Fantastic progress

After yesterday's paddock debacle, I was worried about catching Ellie today. Niko was exceedingly pushy, and it took me over an hour (and some help) to get Ellie inside. I believe this caused her to take longer to warm up to me, as she saw me as a threat when I first got there.

Today, thank the goddess, Andrea had left her inside after breakfast. Apparently she had put a new round bale out and one of the three year olds was being a big 'ole jerk to her. I certainly did not complain, as she allowed me to walk right up to her in the stall, shove some carrots at her face, and lead her off to the cross ties. Being that I didn't have to fend off the monkeys, my carrots lasted a whole lot longer today (I had a pint size storage bag with halved baby carrots for training that barely lasted my attempt to catch her yesterday), and I think that made all the difference. 

Positive reinforcement is always key when training any animal, and I'm a firm believer that the way to any horses' heart is through it's stomach (funny... I do the same thing with my man). It seems to be especially true with Ellie. Since she has the bottom-rung personality, I have little fear she's ever going to get mouthy and pushy for treats, so I am not opposed to using this method of training for her. Any time at all she does something I like or approve of, carrot. Any time she's relaxed and doesn't move away or flinch at my touch, carrot. This form of positive reinforcement seems to be getting across to her quite well, as all day she had her ears pricked and was very accepting of my love and attention (even asked for it at one point!). 

Again today I didn't want to do a whole lot with her, as she is still getting to know me, and I'm not 100% sure what she does and does not know. Yesterday we walked on the lunge line, learning both how to walk on the line, and that it's ok to relax when working. We walked... and walked... and walked some more... then trotted for a few minutes and called it quits. 

Today I bridled her, which I did not do yesterday because I wanted to eliminate any and all factors that could be stressing her out while working, so we just worked in her halter. The lunge line I am using at Andrea's does not have a chain, so I wanted to run the line over her head as opposed to just clipping it to the bit. Ellie, however, is not so keen on this. She didn't bolt backwards, but made it clear she's none too happy with having the line passed behind her ears... hmm... okay. Slowly, steadily, I eased the line over her poll, and gently pulled it taught so that it would lie in the proper position behind her ears over the headstall of the bridle. Bingo! Solution to every problem.

I was curious to see how much of yesterday's lesson she retained. Ever so gently I asked her to move out on the line and walk away from me, which she did for about half a rotation, then broke to a gentle trot. So she remembered some of the lesson from yesterday, that's good. I asked her to stop, then walk away from me once again, and she did so without a fuss. The little mare is learning very fast, I'm so proud of her already. She still needs to learn that she isn't allowed to stop and turn into me whenever she feels like it, but (as you can see from the video) she seems to only do it when my attention isn't 100% focused on her. I told you, smart. 

She only turns in when I'm not paying 100% attention to her... like when I'm trying to take a video.

We did some walking in both directions, working gently and quietly whenever we swapped directions to get the line over her head. By the third or fourth time she was only flinching and sticking her head up in the air when I did it, which was a fast improvement. Like I said earlier - positive reinforcement, can't beat it. Line up the side of her face, carrot. Line over her head, carrot. Line down the side of her face, carrot. Both on and off we did this. She seemed to get the idea after awhile. 

After walking in both directions we did some trotting, working on the same idea that she just needs to be quiet and relaxed, without turning in towards whenever she pleases. This also seemed to go very well, and after about ten minutes we called it quits and cooled out. 

Even if I didn't want her to do it, she does have a beautiful trot.

After getting a little spooked by CiCi squealing at her pasture mate she came to me for reassurance, and even asked for affection by putting her head to my chest and leaning into my hand as I rubbed her forehead. I could not have been happier to give it to her.  

We did a little more sacking out with the lunge line at the gate, and headed back to the barn to get a nice deep grooming. Her coat has absolutely blossomed with the long grooming sessions, and she is super silky soft. I may or may not be guilty of rubbing my hands all over her just to feel her coat as much as to get her used to human touch... two birds, one stone. Right? 

