Rescuing Rusty

Or at least ok, not great but not horribly rotten. That’s some luke warm praise if I’ve ever heard any.

I was going to work him the day before but had a helper/follower that made riding  impossible. However, she was great help and working together we got his feet trimmed. She sat in the back of the pickup and worked on targeting with him while I trimmed. It kept him happy and unconcerned so he could enjoy the trim. Worked perfect.

I found a place to prop my camera and got video of our ride. But it’s about ten minutes of us walking and standing and him reaching wildly, desperately for food. Pretty boring stuff. At least if he does decide to buck me off some day I’ll get that on film, that would be a little more interesting. So I got some screen shots from the video, still boring but quicker 😉

Strangely enough in most of them he’s looking for food.

The most exciting part for me was that I was able to capture him offering something and reward him for it. He was even able to figure out what I rewarded him for and offered it again and again. I have been working halfheartedly on a simple bow, reaching a front hoof forward and dropping his head. He figured out that that was what I was clicking him for and I started adding a cue. Don’t know if we can repeat it but the wind is blowing hard enough out there that I don’t think I want to try riding, guess we’ll keep working on bowing.

Also continuing mat training. Even got a mat! Instead of out cardboard lid. He’s kind of getting it, all things in time. Speaking of time it’s occurred to me that although he has nine rides? ten?, somewhere in there, he has less than two hours of riding time. If we ride for ten or fifteen minutes every time, say ten minutes a ride for ten rides that’s just over an hour and a half. I don’t think he’s doing too bad at all. Now I really ought to get off the computer and go play with him while I can!

Here he is with his new mat

Enjoying a good scratch

On the bright side it seems like every time he is very difficult it marks a coming breakthrough.

He hadn’t been ridden for at least a week, I don’t think. Can’t remember when it was exactly. I worked with him yesterday on mat training but only ground work. Today, yesterday by now, I had time to saddle him. We worked on the mat a little, left him of the lead altogether, he walked at my shoulder and trotted along with me to close gates and get ready to ride. I thought we were doing great.

He walked right up to the gate for me to mount and walked off happily. I still thought we were good. And really we weren’t bad just not as good. He balled up a couple of times and tried to buck. I said that and my always concerned husband nearly had a fit. Why did I stay on! and so forth. It wasn’t much of a try, he ducked his head and hunched his shoulders. It was a reminder of why I think traditional training has a place even in clicker training. I pulled his head around in a firm one rein stop let him settle and we tried again.

On an older horse, with a few more buttons and levers installed that little bit is no big deal. When riding a wet noddle it’s a little different.

In between we worked on moving off my leg and stopping. Now that he’s going it seems like a good idea. I rewarded a couple of turns and he started wanting to spin in circles. It’s that looking for the right answer, just not as enjoyable as from the ground. He is so light and responsive and intelligent it can be hard to be sure I am asking the right questions. Should I start with only turning one way and clicking so he doesn’t get confused? Or can he figure out turns each way? I know I should have reinforced the time I took a deep breath and exhaled and he stopped. I just wasn’t thinking fast enough and it wasn’t what I had intended so I pushed him on before my brain had a chance to catch up.

He is fun, even when we aren’t on the same page, and I hope to get out to ride him tomorrow but the wind is supposed to blow so I’m afraid it may be awhile once again. Oh well back to ground work.

I haven’t had time to ride for awhile. Wheat harvest is going fully swing, nearly done really, and life as usual. Yesterday I didn’t have time to ride and had some new stuff I wanted to try on the ground anyway.

I had seen this ladies video on mat training horses.

It made sense to me. I have watched other great instructional videos on the subject but for some reason this one clicked ( 😉 ). I wanted to try it.

The nuances in clicker training are a little different than traditional and sometimes I have trouble changing old habits. Mind you I said old not bad. Unlike, apparently, many clicker training fans I don’t believe regular training styles are bad, I am just enjoying these a lot more. A combination seems like a good idea. So anyway, with this style apparently the goal is to let the horse think about whats going on  and figure out for themselves what you are asking. You then click and reward. Giving a cue comes after the behavior is being offered regularly and given when the behavior is done not before. So they associate what they just did with the words/action done at the time. Whew, complicated.

