BFO Regarding Slowing Down
On Monday I was walking Gunny up and down the driveway, which is the only current area suitable for walking outside. Anyways, on the way back I was asking him to slow down with a feel on the lead rope. I realized that there has been a difference between the way that I ask him to slow down when on the ground compared to if I was riding. Or actually I already knew that there was a difference but I hadn't figured out how to make one translate to another.
I had been doing a couple of different things when on the ground. Sometimes I would be like a moving post and set my pace and if he walked faster then he would run out of slack and theoretically slow down to give himself slack again. Sometimes I would wiggle the rope yo-yo style when he walked faster than I was walking. Sometimes I would slow my body down and want him to stay even with me. And sometimes I would actually back him up each time he sped up with the idea being that he would start to anticipate backing up and would slow down.
All of these things worked to a degree but usually I got something other than a slower walk. Gunny might have ended up back where I wanted him but it usually involved him stopping or yielding his HQ's or something and then we would start again. What I thought I was doing was showing him where I wanted him to be or making the wrong thing difficult so he would then decide that walking the speed that I wanted was the smart thing to do and he would slow himself down.
On Monday, when we were walking along at a relaxed, medium speed, I asked him to slow down with a feel on the lead rope and then released and repeated until he slowed down then I slowed down. And it dawned on me that that is what would happen if I was on his back too. So, it is just a slight difference in timing and thought process, but to Gunny it makes a big difference in understanding.
So we continue on in the vein of, "well, have you asked him to walk slow?" and once again the answer seems to be the simple, easy one.
I had been doing a couple of different things when on the ground. Sometimes I would be like a moving post and set my pace and if he walked faster then he would run out of slack and theoretically slow down to give himself slack again. Sometimes I would wiggle the rope yo-yo style when he walked faster than I was walking. Sometimes I would slow my body down and want him to stay even with me. And sometimes I would actually back him up each time he sped up with the idea being that he would start to anticipate backing up and would slow down.
All of these things worked to a degree but usually I got something other than a slower walk. Gunny might have ended up back where I wanted him but it usually involved him stopping or yielding his HQ's or something and then we would start again. What I thought I was doing was showing him where I wanted him to be or making the wrong thing difficult so he would then decide that walking the speed that I wanted was the smart thing to do and he would slow himself down.
On Monday, when we were walking along at a relaxed, medium speed, I asked him to slow down with a feel on the lead rope and then released and repeated until he slowed down then I slowed down. And it dawned on me that that is what would happen if I was on his back too. So, it is just a slight difference in timing and thought process, but to Gunny it makes a big difference in understanding.
So we continue on in the vein of, "well, have you asked him to walk slow?" and once again the answer seems to be the simple, easy one.
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