Over indulgent?

Yes. Well. I guess I have some work to do! I've been a little lazy and over indulgent lately. I get like that sometimes. I know. Shocking.

The chiropractor visited yesterday and L was out in a couple of places. So, knowing we've been a little sloppy lately, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little ground work in the ring. Just some leading and showmanship.

Things started off swimmingly.

And then. For whatever reason. L flatly refused to continue along the rail. Now, sometimes on the trail she'll refuse something and I'll think about it. She's sometimes better tuned in to the hazards on a trail than I am or maybe there's something about the footing I didn't notice.

But not this time. Not here. Not now. This was so far out of line I thought I was imagining it. Hands down completely unacceptable.

So I had to get ugly about it and I really hate it when then happens. And the hell of it is she not only knows this stuff but she's very good at this stuff.

Of course it's not her fault she's acting like a horse.

It took a couple of minutes to get her "yes sir!" back in order and we'll have to do this again today.

Whether you know it or not it's all training all the time.

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Edited to add:

Looking at some pictures I came across this. I fixed this a month or so ago. One of the reasons I take pictures of my food is to recall the things I enjoy the most. And this is one of my most favorite of all dishes. Pasta and black pepper. Or cacio e pepe.

I like minimalism in general but this is a model for less is more. There are recipes for this all over the web and it's more about technique than ingredients. I don't recall exactly where I saw this technique but it results in a truly beautiful thing.

Fix your spaghetti as you normally do. Heat a large lightweight skillet. About 4 minutes or so before the pasta is ready add a couple of tablespoons of olive to the skillet and add two teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper. Cook this for a minute or two until it gets really fragrant. Ladle a cup of pasta water into the skillet and bring to a boil. Let it mostly boil off. Add the pasta, turn the heat off, stir and flip and add some finely grated Pecorino Romano. A 3rd of a cup maybe.

Plate the pasta, add some more pepper, as much as you like, add some more Pecorino Romano, as much as you like. Be mindful of that "little is more" thing.

Have some chianti or a merlot with it. The flavor will amaze.

From the archive

This picture reminds me of something we always had going for us.

May 2004
We had lots of issues in the early days. Mostly dominance issues and while I learned a lot, I've said it a hundred times, I thought I'd never get it. But look at the picture and look at her ear. We were *always* engaged. Never ever not once did L "disengage". And that was just about the only thing I had going for me for a long time.

Training with L made me think hard about the business of dominance. Most people think it's about being a bully, but it isn't, not at all. And it's clear I'm not faster than L and I'm not stronger than L. It finally dawned on me. L has to believe I'm smarter than she is. The concept really is that simple. But she's a very smart horse and convincing her I'm smarter than she is continues to be a challenge. Sometimes I think she just humors me. It's good that she's a good horse.

Not long after that picture was taken I recall one of our very first milestones. And no, it wasn't our first show.

June 2004. L's very first show.
Very funny story. I was free lungeing L with her herdmate M. She was messing with me. She'd give me the "look" and allow her hip to drift in my direction by just a couple of inches. I was encouraging them with a lunge line in my hand. Things would quickly deteriorate if I allowed this to continue. So. I decide the next time she does it I'm going to let the line pay out and I'm going to just touch her hip with the end of the line.

I'm clumsy sometimes and I don't always get things right. She made her move and I went to let the line out and.. I just let go of it. And here this rolled up 30 ft. lunge hit her square in the flank.

It was more timing than anything else. It provoked an immediate "oh crap" reaction from her. It was the very first time she realized maybe she hadn't ought to be messing with me!

Equine TMJ

Have you all noticed we use a bitless bridle?

That's not because I'm heavy handed. Although my hands aren't as light as I'd like them to be. L has dysfunctional TMJ. Equine dysfunctional TMJ is rare. It's most likely the result of trauma. It's hard to say how or when or exactly what happened but we'd had some challenging bitting issues and, I think it was late in 2005, I noticed a prominent clicking sound she'd make when she was eating.

Here, turn the sound up and listen:



She'd taken on a fondness for leaning on the bit. There was no apparent discomfort and she didn't appear to be in pain. She leaned on the bit something awful. I couldn't keep her from doing that to save my life and things just weren't working for us. It was very frustrating.

