Forcing Relaxation - October 5th

That was all strange. Again, there was a lot going on in the stable. There was the equine massage course again, and there were workers repairing the paddock fences, so there was a lot of noise and excitement. The herd seemed to be grazing in peace, but that wasn't exactly true. The herd leader was furious and I have never seen him like that. He wouldn't let any horse come near him – he jumped on them with his teeth and hooves. He disciplined Karina also for coming too close. Usually he allows her to be very close to him, they drink together and chase away each other's flies. But this time he was really bossy. Maybe to him the workers, using those noisy tools, seemed to be a threat. He never shows his feelings, he keeps them much to himself, but I think he must have been very anxious and that busy day in the stable must have sorely tried his patience.

Anyway, I went to the pasture to see Karina and she welcomed me warmly. There was a piece of dry bread for her, and a little scratching, and I went away. The massage course was still in progress, so I decided to wait until it finished. I spent some time watching the herd, and eventually I went to get Karina. She went with me quite eagerly, I groomed her as usual, though this time she didn't want me to do anything around her hindquarters. She was uneasy having me around there and she didn't like brushing her with her plastic brush. I have known that happen before – Karina is changing her coat, and at this time she likes her metal brush better. The plastic one seems to tickle her. I must try that the next time I'm in the stable. And I think that, despite no visual signs of that state, Karina is in heat. It is at least a time that she should be. But since she spends a lot of time outside, and she eats less caloric food, her organism cannot allow itself to spend energy on heat fireworks :) Well, we'll see about that. But I think that's it. Always when Karina is in heat, she becomes a little pushy and either over-reactive to touch or totally immune. When I want her to move, I must show her that I really mean it, whereas normally I can wave her away with my fingers. And that is what it looked like yesterday.

The thrush hoof looks better and hurts less, but the treatment isn't over yet. All Karina's frogs look bad and I have ordered her a hoof spray, but it has not come yet.

Anyway, I took her for a walk (in cavesson, of course), and we worked on some forward-down, and a little shoulder-fore (which is a little LFS on straight lines). Then I took Karina to the roundpen to work on LFS on the circle. I tried to make her move more on her own, and it sometimes worked, I think. But she continues still to lean on her inner frontleg (more on the right side, just as usual). However, I think that it is improving, but still when I leave Karina more to herself, she continues to place her hind leg beside her body, and not underneath it. After analysing the training video, which my long-suffering husband made for me again, I've noticed that I really should work more on the lateral bend, and not so much on forward-down. I have compared that with Marijke's Prince Elmelund videos, and I see that his forward-down is a result of lateral bending and stepping under. I have confused the cause with effect, and hence my new problems arose. I really need to control my forward-down obsession :) I may not have mentioned it before, but in the past I have tried everything to make Karina move in that position. Nothing I did would make her stretch her back muscles and lower her head. That was mighty frustrating. And now when Karina offered me that forward-down movement when we have started with ST, I was just overjoyed. And unconsciously I'm trying to maintain this as long as I can (by pulling on cavesson... God, I'm stupid! You cannot force realxation!), whereas I really should be satisfied with a few steps every now and then. Well, in case you didn't know, I'm telling you now, that working with horses is actually working with yourself. A horse is a horse, and he knows and can do all that you ask him, and if he doesn't, then apparently you asked a wrong question. If horse fails, that is always your fault. Mind that.

Well, after ST session, I worked a little on backing up, which is becoming better and better. I backed Karina up three times, after each backing up asking her to come forward to me. She moves now easier and lighter, and I don't need to push her back, but I just put the end of my riding whip to her chest and tap her with it. At the end of our session I no longer needed to use whip, I just waved her away with my fingers. Then she got her treat and we went to the riding arena to work on the poles and cavalettis. This time they were placed closer and Karina had to bend her joints more. Then we went to walk over a cross-rail obstacle. Why? I have noticed that Karina, despite she has no objections to jumping over paddock fences, tree logs, ditches and so on, is afraid of common show jumping obstacles. I have figured out that the standards are the problem (which is mighty odd, because she is not afraid of squeezing through the tiny door, or of horse trailers and things like that, so that can't be just a typical horse claustrophobia) and I'm starting to work on that a little. Since I've decided to work in hand and in walk only, until Karina achieves a satisfying level of relaxation, I'm doing what I can to make our training sessions as interesting as possible. And it seems to be working, because Karina is eager to come out with me and she is always curious about what are we going to do this time.

We walked over the obstacle to one side (not entirely successfully – Karina hit one of the poles with her hind leg and upset it) and then we changed direction. Karina protested. So we ended up standing on both sides of the obstacle, I one side and Karina on the other, asking me if she could go round it. I answered that she couldn't and I insisted that she came to me over the rails. I took out a treat from my pocket and beckoned her with it. Finally, with a sigh of resignation, Karina walked over the rails towards me and we stopped training at that. I took her immediately to the pasture to her mates. I hope that she will remember how she earned that release.

During our ST session this time I've noticed that Karina was tilting her head a bit. It worried me a little (it would have horrified me had I not seen Marijke's videos on that) But it wasn't until I watched our training video that I realised why Karina did that. You see, I tried to make her move her shoulders more to the outside, to shift her weight more on the outside foreleg, so that she wouldn't lean so much on the inside foreleg. That was totally erroneus (because it is the hinquarter engagement which frees the shoulders) and it resulted in Karina tilting her head (well, I helped her to achieve that by pulling on the cavesson). I don't believe now that I could be so stupid. I just hope that I did't ruin much...