Dear reader, I wrote this essay a few weeks ago, and have fallen behind in keeping up on the blog. Janus and I have kept on in his training, but not as much on the blogging. I’ll try to catch us all up. -N
This colt is smart and curious. I love working with this kind of horse and this process has been a real treat! We’re a little over a week into starting Janus and he has begun to anticipate our sessions. My round pen adjoins with the holding pen he is in, so all I have to do is open a gate to let him in. As soon as he starts to see me bring over the saddle, flag, and halter; he is right there at the gate with his head hanging over. Right now, we’re not working all that hard, so I suppose it isn’t too surprising. However, I’ll celebrate the small successes whenever I can.
The mare I started for my Dad was similar: curious, smart and quick to get bored. When she would get bored, her mind would go somewhere else. No longer was she listening to what I was trying to teach her. My challenge now is to keep Janus engaged and interested. Some of these things, like yielding of the fore and hindquarters, are a response to my elevated energy, so that comes naturally. But flexion in all its forms and in particular, following my feel—that isn’t the most exciting thing for a horse. It is quiet, subtle, soft, and not obvious. If he distracted, he’ll miss it entirely. I have noticed that after I’ve done something once or twice that day, his mind starts to wander. As a result, he gets dull. I need his life there, mind working, so he can pick up that this feel I’m presenting. That it might have a meaning for him. The question becomes: how to do that?
I change it up. Bring up the life with yielding fore and hindquarters. Use that energy to focus on the feel later on. I plan to bring in obstacles; my guess is, sooner rather than later. Tarps, ground poles, a bridge. Just by changing the working terrain, like asking him to flex his neck or poll while standing on a tarp, brings that life up enough that I can work with it. In a few days we’ll leave the comfortable space of a round pen and work on all of this again, out there, with the world of distractions. But before we do that, I want a solid foundation, a good understanding, so I don’t have to make my cues too big to get his attention.
Two things I want to avoid most of all when it comes to boredom. 1. Getting too big. 2. Drilling. I’ve found when I have to give a big cue to get a response, then that’s the cue. My subtle cues are ignored. Its hard to work backwards to a softer cue. As to drilling something into a horse, I know that is one of my tendencies. Keep at it until they get it right. I don’t want Janus to get turned off by drilling. The other response would be for a horse to think they are doing it wrong, when you keep asking for the same thing, so they invent something totally new! Usually, farther away from your original idea.
Once we start riding, Janus will unlikely to get bored. I can bring up the life by riding somewhere else, riding a little faster, etc. However, I want a good foundation in there first, from the ground.
