YAYYYYYY....It was finally warm enough here in snOwohio to be outside without being wrapped up like Nanook of the frozen ....well midwest!! Sassy is still on restriction for that hock and...Im still a little leary about the amount of snow and the footing in the round pen...so, I thought I would see how attentive she would be if I went into the pasture with her ....and do a short clicker/target session combined with some T-touch introduction. 
At first...her attention was all over the place.To the point... I had my photog leave the field til I was sure she was focused. At that point Sassy did something odd that she has never done before....when I was first asking her to focus....she was standing there....and then all of a sudden...she did like a mini Hi-O Silver move.......Im not sure if she was testing me on what she considers her "turf".....attempting at that moment to be boss.....or if she was just doing a happy bounce. There was no snorting...or head shaking....eyes were soft....ears were forward ..I just stood there....and asked again for her to target. After a couple of minutes, she noticably agreed to the concept of "working" in the pasture and focused on my requests. We did back, high and low touches..bend...smile.....laugh ........bowing (i stick the target that is on a wooden dow between her front legs and she sticks her nose between her legs to touch it) and I was able to send her to the target from approx thirty feet away!!! I did them in a set ....and did five sets....on the last one I reversed the order of the set to keep her from being bored. I was really proud of her focus.
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Sassy laughing....she wiggles her lower mandible back and forth...I think she just thinks Im hillarious!!! |
Then I thought I would do some T-touch with her. I began using Ttouch about a year ago with my twenty-eight year old curly KAllie-girl to help with ringbone. She really responded well to it! I think touch is an important form of communication with our super sensitive / super smart curlies. In the Ttouch methods there are catagories...some touches are for health..some for trust...some for awareness...Not one to shrink from the hardest task at hand...I chose to begin this little adventure with Sassy's business end.....that's right....the MOUTH *Mouth Ttouch*. Upside to starting with that one is that Sassy loves the spiked play ball and to this point has never bitten or threatend to nip. Having no fingers would severly impede my ability to blog LLLOLL! I have to say....It went well...I do believe she enjoyed it!
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| Explaing my plan to Sassy....I dont think she was impressed! |
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| Sassy thinking..REALLY???!! you are going to stick your hand in my mouth |
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| Upper back Gums and teeth |
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| Lower back gums and teeth |
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| WE have a WINNER!! She likes it!!!She Likes it!!! |
Sassy giving me a Horsey Hug after we were done
Touch my heart...I will ALWAYS Remember......Touch my soul and I will NEVER forget .....Horsey Hugs Fellow Curly Lovers from Sassy and Krissy in SnOhio!!
Lovely, Krissy! Sassy is a lovely girl. We love Clicker training here, too, and my daughter loves to do T-Touch, especially on her rescued mare. Jen had such a hard, tight, pursed mouth from her abuse. Jen LOVES the mouth work, and drops her head, flops her ears and goes to sleep. She also loves it in her nostrils, too. Funny girl, but I bet it feels good to release all that tension.
ReplyDeleteSassy looks lovely again Krissy! She looks very funnny when she is lauching:) I have read a bit about the Ttouch method but never really did much with it (at the time I did not have a horse to try it out) I think I should look up the information again and try it!
ReplyDeleteI love all the expressions on Sassy when you are working on her mouth, especially when she likes it!