So many good things happening in a short time!
My distance coaching sessions with Julia Bell have recommenced after her maternity break (congratulations on the arrival of Rance Bell!), and since I'm taking riding lessons from Anne-Severine Douard Palmer, Julia and I are focusing on non-riding issues, in particular the trailering problem and also his cranky attitude about being groomed and handled.
Dublin does not like being groomed, especially from the neck to the flank. He likes his head being brushed and doesn't mind his rear end being groomed. Anything in between is likely to trigger flashing teeth, pinned ears, and pawing. He doesn't seem particularly painful, just territorial. Julia's thoughts are that, because he is tied for grooming, he probably feels a bit trapped, and if he's just been out on pasture, also like he's been rudely interrupted. Kind of like me if you try to get me to do work before I've had coffee. Solution: don't pull him out of pasture or his stall, tie him up, and immediately proceed to groom him. As she notes, the horse really doesn't care if he's groomed or not. I should try playing with him a bit before grooming him, establishing leadership through playing on the ground, and then groom him without tying him. If he gets cranky, go back to grooming an area he doesn't mind. And slow down. I'm usually on a mission to get the horse groomed and tacked up, and for an introverted horse that doesn't necessarily want to jump right into things (again, like me before coffee), it probably feels offensive. So we have been trying those tips with good results. The real key seems to be in slowing down the grooming process. I tend to brush him like I'm scrubbing the bathroom tile (who am I kidding, I never do that, mainly because I don't have tile in the bathroom). Once I slowed the brush down to a speed that was more like a gentle stroke instead of a brisk scrub, the horse relaxed considerably. So we're making strides.
The trailering issue is more complex. Previous blog posts have described in detail the nature of the problem--not wanting to load, pawing, kicking, coming out of the trailer dripping in sweat. It sounds pretty straightforward--he's claustrophobic--but he's only hard to load if he's just been trailered. In between actual rides, he hops quite happily in the trailer, doesn't mind the divider and door being closed, and stands quietly. I can also move the trailer back and forth in the driveway without any drama. So the fact that he ends trailer rides dripping sweat indicates that the problem is fear, not dominance, but what is he afraid of? It doesn't seem to be the trailer. It doesn't even seem to be a moving trailer. I tried bringing Cowboy along once but that was a disaster (read earlier post). I doubt it was a disaster because Cowboy was along, but on the other hand, it didn't make things better. So it doesn't seem to be separation anxiety. We thought it might be fear of leaving home, so I tried walking him around the block, but that made him quite happy. The poor guy is probably ready for a change of scenery. So not much clarification on what the fear issue is, but meanwhile, I've been loading him in the trailer, asking for a bit more enthusiasm (yes Ma'am!), and then leaving him standing in there for as long as possible, noting when he shows signs of anxiety. The first time, he pawed after five minutes, I told him to knock it off, and he did. I left him another few minutes until I got bored, and let him out. No problem. Yesterday I tried it again and he loaded nicely and stood quietly. Enter Cowboy, the drama queen, who realized that his pasture buddy was out of sight and clearly the world was about to end. He started streaking up and down the fenceline, shrieking at the top of his lungs. All this was in close proximity to where Dublin was standing in the trailer, and Dublin stood like a rock. No signs of anxiety. After about 15 minutes, I moved the trailer up and down the driveway. This time he started pawing, and I tapped the breaks to bump him a bit and interrupt the pattern. That worked nicely.
Today was lesson time, and I got him in the trailer and off we went. He started pawing, I bumped the brakes a bit, he quit. We had a nice quiet ride over to the lesson and while he was a bit damp, he was certainly not dripping like he did in the past. We haven't gotten perfection yet, but we sure have a heck of a lot of improvement.
On to riding. There is nothing like taking up a new discipline to make you feel like a rank beginner and idiot. Even though I've been riding for more years than I care to admit, I have never taken a dressage lesson. I've been drooling over all that beautiful, fluid movement for years (hence, the dressage lessons), but have never pursued lessons, largely because I couldn't find an instructor whose philosophy I liked. I have found that instructor in Anne-Severine Douard Palmer. So now I am finally learning how to make that beautiful movement possible, and let's just say it is not by riding the way I've been riding all these years. All those mistakes that I smugly thought I wasn't making--turns out I've been making all of them and just haven't been aware of it. There is nothing like an instructor and a video camera to make this obvious. So it has been a frustrating and painful un-learning experience, but we are getting results. My main boo-boos are that I lean too far forward and am not still enough. In my head, I am sitting up correctly and don't have any superfluous movement going on, but video cameras and the horse don't lie. I think the horses are quite happy that I am taking lessons!
Dublin's main issue when being ridden is that he just doesn't want to move. Resistance is his middle name, and when asked for forward motion, he's likely to ask "why should I?". Why indeed? And I tend to resort to nagging, which is spectacularly ineffective. I was referred to a Parelli video on the topic recently and picked up some tips, which were quite effective and quite simple, and without too much ado, Dublin finally threw in the towel and has started moving out nicely. We also put boots on his front feet (he's barefoot, and can be a bit tender), and that has probably helped as well--although he was pretty resistant with the boots on for a bit. He's been on California Trace Minerals for a couple months now and his feet have shown some marked improvement. Anyway, it all came together and today he was moving very happily and energetically forward. Anne even decided we should do a bit of cantering. Dublin has a pretty big canter, especially compared to Cowboy the Quarter Horse, and even though it is lovely and delightful to ride, it is still a little intimidating to me. So I've been going into it tense and timid, and that's where the leaning forward and moving too much have really been hampering our progress. Dublin starts to go into a canter, and then wonders what the heck I'm doing up there and stops. So I'm getting some good instruction and mustering up some gumption, and we got a couple lovely, lovely canters today. Gosh, it really isn't the horse's fault.
All in all, some really great progress being made here, and Dublin is turning into the dream horse I had hoped he would be! He is also looking pretty spectacular and I had hoped to get some photos, but of course he rolled before I could get my camera and was not very excited about getting prettied up. Photo shoot is on tomorrow's agenda!
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