Charlie was brought up doing Parelli style natural horsemanship, and I wanted to be sure that I wasn't confusing him with the way I asked for things, so I got in touch with our local Parelli trainer and she came today for her first visit.
She is a very nice, down to earth, no nonsense person whose full time job is being a police officer with a specialism in terrorism! So feisty youngsters are not worrying to her.
She liked Charlie a lot and was very helpful. I had a long list of things to do - getting him to lead as well as he did when I tried him, picking up feet (he's being really difficult about it), staying out of my space, walking through narrow gaps... The list goes on. On the way in to the field I showed her where I got stepped on, which is the little steep narrow section of path just heading up to the gate.
He was easy to catch as usual. She was delighted to find that he adores being scratched, and we had a fun five minutes finding out which parts of Charlie produced the funniest faces (chest, base of tail, and poll, just so you know).
We soon established that he was absolutely fine with moving his shoulders, quarters and pretty much any part of him at close range and on a fairly light cue (she said he was level 2, sort of skin contact pressure). Then I did some leading. To begin with he trailed along. She said I should move with more purpose, look at him less (not at all in fact), give him clear cues, and showed me how to flick with the string behind me (and him) if he didn't respond. Within minutes he was leading beautifully, matching my speed and staying at my shoulder. It was such a pleasure to feel that I had his full attention! She suggested that I could scratch him at his poll or on his neck if he was walking along nicely, and that was surprisingly easy to do. We also did a practice with the long end of the rope trailing, so it got under his feet and around his legs, and he was calm and careful about it. He did some nice licking and chewing at this point and seemed very happy to be working.
Then we did walking through narrow things. She got two coloured poles and moved them closer and closer together and we negotiated themL first he and I together, then me leading from the outside and him walking through, then me walking through first and bringing him through behind me. He was very good! Such a difference working with a horse who's not frightened of the equipment - Ziggy could never pass a coloured pole without a shudder. After that we put one end of the poles up on blocks to simulate a gully (she is local so knows exactly the sort of terrain I will meet) and he was good again. He led easily through the poles towards the blocks. When I led him towards the block end of the obstacle, he stopped and had a little think but after about 10 seconds walked easily through when I asked him, such a good boy.
When we finished I put his fly mask on and took off his halter, but he had no intention of leaving us. He stuck around to get more scratches. I didn't take photos during the session because I was working! But here is one of him accepting a nice bottom rub from his trainer, clearly relaxed and enjoying himself, 'scuse the dangling willy:
We both liked her and I've asked her to come back and do another session with us. I felt so much happier about Charlie afterwards, he was lovely.
She is a very nice, down to earth, no nonsense person whose full time job is being a police officer with a specialism in terrorism! So feisty youngsters are not worrying to her.
She liked Charlie a lot and was very helpful. I had a long list of things to do - getting him to lead as well as he did when I tried him, picking up feet (he's being really difficult about it), staying out of my space, walking through narrow gaps... The list goes on. On the way in to the field I showed her where I got stepped on, which is the little steep narrow section of path just heading up to the gate.
He was easy to catch as usual. She was delighted to find that he adores being scratched, and we had a fun five minutes finding out which parts of Charlie produced the funniest faces (chest, base of tail, and poll, just so you know).
We soon established that he was absolutely fine with moving his shoulders, quarters and pretty much any part of him at close range and on a fairly light cue (she said he was level 2, sort of skin contact pressure). Then I did some leading. To begin with he trailed along. She said I should move with more purpose, look at him less (not at all in fact), give him clear cues, and showed me how to flick with the string behind me (and him) if he didn't respond. Within minutes he was leading beautifully, matching my speed and staying at my shoulder. It was such a pleasure to feel that I had his full attention! She suggested that I could scratch him at his poll or on his neck if he was walking along nicely, and that was surprisingly easy to do. We also did a practice with the long end of the rope trailing, so it got under his feet and around his legs, and he was calm and careful about it. He did some nice licking and chewing at this point and seemed very happy to be working.
Then we did walking through narrow things. She got two coloured poles and moved them closer and closer together and we negotiated themL first he and I together, then me leading from the outside and him walking through, then me walking through first and bringing him through behind me. He was very good! Such a difference working with a horse who's not frightened of the equipment - Ziggy could never pass a coloured pole without a shudder. After that we put one end of the poles up on blocks to simulate a gully (she is local so knows exactly the sort of terrain I will meet) and he was good again. He led easily through the poles towards the blocks. When I led him towards the block end of the obstacle, he stopped and had a little think but after about 10 seconds walked easily through when I asked him, such a good boy.
When we finished I put his fly mask on and took off his halter, but he had no intention of leaving us. He stuck around to get more scratches. I didn't take photos during the session because I was working! But here is one of him accepting a nice bottom rub from his trainer, clearly relaxed and enjoying himself, 'scuse the dangling willy:
We both liked her and I've asked her to come back and do another session with us. I felt so much happier about Charlie afterwards, he was lovely.