Slow and Steady Wins the Race

... or will eventually win the race. Same difference!

Last night I played with Indy because I 'missed' her. Seems silly, I see her every day, I bring her in with Ivy every day for dinner, but I still felt like I hadnt seen her in an eon! It was the most bizarre thing. So, my intention for the evening set, I was pleased to see every one in and around the shed.

When I went out the back gate I was confronted with Mo's bum, Tripp, Tucker and Crystal all looking at my from their tail swishy congregation. I was amused by the "OH HAI!" looks from all of them. Mo even turned around to come say hi when I got close enough to rub her bum. I could see Indy was just five steps past this little group so I waved at her and she looked at me all bright. Mo, in the mean time, moseyed herself over to the gate and looked at me like "Ok, Im ready!" I felt sort of bad that I wasnt there to play with her, so I gave her extra hugs and a treat later.

Indy sort of bodily shoved her way through the little herd blocking her path to come say hi. That was nice. Ivy came to of course. I used my body blocks to keep curious Ivy's out of my space [and out of the nibble zone!] and focused on Indy. She looked pleased with that as I rubbed her all over and said my hellos.

When I brought the halter up and grabbed the head piece over her neck she braced. Not huge, but enough that I felt it and saw it. And then when I tried to bring her head down and around to halter she just sort of went "Cant do it" and got all tense. How interesting. I just waited with her, doing little bits of head down, head over etc until she could move it. Last night was all about takng the time it takes with her. She flits so fast between introvert and extrovert that sometimes I miss it, but last night was DEFINATLEY an introverted day. And I made that extra super effort to g o s l o w l y for her. It was SUPER hard for me [used to Mo's demonic brain] to slow down and not push her. Great practice though!

About ten minutes passed before I had permission to halter her. For a while when I asked her head to move over she was like "Ok, I will move my whole front end over to you" but that was ok, because Dakota used to do that to, so I was able to refine my request to just tipping her nose my way. When she did finally understand that, or just acknowledge that she knew what I was asking - since we do this EVERY time and sometimes she 'plays dumb' and sometimes she doesnt - it still took more time for her to keep her nose there when I brought the halter up. Interesting! Mo went through a phase of that to - "Ok my nose is over here" "Thanks, heres the halter" "Oh no, I changed my mind, I dont want it" and turn the nose away, just a little.

I am not 100% sure what it was, if it was confidence or just playing with me, but I went even slower and just waited for her, and lo and behold, when she finally acceded my request to halter her, she licked and chewed!!! This, from a horse who I have been concerned that I never see her licking - even secretly! So it boded well for our session I think :-)

After haltering her I rubbed her a lot, letting her know that was an awesome thing for her and then bent down to check on some new scrapes on her leg. Indy is quite the klutz, new scrapes pretty often. I read today that emotional coordination = physical coordination, so it makes me wonder whats going on in her head.

Even getting from our spot outside the run in shed, 20 feet from the gate into the barn was a learning experience. I am discovering that Indy has very little self confidence. No, let me rephrase that, because some times she DOES have lots of confidence. Last night she had very little self confidence at the start. It was really interesting! Standing at her zone two ish, where I had been scratching her, I upped my life and asked her to move forwards [towards the barn gate] She turned and looked at me and then shifted her weight forwards and then looked at me again with a "thats as much as I can do" look.

I took that moment to do a big HOW INTERESTING in my head. I was asking her to go first, away from the herd and she could give me only a weight shift! WHOA! It wasnt a 'nanner nanner make me' type of thing either, it was an 'I cant go more than this without you in front' type of thing. So we played with that. It took us ten minutes for her to work up and over to the gate. She went from weight shifts to one step forwards [and then two back to come back to me] to finally trying three steps forwards and sufficing with me scratching and rubbing her backside. And then in one brilliant flash of self confidence, she walked herself over to the gate, lined up to go in, looked at me and licked and chewed, looking positively shining. She looked so PROUD of herself for figuring out the puzzle, and grateful that I hadnt pushed her. Whoo hoo for both of us!!

