horsegirlonajourney

The first necessity of progress

Posted on September 2, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

One of the refrains that used to confuse me in lessons, before Parelli, was being told “That was perfect! Let’s go do something else.”

There I would be, panting but ecstatic, having finally achieved a good 20-meter circle or a small jump or a walk-canter transition, and instead of celebrating this masterpiece by doing it one or five or twenty-seven more times, my instructor would cheerfully come up with some other impossible task. And five minutes later, there I would be, fumbling and incompetent all over again, unable to bask in the glory of the previous accomplishment.

Now I understand that we were letting the horse know that he had performed his task beautifully. Once he put his will and effort and grace into the pattern, there was no need to ask him (or worse, to make him) do it again and again and again and again until it was no fun at all.

I understand even more now why not to ask your horse to repeat his performance. While your motivation is likely something like Wow! That was amazing! I loved that! Let’s do it again!, for your horse, asking again is like saying the first time wasn’t good enough. That he put his best hoof forward and you weren’t satisfied.

On Friday, riding Rocky around the arena in the bareback pad, everything felt right, and I asked for a canter. I’ve never cantered bareback and have only cantered once — on a lesson horse, not on Rocky — in the past four years. Yet I’ve been feeling caged and discontent recently and needed to try something new, something unexpected. I didn’t even ask my witnesses to get out a camera to document the occasion. I just shifted my weight a little, asked for Rocky’s attention with my outside rein, and kissed.

He was soft and smooth and willing and engaged his hindquarters and we cantered the short side of the arena and then came down to a trot with me laughing and saying gooooood booooy in that low voice Rocky responds so well to. We stopped and received much congratulations and petting and love.

And I knew that the one thing I could do that would ruin everything for Rocky (and thus for me) was to ask for it again right away. I let him feel my delight and love, and made no further demands for the rest of our ride.

I spent the rest of the afternoon euphoric and telling everyone within earshot, but it wasn’t until bedtime that I remembered what I wrote on my About page when I first launched this blog.

This blog is my personal journal of a lifelong love of horses and my commitment to pursuing excellence in horsemanship every day. My goal is to have the best relationship it’s possible to have with my horse — and then improve that into the realm of impossibility. I also want to be able to canter bareback. ~ Horsegirl

Categories: Freestyle | Tags: horseback riding, parelli natural horsemanship, penn valley | 3 Comments

Part medical treatment, part practicing for dress-up

Posted on August 27, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

Every so often, Rocky gets a little thrush infection. Why this happens, I’m not sure, as his pen is cleaned thoroughly twice a day and he doesn’t stand around in wetness and he gets regular exercise and I clean his feet almost daily.

Thrush is a degeneration of the frog with secondary anaerobic bacterial infection that begins in the central and collateral sulci. – Merck Veterinary Manual

But he does have a tight, deep central sulcus on each foot, and that’s exactly the kind of place that anaerobic bacteria loves to colonize. He’s the only horse on the ranch that gets thrush regularly (every 2 years or so), and will have it even when the other horses in the same pen do not. It must be a Special Rocky Thing.

When this happens, it’s time to break out the CleanTrax thrush-buster
and be thankful for our Parelli studies. I have progressed since our last soaking and was better able to read Rocky’s concerns, address them, help him feel confident, and prevent any Incidents that would have increased his anxiety instead of dissipated it.

The first time Rocky had to soak a few years ago, he was frozen to the ground with anxiety about the knee-high soaking boots. (He didn’t like his shipping boots, either, way back when!) The second time he had more of a “The boots are pinning me to the earth so you better stand right here” attitude.

Today, he gave the waders that unmistakable “Oh, man, is this another one of those Parelli things?” glance and then pretty quickly ignored them. His buddy Stu was also having a preventative soak after several weeks of stall rest due to an abscess.

Rocky stood still almost the entire time, and after the first 20 minutes or so he let go his tension just hung out cooperatively, eating his hay and watching the other horses as they came for their regular trims or shoeings. When he did move, it was to deal with flies and not to get away from the boot. I clipped a savvy string to each boot to help keep it from falling down and spilling the precious solution.

What we do is have the farrier remove the shoes and trim the hoof like usual. We give Rocky a big hay bag, stuffed full. We then mix the CleanTrax in a gallon of warm water, put the high boots on two of the legs, and pour half the solution in each, and let it soak for 45 minutes. I clip a savvy string to each boot and stand nearby to ensure the boots stay up even if Rocky moves, and to pull them back up when necessary.

After 45 minutes, we lift each foot out of the boot and, without letting the foot touch the ground, wrap the foot in a Ziplock baggie and secure the baggie with vet wrap. Rocky can then put his foot down and give it another 45 minutes to process. Meanwhile, we pour the used solution into a container, put the other two legs into the boots, pour the used solution back into the bags, and repeat the whole procedure. After all four feet are unbagged and dry, the farrier puts new shoes on and finishes the trim.

We pour the solution on the mats and sweep it around to kill any remaining bacteria, spores, and fungi. And we do all of this in the sun, as the various microorganisms cannot survive the UV rays.

If he can handle all that, I’m sure he’ll have no problem with a costume like this.