I have always enjoyed watching horses dance at liberty like the one in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=669JgdXu-u0 . My goal is to dance with Herki this way. In preparation for this I have created a list of tasks for us to tackle together at liberty.

1. put halter on/take off with one knee on ground
2. moving his head from right to left
3. blended leading forward, backward, at the trot, canter
4. backing and leading one step at a time
5. handling all 4 feet
6. ground tie
7. step hindquarters over
8. step front end around
9. circle right and left
10. circle on hindquarters
11. figure 8 around cones
12. walk/trot over 4 poles
13. walk/trot over bridge
14. sidepass pole

Serenity...... the quality or state of being serene; clearness and calmness; quietness; stillness; peace.

Where else can you find more serenity then in the eyes of a horse?

I managed to sneak up on the twins and got a cool shot of them. These two are this Spring's babies and have hung out at the farm all summer long.

Is it the mirror-like reflection off the shield, the big black ball for a head, the muffled somewhat familiar voice that comes from within? Herki has never been comfortable around a person wearing a snowmobile or ATV helmet. The machine itself makes plenty of inconsistent loud noise. Even I can’t wear my winter jacket anywhere after a day of snowmobile riding without washing it first because it smells horrible. So, how to help a horse become more comfortable with a snowmobile…….

I led Herki to the big pasture and went back to the house to gear up. Snowpants, boots, gloves, neck warmer, heavy coat, big black helmet. Armed with a pocket full of carrots, I returned to the field with the snowmobile. I took a couple passes around the outside of the field. The first trip around Herki was very nervous and snorted at me while prancing off the opposite direction. After a couple trips around I stopped, left the machine running, walked towards him slowly with a carrot in the palm of my outstretched hand. He glared at me as I approached. He took a step towards me. I stopped and took a step back, waited a moment and began the approach again. He wasn’t quite comfortable with me getting too close. So, I tossed the carrot to him and returned to the machine. I circled the field again and repeated to process. Eventually, Herki was not only taking a carrot from the palm of my hand but I didn’t even have to get off the machine. AND then he began trotting behind the machine hoping for a treat. A horse chacing a snowmobile – what a sight.

Today I took Herki over to the big 9 acre piece because his little space was so muddy and I felt that he had a need to stretch his legs. Well, he sure did! His life was incredible all the way over to the pasture. AA was walking with us and began to jog up ahead and Herki began to trot and then bucked a couple times. I politely asked him to refrain from that behavior until I had a chance to get the halter off. As soon as I had his halter off he began running at top speed and bucking and rearing and just having a jolly old time. Austin and I stayed in the pasture for quite a while. Herki would gallop to the other end of the pasture, spin on his hind legs, rear up and gallop back towards Austin and I. I would have liked to be able to trust that he would stop in time so that he didn't run us over but I wasn't convinced that Herki had taken into account how slippery it was near where we were standing. So, as he got closer I would wave the halter and lead and he would come to a sliding stop, spin back around on his hindquarters and head to the other end. He did this several times and then lowered to the ground and rolled. When he was standing again he started searching for bits of grass. It was INCREDIBLE to watch this energy!! It was almost like it was Spring.....:)>

