We are Getting Closer

 We are Getting Closer

I have been very busy with Trifecta lately.  One thing that we have been doing a lot of is going for walks in the park.  There have been a few mishaps, but they have been my fault.  One day, I tripped on his leg and fell to my knees.  I wrenched my shoulder on the lead rope and skinned both knees.  A few weeks later, after my knees healed up, Tri stepped on my foot while crossing the river.  I fell on only one knee that time, but I did skin it up pretty badly.

Both times I fell, Trifecta just stood there and watched me.  After the second fall, I realized that I wasn't insisting that he stay away from me--it was his closeness that caused me to fall.  After that, I added that to our training.  With the help of clicker training, he started to understand what I wanted in the first lesson.  He still tends to crowd a little on the river, but at least I am very aware of my feet when we are crossing.

One day, he really impressed me.  We were walking along, and he stopped to look across the river.  Something really caught his attention. I looked and didn't see a thing.  He started to move on, but I insisted that we continue looking to satisfy my curiosity.  On the opposite side of the river, there is a lot of dense foliage.  As I stared at it, I was finally able to make out the partial outlines of what appeared to be a brown dog.  Since there was no one around--and there isn't even a trail over there--I decided it must have been a coyote.

I just loved the fact that he was alerted that something was there, observed without fear and just decided on his own that it was no big deal.  He truly has a good head on his shoulder.

The spooks have been few and far between.  We spend a lot of time along a fence on the trail.  Immediately on the other side of the fence is the paved all purpose trail and the road.  He is getting exposed to all sorts of traffic, bikes, pedestrians, dog walkers and motorcycles.  He did spook one day at a person riding an electric scooter--but that was forgivable.  Those scooters really look weird because the rider is moving while standing still.

Another day, he spooked at a motorcycle, but it was one of those odd situations.  (This has happened with Dante and Cole, too.)  We ride very close to the airport, and when there is a plane coming over, we can't hear anything else.  Well, a loud motorcycle was coming our way, and we didn't know it.  When the plane passed by--suddenly there was a roaring motorcycle!  He spun around me, but settled down right away.  What is cool is that he didn't try to pull away at all.  It was evident he wanted to stay with me--but at the same time he didn't crowd me as some young horses will.  He is such a good boy.

There is one part of the trail that confuses him a little.  The trail is still next to the all purpose trail and the street, but our trail is lower than they are.  He sees the cars, bikes and pedestrians above him.  It just causes him to worry.  Each time we go there, he gets better.  I allow him to stand and look at things.

When Ellen and Kevin are walking with us on the trail, he gets so excited to be with his friends!  Sometimes I have trouble keeping him ahead of them.  If we follow them, he wants to cuddle and play.  This is just the kind of problems you have to deal with when you have a horse that loves people--and he loves people.

Other lessons we are adding to his training include standing at the mounting block while I walk up it and lean on his back.  That is going well.  I have also just started introducing a bit.

At first, I just held a bit in front of him and when he put it in his mouth, I clicked and treated him.  We did that over and over.  Then, I put it on a bridle, clicked him for bridling and took it off.  When he was good with that, I left it on and tossed treats in his feed dish.  I would leave him bridled for the time that I was saddling up Cole for his ride.  I did that a number of times.

Finally, one day I bridled him, placed a halter over top of it, led him around and did a little lounging.  He fussed a little, but he didn't keep it up long.

The next training session, I did the same but added the driving reins.  I have been driving him in a sidepull hackamore.  This time, I drove him with the halter.  Towards the end of the session, we switched the reins to his bridle.  At first, he fussed about--but it only lasted about 30 seconds.  We did some walks and whoas.  I started to click him for good behavior--just as I did when I was first teaching him to drive.  For the most part, I have faded off the clicking during driving unless he does something exceptional.  Since we were doing something very new, I added it back in.  

He needed to learn to turn, so we turned and clicked about 4 times in each direction.  When he seemed to understand what I wanted, I did a zigzag followed by a halt and ended for the day.  It was a great first session driving with a bit.

I've not been doing anything fast, but we are still rapidly approaching the big day.  I will not hurry.  I have no deadline.  When he is ready, I will know it--and then wait a few more sessions to be sure...