I keep forgetting to update words in the midst of all the things happening in real life. The issue is, the things in real life are still too “everyday grind” to spark any great words. I don’t have any inspiration for you today, but I do have a small moment in time that I found interesting and satisfying in my time with the horses.
I’ve been trying to find ways to convey to one of the horses that they need to move their back end closer to the mounting block if I am to get on. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with me getting on, exactly, he just gets very interested in what I’m doing and wants to turn slightly so that he can interact with me with his face. His back end drifts away in the process. Then when he gets done investigating what I’m doing on the mounting block, he faces forward but his rear is still two steps away from where I need it to be. I’d like to move just the back end closer.
So I tried something I saw while researching ground exercises for classical dressage. The dressage whip reaches over the back to tap high on the horse’s opposite hip. This moves the hip towards the human. I was in the stable while trying this, and the horse was calmly moving over when I tapped the hip closest to me, or even just pointed at his hip. On one side he was able to figure out what I was asking when I tapped the hip on the opposite side from me. He stepped over towards me with his back foot.
“Good, good! Yes.” I praised, and gave him his favorite neck scratches. The other side was where he had trouble understanding. I tapped that hip from over his back and he moved forward. I stopped tapping because well, it was movement. That was a good start. But I continued once he stood again. He tried forwards, then when that wasn’t working he tried backing up. I kept tapping, but he started going forwards again, then got frustrated, tossing his head against the lead rope pressure and pulling away from me.
“I don’t get it! What do you want?” He insisted. I stopped and thought about it. How could I make what I was asking for easier to find? I looked around the stable. There was a low wall separating the lounging area from the wash stall, which formed a nice corner without being too claustrophobic. I walked him over to it, then asked him to move his back feet over from the same side that I was on, to sort of give him a precident of moving in that direction. I circled him, then brought him back into the corner, positioning myself on the opposite side of him this time. With the low wall in front of him and a board to his left, his choices were naturally narrowed to back or towards me. I would only have to put pressure on the lead rope to discourage backwards movement. I began the clear but gentle tapping on his opposite hip. After trying back again, he took a tentative small step towards me with his back hoof.
“Very good! Good. Yes.” I stopped tapping and started scratching his neck. He licked his lips, relieved to have figured it out. He’s a horse that has little patience for getting the wrong answer repeatedly, even without escalating pressure from my side of things. I’m glad I was able to use the environment to make it easier for him. I still don’t know why it came to him instantly on one side but not the other. It’ll be interesting to see if other things are harder on that side in the future, or if maybe he had a difficult experience with stepping towards a human on that side or something. I love puzzling through these little connundrums with each horse.
For more on my explorations with horses, check out “Standing in a Field With Horses” on Amazon and Smashwords. Coming soon to Audible and other audiobook providers!
Maeve Birch Home 