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jaymgates · 2 years

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Antares Log - 10-15-22

Horses are wonderful, challenging creatures which require flexibility, humility, and a sense of humor. You can fiddle with a problem for *months* without success, then suddenly just blaze through major issues all at once.

Antares is a lot of horse. He's big - his withers are even with the top of my head, topped with a very high-set neck. He's fast - winning $700,000 in his career means he was one of the fastest, for a while. He's agile, with fast reflexes. He's constantly examining and engaging with his world, relentlessly curious and involved. And he's plenty smart, which is its own trial.

We had one of those leap-forward, dizzying progress days, our first.

Today was a Seattle Knights horseback training event. Originally, the plan was for me to be riding in it, but the long string of events means that we haven't even tried riding yet.

Flexibility and sense of humor.

So, instead, we spent some time walking around, learning about a very different kind of life - snapping flags, clashing armor, swinging swords, that kind of thing.

The farm was set up with a super challenging skills course that included a narrow bridge, a slalom, trot poles, a spooky forest (trash bags and a skeleton hanging from a tree), a princess to rescue (a stuffed bear), a tarp to walk across, and some agility challenges. (Constance made an AMAZING course that everyone wants to keep playing on.)

It also has the "Veil Between Worlds", a tall arch filled with long, metallic streamers. Horses have to walk through it, which is a big challenge. It also waves in the breeze and is REALLY noticeable.

In the arena, the joust lines were set up - flappy flag lines forming a narrow corridor.

Antares calmly walked past the troll cave (carport roof) that he's been snorty at for a while, strolled into the arena...and let out an explosive SNORT of "Oh HELL no" when he saw the lines.

He's gorgeous when he's 'spooky': fully up on his toes and collected, that long neck tightly arched, ears on alert, eyes and nostrils wide. He *stares* at something and snorfles these long, rattly snorts. He'll dance a little, back up, check in with me, snort at it again.

Always aware of me, never running me over.

Most horses, when they're spooking at something, need a break. It's smart to walk them away to reduce pressure and let them decompress, then bring them back to look at it again.

Antares doesn't do that. He'd back up, and then move forward on his own. When I tried to circle away, he hauled me forward because he wanted to get closer. He isn't *afraid*, he's just snorty.

He snorted at it for a few minutes, then I took him into the round pen and let him roll and walk for a few minutes. Once he'd turned himself into a dust bunny, we went back out...and calmly walked down the line, past the flags. We did that a couple of times...and then walked up the center, in the narrow chute. He kept a suspicious ear on it, but he was relaxed and chill.

And then he saw the Veil Between Worlds and let out an absolute machine-gun snort. He let me lead him past it (about fifteen feet away), but I decided not to push him after he'd done so well with the joust line.

He also met Dylan's horse Connal, and Ann's horse Ash, and was very polite, so hopefully we can set up a buddy system soon.

I put him back into his paddock for a while, and he spent some time running when he saw the other horses doing quintain and joust runs - tail flagged, head high, he's stunning when he's excited.

But after everything settled, I went back out to his paddock. He saw me coming and came toward the gate. He seems to like being kissed on the nose, and he stood quietly next to me, then followed me around, checking in whenever I stopped.

We worked with a scary stick - and when he got over being snorty, he put his nose against it and just *pop pop pop pop* with the silly lip smack as he expressed his opinion.

I found the magic itchy spot on his shoulders, and when I dug in with both hands, he leaned so hard he nearly fell over. His healing leg was itchy, so I scratched it, and I could almost see the lightbulb. He twisted up, lifted his leg, waved it in the air, poked at it with his nose, and looked at me.

Obediently, I gently scratched around the healing scuffs. When I stopped, he asked again.

He also likes playing in water, and while he doesn't like fly spray, he isn't spooky about it. He has excellent manners around being handled and fed, and is beginning to feel safe and at home.

I may have adopted this guy sight unseen, but he's turning out to have been very worth the gamble.

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wyrddogs · 5 years

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I fell down the stairs yesterday and am sore all over, so today’s training/play session was just two-ball game with no tug. Shade mentioned to get the dog used to playing with all kinds of toys, so today’s session included the octopus, bumper, blue ball, a bunny stuffie, and a de-stuffed duck stuffie.

When I threw the bunny, Bindi chased it, then stood over it and looked at me like, really? After I encouraged her a bit, she brought it back, and after that was happy to play with it. She straight up left the duck where it landed and came back. XD She did retrieve it after encouragement though.

She brought the octopus, bunny, duck, and sometimes the bumper all the way back to me and held them until I said “Chase”. She dropped the blue ball and sometimes the bumper a few feet out from me and had to be encouraged to bring it all the way in until I said “Chase”. Still an improvement!

She’s having a good time.

She also had a nice walk with the greys yesterday for the first time in weeks. At one point two of the girls were chasing each other playfully and Bindi switched into Fun Police mode. Side note: Bindi cannot run as fast as a greyhound.

When they came near us they slowed enough for her to catch up so she muzzle-punched one and said Rah! so I grabbed her and told her to calm down. After that she returned to happily snorfling everything and rolling in the dirt and ignoring the other dogs.

#bindi #my training #toys developing cooperation and play

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