57. Spice the Right Brain Extrovert

As Spice is a right brain extrovert i have been doing some research on training techniques which are more appropriate for her temperament...I found the following article really useful...

DO:
✓Use a lot of consistency, it’s calming. For example,
circles are great and the more worried your horse is,
the smaller you need to make the circles. You could
also weave around barrels or buckets placed six-feet
apart. Frequent transitions also uses the principle of
consistency… keep doing one-rein transitions every
few strides, from walk to trot, until your horse refo-
cuses and calms down.
✓ Speed up, match the energy and add “four ounces.”
You need to be asking your horse to go more quickly
than he really wants to; this interrupts the fear pat-
tern. If you don’t feel safe and confident doing this
when riding, get off and do it from the ground. For
example, if your horse gets frantic and wants to head
to the arena gate, paces at the gate, etc., take him
there and get him to pace back and forth faster than
he wants to do it! Do it until he relaxes and be ready
to start again.
✓ Use longer lines when playing on the ground, it will
give your horse more drift. (22’ is ideal unless you are
good with a 45’ Line).
✓ Respect thresholds; use approach and retreat to over-
come them.
✓ Keep learning sessions short and simple.
✓ Relax when he relaxes. Until then keep your energy up
and get your horse busy.
Calming strategies: A Million Transitions; Small circles;
Tiny figure eights; Falling Leaf (1/2 circle changes of
direction while you walk forwards); Do what he wants,
only faster and smaller—“and then some!”


DON’T:
✗ Straight lines help a horse gather speed. You don’t
want this! Use straight lines only when your horse is
more self-controlled.
✗ Don’t hold him back; this increases fear. Give the en-
ergy a focus!
✗ On Line is better than Liberty if your horse is upset.
That way you can “hold his hand”. He’ll tend to get lost
and disconnected at Liberty.
✗ Don’t teach your horse more than one thing at a time.
✗ Don’t try to teach him when he’s upset or unconfident.
That’s the time to use calming strategies.
✗ Forcing him over thresholds usually results in
an accident.
Make it worse by: holding him back;
using stronger bits, tie downs, martingales, etc.;being
too soft and not matching his energy; not knowing
what to do – strong and focused leadership is es-
sential; blasting through thresholds; getting mad or
frustrated or scared.

So... when your horse has a Right-Brain reaction, you need to match it. Bring your energy up but in a positive directing kind of way and then use that movement big time... but not in endless circles. Get him to do a million changes of direction without making a full circle. You're going to need a lot of energy to do this because a horse in full Right-Brain mode is a force to be reckoned with. The worst thing you can do is try to stop him and the next worst is to send him in circles or try to be soft and calming. He needs to know your presence and feel your leadership in a positive way... you have to be bigger than the problem and direct all that fear and energy, not add to it. In this way he'll calm down. It may take a little time the first time, but every time after that it will take less until finally your horse will look to you before he overreacts. The real lesson however is... how can you set it up for success so he never has to go there.

56. Unrideable to rideable...

Some much needed encouragement...there's always hope...

55. Day eight of spices hoof abscess

So, it looks as though Spices abscess is still draining, there was quite a bit of puss on the poultice but not quite as much as yesterday and not as dark which i am guessing is a good sign. She made it really hard to apply a poultice today though. It was a bit windy and being the skitty horse that she is she just wouldn't stand still. How my friend got the poultice on i don't know. I just hope it stays on otherwise i fear we'll probably be back to square one. I still think if you can go barefoot you should and physically/genetically i think spice can but i fear that the process of getting her may be far more difficult than i first perceived. If she was a quiet natured horse that was calm and had no problems with standing still the job of applying a clean poultice and dealing with the issues of going barefoot would be easy but as she is not and it seems likely that she may get more abscess whilst in transition i am doubting whether or not i will be able to continue this path. Feeling a bit down about the fact that sometimes just doing the simplest of things with spice seem sooo difficult. Yet seconds later she is the calmest, softest and easiest horse to be around...?! SIGHS...

54. The Horse Boy...

I haven't yet watched this film but would really like to, my friend told me about the book but as i'm rubbish at reading i think i'll go for the film. Might see if i can download it tomorrow evening.

53. Spices Hoof abscess is getting better...i think!

It's day seven of spices abscess and the good news is...it's definetly draining! We took the poultice off today and it was absolutely covered in puss. Luckily i have a blocked nose so couldn't smell it! I am hoping that some more will drain today but not as much as this would suggest that the infection is clearing. As soon as the wet poultice looks clean i will apply a dry poultice to protect the hoof from becoming re infected until it has fully repaired itself. I am also pleased to say that spice is definitely more comfortable than she was the day before and that the rest of her hooves look brilliant, they are not warm/hot and they do not appear to have any splits or cracks in them so all is not bad. I just can't wait until the podiatrist comes, once she has been i think i will feel a bit more confident about the condition of spices hooves.

Well done spices hoof for being strong and fixing yourself. :)

52. Spices Hoof Abscess is getting worse again!

It's now the sixth day of spices abscess and when i got to the yard i decided to have the vet come and see her as she seemed a little worse than she did yesterday and from what i could see on the poultice nothing was draining so i thought there could be a chance that the abscess was still live especially given the fact that she was still lame. Unfortunately i was right they said that the abscess had spread so had to make another hole to drain it (pictured below). I then cleaned it thoroughly and applied a warm wet poultice so hopefully this will help drain the rest of the abscess and all i have to do then is apply a dry one so the area stays clean while it is healing.



I think the most important thing is keeping it completely clean and free of debris so that it can drain freely but with all the mud and rain that there's been up until now it hasn't been easy to do this so i am hoping that the weather will stay dry and help with the healing process. I am beginning to see why people give up with the whole idea of going barefoot. It's a lot more hassle than just wacking on a pair of shoes...will have to just see how it goes i guess, whilst i am still 100% determined i completely appreciate the reasons why many people choose to shoe their horses.

Below is a video i found about how to treat an abscess which i found quite helpful...

51. Spices Hoof abscess is getting better...

It's the fifth day of spices abscess today and i am pleased to say it seems to be a lot better than it was yesterday. The abscess still seems to be draining a bit but she isn't in nearly as much pain with it and she is far less lame. I only hope she continues to improve, I have the podiatrist coming to visit in 9 days time so fingers crossed she will say all is well.