Addressing bad behavior -- the Hard NO

Of the three horses I've owned, Scout is far and beyond the easiest in terms of training. Riley was extremely stubborn at times and had a bit of a mean streak. Nolan was hot and sensitive and needed a lot of busy work to keep him focused. Scout has been extremely straight forward in every aspect. But the the thing with OTTBs is that when start their retraining they are often going through lots of physical changes that allow you to mold them when they are at a weak point in terms of fitness. Typically during this let down period, OTTBs can seem very quiet, easy, and almost dull -- you can get lured into believing that they are just that quiet.

the face of innocence, clearly

Then as they gain new muscle and fitness their true selves start to emerge. When I first met Scout he was simply a sweet, giant gelding. He was curious and easy going by nature. Seemed to take everything in stride and even when he didn't understand what was being asked, he tried anyway. He was almost TOO easy. And if I'm being honest I've always been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the hard NO to reveal itself.

So now that he's back in full work and roughly a year post-track he's feeling very good about life indeed. He's started to show us that he does in fact, have some sass! The work is getting harder, we're asking for a lot more under saddle, and he's got some opinions about working correctly. That's okay because it's just a part of the learning process and he's going to have some growing pains (literally and figuratively).

For the sake of this post I'm going to characterize attitude into three categories (leaving the PAIN category out).

1. Feel good sass: maybe it's a little buck after a line of jumps, or a head shake during a canter transition, or a squeal for no reason. In Scout's case, it's usually a tail swish:

Literally after every jump... someone was very pleased with himself

This type of sass needs no discipline or attention. He just feels good and it's not mean spirited.

2. Naughty/tantrum sass: bucks, spooks, scoots, kicking out, bolting -- these types of behaviors could fall into this category. They're generally brought on by an objection to an aid or environment.

In Scout's case, he like to kick out or buck at leg aids:

So sassy

Typically with Scout this behavior is VERY short-lived. It's an objection/opinion but he moves on quickly. As long as he does what's being asked (usually it's simply moving forward) then he doesn't get punished (and by punished I mean NOW YOU HAVE TO WORK HARDER).

3. Hard NO sass: this is unique for every horse. Scout's hard NO has just recently revealed itself and it comes from a place of insecurity. It only comes out when he doesn't understand something and gets worried. We first discovered it at Fairhill at the water complex:

Cue tail swishing, dancing, wanting to be anywhere but here

Even watching another horse, he just didn't understand.

A few minutes later, he started rearing. Completely uncharacteristic for Scout. I can say with some certainty that he does not have a mean bone in his body. He was trying to communicate to us that the pressure was too much and he needed to understand what he was being asked to do. So, we let him take a breath and I led him in. He initially tried to pull against me but I reassured him that we'd go in the water together and then he was okay. But, despite him going in and not caring about the actual water, he wouldn't go in without me leading him. We had pushed him just enough that he was left feeling very unsure. This was not because of anything we (the pro and I) did, it's just the first occurrence of the hard NO, and it caught us a bit off guard. It was clear that getting after him, or applying even more pressure might break his good nature. So we regrouped. We let him gallop around and jump a few more things and then we went back to the drawing board.

Because Scout has been so easy, I've taken for granted some basic groundwork training. And you better believe I'm kicking myself about it. Ever since Nolan, I've completely changed the way I think about training horses, and so I feel pretty stupid that I've let my easy horse get away with little things (because they add up to bigger issues -- duh).

So I broke down Scout's Hard NO reaction in terms of ground work, busted out my trusty rope halter and got to work. At a very basic level, I need to be able to control his feet, ALWAYS.

Clearly the face of a horse that's naughty

I was reminded pretty quickly that even though he's a quiet horse, I don't hold him accountable all the time. Usually I just let him saunter along with a big loop in the lead while I do a million other things. So I got right to work by making him walk WITH me, not in my space, not casually plodding behind me, right by my side. We played with stopping and backing to help sharpen his reaction to my body and it was clear that he reactions were dulled. I took him to the ring to work on some techniques I learned from my trusty Amish cowboy. I started with simple tasks like walking/jogging at various speeds with me, yielding to pressure, backing next to me and also while facing me. Circling and changes of direction with soft cues on the lead. And after a bit of an ugly start, he began responding extremely well. Lots of licking and chewing and tuning in to me. We moved on to some more advanced techniques incorporating "the box" -- the idea being that you put a horse in an invisible box and control the horses feet within said box.

Why????

The feets stay where I puts them

I played with him and this idea for quite a while asking him to yield his hind quarters in various directions and do turns on the forehand on the lead.

