Catch up

Ok I've been a bit slack so I need to catch up.

Harley & I have now done 8 trail rides and he is rapidly turning in to Mr trail horse. It tends to follow a pattern: He starts off a bit jumpy & looking at everything but by the time we get back his head is low and he's in energy saving mode. I think he's getting the idea that when we trail ride it's a good idea not to use all your energy at the start.
We've also had a couple of leadership questions, usually around things like big puddles. He starts unconfident, switches to dominant then flip-flops between the two. I think we've had a couple of break throughs with these as they are getting less frequent & of lower magnitude. The key patience with pesistance in the proper position. He would love to be the dominant horse.

We've also done a lot of leapfrog game with Max & Archie and H seems to be far less impulsive about it than Arch but they are both getting much better at it.

Tomorrow is liable to blow his mind 'cos we're going to Formby, to the beach, to do his first endurance ride. It's only 8 miles and if he gets too tired I can get off and walk him home, but new environment, lots of horses but he's got to conserve energy. Should be interesting.

When playing he tends to swish his tail and get snotty. Sometimes it's definitely 'cos I was a impolite (a bit sudden, too much energy, didn't quit soon enough, etc), so I working on reducing that, but sometime he's snotty. I need to observe, compare, work out the difference and see if I can improve it.

He seems to have reacted to the shots he had on monday so I need to let the vet know.

One last thought before unconsciousness:

When he gets unconfident we rub him on the neck/shoulder/withers. This is a physical trigger for an anchor to calm & relax him. Anchors work on having a point in experience to anchor to and then associating a trigger to it.

So if the only time you ever rub him is when he's scared then you are anchoring the fear to the rub not the calm relax. Before you ever use the rub you need your horse to be calm, relaxed and have the endorphins flowing so that is what you anchor to the rub.

I wonder when I first rubbed Harley's neck? Hmmm!