Back in the barn is where I think she made the real progress today. As I mentioned yesterday, she really doesn't care to have her feet picked up for long periods of time, so we did some work there. Pick up, hold, praise and carrot. All the way around. I curried and groomed her for a good half hour or so, just getting her used to me and shoving lots of carrots in her face any time she was quiet and relaxed. 

Being that we live in Florida and we don't exactly have freezes, we still have some bugs floating around. The flies seemed to be bothering Ellie a bit, so, being that she had been so quiet I decided to go out on a limb and see what she did with a bottle of bug spray. I started by letting her smell the bottle, which she wasn't exactly sure about, and backed away from by a step or two. I'm starting to get the feeling she's never seen one of these before at this point. I try spritzing her shoulder, and she jumps a bit, and starts to quiver. Okay, new scary thing, lets go a bit slower. I squirt the fly spray into my hand and start rubbing it all over her body by hand, which she still wasn't so happy about, but allowed me to do with very little fuss. Despite the fact that she gets startled and scared very easily, she still stands very quietly on the cross ties. Spray bottles will have to be an ongoing process. I am headed out to Wal-Mart a little later, I plan on picking up a bottle to fill with water for this very purpose. I use Vetrolin Shine like my life depends on it (my Thoroughbred's tails always did) so this is a phobia we cannot have. This will be a priority, and yet one more thing we will work on every day, gently, quietly, and steadily. 

I continued to groom her, and Ellie relaxed again almost immediately, content to be fussed over and have carrots shoved at her face. 

This is where I think I'm going to start pushing my luck and get pleasantly surprised. I decide to start working with her on being used to me standing up over her, and get the mounting block. I figure I'll fuss with her mane a bit, and see how she reacts. I get the block and let her sniff it... she didn't seem to much care. Good! Carrot goes in the face. I set the block next to her. Still, doesn't seem to care much. Another carrot in the face. I slowly step onto the first step of the block (it's a two step plastic mounting block) and she steps quietly sideways, and turns to look at me like 'Uh, what exactly are you doing?' I give her a carrot, crooning to her, and slide the block a little closer. I step back up, going up to the second step after she seems okay with me standing on the first step. She looks at me, but doesn't move. I'm super happy with her at this point, and probably should have just stopped, but, me being me, I was interested to see how much we could get away with, especially since she didn't seem too overly perturbed.

After fussing with her mane, and working for a few minutes to get a bridle path cut in (during which she did dance around a bit, but allowed me to do in snippets), I just stood next to her, rubbing my hands over her back and shoulders. Cautiously, I leaned down and laid my arms over her back, rubbing her on both sides with my gorilla arms. Seeing as she wasn't too overly concerned with this, I continued the process by lying over her back on my chest with my feet still on the mounting block. She's had tack on before and didn't seem at all concerned about this either. Gently, I lean some of my weight onto my chest. She turned and looked at me again, but, to her credit, didn't step away or swing her hind end, just looked very confused. I quickly eased up, shoved some carrots into her face and praised her heavily. 

She's listening, a little confused, but not overly concerned. This mare is so awesome.

Okay, now it's time to call it quits for the day. I'm out of carrots anyway. I put her out in her new paddock with CiCi and a mare who's name has slipped my mind (no more Niko, hooray!) and stood around for awhile admiring her. She's so pretty... I couldn't help it. I took some pictures and headed home.

Day Two: More of the getting-to-know-you

Yesterday I didn't write much (read: at all) about my first meeting with Ellie. The post had gotten rather long, and my initial intention was to write a summation at the end of the week to avoid daily posting, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do that. I have so many thoughts and ideas about what I'd like to do with her as far as her training, as well as observations I've made regarding her behavior, that I think a daily post on the days I work with her is necessary (for my own sanity as much as anything else, I've been able to think of little else because it's all floating around in my brain).

