Boxing for beginners

So next weekend we're off to Knole, sponsored ride.

Now this all well and good but this is our first day out.  Taken a while to get round to it, this getting him out.  Now is the time.  So I realised I need to get him into a box and all these years of looking at the Monty Roberts' world seems to suggest that boxing is a traumatic event, or at least one that makes great videos for you tube.

So the question, what will my boy do?

I booked the Mascals lorry one evening this week.  I eventually get there and its almost dark, still got to have a go.  I open up the lorry and go and get my horse.  I put the dually on him and took a lunge line, and off...  We walk to the lorry which is crouching in the dark shadows of the woods at night time.  Ernie walks to the van and stops at the ramp.  He's not sure.

I reverse him a few steps, walk him back to the ramp, puts his foot on the ramp and another.  We stop. I pat his forehead.  Then back him off.  We repeat this.  Then I walk him half way up the ramp.  He decides to keep walking so I take him on, these are Bambi's first steps.

We get him on the van and the suspension wobbles and totters like a fairground attraction, I'm a little surprised, Ernie is alarmed.  He doesn't like this.  But he stays with me. We turn, we admire the view for a few seconds (or what would be the view) and then I invite him off.... he leaps down the ramp.

So its time to do it again.  This time Ernie really plants his feet.  He raises his head, I remind him that, not doing as asked means pressure throught the dually, we stand for a while like this.  Then we reverse and return, he plants - more dually pressure.  I learn from the napping and weave his body, he is going to move, not straight but we turn - importantly we're not stuck.  We weave our way half way up the ramp, I rub his forehead and then let him leave the ramp again.  He plants again when I ask him foreward, so we repeat the exercise.  This time he loads - friends offering gently vocal encouragement.  Lots of praise.  Stop.  Turn.  Admire the view.  I ask him down slowly, keeping a tight hand on the dually I regulate his descent, he learns quickly walking slowly at my side.

Now he will come and go with me without complaint.

We do this half a dozen times, better each time, better again.

Then being me I have to consider showing off.  I stand Ernie at the base of the ramp and mount the van myself, playing out the lunge line as walk away.  I gently apply pressure, Ernie tentatively loads himself.  Can we do it the other way around, we try.  Bless him he does, albeit again tentatively.

We repeat this three or four times.  He gets better and better.  Now we have one happy boy.  The lorry is just another home from home.

This 30 minutes has moved me closer to Ernie.  Working this way touches the soul, it moves me, in my heart I smile an intoxicated smile, an intoxicated smile that seems to continue for days.

It must be love....

We still have to teach him to position his very large body in the van partitions but lets celebrate our victories.

Echoes of a whisper

So one week on from my session with Rosie Jones, how have things gone?

Ernie is learning quickly to work with his dually - probably quicker than me - and his ground manners are improving again.  He will reverse in hand without protest, albeit in small "bites", which makes a big difference because this means that reversing is now what he does when I ask and not what he does to protest.  I've schooled him in his dually too, if honest he responds better than to a bit, in all gaits.  Am seriously thinking about this as a more permanent option.  The key is me learning more about it.  It is really a very delicate tool, but this what he is always asking for, less always being more.

We are making fantastic hacking progress.  He is definitely still napping and quite a lot as we leave home, particularly as we move up into the woods.  But is has ceased to an impasse.  And certainly no more 30 mins in the bushes! 

I have hacked alone twice this week and never got close to being stuck.  He was quite a pain when we went out with Nero on Saturday, but that was partly me settling too I think.  The short rein 'weaving' is proving excellent, we just don't get stuck or locked in conflict. I also now have my own shaker (a tic tac box with stones in it) which is great if a last resort really required, and it works, give him the rein and he certainly jumps forward after a quick shake. 

I think the one thing at the moment is that it takes a while for him to settle once he's broken from the nap so its about waiting to feel that before asking for too much, too much leg, too early seems to cause another nap.

I even managed to get him two thirds of the around the woods, turn him and after a little weaving, but no shaker, he walked forward.  I stopped after about 15m, patted him, and turned him for home.


We've also changed farrier this week - less said the better here.  Am waiting for the 'ripples' but hey, I pay, I am happier and horse seems better shod!  Sadly mine being too busy the week I asked him to do it.

The downside this weekend was the loss of show just before MM summer show, damn and blast.  This premeditated the above change, but perhaps it's all for the best.  That said I was dissappointed at not competing.  Still we have the MMRC dressage event this Sunday and we're up for an Intro B and Prelim 7, haven't done any practice, and won't get the opportunity tomorrow so as ever we'll wing it!  I suppose there has to be a time when I stop saying, this is just for the experience!