July 9, 2008 -

Bebe

Learning to Help His Confidence Grow

I did get to play with Bebe today, and what a learning experience I had.
I have been playing with Bebe’s half-brother (same Sire) once a week for a while with one of my students and have noticed their Horsenalities are somewhat similar when it comes to confidence and learning. Their Sire seems to pass down the same Horsenality traits, they are wonderful. Willing, loving, sweet, very intelligent, tolerable, understanding and somewhat unconfident but left brained when faced with something new. I love these traits; all together they make such a great horse. When they are unconfident they still are paying attention to you and trying to understand, they try very hard. I have noticed both of them desperately need reassurance and acceptance during the time of learning, as soon as they do anything right they need an okay from their human. If they do not get your okay and reassurance, they will not lick their lips and their confidence will not grow. If they do receive your okay and reassurance they will sigh, lick their lips and their confidence will grow. Then you can move on and the task will be better, and they will feel better too. How Interesting!

What makes up a horses Horsenality?
Innate characteristics
Learned behavior
Environment
Spirit

In this case, it is mostly innate characteristics passed down from their Sire.
How Interesting! Playing with Bebe’s half brother has helped me tremendously and I get to keep on playing with him, and learning and growing. I am actually working with one of my students that are working with him, so I am learning twice as much because I am upping my savvy with people and horses at the same time in new situations. Now lets talk about Bebe’s session yesterday, he was ready to move on to new tasks in Level 3. Now when he is learning is usually when he becomes unconfident, not right brained BUT an unconfident left brained extrovert. I at first did a few things he knew well already, just to start off on a confident note for the sake of his sanity. Then I moved onto the squeeze game at a longer distance, well on top of him not knowing what to do at first he had to move his feet pretty fast. In his mind, a very good excuse to become unconfident. At first I just made him keep on going, thinking it would just eventually wear off and he would calm down. Let me say it now, the answer is No. In his world it does not wear off, it stays the same or gets worse. In this case it stayed the same; he did the task with unconfidence then turned and faced with ears at attention. I knew he was not confident but what I did not know was that he was begging me to let him in and feel accepted, to know what he was doing was right. It seems him and his brother ‘fear failure’ and want to do what they are asked, but are afraid they are not doing it right so become unconfident when not approved of. I do not think that behavior is an innate characteristic, but learned behavior or a mixture of the two. I do not know if I am 100% correct, but it sure seems that way. I soon learned he wanted acceptance and needed things to go slow, and when I did his confidence went back to normal and was doing things with a confident look about him. He very soon got a hang of the pattern and did it confidently, then I moved on to circling on the 45 foot line. He started out slightly unconfident, but soon after some reassurance from me he was confident and doing some great circles. The session ended marvelously, doing side passes and trotting with me at liberty. All the while he seemed content and was begging for some treats, I got some slobbery kisses and he received his handful of sweet feed. What an interesting session, what a rewarding one.

Sundance

Unexpected Success

I walked to Sundance wondering what I wanted to do; I was tired of playing on the 45 foot line. We have been playing on it for 2 months and we are both ready to take a break from it for a while, so I decided we could play at liberty a little bit. I remembered from reading at the end of stage two you are supposed to do liberty out in an arena, sounded like a messy fail – ridden task to me. We headed out to our 75 by 100 foot arena and played a little bit with some puzzle obstacles, going through cones without squishing them, coming to mom without standing on his throne (I mean Pedestal) and little fun things like that just to feel together before all unleashed. Then I asked him to trot or canter around me, I expected to see his shoot off to the other side of the arena. But to my surprise he did big circles around me going along the fence trotting down half the arena then back to the fence. Like this …

I guess all the playing on the 45 foot line is paying off! I was SO ecstatic, and surprised.
I started to make myself a little calmer and just approachable but I did not let him come in unless I wanted him too, soon enough he was doing the coolest thing in the world, for the first time, AND HE OFFERED IT. I did not ask him, he offered it…
I absolutely could not believe it; most horses do not offer a close contact Liberty circle at a higher gait until the end of Level 3 and here he goes doing it before I am even thinking about it. It felt amazing, and I thought it to be too good to be true. So I took him in and gave him pets, smooches and scratched his itchy spot and sent him out again at the trot. Voila! Close contact Liberty circle, and it was real. He had his ears up and looked very content and not bored at all, he wanted to do this. I asked him in after 2 laps and he received some loving, then we made our way to the barn to give him some sweet feed as a treat for being so good. I still can’t believe it, I am so happy! I knew our relationship was better than it has ever been, but I did not know it had progressed this far. It sure feels good when your horse wants to be with you, rather than with their herd or alpha mare. I really feel like I am his leader now, and he really feels like a partner. All the hard work pays off, it really does!