Days 12 and 13- Intro to Tying and Picking up feet

Day 12- Arnother review day- and this time I feel like Sophie is more confident in our progress. This was the first day that she fully accepted being haltered and caught with a willing and confident attitude. She had no fuss- so I made a big deal out of rewarding her for this. Also, I took her out of the pen and I had a big plastic bag that was just laying around. I figured...Ah what the heck! It's never to early to desensitize if you can achieve a calm frame of mind- so I spent some time sending her between the bag and the fence. When she got comfortable with that, I got her to walking over it. And no, this didn't just magically happen people! We went over and over and over....switching directions, backing her up, sending her the other way....basically getting her to using the thinking side of her brain. And once she WAS thinking and in a calm frame of mind- we quit! I went to do something else with her. Since I had been moving her feet and sensitizing I switched to desensitizing and rubbing her all over (up and down her legs!), throwing the rope, whipping the ground etc. I started asking her for baby gives to pick up her feet....this is important- I was just introducing the idea that she could give me her feet. I didn't just grab them and expect her to stand still. (That would have been a rodeo!) I just want to suggest her picking up her feet until she gives me a micro-give...and then *poof! Release of pressure- Tell her how good she is and put her away.
Did I mention? The weather sucked today too...snow! mud! Ice! I can't wait for spring!

Day 13-Today I just kept building----- Like a pyramid- I take whatever I did the day before and I just keep building on that foundation. I want it solid. I want her good, and I want her to remember for the rest of her life. It's crucial for me to get things right...because I am forming her opinions as to how people will handle her for the rest of her life (actually I think she's formed quite a few of them all by herself, but because she is basically untouched it really doesn't matter). She is like a block of clay and I am the sculptor forming her into the horse citizen she will one day become.

So we worked on picking up her feet again. I made sure I could rub her legs with the rope and with my hands. Soothing, all over up and down movements. Confident full rubs, showing her that she can trust me and whenever I found an area that was ticklish, I just approached and retreated until it was no big deal. I do this over and over and over. Finally, once she understood rubbing = stop= relax I knew I could move on to introducing the cue. Different folks have different ideas about how to cue the foot to pick up. Clinton Anderson actually squeezes the chestnut and the hock for the cue. Other people grab the fetlock, some pull the dangles of the fetlock. I think a traditional approach is to squeeze the back of the cannon bone with light pressure to cue the foot to lift. I like to stick to the traditional way when I first teach because it is most likely that other people will cue the same and I like to eliminate confusion wherever I can. And that's what we worked on until I could get her to give her foot and I could hold onto it for a microsecond (you always want to release before the horse has time to react) and then I let her think about it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Towards the end of her lesson, I knew it would be as good of a time as any to introduce tying.

Good ponies learn how to stand tied up- it teaches them a good deal of patience

  I like to use the Blocker tie ring whenever I tie my horses up, because it allows them the freedom to move their feet and pull the rope. Horses get claustrophobic and because they are fight or flight creatures, their instincts are to either fight- or run away and pull back. You never want a horse to learn how to pull back because it is a very difficult bad habit to break. With this method, they can pull back if they like, but they still aren't going anywhere (I also use a 14' lead line). So whenever this happens, I just go rub her, pull the slack up and leave her alone. After a couple days, I won't need to babysit so much and she'll have no where to go. So she can learn that A) it's easiest just to take a nap when you are tied up and B) you aren't going anywhere till someone unties you.

Notice also that this is day 13 and I am only just now introducing her to tying. Why wait? Well, because I needed to make sure that when she felt the pressure behind her ears with the halter that she needs to give and not fight. She has been consistently giving to the halter pressure, so I knew that it wouldn't be such a big radical idea for her when the time came to actually tie her up. Even if she pulls back, she immediately takes a step forward because that is what I have already taught her.

So that's about it for today. Sophie is doing pretty well. We'll get those feet trimmed up soon.