forgot!!!

to write up Janines lesson from last Monday.... so much to think about!
Janine was happy to tie in with the plan that Cathy had set the day before, could job they know each other, although Janine said the circles were for me not Tia! to be honest I know my confidence is half the battle so if circles are working why fix it? I do understand that using obstacles is what's going to help Tia become more obedient in the long run.
We started doing whatever we wanted to warm up before doing touch all over then foot placement. Squeeze through the tyres, asking her to stop with different zones next to the tyres, the further away I was the more Tia didn't want to stop, dominance I think but not sure. Sideways was good, Janine was really pleased when Tia came away from the fence, rearing up and trying to avoid the task, and I didn't loose my focus Yay! Sideways in front of a pole was more challenging but we managed it in a fashion! sideways over the tyres wasn't happening, we'll have to work on that one.
Trailer loading was great, Janine thinks Tia is nearly ready to go somewhere. When we shut the back door Tia lost some confidence but she did stay in there.
That's a bit short for a 3 hour lesson... I'll write up more as and when I remember things.

One bad day...

Well this week has been going very well, undemanding time first then circles with an obstacle, sideways against a fence, squeeze and foot placement. But today Tia didn't want to play, she would come to me but every time I tried to put my arm over her neck she backed away. Now I know I could have got the halter on but I'm trying to keep a promise to Cathy to halter with excellence every time, and I know she wasn't giving me permission. I sent her away to play catching game but the ground was so slippery, she was sliding all over the place, quickly gave up on that one! Decided to leave her for the day.
I've been trying to work out if I gave in too easily, or was I not feeling up to dealing with how dominant she would be???? not sure and I decided not to beat myself up about it. Whats one bad day compared to a good week.

Confidence

Well after all the snow, rain and wind we finally got out to play. My confidence was low and Tia has been very dominant for a while now, so that is what we set out to sort today with Cathys help.
With Janines lesson tomorrow I knew I had to get to grips with my lack of confidence as she always asks us to touch our horses all over first, then place all 4 feet... I would rather play with Tia before I attempt any of that so Cathy and I played with circles and porcupine to help Tia overcome her need to defend her space. Very interesting that she quickly relaxed into circles and it was so easy for me to recognise! Porcupine was so good after that as well, on her left side... more circles then I could touch her right side as well. In the afternoon session we had the saddle on, but unfortunately it started to rain... again. But still a great day :0)
We made a 13 week plan of everything we need to do to be riding at Easter, so no need to think about it now, it's there in black and white.

Quick play

Just a short play today, Linda came over and helped with playing with the trailer. It all went very well, not as much pawing from Tia so hopefully she is getting more confident in there. I did have to get quite firm with her outside of the lorry when she decided she was going in when I has asked her to back up, she was very light on the halter after that!

Bareback pad

Got the lorry from Cathy on Saturday.... ready for loading practice with Janine, which all went very well. While we were chatting about what our goals were and how to achieve them, Rocky and Tia were very curious about the lorry, we had to keep sending them away, all good signs.
Lots of practice first to see how light we could be, touching the halter to ask for a step forward from Tia, It wasn't long before Tia had got this, but being an lbi she couldn't see the point so I had to go to phase 4 a couple of times!
Tia had no problem going on the lorry, it only took going on and off a couple of times before she decided to stay on there. Off we went again, played with squeeze with a barrel and stopping with zone 3 at the barrel while Donna and Rocky had their turn.
Janine had a set of parelli cards with her which we had turns in choosing, each card had a task to do with 3 options to earn points, the harder the task got the most points. The first one was to yo-yo your horse from zone 1, through a gate and back. Not too bad! Tia did OK but as Janine pointed out she was going back very slowly, more like a stroppy teenager! OK phase 4 coming up next time!
Back to the lorry again, no problems going in, so this time I asked for her shoulders to move over and then her hindquarters.... at this point Janine had to remind me to breathe! Yes it was me that was rbi, Tia was fine! Off we went again, played squeeze with the barrel and gate, then circle game and finally I asked her to stop at the barrel with zone 3, she'd got it after the first one, stopping at the lightest shake of the rope.
Back to the lorry again this time, with Janine playing with the partition while I held the rope with a small amount of slack, as if Tia was tied loosely. This was really worrying me so Janine had me sit down so all I could see was Tia's head, with Janine giving instructions when to give or not. Off again, played with driving from zone 1, Tia really doesn't like this, I was having a real battle to keep my hand on her face, again I had to use phase 4 a few times, we eventually got 10 steps backward.
Back to the lorry again, this time Janine held the rope while I played approach and retreat with the partition. I find reading Tia so hard and had to rely on Janine to tell me when to retreat. It's a very fine line with Tia between confidence and unconfidence. This is going to take me a while!
The last task was to squeeze Tia between the lorry and myself, stopping when zone 3 was level with myself and asking her to back up again, while sitting down! I lost points for not defending my space! but at least we completed the task.
A great lesson again, with lots to think about.

Today Donna and I went out to play again. All the things Janine had got us to do yesterday were better today. We decided not to do any loading practice as Janine said for safety we really needed two people. Things were going really well so we decided to get the bareback pads out. It wasn't long before Tia let me put it on her back, after a few more games we went over to the mount block, Tia positioned herself just right, bless her, but I don't think I was ready and she read that from me so when I put a little bit of weight on her back she moved which made me more nervous so I just rubbed her instead, still a good day though with lots of progress.

Todays lesson with Janine

was fabulous as usual. First we revisited things from the previous lesson, foot placement and being able to touch everywhere. Then we went onto simulations for direct and indirect reins, for some reason this took me ages to get the correct hand position... so glad Tia wasn't on the end of the line then. Simulation for change of direction, just a little bit different to what we've been taught before, so that was ok.
While playing with the circle game and change of direction, Tia was giving me some attitude with a little kick in my direction, so I was trying very hard to use as little energy as possible... it's a fine line between not enough and too much. She picked up the change of direction the first time we did it, I've soooo got to up my game! She keeps outsmarting me!
Direct and indirect rein wasn't too bad but really felt awkward. But when we tried indirect rein from zone 3 it all made sense to me... and Tia, she very quickly started stepping under just from the feel on the halter.
Squeeze game at walk and trot was fine, then I had to stop Tia with zone 3 against the tyres, first try she just squirted through, but she got it the second time and I was able to go and friendly her in zones 4 and 5.
The last task was to ask Tia to straddle a pole, we've never done this before so I wasn't expecting a lot. She stood at the side of the pole lovely no problem there, then I had to use porcupine to ask her to move 1 foot over the pole. The first step was tiny just as close as she could be, then she buried her head in my arms..... and I realised how hard she was finding this. I gave her a rub and a minute to realise she wasn't going to die, then asked for one more try, she stepped over the pole with 1 front foot, such trust deserved a handful of treats and that's exactly what she got and lots of rubs and scratches. All great practice for lorry loading. A week to play and practice before Janine is back again.

ET

First day of the Equine Touch course over and I feel exhausted... thought I'd come home and study the manual, but no I had dinner and fell asleep on the sofa!
Very interesting, lovely venue, fabulous food and great people who can ask for more.... that would be me then, wish I could get in my head the techniques and breathing at the same time!
I know this is going to help Bonny and Tia so much so I'm hanging in there and hopefully everything will become clear by Sunday. Fabulous bay mare that we've been working on, I think I must have a thing for bays!!!