Actress Diary #13

Monday July 14th 2008

Well, starting tomorrow school holidays are officially over! That means early mornings and rushed showers for Melissa! I’m starting to get a bit concerned about getting a job, and having to start in the early afternoon, therefore meaning that I won’t be able to feed Actress or do an evening session with her – so that’s kinda annoying, but on one of my online applications I added “I would preferably like to start my shifts around 4:30-5:00 as I have duties at home” or something along those lines. I doubt any one will employ someone as fussy as me!

Anyway, I’ll update you on the last two days because they’ve been somewhat productive. Firstly, yesterday morning Actress neighed to me! She’s never neighed at me before and I took it as a big step forward in our relationship. It sounded like “Oh there you are! How are you? It’s good to see you again” So I felt very special and made lots of baby noises towards her (you know like “owwh yooh such a goowd wittle babyeeee, yesh yooh are! Yesh yooh are!” haha)
Then in yesterdays evening session I bought out two white poles and stuck them in the ground. Yay obstacles! Well, Actress firstly was not leading fluently so that meant trying to achieve a large, figure eight wasn’t exactly going to work. She had a sniff at the poles and reluctantly walked in between them when I waved the feed bucket around trying to coax her through. We managed to go around one of the poles, but I wouldn’t say it was the exercise I was hoping to achieve, but it showed her something new.

This morning I wanted to attempt the poles again, but…she wasn’t as compliant. Really I can’t remember this morning very well, but it was some extra exposure for her. This afternoon I wanted to get her used to me standing beside her, because she’s used to seeing me front on. I started with the usual trying to pet her on the head and if she moved backwards I’d yield her hindquarters. Surprisingly, Actress wasn’t her usual wonderful self, or perhaps I was being more critical and yielding her when one foot moved back, but hey, you need to be! Then when she was quite happy with me standing there patting her, and keeping in mind the think principal the whole time, I tried just moving the angle my body was at when I was patting her so I was standing beside her head. A couple of times she moved back, but in the end she didn’t move so that was wonderful. I gave her plenty of thinking time and not wanting to push it I finished after the second or third time of her being ok as I moved my feet and let her finish her feed.

Really going well. I love her to bits too!

Actress diary #12: A special day.

Thursday 10th of July 2008

Sorry for the recent lack of updates. My best friend came down to visit me so I was slightly preoccupied. But that didn’t mean Actress stopped learning, she was amazing these last few days, especially when she was quite comfortable having two people around.

But nothing can compare to the amazing session we just had.

I quite possibly have the most amazing horse in the world.

I wandered outside at around 4:30pm, the sun had set behind the trees but the sky was still bright blue, the wind however was icy cold. To begin with Actress was ignoring me, but only for a couple of seconds until she realised I had the yummy chaff and copra. She allowed me to pick up her lead quite soon and didn’t have a problem with me crouching down in front of her. I wanted to work on being able to pat her head without her moving backwards, of course, if she moved backwards she had to yield her hindquarters. I only had to yield her ONCE before she was more than happy to let me stroke her forehead. Do you realise how overjoyed I was? This beautiful little brumby did not care if I pet her. Of course, she is not perfect, and once or twice she moved a foot back, but generally she was perfect! It was so special to be standing there with her. I decided to see if she would lead around. But I was determined not to pull at her lead or anything forceful like that. I wanted Actress to lead around without pressure. And she did! Beautifully in fact! The lead was always kept slack, if I turned away from her completely had my head down, and my palm had to be facing upwards she would gladly step forward towards me and follow around, of course once we were wandering around I was allowed to move my head around and ‘look for danger’ as any good herd leader would do. It felt magical to have Actress following, either behind or next to me, no pressure at all. This truly was a special day and I feel I haven’t been able to capture how special this was to me, but it most certainly was the most amazing thing me and Actress have ever done. This little brumby is really starting to trust me and love me.

I have a theory. Yesterday my blood blister ‘disappeared’. I won’t explain how, but it was removed and I was more than overjoyed to have won that battle with the disgusting little thing. If you didn’t know, that blister arrived when Actress did. And is it not coincidental that the day after the blood blister disappears, me and Actress bond like we never have before? I think that signalled the new beginning, of a fantastic new partnership!

I have now had Actress for about 2 ½ weeks.

Actress in the fog early yesterday morning

Actress diary #11

Sunday 6th of July 2008

Well the little miss had the lead rope around her neck for a couple of days, so I wasn’t able to do any work with her because she becomes very nervous. Thankfully this morning she managed to fix herself up, but I didn’t do any work (except for approach & follow) because she still seemed a bit nervy. Then this evening I went out again, HOPING I could do some lead work with her, but I was never able to get the lead. It was always underneath her, or at her hindquarters, or if I ever could grab it she would get startled and move off.
Basically, when it goes like this I don’t achieve anything I get a bit depressed. So hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to get the rope and achieve something.
The past couple of days though I’ve been hanging around her paddock a fair bit, and she’s quite content with me being there, but she never gets too close, but closer than before – so it’s nice to see her comfort zone increasing a lot.
Not much to report on, hopefully tomorrow will bring better news.

Just checked, she got her lead rope up around her head on Thursday night, and didn’t fix herself till Sunday morning. Oh dear, I hope she doesn’t revert backwards at all!

