Cob Jockey

I just noticed I rolled over to 100,000 lifetime pageviews today.  Cool!  Thanks, everyone!

Focused, relaxed pony foam.

So, Dr. Deb Bennett and her birdie have some help for the "spring stupids" (thanks for the term, Karen!)  In the second part of the George Morris Horsemastership Series lecture she gave, she talks about the birdie being a figurative bird on the very end of your horse's focus.  Imagine his focus being a line away from his head - there is a birdie on the end of that.

She talked about why it's important to get that birdie on you: because things get dangerous when you separate the birdie and the body.  So, if your horse's prerogative at a show is to get back to his safe stall ASAP but you ask him to enter the warm-up ring, that's dangerous.  Even if he's not bolting back to the barn, he might pace nervously or not listen to you or get in someone's way in the ring.  His birdie is in his stall, but you are taking his body somewhere else.  We know this to be true as equestrians, but have you ever really thought about it before, deeply?  I hadn't.

I loved what she said next (paraphrasing): "What do you do in this situation?  Anyone ever told you to "show him whose boss?"  They're wrong.  You'll never be the boss of this 1200lb animal that could fling you from his back at a moment's notice.  You ask. You're the teacher, not the boss, never the boss."

You need to learn, she says, to get his birdie on you 100% of the time.  She put a picture up of her riding a calm, relaxed horse with his ears on her and a soft eye.  This was a result of many hours of doing what he expected her to do at all times, making her his safe place, a place where he wanted to be. She again went back to the showgrounds example: "If you used the stick to get your horse to move away from the stabling, would you get his birdie on you?  Absolutely!  That'd get his attention.  But does he then long to be with you?  Will he be relaxed and focused in his next class?  No."

I got to thinking about this in relation to Connor, a horse that is sensitive, reactive to the slightest touch, and still shoots forward when I change my stick over to the other hand.  Sometimes I use a tap of the whip to get his attention back on me, and it works, but I may as well be striking him hard with it, as strongly as he reacts.  He doesn't like that or want to be with me then.  My twitchy tough kid personality and his sensitive personality are totally opposite.

So the past few days, I've started actively trying to be his happy place.  I've started moving at "Connor speed": slow, predictable - nothing that will startle him (and you wouldn't believe how little it takes to startle him).  And what do you know, I got my good pony back for the last ride - his focus, his body, everything.  The birdie and the body were united.

A cure for the spring stupids?  Probably not, but it definitely gave me some insight into how to deal with them.  Thanks, Dr. Deb!

Connor must have felt like I needed a reminder that progress doesn't go linearly forward, because yesterday's ride was no bueno.  You have two options for a bad ride: you can work through it and realize that he's having a bad day, or you can get frustrated and feel like he's regressing.  I was relaxed and didn't get worked up about it, though it was a nice reminder that we could easily go back to fighting and me holding him if I chose to view yesterday as a step backward.

Where's his birdie?  Not on me! (Jan 2013)

Another Dr. Deb Bennett-ism is "Where's his birdie?"  It's meant to be a quick and memorable way of saying "Where's his attention?"  Connor's birdie, for our first after-work ride in a month, was planted firmly on the following:

- Snow sliding off the roof of the indoor.
- Sun casting weird shadows inside the indoor.
- Geldings galloping up the track to their stalls from turnout.
- Missing dinner

I was definitely not his birdie last night.  He kicked out when I used my artificial aids, ran into the canter, turned his head to look outside every time we passed a window, leaned on the bit if I was weak in my upper back, and was angrily reactive to my half-halts.

I chose to combat it with first a wet saddle blanket (figuratively speaking), by getting up off his back and letting him do whatever underneath me at the canter.  Not being a Thoroughbred, he went from raring to go to blowing in about two laps, at which point I added a bunch of trot-canter transitions, still in two point.  After that, I went straight into body control work, lateral stuff, transitions, keeping his brain active.

I never felt like I got my compliant, willing partner back, but at least I got some good lateral work and non-running or bucking walk-canter transitions out of him in the end, even if I had to make him do it.  Anyone else's horses had an off-day recently?   I feel like we will have more of these in the future, heading into the transition to a spring schedule.