Desensitizing: Part 2

Oh goodness so I last posted Monday. On Monday, after playing with white towels and plastic bags, I lunged JJ only to discover he was extremely off on his right hind. This is coincidentally the foot he threw a shoe from a while back... Been waiting for the farrier for a while but between weather and everything else I haven't had any luck. GRR. I've started doing some farrier shopping so hopefully I can get someone out SOON.

In the meantime, I'm trying to do everything I can with JJ at the walk only. On Tuesday I brought out the white towel and the plastic bag again. JJ didn't even blink at the towel, and I could barely keep his attention on the bag. I spent some time working standing still at the mounting block and leading well, then called it a day.

Wednesday I went in for the kill - blue tarp time! It was a pretty windy day so I brought the tarp to the ring before getting JJ, and safely stashed it where it wouldn't be seen or blow away in the wind. I brought JJ down, worked on leading for a bit, then brought him over to the hidden tarp and pulled it out enough for him to see and sniff it. I let him sniff it for a good minute or two before pulling the whole thing out. Trying to reduce the scariness, I kept it bundled under my arm so I could begin the same process over again - walking ahead of JJ with the "scary" item. But scared is probably the last word I would use to describe JJ's reaction to the tarp. Intrigued would be a more accurate description. He practically tried to take it from me! Seeing he was not afraid of it under my arm, I put it on the ground in a heap and put a pole over it so it wouldn't blow away. I didn't want to tackle windblown tarp just yet. He practically attacked the thing with playfulness. He pawed it and jumped at it and shoved his head as far into it as he could. When it blew in the wind he reacted with excitement rather than fear.

OOOK, one more step I guess! This time, still holding JJ on the lunge line, I completely unfurled the tarp and set it flat with a pole on either side to keep it down. He continued to paw it and sniff it. He was completely unphased by my walking on it. Even when the wind got underneath the tarp and lifted it in billowing bubbles he didn't care. With barely any encouragement necessary I got him to walk over it. As he reached the opposite side and stepped off he did seem a little nervous to have his back to it, and spun pretty quickly to be facing it again, but that's it. I walked him over it again, then left it in place and worked on leading some more.

After a while I scooped the tarp up again to put it away. I held the balled-up tarp in front of JJ and laughed as he tried to paw at it and bite it and knock it from my arms. If you've ever seen a horse play with a giant blow-up ball, that's exactly what JJ looked like. I should get him one of those...

I have to add that the entire time this was going on I was laughing hysterically. I really wish I had had someone there videoing because it was probably the most entertaining thing I've ever seen. Sue came down to the ring after a bit and I introduced her to JJ's new "best friend". She was pretty surprised about his reaction to the tarp as well, and wanted to test it. She set the tarp on the ground and kicked it up into the wind. He barely blinked. She kicked it away from him, then towards him. When it came at him he stretched his nose down to get his face inside it. So OK then... Scariest monster ever: check!

I will also add that during our tarp time JJ spooked at a person on a neighboring porch. Sigh - how do you desensitize a horse to that?!

Anyway with JJ unsound for the time being, posts will be few and far between. Fingers crossed that a farrier comes to the rescue soon!! I'm itching to get on him now!!

Desensitizing: Part 1

To humans, a convenient way to carry things. To horses, the absolute most wretched and menacing creature ever identified. I give you: the plastic bag.

I was inspired today because I came across some youtube videos by Australian trainer Warwick Schiller, who spends a lot of time discussing getting back to basics ("Your horse isn't afraid of the flapping peacock, he's afraid of the saddle pad"). Start from the easy things and build up your horse's resilience to "scary" items. So I started from the beginning.

JJ is already accustomed to crops and lunge whips, so I skipped over that hurdle and went for the white towel. Using Schiller's methods, I put JJ on the lunge and walked ahead of him flapping the white towel. I walked ahead of him with it so that this scary object was moving away from him. I did not force him to follow me but rather gave him a lengthy line so he was relatively free to move away from it. Poor thing thought I wanted him to lunge I think, and began by trying to do circles around me while being terrified of the flapping towel. I walked to a fence so he was unable to circle, and lowered the towel a bit. He stopped moving when I did and just watched. When he looked at the towel, I put it away. When he looked away, I flapped it a bit. As soon as he looked at it, it disappeared. As Schiller explains in one of his videos, you are empowering the horse with these actions - making the horse think he controls the object. Almost making the horse desire more of the object. He looks at it with interest, but as soon as he does it disappears. But he wants desperately to see it! Eventually JJ took steps in towards me, and I kept up the process. As soon as he looked at it, it disappeared. In almost no time at all he had his nose on it. I flapped it up over his head and on both sides. I threw it over his neck and over his back and down by his legs. At this point he was almost bored (almost. Head still a little high and neck a little tense).

