Living in the 2 hour Moment...

Yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine about what it would be like to "live in the moment," just as we believe horses do. She gave the example of going out to play for several hours but it really feels like several minutes. No time/space constraints. I think I experienced this kind of moment yesterday with Cassie. I had no idea that I spent 2 hours on the details below. But boy did we make some progress.

Got to Cassie's paddock by 4:30 pm, changed, got her bucket o' goodies (brushes, treats, CS, halter) and met her at the gate. she seemed pretty excited to see me- maybe it is just that she's lonely because she's alone in the quarantine paddock.

First thing i did was ignore her :) Simply sat my butt down under the tree, and let her sniff at me- no talking, no nuzzling, just looking at her from the corner of my eye, but not directly at her.
She got SOOOOOOOOO curious and started asking me a ton of questions.

After about 25 minutes of spending undemanding time with Cassie, I got up (slowly, she still flinches at faster movements), got some treats broken into thirds, and her halter. I asked her permission to rub her neck, then her topline. Treat. She still wasn't accepting of the halter touching her- she wanted to walk away. I made it easier for her by holding the halter next to her shoulder- she wanted to walk away, but she didn't. Treat. We did this quite a few times- my intent was to make the halter going on her head the very last, most unimportant task of the day. I let her move away from me when needed, but she didn't want to go very far because she was catching on to the treat business. I was also careful to take the pressure off of her- when she gave me a big try (like turning her head around to check me out, just as a Parelli horse would to be haltered) she got a treat and i walked away. she followed me. she was into the game.

20 minutes of this and the halter could come on and off with little brace and a lot less fear. Rub neck. Halter on. Treat. Rub. Halter off. Rub. Take pressure off. A few times she got scared, so we went back to the neck rub first, no halter. She began to trust me more and more.

From there we went to more friendly game of touching/ grooming the body. Neck first (safety zone for Cassie), topline, front legs, chest, to withers. I then used approach and retreat to touch her back and she was pretty good with it. she wanted to walk away from me a few times, clearly uncomfortable, so we practiced rubbing to a stop. it worked the majority of the time. She did warn me once by trying to kick. I probably was asking too much of her. For my own safety I switched to the CS (carrot stick). She was much more comfortable with that- she clearly is not comfortable with humans close to her back end. A major something to work on.

After friendly-ing both sides of her body, right down to her rear hooves (with the CS!), i was ready to wrap up the day. wait a second, there is something more i can do. let's practice the halter again. so that is what we did, same thing as above.

Wrap up:

From Sunday's session, Cassie retained:

-4 more ounces of trust in me.
-i CAN BE a vending machine, but she has to earn it. no mugging.
- the carrot stick will not hurt her- in fact, it keeps the human away from her, and is a lot less threatening than a human in close to those vulnerable spots.
-this human will protect her space, but will not lash out at me (a major improvement... i could flap my arms, and she'd throw her head up, but did NOT want to move away from me out of fear. PERFECT!)

During Wednesday's session, we worked on:

-haltering, shaping the behavior w/ treats.
-friendly game of touching
-rubbing to a stop
-picking up front feet
-relaxing

What I learned:

- Even if you think you are not rushing, you probably are. Darn it, direct line thinking!
- Cassie doesn't completely trust me yet.
- Treat only to shape a behavior.
- Approach and retreat works, even though in the moment it may feel like it doesn't.
-If i go too fast, Cassie is not above protecting herself with a well placed kick. Use the CS.
- Do not tiptoe. be passively persistant. i finally understand what this means.
- Learn how to touch better. I'm too fast, and use too much of my fingers. slower, more rhythmic motions with my palm works best.
-We both work better when we're alone. Human and equine distractors are too much at this point.

Wow- quite a session for the both of us, eh? Can't wait till Friday. Hopefully I'll remember my camera and get some new candids of Miss C.

-Ally