Samantha Thorning Horsemanship Blog

Today was a great day for Aspen and myself! It started off really relaxed as I fed her her vitamins and doctored her little cuts and belly spot where the flies keep attacking. I got all the stuff I need and I'm going to be making some fly spray out of water, vinegar, and eucalyptus oil this afternoon....I wonder how she'll smell? :)

One of my new little projects is to get Bambi more halter friendly so I began by rubbing her all over with my halter, well wouldn't you know who got jealous?! Ms. Aspen was all up in our business trying to nose the halter until I finally put it on her! What a compliment! :) I brought her into the arena with her bareback pad on with a focus on upping the ante of some of our games. We played with the barrels, which she still isn't too keen on jumping, but perhaps it's because she is always kicking them and trying to stand on them (and I let her) so it never winds up getting jumped! This horse wants to put her feet on EVERYTHING! There's an upside down water bin in the arena that I use to hold up my poles on one end for a jump (yes, a little ghetto). The bin is close to 2'6" if not taller and she is always trying to put her feet up on there as well! I'd let her if I didn't think she'd break right through the old bottom with any weight on it. We played with some traveling circles and then with the weave and figure-8. Aspen really has the pattern down and is making quick, close turns around the buckets to stay right on the pattern. She's even offered to pick up the canter a time or two during the middle where it changes direction. So today I decided we'd try it at the canter allowing her a simple change in the middle. I started by having her pick up the canter on a circle then as she rounded one of the buckets once our direction/gait was established I asked for a quick change of direction and tagged the middle of the pattern. She hussled right through with a head toss and flying change around the second bucket! I let her go a full circle to think about it and get us set up to do a change of direction again. She remembered that I tagged the center of the pattern so she maintained the canter through the middle, doing a quick simple change, then back around the bucket. We got a few 8's when I asked her to come into me - she came around the bucket, switched leads in preparation for the turn but realized right then that I was actually drawing backward so she switched leads back again and cantered to me with this beautiful expression on her face. It was just an incredible moment!!!!

We also played with some sideways and jumping a higher jump as well as developing a snappier back up during the yo-yo. I gave her a long phase 1 then snapped my string out at her front legs and boy did she fly backward, ears forward, licking and chewing! The next time I wiggled my finger at her she had a really positive look on her face while cruising backward. Hmm, maybe I've been too much of a carrot person lately - afraid to upset her or offend her and haven't been as provocative or as firm as I really should be? Note to self: be a progressive leader!

After we played on the ground we then went into the round pen where I let her loose at liberty to try a few new things. I had her squeeze between me and the fence a few times then set her up on the rail and asked her to back up then go forward again, yo-yoing, but instead of me in front of her I was standing a few feet away from her Z3 and using my stick in front of her nose and behind her tail to direct the yo-yos. It went really well and she had no thoughts of escaping out forward and leaving.

I mounted, less than gracefully, from a bucket - which she stood still for as I jumped and wiggled all about to get on. :) What a great horse! So glad she has the 'hurry up and wait' idea programmed in her mind for moments like that when I can't quite get my act together! I got some great feedback from Kris Hughes on the Savvy Club forum about my concerns with Aspen not wanting to go forward. I did a lot of thinking and decided that at this point I can't be too particular about her staying on the rail, not eating grass, and trotting every time I ask. It's too much and it's stilting any forward energy we had. So today I got on with the idea that she could go wherever she wanted and each time she stopped I'd rub her and then ask her forward. We have some grass in the round pen that was a terrible distraction for her (next time I'll do this in the arena) so I struggled a bit her her trying to dive down and eat every 3 seconds. I wanted the grazing to be my reward to her so when she'd eat I'd create a little motion and jiggle the reins or slap my leg until she put her head up. Pretty soon we had a nice walk forward so I lifted my energy to ask her to move faster but not necessarily trot. I wanted to be polite and find a good phase 4 within my phase 1 - at the slightest inclination that she was thinking about picking up the pace I went back to neutral. Within a few minutes we were trotting! No humpy back, no swishy tail, but we did have a grumpy face. I used a suspension rein to keep her head from going down when it looked like she was thinking about kicking or bucking. We got about two laps of trot total and a nice calm stop and back up, so I decided to call it quits there. I am so pleased with the progress we made and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. :)

After we were done playing together I took her out grazing in the scary corner of the pasture for close to 40 minutes - it was really great bonding time and when I got up to walk back to the pen she fell right in step with me and walked the whole way back like that.

Oh I can't believe it's been SO long since I've written on here! I have been diligently keeping track of my progress with Aspen on Parelli Connect but haven't managed to have a moment to really sit and write on my blog. I do apologize!

