What’s Up With The Twitching
What's up with the twitching?
Now that you are done watching today’s videos, here is a reminder of what you are doing today:
Go out and halter your horse. Then take them to either a round pen or an arena. Then observe: what does your horse tend to do if you just stand there in front of them?
Do they move? Are they twitching at all in the muzzle area? What was it like catching them? Were they easy to catch? When you led them to the place where you are standing, how did that go? Today, it is just an observation.
This little exercise and the entire “flowchart” which is the next step, is where we are not ASKING anything of our horse (ok, you may have asked them to walk with you to the area you are going to work in, but once you get there, you are not going to ask for anything). You are simply responding to what they do. We are not training them. We are attuning to them. We are helping them feel better about themselves. But that is tomorrow. Today we are just observing so that when we watch the video explaining the Flowchart you will be armed with information about what you observed today.
A reminder of how to use this course: click on Mark Complete below and tomorrow you will move on to Step 14.
When I give my horse the time after a stressful situation to process (letting down) but the horse can not stand still – what would you do then? – the flowchart would be another thing that could be stressful.
Thanks Michelle
Just follow the flowchart. If that is too stressful, Id go back to turning him loose and doing the creating connection through chnage in focus
My horse does a lot of lip movement, I am wondering if it is an extreme sort of twitching or is it simply a habit of his. I took a video to show you. Is there any way I can send the video to you?
You can email it if you like
warwick@warwickschiller.com
Is tension/harness of the chin also a good indicator of the state of their nervous system? Hard chin means… tension?
Yes, that is another thing to look at.
Hunter has a tic under his left eye at times of any pressure he’s not keen on ( like haltering) ……..have you seen this before? He looks dozy but his eye is tic-ing.
No, sorry I haven’t
My horses upper and lower lips twitch pretty much constantly, even after a huge yawn and/or lick ang chew. Does this mean she’s not actually releasing? If so what would be the appropriate step? I’ve waited for her to completely relax, no twitching and she’s fallen asleep standing up and still twitching the lips.
The main concern is that that are not stuck trying to come back down, so if your horse licks and chews then you don’t need to wait until all the twitching is done
So, I am watching ahead in the videos just to get an idea of what is coming next but I am still on the creating connection through change in focus.
Should I be waiting for a lick and chew every time I get either his ear/eye/head? So, not trying so quickly between getting his focus and trying again?
We’ve been doing the CCTCIF for 3 or 4 days now and I can get his focus but I don’t know that I am waiting for a lick and chew.
No, thats not required yet as there should really be no sympathetic activation in this exercise, so theres nothing to let go of.
Hi Warwick
My mare Delight sometimes makes a big movement with her upper lip. It is the same movement as if when horses scratch or groom each other with their lips. Sometimes she does it standing there on her own, sometimes she looks at me with er ears pointed towards me doing it. I am not sure what it means. Most of the time I think that it because of a desire to do something in the arena with me (when she does it standing alone she looks in the arena/paddock) or wanting to have some interaction with me like scratching if she is directly looking at me. Or sometimes she does it when she is going to have a rest (mostly in the arena/paddock) and then I think that it is more self comforting behaviour. But that is all me guessing 😊. I wonder what your thoughts are?
We have taught our horses to “smile”, I wonder if someone taught her that?
It is not that kind of pulling the upper lip up like when they smell something or so. It is more rapid movement from left to right and back. It is a bit funny to whatch. She has done it also when she got a professional massage 😊. Maybe I can find a video somewhere if you like to see it. Or I record it next time I see it.
I did not learn her to smile. But I got het when she was 12. She is now 22
I dont think theres any need to decipher it
In each lesson you talk about watching videos. When are we supposed to watch the videos. Am I supposed to follow along here first and then watch the videos? Where do I find the videos? It would be nice if you actually listed the videos that went along with each lesson. I’m not sure if I should continue moving forward with the lesson content or just watch videos.
The video is above the text in each of these pages.