My tendency is to show them what I want and babysit the whole time, helping to make sure they do it right, instead of giving time to think. And to give the cue, lots. With this one I did a better job of staying still and letting him work it out. He tried offering me things I have asked for in the past. Some were things he has had trouble with, fetching objects and bringing them clear to me instead of dropping them along the way, so I rewarded him for it. I said I was starting to get the hang of it not that I was good at it, I suppose that was bad but whatever.

He started figuring out what I was after, but for the life of him couldn’t figure out why.

I love seeing him think. By the end he was getting it repeatedly.

Usually quitting and turning a horse out is the best reward you can offer for good behavior, not for him. He acts like I’m punishing him when I let him go. I am going to get him as soon as I finish this, which explains any lack of proof reading I’m in a hurry to go ride! And work on this mat training thing a little more.

Our ball was completely destroyed.  My always obliging husband was going to try to put more air in it for me but we found the large hole before we even tried. I grabbed another old slightly flat ball to try. It was too flat and wouldn’t roll around for him to chase. We used it anyway and it helped him get going then he was off and traveling pretty good on his own.

It was a nice ride, that’s all there is to say. He tosses his head up and back searching desperately for a cookie. It will fade with time and isn’t that big of a fault in the whole scheme of things. He walked pretty good, you can see in the video where I clicked him a few times after just getting a couple of good, willing, forward steps. He turns pretty well off his hind quarters, was yielding his hindquarters and giving to leg pressure. All that wet spaghetti noddleness is turning into beautiful suppleness as we achieve forward.

I’ve ridden and taken riding lessons my whole life and it feels like I have just discovered, first with Nev and now with Rusty, what people mean when they talk about the importance of forward. I remember discovering that instead of pulling him back onto his hindquarters Nev would spin so much better if I pushed him forward into the turn. Now I am experiencing it all  over again with Rusty and the Noodle thing. Hopefully I have learned enough to do a decent job this time around. I think I say that with every horse of mine that I start, with other people horses they were never around long enough, though still great learning experiences and it still applies. If only I had known when I started Coyote, Jerry, even Nev who I felt like I learned so much on, now I can take that and this new fangled clicker training stuff and think of the fun training Rusty is going to be. Hopefully. Then the with the next horse I start I’ll be thinking the same thing about Rusty, If only I had known.

I shouldn’t put all the videos here, there’s a lot but whatever it’s my blog I’ll do what I want 😉

Showing off his “brain muscle”

Or playing with balls. But that seemed a little wrong.

It’s been a very busy day, in the morning we went to play with Tanna at her house with her horse. We haven’t been out to see Jerry since Tanna got her, a visit was long over due. They are doing great together, Jerry looks really good and Tanna is doing such a good job with her. We worked on haunches in, serpentines and lead departures. Jerry was pretty lazy but as responsive as she could be in her reluctance to move.

As I was getting ready to leave Tanna asked about cow work. I had been wanting to work on that with the two of them then completely forgot once we got there. So I played cow. Form the first step Jerry, looked to me at least like she, remembered it. Her laziness disappeared, ears went back and she started working. She did good for not having done any cutting for years, she always has loved to work cattle.

This afternoon I got a chance to work Rusty. Yesterday I did not get a chance to work with him. We had a little weather related issue at the time I would have had a chance and I thought it might be best to abstain.

I had been watching a video showing how to get a horse to leave you, some people have trouble getting their horses to come to them I understand, not me. The technique was intriguing and I wanted to try it on it’s own but could also see possible ways to apply it to our riding.

So we practiced targeting our favorite ball. First with me on the ground:

Then in the saddle. No video of that of course, there really is no where to set my phone. I tried a couple of different places and got lots of video of sky, weeds and the ground with us occasionally walking past. So I got a few screen shots of those brief moments. If you click through them really fast it’s almost like watching a video.

He was happy to chase his ball, he bit it and pawed it and kicked it all over. We made a couple of laps around the arena with the ball bouncing off his stomach and between his legs. I loved it, here we are on his eighth ride doing things many people wouldn’t do on an old broke horse. Granted our forward is still limited but it is improving by leaps an bounds, plus we practiced steering and he was happy and enjoying the ride. Our ball may have reached the end of it’s life, I think he killed it picking it up and flinging it so enthusiastically. My one concern was that I was going to die for sure if it popped while he was standing on it or chewing on it while I was riding him, a real horse ball might be a good idea for this. But it didn’t explode and our two dollar walmart ball served its purpose, I think we got our monies worth out of it.

