This afternoon, strains of the song "Reunited" (by Peaches And Herb) kept going through my head, but my mood was so fine I didn't care. "Feels so good..." in particular.
Why, you ask? Because I've made my peace with Negative Reinforcement and its role in horse training, enabling me to make a lot of progress with Bugg this week. Since her arrival in December, Bugg has made it clear that she thinks she won the anti-lottery. OK she's got a new best buddy with a QH mare, Mouse (they have adjacent stalls and are turned out together), but the snow is not her favorite and the lack of humidity took some getting used to. And then there's this pesky human that keeps screwing up her life of leisure. Yes, that would be me.
For a while our daily routine was minor handling, just rubs all over with occasional treats. Her feet got picked out every day (still do), some days she was haltered and led around, and that was no big deal. Even playing the Friendly Game with either a lead rope or savvy string was no big deal. But the blanket - sorry, the monster on her back every evening - ooooooh, that sucks. The cold truth - pun fully intended - is that our California girl would freeze without her heavy waterproof blanket on every night. And some days, too. But Bugg made faces - tight lips, ears back, neck stiff - when it came time to put it on. After many weeks' work, she sometimes has to remember to look a little resentful when the blanket is brought into her stall.
In parallel to the blanket desensitization, I've been working on Parelli's Seven Games (you can read or watch, as you please). These use Negative Reinforcement (R-), which I avoid like the plauge in dog training. (Basically, it's applying a punisher until you get the right response, then removing the punisher. Icky stuff. And punishment is in the eye of the receiver...) It took a long conversation with my friend and mentor Jill to persuade me that R- (ie., pressure) has a place in working with prey animals, and that I would easily figure out how to switch to Positive Reinforcement (R+) and Negative Punishment (P-) as my skills improved. That gave me the confidence to plunge ahead.
The last few days there's been a new demand on her: round pen work at liberty. The idea is to get Bugg to build some muscle and understand pressure before we try trailriding. The first day I could get her to canter in one direction, only if I kept the pressure on and used a lounge whip. My neighbor (and friend, teacher, and coach) Elizabeth was able to get Bugg to go in both directions, and gave me some great pointers. She then gave me a challenge: Figure out how to keep Bugg at a trot (not a canter) and switch directions at will. With nothing in my hands.
I love challenges.
The second day we went back to the round pen, and I took a carrot stick with me. Once I got Bugg moving with the lounge whip (just the staff, the string was in my hand) I put it on the ground and switched to the carrot stick with string. Worked pretty well, better to one side than the other, but it was progress. I focused on her off-side and maintaining a trot.
The third day (yesterday) the weather sucked, really windy, getting cold, a front moving in. It was also late in the afternoon, so I thought I'd try and work Bugg in the arena on a lounge line. More or less OK to one side (with carrot stick) but hopless on her off-side. I asked Elizabeth for help, to show me the body position to use and talk me through it. Bugg wouldn't go to her off-side for Elizabeth either, so I decided to play "you win a prize!" and took Bugg back to the round pen. At liberty, I insisted she do a total of 10 circuits on her off-side, then quit. I'll spare you the analysis, but this appears to have been very successful. On the way back to the barn I played a clicker-game called "touch the monster" (basically a modified targeting game) to acclimate her to a mounting block. That went great.
So today - day four - I take Bugg out of the arena to the mounting block from yesterday. I stand on the mounting block and brush her, even leaning over and putting weight on her back to do the far side. Switched sides, same thing. She was a relaxed rock, wahoo. So off to the round pen. At liberty, I was able to ask her to go around at a trot, switch sides, switch again, and again, hold a trot for multiple complete circuits. My "off" switch needs a little work, and she did have one good burst of cantering that I didn't really ask for. But it was SO COOL to play with her and it felt great, like we both knew what the other was doing most of the time. So then I played the Porcupine Game with her, and just barely asked her to move her rear, both directions, very softly, and got instant responses. Perfect. So I tried one more thing, asking her to back straight up by putting my hand on the end of her muzzle. Wow, that worked the first time. I decided to quit while we were ridiculously ahead and get Bugg-a-boo her dinner.
OK, guess this R- stuff works, even for a non-believer like me. Tomorrow I'll try moving her front end by asking very softly, and see how that goes. And ask Elizabeth to set the next challenge. There's a new level of trust and understanding, and I believe we'll be dancing soon.
Despite the cheezy 70's love song.
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Tues's update: 19 degrees and snowing, so no round pen today. Oh well.
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