Then I took him on a walk behind the barn into the state park to see if we could find some things that might make him unsure.

Apparently none of this is even a tiny bit scary

Turns out, he's super brave and took my lead on everything. He's not really afraid of anything, which almost makes him more of a puzzle.

While this ground work is useful, I was curious to see how it would come into play the next time he met a Hard NO trigger (water). So I set up a two day plan to get him schooling at a stream followed by a day of xc schooling to further the lesson.

The first day, he went on a hack with a solid buddy and I followed on foot. We were prepared to pony him or lead him on foot if needed but the goal was never to let him get to the point where he was shut down. Naturally, he followed his friend right into the stream, but then shocked us all by throwing a bit of a fit IN the water. Tail wringing and backing up, but once his moved his feet again he was golden. He went in and out by himself without issue, even trotting through a few times.

Looking super earnest<3

SO the real test would be at Windurra the next day. The water there is a little more welcoming that the complex at Fairhill but there's A LOT to look at there. His farm is on a very busy road and they are actively doing a ton of heavy construction on the property. It's not for the equine faint of heart.

And I'll write up more about the schooling later, but the Hard NO made a very dramatic appearance, this time at the ditch. Boyd has a series of ditches in a row, right up against the busy road that are fully revetted and DEEP. He's never seen one before, and very nearly stepped right over it before he stopped to look into the abyss.

Don't look in there Scout!

Commence Hard NO sequence. Tail wringing, backing up, general worried behavior. My trainer pressed him a bit more, because he seemed so ready to hop right over and...

I SAID NOOOOOOO!

But this time we were ready. I jumped in, snapped my long rope lead on him and got right to work moving his feet with the trainer aboard. She sat chilly, urging him with only her legs and I led him up to the ditch. And wouldn't you know it, he hopped over... so they trotted around and we did the same thing all while on the lead. This is really where all the ground work comes into play. As you can see there's a big bush next to the ditch, so it's not like I could stand there and just lunge him around me. I had to get my timing just right to follow them around, without him feeling any tension on the line and keep his feet moving. We did this two more times and then I unclipped him while they trotted around and they did it alone. Piece of cake. Then he cantered it without any help. Success!

What we found, was that in order to shut down the NO, we just had to snap his brain out of it. That wasn't going to happen with a whip, or leg pressure, or by forcing him. He needed to move his feet, get his brain refocused and try again. In a weird way, I'd rather he have this kind of behavior that a dirty runout/stop. So when she moved on to the banks and water she was able to recreate this idea without my assistance. I helped him get his feet wet the first time, but he never got to the point of the Hard NO again.

More complicated than he seems

For right now, that's our goal. We're trying to engage him in challenging experiences without pushing him beyond his mental limit. Now that we know where that line is, we can figure out a way to set him up for success. It's easy to forget that this is all brand new to him and his naughtiness is truly coming from a lack of understanding and confidence vs. just being a jerk. While rearing is a very, very bad vice, there's plenty of warning and the whole thing happens in slow motion, so I'm not condoning it, but I'm also not super worried about it either. I think we're on track to building his confidence on the ground and under saddle and making him feel like an absolute superstar.

So tell me bloggers... Does your horse have a Hard NO or a way of showing their extreme displeasure about something? If so, how do you work with it, ground work, under saddle, utilizing professionals? Any advice for how you might handle my situation?

Scout's big weekend (prep yo' self for lots of media)

Scout's first time in the start box!

Continuing with our theme from the last post, Scout had a scheduled XC schooling at Fairhill on Saturday. Fairhill can be a very busy venue for a young horse and with a cancelled schooling earlier in the week and the weather being near perfect I braced for a big crowd. Nevertheless, Scout stood on the trailer waiting for our trainer to arrive without a care in the world. Sadly for us, he pooped so much on the trailer that upon departure, he slipped in his own shit and fell down the ramp. So there I was with my horse on his knees covered in poop while our trainer was putting her pinney on. Turns out, he also cut his leg just at the coronet band on his RH and was bleeding everywhere (#onlymyhorse). Luckily it was just a scrape and far from his heart so I cleaned it up, sprayed some Alushield on it and they headed out to the course.

Warming up

Scout handled the wide open spaces and mayhem really, really well. There were people galloping by, jumping around in every direction and he just kinda took it all in. So they warmed up and he was feeling super. There wasn't anything super tiny around so she headed him at a little floating log for his first xc jump.

You just jump with all four legs at once, right?

