The Spontaneity of Nature
Aug 13th, 2009 by Carolyn Resnick Method
This Sunday morning before I began working on my blog for Tuesday and after feeding, I was coming up from the horses and I heard bird sounds that were not natural to this area. I ran to where I heard the sounds coming from and found about 16 parrots on the telephone lines next to the house. After watching them for a while, they swooped down into our arborvitae trees and began to eat the berries on them. I went to the house and put out fruit and seeds. They were not interested. They were here all morning and now they are gone. I just had to share this as it was so beautiful an unexpected.
Last Thursday I worked with the first Ritual, Sharing Territory, with Lucero and wound up in a spontaneous ball game with him. Lucero is a 14 month old Andalusian-Arabian cross gelding that I chose to help me with coaching for the Insider Circle group. I had intended to sit quietly and just share space but the game started when he started throwing a ball he has in his paddock. He was just playing by himself, while we were Sharing Territory, when he accidentally threw the ball in my direction. So I threw the ball back to him and he tossed it back to me and we continued to do this back and forth about eight times. Then there was a time-out before another round of tossing but this time with more accuracy and style.
So he started the ball toss and I just jumped in the game and took charge of the rules. This is how I train my horses with most of the tricks and liberty dancing we do. I find out what the horse wants to do and then I shape his behavior from there. For instance, Lucero was not allowed to walk up close to me. He had to keep his distance when he had the ball in his teeth. What he would have liked to have done, was walk up to me with the ball, smack me in the face with it and try to rear and push me over as he held the ball. But since he is trained with the Waterhole Rituals and by using my reed, I was able to discourage his over-zealous interest in shoving the ball in my face.
By shaping his politeness, he has learned that catch and toss is fun. In the beginning when he tossed the ball at me, there was no intention on his part, but when I picked the ball up and tossed it back, he got the game instantly. After a few tosses though, he started bringing the ball to me in a way I needed to stop because he could have hurt me. Horses just play rough, so I just took the reed and drove him out of my personal space. He then took this information, stood at a safe distance, and then threw the ball back to me every time I returned it for eight rounds. I have no idea if he will play ball again tomorrow, we will see.
That same day, I used Lucero to work with a person having their first lesson. As usual, we just went into his paddock and sat. Lucero came over in his big, friendly, over-bearing manner, so I explained to my new student that when he did this, I needed to drive him away from me and to not sit back down until he would not come back for a while. I explained to her that this creates polite behavior when he comes back to me and I am sitting down.
I went on, that simply asking him to not bite the chair instead of moving him away, causes the horse to be a bigger nuisance and eventually, rude and aggressive behavior is the outcome. This is because saying ‘no’ and ‘no’ again is fun for the horse and he will start to challenge just like a child does. But if you get up and Lead from Behind, until he does not want to come back, this builds respect and a desire to be polite in your company is the outcome. It gives a horse a feeling of being special when we do allow him to hang out closely with us. I would enjoy hearing from you about any activities your horse volunteered and that you were able to use to shape behavior.
Have a lovely weekend
Carolyn
No related posts.
Carolyn
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my horses antics.
I will try your suggestions.
It is strange but I think it might be the springy rubber surface that is on the arena floor that she finds so nice under her. It reminds me of my dog that gets excited and runs around like a loon as soon as his feet hit the sand when i take him to the beach.
Thank you again for answering my post
finn
Thank you, Carolyn… this is a long sought after approach to the “treats for motivation vs. greediness/loss of true focus” problem. I have never liked how strong I have to get, continually, to remind Moon to be polite. This approach will set the whole treat thing up in a different framework!
I will be out in the arena tomorrow morning teaching him the treat rules I found in your December 2008 entry.
In gratitude,
Lynn and Moon
Hi Carolyn, I played with the “game” you told me about on our call Wednesday night and it was very enlightening. Hilador who is very food motivated and smart was not sure why he had to move between two people to get carrots – he thought he should be able to stay by each person and get all the carrots. At one point when I sent him to Chris he just stayed in the middle between us and was very hard to move, but move him onto Chris I did -I did it as if I was leading from behind and then when he moved I returned to my place. He was very easy to return to me most times though although alittle sticky to get started. It seemed like he was looking for ways to take control of the game and was not happy when he couldn’t although he played along. I am thinking I need more leading from behind, maybe trot and come up, & companion walking and possibly eye contact – since then he could control me and he would think things were fairer.
Am I on the right track ? The game went very well with Danny, my lead horse – he caught on right away and even though he was alittle unsure at first – he companion walked with me to Chris, got his carrot and was happy to walk over on his own again even though he seemed unsure of the “purpose”.
Thanks so much,
Maureen
Dear Finabhair,
I think your horse is having a good time but I would not let her run around like that because she could hurt herself and tear up the arena floor. I never allow this behavior in my horses. You might be able to stop this behavior by putting food down on a tarp to save the hay from getting mixed into the ground and holding her with a rope for a few days while she is eating to change her pattern and then try it with out holding her and taking her out of the arena after she as been in a short while.
