A Banner Day

 

A Banner Day

I might be retired, but Ellen still works.  Fortunately, she works second shift, so we can ride together before she has to go in, but there is never enough time to do everything we want to do.  When she has a vacation day, it is my vacation day, too.

She had a vacation day, and we had so many plans.  First, we wanted to take Cole and Dante on a fun ride.  We rode up to the trails by the show ring.  It was only her second time up there this year and my third.  We both love those trails, but to get there, we have to ride through the Lagoon Trail, and it is so close to the street, that it can make Ellen nervous.  We basically have to go when the conditions are perfect, ideally a weekday and we hit the jackpot on this vacation day.  

It was a totally uneventful ride.  Dante was busy looking at everything, which he feels is best done at a walk, so there wasn't a whole lot of trotting involved.  That turned it into a 2 hour ride, but we weren't in a hurry--we was a vacation day!

When we got back, we planned to take Trifecta across the second river to the trail that he had only been on 3 times before.  I wanted to have Ellen there to walk with me, but I still wanted to get some trotting in, so she drove down to the park and left her car not that far from the second river crossing and started that way on foot.  As it turned out, Kevin got a late start on his Starry ride, so with my trotting, we eventually caught up with him not far from the second river crossing and Ellen and we all continued the ride together.

This is the first time Trifecta has been with Starry on the trail other than a very short ride with him when we first started our trail riding 2 years ago.  I have been reluctant to ride with Starry because Tri walks fast and Starry walks slow.  That normally wouldn't be a big problem, but Starry can be unpredictable, and when a horse gets too far ahead of him, he will just take off, sometimes cantering out of control, to catch up.

The ride was a success.  On the way out, Starry was happy to walk along with Ellen, and Trifecta did his fast walk to the end of the trail.  We waited for them to catch up, and we headed home.  There was only one incident where Starry took off to catch us.  I heard Kevin yell, so I just stopped Tri until everything was under control.  After that, I told Kevin to just let us know if we got too far ahead and we would stop and wait for them.  That is good practice for Trifecta, and most of the time we were stopping before Kevin ever said anything.  It helped that Starry was walking faster than normal to try to keep up.  It turned out to be a very good ride with Starry and Trifecta, and we will do it again in the future without hesitation.  

That only left Henry.

Since it hadn't rained in days, the river was really, really low.  It was time to cross to the other side.

We tried once before.  Henry was doing really good with walking along the edge of the water and dipping his toes in to cross, so some weeks ago, we decided it was time to cross.  It was a disaster.  While he was on the rocks and shale island, he was fine.  His whole body got into the water while still standing on the island.  Unfortunately, after that the river bottom is slippery uneven shale.  When he stepped on the shale, he slipped and panicked, spun around to go back, slipped again and half fell in the water.  It was really terrible, and I was so upset.  Henry was unhurt, so when he seemed calm, I walked him back and forth along the edge a few times, and once turned him to face the other side of the river and urged him to step forward a few steps.  That was very successful, so we called it a day.

As far as I could see, we weren't back to square one, we were in negative territory.  We needed a plan.

We hadn't been doing any clicker training with Henry, because everything had been going so well, that it wasn't necessary.  We were using positive reinforcement, of course--I can't train without it.  Henry was doing very well with praise and wither scratches, but I needed help.  We set up a program to integrate a clicker and treats into his training.  With much discussion, we decided I would use clicker and Ellen would just use praise and scratches.  We made Cole and Dante a little too dependent on clicking, so this way, Henry will be able to work both ways, and when Henry is Ellen's she won't have to use a click at all.  I would continue to ground drive him without it, because it is really inconvenient for driving, and he was already doing so well without it.

I just taught him walk, whoa, back, stand, turn-on-the-forehand and polite treat delivery.  When he was good, it was time to start working with the river again.  We would walk down the hill and stand in the water looking towards the other side.  I would ask him for a step, click, treat and go home.

Each time, I would ask for another step.  I was so happy when he was able to get all his feet in the water.  Finally the day came to ask him to step on the slippery slate, and he did.  By now, I was able to ask him to go a few steps at a time before he would get a click.  Sometimes his feet would slip a little, but he didn't panic.  As the days went by, it got easier and easier to get him further and further in the water.  Ellen would be on shore saying, "That's enough.  Time to turn back."

We finally got to the halfway point, and I slowly turned him and brought him back.  I was clicking for walking well, but now I also started to click him for "whoa."  It is very important to be able to stop your horse when crossing to be able to prevent rushing which brings on slipping and possibly falling.  We have fallen in the river with all of our horses, and it is such a horrible thing to go through.  That is why we cross one at a time, (we had a double fall when Cole fell which scared Starry causing him to fall,) and we teach them to go slow and careful.  Halting breaks up their momentum and gives them time to think.

