Lucy was a dog that was what we would call "a piece of work." A "Calgon, take me away!" kind of dog. She was very intense and felt a huge sense of responsibility to keep order in her home. There were a lot of "But Mom, you aren't doing it right and the world is going to end!"complaints. My cats do things now that they would NEVER have dared to do when Lucy was ruling the roost. Scratch the furniture?? Not on Lucy's watch! Control freak!!! Lucy loved people--she never met a stranger. She would practically turn herself inside out to go greet people everywhere we went. My front door has holes in the screen where she would plaster herself against it jumping up to say Hi to someone on the other side of the door--"Mom, let them in!! They must pet me or I will die!" That was her motto.
When Lucy got sick, she got sick fast. One day she was normal ... the next she was near death. I rushed her to Cornell Vet School Hospital early in the morning. She was diagnosed within an hour and was euthanized. She was full of tumors, a large one (or more) had burst, and she was bleeding out into her abdomen causing her a lot of pain. I couldn't believe it was happening. My precious Lucy, lover of all, keeper of all ... was gone. It was the most heart wrenching time I've experienced in a long time. So, it took me a while to grieve and gain back energy to do productive things.
Back to Rosie. Rosie and I are working with a wonderful driving trainer--Melody. I come from the riding world--I know nothing about driving other than what I read or get by pumping someone's brain until I'm sure they want to escape to the nearest bar for a drink.
Melody has been here twice. The first time was back in the late winter after I bought Rosie's Comfy Fit harness and I needed some help with how to put that thing on. All those straps. Egads--a simple saddle and bridle never looked so good. I thought I would never learn to do it. We introduced it to Rosie gently and adjusted all those crazy straps. She handled everything so well. Rosie trusts me and she figures that anything that's attached to me is OK, even if it is the weirdest thing she has ever seen.
Melody also got me started with ground driving that day. Rosie picked up on it very quickly. Within just a few short sessions after that lesson we were ground driving all over the paddock, she was stopping straight, standing still after stopping, walking with no turning around--all big accomplishments for a young driving pony in training.
After that handful of sessions, combined with Lucy's death, I kind of fizzled out. For the first time in over 2, maybe even 3, months, one day last week I put the harness on Rosie and ground drove her again. She was great! She remembered everything. Next I got the cart out--this is something Rosie has only seen a couple of times. Again, introducing things gradually, we worked up to her between the shafts, walking with the cart in position while I held the shaft on my side and pulled it along. She took to that so quickly.
Now, OK--my next session with Melody--it was Wednesday of this week. Melody brought a friend, Karen, who has a couple of mini horses and wanted to meet mine. Cool!! I put the harness on Rosie, showed Melody how she ground drove, and then Melody asked Karen to pull the cart all around Rosie while I was ground driving her. At first Rosie needed to just stop and stand to watch it whizzing around her (Karen is very well trained to pull a cart, lol), but she was fine with it after the first couple of minutes and then we were back to ground driving with the cart still going.
Next we put Rosie between the shafts like I did last week and I walked her around with it tagging along behind her. Everything we did got Melody's blessing. It was time to kick things up a notch. After another 15 minutes or so of working her up to it--Rosie was in the shafts, hitched to the cart, and pulling it around the paddock! I was SO proud of her. She handled it like a champ. It just amazes me what that pony will do for me. I feel so blessed that I about explode with happiness when I'm working with her.
I know I favor Rosie--I admit it. My other mini, Jerry, is a real sweetie. He's the kind of horse whose goal in life is to be kind and cooperative--all the time. Rosie thinks he's rather stupid. Jerry is quiet and unassuming, and always a favorite with visitors. He has this way about him that attracts people like a magnet. He spent much of the time we were working with Rosie getting brushed and pampered by Karen and Melody, watching with great interest, and sometimes following the cart around--now that was really cute to watch--me leading Rosie, cart in back, Melody in back of the cart keeping it from running up on Rose (need to make a cart modification to put the breeching straps in a better place), and then Jerry as the caboose. He loves to watch what we are doing, and it's good for him because he can be a little shy and nervous. He's an older guy who I suspect hasn't had the easiest life. After living here for over 2 years, he is finally learning to trust that bad things generally don't happen here and he can relax a bit. I was told he was trained to drive. I need to make time to test that out and see what Jerry can do. Dear Jerry ...
After we were done and were given our homework assignment, it was time to play. I have a few toys I've used for desensitizing when Rosie was younger. I got a couple of them out, OK--I admit, to show off how solid and trusting she is. First, I shook hula hoops with rattles in them all over her, tossed them on her butt, and flopped them over her head. Second--the one that really amazes people--the beach-ball sized rubber inflatable ball that I bounce around her, over her, throw at her from a distance, and bounce off her body from every direction. We even played a little "catch" game by throwing it back and forth over her back. (Melody thinks Rosie would make a great volleyball net.) All this while she stood in front of the barn without a halter or lead. Didn't blink an eye. What makes this even more amazing is that she hadn't seen that ball in at least a year. They were just blown away by how Rosie deals with things I do to her that would send most horses running away in fear.
But, although I think Rosie is perfect <smile>, she does have her challenges. Rosie was accepting about the scary things we did that evening--the cart, hula hoops, ball bouncing--she does have things that scare or overwhelm her. She is a HORSE, after all. Because she is very sensitive to changes in her world, she gets overwhelmed maybe more than some horses. She doesn't like change in her environment. She's gotten upset because I moved the fencing around and changed the size of her paddock. When I say upset, it's a look of "OMG--what has happened to my home!" when she sees the changed paddock fencing and running around for a few minutes with a look of "I don't know if I like this!" Then she settles down and forgets about it. As I wrote in my blog a couple of posts ago, she HATES being in the trailer after I tie and leave her. Just to name a couple of things we need to work on. She just needs more exposure to the big world outside her home.
Rosie is different from a lot of horses I've worked with and there is a very fine line between gently pushing her along and over loading her and setting her back a ways--which I try very hard not to do. Since she is so calm about most things I do, it is very easy to want to push ahead too fast. I have to be mindful of this even more than when working with the average horse, I think. A big part of the reason she is so easy to train is that she and I have a tight bond. She trusts me and looks to me for direction. I owe it to her never to make her question that trust. I strive to keep it that way. Some people think I baby her, coddle her too much, and cut her too much slack with her pony-tude, but the proof is in the pudding: She will do almost anything I ask her to do--willingly and the first time I ask, tries SO hard to learn new things, and truly wants to work for me. Isn't that what we all want in our horse/handler partnership?
Melody asked me after the lesson if I was now motivated to really get going on working with Rosie regularly with her driving training. Well, yes, but really, I love doing anything with Rosie. She is truly my pony of a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment