Common Mistakes – Creating Connection Through Change In Focus
Common Mistakes - Creating Connection Through Change In Focus
Did any of these happen with your horse yesterday?
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New horse and new to WSAH, subscribed when I found holes in my relationship with the self which created a dangerous insecurity in my new young horse. The place I have to practice the CCTCF is plenty big but also has food (and other horses but their presence is benign). At the start, from very far away, a few times I got my guy’s ears and eyes. Quite quickly though his interest softened and after that, he kept his head down eating. No ear flicking, just the ear mostly trained on me and keeping a soft wobble along with the wobbling of the grazing head. I think I got the same kind of soft focus from his eye but it’s a dark eye in a dark face with a dark forelock over it so it was hard to tell. There were times he turned his underside of his jaw to me so that I was out of his ears and eyes but I didn’t think that was a big enough contrast to heed. I kept at it, walking and flapping lightly, trying to “be effective” which I thought meant getting the head up off the food for a moment of focused attention onto the flag and me. For that, I had to finally get right up in his flank with the flag. For how big and rude I got it was only marginally effective in getting the tiniest ear flick before he just moved away a little and buried his head again to feed. So now I think I need to either go bigger, go smaller, or go differently. Bigger would be SSTDP and do what it takes to be effective like the video, “Being Effective Even on Grass”. However the field is a flat 10 acres so he could just saunter away with his head still buried, so it’s a little different setup from that video. Smaller would be SSTDP with CCTCF but change my metric of success, ie., turn away when he goes from showing me the underside of his jaw, to having me in his ear’s and eye’s soft focus. But I think I got in trouble previously, lacking leadership and accommodating him as if he were flighty instead of confident. Different would be to halter him and follow the flow chart, and the basic exercises (which are going much better than the CCTCF), and try CCTCF at liberty in the field again later once we have more practice at the other things. Once haltered he gives me soft kind interest. However to halter him while eating I have to first loop the lead rope around his neck to pull his face up off the food. He usually manages to position himself at the feeders so that my approach is from behind his shoulder. This would be dangerous if he was overtly defensive. But the horse I have today is tactically inert, not overtly defensive, so that’s ok for now. Right?
Do I go bigger, smaller, or different?
Hi Louise,
Does he have 24 hour access to food?
Or does he get food twice a day and you are attempting this exercise while he’s eating it?
I tried this today in the arena for the first time with my horse. He used to be very clingy and wanted to be in my space all the time, I have managed to get him to not be so clingy. I started this 30 day jump start program and am trying to correct some problems I have been having with him. Maybe this isn’t an exercise that I should be doing with my horse? He seems to me to be a bit shut down when I work with him. When I did this today, I had a hard time to get him to turn his head towards me. he was getting better towards the end of my session. He walked up to me 2 times, the first time he really didn’t seem to want to engage as he didn’t extend his head towards me. He stopped about 6 feet from me and then turned and walked away. The second time he came up to me, he reached his head out so I engaged with him. He engaged with me a couple of times and then just stood there. I turned and walked away, maybe that was a mistake? He did not follow me. Should I continue with this exercise tomorrow and see how it goes?
” He did not follow me”
Today is the first day, and one of the most common mistakes is trying to get the horse to follow before they are ready. He had only walked up to you 2 times. Whats important is communicating your awareness many times, which means if he walks up and just stands there, just stand there with him. When he leaves, start all over again. Repeat that a lot before ever trying to get him to follow you
Had my first try at this today. Maybe I didn’t stop/turn fast enough.. but when she takes notice of me she just pins her ears and looks away fast. :( I am going to try again tomorrow. She is odd because she will come up to me in the field ears forward, sniff, sometimes follow me, and other times it’s just ears pinned and just doesn’t want to be bothered. (Most of the time)
How far away were you?
When walking in an arc, if I get their attention before moving the flag, do I still implement the flag at some point? Should I walk and use the flag together?
Guess I’m wondering if part of the purpose of this exercise is getting them used to paying attention to the flag, or is it mainly just getting their attention? I have been able to “join up” with my horse and walk together in the pasture before without a flag.
“When walking in an arc, if I get their attention before moving the flag, do I still implement the flag at some point?”
You may have to, depending on what happens in the next steps of the exercise, when you start to asc further arounbd and draw their feet.