It was time to cross all the way, and this was the perfect day for it--just like it was the perfect day to take Cole and Dante to the show ring trails and to take Trifecta across the second river crossing.

We led him down the hill, and he was as good as could be.  When we got to the river, he went right in.  I clicked him for it and asked for a few more steps, clicked, a few more steps, clicked and so on until we got to the other side.  Each time I clicked him, he naturally stopped to get his treat, so he never built up any speed.  He seemed surprised to find himself on the other side.  We turned to the left and walked about a minute, turned and headed back to the river.  He was great.

Now, the challenge was getting him back.  I remember when I did this with Cole, he was afraid to go back into the water on the way home.  Tri was really bad with rushing down the bank the first time--well actually the first 25 times.  

Henry walked down the bank like a gentleman.  He stepped into the water without hesitation, too.  Now was the time to teach him to walk quietly on the way home, so I got out some really good treats that Ellen gave me.  We would walk a few steps and then I asked him to stop, I clicked, gave him the treat and proceeded.  We did this all the way across the water to the other side.  Success!!!  An A+ event!

It was a banner day!

The next day, I wanted to do it again because the weather was expected to get rainy, and the low river might be a thing of the past.  For all I know, once it gets low enough, it will be too cold for us to lead him across until spring.  

When I led him out the driveway and down the street, he walked with much enthusiasm.  I am sure he remembered crossing the day before and was excited about doing it again.  He was an angel going down the hill and walked into the water very willingly.  After the first steps in, I no longer clicked him for going forward but for stopping.  We made it to the other side quite easily.  

Once again, I took him to the quiet trail to the left.  We walked about a minute, turned around and went back.  I led him past the river bank and a little down the trail the other way.  We stopped a good distance while we were still in the woods, but we could see the part of the trail that opens up and is right next to a fence, which is right next to the paved all-purpose trail, which is right next to the street.  It is a very busy spot, and we let him observe it from a distance.  He treated the cars as if they were invisible, but he did notice the bikes and watched them with great curiosity.  In the future, we will spend a lot of time by the fence to expose him to all the odd things you can see in the park.

We then turned to go home.  Once again, I got the good treats out and stopped him about 3 times crossing the river.  He was awesome.  Another A+ day!  Next time, we will go back to the small, ordinary treats.  Eventually, the clicks will fade away.  It is so important for the river crossings to be solid because if we can't cross the river, we only have the quarter mile hill to ride.  So, after our bad experience, you can't imagine how happy I am that we solved the problem and are well on the way to having a great river-crossing horse.

The Big Experiment with Henry

 

The Big Experiment with Henry

Early on, when we started to introduce Henry to the rest of the herd, we noticed something very interesting.  With each horse, in a very short time, he learned how to get along with them.  We started with Dante, who enjoys playing.  Henry immediately started to play with him, and they were great together.  The next horse we turned him out with was Starry, who is a big groomer.  Henry was cuddling with him in no time at all--yet we have not seen him grooming any of the other horses.  Trifecta is a bully that enjoys to play but can be relentless at times.  We didn't know how a mild-mannered horse like Henry would do with him.  It turns out that Henry will play rough with him, but if Trifecta gets too annoying--which happens a lot--Henry will gently stand up for himself and Tri backs down.  The big test was Cole.  Cole likes his space and doesn't want other horses to touch him.  Right away, Henry gave him the space he needed yet tolerated Cole following him around and licking him.  He is the first horse I ever found that I can turn out with Cole and walk away unworried.

Then, there was something else we discovered.  Henry seemed to treat Ellen and me differently, too.  It was very subtle because we tend to handle horses the same way, but it was there.  I tend to train Henry on something first and then hand him off to Ellen for them to practice.  After all, he will be Ellen's one day.  She has taken to him like a duck to water--and Henry has done the same with her.  Since she is always asking him to do things that he already knows, he seems more relaxed, more affectionate and yet he is attentive to her emotions.  Since I tend to ask him for more and will add new things to our routine, he seems to know it is learning time and not practice time.  This makes training him with Ellen a very good thing.  We take turns.  Some days it is one person or the other and other days I do half the session and she does half the session.  She has no interest in ground driving, so I do that exclusively.

So the question was--is it our imagination that he has adapted himself differently to our training styles or is it real.  It was time for an experiment.