Yesterday I enjoyed a nice day with LB and RW exploring with two of LB's horses (Bo and Sophia). I, of course, could only be an observer because of my shoulder issues. As RW and I waiting for LB to get the horses ready we soaked up the sun and the abnormal warm temperature of 60 degrees in January. I observed some very interesting behavior from a turkey hen who seemed to be either grooming a male or picking on him - I couldn't quite tell and I don't know enough about turkeys to have guessed. I also observed the bright florescent blue feathers on the neck of two of the peacocks in the pen. The horses all seemed to be enjoying the sun as well. Casey offered to come out and play but, apparently, her timing was off and Lasell had already picked two. Anyhow, we brought the horses to the arena to play. LB asked for thoughts on her posture and body language when working with Bo, a cute little pony who has apparently come a long way since he arrived on her farm. He didn't appear to want to play unless he was close to Sophia. I was sorry that I couldn't offer any thoughts regarding her posture because she seemed to be equally distributing weight and pressure from both sides. Then RW played for a bit, starting at the beginning, which seemed to be more comfortable for Bo. Then Sophia's turn. Being part Canadian, I picked up on something right away. I have found working with my own Canadian, that I have to be very observant and time my releases carefully. I need to acknowledge the smallest, slightest try from him. If I neglect to boost his confidence and acknowledge these trys then he seems to give up. For instance, Sophia's feet seemed to get stuck at one point. RW would ask her to come forward and, if she didn't respond to his request, he would go back to her head and ask again using the knot as support. My suggestion was to hesitate a little before asking again if she was actually making the effort, even in her mind, or thinking about moving. There were a couple of times that Sophia was in the process of digesting the request and was starting to try but wasn't able to finish her try before she was being asking again. I have learned a lot of patience with my guy because he would become very intolerant of me asking without giving him sufficient time to properly digest the request and then give it his best effort. He would be insulted and would give up trying. It was nice to spend some time with horsie friends, even though I couldn't physically participate. Bo is a cute little thing and seems to be a pretty willing and eager dance partner. Sophia reminds me so much of Herki sometimes.

While driving home I began thinking about the pressure/release concept. I tried to explain to DA what I was thinking later on but, as he is unfamiliar with the technique, he thought I was overanalysing the situation. Perhaps.... I was traveling at the speed limit and came across a car going 5 miles per hour under the speed limit. There were several cars behind me. I stayed the expected 2 seconds behind him for a while. Then I began putting some pressure on the person in front of me by getting a little closer. That driver responded by going slower - hum..... resistance to my suggestion and pressure. Now I must say that I wish I could have thanked the driver of the car for putting up with my shenanigans and helping me working through my thought, which really had nothing to do with him. anyhow, seeing how he reacted, I backed off and the driver returned to the 5 miles per hour under the speed limit - maybe in response to my release of pressure? I tried it again and again the driver slowed down in response to my pressure, noticably irritated by the amount of pressure I was putting on him/her. hum again...... So, I decided to try something a litle different - I backed way off the other driver giving him more like 4 second between us, inviting him/her to drive the speed they desired. In response to my BIG release of pressure the driver sped up to the speed limit and we travelled the rest of the way home going the speed limit. Now, the drivers behind me were a little put off with this experiment but I felt it was worth it. I wonder how this relates to the pressure/release concept when working with horses? For some horses too much pressure may create resistance - like in the case of the driver. No action or pressure may create no response and/or change. A big release and an invitation may have been what that driver needed and perhaps some horses respond this way as well. hum.... Something to think about.

I have been searching for a way to communicate my request for my boy to respond to neck reining. I have decided that I had a choice to either learn to be comfortable in an English saddle so that we could enter some small shows or teach my boy to neck rein so that I could continue riding in my Western saddle. Needless to say, we are working on neck reining.

So, I have tried two different approaches. The first approach involved setting up two cones and making a figure eight around the cones several times until I thought he had the pattern down. Then I crossed his reins under his jaw (so that when I moved my hand that held both reins to the left the right rein would touch the right side of his neck while the rein pulled slightly on the left side of the bit. We tried this for a while and he seems to begin to understand but not completely and there was still quite a bit of resistance.

The next day I tried another approach - doing all our groundwork with just a rope tied loosely around his neck. He certainly knows the pattern while we are doing ground work. So, it was quite easy for him to do the entire pattern without a halter on. This technique seems to be a bit more successful then the other and also helped with his resistance moving off to my right.