The ability to draw their attention with the flag is a huge part of the rest of the exercises, so Its good to ensure it works at this point
Hi Warwick ,
I’ve been doing this for a few weeks and have watched the videos multiple times (including the on grass video) but I still am struggling and think I must be missing something .
Could you please clarify, If you’re doing the exercise in their paddock (full of long grass) , and you get an ear flick whilst their head is down grazing do you acknowledge that? I’m struggling with been effective with the flag whilst his head is down and his ears flick back and forth, it’s hard to see when his eye comes to me whilst his grazing away.
Or would I use the flag and release as soon as he lifts his head/ or moves off or changes thoughts , sort of like how you did with the video you had with the horse with his head through the fence eating.
Just want to make sure I’m doing it right because I’ve spent a lot of time doing it and don’t seem to be winning on the grass !! I try and pick my timing so his just chilling not eating and I have a lot more luck then however after a few minutes if he goes back to grazing I have the same dilemma .
Thanks so much ☺️
Id wait for his head to come up.
BUT, some questions.
Does he live on grass? Because horse who live on grass don’t continually graze, they graze then rest then graze then rest.
The grass may not be the problem, you horse may be willfully ignoring you.
Thanks for your reply !! That’s what I’ve been doing wrong.
Yes he lives on grass 24/7, wet season in CQ and there is green grass everywhere after an awful dry spell ! As mentioned I usually wait till his just hanging out and not eating however it’s pretty hard to time that when I’m home and not busy. I think he definitely could be ignoring me , if his head doesn’t come up would I do what you did in the video and go up to him with the flag until he lifts his head?
Yes
Warwick, when I walk around and “lose” their head, do I stop and turn away or do I go back to where I started again to try to capture their head again right away without stopping?
Turn and go back along the same path you were on and get the head back.
I have been trying to create connection through change in focus for a couple of weeks now. I can get his head to turn towards me; but his feet will not untrack. I did actually get his feet to untrack today; but he did not follow me. He started to turn towards me and then turned away. When he started to walk away, I was a distance from him, so I just matched steps from a distance. He noticed me, and when he did he laid down. I walked over to him and petted him as he slept. He has been consistently laying down during these sessions as soon as he sees how aware I am of his changes. Should I not go near him when he is laying down? Is this laying down a learned behavior that has become a habit now? He usually sleeps for 15-20 minutes; but today it lasted for almost 30 minutes. He is turned out daily with a young filly (9 months) and she tries to initiate play with him and he doesn’t even follow her.
I wouldnt pet him when he lays down, just stand near him, he’s trusting you to stand guard while he sleeps.
Should I continue with this exercise until he stops laying down and sleeping every day? Today I just turned him loose in the arena and read a book. He immediately layed down and looked around to see where I was because I had not taken the chair in the arena yet. I walked in and sat down and he stayed down for about 5 minutes and then got up and came over to where I was. He stopped about 6ft from me and snorted at the chair, then proceeded closer to engage with me. He soon walked away again.
When he walks away you could then start the process with the flag all over again
Today I tried the exercise again and managed to get him to turn his head towards me and then he walked over to me a few times. The second time he came over to me, reached out to engage with me, and then just stood there. I decided to walk away after waiting a few minutes and he was just standing there, to see if he would follow me. I walked away from him and he eventually followed me, he reached out to engage with me again and then walked away. I got his attention and he walked over to me a couple more times and then he laid down and slept for about 30 mins. I stood and waited while he slept. After he got up I ended the session. Do I just keep doing this exercise until he just wants to follow me around all the time? Other people at the stable keep telling me that he is simply bored with doing nothing with me or is confused because I used to work with him and now I am not. One lady keeps insisting that this is a learned behavior that he is doing so he doesn’t have to do anything with me. I can see the small changes happening in him so I just try to ignore the comments and stay with the course outline. What are your thoughts?
Dont focus on the following part. In the common mistakes video I say that this is a common problem peole do, try to get to the end first. Its more important that they come up and leave , then you do it again, they come up and leave, many times. If they dont leave, theres nothing to do, just hang with them, like horses hang out together in the pasture. This part teaches the human patience, we tend to think we always need to be doing something.
