Well this last week the weather has been horrible!! All we have had is wind, rain and more rain so I haven’t been able to get out and play with Blossom.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was on an Equine Touch Course and this was fabulous!! I now can’t wait to give this new ‘gift’ I have to Blossom. But with Blossom being such a sensitive pony I have decided to practice the techniques on the other ponies for the next week or so until I feel more confident. And hopefully by doing this Blossom will accept this better!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday 18th October
Well last night after I got home I decided that I would be better to cancel Elle for tomorrow as I would prefer to do a little more work with Blossom with the trailer and start taking her out short drives to get her really confident. And also after looking at the forecast I didn’t think it would be much fun trying to film an assessment in the poring rain and wind and I think I might have broken my relationship with Blossom again as all I would have been interested in was getting the tasks filmed as quick as possible so we didn’t get too cold and wet.
So today I got up early as the forecast for the morning was to be better, so I thought I would get out and have a play with Blossom if I could. The weather wasn’t great it was windy and was starting to rain a little but I decided to go out and play anyway.
We played around with the tarp using the seven games, and spending a little extra time circling over it as I feel she is rushing this sometimes. Today she was rushing a little more than usual; this could have been because of the wind though. So what I done was let her circle a few times and then started interrupting her pattern of rushing, when she started to get close to the tarp and rush I would wiggle the rope to slow her down. I had to do this several times with her, but it really started to make a difference. Next time round she stayed calm and the just stopped on the tarp and started licking and chewing.
We the played with sideways again the same as we done the other day with the wing stands. Today she quickly picked up the pattern again and her sideways was softer than it has been before. So this was really nice to see, so we left it on a good note.
We then moved on to circles and played as always trying to get the soft and to get Blossom to keep her focus on me. We also done some transitions and even managed a couple of change of direction!!
Next we played with squeeze game over a jump, she is now really confident at this and has a great jump!! It is brilliant to watch as this has always been a problem for her so its so nice to see now confident she now is with jumping and maybe one day il be able to jump her around a course of jumps!
We finished at that as the weather took a turn for the worse, I would have liked to have done more with her today as we were having lots of fun. But to have stayed out in that weather I would have to be crazy!!
So today I got up early as the forecast for the morning was to be better, so I thought I would get out and have a play with Blossom if I could. The weather wasn’t great it was windy and was starting to rain a little but I decided to go out and play anyway.
We played around with the tarp using the seven games, and spending a little extra time circling over it as I feel she is rushing this sometimes. Today she was rushing a little more than usual; this could have been because of the wind though. So what I done was let her circle a few times and then started interrupting her pattern of rushing, when she started to get close to the tarp and rush I would wiggle the rope to slow her down. I had to do this several times with her, but it really started to make a difference. Next time round she stayed calm and the just stopped on the tarp and started licking and chewing.
We the played with sideways again the same as we done the other day with the wing stands. Today she quickly picked up the pattern again and her sideways was softer than it has been before. So this was really nice to see, so we left it on a good note.
We then moved on to circles and played as always trying to get the soft and to get Blossom to keep her focus on me. We also done some transitions and even managed a couple of change of direction!!
Next we played with squeeze game over a jump, she is now really confident at this and has a great jump!! It is brilliant to watch as this has always been a problem for her so its so nice to see now confident she now is with jumping and maybe one day il be able to jump her around a course of jumps!
We finished at that as the weather took a turn for the worse, I would have liked to have done more with her today as we were having lots of fun. But to have stayed out in that weather I would have to be crazy!!
Saturday 18th October
Tomorrow Elle was going to be coming to help me film my level 2 assessment, but due to the weather forecast being horrible she kindly offered for me to go to her and use their facilities. So to be able to do this I had to get Blossom to trailer load with the trailer on the yard… Lately her trailer loading has been brilliant but it has always been in the field, so I knew having the trailer on the yard would be a totally different story.
Tonight she caught me really well and we played a few games on the way down the field and on the way up to the yard. Once up at the yard we played around with the seven games, and also used the technique on the SC dvd to get her to stand still for grooming. I didn’t do much grooming but I knew this technique gets her really thinking and more left brained.
