CONTINUED

Sylvia begins Day Two of the clinic by reviewing with attendees the previous day's lesson, more natural horsemanship theory, and the mission goal for today with the QH: to raise his confidence bar by placing challenges before him that would increasingly encourage him to think rationally and abolish irrational behavior once and for all. The root of this horse's past aggressive reactions, Sylvia had flushed out the day before, was non-confidence. When he didn't know how to do something, his first instinctive reaction was to fight, not flight, to rear and strike out. So the goal today was to help him through a series of challenges to raise his confidence level and show him: he was capable of handling stresses and new tasks without having to resort to irrational reactions just to say "I don't know how!" Sylvia had bonding deeply in place now, and she would use that when necessary throughout today's lesson to help to bring him back to rationality quickly.

 

The QH starts off very softly today, remembering everything he learned the day before quite nicely. Because he was not forced, but learned, everything stuck with him and he begins the lesson a willing, attentive student. Sylvia places cones all around the inside of the round pen in no particular pattern. This encourages him to pay attention to his feet, teaching him how to connect his brain to his feet and to think rationally as he sorts his way through them at liberty. Sylvia repeats the round penning exercise of the day before, but this time the horse thinks "on the ground" thoughts more, rather than "up in air thoughts" as he focuses on the cones. This is a handy exercise for horses who buck at liberty or who rear. They can't be thinking of two things at once, and to avoid stepping on the cones, they concentrate on the ground, letting go of such irrational behaviors.

Sylvia drives the horse from the rear by tossing a rope at his back feet and he

moves the requested direction, working to avoid stepping on the cones.

 

 

 

 Sylvia reviews all of the round penning steps with the horse,

inside turns and outside turns. Today he's rational and officially on a

normal horse learning curve and he's far happier, more relaxed.

 

 

Sylvia can now turn the horse with just a tip of her head because he's listening

for directions and following the herd leader. His demeanor is softer, more

relaxed than he's ever been. He can shut off having to make decisions and

know that his leader will be fair and consistent with him always.

 

 

The horse begins to make smaller circles around Sylvia because he has learned

from the previous day's lesson that: closer to Sylvia the pressure is reduced.

 

 

Asking for the head to come toward her and the horse's hind quarters

to move away, Sylvia bends the horse to encourage this closer circle

so he feels confidence being steered at liberty closer to Sylvia.

The horse responds nicely.

 

 

When he stops and faces Sylvia, all eye-to-eye contact is removed

and Sylvia places a shoulder to the horse to show "right answer."

Sylvia asks for him to keep remaining facing her as she asks

him to disengage his hind quarters both directions. He then joins up.

 

 

Sylvia begins bonding with the horse, rubbing all his favorite spots she'd discovered

the day before as she also accustoms him to having her arm over his neck and

to seeing her there with his off eye. He remembers from the day before how to

yield his neck down softly to relax when asked. Normal horse learning curve!

 

 

Sylvia teaches him how to yield the neck softly using pressure/release in the "Intimacy" step. She rubs softly underneath his tail at the same time to instill relaxation of his entire body. His calm demeanor says he's never had it so good before and bonding is deepened tenfold.

 

 

The horse melts into the intimacy and his neck gives more easily.

This is the beginning of his understanding neck yielding, which

will translate to understanding reins and the one-rein stop shortly.

 

 

Sylvia breathes into the horse's nose as a friendly greeting as he yields into the

"safety zone" that Sylvia is planting into his foundation. This is the place they

will return to for bonding from hereon, on the ground and later in the saddle.

The horse is melting happily into the warm safe feelings and guidance.

 

 

 

For more Clinic Pictures and to continue to follow this horse's amazing transformation from an aggressive horse to cooperative horse click here: