Saphira continuing training at home

I had a really cool session with Saphira today. Third ride since coming home last weekend. I haven't ridden too much because I want her girth sores to heal. They're scabbed over right now... nearly dried up, so we're close.

I started today's session with just some 7 games again. She's pretty sticky on the driving game and I had to stay at phase 4 a few times trying to drive her front end around (popping her on the side of the head with the stick). She would occasionally turn her head away (which I gave relief for, but only for a few seconds), but wouldn't move her feet. Eventually she moved her feet sideways and I released. We repeated a couple more times and then she got it. And when she got it, she virtually SPUN away. Very cool. I hope it comes easier next time. Driving her hind away is easier, but at the start I still had to get to phase 4.

Circle is still tough for her. We started out with a struggle going to the right again ... always as she's coming around and away from the gate. I know it wasn't a squeeze this time (I made sure of it), she just wanted to go toward the gate and not away from it. But I was patient and persistent in asking her to continue around and finally she did. The first few circles to the right I had to re-send just about every quarter turn, but I kept it up until she was able to do one full circle, then I asked her to disengage. I gave her lots of pats and rubs and let her stand there a while before asking for the other direction. Going left only took about 3 sends before she made it around once without help.

I didn't do any squeeze or sideways. After finishing circling, I took her around to various obstacles to get her to touch/push or put her foot on it. At the pedestal, she stepped up right away this time (remembering the treat she got last time). At the ball she put her nose on it, but didn't push it. She got a treat. So when the wind blew the ball down the slope, I asked her to follow it and she did with great focus and when she touched it, she immediately looked back at me for her treat! Smart cookie! I can see that treats are going to be a major motivator for her! At the hoola-hoop she nosed it, then pawed at it.

After all that, I went and put the saddle on her. She stands so well for saddling. I still can't get either Gypsy or Skittles to stand that well! Once in the saddle, I asked her to trot around me both directions a couple times. It takes a lot of encouragement to get her into a trot, but we're getting better. Then I hopped on. Steering is working great... I barely move the rein at all to get her to turn her head. It's really lovely! But staying straight in one direction is definitely a challenge. We weaved around quite a bit to get from one side to the other. But she's is definitely responding well to both rein and leg pressure, so I'm very confident that straightness will come.

I trotted her today too. She kept wanting to go back to the gate, so I used that to get the trot. She wouldn't trot past the gate though, so I had to use the treat strategy to get that to work. First to get her to trot away from the gate, I had to use phase 4 (savvy string on the butt). But then when we got to the other side of the paddock she got a treat! This time we walked back to the gate, then asked for the trot... she walked faster, but I still needed the savvy string to get the trot. And she got another treat on the other side again. She really liked that idea. Then she turned toward the pedestal and stepped up! And again, looked for the treat! She's such a smartie-pants. And offering so much. I did give her treats since she's trying so hard for me. I know I can't keep that up, but I also want to continue to make these early sessions with her as positive as possible. THEN she meandered over to the hoola hoop and picked it up! She's such a cool horse. I'm getting such a kick out of her. I got off after that and called it a day. What a sweetie.

MY first ride on Saphira

Saphira came home from Redwater on Sunday afternoon. I've left her alone for the last couple days to let the past few days sink in. Today we got back into the training again.

I was excited to get on her. I wanted to try before taking her to Redwater, but decided not to -- just in case she decided to object -- and I didn't want to mess with her head before Martin and his crew started her. So I didn't. But TODAY.... now I can continue what he started.

She didn't come out of the pasture too nicely. Lots of stopping and wanting to turn back because that's where her herd was. But we got there. Lots of waiting on thresholds, but also applying pressure. One of the other horses eventually decided to follow us and once there was another horse heading out with us, Saphira didn't object. No problem. As I do more and more with her, this will get better. Once out of the pasture I groomed her and picked her feet. For the first time she stood still when I picked up ALL FOUR feet. First time. I was ecstatic! Every time before, she had trouble with her hind feet and had to move away from me. Today she stood perfectly.

She still has sores under her girth from the clinic. Five days in a row with a saddle and girth on after having never had one before -- sores are inevitable. So I was very cautious and slow doing the girth up. She stood very nicely to be saddled. I noticed all of Martin's guys saddled from the left side. I generally saddle from the right, so I was interested to see if she'd react at all to the change. Nope. She moved a bit and pawed the ground when I did up the girth though. I expected that since I knew she'd be sore. But I did try to be as gentle as possible.

Once saddled, I let her loose in the paddock (my newly filled in paddock!) to explore and get a feel for the saddle. She trotted around sniffing this and that. I kept her moving until she slowed down and started blowing. Then I put the halter back on, led her around, tightened the girth a bit, then prepared to mount up. When I put my foot in the stirrup, she turned her head toward me and looked like she was asking what I was up to? I pulled down on the horn to ensure she was braced. She was ready and so I mounted up. She stayed in the same position the whole time, sniffing my foot as I mounted up. Then she sniffed my other foot. Then she decided to graze. I flipped the lead back and forth a few times and asked for lateral flexion. No problem. Then I asked her to move her feet. No problem, but mostly she went in circles. I just let her go where she wanted and just kept using the lead to change direction. I only stayed on for a few minutes - long enough to get a few turns and for her to move off my leg. Then I got off. Great start! I'm so pleased with how positive she is!

I spent the rest of the session working on the 7 games: porcupine, driving and circle. She knows yoyo really well. She still tends to move into pressure, so we worked on this quite a bit. As well as driving from zone 4/5. This is also a challenge. We had quite an argument at one point trying to get her to go around me to the right. She kept stopping and wheeling left. Then I FINALLY figured out it was because we were getting close to the fence and the pedestal was on the other side of the fence. She was feeling SQUEEZED! I backed further away from the fence and she was able move past me to the right. Duh. She's more of an introvert, so my read on her isn't as easy. I'm glad she's patient! I did finally get it. We tried a few more circles to the right, then switched to the left. She was licking and chewing by this time, so we called it quits.

She was pretty sweated up when I unsaddled her, so clearly the "arguing" was stressful for her (even if she's not as expressive as my extroverted Skittles or Allegro). I need to be more aware of that in future sessions. I need AMY here again! She's my local introvert specialist! :-)

I put some dermagel on her girth sores, let her wander and graze a bit, then let her back in with the others. She did great. She's going to be a cool horse to work with.

Saphira meets Martin Black

Saphira went back to Redwater last week to participate in the Martin Black colt start clinic held there from the 16th to the 20th. This was part of the very generous purchase agreement with Rocking G Ranch: the 2-year-old colts sold at the auction last spring were eligible to come back and get started by Martin Black for free. I wasn't overly concerned about how she'd handle it. She has such a lovely personality and positive attitude toward all the new things I've tried with her, that I didn't think being ridden would be any different. I was right. She took everything in stride. She was one of only a few horses that didn't buck even once during the whole clinic.

To start, Martin put a rope on each horse's hind leg while the cowboy on the ground held the halter. She was allowed to get used to the feel of the rope and to learn to give to it ... that is, to stop when there was pressure applied to it. She was more annoyed by it than anything, but quickly figured out how to accommodate it with the least fuss. Once she figured that out, she was saddled. She moved around a bit, but again, quickly figured out that standing still was the easiest path and in no time she was standing calmly licking and chewing while they did up the saddle, buckles, breast collar, etc. Then they put a snaffle bit in her mouth (attached by a string around her poll), to get her to learn to carry it; then removed the halter and let her move freely around the round pen with the saddle to get used to the feel of it. She was the second horse saddled, and once they had about 10 of them loose in the round pen, Martin started driving them around and asking them for the up/down transitions. He says it's the transitions that horses have the most trouble with at the beginning. Saphira handled it all really well and even figured out how to stay out of the way of the horses NOT having an easy time of it. Once Martin was satisfied that none of the horses was going to hurt itself, he let them run out in the large arena. The only thing Saphira did was to kick out a couple times - and that had more to do with keeping some of the horses from running up her backside than anything!

Then they were brought back into the round pen one at a time. The rope was put back on their hind leg and then the cowboy assigned to each horse mounted up. Cory had Saphira for the first day. He was one of the cowboys from last year, so I was pleased she was getting someone I knew. She didn't even bat an eye. He got on and started asking her to give to the lead rope by flipping it back and forth from side to side. She did wonderfully and was walking around responding to Cory as if she'd been doing it all her life.

The second day of the clinic was a replica of the first, but it went a bit faster for the horses that were OK with the saddle. Mounting was preceded by getting ahold of the hind leg with the rope again, just to be safe (sometimes the second or third ride is more difficult than the first one). But Saphira did just as well on day 2 as day 1. In fact, if anything she was impatient! She started pawing the ground after being stopped by the rope on her leg... I got the impression she was saying - "I'm good! I get it! Stop pulling on my leg!" So days 3 to 5 there was no rope. And by day 3, they introduced the bridle and started asking her to understand the rein pressure instead of the leadrope. As with everything else, she took this all in stride as well.

The horses that were still having trouble (bucking) on day 4 and 5 were ridden more than once each day. On the one hand I was a little disappointed that Saphira didn't get more than 5 rides. But on the other hand, this just meant that there were no issues with her that needed to be worked on, so that was a GOOD thing!
I was very pleased with the pace of this clinic and the softness of the riders. There was virtually no stress for Saphira at any time. Of course, I know if she had been more right-brained, there would have been more stress, but still. I was also pleased that the goal each day was to stop each day when the horse was soft, supple and relaxed, ending each day a positive experience. Some were done sooner than others because of this (like Saphira), but they made sure each horse got to that point. It was a great experience for her and it will subsequently make my job a LOT easier.

