Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2009 19:17:49 GMT 1
I met Ski's mum, Carly, at Monty's Towerlands demo. She had a problem, she explained, that she'd lived with for the last 10 years, and having now seen the Monty demo was wondering if maybe we could help her. Today I hope I proved that we can!
10 years ago, when Carly had owned Ski for just 2 weeks, they had been riding down a narrow lane when an impatient driver hit Ski, knocking him over and bringing him crashing down onto Carly. This left them both rattled. Since then, Ski has had (understandably) a problem with cars and also with anything coming near him. He also has a problem with any sort of narrow gateway, doorway, gap, etc. etc. He will commonly try to blast through to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, and if asked to stand still he will get increasingly tense and then start to kick out.
It would be nice as an ultimate goal to have Ski hacking down country lanes unbothered by cars. I have to bear in mind, though, that he had a horrible accident and has since had 10 years of worrying. So, we'll see where this one goes...
As Ski has problems with the gates and doorways even around the yard, that seemed to me to be the best thing to address today. Even if we could just eliminate his day to day worries, that would be good. These worries, though, are so clearly connected to his car fear that solving them will be a good first step on the road to addressing that.
When Carly brought Ski in from the field, it was immediately clear that he was the leader. She conceded that this was normal, that he would normally be ahead with her at the shoulder, and when something worried him he'd blast forwards from her. I explained how turning her into the leader would relieve him of the burden of worrying, so leading is where we started.
His leading wasn't overly bad, but I started in the school getting Ski to listen, stick at my shoulder, stop and turn with me. Carly then practiced too as this will be one of the main points of her homework. Then for the gateway.
Carly set the gate at a width she thought that Ski would start to react. I led him towards it, stopping, then asking just one controlled step at a time forwards. He was tense, nervous, and given the chance probably would have blasted through. However, by asking him to just stand in the gateway, he was soon able to understand that this didn't hurt. We could then start to move and make the gateway narrower.
(By the way, if that doesn't look like a Carly, it's because it's a George, Carly's OH. Top job, George, thank you!)
You can see from this how Ski is focussed on his quarters. That's what was hit, that's what he's got to protect.
As we worked, though, he began to relax. Although still keeping a eye out for something going on behind, even as the gap got smaller his head started to lower:
It was, then, time to face his worst fears. It was time for the gate to touch him...
He did have a spook the first time it touched his rug, but then he worked amazingly well and within maybe just 5 more minutes the gate was opening and closing on him.
We gave Ski a rest, then Carly took over so that she and George can practice. This is really key in this situation. As well as Ski being rattled, Carly was too. She now anticipates problems and by her own admission is contributory to them. Teaching her how to reassess situations as in her control is essential in this process.
We then moved to a different situation that Carly was sure Ski would not be able to handle, going between a pair of jump wings. He didn't bat an eyelid! The only flicker of something was when the wings were quite narrow and I had started to touch him. He spooked slightly but then remembered that he didn't need to and settled.
As a finale, we tackled that big sliding doors into the stables. Carly led him up (remembering to keep her role as leader), stopped him before she had quite reached them, then led him through. His head was low and relaxed, and you never would have known he'd had a problem.
There is a long way to go. This is just the start. Carly has to work on how she approaches situations and there is a lot of practice to be done with Ski. They do, though, now have a set of tools and me to back them up if needed. I think, though, that with George's help and support, she should be able to do a lot herself.
Ski, by the way, is 22. It just shows that you can teach an old horse new tricks!
10 years ago, when Carly had owned Ski for just 2 weeks, they had been riding down a narrow lane when an impatient driver hit Ski, knocking him over and bringing him crashing down onto Carly. This left them both rattled. Since then, Ski has had (understandably) a problem with cars and also with anything coming near him. He also has a problem with any sort of narrow gateway, doorway, gap, etc. etc. He will commonly try to blast through to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, and if asked to stand still he will get increasingly tense and then start to kick out.
It would be nice as an ultimate goal to have Ski hacking down country lanes unbothered by cars. I have to bear in mind, though, that he had a horrible accident and has since had 10 years of worrying. So, we'll see where this one goes...
As Ski has problems with the gates and doorways even around the yard, that seemed to me to be the best thing to address today. Even if we could just eliminate his day to day worries, that would be good. These worries, though, are so clearly connected to his car fear that solving them will be a good first step on the road to addressing that.
When Carly brought Ski in from the field, it was immediately clear that he was the leader. She conceded that this was normal, that he would normally be ahead with her at the shoulder, and when something worried him he'd blast forwards from her. I explained how turning her into the leader would relieve him of the burden of worrying, so leading is where we started.
His leading wasn't overly bad, but I started in the school getting Ski to listen, stick at my shoulder, stop and turn with me. Carly then practiced too as this will be one of the main points of her homework. Then for the gateway.
Carly set the gate at a width she thought that Ski would start to react. I led him towards it, stopping, then asking just one controlled step at a time forwards. He was tense, nervous, and given the chance probably would have blasted through. However, by asking him to just stand in the gateway, he was soon able to understand that this didn't hurt. We could then start to move and make the gateway narrower.
(By the way, if that doesn't look like a Carly, it's because it's a George, Carly's OH. Top job, George, thank you!)
You can see from this how Ski is focussed on his quarters. That's what was hit, that's what he's got to protect.
As we worked, though, he began to relax. Although still keeping a eye out for something going on behind, even as the gap got smaller his head started to lower:
It was, then, time to face his worst fears. It was time for the gate to touch him...
He did have a spook the first time it touched his rug, but then he worked amazingly well and within maybe just 5 more minutes the gate was opening and closing on him.
We gave Ski a rest, then Carly took over so that she and George can practice. This is really key in this situation. As well as Ski being rattled, Carly was too. She now anticipates problems and by her own admission is contributory to them. Teaching her how to reassess situations as in her control is essential in this process.
We then moved to a different situation that Carly was sure Ski would not be able to handle, going between a pair of jump wings. He didn't bat an eyelid! The only flicker of something was when the wings were quite narrow and I had started to touch him. He spooked slightly but then remembered that he didn't need to and settled.
As a finale, we tackled that big sliding doors into the stables. Carly led him up (remembering to keep her role as leader), stopped him before she had quite reached them, then led him through. His head was low and relaxed, and you never would have known he'd had a problem.
There is a long way to go. This is just the start. Carly has to work on how she approaches situations and there is a lot of practice to be done with Ski. They do, though, now have a set of tools and me to back them up if needed. I think, though, that with George's help and support, she should be able to do a lot herself.
Ski, by the way, is 22. It just shows that you can teach an old horse new tricks!