I don't have an excuse for the past few months, but I had kind of a rough week.
I am inspired by the prolific blogging of Robin at On the Trail to Somewhere and Brian at Another Year in Equestrian Living. They are keeping a journal of their journey with their three horses Steen, Bear and Laredo; following the "Ray Hunt/Buck Brannaman-style" of horsemanship. They support each other and practice. It's good stuff.
I intended to write a report about Buck's clinic, and still have that intention. I left the clinic with a lot to consider, and under all that consideration, I find that I am still learning how this is going to go.
As for today, I went outside with the intent to work with Drifter with more focus. The wind was howling. 40mph gusts according to the weather report.
Siri and I texted about being blown away by horsemanship before we met outside to ride. Those texts seemed to set the stage for the dead calm in the wind.
After Drifter got his bucks and gallops out, I worked him freely in the arena and began to direct him. While I was directing his energy, I thought about the wind. I took notice of the tarp and thought it wasn't well secured under the cone. Whatever happens, happens. Soon I had him connected with me and got Drifter haltered without incident but I realized I might need to continue to work with Drifter with the tarp. It's been an issue since I first started him. It's a very big hole in his foundation. Something I became aware of early, but one that I was intimidated to take on. Paul did some work with him during a pre-clinic free horsemanship demonstration in 2011. He got a good start for me, but I didn't follow Paul's lead.
In my doubt, I didn't try at all.
And this takes us to a quick recap to June 2012, an experience that was not blogged on this site because it was not about horsemanship. Despite a very fun, but somewhat frantic extreme cowboy race clinic, which indeed resulted in getting Drifter on a tarp—but not without scaring him half to death—the only time Drifter had been on a tarp was when Paul got him to cross it in his demonstration. After the cowboy race clinic, I laid a tarp out in my arena at home. I figured since he'd been over one several times now, he would go over it at my house. As soon as a hoof touched it, he barreled out of dodge and wouldn't get on it again.
It took some time before I really could comprehend the perceived damage the extreme cowboy weekend caused. Forcing a horse to do something doesn't mean he is accepting of it. It is my responsibility to get Drifter accepting of the tarp.
I've occasionally used the tarp in approach and release sessions since then, and have even rubbed him with it a few times. But he is still very much afraid, and I've not been consistent.
No matter what happens today, Drifter is not at fault and needs support, I thought. The wind whipped the tarp around in my hand as I walked the arena, leading Drifter behind me. He kept his distance, but followed, although a few times I needed to free a stuck foot. He allowed me to approach. Twice, the wind whipped the tarp and Drifter high tailed it away so quickly that I didn't have a chance to drop the tarp and get his hindquarters over. So I had to let him go, catch him, and re-start. I placed the tarp under a cone and did some groundwork around it with no intention of having him touch it at all. It was still too much for him and as he crossed the far end of the arena, he tried to make an escape again. This time, I had the angle on him, but he barreled down the north-side railing of the fence with his head tilted left. I finally had the leverage to disengage his hindquarters before he hit the west-side railing. We walked back up to the tarp beneath the cone and he made two fairly quiet passes, ears cocked sideways, but on a loose lead. There's a good spot to quit, I thought.
I folded the tarp and put it in the tack room, so Drifter could have some relief from it, and I wouldn't get suckered into dealing with it further.
So this brings me to the calm in the windstorm. We had a very quiet, productive ride, where I started on some deep serpentines in which I really concentrated on lifting the inside foot as it was leaving the ground. I worked on backing a specific number of steps that transitioned nicely to forward steps. After a while of this, I moved to sending the hindquarters 180 degrees, and the front quarters 180 degrees, where I discovered a hole there, which brought me down to just asking for a soft feel laterally. Some patience in working at that for a little while was giving me a huge reward. Drifter was responsive to the point of bending his head around without the slobber strap being raised by the rein at all. Reach for the horse until he can reach for you. Mine was reaching for me in those moments. It's true that you can't practice it enough.
That felt so good that I was OK to be done. I looked up and Siri had clearly been working on things with Bandit, so I grabbed my camera for some pictures and we stopped to reflect.