So his first jump was not elegant and I think it caught him off guard, but he certainly cleared it! Not to worry, he quickly figured out that we were in fact JUMPING and continued on with gusto.

<3

I love that our trainer is quick to move on once he's figured something out. She doesn't drill him or make him frazzled. He doesn't need to be perfect, but he just needs to go forward, up and over and land in balance. She does an amazing job of helping he find the best place to jump from but really just lets him do the rest. Mostly, she pointed him at the elementary fences and if they went well, she'd canter around over the BN option.

Turns out he actually jumps better over bigger jumps:)

Unfortunately, we weren't able to school the ditches since every serious combination on course was completely monopolized by trainers and their students (grrrr), but he hopped over a bunch of things and spent some time just walking or standing and taking it all in. And I was a very proud Mamma watching him run around. I think our trainer enjoyed it too, as she cantered by saying, "I'm going to steal him."

He even found his 5th leg when he got to a fence on a half stride!

And while I'd love to say that he was a star pupil for the whole afternoon, we met some serious resistance regarding the water. Keep in mind, he's never seen a water complex before and we haven't encountered any natural water crossings since last summer. He didn't understand what we were asking him and he threw a BIG tantrum (*blog post to follow about this), eventually I got him in by leading which we repeated a few times but it's clearly going to take some further schooling and confidence building.

Proof that he actually went in:)

When we finished up, our trainer said she feels that (aside from the water issue) that he's ready to go BN anytime! So, we're going to look at the schedule for the next few months, pick something and get him schooling a bunch more before then. She's take him around his first big event and then I'll take over!

He got stuffed with cookies and told he was a GOOD BOY about a million times and I packed him up and took him to spend the night at Emily's barn for the night. Sunday we had plans to go to our very first paper chase and her barn is just a few minutes from the meeting point so it made sense to let him hang there and get to know his buddy for Sunday's ride!

MOAR adventures!!!!????

I arrived to the barn Sunday to find a very tired Scout, who had spent the night out with his paper chase buddy (and to make certain his leg didn't blow up post-trailer cutting). Poor kid, tough life being such a go-getter. It was forecast to be an absolutely beautiful day over Chester County and a big turnout was expected. I've paper chased all over that area and also rented a barn about a half a mile from the start so I knew that Kat would be in for a treat being a Florida transplant!

Scout was anxious at the start including not being patient while I tried to climb on (needs further attention) and started to pull a little bit of his shenanigans from the day before (mainly, running backwards). But I was able to get him walking around a bit and that seemed to help settle him. Next thing I knew, we were trotting across a massive sea of green. He felt great, not even a bit of stiffness from the day before and I let him have a loop in the reins as he carried me confidently over the landscape. Both of our horses took to the idea of the paper chase very well and initially neither seemed bothered by horses in front or behind us. 

Heading out

This view does not get old

We ran into some friends of mine!

Scout will lead and follow, but he prefers cruise control at the walk

Heading up the big hill back to the trailers

Kat found a cool antler along the way

The terrain was super fun with plenty of rolling hills to canter! There were FIVE water crossings (and I'm sure you know where this is going) Scout gave the middle finger to 3 out of five of them. I can't blame him for two of those, they were not inviting AT ALL -- even for me to lead him through they were scary. And out in the middle of 100s of acres is not the place to work on schooling your horse. So my feet got wet, a lot. And I had to get on an agitated horse from the ground three times (thank you to the savior who gave me a leg up at the 3rd crossing) And while it would be easy to be very upset about the water issue, Scout proved to me that he still has the best brain. Our partner out on the ride became increasingly more upset about horses coming up behind us and leaving over the horizon. At first we didn't put two and two together, but every time a group of horses caught up with us, he would lose his marbles. And holy shit, Kat can ride. He pulled out all the stops of naughty behavior creating quite a spectacle and she just rode it out. This made using him as a buddy for Scout to get across water 100% impossible. Thankfully, Scout did not care at all about what his buddy was doing. At one point they came crashing through the woods and slamming in to Scout who was like, "what is he even doing?" He's solid gold this one.

This guy:)

It's always a little daunting the first time you take an OTTB out into wide open spaces. You have to trust that you've prepared them and yourself well enough to handle any hiccups that come along. We walk, trot, and cantered on a loopy rein in a loose ring snaffle and he never got cheeky or strong. He listened even when he didn't really want to (ahem, water) and showed me that he's ready for more adventures like this!

Overall, the weekend was a huge success! Scout got to learn some new skills,  I got to see my horse blast around XC and have some fun with him myself! 

What a way to spend the weekend!