By that time I was sure that I was doing the right thing by going slow with her. She just looked so happy and thankful. I opened the gate and invited her into the barn and waited for Ivy to tag along. Ivy trotted along into their stall. I tried backing Indy down the aisle a bit to see what would happen and she went back on phase ONE! Yey! We backed down to their stall, where she tried to go in, so I had to gently dissuade her from that course. I tied her to the stall rails then ansd sort of just hoped she knew how to tie... I havent really tried tying her before now! But she was a star and I went into the stall to 'catch' Ivy - which realistically just involves me walking through the stall door - and halter her for HER first tying lesson. I tied her beside Indy, but far enough away that I would have room to groom that side of her without Ivy nibbling on me. VERY LBE that baby...

Ivy was a star and Indy looked thrilled that I was going to primp her. She loves being pretty. Such a diva. She relaxed right into the combing, while I detangled her mane, and when I brought out the body brush she was totally enthused with it when I let her check it out. She kept wuffleing her nose across it and nuzzling it, it was super cute that she was so interested in the brush! When she was all shiny clean I brought out the saddle and pad, just in case we got to riding and were waaay out in the new arena.

When I got ten feet from her she went from happy excited to dead. Umm... ??? So I stoped and backed up slowly until she looked at me. When she did she was all happy excited again and licking like crazy. HOW INTERESTING! This time when I approached she kept her happy look AND investigated everything [a first] up to and including taste testing the girth! Cool!!

When I saddled her she was a rock star, and when I tightened the girth she looked at me like "what do you need that for?" So I gave her a treat. Boy she liked that!! All finished up in the barn I switched to a 22', grabbed my carrot stick and we all trooped to the gate. I squeezed Ivy out first and let her go, shooing her away a bit so she wouldnt just barrel back into the barn, and then I squeezed Indy out, who was a total pro. I disengaged her super softly, and she looked at me with that bright eyed happy look again. I love that look. I would do anything to gget that look from her. Its just total trust and belief that I am doing right by her. [The whole time I was grooming Indy, Mo was sulking at the gate so I gave her some treats before asking her to move so I could get out]

Once outside I backed Indy away from the gate and through the minor mud puddle that collects there after rain. She got a little stuck at one point, so I did a loooooooooooooooooooooooong phase one and got to 3 before she was unstuck, but stayed at one for the rest of the backing. Insteresting! Once on dry ground I asked her to come in to me but she drifted towards the horses in the shed. Hmm.... I softly asked her to sideways back the other way but she got offended and sort of said NO and started a minor flight back and forth between where I wanted her to be and where she wanted to go.... how interesting. I finally changed tactics [was trying to interrupt] and backed up, trying to draw her in. WELL NOW!! If I didnt get that "You rang?" look that Casper give Pat and have her walk energetically right up to me...... HUH! So that left me standing there jaw hanging open for a while while I re-collected my thoughts and game plan.

I still dont know exactly what happened. Whatever it was, it was good! We just hung there a bit, Indy licked a lot, until I felt ready enough to continue. This time, when I backed her out and offered her forwards [out to the feild forwards, not to the shed] she walked off confidently and licking while she walked. How interesting! As she walked, I thought. I changed the game into a falling leaf game at the trot, keeping to phase one and two gently until she picked up the trot. When she had a fast walk and forward intention to trot I relaxed my ask and she picked up the most wonderful swinging trot!! OOooooOOHHHHH!!!! How interesting!!! My brain was on overload, and we hadnt even reached the play area yet!

I changed the game back to driving as we came up to the obstacles and asked Indy to go over the little pole on the ground between the barrels. Hmm... well, Ms. Klutz took out the barrel, nearly tripping and falling flat on her face instead. I retreated, and asked her to try again, and this time she tripped over the OTHER barrel... huh?!?! So I changed the game. I made it a figure eight around and between the barrels. WELL! That was even worse!!! She tripped, she ran into barrels, she got confused. So I stopped and thought. I thought I was going slow. I really was trying. But I stopped, and when I started again I went even slower. If thats possible. And THATS when we got two passably good, non life threatening figure eights. I was ecstatic. Indy was pleased with herself, and we chose that moment to hoof it back to the barn to dredge out the one thing I had forgotten - BUG SPRAY!! All the little black flies were swarming and driving me nuts.

