Homework Lesson

Official Records Information:
Misty, afternoon, 1 hour 15 minutes, 7-28-10

Misty did not come out to me, again. I sat in the corn crib on the steps with a carrot stick, 23' line, halter, and fanny pack of pellets. As soon as I settled my things and turned away from her, she walked straight to me and stood. After I felt her relax completely, I gave her a few pellets, which she greedily accepted. Then I began to halter her, which took (my estimate) about half an hour. I would hold the halter and do approach and retreat with it in the arced position. She progressed her draw through the following stages: look at the halter, touch the halter, put her head under my arm, stand while I pulled the halter string over her ears, put her head down into the halter. My goal was to have her do everything on her own: I did not want to lift the halter onto her head, for example, I wanted her to put her head down into the halter. I would rate the final haltering a 5 out of 10 because she still had inklings of reservation about being haltered, though it was better than other times.

Now that Misty was haltered, I assessed that she was pretty alert, attentive, relaxed, and whatnot. So, unlike last night when I went to do lead by the tail and she was still quite introverted, I knew that now would be set up for more success. So, I did and she took a step back on the first try with a phase 2/3. I did a few more, gave her some pellets, and went out to the pasture, where I furthered our lead by the tail progress. She was so cool. This is, I believe, the furthest I have ever gotten with this concept. Twice I asked her to take 10 steps back. Not only did she do that, but she was going a diagonal pair at a time (as opposed to one foot at a time) and she was doing so with rhythm and good speed. Also, I only had a pinch of hair between my fingers (not even the diameter of my pinky). Several times, she backed up to me with just me stepping back! That's just what you get when you work on things when your horse is in the right frame of mind.

I changed gears to one line driving, but I used her tail to back her up every now and then because she offered it. I had to be very clear as to whether or not I wanted her to go forward or backward because at first, she was trying to back up every time I wanted to go forward (confused, not disobedient). But once she understood me, she was reading my energy VERY WELL. To stop, I just exhale, to go, I bring my energy up and start walking. I was surprised at how well it went. I did not do any trotting because I was so pleased with her and I did not have enough time to take her out to graze and come back and start up again. So, that was this morning/afternoon. Pretty cool, huh?

Natural Horsewoman Out.