That is where Kevin came in.  Kevin has learned a lot over the years since he first started riding my horses and then got his own, but he has developed his own style.  It is mostly slow.  That is because he is 79 years old with a very bad knee.  His horse, Starry, is an exceedingly patient horse.  Kevin can be slow and awkward, and Starry tolerates it all.

Because of Henry's youth, Kevin was hesitant to handle him, but I convinced him to do it for our experiment.  I sat back and had Kevin do it all by himself.  He went into his stall and attempted to halter him.  Since he was worried that Henry would knock him over and run out of the stall, he was very cautious and didn't want to stand close or just push him back like I would have.  Of course, Henry was good as Kevin fussed around with the halter.

Henry's stall leads right out into the indoor arena, and the sand is hard for someone with a bad knee to walk in.  Kevin immediately had trouble keeping up with Henry, and then something amazing happened.  Henry started to do the "Old Man Walk."  Henry has never walked that slow with Ellen or me, but within 15 seconds, that is what he was doing with Kevin.  I had Kevin stopping and turning Henry, and Henry just adapted to Kevin's way of moving.  It was a wonderful thing to see.

So, just as Henry was a quick study with adapting himself to the other horses in our herd, he is a quick study in adapting himself to his handlers.  I think that demonstrates how much he is paying attention to us, and it may be a big part of why he has been so easy to train.  Trifecta was so easily distracted at that age and was trying to get into everything.  He still does.

I think it might be why Henry so readily followed Dante past the broken electric wire.  He was able to observe Dante's behavior, and mimicked it.  It might be why he rarely spooks--because we aren't spooking.  This could be Henry's super power--and it is one that will make him a terrific trail horse. 

A Shocking Incident

A Shocking Incident

I love ground driving.  It is my favorite non riding thing to do with horses.  Ground driving is so much more fun than lounging.  With lounging, you can go in a circle clockwise--and then you can go counter clockwise.  With ground driving, you can go all over the place and do all sorts of figures and obstacles.  Currently, I mostly just do it at a walk with Henry, but eventually we will mix in more trotting.  It can be very challenging to coordinate trotting figures, but I like that kind of challenge.

Last week, I was ground driving Henry.  We started in the indoor arena and headed outside.  One of the turnout pens has a track going around it, and Henry really likes to walk around it.  As we headed around the corner to the far side of it, he stopped, put his head up and told me there was something really scary over there.  Henry doesn't get frightened at much at all, so I was surprised.  I couldn't see anything that would make a horse worry, so I asked him to proceed.  He took a step forward and then turned 180 degrees and marched back towards the barn.  I let him, and kept him going around the track to approach the problem area from the other direction.  As we neared it, he slowed down and eventually stopped.  I decided that I wouldn't make a big deal about it, so I turned around and brought him into the outdoor arena.  We drove around there and had no problems at all.  I then just forgot about it.

That is, until the next time I drove him.  When we got to that spot, Henry stopped and turned around again. Needless to say, I was very puzzled.  We just went right into the outdoor arena and continued our driving lesson there.  

The next time I drove him, he didn't even want to make the turn to go to that part of the track.  I took him the other way, and this time he did go past it, but he went way to the outside of the track--as far away from the fence that he could.  I had a clue!  I looked at the fence and saw that is the spot where the electric wire was broken and laying on the ground.  I knew about the wire, but I didn't know that Henry had anything to do with it.  He had no cuts or scrapes; nothing.  We did a few more laps that way and each time, he didn't want to go near the fence, but he did willingly go past the wire.

Afterwards, I went alone to move the wire to a safe spot.  I figured it was shorted out because it was broken--surprise!!  I did get a mild shock.  It could be that he was curious about the wire laying on the ground and touched it with his nose; getting a shock.

The next day, Ellen was going to ride Dante, so I thought I could try driving Henry behind Dante and maybe Dante would lead him by the broken wire.  It worked like a charm.  He didn't even hesitate or try to veer away from the fence in either direction.  Since then, he has had no trouble driving over there independently.

Later that day, we saw the barn manager and told her about it.  The wire was fixed immediately.

I'm learning so much about Henry, and I like what I see.  He was worried about something, and he behaved in a totally rational way.  Instead of just reacting, it seems he thought about it and solved his problem without any panic or chaos.  I am so glad I didn't insist on him passing the broken wire while driving.  If I was leading him, he may have decided to follow me just as he did with Dante.

Here's the thing that really makes me smile about the whole incident--this situation was evidently caused by an electric shock.  Talk about having a reason to spook; to really panic, to do something dangerous.  Instead, Henry just said it wasn't safe, and we should turn around.  Morgans.  You gotta love them.