Getting Back to Business

When Belle first arrived here eight weeks ago, I had it in mind to let her settle in for a bit, then get right down to the business of getting her gentle.  I could pick up the end of her drag rope and move her in a circle, and even ask her to take sideways steps towards me.  I felt pretty confident that she would come around in the same time frame that Siesta and Capri did.  Now I know that Belle will come around, but she'll do it in her time, not someone else's. 

Belle isn't stubborn.  She isn't silly or stupid.  In fact, she is quite clever, charming, and creative.  She's also fearful, and it's that fear that has made progress go so slowly.  When working with her in the gentling pen or the round pen, she would express her fear by running in furious, mindless circles, which is not a good thing to do, especially while wearing a drag rope.  Rather than pushing her hard and fast, I've been working to earn her trust, and it's been paying off consistently, in little bits at a time.  By using pressure and release tactics, I've shown Belle that she doesn't need to blow up and nearly hurt herself whenever she gets afraid.  She can calm down and listen to me now.  That's a huge sign of progress, and it's what I needed to know before I could get back to business and move her forward in her training.

I'm the proud owner of a twelve-foot bamboo pole.  I like the length of the pole, as it matches the amount of personal space that horses like to keep around themselves when they are checking out a visitor, whether horse or human.  I've been using the pole to get closer to Belle, using it to move her forequarters and hindquarters effectively, using it to desensitize her to touch, and using it to pick up the end of the drag rope, which I can then grasp with my hand.

Sometimes, I can pick the rope up without help from the pole, but Belle has adopted the rope as part of her body, and she is very clever at positioning it just out of my reach.  I see no reason to bend down and present my skull as a target for her hind end (never mind that she's never yet offered to kick...there can always be a first time), so the pole is useful for "fishing" the rope up to me.  Belle actually likes this part of the game, and patiently waits while I get the rope up off the ground, slide it down the length of the pole, and into my hand.  I like the game, too!  As further evidence of how clever and creative Belle is, she somehow managed to tie a lovely knot in her rope, approximately two feet from the dragging end.  I love the knot, because it gives weight to the rope in just the right place, and makes it much easier to pick up with the pole.

So, with the rope in my hand, I let Belle do circles around me until she is relaxed and breathing, then I start to apply pressure to her head.  The other half of pressure is release, and I like to experiment with how much pressure I can apply before she needs her release.  I start by squeezing my fist on the rope...release.  Then a little wrist motion...release.  Next, some elbow-bending...release.  Belle's head turns towards me every time I exert pressure, and it returns to a straight position with every release.  If I get greedy and ask for pressure plus more pressure without a release, she pulls the rope from my hand and spins away to her favorite corner.  That's okay, though, because as she continues to learn I have to test her to see how far I can push ( or pull, in this case).  I fish the rope up, then start again.  This time, after the elbow-bending pressure, I use my whole body and step backwards in a straight line and expect her to move not just her head, but also her forequarters, toward me.  She does, as long as I offer a release.  This part of the game forces her to confront her fear, so I keep it brief and let her return to her comfort zone, then ask it again on the next lap.  That way, she is allowed to build confidence without passing the threshold of her sanity, and we stay safe.  I find a good note to quit on, and then we spend some quiet time together.

There is still a lot to look forward to with Belle, but I am enjoying working with her.  I'm convinced that when she finally comes around she is going to be a heck of a nice horse.  She sure is pretty, and so sweet too. Good things are in Belle's future, and I can hardly wait to show them to her.

Damascus Road

Belle had an epiphany today.  She's been holding back her trust; building a wall between herself and me, and even though she seemed to recognize that I had some leadership potential, she's been unwilling to acknowledge that she needs my leadership.  I've been scratching my head, wondering if I should crank things up a notch in the round pen, or if I should give her more time to come around.  Well, I was in the mood for some honky-tonk today, so crank it up I did.  I needed to send Belle some of my energy, and I needed to see her really dig down and move. 

