...I shall explain...
I was taking Shinobi out for a trail ride. For the past few days Piggles and Blaze are the two that have been out and about, even Kocoum had been out, ponied along with Blaze leaving Shinobi behind, sulking in the field. Everytime i went to the gate with the halter in hand he looked so enthusiastic "Ooh! My turn?" and would follow me whilst i went and got the other pony. When i left the field with someone else he hung round the gate look very sorry for himself so he was priority for this particular afternoon.
I went over with the halter and he stuck his nose in it. Walking from the field to the tack room i did the usual; allowed him to eat but when i put a feel on the rope it was his job to yield, in this case, stop eating, lift your head and follow the feeling of the rope. It looks like this;
-Shinobi stands eating and i continue to walk
-I slowly close my hands on the rope
-When he feels this he stops eating, lifts his head and trots past me
-Putting all the slack back in the rope he can then stop and eat untill i pass him and again put a feel on the rope.
If he doesn't yield to the feel i put on the rope then i swing round and 'tag' his tail with the stick and string. Turning it into a game.
"Dont make me pick up the stick!"
It means that he gets to graze but i dont get pulled around. You have to pick your battles with Shinobi and leading him down the field without allowing him to graze is possible but it doesn't place you very high in his good books and if your not carful it can turn into a fight. This way he gets what he wants- food, but i am still very much in control and aren't being dominated by being pulled around. He can eat but he has to stop and move out the way pretty quick when I put a feel on the rope.
We got to the tack room and i began tacking him up, he did well in the respect that he didnt go Right Brain Introvert. I popped the saddle on and cinched him up and he was blinking, looking around, ears flicking and just generaly relaxed. He was your typical *blows a raspberry* Left Brain Intorvert that insisted on wondering off instead of acting like a partner and standing still for me to tack him up. So every which way he tried to wonder i moved him in the opposite direction twice the number of step using the porcupine game. He was actually really easy to move around, yielding not bracing and he soon worked out that he might as well stand still because if he doesn't he only has to move twice as much. (This is why i love working with Left Brain Introverts! Everything is a game)
I was going to hack out with a yard friend and her horse who were nearly ready so i didnt have much time to play online with him first. Spent literally only about 2 minuets moving him round, driving the forquarters over and backing him up and asking his to squeeze between narrow gaps. With little time to play i had to choose the games wisely so i picked the ones that affirm my dominants considering the mood he was in. We had to spend some time on the squueze game because in true Left Brain Introvert style he would instead come into my space and bend his ribs towards me so we repeated and everytime i kept driving his ribs over. It wasn't as good as id have liked to have gotten it but i was conscious that id keep my friend waiting if i played any longer, after all i still had to mount!
Took him the mounting block and as usual he tried to stick his head down to eat so bumped the rein and to my surprise he lifted it and waited for me to mount. Usualy we have to spend about 5 minuets mounting getting him to wait patiently whilst i mount rather than just eating, but today was the quickest it took to mount. Lovely.
...The the dark clouds came...
Squeezed with my legs and brought my energy up asking for a walk. Nothing. I intensified by phases and got all the way to phase four flicking the reins over each side flicking his sides. Nothing. So i persisited and made my phase four even bigger. BUCK! and backed up. I persisted and he then took a step forward so i quite but didnt allow him to eat. Asked again starting at phase one and again got all the way to phase 4. BUCK! and backed up, again i persisted and he took a step forwards. Rewarded by quiting then asked again only his time i got BUCK! The biggest buck has ever done!
At this point is just wanted to cry. I thought things were going so well, we were improving so much, the days where i could nt ride him were long gone, or so i thought! Everything i'v done was wrong, it hasn't worked. What an idiot i am, i thought.
But instead of crying i matched his energy and persisted still till he then walked on through the gate into the woods, i quite and just 'walked in my body' with him and the little bugger actually started trotting! It truely is all a game to these guys!
We ended up playing games pretty much all the way round in the form of a million transisions. He was in the same dominant frame of mind out on the ride so i began asking for a trot then a walk and then halt then walk then halt and then trot etc and soon enough he became softer, more responisive and less difiant. The ride went pretty well after that.
We got back and instead of untacking him i decided to ride him out into the field and continue to play around. Whilst he had improved greatly over the ride i still wasn't convinced we were 100% on the same page and i didn't want to turn him out on that note.
Imagine a long line, and along that line are 3 sets of obstacles, one set at either end and a third in the middle. A series of cones and barrels where at one end, a jump in the middle and the trampoline and the other end. Trampoline was the rest spot. Here i asked him to stand and allowed him to eat grass. Following the line i asked him to walk on over the jump which he hesitated at, as i expected. When he took notice and tried i rewarded him and soon enough he walked over it with his front legs and hopped over with his back legs. Continuing in a straight line we got to the series of barrels, i squeezed him between them and brought the forequaters round to turn him around and squeeze back through and headed back down the imaginary line, walked over the jump with less hesitation than before, and over to the trampoline where we stopped and he got to eat for a couple of minuets. We repeated this again only this time i asked for some transions too. Walked over the jump with no hesitiation this time and trotted through the gap between the barrels.
It was at this point, unknown to me, that i was about to see the rainbow!
I turned him around and asked him to walk on which he did. Then, with no interference from me, no leg aids and without using the reins Shinobi did something he has never done before, so eager to return to his rest spot he...
... He burst into a trot straight down the imaginary line and jumped over the jump!!!!...
Having huge confidence issues with his feet, in the 5 years i have owned him, we have only ever jumped twice (and that was only in recent weeks) these jumps were infact an absence of something, a ditch! Which would make sense, he's happy to jump over something that isnt there. This is the first time he has ever jumped an actualy jump with me on him! It doesn't sound like much at all but you have to understand that when i first had Shinobi i couldn't ride him. He went so Right Brain Introvert that he could nt move, in fact it got to the point where i could nt even lead him! I studied Parelli for about 18 months before i started playing with him because i just was not compitent both from a knowledgeable and emotional point of view to work with him and even then i didnt start truely dedicating my time and energy to him untill 2010 and i was ill for the majority of last year so did very little with any of the horses.
This is a dream come true!
Back in those dark days walking was impossible let alone a jump! Jumping was just a dream and now its a reality! And to make it even more perfect he offered it, it was his idea, not mine i just sat along for the ride!
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