She was diagnosed and treated in 2006. Basically you treat equine TMJ problems with either massage or chiropractic treatment. Chiropractic treatment was preferred for her and I've had the chiropractor visit her monthly since. Often enough she's just fine and she doesn't need treatment every with every visit. I have him come anyway just to assure me she's fine if nothing else. Besides, sometimes something else needs adjusting anyway. And he fixed my wrenched elbow once too.

And I did some research. I was sure I just had to use the lightest touch with the right bit. There isn't very much information out there, at least there wasn't at the time and what I found was discouraging. What I learned was the more the way bit is supposed to work, no matter its design, the more stressful it will be on a horse with TMJ problems. And of course, not every TMJ "problem" is the same. But the fact is her just holding a bit in her mouth is a problem and she'll never ever go in a bit.

Product Review!

My trainer suggested we try a bitless bridle with her. So late in 2006 we tried Dr. Cook's bitless bridle.

It's rather a shame I think Dr. Cook comes off as such a nutbag. I think his bridle is a quality product and I think his point of view is rather offputting.

And..it's a good thing that, by late 2006, I'd learned some horse sense. I long lined L with her new bridle in a training ring just to see what she thought of it. Good thing. She pitched a perfect fit looking for her bit. For 20 minutes at least I got one hell of a workout. She tossed her head and she tried to spin and she kicked out and she just wanted no part of it.

Then, like somebody threw a switch, she settled and we've never looked back.

The next day we'd gone out and had a very nice ride in the ring. I was taught to ride mostly with my seat anyway and my hands, while they're not like I'd like them to be, aren't all that bad either. L is light and responsive going bitless. I think it's a quality bridle. If you use one you'll want to have spare cross-under straps and I find the cross-under straps do tend to flip upside down in the attachment rings and while it's harmless enough it still irritates me.

I give Dr. Cook's Bitless Bridle a B. It's a quality product and it works, but I'm left interested in other products as well. Oh, and while it is a quality product I do think it's a little pricey for what it is. I think the one I have was over $120.

Oh! The rules require a bit be used for Dressage, English and Western pleasure so we can't compete in those disciplines. That's not where my passion lies anyway. One can do competitive trail and show jumping without a bit.

Edited 13 February to add: By the way, the single best thing in the world for treating equine dysfunctional TMJ is grazing. So I've read.

Let the training begin

January 2004Go back to who picked whom, part 2.

L was two and a half when I brought her home. She was halter broke and that was about it. I had spent the afternoon with her at Ferme Litjens and she wouldn't let me close enough to touch her and she had no idea what an apple or a carrot was, so treats weren't going to help build our friendship. I figured we'd just sort that all out later.

After giving her a few days to settle in and get acquainted (it didn't take her long to learn about carrots!), we did some leading and decided to see if she'd cross tie.

Nope. That wasn't a good idea. Oh she cross tied just fine but as I was going to learn - trust was going to be a huge issue. At the slightest provocation she just broke the cross ties. Nothing to it. Next day I decided I'd just tie her lead rope off to a post and groom her.  Nope. Broke the snap right off the lead rope.

Truth is L was quite the handful and I was going to learn a lot. It's the main reason I decided to blog. To share training stories. I have tons of training stories. Being with L is the most comfortable, secure and satisfying place in my world. People see us now and they have no idea how much work it took to get here.

You know how you might drop a brush while you're grooming your horse? Well. I'd drop a brush and she break the cross ties and go out the other end of the barn backwards. I was going to spend a lot of money on cross ties.

This was winter 2003/2004 and just about every single night for *months* I threw brushes around the barn. I dropped halters. I made obstacle courses with feed bags and bedding bags. I dropped jackets and blankets. I kicked milk crates over. No you can't desensitize your horse to everything. But hopefully somewhere in this organized chaos she'd get the message.

L is very smart and attentive. Part of the challenge is the simple fact she does not miss a thing. That's part of the alpha thing. And she is extreme alpha. Hey that's a good name for a blog! There was a time she'd get all woofy over just a bucket in the wrong place. It's very funny now. But it wasn't very funny then.

There was a time when I was so scared of L I could barely put on her bridle because of the way my hands would shake. I'd break out in a sweat just thinking about saddling up. She was a scary horse when she was younger. She was bold and dominant and she can still throw quite unforgettable tantrums. For a long time I thought I'd just never get it.