I moved straight on to the plastic bag attached to a dressage whip, and started the same way. I gave JJ enough freedom that he was not forced to follow the flapping bag as it drew away from him, but this time he was MUCH more willing to follow it. Awesome! After only a couple circles around the ring with JJ following at a safe distance I started the "hide and seek" sequence. He seemed really entertained by this, actually. I almost think he was enjoying himself. By the end of the session I was standing next to him and smashing it on the ground and waving it over his head and he was fine (neck tall and tense, but fine). I imagine I will repeat this again tomorrow and see how he reacts. When he has "graduated" from the plastic bag, we will move up to the blue tarp (the equivalent of all the scary plastic bags combined). Yay JJ!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I'm noticing a pattern. Every time I start working with JJ on a new day, I feel like everything we achieved the previous day has been lost. Yesterday after our workouts I felt thrilled with our progress - JJ was relaxed on the lunge line and we had had several training breakthroughs. I had also put pseudo-side reins on him to encourage a lower head set, and he handled it quite nicely. At the end of the day I had a relaxed, listening horse - it was great!

Today I started with the same set up - saddle on, pseudo-side reins attached to the halter. JJ trotted around like a mad-man and threw in some minor hissy fits (see video below). $#$%#@$%!!! WHY!! We worked through these little tantrums yesterday!! "But that was yesterday", Sue says. And she's right. Of course I should expect a little extra energy from him at the beginning of each day's workout - he's a thoroughbred with limited exercise space on a high-calorie diet! He's behaving REALLY well considering! So as long as we end each day on a high note, I should be very satisfied. 

And we did end today on a high note. After our first lunge exercise session (which really wasn't that bad at all) and a little break, I saddled JJ for the second time and this time put a bridle on as well! WOOT! Rigged the pseudo-side reins through the bit and took him down for a second lunge session. HE WAS AWESOME. He seemed quite perplexed at the pressure of the "side-reins" through the bit, as well as the lunge which was now behind his ears rather than over his nose, but he did really well. And he looks SO GOOD when he puts his head down. This, to me, is very exciting. Gotta admit, I got a little antsy to get on him seeing that!! Just waiting for him to be ready at this point... 

JJ Lovins. Please ignore his screwy stance ;)

And at the end of the day, we have moved forward.

The Rider Is At Fault

JJ is like a clean slate. He has never been taught any bad habits so he shouldn't have any, and if any bad habits start to show up, then they are probably a result of my actions. This realization came as a big breakthrough for me yesterday. At the beginning of last week I was lunging JJ, and he started to fall in on one side of the lunge circle. Afraid he would catch his feet in the drooping lunge line where he fell in, I pulled my hand in and stepped back to reduce the slack. That was a HUGE mistake, because basically in doing that I was submitting to the "pressure" JJ was giving (the pressure being his coming towards me). That is, to my best understanding, how horses communicate. One horse will apply some sort of pressure and if the other horse yields to that pressure, the horse that applied pressure is in control. The same goes between a horse and a human. Every time I apply pressure to JJ, i.e. anytime I ask him to move his feet or tell him where to put his feet, he should submit to that pressure easily. When he does, his reward is a release of that pressure. I should always be the dominant individual in the relationship. Being a young, green horse, he will test this constantly. He will try applying pressure to me - make me move. When he falls in on the circle, he is applying pressure. If I move away, I have yielded to that pressure and told him that I am not the boss anymore, and so he will keep falling in on the circle. As long as he can get away with this on the lunge, he is the boss.

After consulting with Sue, some other knowledgeable friends, and youtube training videos, I finally worked through this issue on Thursday. I forced myself to NOT bring that hand in and take up the slack. Instead of backing up, I walked TOWARDS him with strong body language. He was putting the pressure on me and I put in straight back on him, stronger. And if he got his feet caught in that slack, well, it would be his own damn fault. But horses are generally smarter than we think, and he kept himself clear of it. After several circles there was no more slack - he stayed out at the end of the line. HAZAA! Learning breakthrough for me, training breakthrough for both of us. The more I establish myself as the alpha, the better.

