Go is Release

Karen Rohlf does this speed-coaching thing on Facebook. The "game" is you have to pose your question or problem in only five words, and she answers in three. She posts about it unannounced and, in theory, only answers the first handful of questions she receives, so a little luck and good timing is essential. It just so happens those things were on my side yesterday evening!

I even had a question planned, one I'd been thinking about asking if I was ever "on time" for Karen's post. I hadn't thought about it in a few weeks though, and I almost didn't ask because I didn't feel like it was such a pressing issue for Finn and I anymore. In the end, though, I decided to go ahead with it. The question (or problem) was: "distinguish 'get ready' and 'go.'"

Karen's answer was: "Go is release."

My initial thought was "hmmm." Clearly the point of a three-word answer is to point one's thoughts in the right direction rather than fully explain anything! So think I did... and not without a bit of confusion and a touch of frustration. Okay, go is release... but how?

It's not like the idea was totally foreign to me. I can recall the feeling of asking for a trot lengthening like that... when you compress the trot a bit and build up energy in the corner and then allow the horse to power up into the diagonal or long side, and it does feel like release. But I was a little stuck on how that applied to other transitions. Halt to walk, for example. And I was even more stuck on how it'd apply to riding on a loose rein or even playing on line. I suppose because I was erroneously thinking of the reins as the only way to instruct the horse to wait while you build the next gait inside the current one. How wrong was I!

I think the best thing about Karen's response was that it reminded me that "go" can and should feel like a release, which is a far, far cry from where Finn and I have been lately! As I contemplated that last night, I could see that I had gotten way off track, because "go" felt like pressure and more pressure, like PUSHING and disharmony. In short, it felt pretty awful!

So, I went to the barn today thinking about that. I also downloaded Karen's audio recording about relaxation, energy and balance, and listened to the energy segment while driving to the barn. That provided another super helpful gem in the form of a simulation demonstrating how the "get ready" and "go" conversations might sound from one human to another.

I played with Finn on line only today. I slowed down and was more deliberate. I talked aloud a bit more to help myself focus on the desired feel. And I tried to feel the new gait within the old one, build it up, and find a feeling of simply releasing into the transitions. To some degree this was a leap of faith... I just pretended I expected it to work, and lo and behold, it actually did. Yes, I had to get a bit "bigger" to clarify to Finn what I meant a few times, and a few times I had to remind him to try instead of tuning me out, but the bottom line is WE FOUND IT.

We found upward transitions that felt like release. We found a walk that had a trot inside, and a trot that contained a canter. And in taking things a little slower with the trot, I think we even found a few tiny glimpses of real power (that elusive combination of energy and relaxation) in which Finn pushed and lengthened with each stride instead of hurrying. The silly thing is, he is apt to do that... but I have a sharper eye for quick than powerful, and I think tend to push him quicker than I should.

So, hooray! It felt like a big triumph for us. In addition to all the transitions and gaits being improved, Finn's attitude was also much more willing! Goodness I hope I can find this stuff under saddle next. Crossing my fingers that the Thorowgood arrives early enough tomorrow to take it out to the barn, but I'm not holding my breath.

Groundwork

Somewhat without meaning to, I ended up deciding to give Finn a light week. He certainly deserves it after how hard he worked and tried on the camping trip. To some degree this was precipitated by my ongoing concerns about the suitability of the Ansur saddle and the fact that the Thorowgood T8 jumping saddle I've been wanting to try is due to arrive on Thursday. On point or not, I kinda wanted to give his back a break before fitting and trying the new saddle.

It was also brought about by a desire to revisit some groundwork after our the Montaña de Oro trip. I figured a few days focusing on groundwork would be a nice change of pace and give Finn's back a break, too. Seemed like an all-around win.

I pulled out Buck Brannaman's red groundwork book and started looking through it for things we haven't done yet. Since we now have a nice round pen to work with, I am also able to do some things I couldn't do before. For example, the lass rope exercise where you throw the slack between the horse and the fence while the horse is moving around the pen and then yield the HQ towards you and allow the horse to change eyes and go the other way. That one confused Finn at first, but the great thing about him is confusion doesn't really turn into fear with this stuff. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had kicked at the rope as part of his learning curve, but he never did.

Today I even did the exercise where you "rope" a hind foot and stop the horse from trot or canter by applying steady pressure. While this made me a little nervous, once again there was no panic on Finn's part. Our biggest challenge was that Finn wanted to turn towards me when he stopped.