I left Ivy outside while I rubbed Indy down with bug repellent - and myself - and then we were back 'on the road again' as it were. We played around in the dirt area just in front of the barn, past the muck a bit, the flies were less there. Indy offered me some amazing and soft sideways without a fence. When we both felt ready, I changed my 22' reins into a hackamore style and mounted up [from the ground! whoo me!] I just sat still for the longest time, waiting for a question from Indy. I must say, it is seriously the hardest thing for me to just hurry up and wait. I am 'used' to Mo, whose wait time is about thirty seconds on a bad day. Mo is always so ready for the next thing, that is a challenge to slow it way down for Indy. I have to remember that all through the winter I was doing little blurbs with Mo, nothing big and major like now, just little bits to help her grow to where she is now - thats what I need to do with Indy. So we sat.

She finally asked me a question, she turned her head and looked at me like 'Well? Arent you going to do anything?" So I gave her a treat. OH BOY! She liked that a LOT!! When she finished munching I upped my life and squeezed a little and we set off.... towards to shed... I had my carrot stick this time. Last time I rode, I found some brace when I directed her in the halter, so I brought the carrot stick this time to direct. MY oh my... if she didnt try to push right through that to! She nearly ran us into a pole before relenting and accepting that I might have a clue what I am asking for. Of course I was using my legs to turn to, but that seems to mean nothing to her yet, but no worries, it will. I still remember when Mo had no clue either... wasnt that long ago! [ I apologize for all the Mo references, but Mo is the only other young horse I have started... so shes my launch point]

When we finally got turned around in the right direction, I picked on of the paths the horses had worn in the yard to head out to the 'arena'. Really, I was aiming for the telephone pole that, to me, denotes the start of my play ground. Point to point style. I remember Linda saying one time it took Allure 200 some odd corrections to walk a straight line the first time, and I must say, I now know some of what she felt. Indy was just everywhere. I didnt pick up my reins to micromanage her, I just directed her with the carrot stick when my legs didnt work. You should have seen the crazy serpentine we had going. When we FINALLY got to the pole though she stopped on energy down, so that was fairly cool! I was pretty surprised about that.

Again more waiting. .... and waiting.... until she finally asked me a question and I gave her a treat again. When she was finished with that I picked a new point as the black barrel [there are three plastic blue ones and one black metal one] More winding paths, but we got there! More waiting and more treats. Her questions were coming quicker this time. Ivy was somewhere behind us, so instead of risking her getting worried about her, I turned her this time and picked Ivy as our point. That went great because Ivy was 'on the way to the barn'. I had to pick up my reins a little to stop at Ivy, so we worked on our 9-step backup at the same time.

And so my point to point went. We aimed back to the telephone pole, question came faster, as did the treat, and then I aimed for the other telephone pole which she *almost* trotted to. Even better time on questions for that one. And then, in a crowning Indy-moment, when we returned to our original telephone pole, she LICKED AND CHEWED right away! YEY! She was getting it!! we ran our course [and by ran, I mean walked] one more time, with lots more licking and thinking, before heading back to the barn. There is one random tire somehow in the front of the gate, off to the side, about fifteen feet from the gate.

Of course Indy wanted to charge right up to the gate, so I decided we needed to put a foot in the tire. What a challenge that was!! Indy finally got it, stomped on the tire proudly [close enough to in it] and I jumped of and have her a big hug while she thoughtfully licked and chewed while I ran up my stirrups.

When I got them both back into the barn, I tied Indy to the stall rail of her stall, but in the aisle and put Ivy inside the stall with the door closed. Last time I did this Ivy freaked out, but this time she was a trooper and was really good while I untacked Indy! Indy was awesome for untacking. I was surprised to see sweat under the girth on such a cool day when all we did was walk ... but that makes me think that maybe her emotions get up when she rides, and thats why it took so long to think about the point to point pattern. How interesting!!

After she was all untacked I put her in her stall to get her dinner and that was that. Leading her out after she ate went really well, and really softly, even for Ivy, so I was really happy with that.

Reading this you might think " well she didnt do anything? Just walked around" but you would be wrong. I DID SO MUCH!! Indy is such a challenge for me, in that I need to control ME more and s-l-o-w waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down for her. IF I can ever get it right for her, I can guarentee she will give me 150% of her heart. The onus is on me now to figure it out for her... I feel like I am on the right track for her after this session though.

:-)
S