Ground driving, circles

            Ever since the clinic with Chris Lombard, I've been wanting to try ground driving. So I got two long ropes and a shorter rope that I rigged up as a sort of surcingle. And Talana and I went driving a couple times! It was an adventure.
            To start with, neither of us know what we're doing. I was pretty sure Talana had never done this before, and I was right. She was confused from the start about me being behind her instead of beside or in front of her, and at first she kept swinging around to face me. But in a few minutes, she realized that I was back there on purpose (whatever weird human purpose that might be), and stopped trying to "fix" our positions.
            Once she got that figured out, she had to figure out that the long ropes are more like reins than a lunge line. That one was tougher for her, and she hasn't really got it yet. When I stand directly behind her, she will turn her head however I cue her, and she will back up. But if I'm at all to either side, she just doesn't seem to register that she can turn away from me. At all. She will sidepass or back or circle me instead; anything not to turn away from me. I've gotten her to turn away exactly twice now, and I really don't think she understood that she was doing the right thing when she did it, even though I released the cue and praised her.
            The next difficulty we encountered - or next training/learning opportunity - was going in a straight line. Talana is really stuck on circles. When we are in a wide open space, she insists on circling. And I'm not good enough with the lines yet to correct that early on, and then she won't turn away from me and straighten out. But! All is not lost! When we go up and down the driveway, she has the same tendency to circle, but the edge of the driveway seems to help guide her visually. It seems like the combination of seeing the path in front of her and feeling my cues that match it helps her understand what I'm asking. So we have done that a little, and successfully.
            I've been keeping our ground driving sessions short. When it's so new and difficult for her, I don't want to make her too frustrated and sour about it. But that circling like she's on a lunge line or in a round pen had me curious what she knows about working that way. So I took away one line and the surcingle to see what she knows how to do.
            And that's when I found out where there are some big holes in her training.

           She will move out into a circle quite well. She will pick up a trot quite well. And then she will not focus on me at all. Not a bit. It's like her brain turns off when she moves her feet. She's not watching my body language or reading me at all. She's not noticing ninety percent of what I'm doing, because she's looking over there. Or maybe in that other direction. But not at me.
            So I worked on interrupting that by asking her to change her pace. If I get really aggressive, she'll flick her ear in my direction for a second, pick up a canter while looking kind of fearful, then immediately quit paying attention to me while cantering for a few strides before dropping back to a trot. Now, at first I thought I just needed to work on finessing that a bit, but she gave exactly that same response every. Single. Time. And yes, I could keep her cantering by chasing her, but she just got more and more upset while not looking at me, and started stumbling because she wouldn't look at where she was going, either. So that wasn't working, and anyway I don't want to canter her too much right now because she's out of shape. So I asked her to come back down to a trot, and eventually she realized I wasn't pushing anymore and did that.
            Then I tried to re-focus her attention on me by turning her, thinking maybe that would get her brain clicked back into gear. Nope. Yes, I could turn her, but again, she was completely checked out the entire time. It was like I had to lead her by the nose to turn her because she was not looking at my body language. At all. By this time, I was quite baffled. I asked her to "Whoa," and eventually she noticed that I wasn't pushing anymore (just as before), and dropped to a walk. But she did not stop. I "Whoa'ed" again, and eventually did get her stopped. I had her stand a minute to take a break for both of us. But she did not want to stand. She was all antsy. She just kept antsing back and forth and side to side. It was clear she thought she ought to be moving.
            If I gave her any line at all to work with at this point, even if I stood still in my "I'm relaxed and not asking you to do anything" pose, she started circling me at a fast walk. While not looking at me at all. Golly!
            I also tried having her do a turn on the forehand for me a few times, to see if I could get her looking at me that way. I could get her to do it, but I swear she did not absorb a bit of what I was asking. I could bump her hindquarters with the end of the lead rope, and she would move, but she still wasn't focused on me or on what she was doing. And... she still kept trying to circle instead of turning properly, although I could get her to do it. By this point I was ready to give up for the day. Since the moment I first let her circle, she had not paid me a bit of attention. She was acting like a different horse than the one who was trying to figure out the driving lines, or the one who has been carefully carrying me around the backyard. I needed to stew on this overnight.