Finn's laid back reactions to this stuff are definitely encouraging. At least I can say he's got some good stuff in him, but of course I'm still wondering about the stuff that isn't. So this is all fine and dandy, but his spooks and reactions on the camping trip tell me there is still stuff that needs to be dug out. I'm just not sure how to go about getting at it. More plastic bag, I guess. And more tarp. Maybe tomorrow I'll bring those toys and do some of the fence work with them and see what I can find.

I have been considering looping the handles of a plastic bag around his fetlock, but I wonder if that's taking it too far. For one thing, I worry he'll step on the bag with his other front foot, or even a hind. On the one hand I suppose I'd like him to be prepared for the eventuality, just don't want to be unfair or unsafe in the process of getting him there.

I've also been continuing to practice my D,N groundwork, working towards finding the sweet spot on line, and today I added in a few cavalletti exercises as well. First I set them for a walk and rewarded him when he chose to stretch his stride and go forward to make them instead of putting in a tiny half-step to make the distance work. I then set them at a trot, which he is an old pro at. He stretches his top line and looks LOVELY over trot poles.

Finally, I really upped the ante and set two canter poles for him! I experimented with the distance and settled at 10 - 11 of my foot lengths. At this stage of the game, I don't want to make it hard for him. I want the distance to match his stride pretty closely. Even with an easy distance, this was definitely a challenge. Many attempts were fumbled. Going right (and uphill, the way I had the poles set) was easier than going left.

He got a little rushed at points, especially because I had to remind him a few times what the request for canter meant. (Energy!) His last success to the right was a thing of beauty... he was relaxed, has a slightly slower tempo, and actually stretched a bit to find the distance. His last success to the left was a lot less glorious, but it was a start. This is definitely going on our list of things to keep on doing. I'd like to get to cantering all four poles someday soon, so I'll just keep building him up until he's ready.

Wrapping up, I want to share this conformation shot R took of Finn about two weeks ago:

I know the light is a little harsh on his neck. I'm going to consider this our starting point for our new adventure into dressage. For comparison, here's a photo of Finn before he was started:

Gosh he's pretty, isn't he? It can be difficult to make useful comparisons between photos with a lot of inconsistency... the horse has definitely changed in demeanor, which for sure effects his appearance. I also can't vouch for the ground in either of these situations being especially level. But the one thing I do believe I see is an increase in the dip in front of his withers in the more recent photo.

I'm not going to obsess over it, but this does add a little bit of urgency to my decision to begin the D,N program with him. I am in a hurry to learn to help my horse move better and be healthier! The trick is to not let that hurry enter into our day-to-day interactions and cause impatience.

Montaña de Oro: We're Back!

Actually, we got back late Wednesday night, but it has taken me this long to scrape up the motivation to write a blog post about it. The trip to Montaña de Oro was more challenging than I expected in several ways, and I think Finn and I were both pretty drained by the experience.

First off, the trails were more of a physical challenge than I expected. Many of the trails around the horse camp and towards the beach consisted of deep sand. While perfectly logical, I just wasn't prepared for that, especially because many of the trails also featured significant elevation changes. Fortunately, Finn was up to the job, thanks to our extensive riding all summer.

Sandy trail en route to the beach.

Next, the trails definitely challenged Finn's confidence more than I expected. There were many places where steps had been added to help resist erosion, and if there was more than one step close together, it became cause for consternation. I was definitely surprised by this, and there were several places where I had to get off to walk Finn through tricky parts of the trail. In fact, on day three, we encountered what pretty much amounted to a full-on flight of stairs, and I simply chose to get off and walk him back to camp. By that point, it was clear he wasn't getting more confident, but instead more anxious, so I figured it was time to cut our losses.

The beach also challenged Finn more than I expected. While I certainly wasn't expecting him to walk right into the surf without question, I didn't realize we would have so much trouble with clumps of seaweed, the way wet sand changes color when you step on it, or even the effect of hoof prints being left on fresh sand. Looking back I sort of wish I had lowered my standards a whole bunch and simply been happy with less, as even my best efforts fell short of accomplishing what I thought were reasonable goals. Live and learn, I guess.

Really not bad for first-timers.