I promised to stop counting and even skipped writing about one ride, I think I succeeded. Mentioning a week doesn’t count.

He did great over the weekend. My patient, always concerned husband lead him around a little then let us off the leash to ride by ourselves. Rusty had been so reluctant to move at all on our last ride, I was feeling a little beat. This time he did good.

I had been talking to a friends husband, he got to go to a really great colt starting clinic last month and I wanted to hear everything he learned. That’s hard to manage at a kids birthday party, things like kids keep getting in the way. I mentioned our problem with forward. He said one of the things the guy talked about was exactly that, the lack of forward and straightness all colts have and how to work with it. He had recommended steering with one rein only and letting them circle until they reached your goal. It sounded fascinating and like the perfect cure. We had been using circles anyway to get movement and I have a bit of a tendency to apply a bit much rein pressure. This would fix all those problems.

We circled and circled and circled but we never got anywhere. Maybe if I had been there and seen first hand I would have had more luck but it just wasn’t getting us anywhere. So I fell back on the old standby. I asked for a step and clicked him when he went. Got a few more steps clicked, rewarded and all that. Finally he walked out nicely and we made it to the far end of the arena. I got off gave lots of scratches and treats.

I didn’t have a chance to work him again until today. It was our first time riding completely by ourselves. He was great. He is so light and responsive, I think that’s part of the reason he feels like a wet noodle. Touch him somewhere and he moves off of it, he’s doing some pretty sweeping turns on his hindquarters (for a baby that is 😉 ) and moves around well on his forequarters. Pick up the reins and his chin tucks right down, except when he’s reaching frantically for a cookie. But the wigglyness is fading a little, not becoming stiffness instead being transferred into forward, sometimes. It feels like even after years of riding and lessons I am just learning the basics. Forward equals straight, duh.

Our goal for the day was, again, the other side of the arena. It seems like a simple goal, and would be if not for the forward issue. Again I got a few steps and clicked him then tried for a few more. He would take a few then crank his neck up and around looking for his treat. He didn’t get one. Finally he gave three steps without stopping and I clicked him. Then four, then we walked nicely to the far side of the arena. I clicked him, gave him a good scratching and got off.

My goal is to make the far side fun to get to. Maybe next time we can make it to the far side and back around to it again. Yay for goals. He is coming nicely, I am very happy with taking it slow. There is no lunging, or round penning to take the edge off before getting on. I throw his saddle on and we walk out to the arena. He is not at all scared of me up on his back he just wants his next treat and to figure out how to get it. I can’t believe more people don’t give clicker training a try.

My mom keeps asking if he’s getting prettier. Either he is or I’m growing more fond of him, of course losing the winter coat helps. He didn’t have a pretty forehead, that was my main complaint, other than typical baby scrawniness. The other two are much older and have lots of character that shows in their foreheads. So I looked carefully and he seems to be growing some brain muscle. Tried to get some pictures of him but didn’t think I should pull out the camera while riding and the rest of the time he’s to close for a picture, this is all I could get.

Meh.

Seems like the best way to describe it. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t good. It’s the forward momentum thing still. He just doesn’t want to. If I had a round pen, one without a tree in the middle. If I had an arena, soft and without inward facing railroad ties. If I was braver and didn’t know I just fall off anytime a horse bucks. If there weren’t small children making things much more difficult and pressed for time. But there are is no way around all those if’s that make life (colt starting at least) so difficult.

I could move him over to the neighbors with the gorgeous arena and round pen, that might solve a few of the problems. There are more people around. Child liking people who might watch them sometimes. The arena is soft and deep. It is definitely worth considering if he doesn’t start to improve. But he wasn’t bad so there’s no need to get too worried.

Tanna came over, there’s no way I could do this without her, she’s awesome. She rode Coyote again and we didn’t even start out ponying him just followed. Kind of. He went pretty good I guess. He’s such a limp noodle. And he was pawing a lot and laying his ears back at coyote, and Daisy. He took off after her at a trot one time. I immediately hit him in the mouth. I am such an awesome rider.

