Working through it
I will not be defeated. I might be prego, tired, and fed up with Rose's attitude, but at the end of the day I will win over the people door issue. Even if Rose never walks through a people door tacked up again (my saddle has been taking quite a beating from her bolting through the door), I will get her to willingly walk through it sans-tack. I don't want her to start applying this issue to all doors, which I've noticed that she has begun to do.
Saturday morning graced us with a 5" snow storm. My husband was leaving to go hunting for the weekend, and I had all day to myself. After deciding that I would not be defeated on this issue I decided to head to the barn once the snow stopped falling (er-blowing sideways). My plan was to put on a million layers, take some hot tea, get a long lead rope and just stand on the inside of the arena as long as it took until she decided to walk through the door. 2 hours and 25 minutes later, she walked through! We did it twice and I should have stopped there, but then on the third attempt there was no more moving of the feet. 45 minutes later, the sun was starting to go down and I needed to get through the canyon before the roads froze over into a sheet of ice. So I got her feet close to the door, rewarded her with some grain and called it a day.
The big debate: shall I repeat it again today? My horse training brain says yes, my energy level however is trying to sway me otherwise.
Updtate:
Thanks to Kelly's encouraging comment, I made it to the barn today for a repeat door training session. This time it only took 30-minutes to get her to walk through the door! I am now feeling a sense of relief and invigoration about the whole door thing.
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
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| Rose and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad people door. |
Saturday morning graced us with a 5" snow storm. My husband was leaving to go hunting for the weekend, and I had all day to myself. After deciding that I would not be defeated on this issue I decided to head to the barn once the snow stopped falling (er-blowing sideways). My plan was to put on a million layers, take some hot tea, get a long lead rope and just stand on the inside of the arena as long as it took until she decided to walk through the door. 2 hours and 25 minutes later, she walked through! We did it twice and I should have stopped there, but then on the third attempt there was no more moving of the feet. 45 minutes later, the sun was starting to go down and I needed to get through the canyon before the roads froze over into a sheet of ice. So I got her feet close to the door, rewarded her with some grain and called it a day.
The big debate: shall I repeat it again today? My horse training brain says yes, my energy level however is trying to sway me otherwise.
Updtate:
Thanks to Kelly's encouraging comment, I made it to the barn today for a repeat door training session. This time it only took 30-minutes to get her to walk through the door! I am now feeling a sense of relief and invigoration about the whole door thing.
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
Wow - you are one patient lady! I would do it again today,,,but I don't live where there is snow already & my baby days are over :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Love this approach; act like you've got all day and it takes ten minutes, act like you've got ten minutes and it takes all day...guess for Rose ten minutes = 2.5 hours? Haha. Hope things are better now!
ReplyDeleteYou go girl! That is a perfect method for tackling your problem. I'm glad it's working.
ReplyDeleteOne question, is it just the camera or is it really that dark in the arena? Coming from bright snow, into a dark arena could be part of the problem since horse's eyes adjust slower than ours. Maybe she just needs to pause to let her eyes adjust (later when she's not taking 2.5 hours lol). I'm happy to hear she got it in thirty minutes on the second day. :) Keep up the great work!
Nope, it's really bright inside the arena. It's just the camera struggling with the contrast of the doorway and the super bright snow outside.
ReplyDelete