Day 1 - Meet and Greet

Yesterday Ellie and I didn't really do much. When I arrived, Andrea brought me out to her paddock, which she shares with two three year olds and an older yearling. The capture process didn't seem too overly complicated; she was able to walk right up to Ellie and halter her (with the aid of a bucket of grain, some of which she dumped in a feed bin in order to distract the younger beasts). I watched patiently as she brought her into the barn, tacked her without trouble, and brought her to the ring. The mare seemed a little unsure of me, but that's to be expected, I'm a complete stranger in a world of people that haven't paid her much attention.

The lunging was the most interesting part for me. Andrea put her in side reins, which were attached low by her elbows, though fairly loosely, so there was only the slightest pressure on the bit. When asked to move out on the line Elysian immediately jumped away, breaking into a brisk trot with snorts of alarm. Andrea in NO WAY is at all confrontational with this mare. In fact, quite the opposite is true. She talks to her, croons to her, and in general is very kind and gentle with her. I don't want anyone getting the idea that she is the way she is because of Andrea. Ellie was mostly wild until about six months ago remember, she is unused to human contact, and is completely new to most of the things we ask horses to do. That being said, let's move on.

Andrea did not lunge Ellie long, perhaps five minutes, trotting in both directions. Elysian continued to snort, but she did stretch down, accepting the bit while trotting in both directions. Andrea brought her back to the barn, untacked her, and hosed her lightly to demonstrate to me that Ellie was ok with this. Beyond that, I stood around grooming her for a little over an hour, chatting with Andrea, one of her boarders (who owns the yearling Ellie lives with, whom Andrea bred), and a young lady who came to ride, both of whose names I'm embarrassed to say have slipped my mind. I can remember horses I rode when I was six, I can't remember the name of a woman I met yesterday... My memory confuses even me on the best of days.

Ellie was tolerant of my touch while grooming, even relaxeing after awhile, cocking her hind leg and sighing (not sure if this was in contentment or resignation, but she did it). She allowed me to brush her down, rub my hands all over her, brush out her tail (oh her poor tail... I'll get to that later), as well as her mane. Andrea let me know that she's never pulled her mane, only cut it, so I tentatively pulled a few of the longer strands here and there, which didn't seem to bother her, so there's hope for that. Perhaps once we get a bit farther along in the Trust department we'll try that one. She needs to get used to me standing up over her first. Andrea had also told me that she also did not particularly care for having her legs touched or her feet picked up, and gave her a little bit of cocktail any time the farrier came. Right, something else to work on. I ran my hands up and down each leg, picking it up for a few moments, and praised her like she'd just won the Olympics when she allowed me to. Once she was mostly dry I brought her back out to her paddock and turned her loose with the other monkeys, where she promptly rolled in the biggest pile of dirt she could find... Typical.

Day 2 - Learning New Things

Today I arrived while Andrea was out getting grain, so I showed myself out to her paddock. I had brought with me a large bag of baby carrots, so I hoped (key word here) that I would be able to catch her as easily as Andrea had the day before. Ha ha, silly me, what was I thinking? My first mistake was letting the monkeys know I had food. Ellie is gthe lowest rung on the totem in her little herd, so when the food came out she got pushed to the back... Great. That wasn't exactly the end goal I was hoping to achieve  The yearling, Niko, is by far the leader and the boss (even though he's the smallest of the four) and was the biggest of the mooches. Any time I would get close to Ellie he would herd her off in an attempt to get all the food to himself, aaaand... it worked. 

See that grey butt in the back? Yeah... that's Ellie. 

Thankfully, after an hour of walking around the paddock after her, Ellie finally let me catch her long enough to slip the halter over her head and get her over to the gate. This... is where the mooch once again gets himself in the way. Niko decided he wanted more of my food, and cut in between Ellie and I (underneath her lead rope), causing her to spin and bolt, ripping the lead rope out of my hands. Lovely. Now I have nothing to catch her with, and she's running around dangling her lead rope... wonderful. 