My life has been a complete whirlwind since the beginning of June, beginning with a trip home to Washington to see my family. I got to spend two lovely weeks with them enjoying all that suburban Seattle has to offer and then brought my sister back to Montana with me. I have managed to get a few photos up of Jamie out with the horses and myself in prior posts. Jamie took a special liking to Bambi and made it her personal project to win her over. Jamie knows nothing about horses and aside from a few safety pointers from me I left her to her own devices to see what worked in building a friendship with Bambi. Because of this she therefore had no plan, no ulterior motives, no agenda to follow - her only intent was to hang out, relax, and put zero pressure on Bambi - taking the time it takes to just be still. By the end of her stay the normally aloof Bambi was like putty in her hands! It was very inspiring to be reminded how much a little undemanding time can do for a partnership between horse (or donkey!) and human. Jamie has since gone back to Washington but Bambi has remained by far a much friendlier donkey and is much more confident to stay and hang out while I play with Aspen in the pasture. :)

Today was the perfect day to head out and see the horses, not too hot, not too windy, and for once not too buggy! There are some monster flies and bugs that I have never seen before out where I keep Aspen! I am definitely going to be looking up some recipes for all natural fly spray as these biting flies are enough to drive one crazy! I spent about an hour on the ground with Aspen with one clear goal in mind - to keep her left brain from start to finish. I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes and today I really wanted to get in sync with her, match our energies, and keep her confidence all the while inspiring some curiosity and play. I just finished watching the SC DVD about the Touch-It game on the ground and wanted to use that as a tool to help expand all of the things I mentioned before. I spent a good while brushing her and tending to all the little cuts she has mysteriously acquired on her legs while she ate her grain at liberty then leisurely put the bareback pad and halter on her. I began by asking her to head to a tire that was on the ground - not only did she seem to aim for it right away and put her nose on it, she then stood up on it with both front feet! The look on her face after was priceless - a great set of question ears and a look of lots of pride as she got off the tire and walked over to me. I then asked her to head to a small log that has in the past been somewhat scary to her. My usually RB/LB extrovert was slow as a snail today and I had to remind myself not to nag and harass her along. I took a deep breath, brought my energy WAY down, and then matched my foot steps to her front feet one...step...at...a...time... We finally made it to the scary log and wouldn't you know she not only put her nose on it, then her foot, but tried to eat it as well! How interesting! We headed to two more objects on the ground with a similar response at each object before backing up 22ft to put her Z5 on the fence! It took this little snail a while to get there but the key was she remained relaxed the whole time even as we worked our way away from Bambi and the other horses in the next pen over.

I played with her in the shelter using it as if it were a trailer with me on the outside asking her to walk in, wait, and back out, then asked her to go sideways up to it and put Z3 on the shelter before backing all the way around it, making 90 degree turns at the corners until we'd gotten back to the front where I had her back in. LOTS of licking and chewing here. :)

Being that I had her very left brained I took her into the big pasture where she didn't go RB but was somewhat borderline of possibly going RB if I upped the pressure on her at all. Her energy was up but she remained with me as we moseyed along. I sent her to touch a few objects in the pasture as we worked our way to the scary corner where the deer like to jump out of the bushes and you can almost see the neighbor kids which, of course, is naturally very terrifying to hear small children but not see where they're coming from. I kept my energy up to match hers until she started to relax and graze a bit. I used some squeeze game and approach and retreat as we got closer to the bushes just to completely respect her thresholds and wouldn't you know when we got there she was really confident and relaxed! :)

We played some stick to me on our way back to the arena and round pen. I did a few circles and yo-yoshumpy in the back and swishy tailed with warning ears and a snarly face. When she got like that I redirected her energy into a disengagement keeping my leg out of biting range until she relaxed then let her think on it for a minute before asking her out again on the rail and eventually for more walk-trot transitions. I am pleased to say that she exhibited no RB behavior at all while I was riding, it was all very clear LB behavior... So at least now I can research some strategies to deal with these issues where as before I was confused as to whether I was seeing RB or LB behavior when I was mounting/riding. I'm really seeing her develop in her Horsenality and am seeing a lot more LB qualities, that is until she spooks. ;) Perhaps she's not necessarily developing one way or another but instead I am just able to see more clearly what she's trying to tell me now. Anyone reading this with some ideas or those of you who've had issues with your LB horses not wanting to go forward I'd love to hear them. I'm thinking about some point to point with a little grain on each end or...? I want to build respect and perhaps using some incentive to do this will help her think I might actually have some good ideas.

I must remember that right now my dream for us and her dream for us are completely different. I really want it to be Aspen's dream to go galloping into the sunset with me - right now her dream is that I show up and take her to a bottomless bucket of oats. It's my passion to ride her and I must remember right now it's not her passion to have me on her. I must work to achieve a balance between both of our desires and needs in this partnership.

Today was the first day I really felt like I love this horse. Perhaps it is the first time I've felt this way since my old levels horse whom I loved with all my heart that I lost to an injury. I am very hopeful for a wonderful future and partnership between Aspen and myself. :)

As always any feedback is always welcome!