Walking the Line

After seeing how much trust Kiley has put in me this weekend, I decided it was finally a good time to work with her a little more, see if we could lunge at all.

I brought her into the ring to groom her and she stood very well, still a little sensitive below the hocks/knees, but she was very good about letting me pick out her feet. In the past, she has cowered away from you when you get below the knees, pulling her leg up tightly away from you and towards her body. But for me tonight, she was great. I was very slow, deliberate and gentle, and she was calm and easy to pick her feet.

She has figured out that I usually keep treats around, and she absolutely adores the apple-flavored wafers that Manna Pro makes. I took her to the middle of the roundpen to do a combination of Parelli's circle game and lunging. Using the four levels of "asking" her to do something. The key here is finding the line where you are just firm enough to get her to do what you want without scaring her. Kiley often acts like she is expecting to be hurt - and I don't want to lose the trust we have built.

The best part of our session is that Kiley was completely attentive, and "joined up" with me often - at the circle game she would take a few steps the right direction and then very quickly turn and face me like "was that it?" We did lots of 1/4 circles each direction with Kiley going out on the circle and immediately coming back in to check in with me - which is good! Each time I rubbed her forehead and relaxed for a moment before I asked her to go the other way.

I finally was a bit firmer in my requests, and got a quick trot on the circle to he left. She did go all the way around without any trouble. And she is very sensitive to my signals - it doesn't take much at all and she was out there trotting. But she was also quick to come back to me as soon as I stopped asking for forward movement.

To the right, we weren't quite as good. They say all horses are one-sided to some point. I knew she liked going to the left the first day I met her at the Expo when that's all she would do - circle around me to the left. When we finally got a whole circle to the right and a few yields to the carrot stick, I took off the halter to let her go. She immediately walked away from me to graze and clean up some grain that had been dropped (by another horse) in the roundpen.

Kiley really wants to please, but it is still very stressful for her. Maybe I first learned about giving her a break from Penny Stone when we did Ttouch with her the first time - Kiley was good and well behaved, but didn't really want to be with us - and Penny gave her a break in the middle of our session to let her get away and relax. For me, that was her reward today for being so good. I did go over to my grooming box and pick up some treats and shake the bag - and Kiley did come over and take one treat, but as soon as it was in her mouth, she again walked away quickly (unlike my other horses that would hound me for more). It's just her personality - it's almost like she's holding her breath (not literally) and as soon as you release her she feels safe and can breathe again. It's strange because she tries so hard to be good when she's got a halter on, but it is obvious when you take it off that she feels more secure away from you.

Kiley still stops when I let her go after mealtimes and lets me scratch her withers for her for a few moments before she walks away. It's almost like she's fighting her instinct - wanting the attention and at the same time is afraid of bad things that could happen.

We'll keep working through it. And I'll keep walking the line of just enough pressure to get her to do what I ask, without doing anything to betray her trust in me.