Lesson Plan Workshop: Break It Down
Now that we have the preliminary information that we need, we are ready to start putting it together into a Lesson Plan. First, look at your goal and start to break it down into all of the elements that you can think of. An element is a basic piece or a very small step. Think of your goal in terms of the following list to help you define the elements. You only need to answer the questions that make sense for your goal. Think in terms of the finished, ideal form you want the behavior to look and feel like:
Next week we will put all the pieces together by looking at the elements of our final goal in relationship to the elements of our starting point and filling in the steps between plus considering what we learned from looking at past obstacles and past successes.
Please ask any questions you might have. Learning how to think in terms of separate elements can be difficult at first because we are used to lumping things together.
- Mental--what are the small pieces the horse needs to understand? Are there things that you need to understand?
- Emotional--What emotion does the horse need to have. Or what does the horse need to do emotionally?
- Physical--What does the horse need to do in their body? What do you need to do in your body?
- Environmental--What is the environment like that you want the horse to be able to perform the completed goal in?
- Distance--How far away from you is your goal behavior? How many steps in a row of the goal behavior do you want?
- Duration--How long do you want the horse to maintain the goal behavior?
- Discrete steps--Are there separate, specific steps to your goal behavior?
Next week we will put all the pieces together by looking at the elements of our final goal in relationship to the elements of our starting point and filling in the steps between plus considering what we learned from looking at past obstacles and past successes.
Please ask any questions you might have. Learning how to think in terms of separate elements can be difficult at first because we are used to lumping things together.
Comments
mentally: Java needs to understand that the saddle does not hurt. I need to understand that a saddle has hurt her and she remembers and is anticipating pain... ( is this the "rescue horse" state of mind that I falling into?? ) ok soo.. other thoughts..
mentally in a different thought: Java needs to understand that she can not tell me NO when i approach her to put the saddle on. I need to tell her to stop saying no to the saddle.- maybe mentally think that i am just going to put it on and none of javas crap is going to happen... end of story...
emotionally: java needs to relax - and realize i am going to win (oh damn now I am playing the dominant game.. )
she needs to relax.
physically: she needs to keep her head down- i need to release my shoulders and neck and lightly set the saddle on her..
duration: when i approach to saddle her.. remain calm and relaxed.
STEPS:
1- able to walk to java without a saddle without her nose coming to me and her remaining relaxed and me touching her back.
2- step 1 with pad.
3- step 2 plus saddle.
ok holly i am getting a little stuck.. i think i need some feed back on what you think about my "mentally" category? what do you think? am i giving her an excuse..
How about you change the wording of your goal? Maybe to something like: I want Java to calmly and willingly stand for saddling.
As you are thinking about these essences, try to not think about the how-to steps so much, except when you get to the discrete steps part. Next week is when we will actually be putting all of this into the how do achieve it plan. So for mentally, it will simply be that you want Java to understand to stand still. And that she understands each step of the saddling process.
For emotionally, you want her to be calm and accepting of the saddle.
See how that isn't bringing any assumptions about the how or the why into it yet?
And no, you are not giving her an excuse. Right now you are looking at how to achieve your goal. To me, the type of excuse that doesn't do the horse any good is when that becomes the reason for not fixing the problem. You are trying to figure it out and understand that the reason this problem exists is because of your saddling difficulties from the past.
Does this help?
~Holly
I had a couple more thoughts--so anyways, there are probably more mental pieces for you and for her but try to think of them with what I said in my previous comment.
right?
well let me know if i am on the right track...
another way i think would be that with tail swishing..
emotionally : I want java to leave her tail lay relaxed for our session.
???
OK, I think that I am somehow not making this clear, so I will try again. Mentally, what would you need to understand in order for you and Java to successfully achieve your goal? Not only to achieve the goal successfully, but what would you need to understand when problems crop up? So, another mental piece for you is to identify why Java would be swishing her tail? There is more than one answer here and you need to identify as many as possible. Then another piece of mentally (for the human) would be for you to be able to ID which of those possibilities it most likely is.
