Horsemanship Clinic with Chris Lombard - pictures! (part three)

            This is probably my favorite out of the photos I took. This is Suzanne working with Dock. I love the motion in the image where you can see how Dock's legs are working, but you also see that his eye is soft. He knows what he's doing, so he's not worried or tense. He's got his ear on Suzanne, while being aware of what's around him.

            Here are some more pictures of Suzanne and Dock.

            I was watching Suzanne's other horse, Franka, so closely for most of the clinic that I didn't take pictures of her in action. Franka was learning a lot of new things, and I was learning so much watching that process that I didn't want to get my camera in the way and miss something. But I did catch her rolling while she wasn't working! 

            It looked like a very refreshing roll, with a good hard shake after. Fable likes to roll that way, too.

Walking nicely

            Fable has a tendency to walk ahead of me when I am leading her. Well, who is the leader, then? I'm thinking it's me, but Fable's thinking it's her. That can be a serious problem! What if she thinks we ought to go left, but I'm by her shoulder? She's going to walk right over me, because she expects me to move out of her way.
            So I am working on teaching her to follow - to really follow. She has to keep her head by my shoulder, or behind my shoulder. The way I get her to do that is by finding a way to demonstrate to her that it's easier to stay back a bit and follow me than to try to get in front and push me around. When I am moving around Fable, I try to keep in mind the idea of "gate open, gate closed." The "gate" in this case is in my body language and my mind. I am imagining that there is a barrier in front of Fable that keeps her where I want her. If this mental gate is open, she can walk through it. If it's closed, she can't.
            What I need now that I have this idea of what I want is a way to communicate that to Fable. How can I show her what I'm asking for? I need to give her a physical barrier that she can see, telling her where I'm closing that mental gate on her. Right now I have two methods for doing this. Sometimes I do it by taking my whip and waving it like a windshield wiper past my shoulder. This way, Fable will see that she needs to walk behind wherever I'm swinging that whip, or she'll get bumped on the nose. I'm not trying to bump her nose, but she's free to walk into it and discover that the barrier is really there, and it will get her. It's just easier for her to stay back a bit.
            Sometimes I do the same thing with the end of my lead rope, swinging it in helicopter circles to make the closed gate. I am not as good at doing it that way, because I find that I am thinking about a bunch of things at once and my coordination quits on me part way through. I end up with my rope getting tangled or flopping down when I was thinking more about what Fable is doing than what my rope swinging hand is doing. That's ok. I just need to practice.
            This works because swinging the rope or swishing the whip gives Fable a clear visual explanation of where I expect her to be. She sees that moving object in front of her, and that means the gate is closed beyond that point. Sure, she can charge through it. If she's doing that, maybe we need to do something different right now. But she doesn't charge through it. What Fable has been doing is getting right up to where that barrier is, and trying to decide if I really mean it. Can she get me to stop waving the whip by pressuring my shoulder a little bit? Nope, the whip swings a little wider or faster. Will it really tap her on the nose if she just walks ahead? Yep! Gee, it's so much work trying to get past the barrier I've set for her. She's starting to learn how to stay back. I can practically feel her thinking it over as we work on this.
             Fable still needs the visual reminder to do this correctly. We've only started working on it recently, because we could get along more or less all right with her leading how it was up to this point. But now we can do it better. It will be better because Fable will understand where she is going - wherever I'm going. And I won't have to worry about getting her to back off of me and get out of my space, because she'll be far enough away to watch out for me.
            We just work on this a little bit at a time, every day. We work on lots of other bits of things, just a little at a time, too. I am beginning to see the bits falling into place together as Fable learns what to expect from her new home and her new people. I see her relaxing more. It makes me happy.

Fable

            This is Fable. She's the biggest animal at Peace Ridge Sanctuary right now.

            She is a recent arrival. We weren't expecting to take on a horse this winter, but she needed us. Fable is about fourteen years old. She's a Standardbred mare. Considering the sudden changes in her life, Fable is fairly cooperative about things. She likes to get petted.

            She likes to get treats.

            So far, it seems like peppermint is her favorite, but she's not choosy. A bit of carrot or lettuce works just fine. Fable came with a different name. But along with her new life, new home, and new friends, we wanted to give her a new name. She doesn't seem to mind, especially since we often use it to say, "Fable, good girl!"
            What are we doing with this horse? Well, we want her to be healthy and comfortable. We want her to have good mental health, too. Everyone wants to know what work she can do, but we are more interested in what kind of relationship we can develop with her. As part of that, she does do some "work," in that we ask her to use her brain and her body as we start some groundwork with her. But our focus is not on what she does. It's on how she can learn to be comfortable enough with us to be herself, a happy, lovely horse. Fable is a smart girl. I'm sure we can do great things together! But the together is the point, not the things. Personally, I'm hoping for some fun play times and some pleasant restful bonding times.

            For now, she is in a temporary barn area, with supervised turn out in her field. Soon the snow will thaw, and Fable will get her very own barn right in her field, and she can come and go as she pleases. Fable is looking forward to that, but for now she's enjoying her hay pile, her daily brushing, and her play time, and being a very good sport about everything. Good girl, Fable. We're going to be good buddies.