Focus, Trust, and Softness

For each of these words, there is a horse, experience, and breakthrough associated with it. I will start with Focus.

Two days ago, I decided to take Teddy for a walk around the property (I had been neglecting spending time with him). He hadn't gotten to play in a while, so I figured, "I'll take him for a walk and we'll go exploring." After spending a little time being haltered (he had a little resistance at first), we set out and started by walking down the driveway, but rather than leading him, I was driving him from zone 3 (Mom asked if I was preparing him to be ridden, to which I jokingly said yes! But in all seriousness, it was a step in the right direction for teaching him to drive, which would be very fun to teach him!). I was walking along by his barrel and directing him from there. He did very well with staying with me and following a very soft feel for direction, I was directing him all over the place; practicing our Driving Game of zone 1 to turn, and also using a feel to have him turn as well. He walked really nicely, so I began to ask for a trot, which he broke into very calm and smooth. We did lots of transitions between those two gaits, and variations of speed within the gates.
I then decided to take him to my brother's playset. There is a Squeeze underneath the monkey bars and between the swing and the ladder that I was encouraging him to go between, but Chewy (our golden retriever/chow mix) appeared and he was ALL Teddy could think about.
He became very worried, so I took him down the hill away from Chewy to try to find a place where he was ok with. I started asking him to do things to get his mind back on me. I first asked him for a Falling Leaf pattern and then some circles, but that didn't really appear to be helping. I got the feeling that I was merely adding to his stress by yelling at him saying, "Do this! Do that! Don't think about Chewy! Come on, faster!" So, I led him back to the driveway (the path is a perpendicular path to where Chewy was, going away from him). He was very rushy and kept crowding on top of me (needing to get to the "center" of the herd I supposed as a prey animal would), but I would stop, ask him to back up off me, then proceed. After doing this for a while toward the driveway, he started crowding me less, dropping back behind, and not paying as much attention to Chewy. We got to the driveway, and I asked him to stop and stand still and have a breather moment, but he couldn't stand. So, I told him, "Alright, if you wanna move, move where I want you to." I would ask him to circle, and then stop again on the driveway in the same spot. It took a couple circles for him to finally be ok with standing. Once he did he had a BIG release (I must have been doing something right) of lots of snorting, licking and chewing, and some deep breaths. We stood for a while, dwelling in the "okness" and after I while I offered to scratch under his belly some. He showed he thoroughly enjoyed it (as he always does), and I asked him to lead off back to the pasture again. He followed behind me and I could tell he really felt ok, not bothered by Chewy at ALL. I let him go in the feild, and I sat there with him for a bit as he ate some grass. I believe that session was really valuable to both him and me. He learned that it is ok to focus on me and be ok with things; I will take care of him.

Now on to Trust. Yesterday I went out to the pasture with the original intention of PLAYING with Woody and the trailer. I say PLAYING because I really wanted to bring the fun out of it and make sure he knew I wasn't going to force him. I also didn't go into with any preconcieved thoughts of, "He needs to go in the trailer at the end of this session." Because, as we all know, it's not about the trailer.
However, once I got him haltered, I really wanted to take him for a walk, so we headed down to the pond and ended up going for a walk around it. He did really well, but at one point he heard the horses whinny from the pasture, and he turned his attention toward them and got a little worried about continuing on the path around the pond. I turned him around (retreated) and brought him back again, and by then he was fine to continue. We also had to walkthrough EXTREMELY high, juicy, scrumptious grass for a fairly long period of time, but Woody was so with me and the plan I had, he only tried to take a bite once. HUGE for Woody. When we got out of the tall grass, I offered him some grass, and we sat there hanging out and him eating grass (I was out of breath... haha, I know, that's sad). When I asked him to turn his attention to me because we were leaving he picked his head right up and followed me really nice.
We returned back to the trailer by the barn after our walk, and I tied him to the trailer as I put the ramp down, opened the windows, and checked for bugs. I then just asked him to put his front feet on and hang out on the ramp. I wasn't too pushy or anything, I just wanted to see what he offered. When iI asked and he got stuck, I would back him off, and try again. At one point he had his head in and was sniffing the divider, and all the sudden he backed out of the trailer and looked around real wide eyed and with his head high. Again, I began to ask him to do stuff (why do I always revert to that?), which didn't seem to work. I began to just stand there and gently ask for his attention to come back to me. If he looked away, I would just put a little feel on the rope and ask him to come back. I did this for a long while, just persisitently and gently asking for his attention. He gradually gave me his attention for longer spans of time, but he would still get distracted. A quick note is that I noticed he would look around and snort at stuff, and then out his head down, still obviously NOT ok, and try to look for something to eat. This makes me think that some of his grass and food stuff is a displaced behavior. I got the feeling he was like, "I am really worried about whatever that is, I need to chew on something to occupy myself." How interesting!
Anyhow, back to the point, I just kept asking him to keep his attention on me, and finally, he gave me his attention and kept with me for a long while. He snorted, licked and chewed, and put his head down (not introverted ostrich-in-the-sand type thing, but a more realxed head position).
After his big release, he would still look around for whatever it was that was bothering him, and he began to move his feet around. So, I asked him out on a circle. I tried to keep his nose pointed in, paying attention, and he eventually gave me some really nice connected circles. He also came in to me right when I stopped my bpdy movement. I brought him back into the pasture following that and let him go. I think that that whole episode was a good session on Woody realizing he can trust me and I will take care of whatever the issue bothering him is. Big stuff.

