Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Tuesday with Dan and Roscoe

I checked with Bethanna early am as it occurred to me that I did not need 3 hours with Dan and Try and could give her an hour. She and Jocelyn had both wanted to see in January if Dan could work with Roscoe--an eight year old untaught and unstarted complicated LBE pony they purchased. Bethanna suggested that Dan or Dan and I feel free to play with Roscoe during my time. We did so and then I got Bethanna to come watch as it was hugely important and MH came and watched as well. Dan did ??40 minutes or so of foundation play. Then because he felt there was some dangerous bucking in Roscoe (early on in friendly game claustrophobia), worked with 2 22' lines one on Roscoe's flank and we saw a lot of big bucking. Bethanna was hugely impressed as she is the one starting to ride Roscoe and scheduled another session for him Wednesday and asked Dan to add Thursday to his schedule as well. She then called Jocelyn to get her to schedule two session for her new 22 month old warmblood baby as well! MH getting to schedule an hour each for her warmblood yearlings on both Wed/Thur. Lots of excitement!!!

Anyway here is my idea of the session with Roscoe and my assessment from what Dan said that Roscoe needs in the way of foundation--to be updated of course.

Roscoe Observations:
Where was Roscoe thinking--away from humans.
Could Roscoe yield the power--his HQ--starting from square one with porcupine.

·        Draw: he actually ran to me in the field--super draw.
·        Awareness of his environment—he kept looking around while we walked up to the ring and the entire time in the ring
·        He may be 8 years old but he lacks foundation needed for relationship with humans
·        He is basically a left brain horse and he moves his feet really easily so basically extraverted as well
·        He loses confidence and has a lack of basic foundation with the following issues:—
o   Squeeze game claustrophobia issues
o   Learning situation with humans he doesn’t understand to seek the answer/good deal to relieve pressure
o   His answer to pressure is to move his feet and he needs to know there are other alternatives
o   He is less confident is moving his HQ than his front end
o   He would likely learn to back up fairly easily (to me important to safety)
o   Circling game—he made upward transitions easily. But when asked with body language to make downward transitions he did not respond to the cues and with repeated pressure just went to higher gaits rather than seek the answer--for some time on both sides--then did figure it out.
o   He is really smart and could be an excellent learner
·        Ideas for foundation games
o   Friendly game
§  Human’s back to the fence—stick and string—quit when he stands still
§  Lots of rope/stick/string play so he learns it’s not about the rope/stick/string—it’s about the human
§  Drunken sailor game, green ball, raincoat, tarp
o   Connection with the human—not ignoring—find my focus?
o   Porcupine/driving games for HQ/FQ and yoyos
o   Circling game teaching response to subtle cues from the human
o   Teaching problem solving i.e. pedestal, touch it
o   Lots of squeeze games to determine what claustrophobia issues he may have—tarp, tight spaces, over, under, pedestal, water, ditch, etc.
o   Sideways not as high a priority now

o   Bonding, friendly, dwell time to find a greater and greater degree of relaxation

Wednesday: Roscoe was hugely improved over Tuesday.
1. the caveat to circling game--using pressure to teach Roscoe to seek another solution than moving his feat was that he can go introverted and freeze up--solution being either wait or Dan used the little pestering/jiggling the rope.
2. Issue how or who addresses the issue--studying myself for extent of my skill--playing with intensity--mostly confident with this with Try. Don't trust my ability to read quickly and have good timing--Bethanna is way better at this.
3. If horse can not handle intensity in the friendly game--he is not ready for intensity put to purpose. Comparing Roscoe to the MH's babies.

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