A bit of a set-to & the first winner of the Savvy Spot!

Thurs 23rd Sept 2010

I love Thursdays! I have more time and therefore it's usually a good, or at least interesting, day!

Firstly. I must apologise to Petra from Savvy Central who has left 3 encouraging and constructive comments on my blog without me realising. Sorry, Petra, I didn't know they were there! I found them when I was looking at my blog list for editing. Thanks for your input and advice.

Today, I was greeted warmly by Duncs who was bursting to go out. There was the matter of a crate with a piece of blue paper flapping from it in the garden to negotiate but he went past calmly after a few mins approach & retreat.

We went p to the village hall car park where, in between snacks, we worked on lateral flexion, turns, standing still and back up. Turns are bad, particularly to the right. Realised I'm being a bit lazy and need to do a lot more flexing with him (spurred on by the latest S/C DVD where Linda demos partial disengagement).

Off down to the BIG WOODS. Actually, D prefers the Big Woods to the Little Woods - but only up to the part where it gets a bit dark by the Secret Garden! He went into the woods path of his own volition, stuffing his face with bracken (he's not up on his poisonous plants!) as he went.

He was forward going in the woods but I didn't get that this was more RBE than RBI until I asked him to stop and flex outside the Secret Garden. Then Duncs decided he'd rather go home! He's swift on the turn, leaving me somewhere in Z3 but I've learnt I need to nip back behind him quickly to avoid a tangle of ropes and emotion. Once back at the bum, I take a minute to calm down and assess the right time to ask him to go on and turn round again.

On this occasion, when I asked him to turn round he gave me the "Two Heels Up" sign with a mardy face to match. Rather than think Uh Oh! Where's this going to end, I was actually LB enough to think in a stern-mum sort of way" That is not acceptable behaviour Duncan!" "You can retreat but we're not leaving here until you've calmed down a bit!"

So began what I later described as a "bit of a set-to". Many, many partial disengagements and sideways later, D was a lot more respectful and a bit calmer. He still left the woods fairly quickly but was still listening to me. I was able to ask him to slow down and wait for me, for example.

Out on the road, I asked him to turn away from home and got another tantrum. OK, we will go home, I thought....sideways....at the trot! Back and forth we went interspersed by falling leaf. Sideways to the right (yielding the left side) was very sticky and D kept surging forwards, trying to climb the bank - and snatch foliage at the same time!! I started with a huge vertical rope wiggle - which I then remembered is not the most effective in this situation as D gets all worried about being clonked in the face rather than what I'm asking him to do. Instead, I grabbed him under his chin, a la BHS style and prevented him going forwards which he understood straight away.

What seemed to blow his mind was that I kept exclaiming "Good Boy!" at his spectacular sideways and giving him a treat. He really seemed unsure of how to respond - there were certainly no mardy faces anyway. He went home faster than normal but looked happy enough.

What I was most pleased with this day was, although I'm sure I made lots of mistakes in my timing, reading Duncs and phases, I didn't get emotional. That's a huge shift for me. I've always found it really hard to match RBE energy without getting tense. I must admit though it was an uncomfortable session, full of self-doubt if I'm honest. I left Duncs thinking "I felt Ok about that but Tomorrow, Duncan will tell me whether I got it right or not!

The Savvy Spot!
I am proud to announce that I was awarded the Savvy Spot by my "Horsey Girls" last night (although one of our four was missing!). This is a new award to be conferred upon the person considered to have made the most progress - either emotionally or physically - between one meeting and the next. I have to say, I was as excited as if I'd won as Oscar!

I received the award for advancement in my understanding of thresholds which I will sum up in a small nugget;

Don't push your horse over the threshold. Wait or retreat and move their feet behind the threshold until they are happy to go on.

Ah, the sweet smell of success!!!!!! "I'd like to thank my horse, my husband, my producer, my agent..........................