And finally, we are on to Softness. This lesson was with Charlotte, and boy was it cool. Following Woody's big release session, I put Charlotte's halter on, grabbed my helmet, and went out to the log to mount. We spent a little bit of time on mounting because for some reason she was anticipating my mounting and trying to leave. I would bring her back, rub her, and spend some time just rubbing on her face and back. She finally relaxed, so I put my leg over, bounced a bit, then settled onto her back. We were facing to barn when we mounted, so when I asked her to walk off, she immediantly went into a trot. I brought her back down to a walk, and eventually a stop very gently by lifting one rein higher than the other. Then, she gave me a really nice back up when I lifted the rein even higher and tucked her nose in and gave to the pressure really well. We continued off, and I was really working on my seat (I am trying to practice sitting up straight, but not on my bones) and being as soft as possible with her when I asked for something.
We rode around, and when we went down hills, and she wanted to speed up, I would gently ask her for a stop. She would sometimes push her nose out to avoid it, but I held a steady soft feel on her regardless what she did or where she went, with one rein lifted, She wold stop, and I would also ask for a back up. She was then able to walk down the hills without rushing.
We went up to what I call the "training circle" (where the old round pen used to be and where the pen holding the toys and such is). I really wanted to work on sitting her trot better, so I asked her for the trot, and started experimenting with my body position. I then found that when I started reaching doooowwnn around her barrel with my legs (which was hard to do and stay relaxed, but I got it!), her trot became really easy to ride. She then began to carry herself better and her trot became smoother and she didn't try to keep breaking gait. It was the best trot I have ever had on Miss Charlotte. When I asked her back down into a walk, she glided right into it. It was REALLY neat. We walked down the hill, and I asked for a canter up the next hill, which she offered nicely.
I then decided to work on her rushing on the way back to the barn from the round pen. I started by asking for and acheiving a really nice walk. Then, I would ask her for a trot, but within a couple of strides of that walk, I would lift the rein and bring down my energy into a walk. We did these transitions all the way around the fence line, and she bagan to offer me the smooth trot I got over my the round pen again. Also, she would be just as ready to go into the trot as she was to go down to a walk. It was SO cool! She was lighter AND softer, more engaged, happier, and more focused.
I then worked on picking up a canter when I asked for it NOT going up a hill. I originally went to the training circle to ask for it on a circle, but it wasn't going really well there and she wasn't really picking it up, so I realized that doing it on a straight away would probably be better (staright lines vs. circles). I would get a nice trot down the straight fence line, then kiss and squeeze her up into a nice canter. To practice transitions, too, I would point her at the up coming fence, and ask for a canter to walk/stop transition. We did this a couple times and it went really well.
When we turned around to head back to the barn, her walk wasn't rushed at all. She seemed very content. I forgot to mention that I would occassionally ask her for a turn on the haunches and turn on the forhand, and she gave me a couple really nice ones of both. She is really doing excellent and I was really pleased with the progress we made. My seat is feeling a lot better, too. I am also getting more confident because I have been riding so much bareback, and that whole lesson with Charlotte was completely bareback.
Things are definitely improving in all three horses, and I can't wait to see what we learn next time!
~Eden