Yesterday a whole new issue arose on the lunge, but this one was an easier fix (and, of course, my fault). I was lunging JJ to the right and he would go around most of the circle fine, but every now and then he would toss his head, spin to face me, and rear/back away from me with his eyes on me the whole time. I told him NO with a firm jerk on the lunge and then, doing the only thing I knew, I would drive him on again. He was very willing to get back to work but would soon repeat the process. Sue to the rescue!! She told me to let out more line, give him a bigger circle. As long as he behaved himself, the circle should be the entire length of the lunge. I had a sudden realization that because I had made the circle so small I was putting WAY MORE pressure on JJ than he was ready to handle. He is still completely unbalanced so trotting on a small circle is extremely difficult for him. Thus he was constantly trying to pull away, putting constant pressure on his face from the line. He needed to find the release of pressure, and the only way he knew how was to rear and back away. Once the circle was large enough for him to comfortably trot around, he stopped pulling and acted like a perfect gentleman. HAZAA! This is another thing I really have to remind myself of. There always ALWAYS needs to be release of pressure, or the horse will fight.

The Good With The Bad

This weather has been really tough. Yesterday the only thing the riding ring was good for was ice skating. I groomed JJ and did what I could in the barn to keep Mr. Beaver away from the fence for a little while anyway. Oh yea, JJ has turned into quite the little beaver, and his fence-nomming yesterday was impossible to ignore. Today, however, I noticed significantly less chewed fence. I started him on a supplement called QUITT on Sunday so maybe that's finally kicking in. Anyway, here's a visual of yesterday:

I could only skate in the ring while JJ snacked on the fence.

While significantly better than the ice of yesterday, the mud of today was also tough to deal with. Add that to the fact that JJ hasn't really left his playpen since Monday and you've got a bit of a mess on your hands. Er, well, I had to deal with the mess. JJ was pretty hyper on the lunge and kept falling in and breaking into a canter on one side. This can be infuriating on the best of days, but with the conditions of driving rain and knee-deep mud I was about ready to kill him. Of course cantering in a small circle meant slipping in the mud, at which point he would flip out and throw in a buck or whatever other BS he felt like pulling. I drove him on for probably close to 45 minutes because I was so pissed. The best move? No, probably not, but sometimes we humans do stupid things. At any rate he did finally relax into a relatively consistent trot, lower his head, and start chewing. Soaked, sore, and miserable, I decided to call it a day. Looking forward to a warm, sunny weekend (complete with parent-teacher conferences Saturday morning. Oh joy!).

JJs World

Well the riding ring currently resembles a dirty ice-skating rink, so there wasn't a whole lot in the way of physical exercise we could do today. Instead we worked on very basic groundwork (i.e. stopping and standing, moving away from pressure, bending, walking over poles). I won't bore you all with the details of what to me was very exciting stuff, but rather I'll give you a little glimpse into JJs world!

Sexy Man!

As most of you probably know JJ spends his time between being inside and stall and having access to a small outdoor pen. Tonight is actually the first night he will have the door open and thus access to the pen all night(!!). Anyway, JJ has not been turned out with other horses yet but he has some very friendly neighbors - goats!

Well Hello Romeo! (And yes, JJ
is responsible for that broken fence).

JJ the baby, bullied by a goat.

Romeo and Molly are JJs closest neighbors, and while Molly seems a little too shy to approach JJ in his pen, Romeo is always hanging over the fence and looking to share JJs snacks. JJ doesn't seem to realize that Romeo is just a little goat, OR that Romeo is separated by a fence. JJ is actually very submissive to Romeo - poor baby!

Romeo looks for a snack while Molly hangs back.

Well there's your dose of cuteness for the day! Here's to melting snow this week!

The What-If Monster

One of the first instructors I ever had remains my favorite and most influential instructor to this day. When you realize that I took lessons with this woman over ten years ago, you can understand how impressive this is. I truly believe this one instructor is responsible for every good basic riding skill I have today. My balanced seat, strong leg, and soft hands all came from her. I also truly believe that she is one of the best riding instructors I have ever had, and probably will ever have. I'm actually now thinking I would like to dedicate a blog post to her in the future, but not this one. This blog post is about one specific memory from her lessons. A creature she introduced to me because I was always nervous about something, and a creature she patiently and continuously helped me defeat: The WHAT-IF monster.

The WHAT-IF monster is easily any rider's worst enemy. He can strike at any time, and if the rider is unprepared, he or she will be instantly defeated. 

The WHAT-IF monster is always ready to attack.

The WHAT-IF monster works like this: most riders have some fears or nervousness about certain aspects of riding or horses, and the WHAT-IF monster feeds on those fears. For example, a rider nervous about cantering is a prime target for the WHAT-IF monster. He takes hold of that fear and turns it into WHAT-IFs. What if the horse canters too fast? What if I can't stop him? What if he decides to buck? What if he doesn't pick up the right lead? What if... You can see where the WHAT-IF monster can easily turn a nervous rider into rigid mess of fear.

