Feeding Manners Update
Yesterday was day 15 of the feeding manners program. Overall Gunny has been less defensive, but it still crops up if I make a change. For example one night it was snowing with the wind coming from the North. If I would have fed him in our normal feeding spot, we would have been standing right out in the driving snow. It didn't sound fun for either of us, so I got his feed ready ahead of time and led him into the lean-to and reached down around the corner to get his feed. This worked great and he did very well that night. The next night we were back to our normal routine though, and he was back to being defensive at first.
Last night there was one point where his defensive expression changed to a more pushy one, he started tossing his head at me with his nose reached out and his ears partially back. I chose to back him up for that and he changed expression immediately. This made me start to wonder if now I need to change my approach again. I am going to stay with the current plan for a couple more days unless Gunny gets blatantly pushy or something. If there isn't more improvement in a couple of days, I am going to change tactics again.
Carolyn says that we need to have our horses court us. And also that we need to provide discipline and shaping like the herd would do. I think that in this case, I need to act as if I am his dam and I want him to be more polite at the buffet. So I have been thinking about how to go about that. I have also been thinking about whether the program I currently am doing is the most effective way I could go about it.
On a different note, with the walking faster than me thing, I think we have had a breakthrough. What made the difference was that instead of asking Gunny to slow down, if I feel like he is walking faster than I am, I will slow my pace even more and dare him to pass me. When he gets past the line that I have defined, I then drive him from behind in a circle. I keep it all at a walk, but I urge him to go each step of the way while he is in front of me. Then when the angle is right, I will turn and head in the original direction with him behind me. I have only had to do this twice. Each time, he will put his head down after about a half of a circle and I can tell he has decided that he doesn't need to tell me the speed we are going to walk. Now all I have to do if he gets a little speedy is to slow my steps down and he immediately slows down and keeps himself in position.
Last night there was one point where his defensive expression changed to a more pushy one, he started tossing his head at me with his nose reached out and his ears partially back. I chose to back him up for that and he changed expression immediately. This made me start to wonder if now I need to change my approach again. I am going to stay with the current plan for a couple more days unless Gunny gets blatantly pushy or something. If there isn't more improvement in a couple of days, I am going to change tactics again.
Carolyn says that we need to have our horses court us. And also that we need to provide discipline and shaping like the herd would do. I think that in this case, I need to act as if I am his dam and I want him to be more polite at the buffet. So I have been thinking about how to go about that. I have also been thinking about whether the program I currently am doing is the most effective way I could go about it.
On a different note, with the walking faster than me thing, I think we have had a breakthrough. What made the difference was that instead of asking Gunny to slow down, if I feel like he is walking faster than I am, I will slow my pace even more and dare him to pass me. When he gets past the line that I have defined, I then drive him from behind in a circle. I keep it all at a walk, but I urge him to go each step of the way while he is in front of me. Then when the angle is right, I will turn and head in the original direction with him behind me. I have only had to do this twice. Each time, he will put his head down after about a half of a circle and I can tell he has decided that he doesn't need to tell me the speed we are going to walk. Now all I have to do if he gets a little speedy is to slow my steps down and he immediately slows down and keeps himself in position.
Comments