Training Journal Week 8
Session 21 - March 23
During daily handling Limra has really spooked several times at new objects in a pretty violent way. We decided today that we would try and catch that on camera. We set up our big inflated soccer ball in the round pen and then Terral filmed me entering the round pen in the hopes that she might show one of these big reactions if she was surprised by the ball. She could not have cared less about the ball. In fact, when it blew around she went straight to it and sniffed it!
Even though she was instantly calm about it I did go ahead and continue the desensitization work with the ball. I began by walking backwards and rolling it with me while she followed it and continued to build confidence. Then I went ahead and picked up the ball and began touching her with it. I was not gradual enough in the beginning and she shied away but Terral helped coach me to move more slowly and bring it to her in more gradual increments. Eventually I was able to even lift up the ball and put it on her back.
While desensitizing her to the ball I learned to really be aware of not pushing beyond a point that she could handle. I always made the most progress when I stopped before she became frightened and moved away from me. I think the bridleless start really forces you to respect your horse’s threshold for comfortability with different objects and work within that limit.
Another lesson I learned is that it is hard to rub and pet a horse slowly and calmly with one hand while simultaneously bouncing a giant soccer ball with the other hand! Apparently it is a coordination skill that is in need of further training. Terral and I got quite a few good laughs over my attempts to improve my rubbing vs. bouncing coordination skills. Eventually I was able to bounce the ball all around her on both sides.
Next I put a saddle pad and saddle on Limra and reviewed circling in both directions at walk and trot. Then I also did following at the shoulder work in walk and trot in both directions. I practiced in particular some transitions between walk and trot with her at my shoulder. Then I reviewed pivoting the shoulders around the hindquarters and the hindquarters around the shoulders. All the exercises went well except the shoulder pivots which were very messy in the beginning.
Session 22 - March 27
At the very start of the session I was abit surprised as she was drifting in her circles and definitely lacking in some draw. I ended up playing extensively with consecutive changes of direction and really focusing on getting a flow going with Limra. Ultimately,I feel like we had some of our most fluid and connected moments we have ever had in both walk and trot. I feel the quality of her circles has really improved in regards to her bend and level of draw. There were several times where I only had to lean back to draw her towards me even at trot.
Next I decided to work with her with our flag (an old carrot stick with a tarp on the end of it). Flag work has always been an integral part of our work with starting young horses under saddle so I was curious to see how this would work without a halter. As with all of the obstacles and items I have introduced to Limra she took it in stride. In the beginning she was tentative about the flag end but began to get more and more curious as I let her follow it and began to move her around with it. By the end I was able to move it up and down her entire topline without issue.
After the flag work I got out one of our neck ropes and began to program some of the cues I hope to be able to implement with it as we start riding Limra. Because she already follows beside me and understands several back up cues from the whips, Limra quickly picked up the meaning of the pressure from the neck rope to stop and back up. It was easy for her to pair the understanding that pressure from the neck rope would be reinforced by the whip if she did not stop or back up. I really focused on developing her lightness off the neck rope attempting to get her very soft and responsive so a light lifting motion and minimal pressure at the base of the neck instantly created a stop or a step backwards. I worked these transitions in both directions using the wall of the round pen for support.
At the end of the session I stood in the middle of the round pen and worked on trying to teach her to bend toward a “kissing the stirrup” position away from pressure from the handle end of the whip. We accomplished this in both directions although I wish her responses had been lighter and I felt some of my cueing was quite awkward. This cue will ultimately become an important emergency brake when I am riding so I hope to further improve this type of bend in coming sessions.
Session 23 - March 30
This session was special because it was the first session that Terral worked with Limra. Terral and I have always worked as a team when it comes to starting young horses so we have known all along that at some point it would be necessary to introduce him into the round pen. It was really fun to see that Limra understood all the cues that he gave her and had no issue transitioning from working with me to working with him. I believe this is a testament to working within a shared language. Liberty can be a language that I teach my horses and if someone else steps in that also speaks that language it should be an easy transition. That said, there are of course slight differences in “accent” that Limra definitely needed to adjust to and Terral needed to feel out. As much as we can all speak the same language there is a process of calibrating and re-calibrating your cues as you become accustomed to a horse and build a relationship. An example of this is when Terral first attempted jumping up and down next to her as we have practiced many times. Limra became quite jumpy and tense. This is of course simply due to the fact that him jumping up and down of course looks and feels totally different than when I do it even though it is fundamentally the same thing. That said, she quickly gained confidence with him jumping on both sides.
Terral worked with Limra first without a saddle and then tacked her up. Then he did a series of circling exercises with changes of direction in both walk and trot. Then he worked with her on backing up off the neck rope and practiced the hindquarter and forehand yields. Finally he worked on bending at a standstill off the whip. He used more of a circular motion to ask her to yield her head and neck away from the whip. His approach seemed to help create some of the lightness I had been missing in the session before.
In the last five minutes of the session I went ahead and entered the round pen. I hopped on her in a side saddle position so that I could easily slide off and land on my feet if anything occurred that I couldn’t sit. We did have one moment where she saw our friend Charlotte and veered off course and went to say hi. Not a tense reaction at all but one where Terral nonetheless lost connection with her. I did end up sliding off in that scenario and letting Terral draw her back before remounting. She did attempt another visit but Terral was better able to keep her focus the second time around and kept her on a circle. I rode side-saddle in this way in both directions. In the very end I mounted and sat fully astride from both sides. It was super exciting to sit fully on Limra for the first time!