The WHAT-IF monster keeps trying to take hold of me. Every time I try something new with JJ, I can feel the WHAT-IF monster creeping in. What if he takes off on the lunge line? What if he rears on cross-ties? What if he spooks at the cars on the road/the kids in the neighboring yard/the other horses and riders in the ring/the jumps in the ring? What if he bucks with the saddle on? But so far I have forced myself to quell the monster and pursue the groundwork. JUST DO IT, I have to tell myself. Because if I don't, no one else will. And if no one does, he'll never be an eventing superstar simply because he was never given the chance. So JUST DO IT.

Because SO WHAT if he takes off on the lunge line?! He's enclosed in the ring anyway, which is currently surrounded by about 7' tall snow banks, so he sure as hell isn't escaping that. SO WHAT if he rears on cross-ties? Maybe he would smash his head on the barn ceiling and decide rearing is just a terrible idea and never do it again.

It's quite a bit harder to quell the WHAT-IF monster when it comes to actually getting on JJs back. What if he takes off running? Rears? Bucks? Throws me? But so what! SO WHAT. I've been riding for 15ish years and I've ridden rears and bucks and I've been thrown too, and I'm still alive and I still love horses and riding, so SO WHAT. I'm not necessarily close to getting on JJs back, but the SO WHAT soldier needs to be in training starting now, so that when the time comes the SO WHAT soldier can defeat the WHAT-IF monster.

The SO-WHAT Soldier uses a Shrinking Ray on the WHAT-IF monster.

Winter Time Blues

Sorry guys - we are currently up to our eyeballs in snow here in the lower Hudson Valley. More blogging fun to come when the snow leaves!!!

I think JJ likes the snow!

Doing My Lunges

Nope, not those lunges! Yesterday, JJ lunged for the very first time in his whole entire life. Did he flip out? Did he rear and buck and bolt like an idiot? NO!!! He trotted around like a perfect gentleman the whole time.







Lunging is basically exercising the horse in a relatively small circle on a long line (like a lead line but quite a bit longer). Race horses are never lunged as part of their training or workouts, so this is an entirely new exercise for OTTBs, and you never know how they might react. JJ was AWESOME.

Bad Pony on Lunge

Bad Pony on Lunge

 Some horses try and pull all kinds of crap on the lunge line, but JJ acted like an old pro!

JJ on Lunge!

Since JJ was so awesome yesterday lunging to the left (the only direction racehorses ever go), we tried him to the right today too. He was certainly very unbalanced, but acted perfectly fine. YAY!

Things I've Learned Since Friday

I feel like I should start this post with some background and explanation. First of all, I have very limited experience in training horses and pretty much zero experience with off the track thoroughbreds. I should also let you all know, and this is very important, that I am NOT attempting this project alone!! I am very lucky to be working with a woman who has years of experience retraining OTTBs, and she seems to enjoy helping me work with JJ. So DON'T WORRY!! I have help!!

Mike says blogs without pictures are boring.
So here, ogle at JJ's excessively long tongue. 

I can't believe how much I have learned in just the past three days. Weird things, too. Things I had never really considered before. For instance, racehorses generally don't know what to do with something on the ground in front of them. In their racing life they go from the stall to the groomed track and back to the stall, and never have to look at the ground and worry about stepping on or over something. On Saturday when I put JJ in the stall with attached turnout, he LEAPT over the 6 inch high threshold between indoors and outdoors. Then of course he refused to come back inside, to the point where Sue had to physically lift his front legs over it. Weird.

Many racehorses have never had the luxury of hand-fed treats (or maybe any treats, for that matter). When I was working with JJ over the weekend I tried several times to feed him treats - anything from carrots to horse cookies, but he refused to take anything from my hand except hay. Finally on Sunday afternoon one of the lesson riders asked if she could offer him a carrot. "Good Luck" I said! She basically shoved it into his mouth, at which point he considered it for a few moments before spitting it out. We both laughed and I grabbed the carrot off the floor for a second attempt. I force-fed it to him, and held my hand in front of his mouth so he couldn't spit it out. He had no choice but to chew it up and eat it, and he did. He must have learned pretty quickly that these little orange nuggets are tasty because today he willingly accepted carrots from my hand.

This is my rendition of a horse on crossties.
I had originally just grabbed a picture from google,
but this morning I read that you can actually be sued for doing that so I decided not to take that chance!

Racehorses aren't cross-tied. This is another thing I take for granted - most horses that are regularly handled as babies have been taught to cross-tie (which, for you non-horsey people who probably aren't reading this blog anyway, means ... Uh.. nevermind. Look at the picture for an explanation!). So anyway, another training hurdle. Actually, I did cross-tie him today in a stall such that I could easily escape in case of emergency, but he was surprisingly unphased by the whole experience.





