>> http://iceryder.net/charmbow2.html > > That is so cute. How do you do that?
It takes a while, but then if you tally up the minutes here and there, it's only a very short amount of time in total! It starts way before the actual "bow", I think. Building the relationship, working on trust. While I would say that the actual bow probably started with her "giving her foot", it all started WAY before that. I try to always "be there" for her. I try not to put her in situations where she needs to be afraid, concerned, or worried. Like with the clippers, and her little "snort"... OK, we back up, re-think how to avoid any type of worry or skepticism from her, and present things differently. I don't want her to have a default behavior of saying, when something unexpected comes along, "OH, CRAP, WHAT IS THAT?!?!" I want her to stop and think and say, "Hmmm, let me coordinate with Judy on this." Charm has been brought up with "feel". It boggles my mind when she does something (i.e. disengage her hindquarters) when I haven't actually taught her that, or worked on it. She just knows! She knows how to follow a feel, and she knows how to interpret my body language, almost to the point of telepathy and knowing what I'll do next. Back to the bow, Charm allowed her foot to be taken away from her, and to follow a feel going downward. It's hard for a horse to do, so the handler has to be "in tune" with the horse and understand the biomechanics of the movement. There's a lot more than the mechanics going on, tho. She's only done it now probably five times, but this last time she stayed down fractionally longer, as tho she's more relaxed and understanding (altho it doesn't help much when there's four dogs barking on the patio, three of which are not used to horses and wanted to get out there and get up close and personal with her, while the other one wanted the same treats she was getting). Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