Actress diary #10 - wonderful morning

(diary 10, day 12)

Thursday 3rd of July
Ahhh, so I didn’t write up an entry for yesterday. Doesn’t matter though, nothing too exciting happened. In the morning I believe I worked on some more yielding & head patting – which went well! And in the evening I worked on some leading, but then resulted in her running off….

Anyway! This morning however was WONDERFUL! She’s an amazing little horse this one. This morning, we led! There was no food involved AT ALL! She walked around pleasantly; she did stop a few times but gladly kept moving when I asked.
So of course, that makes me super happy! Still a long way to go yet to perfect patting her without her moving & leading confidently, but she’s doing well.

This afternoon however wasn’t exciting. The little miss rolled sometime during the day, and thus, the lead rope has ended up over her head. I no longer worry when this happens because she’s not a silly horse. But, when it has happened she won’t let me touch it, and therefore we cannot do any learning! Ah…so I just worked on her approaching me, which is still something that is of importance. If she approaches me that means, apparently, she’s accepting me as her herd leader. Well, I say we are nearly at the point where she believes I am her herd leader, still have a few kinks to get out first.

All and all, I’m really hoping I can start her to saddle in September. There’s still two whole months, so maybe towards the end of September. But I’m not putting money on it or anything; there is quite a lot of ground work we need to cover. So rethinking, it may be later. But we’ll work towards that eh?

Actress diary #9 - FANTASTIC DAY

Tuesday 1st of July 2008

Oops, I didn’t write anything for yesterday! Eep…Ah it wasn’t that exciting anyway, in the morning just worked on her approaching and following me, and then in the evening I did some leading work.

My main dilemma is…
AM I BRIBING HER? WILL SHE EVER RESPOND TO ME WITHOUT THE FOOD?
Ahhh…
I know, I’m being completely irrational. I’ve had the poor horse for little over a week and I’m already expecting her to welcome me with open arms, with no feed.
Beeeep, wrong. This horse only follows if I have feed.
However, if we’re working on yielding the hindquarters/head patting, she does that fine without food.
Which that reminds me, I have to do that…I’ll do it tonight. It’s been a few days since I did it.

Anywho, yesterday I started to use the method of letting the horse THINK. After you complete an activity just let the horse think about it for awhile. I don’t know how well this worked, but it was nice just standing there with her.

This morning I just worked on her approaching me. She was quite flighty, so I didn’t want to push her, it was a wet and windy night.
I’ve decided tonight I will do some hindquarter work.
I’m also going to cut down on the amount of chaff I give her.
She doesn’t eat hay! *sigh*

She’s an interesting girl too…SHE PULLS FACES! How many horses actually smile at you? She does…Actress seems so submissive, like she has no personality. But then you get these times and she’s standing their SMILING! Or pulling funny faces! You probably all think I’m insane but she does! She also licks her bucket clean; gosh…she’s going to be obese by the end of spring!

And this morning, I went out a little later than usual and she was all “ha, nope….you had your chance to feed me at 7:15, not 7:45, I’m just going to stand right here and munch at this grass”

Ahhh, so cheeky!

Later on (5:15pm):

FANTASTIC LESSON! Wonderful! A really good step forward in our relationship and her education! Okay, I’ll go through tonight’s events:
Went out there with her food, only gave her half a scoop of chaff in hope that she’ll eat some of the hay I bought her. Actress at this point is ignoring me, “this lovely green grass tastes so much better than whatever you have in the bucket.” Eventually, Actress remembered how she is supposed to approach me, and did so accordingly. With one thing on my mind, and that was yielding, I wanted to grab the rope quickly into the lesson so she wouldn’t be eating all the food at this moment. Luckily, Actress kindly yielded her hindquarters without me asking, and let me pick up the rope. Yay! I put the bucket down out of her reach and set to work. I began by trying to pat her, of course, no dice, so of we go yielding the hindquarters. I’ve remembered to just walk slowly, and she will go slowly too J Then, tried again with patting her, of course, she steps back and I yield her. Then, when she finally lets me touch her without stepping backwards, I give her time to think. So there’s me trying to do some diaphragmatic breathing while she thinks. She was chewing, which is a sure sign of some relaxed brain activity or something, so I was happy. I patted her again and because she didn’t move back, I kept the patting short, and then let her think about what happened.
Hopefully what was going through her head was “Ohh, so if I move back I have to do circles, but if I stand still then I just get to keep standing, I get it!” Of course, Actress should already know this, but it doesn’t hurt to remind her.
So I was very happy, and Actress was very happy. By now it’s been about 20-30 minutes and the session should be finishing up so I go to grab the bucket, of course…its too far away and Actress just needs to step forward a couple of times for me to reach. So I’m clicking away at her and SHE LEADS! Yay, no food motivation or nothing! I’m always very happy when that happens, so immediately I grabbed the bucket and gave her a REWARD – THERE WAS NO BRIBERY! (there was no bribery this whole lesson!!!) Then, tried to get her to move forward again (without food) she doesn’t really want to, but as soon as she puts two feet forward, there’s the bucket REWARDING, NOT BRIBING! I did this once more and then let her have a good long feed. After she licked the bucket clean I let down the rope and walked off, and hey, there’s Actress following along, but then she realising I’m not holding her anymore, and decides to eat grass, ha, but she slowly follows after me in typical Actress fashion.

:D