Tami evaluates my horse

One day 1 of Tami's visit I wanted to get her opinion of Mara. I had already written the neighbor with the Hawaiian Silver arena and she agreed that we could come over. (I'd use that place much more often if they weren't so persnickety about it, probably how I'd be if I had such a fine arena.....)

I need to say that Tami is unique amongst my Seattle horsey friends because she has less years experience with horses than others, but has availed herself of the time with alacrity.  She has devoted herself to learning horses with an intensity I've never seen. She showed me Rashid and Legerete, and she lets me ride her Morgan horse when I visit and even paid for me to have a Legerete lesson on him at her place in Carnation. I have a world of respect for her, but it was difficult for me at times to accept what she had to say. I must admit that her knowing Baasha, and talking about him in contrast with my new horse, was extremely difficult. It's not often I am with someone who knew me with Baasha, and now suddenly sees me with Mara. It kind of broke her heart to see it, and I couldn't stay frosty when she talked about Baasha.

So, up to the Hawaiian Silver. Mara has never been calm up there - the arena is built on the crest of a hill so you can see far in several directions. Indeed, I saw downtown Cologne from their kitchen window!

I started lunging Mara and she seemed fine about twice around and then she suddenly lost it and started leaping and bolting. Interestingly, Tami had predicted it the moment before she let loose. Tami yelled at me to get her stopped and it took a while, but I finally did. Although we'd been there a handful of times, and I'd ridden there a few times, I'm still nowhere near the point where I can turn her loose. She goes so crazy she will undoubtedly go through their very fine fencing.

Tami took the line and started doing close-up work with Mara. That kept her from flipping out, but she was still completely distracted - looking every which way in all directions, never really with us. Tami worked through some of the 7 games with her, and Mara does them, but not with precision and not with attention. Getting her focus that day was simply impossible. I shook my head in despair.

I asked Tami to see if she could get Mara to use the entire roundpen (17 meter diameter) but as soon as Mara hit the rail, she would start to lose her mind and feel the need to start tearing around again. Interesting.

I always felt it was important to let my horse work through her tension with speed, as long as I was in control. Of course that day I had no control, so the close-in work was required. I guess my opinion is the horse should be able to control herself, but be allowed to express herself too. And Mara always seems to really need to blow off steam.

They invited me in for coffee and cookies and we could watch Tami work from the window. Tami uses a lot more praise than I do, and a lot more thinking breaks. Try as she might, though, the horse would not come in to her or hook on in any way, even on the lunge line. She did some side by side walking, stopping together, then backing together, and the property owners were very impressed by that pretty trick.  Since they are relatively inexperienced with horses, I was wondering if they thought Tami taught Mara the games and the mirroring exercises at that very moment, instead of understanding that I had taught her those things this last year. I was feeling down and defensive, but the neighbors were kind and kept saying I simply need to come over more often and my horse will settle down. See, they say that, but then they also say no riding within 2 days of rain, and it's been raining all year.

Then for some insane reason we wanted to ride a little.


 

First Tami got on, and instantly employed the one rein stop because she was skittery due to the next door neighbor's construction work. Tami had about the same level of focus as when on the ground. The horse complied, but with divided attention. As soon as she had some small successes she jumped off and told me to get on. The photos show the moments of calm - we didn't think about photos when Mara was upset.


Mara thinks, "Another new person, hmmmm."




Tami tries to offer Mara a treat, which Mara sniffs but refuses because she was too stressed to eat it. I hope you can see in the photos how we are on the top of a hill, with lovely terrifying views in almost all directions.


Then Tami said what almost everyone else has said who has ridden my horse:

"This horse has absolutely no trust in its rider."

No idea why. She doesn't act like an abused horse. Tami says it's just the way she is.

I had just drunk 2 cups of coffee and I usually avoid caffeine so my entire body was buzzing. It felt good until I was actually on my horse, who did not need that extra stimulation. Something crashed loudly next door and my horse spun around. One rein stop again. Then it was just a matter of keeping her from bolting, and bending her in half almost continually to prevent that. I wanted to cry.



I need more photos like this; I love candid shots.




I'm asking her to keep her head at this level as we walk, and thinking, "Oh crap what now?" as she tries to fling her head up.








Our mounting routine - touch both of my feet.




Tami must have said something funny because I'm smiling while my horse says "Danger!"