#NOBADDAYS

People that know me closely understand that I have a pretty sarcastic wit about me, I'm much more serious than my online persona may reveal, and that I am unabashedly optimistic and idealist.  I don't know how the last part developed because I've had enough strife and heartache in my life to turn me into a hateful, negative person... but what remains is someone who is constantly looking for silver linings even in the face of defeat. I try very hard to keep a positive attitude about things (and yes, I struggle and fall apart sometimes too) and I try to lift people up around me. I've spent the last several years culling the fat of toxic, negative people out of my life because to me, it's just not worth having people in your life that don't want to see you happy, or that try to bring you down into their negativity.

So, maybe it's just a result of getting older (hell, I'm pushing 40 this year YIKES) or wiser (doubtful) but lately, I've been feeling less stressed and more certain about the future.

<3

This feeling relates directly to Scout because since I've owned him, I think my whole outlook towards riding and horse ownership has changed. I have goals yes, but they are small... all I truly care about is having FUN. Hence the hashtag #NOBADDAYS. He makes me smile and laugh and is constantly worming his way closer into my heart. He's easy on the eyes and kind. He's a good mover, has a nice jump and good work ethic. What more could I want?

So this weekend even though I had ridden him ONCE since he got cast (if you're counting it was a solid month) the day before being invited, I jumped at the chance to take him on a fun hack with blog friends on Saturday.

And he was a perfect gentleman. It was the first really nice day we've had in weeks and it seemed foolish to stay at home. The two horses we were meeting up with are also rehabbing/coming back into work, so it was going to be a quiet ride (perfect!).

I went into the ride thinking we were going to have a great time and lo and behold, we did. The ponies were terrific, the sun was shining and everyone left with smiles. #nobaddays

Love these perfectly manicured trails

Love that my horse doesn't care where he is in the group

Love that he doesn't care about riding next to the road

They were all looking around quite a bit when we first arrived, but since it was a nice day the park had lots of families rolling in to enjoy the weather too which the horses found very interesting. Scout responded with his telltale teeth-grinding (that's primarily how he communicates tension) but was flat footed once I got on (really need to get that ironed out).

The loop around the park takes about an hour, so it was plenty of time for all of them to settle in and cruise along at a nice pace. We chatted about horses and life and everything in between. Laughed at our horse's individual personalities. I made a new friend and Scout fell in love.

Lovers

Mocha's side eye is REAL

Just a couple of handsome fellows

Sebastian slobbered all over Scout's neck and was whispering sweet nothings into his ear!

Something as simple as an hour long trail ride on my wonderful horse was enough to remind me that sometimes the best days are spent in the sun, with a couple of horse crazy women and their horses just walking around a park. And I was reminded again just why I love my horse SO much.

LOVE HIM

YAY NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS AND HORSE FRIENDS!

I'm looking forward to continuing this trend of #nobaddays and I hope I'll see some of you out there in the bright future that lies ahead.

Status Report

Sass Wagon

Are you guys tired of Scout progress posts? Because I am.

But here I am typing up more boring notes on how he's progressing. He's been turned out for a little over a week and the leg swelling is staying down. There's still some residual heat which I'm hoping dissipates over time (it took his fetlock quite a while to finally stay cool and tight). So I stuck him on the lunge with some keep-your-shit-together parameters (Ahem, Pessoa rig).

And thank god he's got a good education on the lunge. He was feeling very good about life and tried pretty hard to keep a lid on things, but he was enthusiastic and spicy to be sure. Luckily, I'm well adept at lunging a wild horse, video-taping and holding a whip (#skillz).

That trot, I'm not mad atcha

Moving pretty nicely at the trot

At the trot he was moving out beautifully. Even in both directions with nice over tracking. At the canter he was still noticeably stiff on his RH. In fact, tracking left he was not subtle about his annoyance of having to put lateral pressure on it.

Tracking right, which is normally his tough direction he was quiet and balanced. Ultimately, I just wanted to get a sense of WTC in a controlled setting. The footing was slick and deep, so I didn't want to do too much with him but I was pretty pleased with how he looked overall.

Going forward, I'll start legging him up like I did in September with some long and low walk-trot until the strength in his right hind improves. I was admittedly a little bummed when I saw how stiff he was, but he'd only been turned out for a few days at that point. So maybe I need to recalibrate my expectations and just be patient.

And, if there's a bit of a silver lining about this whole experience it's that his condition is looking REALLY good! Let's give a big shout out to alfalfa for helping him get there:)

Closest thing I've got to a conformation shot for now

Here's to keep on keepin' on.