Tried this for the first time with my mule, earlier today. She’s six, but has not been ridden but once in the last three years. She’s skittish and flees what she does not understand – and wants to leave as soon as her brain is full for the day. This work is teaching me to slow down and relish the journey.
I got ears and eyes almost immediately – eyes and ears that lock in on me and linger long. I think it was the third time stopping and turning away that I heard her approaching from behind. I gave her the interaction she wanted and walked away and waited till she engaged with something else, then did two more arcs with the flag. This time, she came up behind me and nuzzled me.
So, I hope THIS was a good decision. I put her back with her buddy for awhile, then brought her out to a grassy front yard and went through the Connections through change in focus exercise again. In this new surrounds, she was much less attuned to me at the start, so I feel like more was accomplished.
Now that I’ve seen the ‘common mistakes’ video – I see where I made some mistakes and look forward to working again tomorrow.
If I am understanding you correctly, this is not an exercise that needs to be done with a horse that already wants to be with you. Correct?
My gelding just tuned 3 and my filly turns 2 this month. For the past 2 1/2 years I have spent countless hours just being present with them in the pasture so they are used to me being around and as soon as I enter their space they come and greet me.
You are correct
Hi Warwick, I have a sensitive guy. We are well connected (imho) he lives at home with me 24/7 in a paddock with 2 mates. When I’m in the paddock he acknowledges me, comes to me, or hangs close by. Similar to Shelli’s situation above. However, when he’s anxious/heightened by something, he can escalate quickly. Would you suggest this exercise would be useful for future flag work/drawing his attention, or because we already have that connection I should move forward with the next step?
This is the introduction to the flag.
I have spent a lot of time with my mare building a connection with her. She always meets me at the gate when i walk to the barn or the grass lot I turn her out on. I take her on walks and match steps with her. She will lunge but wants to look out and not bend or arc very well towards inside of circle sometimes. I use a flag to get her attention by waving it. I don’t get carried away waving it just softly move it to get her to move she can be a bit lazy. My question is what exercise should I do to get her to follow flag. I have not been using the flag to move her after I watched your video on CCTC. Sometimes it feels like she is ignoring me so would like to get her to focus more. Would this be a good exercise to get her to focus to change towards flag or me?
This CCTCIF is where they learn to have their thoughts follow the flag.
Hi. Initially CCTCF worked really well and , without aiming for it, I got Hunter walking to me and a couple of times walking with me. This was when I took him into the back field and he wanted to stand looking over the fence towards his 2 friends over the other side of the yard and just visible from one place. The good news is that he did not even look over the fence today but was happy grazing on the new grass coming through without showing any sign of looking for his friends. The bad news, from my perspective, is that when he is grazing I can not tell if his ear moves towards me so am not sure how to proceed. I did try using the flag to get his focus off the grass but 1. this isn’t going back to getting the ear 2. I sometimes had to go right up to him to change his focus from the grass and 3. I just felt it was a bit wrong and not achieving much ( other than to make him a bit concerned about me I think) and he would just go straight back to grazing anyway 4. I was afraid I could make him dull to my energy/ the flag.
So, not sure how to get another meaningful session if I can’t detect his ear on me and all he does is graze. I won’t often have the time to wait for him resting after a period grazing.
Any suggestions would be very welcome and I would be interested to know if you think it can have solved some mild to medium separation anxiety of his without actually connecting to me fully in that first couple of sessions?
If you cant see his ears, just work on him turning his head toward you
Hi. Had another session on the grass today to work on turning his head towards me but did not go as well as it could I fear. He lifted his head from the grass if I used lots of energy but didn;t really look at me much and I had to be quite close. He got well pissed off and over thresh hold once – squealing and legging it down the paddock so I did a wee bit more and then called it a night. He seems to be getting shut down to the flag and fed up with me. Again he showed no signs of wanting to keep looking for friends or staying at the side of field nearest them – he just wanted to graze. What do you think to me putting his friends in the field and him in the sand paddock so that he has no grass and will , hopefully, want to watch for them? We definitely did better when he had a real focus towards them.
“squealing and legging it down the paddock” is the opposite of “He seems to be getting shut down to the flag”. Squealing and legging down the paddock is a response, horses that shut down have no response.
