Comfort Zone Walk in the Woods

Weekend before last, Gunny and I took a walk in the woods. This was our first walk in the woods since about February, when I decided that we needed to get the stuff from the "From Your Horse's Heart" course solid before going back. At that point, the hurrying home was pretty ingrained and nothing had worked to reduce it or fix it.

We started the walk mindful of Gunny's comfort zone and only needed to retreat back the gate area one time. From there he was able to go to the top of the hill in our backyard. After this point, the view of the barn (and other horses) is blocked. At the crest of the hill we paused for a moment. He chewed right away. I noticed this and decided that this meant he was still in a comfort zone at this point. We got a little further down the hill and I started to notice a NQR (not quite right). He started to breathe a little harder and he was snatching at weeds in a tense way. We turned around and went back to the crest of the hill to wait for a chew.

In this way we made a small loop through our woods and around to the edge of a field. Once we got out of the woods I paused again and he chewed right away, so I used this as our next comfort zone spot to retreat to. We came in sight of some horses in a different pasture and he got tense and tall, so we just turned around and went back to the spot coming out of the woods.

At some points during this walk he would go to try to graze. This was usually when I was waiting for a chew but at some other points too. I would then swing the tail of the lead rope towards the grass or comb the rope to ask him to pick his head up--basically tell him that I didn't want him to graze right then.

As we came around the edge of the field and in sight of the house, there was a lot to look at because we were in the middle of roofing the house. There was piles of shingles and plastic and boxes and piles of materials laying around as well as a strange guy on the roof making noises. This gave Gunny a lot to look at. When he started to get fixated on all "that stuff", I used a combing of the lead rope to gently but insistently bring his attention back to me. Then I would wait for another chew.

In this way we were able to have a calm and harmonious walk with a horse that could walk my pace the whole way. I just simply combined the concepts of retreating to the comfort zone, asking for his attention, and claiming "my grass" to keep everything the way I want it to be.

The other thing that I am realizing as I work more on the comfort zone in different situations, is that the hurrying home was likely a symptom of tension despite the fact that he looked calm and cool in every other way. So I used this as a barometer now, if he starts to walk a little too fast and I ask him to slow down and he is able to slow down and stay slowed down, he is in a good place. If he starts to hurry and I ask him to slow down and he speeds right back up, then I must have missed the earlier warning signals of NQR and he is not in his comfort zone.