Humidity Blues

Recently I've been extremely unmotivated, mostly it's due to my work schedule and the incredible heat and humidity that we've been having. Also, probably because of the heat and bugs, Sora has been unmotivated as well and we end up butting heads when we spend time together. Two irritable mares annoying each other lol.

Today the heat isn't sooo bad but because of the humidity the horses, standing completely still in the shade, are absolutely soaked with sweat. Even if I felt up to dealing with the heat I can't ask Sora to move because it would be near abuse in this weather.

I have come up with some interesting hot weather activities to keep our horses occupied. I've had them bobbing for apples and have filled up a huge tub of water for them to splash in and dump on themselves. Today I went out with a sponge and got the worst of the sweat off of Jackson and Sora. Khepri was having none of it and was likely to just get sweatier because she was upset if I had continued. I have worked on some of Sora's simple and quiet tricks while standing in the shade but even then my temper is short so I've been avoiding anything tough. Sora has wildly improved on the Cordeo and I hardly use her halter anymore. She's also learning to pick up each foot on a number cue. Right now I still need to point at the hoof I want lifted but soon I won't even need that anymore.

I have been online a lot more because of the heat and would love to share what one of my friends in currently accomplishing with her mare. Hannah lives a ways north of me and we've met up a couple of times. We met on the AND forum and after finding that we lived quite close to each other became friends. This video is of Hannah riding her four-year-old PRE mare named Maia. This is after only a handful of times cantering with someone on her back and as Hannah explains she's still unbalanced partially because of Hannah's position. If you would like to see further back story you can go to youtube and see what Hannah has to say.

I'm amazed at the trust and communication between Hannah and Maia and I'm incredibly amazed by how far she's come. Hannah has done all of Maia's training bitless and most bridless and started seriously training only this spring.

I also got to spend the end of last week in Duluth at the Tall Ships festival. It was incredible and I managed to get some beautiful pictures.
The ships were mostly reproductions but still breathtaking and it was incredible to see them in the modern setting.

Road Trip

Today was beautiful and I had fun plans so it was a good day. I drove about two hours north to meet up with the closest person to me that does AND. Her name is Hannah and her horse's name is Maia. It was wonderful and very helpful to see how someone else does their training and I was taking notes lol. Maia is certainly ahead of Sora in training and not only knows more of the dressage movements at liberty but also walks and trots with reasonably good steering and no tack other than a neck rope. She is still a work in progress though so it was great to see a horse that's somewhere in the middle.

After dinner when I got home fresh from my experience there I went out to work with Sora. I had a few goals and managed to achieve all of them though with varying levels of success.

First, I introduced Sora to endo tapping. This is something that's talked about on the AND forum but was something that I didn't understand and was confused enough not to look into it further. However, Hannah really cleared it up and so I decided to add the techniques to my time with Sora. Basically you tap softly on a major muscle until the horse drops it's head and licks or chews. Eventually you increase the time so that you continue even when they drop their head until they reach even deeper relaxation. I managed to get her to do it nicely two times but because of the grass she was looking for excuses to drop her head so it was hard to find an opportunity.

Second, I decided it's time to be able to drive her away from grass if I need to. This was harder to do without making her upset. Even though I stayed happy and patient we're both very stubborn so I'd chase her away and she'd trot a few steps before dropping her head and munching again. Finally I'd increase the pressure and she'd tear across the arena in mock terror to stand in the corner and danger snort at me once or twice and finally come galloping back across the arena to get her treat *roll eyes here* =) Actually though I was pleased with the improvement we made and happy that she would come back to me even after I was "scary".

Third, I wanted to be able to lead her with the cordeo even with the grass beckoning. This went really well and even when she shied once she lightly hit the end of the rope and stopped rather than pulling it out of my hands like she could have.

I'm hoping to work on these again tomorrow and continue working on Bow.