My work with Herki is a mix of methods by Leslie Desmond, Bill Dorrance, Mark Rashid, Rick W, Lasell and many of the horsemen and women who practice that particular type of work with horses. Herki and I are working on stepping the front end around to lead out into a circle while I'm on the ground and he completely understands and responds when I ask him to move out to my left. He gets stickywhen I ask him to tip his nose to my right and move out to the right(which put me in his blind eye (right). Rick's suggestions included helpingHerki feel more comfortable with me on his right side with the hope that he will become more comfortable tipping his nose. Interestinglyenough, he prefers for me to lead him from his right side on theoccasion that I am leading from a position closer to his shoulder –perhaps so that he can flee if he needs to, perhaps so that I can protect that side. After we patiently work through my request for him to tip his nose, the only successful way (until today) that I have been able to claim the space under his right front foot is through direct pressure (tapping him with the lead rope or gentlyrunning the lead rope up and down his shoulder). Rick's suggestions included utilizing some of his other senses including choosing and making a particular sound, tapping the ground with my foot, blowing on his shoulder (this may not work well on a windy day). Herki and I did make some progress today regarding stepping the front end around. The other animals made it easy for me to set up my request; they were standing in the pasture next to us. So I asked him to tip his nose to my right, which he wanted to do anyhow so that he could see his buddies. Then I tapped my foot on the ground by his right front hoof, swung the leadrope to make the motion of a bell ringing next to his shoulder but never touched him and said "over". With the other animals as a draw it was very easy forHerki to succeed and, after a few tries, he did. We didn't experiment long enough to find out which of the three communication methods was the one that, ultimately, was the best communication method but whichever it was or the combination of the three must have been clearer then my requests of the past. Then we headed out for a beautiful ride in the crisp December air and I tried it in the saddle – I guess we need to work on it a bit more but the ride was wonderful.S o, here is the question I am struggling with – Herki's mind was not with me when I was asking him to step his front end around. He was clearly focussed on the other animals and I felt more like an annoying fly.

So, I'm thinking, where is that happy medium where you still have the horse with you but are encouraging the draw from something else that creates a disconnect? I would rather if itwasn't an either/or situation. Perhaps it doesn't need to be a trade-off. Perhaps his mind can still be with me even thought his eyes are on his buddies.

I think the other benefit of doing groundwork with the loose rope around his neck is that it creates a better togetherness. Certainly, doing it without anything attached to him in a BIG field would be best but I like the physical connection to remind me of the mental connection.

Now I'm just rambling.....

This morning Herki and I spent some time dancing in the pasture while it was still frozen. We did some beautiful neck bends, some disengaging of the hind quarters, some side passes. I spent some time explaining neck reining to him. He seemed to be picking it up by the end. We also spent some time working on taking the right lead. At a stop I would touch with my leg and wait to see if he offered the right lead into a walk. He does great with the left lead but is sticky on the right. We did some walking and trotting - didn't quite dare to canter because the ground was frozen and slippery in spots. I hope to do some more dancing tomorrow.

Yesterday I spent over 2 1/2 hours trying to help a woman load her mare. The mare had been on a trailer many times before. Every Spring she goes to her summer home and every Fall she goes to her Winter home. They have never had any trouble with her until this fall. So, what was different.....? Well, she gave birth to a colt this Spring who rode in the trailer with her to her Summer home. Did the colt trip her up? Did she fall? Did the driver take corners sharp and stop fast? Who knows.... I tried everything I could pull out of my hat to help that mare get in the trailer but had no luck. She would go right to the back and then stop and refuse to go any further. Today RW was trying to help. Perhaps he got somewhere?

Thanksgiving Day!!! What better way to give thanks then to go for a ride?

Yesterday, I hooked Herki up to the cart and took B for a ride. He so enjoys time around Herki and it is unfortunate that he just can not care for his own anymore. BUT I am more then willing to share Herki with him whenever I can. For a gentleman of his age he does well climbing into the cart and also getting back out. Herki is so patient when Burt is around too. It is almost like he senses how frail he is. Herki gave three rides up the road yesterday. What a trooper!! It was a little chilly but not too bad and Herki didn't even break a sweat.

I'm just waiting for it to warm up a bit and then I am headed down to go for another ride.