“Again he showed no signs of wanting to keep looking for friends or staying at the side of field nearest them – he just wanted to graze” Does he live on that grass?
Ha, ha Yes, I can see that’s the opposite …..it’s very hard to explain nuances and detail this way but he squealed and legged it, I feel, because the pressure was too much because I am having to give it lots of energy and get pretty close to get a change in focus.
No, he doesn’t live on that grass.
Squealing and legging it IS a response, so let him know you sa that.
If he doesnt live on the grass, dont turn him out there then try this exercise, thats just making it hard on yourself. Set the situation up so its easy to achieve what you are trying to do, so either do it somewhere else, or put him on the grass for a few hours before attemting to interupt his thoughts while eating it
Thank you. That is exactly what I have done today. He has been out there an hour and I hung around with him a bit just being, no pressure. I will head back in a bit and when he is full and starts resting or looking over towards friends I will try then. I am bad for not trusting my thoughts and ideas ( I came to it not being a fair ask of him or me) so thank you very much for your response and helping my confidence.
OK. I have noticed that I have to be pretty close to Hunter with the flag to get a change in focus from the grass. It did work better after he had been out there a few hours but still just lifting his head and sometimes walking forwards a bit. Only a few times ( 5 out of 30) did he turn his head toward me. I acknowledged any change he made – even just lifting head a little off the grass…..is that correct?
When he was full and resting he really was resting and dozy and I was unsure whether to do anything with the flag at that stage so I just sat and was present with him. I saw a previous post where the lass had said she would try when her horse was resting but did not see any result. What would you recommend I do att hat point please?
I cant comment on what some else does, but for me, I want to make sure I am effective, and get a change in focus.
“I acknowledged any change he made – even just lifting head a little off the grass…..is that correct?”
Yes!
My horse Cricket is here alone. I have a 3 acre pasture. So when he’s out eating, I have to walk to other side of pasture in order to walk an arc with him facing the other way. However, he is VERY aware of me, ears flicking toward me, while I walk out far away to arc. So I use flag, mildly, and start the arc toward him. I stop and turn when he gives ear, eye and turns his head to me. But by now I’m quite close to him. I stop, relax, turn around. He goes back to eating. Now I’m close to him. Should I walk away other direction then. If I get far away and he goes to eating, what do I do next? Turn around and make an arc toward him again til he changes focus? Then stop and turn around? If I am facing away and start to walk away and he just continues eating, that’s where I’m not clear what to do next. So please help. I did this 3x and get too close sometimes. Then walk away turned around and am puzzled. Thanks for your reply.
I think you are running out of room because you are arcing toward him, instead of around him. Act like he is the centre of the circle you are arcing around, not on the circle.
Thank you for responses Warwick
Regarding my comment yesterday, thanks for the reply. But now I think you mean I start with my horse turned away and start a circle around him, stopping and turning back when I get his ear, eye and head turn if he reacts, then goes back to ignoring my presence. So I follow the circle path a ways. THEN do I turn around and continue my original circle, wave the flag, get an ear, eye and head turn? Then stop, and again pivot? If he stays commected and moves, then do I continue walking my circle but if he goes back to eating grass, then after stopping, do I again pivot and stand awhile, continue walking awhile, then turn back around and continue walking? I’m confused.
“THEN do I turn around and continue my original circle, wave the flag, get an ear, eye and head turn?”
Id say yes.
Hi, please can you advise what I should do when my mare comes up to me, sniffs me with her muzzle then pins her ears back and turns her body away from me as if threatening to kick?
She walks up to you of her own accord?
Yes, comes up, ears pricked, sniffs me, pins her ears and turns on me.
Does the hind end move toward you or the front end move away from you.
What about a horse that hates the flag. She will look at it and follow it but she is really keen on pinning her ears and attacking it.
In this exercise, they cant attack the flag, becuase they only see it from a distance and as they look at it, I put it away, or have it behind my leg. So by the time they are close to it, it isnt there.
If I understand, this is not an exercise for a horse that wants to be near me. I took my mare to the arena close to our house and she runs around but always comes back and stands near where I am or walks up and engages with me. When she does walk away to the other end of the arena I get very little interest in the flag even when I was right next to her. Pretty much ignores it. I guess I’m wondering without being able to do this exercise, how do I get her to be more aware of me. When I am leading her she is quite pushy and sometimes feels like she could walk right over me and not notice. Just a bit frustrated. Should I move on to the Focus and Bend?
