Lakeland Oct 2009
Saturday afternoon – Linda – Liberty with LBE and LBI
Remmer and West Point!
Linda commented on natural horsemanship: only 5% of horse owners are following natural horsemanship and the # needs to be greater. It is especially important to stop unintentional abuse of horses.
How do you get an extraverted horse ready to concentrate? Linda showed West Point: Lauren’s dressage super horse prospect. ?17’2’ and ??200,000$ and WOW WOW WOW. What a horse!!!!!!!! What an athlete!! Extraverts like to move and are built to move. We watched the two horses at play. Remmer has much less desire to run around and is dominant. Note: dominant horse goes behind and drives the herd.
We need to be ambassadors of yes—not holding back the horse who wants to move. You can ruin a LBE by suppression.
Remmer can be very athletic for a short time. He is mental and loves to outsmart humans—you need to get to his mind. West Point you need to get to his feet. Note: left brain horses it is harder to move their front end; right brain, the hind end.
Linda speeds up her movement to draw West Point.
Remmer LBI – getting him prepared to concentrate
LBI’s are thinking thoughts all the time AND not necessarily good ones! LBI’s are the perfect horse for you if you don’t want to go fast and love to trail ride. But as you move up in the levels, they can be challenging unless you can get to their MINDS!
What does Try love? TREATS—so are you using them? What’s in it for her? She says—what do I need to do to get a cookie? Issue: becoming the human PEZ dispenser. ANSWER: become more interesting than the cookie. Use occasionally for incentive.
Linda starts the session with Remmer not interested in moving.
1. She asks him to move ONLY one foot at a time and got a bit more animation.
2. Then she asks for only one hind foot and starts to get more effort.
3. Then one step sideways.
So by this time, Remmer’s mind is saying what is going on here?
Linda is very intense and slow in her body while asking for few steps. Moving slowly and meaning more—slow but particular.
Next Linda yoyos Remmer back to the rail—while keeping him from assuming that the circle game is coming and leaving her—stopping with his butt against the rail. Then she moves him to position sideways next to the rail and asks him to stop and NOT move.
She is waiting for significant lip licking to know he is with her and ready to do something i.e. that she is getting to his brain. She repeats the sideways stop several other places on the rail, getting sorta ?s and mild licking which is not good enough. Then finally she gets a big sigh (letting out the tension) and significant lip licking, with a different look on his face.
Now Linda can use the go BUT she uses it to ask him to go SLOWER i.e. walk when he wants to trot.
Challenge: Getting Laps at the Canter
(Still in a warmup mode) Linda asks for the canter. Remmer responds with a slow lope-like canter but doesn’t break to a trot and Linda accepts that! (both directions) Note: Linda did NOT correct Remmer for the speed of the canter.
Linda says the worst thing you can do is to keep pushing Zone 5—IMPORTANT—let him make the mistake of changing gait THEN either
1. Bring him in and resend or
2. use a change of direction
Change of direction: SLAP (i.e. KILL) the spot where he should not be. This changes his energy and she got two gorgeous 360s. GAME OVER. Rewarded with rest. Important to reward at the right time.
Let the spin flow and tag the spot they should have left—you are NOT trying to smack the horse. Touch where the tail is when you have the thought.
GAME ON!! GAME OF TAG! HAVE FUN YOURSELF! SMILE!!
Making the Figure 8 Interesting
Step 1.
Set up the round pen so barrels are closer to the fence so horse will have to go around the barrels. Make it a game of tag. (Linda stepping back and forward to draw and drive.) Again, slap the spot where he shouldn’t be. Remmers life comes up and his mind is engaged. If its fun for you that makes it fun and a game. (Joy). Linda sees lots of liberty w/LBI’s where the human isn’t smiling unless it’s a slow LBI task with treats.
Step 2.
Move the barrels closer to each other. Step 2 is mental pressure. Move back more if the horse isn’t drawing to you. Use softer cues. Linda is now going slower and meaning more—very intense. Remmer is really licking his lips. Stop: rest, reward.
Step 3.
Physical pressure added and Remmer is really licking and hooked on. This brings out the leader in the human and is much clearer to the horse.
GAME OVER, Linda invites Remmer is but Remmer does so with his ears pinned. Ears pinned indicating that you aren’t drawing him, but he is driving you. So she sends him back on the circle.
Remmer is now showing LBI exuberance—bucking etc. His obedience is gone. Don’t stop when he is jumpin in the air and kicking out and don’t punish it. BUT when that play drive comes up—don’t let them close! When you get that exuberance, then you need to get the obedience back. Watch for change in facial expression and connection to you.
Remmer next offers to put his foot on the pedestal. Note: Linda says if she had asked him to do this when the session started he would like have been crabby and probably ignored the touch it obstacles i.e. pedestal or barrel. Pretended ignorance—“what barrel, what pedestal”. Too funny. “I didn’t see the barrel”. Or move in reeaaallllly slow motion to the barrel.
Now Remmer’s brain is up and its time for the cool stuff. Linda uses the energy for some great S bends, his gait is springy, loose and fancy—a different horse. She play cutting game with him, he rears up etc.
Ending the session:
Now, when he is on, is NOT a good time for a cookie or to leave. He needs some relaxation. Little circling waiting for his head to lower or for him to come in to her…
If your introvert goes extraverted then you have to get to his feet not his mind like Linda and West Point.
Linda tells of having a bad session with Remmer one day. The next day she goes out and he is hiding behind a tree in the far end of the pasture. She plays Hide and Seek with him in the pasture. The next day she repeats that, brings him into the center of the round pen where she sits and feeds him cookies—game over. The following day they don’t go into the round corral at all.
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