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.
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