Finally, the size of the group seemed to unnerve Finn more than I expected as well. After his success riding out with the group during the Washoe Lake overnight, I thought we were covered, but this environment was much less forgiving for a nervous horse and offered far fewer options for helping him stay with me.  I had some success just keeping him in front of the group when he was feeling a little amped, and we definitely had spans where he was able to relax and be in the middle, or even the back, so it's not like there are NO positives to note.

Bringing up the rear on day one.

Finn became extremely attached to Tiva during this trip. Perhaps I shouldn't have put him in a pen next to her... something I will consider for next time. But this wasn't a huge surprise; while S and I have worked on separation on our rides around home, I know Finn isn't fully confident when Tiva leaves us behind. If Tiva is behind us, he's usually fine, but Tiva going out ahead of us is a whole different story. He is by no means unmanageable or impossible over this, but it is difficult to have genuine connection with your horse when half his brain is locked on keeping track of his buddy.

Not saying they don't make a cute pair...

Finn's confidence definitely took a hit on this trip, and I'd have to say I think mine did, too. Especially because on day two I fell off Finn for the first time, and the second. Yeah, day two kinda sucked.

The first fall happened like this: I was riding along on a loose rein and Finn felt totally relaxed. Tiva was leading us by a horse length or two, and the rest of the pack was behind us. We were winding through some sandy trails towards the beach. Tiva tripped and stumbled, and my horse pretty much vanished from underneath me. There were some loose branches in the sand around where this happened, so they may have played a part in Finn's spook, but I'm not really certain.

I hit the ground with the reins still in my hand and, of course, tried to hold on to keep from losing my horse. Unfortunately that basically turned me into an unidentified potential monster trapping Finn in a mortal danger in his mind and he sent a double-barrel kick my way and connected with my right shin. At that point I am grateful I had the presence of mind to recognize what was happening and just let go. He blasted past the other riders at Mach 10 and galloped off like the terrified prey animal he was.

Luckily, and true to form, he didn't go far. With nothing further contributing to his terror, he crossed his flight line, realized he was alone and stopped to look for the herd, which was waiting where he had left us. I prepared to hike out there to fetch him, but he soon came bounding back, cutting through the brush, and headed straight for Tiva. After pausing for a few minutes to let our adrenaline wear off, I remounted and we continued on our way.

The second fall happened on the beach. I was trying to get Finn to step into the receding waves and he got startled and once again spun so fast it was like he practically disappeared from under me. Luckily this time I landed on my bum in front of him, in a position where I could hold onto my reins without risk of being kicked. After pulling back for a moment, he calmed down and realized it was just me down there.

I'm not going to lie, this is somewhat unnerving. I have sat through lots of Finn's spooks, but these were really in a whole different category when it comes to speed and suddenness. Maybe I would have held on better if I'd had my own saddle with it's lovely suede seat (I do find the saddle I'm borrowing from S very slippery to sit on), but who really knows? On a positive note, at least the saddle didn't spin like I've always worried about!

I am considering not riding in S's saddle anymore... which will basically amount to not riding anymore until I can get a new saddle. I have one en route from Smart Pak to try that I have high hopes for... I am REALLY hoping the Thorowgood T8 Jump saddle proves the answer for us.

But I am itching to get back on my horse. We finished out that second ride without any further problems; Finn was as relaxed as could be heading home from the beach, aside from being extra skeptical about a few things that had hardly bothered him on the way out. But still, I feel like we've now had a string of less-than-successful rides, and I'm impatient to begin re-building some positivity in our partnership.

Anyway, the third ride (on the next day) was the one where I turned back at the stairs. Apparently that trail was chock full of similar challenges, so I'm glad I made the choice that I did. In retrospect, I wish I'd have taken a few minutes to walk him down and up the stairs from the ground, but I don't want to waste time fretting over THAT of all things. We went back to camp alone, which he did willingly and with relative calm, although he was calling fairly regularly. After working him some on the ground, I tied him to the hitching rail and let him practice that for the next several hours.

He actually settled down quite well while the other horses were gone, but he had quite a melt down when Tiva returned, went out of sight to be untacked, and then went to her pen. It took several hours for him to really find peace on the rail.

The next morning, I tied him while I was cleaning his pen and getting ready to ride and was super pleased that he was contented to stand right off the bat. However, when S took Tiva to the trailer to tack up, he lost his cookies all over again and I ultimately elected to just stay at camp and let him work that out. While it was a bummer to miss the last ride, I felt it was the right decision for Finn at the time. Going out on those rides certainly wasn't helping him! He actually did quite well, settling down to stand pretty calmly only 30 minutes after the other horses left.