Creative trail ride

This past Monday (Labour Day), Maureen, Meaghan, Tania and I met at the Blackfoot's Central Staging area for a nice trail ride. Tania has become disenchanted with trail rides lately because there's no creativity in them, so we all agreed that this time we'd do some creative things on the trail and not just go from A to B. And Maureen and Meaghan are definitely the ones you want along if you want creativity! I brought Gypsy this time as she's been pretty neglected this summer while I've spent most of my time with Skittles.

Before we even got on the trail we started with going sideways over the logs bordering the parking lot! Khan (Maureen's horse) had absolutely no trouble with this, so she also jumped back and forth a few times as well as just had him stop over top of the log. Gypsy had trouble with sideways over the log while I was on her back, so I got off and asked her from the ground. She managed that OK, so when I got back on, she managed to work it out better and we went both ways over the log.

After we were on the trail a while, we played "leap-frog" where the last horse passes all the other horses and moves to the front to take the lead. When Gypsy was in the back, I asked her to stay behind while the other horses kept moving. She got really agitated when the other horses were out of sight - lots of jigging sideways, up and down, pawing the ground. I worked on asking her to stand until she was able to stay still long enough for me to ask her to go forward (rather than let her). After the first couple tries, I realized this was too far out of her comfort zone to start, and the next few tries, I asked her forward if she stood still while the other horses moved ahead, but before they were out of sight. That worked way better. We can build that threshold over time.

We also worked on sideways down the trail, backwards up hills, jumping logs, point to point (eg. allowing grazing only when they got to a chosen spot). And at a couple spots along the trail we had to go through gates. There was a bit of a squeeze between fences and then the gate just pushed open. Maureen had no trouble at all getting through the first gate (she really had no trouble with anything she asked of Kahn!). Gypsy had some trouble because I had to ask her forward enough to get her head and neck over the gate so I could reach it to push on it. And since the gate was in the way, she got confused. Eventually we figured it out, but then she squirted through the gate and ripped the leg on my riding pants (argh!). Meaghan just drove Reesa through from the ground (smart girl!). Tania and Jack also managed without any trouble at all.

At a similar gate on the way back, Gypsy managed it much better and came through the gate a little slower, but I had to let go once we were through because I couldn't get Gypsy to yield her hind end around so I could move sideways to close it. Oh well, baby steps right? I'd like to work on gates with her more at home so it'll get better the next time we're on the trail.

Maureen actually backed through the second gate! Woohoo! Very impressive. Good Better Best!

Back at the staging area, I asked Gypsy to go sideways over the log again and she did it without any trouble.

A really nice and very interesting trail ride! I hope we do it again soon.

Sherlock meets Amy

Amy came over on Monday to visit and play with my horses. Amy just recently finished her L3 and is working toward her L4 with her horse Sugar, so I was thrilled to have her come play with my horses. Amy has quite a few more "savvy arrows" than I have, so getting feedback from her was excellent. I hope she's able to come out again soon!

We brought both Sherlock and Allegro out of the pasture. They're the two that Amy hasn't met yet. She started with Allegro while I worked with Sherlock, then we switched. Immediately Amy realized she was going to need the 22' line on Allegro. Amy is used to working with an introvert, and Allegro is very much an extrovert. And right-brained to start. I think he's innately LBE, but frequently goes RB because he's young and still quite unconfident. Without pressure, he's really quite playful. Eventually Amy had Allegro settled and listening to her. His most obvious "tell" is his switching tail. Once that stopped whipping back and forth, he was able to come down and respond appropriately to her cues. I had the same problems with him when I played with him at RafterXX: Like a kite at the end of the line at first, but pretty soon he was getting it.

I had pegged Sherlock as a LBE. But Amy figures he's LBI. He's REALLY pushy. He tends to walk right through you (especially if you're on his right). I really enjoyed watching Amy work with him. While Allegro's "release" was being allowed to chew on the carrot stick, Sherlock's release was just being walked around. Several times when Amy asked him to come forward off pressure, he'd try to go through her and she rather vigorously had to defend her space (first photo). And a couple times when she ask him to circle - he waited until she used phase 4, then tried to leave rather emphatically. They had a few arguments like that, but Amy had a great attitude with lots of humour and pretty soon he was doing what she wanted with a good attitude as well. I can learn a lot from her. I tend to get frustrated easily. Less than I used to, but I still notice it. If I talk out loud to him like she does, maybe that'll help! She made me laugh at one point when she asked him to back up (after crowding her again) and showed me she was still grinning - and it was a very forced grin! :-) She was trying REALLY hard to stay positive! But sometimes I guess that's what it takes, right?

A few times he went introverted and she had to change the pattern quickly to break him out of it... he was having a hard time with the stick and string - differentiating between driving and friendly (not unusual) and he got into the pattern of just running around her. Instead of continuing to swing the string until he stopped his feet, she quickly changed direction over and over until he was able to stop. Then she re-introduced the friendly stick and string and he was able to stand still. There's those savvy arrows at work! Way to go Amy! I really enjoyed watching her work with both horses. I got a lot out of it and I hope she did as well!