So here are some observations, be they significant or trivial…..I don’t know….but I found them interesting. During session 1, I let Rose walk forward during the leg lift, as all I wanted was for her to understand that a tap on the leg meant to pick it up, but I really didn’t want it going back wards. Most of the time, before she picked up the back leg in question, she would take a step forward with one of her front legs, but I kept tapping until the hind leg in question was picked up. When training a horse, no matter what you use for a cue, no matter what you use as motivation for them to listen to the cue….it is the RELEASE that teaches…..ALWAYS. So, be it intentional or unintentional, what ever the horse is doing when you release….that action is what you just taught them, whether it is the desired response or not. So if I release when the leg is going back ward, or if I release when the front leg moves…..that is what she will think I asked for. So I tried to be impeccable in my timing of the release. I noticed I was not that quick in my strength or coordination to rub with the stick as she quickly placed it back on the ground.
Another consideration of mine was the tapping and not wanting to do ANY harm to her. In many natural horsemanship schools, the pressure is gradually increased until you finally get the desired response. You always start as softly as possible, but if the horse has NO reaction to your request, at some point it could become stronger than you desire, simply because if you stop when the horse has done nothing, well then you just taught her to ignore the pressure and next time will be even harder to get a response. But as I started to tap her legs, I was looking at it, thinking of all the delicate structure between the skin and bone and I really didn’t want to cause any bruising, so as Riz suggests, I kept relatively the same amount of pressure and just tapped in different spots, looking for one that evoked the desired response….for her to pick up her leg. This is how I found the spot high on the inside of the near leg and the stifle on the outside leg.
During session 2, since she remembered the lesson the day before and we were able to pick up right where we left off, and because she is the type of horse that gets bored quickly and loves to learn stuff, we moved on. I decided that maybe I could ask her to hold the leg up a little. But, again, my coordination with the stick was a bit slow and I couldn’t rub quickly enough, and that is her cue that she has nailed something on the head. I also noticed she started to take a step back, when I tried to not let her creep forward. Also that she would often pick up the opposite back leg first, then pick up the leg I was asking her to lift. I had to stop and scratch my head and think it through. I decided to tie her and use my hands on her legs, something I feel for the two of us is safe. During this part of the session I was able to help her quickly understand that I was requesting her to HOLD the leg in the air. That is when I noticed, or rather it became clear to me, that when she was moving those feet, she was searching for balance so she COULD hold the leg up for me. Had I done things to make her feel wrong for doing that, she might have given up all together. I also ran out of cookies too, this may or may not have helped her focus more, I don’t know yet.
I am sitting her pondering, could a more novice person recognize things like this? Is it even relevant that *I* recognized these things? Good questions for sure.
Savvy On
Michelle
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