I decided to repeat yesterdays trip and take Voelie out for a walk again. We took the same route along the road and through the park. She did do the rearing up again at the same spot, she seems to find this spot way more scary then the rest of the route. Any tips on correcting this are welcome, now I just correct her with my voice and by pulling on the leadline. She does not want to run away or anything she just really rears up high.
The rest of our walk went really well. We met a couple walking, they were really impressed with Voelie and asked what breed she was and they petted her and complimented on how pretty she was! We also met two riders on horseback who commented that they had read about Curly horses but never actually seen one! They thought she was lovely (she was prancing around because she was so exited to see the other horses!). So we did some real curly promotion here! We also met someone walking her horse and a car. I signalled the car to slow down and pass us slowly because it's the first car we met while she was out alone. She was fine with it passing her so I gave her a good compliment and scratches.
At the yard we had to pass two large tractors that were standing still. Thery were taking a break from putting manure on the field. Voelie found it scary but did follow me past the tractors!
In the shed there was lots of space with the tractors out so I decided to have her follow me in and give her her food there just so that she gets used to being in different areas. There are lost of machines there and is quite exiting for her but she quicky relaxed and started eating. I think it was a good day for her, she had fun and had lots of new experiences!
My suggestion is to make her focus on you when she is rearing and misbehaving. This is what I was shown to do with Linus and works like a charm now. Swing the end of your lead line in circles in front of her if she is going too fast for you. If she doesn't calm down at this let the rope hit her nose and keep swinging until she respects it. I only do this if he won't listen when I vocally "whoa" him.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I do to get him listening to me is making him move his quarters away from me. Either with the end of the rope swinging or the carrot stick. Hold the lead in your left hand and face her rump, walk briskly toward it swinging the rope and make her move it away from you (she will circle around you as you keep moving her) it only takes a few tight circles to make them clue in. What you did yesterday in making her back up works really well with Linus too. Remember, these are just my suggestions that work for me. I hope they work for you too and I am sure you will get some excellent tips from other RACers too. Good luck and I can't wait to hear what works for you!!
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ReplyDeleteLike Donna said, make her focus on you, try to practice in the field first, so she knows what you are trying to make her do. Otherwise she might get more upset because she is afraid in the situation you're in and you are asking her something to do she is not familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI think in this situation yielding her hindquarters is the best thing to do. You make her focused on you and make her move which shows you are the leader. I was trying to explain it but it is still hard in English sometimes. I found this article and I think they explained it very well. It works great in all kind of situations. I used it the other day when the farrier was here and one of the horse did not want to hold up his feet. Made his hindquarters move left and right and after that he was like a little lam :-)
http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/yielding.shtml
lots of good info
good luck
Do you know Emiel Voest? he is like the Dutch Parelli :-)
ReplyDeleteMarion and Donna, thanks for the tips.! I find the website really informative Marion! I am definately going to use these tecqniques today! Yesterday I did do the yieliding but not at the point where she was being a brat so I think my timing of the exercise was wrong. I'll try to improe this today and see how it goes!
ReplyDeleteI do know the name of Emiel Voest but don't have his books or know what exactly he does.