Re: [RC] training regression stories - Suzi Maiorisi
I'm wondering if you tried all 30 times at the same time or over a period
of days/weeks?? Geez Louise, Holly would throw a fit over that one!!
I've had 'trailering issues' with her, but it only took a couple of days of
working with her to get past it. And, yes, she does once in a while decide
that trailering is not the thing to do, but it takes maybe 5 minutes to get past
that, not anywhere near like the 2.5 hours it took when the first 'trailering
issue' arose.
As for boogeymen in the woods, the only one she ever got to look at (from a
distance) was the bull that came barreling thru cedars as we came around from
the other side (thank God for good fences!) and that was only because
it was the only time she's unloaded me and she had to wait for me to
recover and get back on! Mine's a Morgan, but boy has she learned the
Arabian Teleport maneuver well! Keep moving is my motto, and she'll flinch
a little now if deer suddenly leap up from their hiding place and run across the
road, but she keeps going.
Anybody want to share their experiences with what
I call "training regression"? Or solutions?
I've been riding my 6yo "spooker" for a year and
a half about 2-3x / week. He has greatly improved, today he
actually voluntarily took up a canter through the woods where I'm usually
tap-kicking while he slams on his brakes at every-little-thing
<sigh>. Usually, he spooks/slams on his brakes at the appearance
of something like brush or hay on the trail. I make him approach and
take a look at the scary object for a few seconds, then attempt to continue at
a slow trot until the next brake-slam, etc. This is not a new
trail for him. He's getting more self-confidence but every so often he
seems to regress and go through such anxiety and insecurity.
We missed our last endurance ride because he
refused to trailer load. In the past, he would load 60% of the time with
no problem, so I prepared by reading a chapter in Lyon's book on trailer
loading. He suggests that a horse needs to repeat something 100 times
before "getting it down". Well, my boy cautiously made it partially in
or fully in and out of the trailer about 30 times before begging me to
quit. It was like he was saying, I'm not stupid, I'm an Arabian.
Lol. I learned my lesson and won't be over-training again.
He has the same rider and goes down the same
trails over and over yet every few months reverts back to flunking lessons I
thought he'd learned. Only thing I can think of is I've been riding
another horse occasionally and he may be jealous. Or maybe another horse
has been beating him up in the pasture.
Anybody else out there have any experiences and
ideas other than patience?
