It wasn’t Brandy, it wasn’t the pen, it was the lead-rope.
The day that I couldn’t find the lead rope was a good day. Because it meant that I had to order another lead-rope. The day after the new lead-rope arrived in the mail, the old one mysteriously showed up. But I didn’t need to mention that because we all knew that this was going to happen. It was good that the old one showed up though, this meant that I didn’t need to double it up any longer as the dog lead also. Now he can have his own lead.
I clipped Brandy on the new lead-rope the day it arrived. Same colour, same feel, no probs.
Just didn’t have the smell of the dog on it.
Duh!
Riding for the Disabled started its new year this month and all the preparations have certainly kept me on my toes. I’ve also just returned from meeting with friends on my travels and the RDA State Conference where we had a ball with carriage driving, vaulting and Hippo-therapy on the menu. I had a good old yarn with the other coaches and learned STACKS. Huge thank you to the organisers, it was awesome.
And on 21st and 22nd of March Franklin Levinson will be visiting our RDA centre for an equine facilitated learning and horsemanship workshop. If you want to find out more about this I suggest that you visit his website wayofthehorse.org. There’s a few places left for both active participants as well as fence sitters.
One of the horsey secrets I learned from Franklin is to allow the horse to show affection. I am usually so busy to show Brandy this and teach her that and desensitize or feed or brut, scrape out her hoofs and so on. Always busy doing something. Well that’s a lot of input for a horse, way more than what they usually get in the wild. In the wild they just hang out together a lot and give out (energy) as well as take in. When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. It is very easy to overwhelm horses’ senses and never allow them to return some of the affection which we lavish upon them.
So for a little while I’ve just been sitting on my newly build fence watching the birds and the sky and the uninvited white-ants with her. And it doesn’t take long for her to be wanting to be close to me and nibble and smell a bit before she dozes off with her fluffy ears tickling my face. So now hanging out has become one of my top priorities.
It’s all about priorities and I’ve got a zillion of them to categorise and prioritise. Brandy knows she’s number One, as is Sam and Rain, oh yeah and the RDA and ..
If I’ve been sounding confused it is because I was puzzled for a little while and couldn’t make head nor tail of what was happening.
We were doing real good and only waiting for the right person to come along and take our brumby for a ride. Both my sister and I’ve perfected our flying lessons recently (different horses) and have come to the conclusion that we may be better suited next time around to be part of the ground crew.
Brandy was ready, we were ready but I tell you what, this mare can also be the most ferocious unicorn. I’ve seen her grow horns/batwings in an instant, exhaling fiery furnace and all when she’s not happy. The last tantrum threw me a little. Those teeth are seriously big from very close up. But after watching our professional friends giving her a run for her money I remembered the sweet natured brumby which Terry delivered all these months ago and I felt negligent for not having coaxed more of that sweetness out of her more of the time.
I’m now more remorseful than anything. The yard is tidied up with all pruned tree branches woven into a neat little pen. With our next tidy-up-branches I’ll create us a round yard. Brandy is ready, I am ready. Many thanks to the author of The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses by P. R. Kincaid with John J. Stutzman. During one of the recent rainy spells I had a bit of a browse through this ebook. It is a free download from the web. Funnily enough I very much followed his guidelines before reading the ebook. Can’t give you a better endorsement than that. I discovered that there is many different brands of horsemanship, and gentle and easy-does-it works well for us.
We are on the right track. I just stumbled a little but she never missed a beat.
It’s all about the horse and if it isn’t working .. where am I going wrong?
I have been following a schedule of ten steps by John Chatterton where the first step was face-up; tick. Part of the face-up was halter training; she forgot. Step two; standing still, kinda and also pull and release; when on lead yes. Step three touching all over; beautiful. Step four backing up; tick. Step five flexing; check at liberty. Step six yielding to pressure; tick. Step seven yielding shoulder and hind quarters; can do shoulder on lead and hind quarters at liberty. Step eight, accepting spooky objects; yes and no and a loud and big NO when the professionals tested her on this. Step nine, leading in position; on the halter yes, otherwise no. Step ten lunging; well without a round yard that’s a no.
But when put to the test, none of it solid; it has to be solid.
After crying on Terry’s shoulder, I understood that leaving Brandy to her own devices for a little to let the domesticated herd (Baileys) work it’s wonders, is successful to the extent that he shows her what she should consider to be ordinary sounds, smells and happenings. But leaving her to her own devices for too long also made her challenge me once more. Because hey, she had been just fine without me and who was I to tell her what to do?
I was right about one thing and that is that we are ready for the next phase. The message coming from all directions once more was loud and clear; Round yard.
Today I’ve spent a little time building a pen, just for the purpose of clipping her on. I’ll be feeding her in the pen and fingers crossed I’ll be clipping her on within the week.
Meanwhile I’ll be building a round pen and “”WHIP””. Despite all evidence possibly to the contrary (when Brandy was put to the test by my professional horse breaking friends) I believe that a lot of groundwork has been laid and we’ll be steaming ahead once I get this baby in the round yard. Watch this space.
