Dee meets…..THE TARP!
Sometime in the last couple of weeks I thought…”uh, I haven’t introduced Dee to a tarp yet – that will be our next session!” I had some idea that it might be an exciting session. Dee is all confidence when she knows what she’s doing – been there, done that sort of thing. It doesn’t take much to shake that confidence though – new things can really get to her. I guess that is to be expected from just about any horse, especially a young one who hasn’t seen much of the world!
So, after thinking about how I was going to approach the task, and waiting for the mud to subside (where is all this RAIN coming from anyway? I thought this was the desert.) I had some sort of plan to follow, but as always, was prepared to ditch the plan and just go with the flow. As I continue to work on my horsemanship skills I am getting much better at going with the flow.
I set everything up before getting Dee. The plan was to do our normal warm up – which is just going for a neighborhood walk where I ask that she touch something here and there with her nose, or stick to me through some walk, trot, back transitions – then a return to the round pen where Dee is allowed to burn some of her energy before we work on stuff. Releasing her in the round pen was a suggestion I got from an instructor who helps me out when I need it. I’ve since learned to recognize when Dee really needs to just be released to process things in her own way and it has helped us tremendously! I placed the tarp on the ground about 10 feet outside of the round pen.
Because of the rain, I did not release her right away. I wanted her to feel the footing in the pen before she started tearing around it. I also wanted to get an idea of her reaction to the tarp. So, we did some circles inside the pen. When she noticed the tarp her head went down, she hesitated for just a second and LEAPT toward me, eyes wide. “MOM! WHAT IS THAT!” I had to get big fast to redirect her around me. (I know, horses don’t think like us – but I will take the risk of being called an anthropomorphist in order to explain the event) With her first reaction, I thought it would be good to spend some time online getting her to the point where she wasn’t terrified. I began using approach and retreat until I was able to get a small piece of the tarp under the rails of the pen, and she was able to approach it from both sides and sniff it without running. It really didn’t take long, but I felt even though she was not jumping out of her skin, she was holding on to some nervousness – I could see it building up inside…so I decided to let her lose. She immediately started running around the pen, kicking out at the tarp each time she got around to it. She would occasionally stop and check in with me – but take off again, feeling better to move her feet. I stayed still, not moving, not offering to touch her when she stopped – just waiting. It took roughly five minutes for her to stop and wonder if we were going to do anything different. When she handed me the halter (I had left it laying on the ground beside me) I took it to mean she was ready to move on. She had also stopped even looking at the tarp.
That’s when we moved outside the round pen and approached the tarp from there. She did really well with this, but it took 20 minutes of approach and retreat…go do something else, come back – etc before she could really get close. At one point, right as she got the courage to tentatively paw the tarp a breeze picked up one corner and when it touched the back of her leg she pretty much thought it was all over! After a short break to roll in the soft dirt, and play with my cones, my friend and neighbor Peggy, who was videoing the session offered to drag the tarp around. We chased her around and after a couple of well timed stops causing Dee to step on the tarp, she was pretty much relaxed.
We ended the session with some happy scratches using the tarp, and Dee allowing me to put the tarp on her and walk around. What a blast! I love this stuff. Here is my shorten video of the session. I put together enough to see the process, but instead of making you watch all 50 minutes of video it is only a bit over 4. I hope you enjoy!
So, after thinking about how I was going to approach the task, and waiting for the mud to subside (where is all this RAIN coming from anyway? I thought this was the desert.) I had some sort of plan to follow, but as always, was prepared to ditch the plan and just go with the flow. As I continue to work on my horsemanship skills I am getting much better at going with the flow.
I set everything up before getting Dee. The plan was to do our normal warm up – which is just going for a neighborhood walk where I ask that she touch something here and there with her nose, or stick to me through some walk, trot, back transitions – then a return to the round pen where Dee is allowed to burn some of her energy before we work on stuff. Releasing her in the round pen was a suggestion I got from an instructor who helps me out when I need it. I’ve since learned to recognize when Dee really needs to just be released to process things in her own way and it has helped us tremendously! I placed the tarp on the ground about 10 feet outside of the round pen.
Because of the rain, I did not release her right away. I wanted her to feel the footing in the pen before she started tearing around it. I also wanted to get an idea of her reaction to the tarp. So, we did some circles inside the pen. When she noticed the tarp her head went down, she hesitated for just a second and LEAPT toward me, eyes wide. “MOM! WHAT IS THAT!” I had to get big fast to redirect her around me. (I know, horses don’t think like us – but I will take the risk of being called an anthropomorphist in order to explain the event) With her first reaction, I thought it would be good to spend some time online getting her to the point where she wasn’t terrified. I began using approach and retreat until I was able to get a small piece of the tarp under the rails of the pen, and she was able to approach it from both sides and sniff it without running. It really didn’t take long, but I felt even though she was not jumping out of her skin, she was holding on to some nervousness – I could see it building up inside…so I decided to let her lose. She immediately started running around the pen, kicking out at the tarp each time she got around to it. She would occasionally stop and check in with me – but take off again, feeling better to move her feet. I stayed still, not moving, not offering to touch her when she stopped – just waiting. It took roughly five minutes for her to stop and wonder if we were going to do anything different. When she handed me the halter (I had left it laying on the ground beside me) I took it to mean she was ready to move on. She had also stopped even looking at the tarp.
That’s when we moved outside the round pen and approached the tarp from there. She did really well with this, but it took 20 minutes of approach and retreat…go do something else, come back – etc before she could really get close. At one point, right as she got the courage to tentatively paw the tarp a breeze picked up one corner and when it touched the back of her leg she pretty much thought it was all over! After a short break to roll in the soft dirt, and play with my cones, my friend and neighbor Peggy, who was videoing the session offered to drag the tarp around. We chased her around and after a couple of well timed stops causing Dee to step on the tarp, she was pretty much relaxed.
We ended the session with some happy scratches using the tarp, and Dee allowing me to put the tarp on her and walk around. What a blast! I love this stuff. Here is my shorten video of the session. I put together enough to see the process, but instead of making you watch all 50 minutes of video it is only a bit over 4. I hope you enjoy!
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