I then opened both ramps on the trailer and we started with playing circling game over the ramp, which she was happy to do. We then played with sideways around the trailer and on the way back round I asked her to squeeze into the trailer. She was happy to put her front feet on the ramp, but a little hesitant to offer any more. So I moved away from the trailer and we played with yo yo game, fallen leaf and sideways, this then got her really focused on me and when we re approached the trailer she was more confident and went most of the way in, after having a smell and a look around I applied a little pressure and she went all the way in. I left her there for a few minutes and then asked her out again and went to play on the yard again with sideways – tonight sideways was really good. Again tonight I tried to use markers, but as I didn’t have any obstacles as such to use we just used the farm machinery to go sideways to and then sideways back to the trailer.
By the end of our trailer loading session Blossom was loading and was happy for me to close the bars on her, but was a little unconfident about the ramps being closed so I didn’t want to push her tonight and totally loose her confidence in me and the trailer so we finished with her just standing in the trailer with the ramps open.
Tonight she caught me really well and we played a few games on the way down the field and on the way up to the yard. Once up at the yard we played around with the seven games, and also used the technique on the SC dvd to get her to stand still for grooming. I didn’t do much grooming but I knew this technique gets her really thinking and more left brained.
I then opened both ramps on the trailer and we started with playing circling game over the ramp, which she was happy to do. We then played with sideways around the trailer and on the way back round I asked her to squeeze into the trailer. She was happy to put her front feet on the ramp, but a little hesitant to offer any more. So I moved away from the trailer and we played with yo yo game, fallen leaf and sideways, this then got her really focused on me and when we re approached the trailer she was more confident and went most of the way in, after having a smell and a look around I applied a little pressure and she went all the way in. I left her there for a few minutes and then asked her out again and went to play on the yard again with sideways – tonight sideways was really good. Again tonight I tried to use markers, but as I didn’t have any obstacles as such to use we just used the farm machinery to go sideways to and then sideways back to the trailer.
By the end of our trailer loading session Blossom was loading and was happy for me to close the bars on her, but was a little unconfident about the ramps being closed so I didn’t want to push her tonight and totally loose her confidence in me and the trailer so we finished with her just standing in the trailer with the ramps open.
Friday 17th October
Tonight I didn’t have the time to play with Blossom as I had an indoor school booked so I could ride Smarty and start his games training, and the time I was going to use to play with Blossom I had to use to re- build the electric fencing as the pony on the other side of the field has decided she prefers the grass on my side and keeps coming through the fence!
But what was really interesting tonight, when it came to feeding the ponies before I left, Blossom went straight into her coral and waited for me to come to her with the feed. None of the others have worked out yet that they have to be in their corral before I will feed them. The reason they have to be corralled to feed is because of the trouble Blossom causes – how interesting that she is the first one to work this new pattern out and they have only had the corrals for just over a week!
But what was really interesting tonight, when it came to feeding the ponies before I left, Blossom went straight into her coral and waited for me to come to her with the feed. None of the others have worked out yet that they have to be in their corral before I will feed them. The reason they have to be corralled to feed is because of the trouble Blossom causes – how interesting that she is the first one to work this new pattern out and they have only had the corrals for just over a week!
Wednesday 15th October
Tonight I headed out to the field to play with Blossom – I hate these dark nights now as I only have around an hour before its totally dark!!
We started with extreme friendly, which was good. Then moved on to playing with holding her tongue, it took a few attempts but then she relaxed and allowed me to hold it without any fuss.
I then moved on to playing yo yo game, which was good tonight – her draw wasn’t great to start with but improved quite quickly! Next I played with needle prep and smell your tail, still need to do a little more work on smell your tail as she isn’t too keen about holding the yield for 10 seconds, but apart from that everything went really well.
I main focus of our play session tonight was sideways! As this game really does need a lot of work and I have just been avoiding it lately hoping it would just get better by itself, but that isn’t going to happen. So I used two wing stands as markers and the game/pattern was to go sideways from one marker to the other. This really helped both me and Blossom as it gave us both a focus and a reason for going sideways. Blossom quickly picked up on the game and at each marker she really licked and chewed and each time she went better, which was great! Why didn’t I think of doing this before…. It made this game so much easier!