I never let my horses behave this way as a practice and if my horses have this kind of energy from how I have introduce Libebrty training they know how to keep it under control.
My big concern is for your horses safety.
Dear lynn,
First of all welcome to my blog.
Your experiance with your horse sounds like you are a creative caretaking responsible leader with good horsemanship skills.
You might have problmes with having your treats on you. Your stops with get better but your gas pedal may get more sticky. I keep my treats on the ground in a pan and teach my horse to stay away from them unless I give him permission to reward himself. I do this in a seperate lesson. This takes some extra training to stay away from the treat pan but the control, attitude and enthusasm communiction and perfromance is inhanced by the the extra time I take in teaching my horse when to eat and when to listen to me. It sounds like if you get in trouble with our horse carrying your treats you will know how to fix your problem.
Again nice to have you aboard.
Playing with horses is a wonderful thing to do. However i have a question about my mare who is just five.
Sometimes When i turn her loose in the school, its as if she has been given a shot of bronco juice. she gallops around the school leaping and bucking. if there is a jump or cone she will kick out at it snorting adding a squeal here and there. She then starts prancing and as if she is on springs and then another mad run. Her ears are twitiching and her eyes blinking and her tail is up. I don’t think she is frightened and she has had no bad experiances in a school, so i have no idea what is going on in her head. She seems to get an adranaline rush and has no off button… I call her into me after half a dozen laps as I worry that she could fall over going around the corners or jump out the school in her excitement. She will come straight over to me and stand there sides heaving and sweating, nostils flared looking like a wild thing. The crazy look in her eye goes and she becomes her sweet quite self again and we can carry on at liberty where we left off.
My questions are should i allow this as this is where i ride and want her to associate the school with being sensible!?
Do you think she is just playing with a lot of energy?
I hardly ever see her playing in her field where she is turned out 24/7 in the summer.
I ride her almost every day and she is perfect.
Any thoughts most welcome.
How wonderful that you had the parrots come to visit ,Carolyn
That must have been very special ! I love all the wonders nature’s gifts hold. We have been visited almost everyday this past month by a very tame young deer that comes to feed at the bird feeder..it will come when I’m out on the patio & stay for long periods ..it’s as if we are sharing territory!
when I first got him it was as if he was very introverted, he would stand and stare at me a lot ..when the barn where I board him got a big green playball he would just look at it ..not being scared but seeming uninterested …then I started rolling it around the arena and bouncing it up & down and one day he just walked over , sniffed it ,tried his teeth on it then he kicked it and it rolled away ..he followed it and I followed and he kicked it again and it rolled away ..I giggled and he looked at me w/ such a sparkle in his eye and went after the ball again and before you know it we were running around the arena together kicking the ball playing like children. He now loves to play & offers play a lot ..sometimes I will say ..Yes, let’s do !! and other times I will say not right now we will save that for later. We have even played ball when I ride him (horse soccer)
My boy loves to play ball too now
We have a good bond & trust so I do feel comfortable when he gets excited in his play and usually I can bring him off play adrenaline if I feel uncomfortable….thankfully he doesn’t get too exuberant(he’s a 1500lb Friesian)
I have learned that in keeping things lighthearted and taking a child like way at certain times to interact w/ my horse has done so much to help deepen the bond.It’s that magic sparkle in his eye that tells me
I am new to this site and not real computer savvy, so I hope I am forgiven any repetitive or inapropriate behavior…use your verbal reeds and show me how to be right!
A propos of your intriguing story, Carolyn, I will share one that happened yesterday.
I have an 18 year old Paint horse who is solid as a rock, his default is to NOT move his feet. He is my confidence builder. However, this tendency also makes him somewhat wtihdrawn and slugggish at liberty…a sort of “How bad do you want it?” attitude.
I have also done trick training with him, using treats (always smooshed into his mouth, not offered from my hand) and he is much more responsive then. I have always kept the trained liberty work ( a la Parelli and beyond) separate from treatable work. yesterday I blended the two, mainly because I wanted him to come get my on the mounting block for a bridleless, bareback ride and he didn’t want to do it yesterday. Most days he loves this because he gets to motor me around,,,and I follow his morion with as little interference as I can muster.
Instead of “assuming his position” he came over to me and pointed himself at the cabinet behind me, where the treats are stored. I decided to listen to him and got some treats out.
Whamm0…i got a horse right in front of me, waiting for me to get on. When I did, he got to stratch around and get a treat. then we had our ride.
But, the fun had only begun. When I dismounted, I began to companion walk and run and zoom around, fast away from him and then turn and jump at him. Wow!!! he was up and feisty and responsive and way higher energy than I’d ever seen before! He kept a pretty respectful distance and, only once, did he while and present joyful hindquarters…he got driven off and the fun stopped until I allowed him back near me in a submissive posture.
It was a magical morning for me and I am so glad to have a place to share this. Any comments, corrections or suggestions are most welcome…as I will be exploring this new mix of rewards more.
Thanks.
Lynn