Post by el on May 29, 2014 20:30:55 GMT
DAY 22: LOADING
Well 'Sunshine' (new member on the board!) has arrived over to visit I was over at Marks in UK, including Aikido, and then we sent to see Martin who was fab. Notes coming soon.
So this morning, as its about 5 days to loading him for the 1st time in 4 years. So out came the horse box into the paddock. The whole thing took 3 hours.
!!
At the start he went on ok, but wasn't staying on for long & reversing back out. So I was working on keeping him busy, then have the horsebox as a relief. This didn't work hugely well.. what ended up happening was a lot of running around and then Oz getting less & less interested in going into the box. Worked as well on Martins techniques about getting horse to move sideways and forwards simultaneously.. making sure both HQ and FQ are moving sideways. Anyway, long story short the whole session started ok, got better and then started to get worse and we were rarely in the box...
Luckily Sunshine & Dad were watching. What they saw that was I had lost 'forward', and that Oz would escape by backing up away from the box, when I put on pressure and he didn't want to go in.
Also - Oz tends to shake his head, then plant his shoulders and get stuck... this is something he does a little in riding, and it can result in a lot of stored energy which feels like it will go up (makes sense as the shoulders are stuck!) but it was interesting to see someone else notice it and make me realise I need to free up the shoulders asap and keep him moving forward.
Also - Sunshine said that when Oz was asked to do something he was happy with, he was fine. But when I asked him to do something, he didn't want to do, he got worried about it, leading to head shakes, shoulders getting planted, going backwards.
So - Sunshine kindly took over (I was glad of the break as we had got to a stalemate) and got Oz circling around in trot & canter.. at the start Oz was worried and unbalanced on the circles and nearly fell over at one stage, but he relaxed, Sunshine got him to move out his HQ and get more balanced, and he went well.
With forwards now installed, Sunshine got him into the box a good few times, much better than he had gone in all day. Oz does get really worried in the box. But again this is probably partially due to being put in the box and its not his idea really, so he gets worried in general, then you add in the fact he's in the box.
He's still only mentally half way in the box, so more work tomorrow, and if we can get to the stage where his head is 100% in the box, and we can leave him in the box for an hour or two while still, that'd be great. We'll see how he goes.
Martin Black had some good tips on clastraphobic horses... leave them in the box for hours and do short tips, then take a break. He said he'd put a horse into a box, then go into town, do all his shopping, meet friends, etc. The horse just gets to chill out with short trips & also relaxed in the box in between. Also - give horse room in the box, and allow the head to move, including downwards as he needs this to balance. So don't cross tie (I was cross tying).
A big day! We'll see what happens tomorrow. Thanks SUNSHINE!
Well 'Sunshine' (new member on the board!) has arrived over to visit I was over at Marks in UK, including Aikido, and then we sent to see Martin who was fab. Notes coming soon.
So this morning, as its about 5 days to loading him for the 1st time in 4 years. So out came the horse box into the paddock. The whole thing took 3 hours.
!!
At the start he went on ok, but wasn't staying on for long & reversing back out. So I was working on keeping him busy, then have the horsebox as a relief. This didn't work hugely well.. what ended up happening was a lot of running around and then Oz getting less & less interested in going into the box. Worked as well on Martins techniques about getting horse to move sideways and forwards simultaneously.. making sure both HQ and FQ are moving sideways. Anyway, long story short the whole session started ok, got better and then started to get worse and we were rarely in the box...
Luckily Sunshine & Dad were watching. What they saw that was I had lost 'forward', and that Oz would escape by backing up away from the box, when I put on pressure and he didn't want to go in.
Also - Oz tends to shake his head, then plant his shoulders and get stuck... this is something he does a little in riding, and it can result in a lot of stored energy which feels like it will go up (makes sense as the shoulders are stuck!) but it was interesting to see someone else notice it and make me realise I need to free up the shoulders asap and keep him moving forward.
Also - Sunshine said that when Oz was asked to do something he was happy with, he was fine. But when I asked him to do something, he didn't want to do, he got worried about it, leading to head shakes, shoulders getting planted, going backwards.
So - Sunshine kindly took over (I was glad of the break as we had got to a stalemate) and got Oz circling around in trot & canter.. at the start Oz was worried and unbalanced on the circles and nearly fell over at one stage, but he relaxed, Sunshine got him to move out his HQ and get more balanced, and he went well.
With forwards now installed, Sunshine got him into the box a good few times, much better than he had gone in all day. Oz does get really worried in the box. But again this is probably partially due to being put in the box and its not his idea really, so he gets worried in general, then you add in the fact he's in the box.
He's still only mentally half way in the box, so more work tomorrow, and if we can get to the stage where his head is 100% in the box, and we can leave him in the box for an hour or two while still, that'd be great. We'll see how he goes.
Martin Black had some good tips on clastraphobic horses... leave them in the box for hours and do short tips, then take a break. He said he'd put a horse into a box, then go into town, do all his shopping, meet friends, etc. The horse just gets to chill out with short trips & also relaxed in the box in between. Also - give horse room in the box, and allow the head to move, including downwards as he needs this to balance. So don't cross tie (I was cross tying).
A big day! We'll see what happens tomorrow. Thanks SUNSHINE!