We then played with yo yo over a pole, helping her again with her confidence in zone 5. She is getting much better at this and every time we play now I am noticing an improvement.
I then played with holding her tongue again, much better than our earlier play with this as this time she relaxed straight away!
I finished with putting Blossom in her corral in the field, which I have set up to; feed the ponies in at night. I still had about 15 minutes until it was going to be dark so I used this time to have a little play with Smarty. So while I was playing with him I left the umbrella outside Blossom’s corral to hopefully get her used to this and be more confident with this.
We started with extreme friendly, which was good. Then moved on to playing with holding her tongue, it took a few attempts but then she relaxed and allowed me to hold it without any fuss.
I then moved on to playing yo yo game, which was good tonight – her draw wasn’t great to start with but improved quite quickly! Next I played with needle prep and smell your tail, still need to do a little more work on smell your tail as she isn’t too keen about holding the yield for 10 seconds, but apart from that everything went really well.
I main focus of our play session tonight was sideways! As this game really does need a lot of work and I have just been avoiding it lately hoping it would just get better by itself, but that isn’t going to happen. So I used two wing stands as markers and the game/pattern was to go sideways from one marker to the other. This really helped both me and Blossom as it gave us both a focus and a reason for going sideways. Blossom quickly picked up on the game and at each marker she really licked and chewed and each time she went better, which was great! Why didn’t I think of doing this before…. It made this game so much easier!
We then played with yo yo over a pole, helping her again with her confidence in zone 5. She is getting much better at this and every time we play now I am noticing an improvement.
I then played with holding her tongue again, much better than our earlier play with this as this time she relaxed straight away!
I finished with putting Blossom in her corral in the field, which I have set up to; feed the ponies in at night. I still had about 15 minutes until it was going to be dark so I used this time to have a little play with Smarty. So while I was playing with him I left the umbrella outside Blossom’s corral to hopefully get her used to this and be more confident with this.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sunday 12th October
Today was a lovely sunny morning (still cold) so I thought I would make the most of it and get out and play with Blossom. I decided to take the umbrella out with me and include that in my play session. When I got up to the field I had to re- set up the obstacles as the sheep have destroyed everything as usual. So I also left the brolly open on the ground so all the other ponies would also be able to have a look and play with it if they wanted.
Blossom caught me well and after playing friendly game we headed down the field driving from zone 3 to get to where I had left all my equipment. On the way Blossom spotted the brolly so I asked her to go towards it, she was a little hesitant at parts so we would stop or retreat until she was confident enough to go forwards again. Very quickly we were standing beside the brolly so I asked Blossom to put her nose on it, which she done and even had a little nibble at it! We then moved away to get the equipment and give her a little brush. On the way back up the field I drove her again from zone 3 straight to the brolly and she went right up to it and started chewing at it – I was very impressed. By this stage all the other ponies had noticed this new scary object in their field and were down to investigate, but at this stage only Bridget had worked up the courage to come close enough to see what it was. All the others were hiding behind Blossom or galloping about the field very RB. It was really interesting to watch and I think I must have just sat in the field near the umbrella for about 20mins watching the other ponies reactions and really trying to work out all their horsenality. I then felt Blossom was confident with the brolly on the ground so I lifted it up and she got worried about this so I just went for a walk around the field with it with her following behind me. She still wasn’t 100% sure of this new scary object that is taller than her, but she did let me rub her all over zone 3 & 4 with it so I left it at that for this sessions as I felt we had made a lot of progress.
Online:
We played with seven games with the tarp, as this is what I would like to use for my assessment, this went much better than the last time which made me feel much better. Sideways wasn’t great but we are still having problems with this game!! Next we played with yo yo over a pole, we had to do quite a bit of approach and retreat as I feel once she is getting a couple if strides away from the pole she is rushing to get over it so the task is over and done with as quick as possible. So I would ask her to stop just before I felt she was unconfident, then asked her back a step at a time leaving her standing a each point for a few minutes or until I felt she was confident enough go back. This seemed to work really well for her and when I then asked her to go from 22ft away she appeared much more confidant and the back up was much straighter. Next we played with squeeze game over a jump, this is just getting so much better!! I always start with a small cross pole before asking her to jump a straight bar jump and this seems to have really helped her confidence as she is jumping great! Circles were next we just played around with these trying to get them soft and get her to focus on me. We also got some nice transitions and also a couple of change of directions and played with circles on the move around some obstacles to make her think a little more.