Realizing he hasn't been left here to die.

He once again had a bit of a fit when Tiva returned. In an ideal world I would have let him stand at the rail until he was over it, but with the long drive back to NV ahead, I had to settle for less.

All in all, the trip didn't go quite like I hoped, but that's life. Group setting and challenging trails like this are good for pointing out all our holes, and not so good for fixing anything. That is the attitude I am trying to take for all this... I now know more about where Finn and I are struggling and all I can do now we're home is do my best to fix it. More to the point, trying to fix these things on the trail wouldn't have worked; not with this group, not in that setting. Sometimes you just have to live to fight another day.

Yes, this was all somewhat discouraging. Yes, it has made me question my horsemanship and my goals for this horse. Yes, I shed some tears and had some lapses in positive attitude. In the end, however, that's just life.

I look forward to getting back to some routine riding and seeing where we're at. I feel like I am still in need of better tools and techniques for this horse if he is ever going to be a solid trail horse. I feel like I really need a better strategy for helping him navigate tricky things. But paramount in my mind at the moment is a commitment to setting us both up for success in the immediate future. I slipped up and over-faced him, not just on this ride, but on some of our other recent rides as well. Now we're both a little less confident, and only time and positive experience can repair that.

Token photo from the inland trails.

Onward and Upward

I was fortunate enough to have R come out to the barn and take some video of Finn and I today, like I've been hoping to do for some time. As I'm delving into the Dressage, Naturally material, I wanted some "baseline" footage... this is where we started.

Although I have watched most of the video, I don't have anything to share yet. Shooting with R's fancy cameras often means the process of cutting the video together is a bit more involved, and my time was pretty limited this afternoon, for reasons I will get to in a moment. First, though, I want to at least share my observations.

As usual, I was impressed by Finn's rhythm, general relaxation and natural movement. There is no doubt in my mind that everything with this horse comes from and returns to relaxation (except when it doesn't, like when he totally looses over something that unnerves him, but we're not practicing our dressage in those moments). He may not fully understand how to combine energy and relaxation yet, but I think that's more physical than mental. And he goes right back to sleep in no time flat.

He is also not a horse that has trouble reaching under himself with his hind legs. Finn has a very naturally long and reaching stride. Now, that's not necessarily the same as him actually carrying and/or pushing with his hind end, but at least he's got a head start of sorts. Although his "neutral" trot can feel slow as molasses from the saddle, in the video it looks rhythmic and supple with a still decent length of stride.

Although I still often feel like I'm treading water on our discussion about energy, the fact is I saw a clear change in the video. His willingness to go is definitely increased; walk, trot and canter. Additionally, in the video it was plain that some of the higher energy trots I've been asking for are beyond his ability to perform in balance. To put that another way, I'm running him off his feet.

That, combined with having to watch myself (after already being somewhat discouraged to feel myself do this) fall into drilling him, really made it clear to me that I need a clearer and more appropriate picture of what I'm asking for. Often in my rides I get carried away by something I'm trying to accomplish and I work at it too long without pausing to appreciate Finn's effort or consider what I could change to make it easier for him. In this case, a more moderate idea of the energy I'm requesting and more commitment to getting it crisply and letting Finn understand his success would really improve the feel and productivity of our sessions.

I was really pleased watching Finn's whoosh-y yields out of the walk, too. Both his hindquarter and forequarter yields were really quite lovely, although I did have to clarify a little at the start since our focus had shifted to other things over the past few rides. We will, of course, continue to refine and build on those.

Now, to get to the reason why my time was limited this afternoon... I'm going camping, and I'm taking Finn with me. Yes, you read that right.

This is why I love what I do... because when I'm not working, I'm not working, and I get to do whatever I want. S had this trip planned already and asked me semi-last-minute if I wanted to join and I said: yes, yes, a thousand times, YES! We're going to Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos, CA... 8,000 acres on the central California coast. And YES, there is beach access for equestrians. In fact, the beach is very near the horse campsites.