Reply
“When she does walk away to the other end of the arena I get very little interest in the flag even when I was right next to her. ”
Id stick with it until this works in this situation.
My area to work in is a grass paddock. My horse has gone from ignoring me to ear flicks, glances with the eye. Occasionally, he will come to me but returns to his grass within a second or two. This has taken place in three sessions about 40 minutes each. His grass is his main focus. Do I need to get more from him? I know you said following me is not the goal; do I move on or not? He has all ready gone from a horse with a sullen, ear pinned expression to one with calmness and curiosity.
Does he live on that grass?
My horse is boarded. He goes out on pasture at night and in his stall during the day. My session usually starts after is has been in the stall hour. After I put him in this grass paddock which is 109 ft long, I turn him loose and I walk to the other end. With my walking in the arc and using my flag softly, he will glance, flick an ear, occasionally raise his head. I turn away each time. When I arc close he will occasionally walk over. Do I need more before going to focus and bend?
Well the next step is Standing Still and Present, the focus and bend comes after that. Id rather get the CCTCIF where they will follow me around before proceeding.
Thank you for your feed back. Success with this exercise look like: I start my energy softly with both the flag and me; build it according to the horse’s level of focus, release my energy when I get a change of focus for him. I keep this cycle going between me and him, until his focus is on me for longer periods of time until he will follow me?
I am sorry, but I am seeking encouragement that this process will work for even me. This horse actually does not belong to me. My friend bought him from a dealer for me to ride. I have been her riding buddy for years and my horse died. She did not expected him to have issues. Like Corina, under saddle he stops and if asked to go forward, he kicks out. I realized he had serious holes in his foundation and his relationship with people. Your program has given me hope I can train this horse.
You are on the right track. Dont be in a hurry to skip ahead if this part isnt working, as horses are every honest and will tell you exactly how they feel. The kicking out when asked to go forward has a lot to do with what he is presenting in this exercise.
Excited to share: As I ended my session with Nacho today. I left him grazing while I went to retrieve his halter about 20 feet away and he followed me. After 3 weeks on doing this exercise I was wondering if he would ever leave his grass to follow me😊
Great work.
The arena at my facility has one section with a cow chute and grass. With one of my horses I don’t have to worry about him being in this area while we do this exercise, but my other horse has hurt himself quite badly running his head into a metal pole at the cow chute (different facility) when being startled. Wondering if it’s ok to drive him away from this area of the arena when/if he goes to this area, and then conduct the rest of the exercise when he settles in other areas of the arena? Or does the drive action take away from the rest of the exercise?
Why do you think he would repeat the accident?
My fear and wanting to control. :)
I’ve been doing this with my friend’s horse, Mitch. So when I do this with him, I am far away, I start by facing him, wait 3 seconds, then starting moving towards him at an arc, then start gently waving the flag low to the ground. I see his ear flick towards me so I stop and turn around. I do this a few times. Then I want to see if I can get an eye, so I do it all the same but I ignore the ear flick. He is frozen except for his ears, his head does not move. Eventually, when I am close enough (~6 feet away) he takes a step away from me and immediately turns his eye towards me and then I turn away from him.The two changes are very close together and almost in the same movement but he definitely does move away before turning the eye. Is this okay that he moves away before turning the eye? I don’t see how I can get the eye turn without the stepping away. Perhaps I just need to be patient and keep working at it?
Yes, thats perfectly fine.
I purchased this for my “green” 5 y/0 paint. I’ve had him for a year and we have done no riding, and little work. We have bonded quite a bit. I did this a couple different times, and have had a lot of success and I really feel more bonded through this and matching steps. Even if we are ready to move on are this connection exercises something we will continue to do throughout the lifetime of my buddy? Thanks so much, am really enjoying all the videos and information!
What should I do if my horse is grazing on his grass and has his head down but his ear on me basically the entire time I’m doing this exercise? Should I push more and wait for a head lift? I went back and forth and back and forth and while his ear is always on me, I’m not getting any head movement. Should I increase the flag movements? Or get closer? Thoughts?
Yes, get the head.