Liberty:
We just went into the round pen and played the seven games pretending we were at liberty making sure their was lots of slack in the rope and that I wasn’t using this for my communication. It was quite interesting as if we were at liberty I would have lost her a few times.. So I think I need to be more aware of how much pressure I am putting on her, to try and stop her losing confidence and therefore leaving me. We then had lovely game of stick to me at liberty at walk, trot and back up. Next I played with holding her tongue, needle prep and smell her tail – all went reasonable well, she wasn’t too keen about smelling her tail for 10 secs but the beasties were really bad today so that might have been the cause of this..
Freestyle:
We started with playing with sending her out to find her saddle, I haven’t done very much of this so I did have to help her a little. But she quickly got the idea of the game and was soon stopping at the saddle and having a little nibble and paw at it. Saddling went well, she stood really well for this and moved around me when I asked instead of me moving from side to side. We spent quite a lot of time working on bridling from my knees, as this still isn’t perfect. She will bring her head down when asked but doesn’t like to keep it down for very long so we worked on that.
Riding went really well today she seems to have really learnt the figure of eight pattern and we were able to do this task really well today!! I decided to give the canter lead changes a try using a bow tie pattern instead of using a figure of eight, which is what I have been trying to use before. We weren’t able to do this on a casual rein as she was really forward but I decided to just ride her through this impulsive stage and see if she was able to calm herself down using this pattern. Well yes she did calm down a little, but also learnt the pattern mega quick and worked out the aim was to change canter leads – so instead of coming back to trot she would just do a flying change! And then when I did get her back to trot and then asked for canter I sometimes got the wrong lead but before I could ask her to trot again to re ask she had already changed leads for me.. Think this task is going to be a real challenge for us it will be interesting if I can teach Blossom to stop changing legs before she is asked.
Finesse:
We had a little play around with sideways and with the 9 step back up as we walked around the field to cool her off. The back up is getting quite good now, but she still has a lot of brace when I ask for sideways. But seen as sideways on the ground is pretty much the same I really can’t expect it be any better when I ride her.
Blossom caught me well and after playing friendly game we headed down the field driving from zone 3 to get to where I had left all my equipment. On the way Blossom spotted the brolly so I asked her to go towards it, she was a little hesitant at parts so we would stop or retreat until she was confident enough to go forwards again. Very quickly we were standing beside the brolly so I asked Blossom to put her nose on it, which she done and even had a little nibble at it! We then moved away to get the equipment and give her a little brush. On the way back up the field I drove her again from zone 3 straight to the brolly and she went right up to it and started chewing at it – I was very impressed. By this stage all the other ponies had noticed this new scary object in their field and were down to investigate, but at this stage only Bridget had worked up the courage to come close enough to see what it was. All the others were hiding behind Blossom or galloping about the field very RB. It was really interesting to watch and I think I must have just sat in the field near the umbrella for about 20mins watching the other ponies reactions and really trying to work out all their horsenality. I then felt Blossom was confident with the brolly on the ground so I lifted it up and she got worried about this so I just went for a walk around the field with it with her following behind me. She still wasn’t 100% sure of this new scary object that is taller than her, but she did let me rub her all over zone 3 & 4 with it so I left it at that for this sessions as I felt we had made a lot of progress.
Online:
We played with seven games with the tarp, as this is what I would like to use for my assessment, this went much better than the last time which made me feel much better. Sideways wasn’t great but we are still having problems with this game!! Next we played with yo yo over a pole, we had to do quite a bit of approach and retreat as I feel once she is getting a couple if strides away from the pole she is rushing to get over it so the task is over and done with as quick as possible. So I would ask her to stop just before I felt she was unconfident, then asked her back a step at a time leaving her standing a each point for a few minutes or until I felt she was confident enough go back. This seemed to work really well for her and when I then asked her to go from 22ft away she appeared much more confidant and the back up was much straighter. Next we played with squeeze game over a jump, this is just getting so much better!! I always start with a small cross pole before asking her to jump a straight bar jump and this seems to have really helped her confidence as she is jumping great! Circles were next we just played around with these trying to get them soft and get her to focus on me. We also got some nice transitions and also a couple of change of directions and played with circles on the move around some obstacles to make her think a little more.