While the beach is one of the main attractions, fact of the matter is Montana de Oro is a veritable wonderland of gorgeous scenery. I can't wait to explore it. We're meeting a couple other folks there (friends of S) and we may stay as long as 5 to 6 days. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

I doubt I'll make any blog posts from the trip, but I will definitely be taking pictures and hopefully get a video or two as well. I am really hoping the beach presents some options for taking our gallop to the next level yet again, letting Finn hold the faster speed longer to get comfortable there. Yeah, I'm dying for a good, long gallop!

And on that note, I bid you farewell. I still have packing to do. Sometimes I hate being a chronic procrastinator.

The Dark Side

I got back from braiding on Sunday afternoon and have ridden Finn three times since then. To be honest, all three were pretty terrible, and that has nothing whatsoever to do with Finn.

I don't know what got into me, but one day while I was down at Brookside I started second-guessing my horsemanship decisions AGAIN. Mostly I started wondering if Buck's approach is really better, and if I should just scrap my interest in Dressage, Naturally and the themes from Aimee Brimhall's theories I've been trying to incorporate. And then I came home and played with some of the "Buck exercises" and got really frustrated when I couldn't get it right. I was unfair, harsh and impatient with my horse. I didn't share any joy with him, or help him take pride in figuring things out. And I ended each ride feeling awful and pleading for forgiveness.

This flip-flopping is such a theme for me and I am really getting tired of it. But aside from this relapse, I guess I have been improving. My recent decision to focus primarily on Karen's approach is, in fact, aligned with my personal goals. And crucially, deciding to focus primarily on one approach does not mean I must abandon everything else. I recently listened to an old podcast on my iPhone about how to handle either-or decisions where neither option is truly what you want. The answer: elevate your thinking. Realize that there are always more options than the two you're dissatisfied with.

Deciding to focus primarily on Dressage, Naturally doesn't mean I can't also practice the basic exercises Buck teaches. I am definitely interested in being able to do those simple maneuvers with a high degree of quality, and in being able to feel the feet move under me and place them where I want. I am definitely interested in having a soft feel with my horse through the reins and being able to ask him for flexion without brace.

One of the BIG things I am interested in is having the ability to ride my horse to calmness... one thing I want to shed is the Parelli approach of getting off to handle things from the ground if the horse gets worked up. While I am not above getting off if things get really out of hand, I want to continually increase my ability to work through this stuff from the saddle. I want my leadership from the saddle to be at least as good as my leadership from the ground. And that is one of the big reasons I remain interested in what Buck has to offer, because that is an element I don't think Dressage, Naturally or Parelli or Aimee's approach incorporate so much. So I am hopeful that having operating on a feel and getting very good with the feet in these basic exercises will give me the ingredients for that particular goal.

Another declaration (and yes, these are more for me than anyone else): deciding to implement some of the themes from Aimee's approach (like seeking the "we" and focusing on intent) does not mean I have to abandon other things I am doing to advance my Liberty or On Line work. In my heart of hearts, I am happy to have nothing more than very basic communication at Liberty, provided our connection is strong. I don't need to be able to influence Finn with my energy from 500 feet away or further. I don't even need to be able to influence Finn with my energy from 100 feet away. It's just not relevant to my goals, at least so far as I see it now.

So the bottom line, I guess, is I can pick and choose. It's not like anyone has been telling me I can't, except for my own internal demons, I guess. Hopefully this little "rant" will help me approach Finn with a clean, peaceful mind tomorrow and get back on track after this week of frustration. Maybe I'll just write it off as the effects of Mercury being in retrograde like everyone's been talking about on Facebook!

And the even more bottom line: when I'm away braiding, I often look through the photos of my phone of Finn, R, Riley and Buddah. This last week, I was particularly moved by this old photo of Finn and I, taken when I visited him in Maryland some five months after moving to Nevada and leaving him behind:

This is what it's all about in the end, isn't it? Love is the beginning and the end, and hopefully everything in the middle, too. The rest is just icing.

Clear Creek Revisited

I was so pleased to be able to squeeze another trail ride in with S before I head off to braid again! I really wanted Finn and I to have a more positive experience than our last ride before we both take a break. So, after some deliberation, I chose Clear Creek, a trail we know well and that doesn't present too much challenge to our emotional fitness.

After all the wooded, more mountainous rides we've done lately, it was really nice to be back to winding through the sagebrush on a sandy trail:

We took advantage of the good footing and gradual, winding climb through the foothills to get in some long, steady trots and even a few nice canters. Finn did awesome, I was so pleased with his relaxation and rhythm in the trot, even though at times S and T were quite a ways ahead of us.