Edit 8 January 2011: Tying troubles

Walkies

This is simply one of my most favorite things in the whole world:

L came home halter broke and that's it. How long do you think it took us to reliably just have a pleasant walk together?

Oh, she'd lead just fine and she could be handled safely in a day or two. Of course we did showmanship early on and typically after our ground work we'd go out and hand graze. No, her manners on our way out to hand graze weren't always perfect. Sometimes they were pretty awful. So I decided when we'd hand graze we'd quietly and pleasantly walk a quarter mile or so to just work on her manners. L is a most dominant animal. Well. I had no idea. No clue at all. A quarter mile walk with L was like going a round with a prize fighter. She'd fight with me every step of the way and fighting with L is not fun. She's bigger than I am, she's stronger than I am, and she can last longer than I can. And frankly, sometimes I think she likes it. Fighting. Walking with L was awful. It was exhausting.

I was determined to fix it.

She'd crowd me and I'd push her off. She'd try to get out in front of me and I'd snap her lead. She'd lean and pull and I'd have us halt. She'd crowd me and lean and pull and get out in front of me and I'd halt her and back her up. That would really piss her off. And she'd shake her head and stomp her feet. It's actually very funny and persists to this day - when there's an issue she acts like you're the one that doesn't get it. She'll spin and rear and stomp her feet (when she stomps both feet at the same time she's really pitching a fit) and she looks at you like she's thinking "*what* is your problem?!" and it's hard not to laugh out loud. You can't do that of course. Horses know laughter is a good thing. But this was every 2 or 3 strides for a quarter mile and it was tiresome.

This went on a couple of days a week for 2 or 3 months and we got *nowhere*. It was very frustrating. I used a flat halter. I used a chain. I used a rope halter. I used a dressage whip. I used a crop. I used a lunge line. She's a tough nut to crack. She really is.

Obviously I had to do something different. So. Contrary to my trainer's advice (*you* choose the speed, *always*), I decided I'd go ahead and move at her pace. I like my horse's ear right around my shoulder with their nostril just behind my wrist on a loose lead. L has a very forward attitude and for years her stride was best described as "stomp stomp stomp..." and it was hard to keep up with her. But I did that for a few weeks. I was hoping she'd get the message "this is where you're supposed to be all the time. At the end of 3 weeks or so I started to change the pace a little, just a few strides here and there. And I'd bark at her and give her lead a little snap when she didn't notice I'd changed the pace. If I could just get 2 strides from her at my pace without a fight I'd pat her and make happy voices and then we'd move on.

Slowly over time I'd change the pace for longer and longer stretches. Three strides. Four strides. I'd make her pay attention every step and when she got it without a fight I'd pat her and do happy voice. After a couple of months we started walking a half mile on our way out to graze and all together after 5 months or so we could go out and reliably have a perfectly pleasant walk together. L would maintain her perfect manners for whatever distance I chose for us.

I'm not a professional horse trainer. Hell I'm not an amateur horse trainer either. I'm just a guy with a nice horse. We trained really hard, 2 or 3 days a week, for 5 months, to just go out and take a nice walk. We got to know each other much better and of course that made a big impact on our training moving forward. It's all training really.

I further refined this as our "comfort zone". It's great exercise for me and "takin' a walk" is our quiet place. When things look like they might get out of hand we can (almost..) always "assume the position" and walk. She knows *exactly* what I expect and it's *not* too much to ask for.

It's become one of my most favorite things and I try to walk with L for at least a mile, sometimes 2 or 3, a couple of days a week. I still change up the pace just to keep her on her toes and if she doesn't notice? An exaggerated little gasp will get her attention. If she really isn't paying any attention at all I'll abruptly change direction, about face, and she'll come right around without taking up any slack in the lead. That's nice. We can go right down to a crawl without any drama but we can't really do a slow motion walk together. Smart as she is she doesn't quite get the "move feet slowly" part of a slow mo walk.

I miss our walking something awful in the wintertime and there are a couple of weeks during the summer when the bugs are *so* bad it just isn't pleasant for either of us.

Here, I'll want to remember this the middle of next winter. This was around 7:00 am today. Looks like it will be a real nice day.