Paytime!

Gambler has an itchy chin from tick bites.

Yesterday I had an overwhelming itch to play with my horse (pun intended). For the last few months, Gamby and I have been focused on riding and more traditional training methods. Somehow, I lost sight of where I started: natural horsemanship. While reading some article on the Parelli website, I caught the bug. I just wanted to play. On top of that, certain responsibilities (library books were due) took up most of my Gambler time, leaving me with only an hour or so. That really isn't enough time to play, saddle up, play more, and ride, so I decided just to see where we were in the seven games. 

First I walked out into the pasture to catch him. Gambler isn't a hard horse to catch (unless it is uber windy), but I don't have much time with him, so he knows that when I come out with the halter he has to work. I don't like it, but I don't have the time right now to just sit in the pasture and read a book with him. Anyway, I wanted to make haltering a more pleasurable experience. 

I started by asking Gambler to approach me. Instead of walking straight up to him and Kezi, I walked in an arch toward them, approaching their shoulders from slightly behind. Gambler turned and faced me, but didn't come when I called. I arched around them. Walking in a half-circle from Gambler's left shoulder (about 100 ft away), in front of him, and to his right shoulder (a few feet closer). I would have repeated this until he approached me, but he walked over to me right then. Instead of sticking the halter on right away, I scratched his itchy spots. Then I asked him to yield his hindquarters at liberty. Finally, I put the halter on him. Rather, Gambler put the halter on himself. I've taught him to stick his nose into the halter. At that point, I usually lead him into the arena, but instead I played the friendly game out in the pasture. 

Isn't she beautiful?

This was when Kezi and I had a discussion. Kezi knows that when I put the halter on Gambler, I am going to walk them both to the barn. She didn't appreciate the delay, so while I was playing with Gambler, she pined her ears and headed for his butt. Now I've had trouble with Kezi in the pasture before. She is a great horse, but she and I don't interact much, so we haven't had the "who is actually in charge discussion." When I walk Gambler in from the pasture she tends to wait behind until we are almost to the barn and then gallop up beside Gambler and behind me. Needless to say, that situation makes me uncomfortable. 

So when Kezi tried to herd Gambler into the barn without my consent, I informed her that I was the lead mare. First, I glared at her and raised my energy. Second, I gave my best impression of an angry-mare-squeal. Third, I threw the end of my rope at her (another reason I like 12' lead lines. Soon all I had to do was look at Kezi and she would leave Gambler alone. Gambler was a dream through all of this. He has gotten to the point where he will stand there and let me do my thing, so that I only have to worry about one horse at a time. 

After all of that, I walked Gambler into the arena and started off with the friendly game. It had been raining, but it stopped, so I used my raincoat. Gambler caught on much faster on his left side than his right. 

After he licked and chewed, accepting the flapping coat over, under, and on each side of his body, I moved on to the driving game, moving his hindquarters and forequarters. I really need to work on the porcupine game, because it is a weakness of Gambler's, but it is just so much easier to use the driving game, which he understands. 

Caught kissing.

Here I'm playing the friendly game between hindquarter yields, rubbing Gambler with the carrot stick to make sure that he is obeying out of respect for my energy, not fear of my tools.

Then I played the yo-yo game. Asking Gambler to back away from me and then asking him to come in to me. 

Giving him "the look." Then shaking a finger. Then shaking the rope (while it is on the ground so he can see it but not feel it through the halter).

Shaking the rope so that he feels it through the halter.

Snuggles after I ask him to come back to me.

The next game is the circling game. Usually I use a combination of the Parelli circling game and traditional longeing. Today, however, I wanted to see if Gambler would circle the Parelli way. I had a couple of reasons for trying it. 1) I had tried it before and Gambler didn't understand, so I wanted to see if our communication has improved. 2) I've had a hard time convincing Gambler to maintain the canter, and the Parelli circling game is all about giving the horse the responsibility to maintain gait instead of micro-managing them. 3) Along the lines of reason 2, I wanted to give Gambler more responsibility and keep him from "checking out" during the circling game. 

I am standing in the middle of the circle, stick resting against my waist, leg cocked, not even looking at Gambler. Everything about me in relaxed. Notice that he has one ear on me waiting for a cue to come in or go faster.

Snuggles after I asked him to come in.

And back to it

At the trot

Asking him to come in to me using the yo-yo game

Asking him to back out onto the circle again with the yo-yo game.

More trotting.

He is bending nicely around me here (note the slack in the rope).

I switched to the 22' rope to give him more room. Here you can see that he continued to move in the same direction at the same speed even behind my back.

Tossing the rope over my head.

Using my body language to ask Gambler to canter. Notice that his front legs are mimicking mine.

My overall goal for my time with Gambler was to play with him. I wanted to play more exciting games and really get his energy up, because I know that this is what Gambler loves most. But I've had a good reason for not playing like this much. When Gambler is playful, his energy level rises, and he tends to become dominant. He bucks and rears and strikes and bites. These are all normal playtime antics for horses, but obviously Gambler needs to learn to respect my space. I am not a horse - it is way easier for me to get hurt!

That is why I started out the session with the games, beginning with the basics. I started out by getting in tune with Gambler and reminding him that he needs to follow my direction. Then we did the fun stuff!

As I expected, Gambler loved the jump. But as I expected, he became overly excited and blew threw my signals. He locked onto the jumps, bolted into a canter before I even asked, over-jumped them (or jumped them at an angle), and then either bolted away or started bucking. None of those behaviors are wrong. I definitely want him to enjoy jumping, running around, and kicking up his heels; but when I am with him he has to follow my direction. So we went back to the circling game until he settled down again. 

"I DON'T WANNA STOP!"

His movement changes a lot when he's excited.

"I HAVE TO KEEP RUNNING."

Here he tried to power through me and jump the jump again, but I stopped him.

That is more like it.

Calm and in tune.

Once he was calm again. I worked on his leading manners. I walked beside him some and then I walked in front of him for a while. I practice things like changing sides, stopping, and backing up. 

I was walking forward and then I stopped and told him to back up. Instead he reared. This is either as he was taking off or as he was landing.

It is tempting when something like that happens to back off out of fear, but Gambler was challenging my leadership, so immediately I told him to back up again, with more energy.

I rewarded the proper response.

And then asked again.

And again.

And rewarded good behavior.

Then we stood together. I itched his itches and snuggled him some more.

This is the cause of our huge breakthrough earlier this year. Gambler hated mounting prep, until one day I came out and did this while he was eating. Once he made the connection between riding and snuggling he was much more open to it.