And finally, a list of accomplishments for the day:
- cross-tied and groomed for at least 20 minutes
- 30 minutes of walking in the ring with another horse being ridden (NO rears or bucks. Only a couple steps of spooked trot when the other rider dropped the mounting block. Also, his nose touched the ground several times. That was awesome).
- walked over a crossrail (actually this happened yesterday)
- successfully introduced a lunging whip
- HE'S EATING!

Just For Kicks

Yep that's right - he's got a name! Just for Kicks is his show name, JJ at the barn. A friend of mine came out to meet him so I'm happy to report that we've got loads of pictures today! I walked him in the ring twice and gave him a good brushing (not on cross-ties... Have yet to tackle that one), but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

He's a skinny boy, but we're
working on fixing that!

JJ in his "playpen"

Getting some lovins' :)

Look at those teeny tiny ears!

Hanging out in the ring!

What A Difference A Day Makes

At 11:30PM Friday night I got a text from Sue (barn owner) saying that the boy had calmed down significantly and was like a different horse. She also noted that he ripped his (brand new) blanket and that I should bring a needle and thread in the morning. Me? Needle and thread? I had to ask Mike if we had any but he said no. I headed to the barn around 7:30 this morning empty handed, save for a thermos of hot coffee. My car thermometer read a whopping two degrees F.

Horse: 1, Blanket: 0

I arrived to find a seemingly content horse munching on some hay. He had finished all of his mash from the previous night which I was very happy to see. I checked his blanket only to find that whatever rip Sue had seen the night before had turned into a shredded massacre. He was far more friendly this morning and seemed almost cuddly. Er, well, at least he didn't back into a corner when I came near his stall. In fact, by the end of today he was following me around! He loves to be scratched around his ears and at the withers, and doesn't seem too head shy as long as you move slowly.

I put him in a stall with a small "playpen" paddock attached so he could spend some time outside and see the farm. He was very interested in all the horses in the riding ring all day - probably wondering why they were moving so slowly. When people or horses came to and from the barn he got very excited and bucked around his little turnout space like an idiot. But a cute idiot.

Better pictures tomorrow, I promise!

Training-wise today I worked on two things. Well, kind of. I want him to be comfortable with me touching his head and I want to be able to have access to his head when I need it. He's too tall with too long of a neck to be head shy. So one thing I did repeatedly today was apply pressure to his poll and release the pressure when he dropped his head. I was actually somewhat surprised by how easily he dropped his head and how quickly he caught on to the idea. The only other "training" type thing I did with him was walk him down to the ring and around in circles in the ring for about 10 minutes. He had a few bucking and rearing episodes but if I handled it without freaking out it couldn't have been that bad! I did have to put a shank over his nose. He is still a baby and quite strong.

I unfortunately did not get a chance to take any good unblanketed pictures of him today but will make it a priority tomorrow. I am definitely going to want before and after pictures with this guy! I also have yet to name him. The barn kids have begun calling him "Manity", as he somewhat resembles a TB mare at the barn named "Vanity". I would just as soon call him Stupid (pronounced with a lisp), but no one else seemed to like that. At any rate, I think I'm leaning towards Gambler's Choice for his show name.

It's a Boy!!

So. A lot of new things today. Well, at least in the past few days. Yesterday I (quite stupidly) decided to purchase a horse over the internet, sight unseen. He is a four year old thoroughbred, straight off the track (as in, he last raced in December). He is about 16.2, chestnut, and very, VERY lanky - partially because he is built that way, and partially because he was clearly neglected at the track and very underweight.

First night in New York.

He loaded the trailer in West Virginia on Thursday evening, and arrived here in New York this evening (Friday) at 5:50PM. He came off the trailer very carefully and fairly quietly. He was not blanketed and shivering violently due to the cold and, of course, his lack of body mass. He managed to keep all four feet on the ground on the way up to the barn (as in no rearing or bucking), and only had one moment of spook when he saw the hay ladder stretching down from the hayloft in the door of the barn. He got over it fairly quickly and without too much drama.

As soon as he was in a stall we put two blankets on him. He is very well behaved when you have him on a leadline, but loose in the stall he will make his way to a corner. There is no aggression in this action, it seems like he is just afraid. Clearly he has not been treated well in his life. I'm glad, if nothing else, that he is in a better home now. I don't know what the future will hold for the two of us, but I do know that we'll be taking it slow. More pictures tomorrow. I don't have a name for him yet.