About two weeks ago I was trying out some "driving" with her, trying to get her moving with higher energy (I did our first session with this 10/29; posts below). Mostly I wanted to see just how she is with higher energy, how deep into it she gets, how easy it is to bring back down, etc. In the process, that second time, she got frustrated, kicked at me and broke my larger flag. That intimidated me... so I hadn't tried again until now.
In the first video, I am asking her to move around me. We had a few “runs” before this off-camera and she was “escaping” into the shed… then would fly out bucking and tantrum-ing!…(which was kind of funny esp. after she kind of volunteered to do it and seemed proud of herself after!). For this one though she decided not to escape as much into the shed. She is sorting out what I am asking; her snorting I take as frustration and protest because I am asking for more, and she is not sure just what that is.
In the first video, I am asking her to move around me. We had a few “runs” before this off-camera and she was “escaping” into the shed… then would fly out bucking and tantrum-ing!…(which was kind of funny esp. after she kind of volunteered to do it and seemed proud of herself after!). For this one though she decided not to escape as much into the shed. She is sorting out what I am asking; her snorting I take as frustration and protest because I am asking for more, and she is not sure just what that is.
I don’t WANT to expose my embarrassingly lame moments, but I am showing it all here…
Maybe it is since I got run over by an abused and unfortunately psychotic rescue horse in 2019 that I admit I can get afraid or uncertain at times. And you can’t be that if you want to show your leadership.
Maybe it is since I got run over by an abused and unfortunately psychotic rescue horse in 2019 that I admit I can get afraid or uncertain at times. And you can’t be that if you want to show your leadership.
She challenges me a bit at :22 (bucking with feet toward me), then gets even closer at :22-:25 … this is where I allowed her to intimidate me and I shrink back a bit… Thus for my own confidence (and safety?!) I should get a new larger flag. However I think we worked through it a bit and in the following video she keeps the energy lower with less frustration. And we are both happier and calmer!
Now she is understanding a bit more. Her blinking around :38 is either processing... or watching all the flies (sorry about that)!!. We are done at 1:08 - after that it is all just me scratching and rewarding. Feel free to stop watching!
I want to mention that the POINT OF ALL THIS for me, at THIS time, is to show her that we can escalate in energy, but we can also bring it all back down. That is the important thing. Just as horses learn from the release (not the pressure), they feel safe when they know that in a high-alert or high-energy situation, their leader will bring it back down.
I apologize for not trimming out the last minute-plus of this. But, this is what we do outside of the "work" :-)
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