Until now, when working Belle in a circle, the only changes of direction I've gotten from her have been outside turns, where her head goes away from me and her butt points towards me.  Those kinds of turns aren't all bad, because they cause the horse to see me from first one eye, then the other.  But in order to get the connection that I'm working towards with Belle, she needs to give me inside turns, where the head turns towards me and the butt turns away.  How exactly does one teach a wild mustang working at liberty to turn towards the handler?  With energy and movement.  Lots of it, in Belle's case.  I used what Parelli calls a "carrot stick," which is a four-foot hollow fiberglass rod that has a four-foot cord attached to the end.  It is used to motivate a horse, and also to desensitize them to touch.  Today, motivation was the key, and just holding it away from my body and occasionally swinging it or snapping the end of the cord was enough to send Belle through the roof.

Galloping at full-tilt, bouncing off the round pen rails, Belle is a sight to behold.  I admit I felt a little bit sorry for her.  I guess you could call it tough love.  Nothing will ever change for the better without some exercise, right?  After several fast laps, and outside turns to change direction, I was ready to ask for some inside turns.  It all has to do with my body language, my position in relation to the horse, the "feel" between us, and finally the "draw," which is where she actually responds to me and turns inward.

The look on Belle's face when she came face to face with me was priceless.  It was one of those WOW moments for both of us.  Her eyes were bright and her ears were impossibly far forward, and if horses were capable of dropping their jaw, hers would've been on the ground.  That was her moment of epiphany.  I repeated the exercise over and over, and each time she responded correctly she was rewarded with a moment to stand still and look at me.  Each time she didn't respond correctly, she was made to keep working.  Belle took lots more steps towards me.  She didn't come up to me, so the connection isn't complete yet, but with another session like that one she will.  She believes me now.  I will be her leader, her trainer, and her master.  Before, I was the maid.  Oh, the changes that will take place soon.  I can hardly wait!

Clockwise

Moving Belle into the round pen today was a step in the right direction.  Literally, the right direction.  Her phobia of moving to the right, or clockwise, disappeared in the large, round space.  Rick and I set the round pen up just outside of the gentling pen, with two panels left wide open to form a chute, and with the help of a new friend who was visiting the mustangs today, it was easy to move Belle into it and close the panels behind her.

I gave Belle a few minutes to enjoy the view from her new position, then went in with her and put her to work.  Belle is still wearing her drag rope, but I haven't felt compelled to pick it up lately, since working at liberty is more rewarding at this stage of training.  Belle is very responsive to body language, so directing her movement was easy and a lot of fun.  Just slapping my arm against my thigh gets her going; no rope swinging or whip snapping is necessary for this girl.  For a full thirty minutes, Belle went round and round at a snappy, robust trot.  She's built like a hot rod, and watching that amazing body move was a real treat.  When changing directions, she hunkers down on her hindquarters and rolls the other way.  She's got some moves, that's for sure.  To the left, to the right, to the left again, back to the right, then whoa.  Look at me, Belle.  Good girl.  Look she did, but she could only muster the courage to take a couple of steps towards me.  I'm working hard to get a connection, to have her "hook up" or "join up" or whatever you want to call it.  She needs to want to be with me, to acknowledge me as her leader, so that I have her trust and respect.  Each time she looked away and withdrew into herself, I put her back to work doing circles.  The exercise gets tedious after a while, so I found a good note to quit on and stepped out of the round pen.

Belle watched me as I exited, and I noticed that she was tracking me with her whole body as I walked outside the pen, so I walked a couple of laps around it.  She stood in the middle, turned on her forehand, and kept her full face towards me as I moved.  It was a role-reversal, with her in the middle and me doing circles.  Not a good thing, but it was interesting.  After two laps, she figured out that she could just bend her neck around to keep one eye at a time on me.  I turned my back on her then and left her.