Emotionally, for this goal, I think is simply that you want Java to be calm and accepting. And maybe for you to be calm and patient. (At this point there is no need to identify why she isn't calm and accepting or how you are going to make her calm and accepting.)
And duration is usually measure in a number. So in this case you want to define how many minutes you expect her to stand still. (See how that is just a piece--independent of the rest?) So if you decide it takes you five minutes to saddle then your duration is five minutes. Also notice how I say you want her to stand still and you say you want her to not move her feet... Can you see the difference in where each statement puts your focus? When you talk about Java not moving her feet, what picture comes to mind? Probably Java moving her feet and you thinking you don't want her to do that. :) But when you think of Java standing still you see Java standing still.
Does that help more?
~Holly
Mentally, I need to know how to ask a horse to speed up and to slow down. I need to think of reasons why Gunny might want to go faster than I want to go, or slower than I want to go. Gunny needs to be able to understand my request to slow down, or speed up.
Emotionally, I want Gunny to be calm and willing. For me I need to be calm and patient.
Physically, Gunny's feet need to slow down in response to my request to slow down. Or speed up in response to my request to speed up.
Duration: I ultimately want Gunny to maintain the slower pace for up to five minutes. If I ask him to walk faster I want him to maintain the faster pace for up to two minutes.
Environment: I ultimately want Gunny to respond to these requests out on the trail, even in a strange place.
Discrete steps: For slowing down I slide my hand down the lead rope and hold for a moment, Gunny feels my request, understands it, and slows his feet down. For speeding up, I cluck and lead with my hand and Gunny responds with an increase in foot speed.
I think that about covers it.
~Holly
mentally i need to learn how to tell java to relax her tail
so emotionally, I want java to be clam and willing. I need to be calm and patient.
physically javas body needs to stand still and her tail needs to lay flat.
duration: i want java to stand still for 5 minutes
steps: for standing still i place javas hoof on a "spot"
okay pretty sure i got it now:) i think i was trying to put wayyyyyyy too much stuff into it at once...
OK, I have been trying to lead you to the answer that I am thinking of, but you are so on the road that you are on, you don't see another one.
How about putting some more thought into investigating why Java is swishing her tail? This is a communication and the solution lies in finding out what she is communicating about and then fixing that element. Once you fix that element, the tail will lie still.
The rest of your elements are good. But for mental, instead of learning how to tell Java to relax her tail, you need to figure out elements that she could be reacting to and then come up with a plan to tell you which one it is.
I will cover more of this in next week's post, but for now think of elements such as sight, sound, touch, feel, motion, parts of the saddle, and any other little variable you can think of.
So for mental you will have a list of things for you to test to figure out where you need to go with your plan. For example, maybe you determine that the difficulty comes from the sound and the sight of the stirrups being lifted up (this is just for discussion, not based on any idea of what Java's issue is truly stemming from)--then you would know that mentally for Java you need to come up with a plan that works with the sounds the saddle makes and also lessons that deal with the sight of the stirrups being lifted up. Then once you solve each of these elements of her difficulty, you might find that she quits swishing her tail, but still doesn't stand still. So then you deal with those pieces.
I will explain more of this part next week, but just wanted to get you on the right track for now.
Have a good night,
Holly
Mental - I need to find the correct way to ask Boogs to put his head down at both speeds. Boogs needs to understand what I am asking.
Emotional - I want Boogs to be calm and not shut down. I need to be patient.
Physical - Boogs head needs to stay level with his withers and not raise above at either speed.
Environmental- I want Boogs to be able to do this no matter where we are.
Duration - AT a walk I would like Boogs to keep his head down for 10min. At the trot for 3 minutes.
Discrete Steps - while walking and trotting I start to raise the rope in the air and wait for Boogs to lower his head.