            The more I thought about the little details of how she was moving and what she was doing, the more I thought she and I were coming from different places when I was trying to work with her. I was looking for engagement and focus, and she was looking for a way out. Somewhere someone taught her that all you have to do on a lunge line is move your feet when they chase you, and then endure it until it's over. I think that once her brain clicked into that mode, she didn't notice that I was doing things differently because she didn't realize that it's possible. And the more I asked her to move her feet, the worse it got.
            So how can I break that cycle? Making her more upset by circling her more just doesn't sit right with me. And I don't care how long I've known her, I don't want to be attached to a horse who's trying to get away from me at a trot or a canter. Or any speed, really. I kept thinking about ways to move her feet. She doesn't know the wiggling-lead-rope back up cue. And how can I teach her that if she won't stop mindlessly circling me? I have to stop that circling.
            I became convinced that I had to teach her to stop moving her feet, before I can teach her how I want her to move her feet. But she won't stop when I ask! I thought. And then I realized how silly that is. I have read about how to do this, and Chris Lombard's video shows it, too. I need to teach her the basics of what later becomes ground tying.
            So this is what I did. I took my grooming bucket down in the meadow and left it in a strategic spot. The meadow is where I've been working with her and having so much trouble, so that's where we're going to do this. Then I got Talana haltered up and led her down to the bucket. At first she was just like before, looking anywhere except at where I am and where we're going. I just ignored that and asked her to stand by the bucket. She gave it a sniff, and stood for a moment. Then she began to walk forward.
            As soon as she took one step, I asked her to back the way she knows how. (That's pressure on her nose from pulling the lead rope toward her butt while making a "ch ch ch" noise.) As soon as her feet were back where we started, I released the cue and picked up a curry comb. She looked at the curry comb, looked away, and took a step. I backed her a little further this time, then walked her forward to her spot and started to curry her. Then we did that a bunch more.
            Each time she stood a little longer, and by the time she was all brushed, Talana had one ear on me at all times and looked a lot more relaxed. That was the end of the lesson, so I picked up the bucket and we walked back to her fence. She walked on a looser lead than I have ever used with her, and did a wonderful job the whole way home.
            Then today we did it again. I placed the bucket in a more distracting spot. Today she was able to pay enough attention to me to start learning a different cue for backing up. I use the same sound, but wiggle the lead rope until she backs. She's really starting to get it. I'm also getting better at escalating it appropriately when she is slow to respond. We stood in the difficult, distracting area long enough to get her curried all over. She did pretty well. Then we moved back to the same spot we'd used previously, and she found it easier to stand there. She even relaxed enough to graze while I brushed her. I used that as an opportunity to teach her a new rule: If I've asked you to stand, you can graze if and only if you don't move your feet. Talana has always been so good about picking her head up right away when asked, so I feel comfortable with this rule. With another horse, I probably would insist that they not eat in this situation unless I gave specific permission.
            I have seen a couple of big improvements already. Talana is leading more politely, and even when she's interested in her surroundings I can get her to halt when I ask. I also have a way to back her to where I would like her to be if she has inched ahead of me, and she's starting to listen to just the verbal cue. She is also standing more calmly when I ask her to stand. I think she is beginning to trust that if I ask her to stay put, she will be ok. Yes, even if there's a sail boat going by. And her ears actually follow me when I move! That's the mare I know. As she masters the idea of standing when and where I ask her to until I ask her to move again, I can start moving a step away from her as she's standing, then another step. Eventually, I'm hoping to get her to ground tie in unfamiliar places. Then I will know that she fully understands that I'm the one who tells her when and where to move her feet.
            As for the circling issues, I'm really considering trying not to circle her at all for a long time. The point of the circling exercises actually has nothing to do with circles, anyhow. It's actually about she and I tuning in with each other's body language and responding to each other. If I want her to be engaging her mind as well as her body, I've got to find ways to do it that don't wear that circular groove any deeper into her mind. It's not useful at all. It occurs to me that ground driving may be particularly useful for this, if I can teach her that it's a totally different game.