pulling stuff

Shyloh is soo much fun! 

Beth gave me a lesson on long lines to help Shy and me with her line driving. We worked on keeping contact and a the dreaded trail obstacle. . .tarp with board. Beth noticed Shy is not confident with a person behind her, so she gave me some exercises to do to increase her confidence. Basically, I stand at her head and move backwards a little at a time until I can move behind her. Then I repeat on the other side. Shy's goal is to stand still and not move her head or her butt. So that is why Shy will go over the tarp and board when I lead her, but not when I drive her.

After we conquered the trail obstacle, the real fun began! On a whim, we brought the sled out. Shy had not seen the sled in quite some time, so she was a little iffy about it. I walked her around it a few times until she got comfortable and hooked her up. Whoa! When it started dragging behind her, Shy got her quick legs. But she did not go far and before we went halfway around the arena, she was fine dragging it behind her.

Sorry about the crappy quality, cell phone pics from far away!

I suggested that Beth hop on the sled. She was a good sport about it and got on, even though she had her reservations. I had Shy near her head for safety. When Shy felt the weight, she stopped. It was a struggle between stopping and going, but eventually Shy made it around the arena twice with Beth. 

Then it was my turn! Shy was done at this point. She refused to move forward, despite our consistent tapping. Eventually, we got her moving and she went about half the arena. Shy needs to build up pulling muscles and learn how to balance herself while pulling stuff. But if we keep it up, I'll be riding in a one horse open sleigh by snow time! Or at least a sled in the snow. . .

I worked by myself with Shy on a different day. I used the exercise Beth showed me before we began any work. To my amazement, it made a huge difference! I did not have to spend the first ten minutes of line driving getting Shy to stop straight and not constantly step to the side. She stopped perfectly!

I worked with Shy on the dreaded trail obstacle and she acted like it was going to attack her! Why oh why mare? But I did some lunging in each direction around and over the obstacle and she finally went over it. I am beginning to think that she does does stuff to see if I can make her. 

This is the extremely edited version. . .We spent a lot of time on this.

I brought out the sled again and hooked Shy up. I really need to get something much shorter than the sled that I can walk behind. When the long lines are too far back, Shy is not as responsive to directions. But, we did it and I decided to add some weight to the sled. I used a 40 lb. bag of alfalfa pellets. At first, as always when Shy is pulling weight, she refused to move forward, but I got her going. Why does she always refuse to move forward? And nothing will make her until she is good and ready to go. Finally, when she was ready to walk, we did a few laps around the arena and called it quits. 

It's nice to finally get some practice in with pulling and line driving. There is not enough time in the day or days of the week to do everything I want to do with Shy! Maybe if I didn't work. . .

line driving obstacle course

I did a line driving obstacle course with Shyloh today. I also worked on keeping contact with her as we did our line driving. I am undecided with how our little session went. . .

The key:

1. Poles

2. Hula Hoop. I stand in the hoop and have Shy circle around me without stepping out of it. We did both ways.

3. Tarp with a board on it.

4. Cones. Weave through them forward and backwards.

5. Barrels. Narrow space, go through them.

6. Alleyway with poles.

7. Cones. Figure Eight.

Usually, when I work with Shy, I am able to pick out at least one improvement or good thing that happened. While I can say that Shy went through my course really well, I am still a little disappointed. I felt she, me, we could have done better. 

Why me?

Really?

Shy conquered all of the obstacles with ease except for the tarp and board. This is the same obstacle she refused at the show. She does not have a problem with the tarp, it is the board. And she does not have a problem being led over either, but she won't do the obstacle being line driven. And yes, I did have a whip. Not much use, except for moving her sideways at lightening speed. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time on this. . .

Almost there. . .

We did it!

I know what I should have done. I really should have got my clicker out and did some training that way. But I didn't and I am a kind of upset with myself over this. 

Eh. . .I am not sure what is up with Shy this week. She just not seem to be wanting to do work. I am going to have to keep working on this for the next show.

monday musings by shyloh #4

Ouch. . .Caesar is beating me up. But that is because I am trying to get his grain. Have I ever mentioned that I love grain? Why don't I get any? It is so good! But, what the lady doesn't know is that I get Caesar back! Ha!

You should see the other guy!

I must be turning into a sea horse! My paddock is flooded! It is raining, raining, raining! So much mud! But I don't mind. The lady comes and takes me inside, cleans me off, then puts me on dry land inside. And then I roll! Hey, a girl can't stay clean for too long, right? 

The lady does the craziest things! I don't get the purpose and she probably does not have one. Today, on the wall, there was a blue tarp. Never seen that before. I went up to it and sniffed it. But then the crazy lady wrapped it around herself and tried to walk toward me. Well, I was having none of that, so I ran away. But then the lady held out a treat. Food! How could I resist! So, I stopped and let the lady come up to me. I was a little scared, but that blue thing didn't do much except make funny noises. So in response, I made my thinking noise. 

The lady started touch me all over with the blue thing. I let her. It was not too bad, I guess.  She put it on my back, like a cape so I was Super Shyloh!! 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Shyloh!!

And she put it over my head.

Why does she do this to me?

Crazy even put it over her own head! Notice how she did not add the picture of that. . .hmmm?

Gotta check it out

After I felt comfortable that the blue tarp was not a mountain lion in disguise, the lady put it on the ground. We circled around it a few times each way. Before I knew it, she was asking me to walk on it! What? I did my best to try and walk around it. I was getting the same result, right, getting closer to the lady. But that was not good enough. She wanted me to walk ON it. I had to make a thinking noise over this. . .Okay, I put my front foot on the blue thing. Nothing terribly bad happened. So, I walked over it. And I did it again. And again. And then we trotted over it a bunch of times. It was actually kind of fun! I got lots of praise and treats and pets for doing such a simple thing.

It's all good

Look! I conquered the tarp!

The lady decided to take a break and let me roam around the inside. It seems that when she trots, she gets tired. It must be that only having two legs thing. Much harder to move around. While I was doing some exploring, I came across the cones. I seem to remember Ryleigh (sigh, <3) playing with these. I never thought to play with them before! I checked these cones out. Pretty interesting. Then the lady moved some out of the corner for me. Fun! Then she put a scary whip in the cones, just like when Ryleigh was playing with the other day! The whip is not so scary when I have control over it! See what I can do!

I got some granola and apple for being such a good and brave girl today. And I did not bite! On the way back to my paddock, I saw some flakes of hay just sitting there, not being eaten. What's a girl to do but to grab a whole flake as we walked by? Like I said, I am a hungry girl! I did get that hay taken from me, but later learned that it was my dinner hay, anyway! When I got back outside, I was given my dinner. What difference does it make if I eat it on the go or in my shelter? None, I say!

I think I had a good day with the lady today. Now only if the rain would stop. . .

~Shyloh