Aztec had a really productive session today! I started out reworking what I taught her yesterday: to stand still while I rubbed her right side and put the lead on. She remembered this chain of tasks, so we moved on to adding a bit of pressure to the lead to get her feet moving. Today was all about getting her started leading without blowing up (we met our goal, by the way!).
Now that she let me attach the lead, I began asking her to bend her head to the right (not flexing, just giving to a small amount of pressure from the rope). She did this with ease. I try to use as little pressure as I can to get them to do something. I put a small amount of pull on the rope, pulling it out and back towards her hind end. She bent to the right enough to cause slack in the rope, so I dropped the lead and turned around, eliminating any potential pressure. I heard her chew. I turned around and repeated this maybe five or six times, and she lowered her head, telling me we were clear to move on.
Since I now knew she could handle the pressure on her head, I walked out a few feet, faced the direction I wanted her feet to go, and I put a slight amount of pressure forward on her halter. At the same time, I swung the end of the lead back towards her hip, never looking back to see where exactly it went. This got her feet moving. My whole objective was to put pressure on, kiss, and have her feet go forward. When her feet moved, I walked off with her a few paces, then I turned around. She did what I wanted, so I backed off. A minute later, we did this again. Same result. After a few more times, I didn't need to swing the lead. She walked out on her own. (I was not "leading" her. I was walking several feet away, but her feet and my feet were going the same way, so she is one step closer in the right direction!)
After she began walking out constently, I decided that I she was ready for me to try her other side. She is used to me rubbing her right side from head to tail, and I can reach over her body and pet the left, but she doesn't like showing me that left side. So I did what she knew, approached the right, petted and retreated. I did that as reinforcement a few times, then I stood directly in front of her. I held out my right hand (which pointed out to her left side), and she began to back up. That was fine. She knew that to get me to back off and stop annoying her, she needed to stand still and look at my hand. She took about ten steps backwards, and stopped. When she stopped, I went to the end of the line with my back to her. Again, I could hear her chewing. I turned around, and repeated that motion. This time, she only backed up seven steps. I left her to herself a moment.
When she would stand still for my hand sticking out to her left, I moved closer to that side and held it out. She backed. When she stopped, I moved away. We did this for a while, and then she just kind of decided that I was less obnoxious when she was still, so she quit moving and looked at me. Right before we quit, I approached her and placed my right hand on her left shoulder. She didn't move, so I immediately unclipped the lead and left her completely alone. I let her out of the pen, and fed both her and Lucy. That concluded our session.
I was very careful today to not get her worked up. When she's calm, she's thinking. And thinking is a great thing. My dad didn't really like this approach, because I worked her for over an hour, and above is all we did. But I feel like this is what is going to work for her, and that is what I'm trying to do. Horses don't ever have a say in how they train or learn, and I'm trying to get out of the habbit of being that kind of trainer, the kind who has a set way of doing things and that's that. That's why I'm letting Aztec decide how fast or how slow she wants to work. If she only wants to work on petting for an hour, so be it. In the end, I want a good, solid, trusting horse. Who cares if we win? If I can earn Aztec and Lucy's love and trust, I've already won.
xx Shell
No comments:
Post a Comment