I had no idea my violet shoelaces would look absurd with my black outfit. In this photo you can see that I tend to lean back when I ride. Hrm.




Looks like harmony. Felt like time bomb: )




Mara says "It's just not safe here."




Wow that's a sexy helmet. I must buy a white one (Troxel Liberty - their newest el cheapo). Mara is thinking, "We didn't die....yet..."

So....I had this audience standing there, the property owners, and they were getting a good glimpse of when things go bad, and I was humiliated. Tami kept giving me instruction nonstop but honestly all I could do was bend and turn repeatedly. At one point I remember she said "Don't you get off now, she's a total mess." So the fun continued. Finally we got a tiny bit of her mind back for a moment and I jumped off. I suppose I could think of it this way - they got to see how some riders behave under stress, with all the untracking and one-reining (which neither of them had heard of before this day).

The owners told us to unsaddle her and let her roll. What do you think, did my horse roll? *lol* No way, too tense. We all went inside because the owners were freezing (we weren't cold at all, we're Americans) and we drank coffee and ate strange puffed rice chocolate squares. Then Mara decided it was all too much, and started racing full speed around the roundpen. She was running so fast we were sure she'd injure herself so we all went out and tried to get her stopped. (And this is after maybe 1.5 hours of work in there!) OK then, no letting her loose in the roundpen for a while.

One of the owners said, "Did you notice how often your horse looked to you when Tami was working with her?" Honestly I hadn't, but I'm starting to see a pattern. On another day Tami was working Mara in my pasture and said, "She looks at you to see if everything's OK." That's nice to hear.

We thanked the owners profusely and headed home. On the way, Tami said that my leading style is tense. She said the way I hold my arm away from my body represents a braced feeling to the horse, even though my rope is hanging down and my horse is a meter behind me. I thought about this and realize that it's one more way I protect myself. I don't want the rope near my legs (or hers)  - I've seen her panic so many times I want to keep myself safe, so I keep my hand about 12 inches from my hip, angled behind me. Strange how this horse has changed me.

Tami said that Mara is very sensitive to the rope and rope halter but lacks precision. That Mara needs to learn to seek comfort from people and not simply from movement. She also encouraged me to use the Resnick "Sharing territory" approach, something I do, but not exactly as the method instructs. At Equitana Tami met a Legerete trainer who she hooked me up with. She wants me to have a good experience with Legerete after my bad one. We'll see if I can manage that!

***

Tami left on Friday for Bavaria where they supposedly serve pretzels with butter: )

Today, over a week later, I took Mara back up to that roundpen. I ground drove her the way there, and  started out with ground work. I'm trying to teach her a "come to me" cue that Tami suggested, that simply doesn't work if she's distracted at all. Funnily when she's calm, it works perfectly. Apparently even my treats aren't worth coming to me for.

Since Tami left the Buck Brannaman CD set (7 Clinics) I've been immersed in Buck strategies, and Tami also believes the importance of the horse being allowed to come to the person for comfort, as long as the horse can go back out of your space again when you're done cuddling. So I started that today.

As before, keeping my horse close on my NH line and doing ground work kept her from flipping out. As soon as I put her on the longe and asked her to trot, she started throwing herself up in the air crow-hopping and she hit the end of the line and bumped herself in the face pretty hard. I told her "I did nothing, that was you punishing yourself for rambunctious behavior."

She didn't do too much of that before settling down. But when the neighbor's construction started up, she bolted so badly I saw my life flash before my eyes even as I stood safely on the ground. Anytime she offered to blast around, I simply made the circle about 5 meters and kept her nose tipped in toward me. That made an impression and it wasn't long before I had a good calm walk.

Then some neighbors walked their dogs right next to the roundpen (the pen is built directly beside a public trail, woe is us!). I asked her to back back back back toward them until they were even with her and her panic lessened. I must say the location of this place is totally ideal if you want to work through distractions.

Then she finally switched and was able to just walk, and walk we did, for a solid hour. I was reveling in her calm state of mind, and was inclined to stay there all day hypnotized by her relaxed walk. 

In total we were there 1.5 hours and on the way home I stopped to sit on a bench a while and let her prove to me she can stand perfectly still and wait for me without fidgeting.  Good girl.

I look forward to the day she's as calm up there on the hill as she is across the street at Herr S's place.