Horsie Conversation Part 2
So today I planned on continuing with the food manners plus trying out the plan of stepping away out of respect and then making a request again and following through.
When I went out, Gunny left the hay feeder and trotted to the gate to meet me. We then haltered and went to play our feeding games. Today was day 4. We had a regression today. Where yesterday I thought he was getting it, today I felt like he understood what I wanted but clearly didn't want to concede to the new status quo. I ended up getting some extra helpings of feed to help get my point across. I did end up driving him away a couple of times when I felt he was getting caught in an ears back mode and it seemed like I needed to remind him to not be pushy many more times than in the past few days.
At one point I felt like he had disconnected from wanting to play the game, so I did a little bit of zone 5 driving to get his attention back onto me and what we were doing. When we went back to the manners stuff I was able to end with a really polite expression as I brought the feed to him and he really softly and politely put his nose into the bowl to take a bite. So I let him finish the last mouthful with the feeder on the ground.
The other thing that I wanted to try today was an idea that I got from a post Carolyn wrote to someone about a horse that would try to bite if you approached while he was eating. She said to approach and step back out of respect when the horse reached out to bite. Then to re-approach and when you reached the spot the horse had tried to bite, if the tried to bite again, then you should send him away from his feed and wait until he would stand calmly with ears forward and not trying to come back to the feed.
So I set up the same scenario that happened with the blanket yesterday only he didn't have a blanket on. I walked around him rubbing and scratching him and then got to his left side and asked him to take a step over. He put his ears back and didn't move. So I stepped back for a moment. The look on his face was hilarious--he was in disbelief. So I waited a moment and stepped back to his side and started rubbing him a bit. I asked him to move over and sure enough he pinned his ears again so I used my carrot stick to vigorously swish the air at the spot where I had asked him to move and as he moved I didn't move a muscle. He belly jumped out of the way and turned and looked at me with ears pricked in surprise. He licked his lips, dropped his head and turned his head away for a moment. I continued to just stay where I was until he finished licking and chewing and stuff. Then I softly asked him to move so he was in a better position to set up the same thing. I walked up to him and rubbed him and asked him to move over. He very softly moved to the side and kept a very nice expression so I rubbed him and turned and walked away.
I will have to see if it was just the element of surprise or if this is a way to show him that I really don't want to quarrel but that I will get what I want.
When I went out, Gunny left the hay feeder and trotted to the gate to meet me. We then haltered and went to play our feeding games. Today was day 4. We had a regression today. Where yesterday I thought he was getting it, today I felt like he understood what I wanted but clearly didn't want to concede to the new status quo. I ended up getting some extra helpings of feed to help get my point across. I did end up driving him away a couple of times when I felt he was getting caught in an ears back mode and it seemed like I needed to remind him to not be pushy many more times than in the past few days.
At one point I felt like he had disconnected from wanting to play the game, so I did a little bit of zone 5 driving to get his attention back onto me and what we were doing. When we went back to the manners stuff I was able to end with a really polite expression as I brought the feed to him and he really softly and politely put his nose into the bowl to take a bite. So I let him finish the last mouthful with the feeder on the ground.
The other thing that I wanted to try today was an idea that I got from a post Carolyn wrote to someone about a horse that would try to bite if you approached while he was eating. She said to approach and step back out of respect when the horse reached out to bite. Then to re-approach and when you reached the spot the horse had tried to bite, if the tried to bite again, then you should send him away from his feed and wait until he would stand calmly with ears forward and not trying to come back to the feed.
So I set up the same scenario that happened with the blanket yesterday only he didn't have a blanket on. I walked around him rubbing and scratching him and then got to his left side and asked him to take a step over. He put his ears back and didn't move. So I stepped back for a moment. The look on his face was hilarious--he was in disbelief. So I waited a moment and stepped back to his side and started rubbing him a bit. I asked him to move over and sure enough he pinned his ears again so I used my carrot stick to vigorously swish the air at the spot where I had asked him to move and as he moved I didn't move a muscle. He belly jumped out of the way and turned and looked at me with ears pricked in surprise. He licked his lips, dropped his head and turned his head away for a moment. I continued to just stay where I was until he finished licking and chewing and stuff. Then I softly asked him to move so he was in a better position to set up the same thing. I walked up to him and rubbed him and asked him to move over. He very softly moved to the side and kept a very nice expression so I rubbed him and turned and walked away.
I will have to see if it was just the element of surprise or if this is a way to show him that I really don't want to quarrel but that I will get what I want.
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