Sunday after church we went to the local Pro Rodeo. Man it was hot! Hottest day of the summer so far. It was nice to have a "date day " though, it's been a long time since we went anywhere together just for entertainment. Didn't take my big camera but got a fun video with my cell phone:
Ruby got Sunday off, but Saturday and Monday I worked her on the ground and on trailer loading.
She has off days; I can usually tell within a few minutes what kind of horse I will have on that day. Saturday, she was doing her robo-horse thing where she kind of shuts me out and just goes into what I call dude horse mode: doing things out of habit and not tuning in to me. So I worked her in hand, asking for hip yield followed by shoulder yield/change of direction. It took her a bit to get smooth with it. Then I worked on whoa. I have a 3 step program that I use, giving them the best chance to respond to the lightest ask first. Verbal command, followed by reinforced by body position and a stronger verbal command, then a louder WHOA combined with a flip of the lead rope. She pretty much totally ignored the first 2 and I had to resort to #3 several times before she ended up stopping consistently on #1.
I chose not to ride her in that frame of mind so I took her over to the trailer to work on trailer loading. I haven't done that with her since I bought her. The seller loaded her just fine into his big stock trailer, so I wasn't anticipating much of an issue. Wrong. She didn't think it was a good idea at all. So we worked through that until I could load her once all the way in and have her wait until I asked her to come out.
Monday we had storms in the forecast. I was planning on riding her before we got the expected thunderstorm, but I ended up with a strong attack of vertigo so I just did a rerun of trailer loading. I suspected that she had time to think about it, and sure enough she was much better. Minimal arguing, and I loaded her a few times and had her back out. (Saturday she was turning around in there and stepping out. )
Ruby is proving to be a prime example of a double swirl horse. Some days everything is just tickety boo, other days, she puts up walls. So I am learning to read her and deal with the horse I have on that given day.
6 comments:
She’s so interesting. Clearly she’s smart. Carmen does what I call ‘phoning it in’ She’s not bad but she’s not really tuned in to me. I heard a trainer say ‘ ask a question worth answering’ and I try to do that. I love how you switched to a different thing- trailer loading. I think you might have gotten resistance on whatever you asked that day and working through it helped to consolidate the leadership.
Thanks Teresa- It's a journey isn't it, getting to their minds and forming connection. "Ask a question worth answering" is a good way to put it. Of course, we humans think all our questions are worth answering! But maybe the horse doesn't think so. I like to break things down to baby steps and build from there. A horse can't sidepass until it yields its shoulders and hind quarters so those building blocks need to be in place. And it can't truly soften in the face until it's working off it's hind quarters. Everything is connected!
Your journey with Carmen keeps me motivated.
I’m surprised it’s so hot up there. Where can we go to escape it? It’s 86 here, with a high of 88, but it’s going to get hotter this weekend.
Ruby sounds like a horse that makes you earn it, but when you do, she’s solid.
Mares! They have their days. I bet she would have been totally different if you had her earlier in her life! You will get there just being consistent! She is a challenge for you.
'Tickety boo' is a perfect saying as is the double swirl horse.
I imagine equine have off days as well as good days just like we humans do.
You and Ruby sure will create a bond with all the hands on you both do.
Seems perfectly normal to me. We all have off days. It's great that together, you continue learning more about each other.
Glad you enjoyed a rodeo date day! I missed our annual PRCA rodeo at horse fair this year. Rodeo's are entertaining.
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