelby’s Black Jack’s Horsenality Chart at the end
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