Hi Warwick,
I’ve been doing CCTCIF 2-3 days per week for the last 2 weeks (work doesn’t allow me to be consistent everyday). Even through I haven’t been able to do it everyday, I was seeing progress with my two horses. Now the last 2 days I’ve gone out, one of my geldings refuses to be caught. He’s really similar to Dale personality wise, pushy, but also has anxiety which he shows through mouthiness. Over the weekend I did have to do some hoof trimming and vet care where I wasn’t necessarily able to be attuned to him. I’m thinking that might be why we had a regression? Basically, if I try to go catch my horse he’ll bite at me not to hurt or engage with me, but it seems like he’s communicating that he’d rather be left alone. I was able to do some successful CCTCIF in his paddock where he came up to me and engaged with me and had good releases. I’m not sure that this was ideal since it’s a small area. Even after this he still was very stressed about being caught. Anyway, I’m wondering what you would recommend I do next to help him? Maybe some hanging out? Thanks!
You said he didnt want to be caught, but then said he’ll bite you. Not being caught usually means they wont come near you. Is it just trouble putting the halter on?
Yes, initially, he’ll approach me and engage with me. Then once he’s engaged with me a bit, he’ll have a few yawns, and doesn’t really want to engage. So then I start to walk around to his side, but then he doesn’t want me to walk around to the side of him and he doesn’t want me to touch him or put the halter on. He’ll reach around and do one really big chop once on my hand, then after a couple times of doing that, he’ll run off and flip his head at me. It doesn’t really seem like engaging; he’s communicating something else I think. He will engage with me when I approach him, but as soon as I walk around to the side he displays the behavior I described before. Then after he runs off, he’s totally disconnected and ignores me (looking out of the paddock, eating the grass). I’ve tried matching steps, which does get his attention, but then the same pattern of behavior occurs. I’ve also tried stopping when I see a sign of tension approaching him and when walking around to his side, I’ll pause or step back when he seems worried.
Ok, you have identified that problem step. He comes up to you, and wants to hang out with you, but doesnt want to go to the next step. So spend longer at the hanging out stage, then start to work on the walking around to his side. If he blocks you with his head, just step back to the front and wait. Then try again. If he leaves, start the process CCTCIF all over again.
Okay, thank you so much! That makes sense. I will work on this. And it’s okay to do the CCTCIF in his small paddock area?
Yes, but the larger the better
Okay, thank you so much. I usually do it in our arena because he tends to be more distracted there. But since I haven’t been able to put the halter on him, I will work on it in his paddock. If I get it good in the paddock and am able to halter him, should I practice in the arena again or move on?
I would
Will do! I was sucessfully able to halter him today. 😁
I just wanted to share that last year I started working the videos, I had some pretty good success with my rescue horse and my mini, who came to me after being in a hoarding/ neglect situation. Then, life started “life-ing”, and I haven’t done much with the horses other than hanging out in their space. A part of that was losing my two older horses which has really thrown me for a loop. A few weeks ago, I started back at this 30 day course. The other day, I went out to practice with the flag, which is pretty much where I left it last time. My rescue mare remembered and came over immediately and licked and chewed and got that dreamy look and hung out with me. After that, I tried with the mini, who doesn’t much care for what most humans are doing and will avoid us if there’s no treat involved. But, HE remembered, and he not only remembered, he followed me around in arcs, and I honestly couldn’t “lose” him! And, when I would stop, he would stop and relax as opposed to stop and “mug” me like before. I could not have expected that at all!
Now, I have a little horse here on a care lease that I would call “clingy”. He is IN my space all the time as soon as I go out. He is a bit of a mugger and will engage with his mouth on my hands which I do to distract from mouthing my clothes, hair, etc. He was immediately interested, but also somewhat worried about the flag. He finally turned towards me about 6 feet away, I looked away, and when I turned back around, he was still watching me and then his head came down and he began to lick and chew and yawn. And, he stayed focused on me so I put the flag behind me, stood at that distance for a bit, and then called it a day. That felt right to me, but I am wondering, is change in focus at 6 or 8 feet away still effective, or should I keep going until he is coming up to me closer. I actually sort of enjoyed that space, as he has more draw than drive!, but not sure if I should wait for more or be okay with that. Don’t want to wear it out if it’s not necessary. But, if I NEED more draw to the flag itself for what comes later, then I will take the time it takes.
