There is chatter on the tv about this being the hottest summer on record. Last week, I got into my car in the parking lot at work, turned it on, and saw that the temperature read 104. Ok, it was in the sun. As I drove, I watched to see it fall only to see it rise to 107 before I got home.
I have no desire to ride right now due to the heat. I've had a lesson in the new ring at the barn (which is soon to become a new indoor), but we had to take it easy as the sand was still pretty deep and Peanut has that whole wind puff thing going on. Still, I felt a disconnect and realized the one difference - I've been moping lately, and stopped walking on the trampoline. I could feel the difference while riding! I'm still not back on track with it, but I'm still mopey. Work gets me down, which impacts my horse life, which is the whole reason I took a 9-5 job. It's a catch-22.
One day, I was going to go for a walk with the Nuts and ended up stuck in the road. OMGTHEGOATSAREMOVING. You could look at Peanut and see that he had mentally checked out, shorted out because of wee goaties. We were in the middle of the road, and Peanut had planted and acted like he had no idea that I was there. Joan yelled from the barn "make that horse move!" I called back, "we're working on it." Yeah, let me beat him a little. That's a good sensation to associate with the presence of goats.
I moved back and forth, side to side, and got him free and able to move. Of course, he wasn't done being silly and started alarm calling and planting as we got on the trail. I would take a cookie (insulin resistant recipie, tyvm), and stick it almost in a nostril. After a few seconds, his upper lip would quiver. After a few more, it would move up and down a bit. Then, slowly, his lip freed and he started to feel the air with it, at which point the cookie would somehow move out of his reach. He would start to return to his eyes, and he would begin to follow the cookie a little. Great! He got a treat while walking.
We eventually got past, but he was a nervous mess the whole time we were out there.
I decided the best thing for us now is to work on the road and that entrance to the woods. He's been getting worse and worse with it, after being good for a while, but that last time took me by surprise at its severity. So, I thought about it, and realized that during clicker he is having a good experience and his attention is wholly on me. I realized that, when he was planted, I had not talked to him, had not called to him, had not told him to come. I should have. I do that with clicker, it gets his attention, and it works well.
Yesterday I took my clicker (haven't used the clicker itself in a while, figured it was a good time to bring out the big gun), the dressage whip I use only for clicker, and a pouch full of his fatty-horse cookies. I just wanted to get him down the hill to the road without tensing, as he starts on the hill to get nervous, and I didn't want to really push it.
We did a little up at the barn, then started to move out to the grass. No big whoop. He was following the wand, wanting to grab the base of it in his teeth and get a treat. We eventually got to the bottom of the hill at the road, and I still had his complete attention. Good. The goats were noisy too - blyah blyah blyah - but Peanut didn't mind.
I would take him back up and back down, and he was fine. I decided to take him onto the road - again fine. A couple of times he got a good look at the goats and zeroed his gaze and attention on them, but I just called and kissed to him and he would quickly turn back to me, as if to say "oh, hello, forgot you were here." Good boy.
In this way, we were able to cross the road and back several times, and go into the trails to the new huge billboard/sign they installed just inside. On the day he stopped in the road, I had only wanted him to meet the sign. This time, he did. He didn't care that there was suddenly a large mass of wood where he used to walk, and when asked to touch it he walked right up to it and planted his nose on it. Good boy.
They put the sign at a curve in the trail that ends up heading straight for the goats (who are beyond some trees/brush but not fully hidden). I did not want to push it and did not want to turn Peanut that way, so we turned back. We repeated it a couple of times, and he did quite well and I was able to keep his attention. Lots of praise, lots of clicking, and lots of cookies. He was a completely different horse, and hopefully I'm laying down some good memories/impressions of the area to help override future bad ones.
Of course, I wish he could meet a goat, but that doesn't seem like it will happen. At least not with those goats. If only Peanut would discover that they are as delicious to chew on as the new mini.....
Rick has a lesson tomorrow night with his saddle newly returned from the saddler. His leathers are now a shrimpy 62"! Clutch the pearls! He also has a wee thigh roll instead of a long knee roll, and after giving it a short, casual test ride last night he really likes what he feels.
I'm not having a lesson. I don't have the $$$ and, besides, I haven't ridden since my last lesson. I hope I feel better, though. I already arranged to take tomorrow of from work as I came home from the barn last night feeling like something scraped out of Peanut's hoof, and it really didn't improve while at work. I'd like to ride if it isn't too bad out, but we'll see.
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