Wow, is it really that long since I have written on my blog! Oops. I have had lots of blogs rattling around in my head. I just haven't sat down and put them down on paper.
I think my play with Split yesterday is a good place to start. Background - Split is a 3 year old QHxTB who I bred. He has had minimum handling, only the essentials to get him through thus far. A few weeks ago I brought him home from agistment to start his development, and I'm having a blast!!!
Split has had a few 'got to' situations where he has had to be transported with little preparation. (see http://genquinn.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-day.html ) He has coped well, and it hasn't been all bad, but one of the things I really wanted to address with him once I got him home is trailer loading, and travelling, with confidence. The way I went about this was parking the float in the paddock, and basically ignoring it. I incorporated it into our play sessions only to the extent of asking him to touch it. I made a deal with myself that for now I would not ask him to go in it.
The first couple of times we went past it even he said 'oh, no, we are NOT going in that thing'. My reply was 'you bet, can you sniff the spare tyre? Great, let's go do something else'. He started getting pretty curious about it, and after a couple of days he voluntarily put his nose and neck right in, and had a good look around in there. I quietly walked up, gave him a rub, and slipped his head collar off and left, that was just the response I was hoping for from him.
I went and opened the gate into the big paddock because as far as I was concerned, we were finished for the day. I walked back up and Split was still at the float! He was sniffing it, and walking around it and back to the tailgate again, thinking 'jeez, what did I do right?'. He stayed there for a good five minutes, I sat with him, then we both walked together out into the big paddock with the other horses.
I was pretty happy with that response. Until yesterday when it got even better! I took him out to the smaller paddock and Pete was out there playing with Ripley. They were cantering around online and Split was finding this all a bit overwhelming and exciting. I was letting him move his feet, and directing him to a few obstacles as he moved, then I felt him pull towards the float. I ran with him at the end of the 22, taking a punt, and not wanting to shut him down, and he cantered straight in to the float!!!! This is the kind of horse that when we had 'had to' get him in, he planted his feet and said 'you and who's army?'. I was so so excited I was yelling out to Pete to see if he had seen it, and ran up and gave Split a hug!
He must have know he'd done something right, he stood there for a minute, then came out, and we went off and did something else for a few minutes. Once he was circling around me again, I could see him look at the float again, so I did the same thing, started running toward it and he cantered to it and straight on!
I had to check that he wasn't just falling in, so let him rest and bought him out another time or two. Then put him on, got in with him, and slipped the head collar off again. I was happy for him to come out whenever he was ready, game over, and went and sat and watched Pete and Ripley for 10 minutes.
Splitty stood as quite as a mouse on that float, leg cocked, and showed no inclination to hop out. Pete bought Ripley over and loaded him in beside Split, who was still standing in there un-haltered. He put Ripley on and off a couple of times, and Split stayed put. I thought that was a pretty good test for a young horse. I went in, put his headcollar back on, and backed him out. He didn't rush out, got off as cool as a cucumber.
I have had a few really big 'light bulb' moments the last couple of weeks with letting the horses find the answers themselves, as apposed to us trying to 'teach' them something. It is so much more powerful a lesson, and they really get it, and I think now I really get it too...