It was about 80 degrees and the horses are starting to put on their winter fuzz, so they got pretty sweaty during that part of the ride. There was, however, snow in sight... I love mountains:

See the snow caps on the distance mountains?

We went further than we've ever gone on this out-and-back trail, and wouldn't you know it... less than 100 yards from where we've stopped before, there was a bridge! Luckily, this bridge was at least three times as wide as the ones we struggled with at Brown's Creek, and it had safe, sandy "landings" on both sides. I thought at first it might not even be an issue, but Finn definitely informed me otherwise.

He would have been happy to rush across, but I wasn't having that. I got off to discuss going without rushing, asking him to step his front feet onto the bridge and stop, until he could semi-relax there. I did get on and ride across after that, and then we rode a little ways further before turning around.

Again, I thought the bridge wouldn't be such an issue since we had just had a prolonged discussion about it, but Finn said otherwise. Again, he would have been happy to rush across, but I wasn't having it. In the end, I didn't ride him across on our second go, just got a slight improvement on the ground and moved on. We had to be back to the barn to meet my trimmer at a certain time, so I didn't want to take up more time.

Clearly, we need to work on this at home. Finn absolutely has to learn to walk calmly and confidently across a bridge in order for it to be safe for him to do so. So, I'll have to talk to the barn owner about maybe keeping a large piece of plywood in the arena for a while. I'll need something I can easily lift and move by myself. At least it will give us a starting point.

Anyway, Finn was a little on adrenalin heading back towards home after the bridge... I'm not sure if it was the bridge or the change of direction that got him so fired up. He was by no means terrible, still maintaining a walk on a loose rein (a VERY forward walk, but still a walk)... but he wasn't really connected. He had a hard time standing still when we stopped. So, we kept stopping and standing until he could commit to stopping, then going on. For this part of the ride, I asked S to ride behind us so there wouldn't be yet another thing (T) drawing him forward.

He settled back down after a while and the rest of the ride was really lovely. S and I both played quite a bit with transitions, which resulted in us being quite far apart at times. Finn handles S & T disappearing behind us with absolutely no concern. When they disappear ahead of us, he starts to think a bit about looking for T, but again nothing too dramatic.

Anyway, all in all, it was a super ride! Exactly what I was hoping for, even if we didn't quite achieve what I'd have liked to with the bridge. When I come home, we'll get back to that!

Another view of the beautiful desert.

The best view there is. :)

Food for Thought

You know, our mishap at the bridge the other day has really driven one point home with me: it is up to me to decide how MY horsemanship should be, and equally up to me to own the implications of my decisions. Allow me to explain:

I recently watched a brief video tutorial about introducing OTTBs to jumping. The progression presented was clear, logical and fair, and produced the rider's desired results... which is great! That's success! Something the rider said stuck in my mind, though. To paraphrase, he said he just wants the horse to know that he wants to get to the other side.

That caught my attention because it speaks of a preservation of tension to me. The rider didn't say he wanted the horse to be confident in every way around the jump. He didn't say he wanted the horse to be tuned into communication about what to do with the jump. He said he wanted the horse to know he wants to get to the other side. If your primary goal is to have the horse jump anything you put in front of him, with main priority on getting it done no matter what, that is an excellent understanding for the horse to have. The other options? Useless.

BUT... if you prioritize relaxation over getting the job done.... if you prioritize versatility over 100% jumping... well, then you might want to consider teaching your horse a different understanding. Do you get my drift?

Consider: if you train a horse with the idea of "he just needs to want to get to the other side," how well do you think he'd handle the bridge situation Finn and I encountered? This is why, when English sport folks proclaim that such a bridge is dangerous, they are, in some way, right. Considering the way most English sport horses are trained, a narrow bridge would not be safe at all.

Let me be perfectly clear: I am NOT suggesting that the tutorial I am referring to was wrong in any way. I am just trying to discuss the fact that different desired results call for different training methods. Surely we can all agree on that.

Which leads me to my own personal question: what results do I want? Well, I do prioritize relaxation over getting the job done. I do want to be able to take my horse trail riding in Nevada and California and not have to worry about turning back anytime we come to a slightly narrow bridge. (Rope bridge over a canyon? We'll turn around, thanks.) So, I need to act accordingly.