About five minutes later Andrea came out to the paddock, she had obviously returned sometime while I was being mauled by babies, and she brought grain. Oh that magical grain. She had Ellie caught and out of the paddock within minutes

Note to self: tomorrow bring grain. 

Today I noticed, while walking after her for an hour, that even when alone Elysian didn't particularly care to be caught. After eight years of doing nothing but living in a paddock and eating, I probably wouldn't want to be caught either, especially since she only gets caught to go to work. Again, logical, right? I'm very much hoping that this will not be the case tomorrow if I bring grain with me, but only time will tell. 

I didn't want to do too much with Ellie today, being as she still does not know me and definitely does not trust me. After watching her go around on the lunge line yesterday, I had gotten the idea that maybe a lesson in basics would not be a bad place to start. I gave her a light brush down, clipped a lunge line to her halter, and headed out to the round pen. 

All I wanted her to do today was walk calmly and quietly on the lunge line. The goal was to get her to just walk. Horses are herd animals, the fight or flight response being first and foremost in their mind when confronted with a problem. Needles to say Ellie has the flight response down pat. It doesn't seem that she was ever abused, but she's definitely none too trusting of humans. Asking her to walk around me is asking her to trust that I am not going to hurt (i.e. eat) her. 

We started to the right, and at first she wanted to do exactly what she had done yesterday with Andrea - jump away and break right to the trot. I kept the line fairly short, and asked her to stop, which she did, almost immediately. Ok, so she has whoa down, that won't be an issue. After a few minutes (in which I am thankful I have freakishly long arms) she got the idea and was walking around me like a champ, head down, listening to me repeat the walk command like a broken record. Perfect. I stopped her and praised her heavily. 

The left seemed to be more of an issue. She again, when asked to move away, wanted to move right out into the trot, though this time she did not leap away from me like I was a rattlesnake... A small improvement, but a notable one. I brought her back down to the halt, and once again repeated the same triangle maneuver that had gotten her to walk away from me to the right. Took a little longer, but after trying to trot away two or three times, and one instance of stopping square, snorting and confused, she finally got the idea and walked calmly around me in a large circle, head down, with me crooning and repeating the walk command once again. 

After switching directions a few times to make sure she had the idea, I asked her ever so gently for the trot. To my glee she trotted out quietly, no snorting, and even came down to the walk after hearing the command a few times. I switched direction, and repeated. Same result. Time to call it quits after more heavy praise. 

We stood at the gate for a few minutes while I praised her, at which time I noticed she kept flinching away from the coiled lunge line. All right... let's do something about this. Ever so gently I rubbed the coil of line up and down her neck, chest, shoulder, and flank of both sides. Once she had settled into that (which took a few minutes... she didn't flee, but wasn't exactly happy about it either), I gently tapped her with the rope over her sides and back, letting her get used to the feel of that as well. We will be doing much more of this. 

The mare is sharp as a tack, and I don't think her training is going to take long. The trust and relaxation I'm hoping will come once she realizes the same person is going to continue to work with her and love on her. 

Only time will tell.

   

She certainly is a stunning girl.

First day, first post

So, I've never tried blogging before (unless you count a whiny teenager's foray into LiveJournal), but as I wanted to start a journal about Elysian's progress, I figured "hey, why not?". I've never been very good about being consistent with things like this, but I'm hoping that will change, being I'm fairly serious about the mare's training and her future (preferably with me).

When I was in college we were asked to write progress journals in Breaking and Training 1 (which... honestly, I didn't.. whoops) about the development and training of our wards. I'm going to live on the dangerous side here and break that unspoken law that you never actually USE what you learned in college for real life (I'm certain everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about here... 'WHEN am I gonna use this?! I'm never going to have to do that in real life!' Well... joke's on me this time.). Starting this public journal about our journey together is a way for me to document what's going on in her life, mine, and perhaps indulge the creative (albeit somewhat masochistic) side of me that loves to write.

