Sunday, Day 2 - (long report-but check out video clip at end if you don't want to read everything)
I arrived at my normal 1 hour early time and took advantage of the round pen. Harley is always very alert and snorting and looking around when we arrive anywhere. Even if it's a place we've been a gazillion times. He was very responsive in the round pen (I did round pen work with him years ago) although still very distractable like always. Didn't need to spend too much time there, but it did help him settle in a bit. Clinic: Review previous day and review horse physiology relating to desensitizing: ....we started Sunday off by going through the obstacles we finished on Saturday night. But he added the bridge. Harley's still pretty alert and wondering about his surroundings (workers, tractors, stalled horses, cows; and goats playing with tarps--same as Saturday) and just everything that surrounds him on the 12 acre ranch. He takes in everything and is ready for something to 'get' him. However, I felt much, much better about dealing with it. I sensed that he trusted me and waited for me to guide him. I've never felt like this before. Combined military seat and drill: ....we continued with the column drills and combining them with obstacles. Ok, after a while we're starting to get bored (meaning ready for more challenging obstacles), so I take time to get photos. But still very much enjoying the work :) ....before we broke for lunch, he pulls his truck out and added the flashing lights from top of his truck near obstacles. You know, it's funny writing this because it seemed like a big deal every time he introduced something new, but now it seems like nothing. Combined intermediate sensory and obstacles: ....after lunch the beach ball is in the arena along with all the other obstacles. The only part of this obstacle that got most horses was seeing that big thing coming towards them. The instructor would push it along and we'd get behind it and then up close to it. Then when the horses figured it out, it was like a big game. Some horses thought it was just a big play toy. Like Harley. He'd take it nose and give it a good shove about 10 feet at a time. He even got to the point where he could have it come at him without a problem. Drill combined with sensory and obstacles: ....Ok, watch out what you ask for. Now we get the sirens. Good time for ear plugs. Again, at first it seemed like it would be a big deal, but Harley took it all in stride and it seemed to bug him more when he shut it off (make a quick noise) than standing right in front of it blasting noise right at us. Advanced obstacles and sensory: ...Finally, we found the one obstacle that got Harley riled. Flares. He does not like that loud hissing, popping noise. I lost a stirrup a few times from these. The instructor had us line up in formation at a certain distance and pop one off. I think all the riders were anticipating bolting horses. But to our surprise, they barely moved. Caught their attention for sure. Then we'd move up two horse lengths and do it again. Moving up each time closer. The closer we got, the more Harley reacted. Then he had us move in a two column drill around the flare as he kept popping them off. We were suppose to keep a horse distance apart head to tail so often times we had to speed up to get back into formation. This set Harley anxiety off even more. But we survived. Needless to say, no time for photos. The instructor let me take some flares home to practice with. Now I just gotta figure out where I can set these things off :)) Then we learned how to do vehicle extraction. There are times when ambulances etc have people surrounding the vehicle at parades etc. The mounted police have to work together to move the people off the vehicles and escort them out. Harley didn't want to get parallel with the vehicle until it started moving. Other than that, he did fine walking along side the vehicle with lights flashing and sirens sounding. Here's a video clip of the vehicle extraction. It's 3 mb file for those who have slower downloads. http://www.zippyvideos.com/7436773036586426/p1280021/ The grand finale was every obstacle (except beach ball and flares) all packed closely together and we did drill work through them. Piece of Cake :) Thanks for enjoying the weekend with me. Donna and Officer Harley ________________________________ Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
