I love thunderstorms. I have been craving a good thunderstorm since March when spring first arrived. I think there have been a few electric storms at night after I was asleep, but not during the day. Finally, Sunday afternoon, it thunderstormed. We went out to feed the horses right before the storm, but they could sense it, so they wouldn't even come into the barn to eat.
I'm really sorry to say that my brother got many, many more videos, but somewhere between his camera and my computer they were destroyed so that you can only hear the audio, without visual. I made the rookie mistake of deleting the originals. I'm really, really bummed about it. The quality was way better on them thanks to my brother who took all my photos and videos. Gambler and I had a very eventful day and thankfully my bro was there to catch every minute of it. Of course, now I don't have much to show for it. At least the two videos taken on a different camera will work.
In the first video that was destroyed, I let Gambler off of the line to go play with the ball. In the clip it is pretty easy to see why I prefer to do that offline. Gambler was even more enthusiastic than usual. It was like watching a little boy play soldier. My little gelding was pretending to be a big bad stallion. I was very proud of him in the end. He cantered away from the "big bad enemy stallion" and then trotted back to the ball to reengage. However, when I asked him to stop and pay attention to me instead, he promptly went from "wild stallion" to loyal friend in a matter of seconds.
We played a lot with tarps and going through tight spaces, but those videos were lost as well.
Gambler and I played two of the same games we played yesterday: stick to me and catching me.
Stick to me is the game where I ask Gambler to walk beside me and trot, turn, stop, and back up when I say so. Today I really emphasized yielding the forequarters and the hindquarters.
Catching me is the game where I let Gambler loose and play the stay with me game with him until he wanders off. When his butt is to me I add pressure, but when he turns to face me I back off. In the end I found that disengaging his hindquarters work really well to bring him to me.
These are the only two videos I have. I'm really, really disappointed. Not so much because I can't show you, but because now those moments are lost. That and my brother put a lot of effort into them. Oh well, I've learned my lesson!
Gambler and I didn't do much liberty-wise today. We did however do a lot of liberty prep work. I got a few videos, but again, they aren't the best quality. I'm a perfectionist, so it is killing me. I have to convince my brother to be my photographer. It just isn't the same without zooming in and out. Plus when you don't have someone to turn the camera to face you all the best parts happen off camera. The first video I have is of Gambler in his new bell boots. I've decided that they fit him, since he can walk and trot in them without slipping or tripping and so far they aren't rubbing him anywhere. Gambler on the other hand, is still kinda convinced that they are going to eat him. He wasn't doing a full-blown Spanish walk like the other day (when we didn't have a camera), but he still picks his feet up extra high.
The second video is a game that I've heard called by many different names. Basically it is just practicing leading etiquette. I hold the lead rope in the hand farthest away from Gambler and hold the stick and string in the hand closest to him. Then using my body, voice, and the stick and string I ask Gambler to walk, trot, stop, back up, and turn when I do. Today was the first time I ever asked him to trot so he takes a while to pick it up and I reward him immediately after. Later I will expect him to respond faster and trot for longer periods of time.
The third video is about troubleshooting. No horse and rider team is perfect. Gambler and I have just as many issues as anyone else. Gambler has this one corner where he gets stuck and doesn't want to move forward in the circle. He just backs up when I cue him to go forward. In the video you can see him stop and back up when I ask him to go forward. I shorten the line and continue to add pressure until he moves in the direction I am asking him to go. NOTICE: I do not once hit my horse with the stick and string, you can hear it hitting the ground. Once he moves forward I change my body position so that I am walking beside him in a smaller circle. This gives me more driving force so that he can't stop and back up again. After he has walked several circles without getting stuck in that corner, I bring him in and reward him. You can see him lower his head for an ear scratch in the end, showing that he is submissive and calm.
So the best parts that I mentioned earlier did not make it into the videos. After practicing the game seen in my second video I took the lead off of Gambler and played another game. This game is usually called catching me. I started off playing the leading game without a rope until Gambler decided to walk away. I let him walk away and drove him away from me. I didn't ask him to go faster than a walk or trot, just to move away from me. The rules of the game are as follows: if Gambler is facing away from me he has to keep moving, but if he faces me he can stop or come to me for an ear rub and a rousing "Good boy!" He came to me and left me and came to me again, but by the third time he was starting to get it. I thought that was a good place to stop. That game required me to move around a lot and it was a very hot, sweaty day.
Per request, I took some videos of playtime with Gambler today. They aren't the most professional videos, due to the fading light and my non-stop commentary (What? I like to talk to my horse!). However, they should prove helpful to anyone who is interested in playing similar games with their horse.
The Parelli 7 Games are the basis for all of the games I play, so if you are really serious about playing with you horse I definitely recommend researching their methods. That being said, I have modified the games quite a bit to fit my horse's personality. The games that I play with Gambler are specifically intended for a high-energy, playful horse. I bring in exciting new things like saddle blankets, tarps, poles, and bandanna's, so that he doesn't get bored. There are a lot of horses that would react fearfully to these new things and need a slower, gentler approach, but this is what works with my horse.
The first video demonstrates the basic cues I use to move Gambler from one place to the next. When I introduce the stick and sting you will notice that I completely relax and lower my energy. This tells him "Yes, the string is smacking the ground, but I'm not telling you to move just yet." Then I use the 12' rope to bring him to me and drive him away. I make him wait for a moment at the end of the rope, before sending him off in a circle.
The second video introduces a saddle pad. I used a dirty saddle pad that I was already going to clean, so that I didn't mess up a nice one. In the video I ask Gambler to approach the saddle pad and reward him by releasing pressure when he sniffs it and paws it. I ask him to move on sooner than I normally would with a new object, because I didn't want him to damage it by pawing.
The third video introduces two new objects, the bandanna on the stick and the tarp. Gambler and I have played with both of these objects before, but he still finds them fun and interesting. I follow the same steps with the tarp as I did with the saddle pad. I ask for him to approach it and reward him for touching it. Once he seems comfortable with the tarp, I ask him to walk over it from different angles.
I hope that these videos are helpful to the people who asked for them. I will definitely upload some more (with better lighting) soon, possibly tomorrow.