Our fortuitous meeting

Stumbling upon this mare happened to be a complete accident. A friend had sent me her ad on Craigslist, exclaiming 'This is perfect for you, go after her!'. Being the oh-so-savvy (haha... yeah... about that...) equine enthusiast that I am, I immediately shied away from the ad. Craigslist... oh, the stories about horses on Craigslist. "He's well broke to ride!" Sure... as in broken from poll to pastern. "Needs experienced/timid rider." Uh huh... she bolts and shies at her own shadow, doesn't she? "Not marish at all!" Sure... when she's not in flaming heat... which just happens to be every time another horse walks by; mare, gelding, or stallion. You get the picture. I don't have a great attitude about the pony personal ad. Now, I know this can be said for every place horses are sold, but I've noticed a distinct abundance of it in the Farm and Garden section of Craigslist. Having had personal (rather negative) experience with this in the past, my first gut reaction was an immediate and indiscriminate NO. I'm not in a place currently to own a horse anyway. We haven't even gone to see the first of the farms that we are interested in, and here I am pondering the possibility of horse-ownership? No. Can't happen.

Fate has a sense of humor... and other plans for me it seems.

Since moving to Florida in late September to pursue my equine dream (buying a farm and becoming a professional... EEK) I've had little to do but sit and wait. Wait, wait, wait. Consequently I have started trying to find more creative ways to keep myself entertained, as my list of 'books waiting to be read' is growing perilously short (I do believe I put away 12 books in this 8 week period), and the computer I have currently procured is less-than-desirable for gaming. My son goes to school during the weekdays, and besides keeping the house clean behind four dogs, three cats, a child, and two adults (a riotous nightmare inside a 1300 square foot home on the best of days), there is little to do. Bored one rainy afternoon, I decided to go to one of the commonplace equine sale websites and peruse pictures of my favorite breed (Hanoverians) in my particularly favorite color (grey). Favoring mares, I also added this restriction to my search, as well as limiting the ads to only those that had pictures (Logical, right? I like to think so). Off I went on my lovely little drool fest.

Flipping through the ads, I didn't stay long on any one in particular, not really paying much attention to where they were (or how much... yikes). While browsing, I happened to notice that one mare was in Williston, which is only about 20 miles from where I currently live. Curious, I clicked on the ad, thinking, what the hell, maybe at the very least I could make a local contact. This is what I saw.

The mare is 9 years old, hasn't been a broodmare, and has never been backed. Ad says her breeder died when she was young, and nothing's been done with her. Ok, I can work with that, so long as she's not broken. I went and checked out her video. The mare CAN JUMP. Holy crap can she jump. This video is the first (and only I might add) time she's free jumped. Wow. Not broken, definitely not broken. Now my interest is piqued, especially after finding out that this woman, Andrea, is a Hanoverian breeder. Now I really want to make the contact. Tentatively, I send her an email asking if she'd be interested in a lease-to-buy, or let me just come work with her for awhile, as I'm not in a position to buy anything just yet. She emails me back and asks me to call her, that we should most definitely talk. Great!

At this point I feel it's pertinent to mention - I'm shy. My first reaction when needing to talk to anyone new is email or text them. It's less personal, and I find a much easier time expressing myself through the written word (the thesaurus and spell check are some of my best friends). Being that Andrea asked me to call her, I immediately got nervous, but I tried to stay positive. Who knows, I might NOT make an absolute fool of myself by stumbling over my own thought processes, right?

I swallowed my fear (as well as my pride... funny how often those two go hand in hand in a situation like that) and I called her.

I needn't have worried.

An hour later, I agreed to call her on Monday to arrange a meet-and-greet with Elysian.

The rest, as they say, is (and will be) history. More to come on our first meeting later.