I’m thinking about taking him out, into the big wide world. We could go around some of the bigger pens, keep him from getting so bored being cooped up. But I’m only so brave and Tanna great help though she is has never ponied anything before. Dallying can get a bit complicated and I would hate for her to lose any fingers. Or to lose me 😉

Oh well, we are in no rush and he’s doing alright. I remember feeling this way about him on the ground too, like we were making no progress at all.

And first ride off a leash, first ride with another horse. He rocked it.

Still trouble with forward momentum. He was great following Coyote as long as Tanna kept a hold of the lead rope but as soon as we took it off and tried to get him to follow on his own he said “no”. I got a few good steps and would click him but mostly we went in circles. He was giving good to the bit, moving off of my legs and didn’t offer to do anything bad, just wasn’t big on going. Need to pony him more I guess and patience.

There was one time he took off going great on his own. Daisy was determined to keep us company. She got up to move out of his way once and Rusty was off after her 🙂 Head down, ears perked, he was on her trail. Twice he went good like that, He got cookies and that was the perfect spot to end the ride.

He is kind of like riding a limp noodle. With that beautiful long neck of his and his still scrawny little body he bends, twists and flops all over the place. Not entirely a bad thing.

Actually got some pictures this time. My daughter was along for the fun and I gave her my phone to keep her busy. After a quick lesson in how to work it…

She almost even got us on film once or twice. Then got tired of it. …

So Tanna took over. Here he walked forward a little, got clicked and rewarded. Gave a turn on the fore quarters then went after Daisy. He gets so excited about getting treats, he sticks his head in the air with his lips going a million miles an hour. I’m working on getting him to just turn his head to the side and reach for it.

That was the end of the ride with him going nicely. Back at the house we played a rousing game of ball.

Then everybody piled on Coyote for some lessons and a very brief ride. I forgot, was to lazy to go back to the house and get for such a short ride, her helmet. I am a bad mother, but she survived. Trusty old Coyote behaved himself nicely.

Went out today just to say hi and work on a couple simple things Rusty has down already. A just for fun lesson between rides. The flies were awful. They were driving the horses insane. I went back to the house and mixed up a bottle of fly spray to take out for them.

They had followed me to the gate but disappeared into the shed by the time I got back. I squirted Rusty on the neck a couple times then clicked him just before he started to walk off. He slammed on the brakes and turned for his cookie. Then they all bolted. They ran and spooked and bucked Coyote did his signature kick at me with both hind feet to let me know what he thinks. I followed them back up to the gate where Rusty came running up to me.

I sprayed him down. He stood, mostly, pretty good with nothing holding him and the others still milling. He got lots of cookies. My daughters horse, Princess Onna stood alright. Coyote was having none of it. As I worked on, or chased around trying to work on, the other two Rusty chased me around attempting to insert himself between me and the other horse. Not sure he was consciously asking for fly spray but he sure wanted the attention, and reward he knew would follow, that they were getting.

I loved it. The two older broke horses being difficult and spooky while the colt begged for it. What a good pony.

Not that I plan to stop at three or anything but it was my goal. I had a trainer tell me one time that if you are training a horse and can’t get it ridden every day try to get three rides in a row, they’ll remember better that way. Or something like that. Besides I like to have goals.

Drug my hard working husband away from the garden this time to help me. He’s becoming an old pro and is very patient with all my orders, turn right, turn left, circle, bigger circle and so on. My biggest goal was to get Rusty to walk out from my cue not being led. He was not a fan. Then I remembered to click and reward him.

Even being led he did not want to walk away from the direction the other horses were. He would plant his feet and lean back against the pull of the lead rope. That’s when I would start with the orders 🙂 (turn him, circle, not so big, go this way, go that way, poor guy (not poor Rusty)) Then my brain kicked in a little and as soon as he took a couple of steps in the direction we were asking I would click him and we slammed on the brakes and turned for his treat. The next time I asked he went a little easier and even easier the next. Pretty soon he was walking right off to my cluck and squeeze.

We mostly walked around the arena. I tried to walk a couple of circles around my husband, like lunging. That didn’t work so well, Rusty wanted to run over him. Got turns on both quarters good stops and some zigzags so we could practice steering. He was starting to paw, his speak for getting frustrated, so we found a good spot rewarded him big and hopped off.

He did great, again. Hope we can keep up at this pace but I’m not going to fret if I can’t get back on him for a few days. Next time Tanna is over maybe she can ride Coyote and pony/ give us a horse to follow around.