Now, to bring this closer to home, the bridge episode (and the creek episode that followed) have a lot of links to the tarp crossing we've been working on for SO long. I started with the idea "the other side is the answer" ... which is basically the same as the above "I just want the horse to know he wants to get to the other side." Once that was pretty solid, I started expecting Finn to cross it with more deliberation and relaxation - basically, walk instead of leap. But, I have never gone so far as to MAKE him walk... if he wanted to leap, I let him, I just didn't reward him for it. Can you see how that failed to serve us when the "real world" (ie - the unexpected bridge) DEMANDED deliberation?

So, I am rethinking my approach to dealing with things Finn is unconfident about. I am so used to letting him have a certain share of the leadership when it comes to facing things he's scared of... because I allow him to tell me how far he can go. And while I'm not convinced that's a flawed approach, our last trail ride showed me that when I needed to lay down the law and have him obey in spite of his concern, he wasn't prepared to.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know how to "fix" this. It's not really a problem, so much as a very profound puzzle. How to you teach a horse to obey in spite of it's concern without making him feel forced or trapped by you? I suppose by keeping him there until he realizes there is nothing to be scared of. But when I think about the tarp, I know beyond a certain point I just can't hold Finn there when he decides he needs to leave... that's what I need to figure out.

I don't have an answer yet, but I am working on it.

Brown's Creek

I can't say I'm super enthused about writing this post... it is so much fun to talk about the good stuff, but today's ride was more sobering than exciting. Finn and I crossed the line of what we were capable of accomplishing together, and I am just grateful beyond words that neither of us paid for it too dearly.

It was the creek crossings that did us in, because they were not particularly horse friendly. Not a problem for a truly seasoned and confident trail horse, but Finn is just not there yet. Instead of a nice jaunt through a shallow creek, which Finn and I have gotten pretty good at handling, there were very narrow bridges, steep banks, and very limited options:

The second bridge.

Finn actually crossed the first bridge twice successfully with me on the ground. With the help of Tiva's lead, I then rode him across, but that ended somewhat awkwardly when he tried to take a half-leap off the far end to avoid stepping on the rocks and slipped a bit on the bridge. So, I got off, thinking I would lead him across a few more times. Two attempts later, he made a mis-step and fell off the bridge.

Thank God he popped right up with nothing but a few scratches to show for it. I cannot help but think how easily that could have been way, WAY worse. Which is in my nature... I had that thought from the moment I saw that bridge. I didn't feel it was safe. But I allowed naive optimism to over-rule my true intuition.

I want to point out that this is NOT a question of the bridge itself being safe or not. It is plenty safe for a sure-footed, confident horse that is used to handling such questions. It was not safe for Finn and I, based on his nature, experience and our level of communication. I wish I had understood that sooner. To put it in eventing terms, I challenged a Novice level horse with an Intermediate level question... recipe for failure.

What's done is done. I pray I don't find Finn any worse for wear tomorrow, and based on several hours of monitoring him (ie - finishing our ride) after the "incident" I don't have any reason to believe he will be. So, there's nothing much for it but to reflect on what I learned.

First, I learned to be more conscientious about the questions I present to my horse. From now on, I hope I will do better at honestly evaluating our chance of succeeding.

Second, I gained much food for thought on the general question of how we operate our horses. When it comes to things that scare Finn, I have a habit or philosophy of allowing him to think it through/make his own judgement. My thought process being that I don't want him to feel forced, I want him to see for himself that it is safe. While I wouldn't say we haven't gotten results with that approach, it proved inadequate today. Facing a scenario we couldn't control where there was no room for error, this approach of letting him make his own decisions was inadequate.

I think of all the times I have let him leap across the tarp, telling him that it's fine if he rushes across, I just won't reward him for it. While I wouldn't say that is wrong, it again was a pattern that served us poorly when facing the "real" world. When the chips were down and I needed control of his feet, I didn't have it.

I don't really have any conclusions to make at this point, because I don't know what is right. What I know is that I want this to get better. Not only do I want Finn to get more sure-footed and confident within himself, I want him to learn to rely on and obey me when he isn't sure. And, of course, I want to set him up to learn it when there is no great price for a mistake, until I have a realistic reason to believe we won't make one.

So in the end I guess today was a lesson learned and that's all there is to it. Ever more reason to explore my convictions and beliefs about horsemanship.

Finn and I at the end of our ride.