Hi Westi
Theres a video called “what kind of horse do you have”. It says that if you have a clingy horse you would not work on the CCTCIF (yet). Depending on how clingy he is you may have to work through a fence , or watch (what to do when they want to engage too much”.
Just remember that your intention behind any action will change the outcome of that action. When you said ” and will engage with his mouth on my hands which I do to distract from mouthing my clothes, hair, etc.”, remember, you are not doing that to distract him, you are doing that to meet a need.
Hi Warwick,
Yesterday I tried the exercise with my foal for the first time. What I have noticed is that he seemed very interested in exploring the place we were in: sniffing the sand, the walls, the door etc. and coming often to me/around me saying Hi but never staying too long. One of his ears was most of the time turned to me. He didn’t seem to have issues with exploring any part even if it was far away from the doors.
He also didnt seem to have any opinion of the flag.
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In the video Mastery of the Horse 2023 Part 1, when the horse sniffs the ground and goes to roll down, it was mentioned that in this exercise we want the horse to connect to themselves not necessarily to us, to have them being present in the moment.
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What I am a bit confused about is: when he is exploring the area should I still try this exercise or just let him be?
Do I wait for the moment when his is only looking what is happening outside to try it?
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He did focus on what is happening outside when he heard a sound (another horse) but very quickly he got back to exploring.
Last question: he was also interested in figuring out how the doors work (nipping at the handle, pushing with the muzzle the doors and similar). Should I consider this him being present or was his mind outside and he was simply working on how to get away? ‘:)
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Many thanks in advance!
“when he is exploring the area should I still try this exercise or just let him be?”
yes I would, if his mind and body are in the same place at the same time.
“Do I wait for the moment when his is only looking what is happening outside to try it?
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No, but only because you said “the moment”. I dont want this to be about obedience. I would wait for a moment he is looking outside, but not THE moment
“Should I consider this him being present or was his mind outside and he was simply working on how to get away? ‘:)”
OR he was just being curious. It doesnt sound like anything he did was “trying to get away”.
I honestly feel lost. My horse watches me, he will come up and engage with me and even follow me. He has moments when he becomes fixated on something, today it was chickens in the hedgerow. The only way I was able to get his focus during these times was to actually gently touch his flank with the flag. As soon as I got an ear, I stopped and turned away. The flag doesn’t seem to draw his focus much. He is interested in it, when he comes up to me to engage. I think his previous owner used a flag in the round pen with him. Once he decides to graze, I lose him. Not an ear, eye or head. He is turned out all day so he is not starving (even if he thinks is). He is hyper vigilant when something moves, it can be squirrels in the trees, one of the dogs, a vehicle. Mostly he just stops, head up, tense and watches. Then when no threat perceived will go back to grazing.
Many times when people think they arent getting anywhere, they actually are, but expect it to look different.
“As soon as I got an ear, I stopped and turned away. The flag doesn’t seem to draw his focus much. ”
Getting an ear IS his focus. Remember, this exercise is called “creating connection through change in focus”, not “the horse needs to follow me around”. Its really about how many times can you communicate you noticed their change in focus. Ive had quite a few horses at horse expos that really wanted to ignore me and the flag, I just had to be effective enough times for them to make the change. Keep going, you’ve got this.
Today was much better. I went back and watched the video on focus on grass. Mostly I just needed to move to get an ear. He does come up to me for engagement. When he focused on something moving, I asked a bit stronger for him to change his focus. It went well. I saw yawns and lip locking and at one point he did lay down. I thought he was going to roll be he didn’t. Progress!
I thought I was pretty good with step 9, so I was basically just going to go out and “test” it so that I could get my “passing grade” and when I walked into the paddock my guy Dusty walked as far away from me as he could possibly get and I thought “hmmm, isnt that interesting” So I attempted the exercise here and ended up attracting the other 6 equines for some attention, but Dusty was just like “meh, you guys have at it, I am not interested”. Is this exercise something I should try to have Dusty in his own spot for seperated away from the other horses? I can halter him, but on rare occasions, this does not feel consensual. Or, is it okay to practice this in his paddock with all his buddies?
Id take him somewhere on his own.