We did more of that buddy sour work today and tried out some new ideas. It didn’t make much of a difference. The fact remains: Tweed doesn’t like his girls leaving him.
He can leave them, work fine in the arena away from them, and work fine away from them when they’re either tied, working, or confined in the round pen. Also, when they’re out of sight long enough, he seems to forget them.
It’s just that walking away business.
Katie asked me, afterward, how much I want to work on that, and I said I think I’m done.
And by that, I mean done obsessing about it and devoting whole lessons.
I’ll continue to work on it myself, as part of a bigger picture. For example, walking away from each other on trail rides, then back together. Or, here at home. But I think I’d rather have Katie continue trail work and exposure.
I think he just needs to mature and get used to horses having “jobs.” Maybe when he sees his mares working, too, he will see that it’s the human’s responsibility to direct their movement, not his.
I am still curious about the chasteberry. We have a couple weeks to go to see if that makes any difference.
In the meantime, it is really fun to ride Tweed while Katie rides Epona. I rode him away from her a lot, and he did great. At one point, I let her ride Epona away from him, and when he even thought about getting emotional, I put him around trees and did circles and figure 8’s through them. It was enough to keep his mind on me. So, I’m thinking LOTS more of that.
Epona is like watching a baby do “first” things. She’s so scared, but then does it and is so proud of herself. She really trusts Tumbleweed and likes to follow him through things. If she sees him do something, she will 8/10 do it, too. That’s already coming in handy for her training.
Tumbleweed has always liked to lead on the trail, and it makes sense, considering how he doesn’t like being left. So, he is really enjoying being the head horse with Epona. They did so well together that we will probably introduce her to a little trail ride next time.
Here’s when I let them get ahead of us and even on the other side of the trailer where he couldn’t see her.
The video stops when I needed both hands to circle him away in trees, but he did well and only got to a 5 on a 1-10 emotional scale.
Teresa was sharing about the different levels of emotional stress in horses and how it is wise to avoid working them in that highly charged state. I think both Katie and I were on the same page that it’s probably best for Tweed to do this work in smaller steps.
I like the idea of it just being part of the work and not the focus. It’s a good way to think of it. Every time I’ve taken that approach it’s worked.
ReplyDeleteWorking from a negative, or a weakness, doesn’t work well with humans either. Makes sense it wouldn’t with horses. Tumbleweed does best when given a job. His mind and focus come back. And he likes to do things well. So, we’ll build from that and not push too far too fast with the mares leaving.
DeleteEveryone has ingrained likes & dislikes. Horses are no different. I think it is wise to know what that is for ones horse. It may or may not be something we humans can eliminate. Over time, we can certainly adjust responses and make them less of an issue/non-issue.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you (and Tweed) are enjoying Epona's training. Looks like she is doing great!
Thanks! She is doing very well. She had some opinions about getting into the canter in warmup, but nothing Katie couldn’t ride out. It did take some very active riding though.
DeleteThat’s very true about their various personalities. Every horse (and human) has their basic personality. I admire his loyalty to his mares. It’s a noble quality.