Liberty:
We just went into the round pen and played the seven games pretending we were at liberty making sure their was lots of slack in the rope and that I wasn’t using this for my communication. It was quite interesting as if we were at liberty I would have lost her a few times.. So I think I need to be more aware of how much pressure I am putting on her, to try and stop her losing confidence and therefore leaving me. We then had lovely game of stick to me at liberty at walk, trot and back up. Next I played with holding her tongue, needle prep and smell her tail – all went reasonable well, she wasn’t too keen about smelling her tail for 10 secs but the beasties were really bad today so that might have been the cause of this..
Freestyle:
We started with playing with sending her out to find her saddle, I haven’t done very much of this so I did have to help her a little. But she quickly got the idea of the game and was soon stopping at the saddle and having a little nibble and paw at it. Saddling went well, she stood really well for this and moved around me when I asked instead of me moving from side to side. We spent quite a lot of time working on bridling from my knees, as this still isn’t perfect. She will bring her head down when asked but doesn’t like to keep it down for very long so we worked on that.
Riding went really well today she seems to have really learnt the figure of eight pattern and we were able to do this task really well today!! I decided to give the canter lead changes a try using a bow tie pattern instead of using a figure of eight, which is what I have been trying to use before. We weren’t able to do this on a casual rein as she was really forward but I decided to just ride her through this impulsive stage and see if she was able to calm herself down using this pattern. Well yes she did calm down a little, but also learnt the pattern mega quick and worked out the aim was to change canter leads – so instead of coming back to trot she would just do a flying change! And then when I did get her back to trot and then asked for canter I sometimes got the wrong lead but before I could ask her to trot again to re ask she had already changed leads for me.. Think this task is going to be a real challenge for us it will be interesting if I can teach Blossom to stop changing legs before she is asked.
Finesse:
We had a little play around with sideways and with the 9 step back up as we walked around the field to cool her off. The back up is getting quite good now, but she still has a lot of brace when I ask for sideways. But seen as sideways on the ground is pretty much the same I really can’t expect it be any better when I ride her.
Friday 10th October
Tonight we had really heavy rain, so I decided to take an umbrella out to the field with me to feed Blossom and the other ponies. I did expect them to have a little look at the brolly, but didn’t expect the reactions that I got!!
All of them where terrified of the umbrella, even Bridget the Shetland who is usually scared of nothing went very RB and was running around. So I decided I better put the brolly down and give them all their feeds. Once they appeared settled eating their feeds I moved away from them a little and put the umbrella back up as I was getting totally soaked! I could see them watching me, but they all carried on eating their feeds. But as soon as I even moved they all stopped and watched me. So I decided to just leave them at that for the night, maybe umbrella desensitising should be done in dry weather..
Well this was not the reaction I was expecting… I expected them to have a little look at it to start with but I then thought I would have been able to go and fix rugs etc with the brolly up. I never thought I would have got such a big reaction from them, especially from Blossom and Bridget who tend to be confident with most things like this. How interesting, think I will need to do a lot of work on this!
All of them where terrified of the umbrella, even Bridget the Shetland who is usually scared of nothing went very RB and was running around. So I decided I better put the brolly down and give them all their feeds. Once they appeared settled eating their feeds I moved away from them a little and put the umbrella back up as I was getting totally soaked! I could see them watching me, but they all carried on eating their feeds. But as soon as I even moved they all stopped and watched me. So I decided to just leave them at that for the night, maybe umbrella desensitising should be done in dry weather..
Well this was not the reaction I was expecting… I expected them to have a little look at it to start with but I then thought I would have been able to go and fix rugs etc with the brolly up. I never thought I would have got such a big reaction from them, especially from Blossom and Bridget who tend to be confident with most things like this. How interesting, think I will need to do a lot of work on this!
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