Belle blew her nose a few times, cocked a hip, and seemed quite content with herself.  She watched my friend and I as we brushed Capri and chatted for a while, and she continued to watch while I did my chores.  Later, Rick came out to the arena and asked how it went with Belle.  I went back in with her and played with her again, so that Rick could see, then asked him if he wanted a turn with her.  Well, of course he did!  He did well too, and was impressed with the progress that was made.  Tomorrow can only be better!

The Wheelbarrow Method

Okay, most of us have heard of the bamboo pole method of gentling mustangs, right?  Lay the pole on the horse's withers, wait until it stops having a hissy fit, then gently see-saw the pole back and forth to offer feel-good scratches, then touch the horse all over with the pole, then scoot yourself closer and touch the horse with your fingers.  Pretty soon you have a gentle mustang.  Or at least it's supposed to work like that.

Personally, I haven't had much luck with the pole.  I don't feel like it facilitates trust-building between me and the horse, but rather escalates fear responses.  Or maybe I just don't do it right.  In any case, Belle and I came up with our own method this evening.  I'd like to call it The Wheelbarrow Method.  Do I give the wild mustang a ride in my wheelbarrow?  No, I do not.  Do I hitch the wild mustang to my wheelbarrow and ask it to give me a ride?  No, of course not.  Do I push the wheelbarrow at a reasonable distance behind the wild mustang and ask it to walk in a lovely circle ahead of me?  Yes, I do!  And guess which direction I asked Belle to walk in?  Yes, to the right!  And she did!  Without blowing up!  We must've looked rather silly walking laps around the pen, but nobody was looking, so that's alright.

After a couple of easy laps, she wanted to stop and check me out, so I stepped out from between the handlebars, stood in the middle of the pen, and invited her to come to me.  She didn't come to me, but she looked at me with both eyes and held my gaze for several seconds.  This was a big improvement over the usual quick, one-eyed glance that she has been giving me.  When she lost interest in me and looked away, I put her back to work walking and trotting laps to the right, then when she was ready to check me out again I repeated my invitation for her to come to me.  Twice, she took tiny steps towards me.  That's the most I've gotten from her without holding the rope, so I was quite pleased.

Belle's eye was softer tonight, compared to the glassy-eyed stare that she usually has.  She made happy, relaxed, nose-blowing snorts, which was the first I've heard from her.  And, she let me stand very close to her outside of her pen while she ate her dinner, which was also a first.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get her in the round pen and put her to work.  I think if I can work her to the left and right, with lots of changes of direction, then I can get her mind engaged and really make some progress.  She's had two and a half weeks to get acclimated, and I think I've convinced her that I don't like the taste of horse meat, so let's get that girl busy, by golly.

A Very Nice Ride

With Belle's arrival, the finger-numbing cold, the soaking rains, and the Thanksgiving holiday, I've put Capri on the back burner in the last week.  Tonight, however, I carved out enough time to do more that just brush her and play with her; I saddled her up and hopped on for her fourth ride.  I started in the round pen, and she was great.  We went round and round at the walk, changed directions many times, enjoyed her huge, springy trot to the left and the right, backed up, and turned on the forehand both ways.  That could have been enough, but I knew she could do more, so we exited the round pen and I rode in the arena.  I didn't ask for anything too challenging, but she stepped out nicely and walked a straight line for two laps in each direction.  I kept her motivated to go past Belle's pen, and past the gate to her own paddock, and past the tie-up area, all with no problem.  I turned her around the barrels for a minute or two, then quit while I was ahead. 

Riding green horses is a lot of fun.  I use the lightest aids possible, and give Capri a chance to interpret my cues.  She gets it right most of the time, but on the occasion that I have to give a heavier aid and make my intent clear, I feel perfectly safe doing so.  Using lots of leg, bending her head around, tickling her butt with the end of my reins; none of that bothers her a bit.  Mounting and dismounting are effortless, and tonight I mounted without the block for the first time.  What a treat!

Belle continues to make small bits of progress.  Yesterday, I spent some quiet time with her in her pen, just slowly moving her around and talking to her.  When I left her, and was about 50 feet away from her, she whinnied to me.  I was surprised!  That was the first time she'd done that, so I approached her pen again and spent more time talking to her from outside, being careful to keep my posture non-threatening.  Today, she seriously considered taking alfalfa from my hand.  She's not quite brave enough yet, but perhaps soon she will be.  Perhaps tomorrow? 

Nice and Easy

Well, as I promised, Capri had yesterday off to relax in the field and do some thinking, or whatever horses do when they have nothing else to do.  The photo above is my view of Capri and the arena from my dining room.  I also promised that I would hop back on Capri tonight, and as you can see, I did just that.

Capri was a very good girl again, and we worked on basic forward motion.  Stepping straight forward is a tough thing for a horse to learn when they're concentrating on how to stay balanced under the rider's weight, so we go forward by first going to the left or right a little bit.  Call it moving the forequarters, or picking up the shoulder, or moving the rib cage over, but it boils down to taking the weight off the front end and transferring it to the hindquarters.  Once the horse does that, she can pick up and go.

I like to take things slow, so all we did was walk, turn, and walk some more.  Twice, Capri stopped at the mounting block to let me know she thought she was done, and each time I asked her to keep going.  She had no objection to that, so I guess she just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.  A sensible green horse is a lot of fun to ride, because each time we ride them they learn something new.  It's my favorite part of training, because the milestones really start to pile up.  Once they learn all of the basics, we can ask for the more advanced stuff, and that is fun too, but in a different way.  Capri is a good student; she listens well and gives everything she can, and she feels really safe to be on.  Just the way I like it!

Me on Capri

What?  Not the pictures you expected?  You mean you want to see pictures of me on the mustang named Capri?  The beautiful Italian isle in the Mediterranean doesn't excite you?  Well, it is a wonderful, incredible place that my husband and I visited on our honeymoon eleven years ago, and it is part of the inspiration behind Capri's name.

Well, I have news.  There will be pictures of me on the Capri that we all know and love very soon.  I had my first ride on her tonight, but Rick was busy helping me and wasn't able to play photographer at the same time.  The ride was perfect.  Capri was perfect.  I am flying high right now, just like I was on my honeymoon.  The best part was that Capri enjoyed it as much as I did.  Her expression and her posture were soft the whole time.  I know she's been wanting to be ridden as much as I've been wanting to ride her.  I felt like she was ready for it two months ago, before she left for six weeks.  She watches me ride the other horses, and seems to be taking notes; it really is the cutest thing.  I remember Siesta used to do that, too.  They get that "pick me, ride me!" expression on their face, and I know I won't have any trouble doing just that.

The ride lasted about 15 minutes, which is plenty long for a first ride.  We walked both directions, with lots of turns, stops, and starts, and pretty soon she was stepping out in a free, rhythmic walk that felt very comfortable.  I gave her cues with my legs and my hands, and looked in the direction that I wanted to go, and she did everything just right.  I got off, gave her a big hug with lots of praise, and got back on.  At first, Rick had the rope on the halter that she was wearing under her bridle, but the second time up he took it off and just walked beside her head.  Capri was calm and happy the whole time, and was giving what we call the "green light."  When we were done, she seemed very proud and all grown up, just like the other horses.

Capri will have tomorrow off, to process what she learned tonight.  I'll let her out to munch on what's left of the grass, then in the evening she can come in and watch me ride River or one of the other mares.  The next night it will be her turn again, and I'll be asking for a lot more from her.  Rick can stand in the center of the round pen and tell me how I'm doing, and hopefully his hands will be free enough to take some pictures.

So, let's hear it for everything beautiful named Capri, and may this honeymoon, like the one my husband and I shared, never end.