What a day.<\/p>\n
Fancy is a strong minded filly. \u00a0She has no hesitation at all to invading your space, stepping on you or walking away to investigate something much more interesting than me. \u00a0We \u00a0have been working on eliminating these concepts beginning the our first day together, nearly a year ago. \u00a0At this time, she is to stay with me and not move a foot unless I give it permission. We walk in unison. \u00a0We stop at the same time. \u00a0Her head does not get in front of my body. \u00a0We stop in unison. \u00a0I sit or stand in front of her, facing her. \u00a0She must stay a distance away where she cannot bite or nibble any of my own personal body parts. \u00a0Her feet are not to move forward without permission. \u00a0She is to back up where she can’t nibble on me and be “ground tied”.<\/p>\n
Fancy will back up but it’s been difficult for her to give up her power. \u00a0I flick my eyes to something in the arena and her foot moves forward. \u00a0Or her neck swings to the side and she steps forward and to the side. \u00a0I return her feet back to where she was “fastened to the ground”. This could take a few seconds or minutes of arguing. This partnership concept must always be adhered to or she will be able to nibble\/bite my body or walk away from me. \u00a0She made it out of the arena today while she was standing at liberty close to the door to the stalls. Fancy went into the first empty stall expecting food to be in the bucket. \u00a0We argued about her coming to me in the stall. \u00a0She gave up and came to me. \u00a0We went back in the arena.<\/p>\n
My goal is to make Fancy a partner. \u00a0Fancy’s goal might be the same. \u00a0Horses want a leader. \u00a0Fancy needs a very powerful leader at the present time. She has to give up much of her power and authority. \u00a0She has to give up being my boss.<\/p>\n
Fancy is a strong-minded left-brained extrovert. \u00a0She is a filly. She was not raised in a herd situation. She had no boss mare or gelding to boss her around. \u00a0She got to make her own decisions. \u00a0She has heat cycles that can warm up the arctic and water the arena. The combination makes \u00a0a formidable equine.<\/p>\n
I need your pity. Just kidding, \u00a0Fancy is a glorious horse with athletic talent, beauty and smart brain! \u00a0I am so lucky to have her.<\/p>\n
Humans should not keep treats in a pocket with a horse like Fancy. \u00a0She will smell the treats and eat your body trying to get at the treats. \u00a0 However, for a willful horse, \u00a0treats are a great motivator. \u00a0I have a stash of hidden treats in the arena. (She knows where the treats are. \u00a0It’s tough to keep it a secret.) \u00a0Today, I took my eyes off her for exactly one millionth second. \u00a0Her mouth made it to the hidden hanging treasure and grabbed the plastic bag. \u00a0She pulled. \u00a0The plastic bag containing the treat bag exploded. \u00a0Many treats are awaiting finders in the arena right now. \u00a0I took the treat bag away from her. \u00a0It still had treats in it! \u00a0I hid it on a ledge on the arena rail. \u00a0heh \u00a0heh \u00a0heh<\/p>\n
This week is the start of free style which means little or nothing on her head. \u00a0Two days ago, I rode on the rail without anything on her head. \u00a0She was head-naked. \u00a0That is was the prior story two days ago. \u00a0Yesterday was a ground game day as it was 26 degrees again. I start thinking it’s just too cold to ride.<\/p>\n
Today we started the Question Box Pattern. \u00a0It is a small marked rectangle between two marked (by cone or barrels) figure eight circles. \u00a0The Question Box is where the rider decides which direction, which gait, stop or transition. \u00a0Fancy and I started this today with her wearing a halter with the 12′ lead rope. \u00a0I had the neck string on. \u00a0She is not aware of the meaning of the word neck rein. \u00a0The string should be a signal to turn, stop or back. \u00a0Sadly, my string kept getting untied while Fancy and I were arguing about going around the circle. \u00a0I switched to the horsemanship stick to help guide her. \u00a0What the finished Fancy horse product will do is go anywhere my shoulders and belly button point at what ever speed or stop my body language asks. \u00a0Fancy has a faint glimmer of understanding about this. \u00a0However, her understanding doesn’t mean that she will follow my directions. \u00a0Heck No!<\/p>\n
Yes, there was much arguing, resistance to my cues. \u00a0The temperature had gone up to a giddy 36 degrees and I was only wearing three layers on top and two mild winter layers on the bottom. \u00a0I was so excited about the Question Box Pattern plan for the day, I forgot to put on my 4th layer, the coat. \u00a0Our ground play warms every part of my body, but when I mounted Fancy and rode a few steps, the cold seeped into my body fat. \u00a0After five minutes of arguing about which direction to go, all my body parts warmed up. \u00a0I never felt the cold until I got off.<\/p>\n
Whenever Fancy made it around one circle in a somewhat decent manner, we stopped in the Question Box with a verbal, “Good Girl Fancy”. \u00a0We then walked to the hidden treat bag where she got the reward. \u00a0Of course then she had a reason to ignore my circle request because she \u00a0wanted to go find the hidden treat bag.<\/p>\n
What fun we had today. \u00a0I asked for a speed faster than a walk on our Question Box Pattern. \u00a0She argued about that request briefly and went at a fox trot. \u00a0My ability to slow her down to a flat foot walk is non existent at this point. \u00a0We have a few seconds of relaxed speed before the next argument about direction occurs. \u00a0I can get her to stop when I want. \u00a0Stopping is a wonderful act of safety for me. \u00a0My riding skills became much better as I became a more confident rider. \u00a0When Fancy followed my non verbal directions, my body relaxed and had much fun.<\/p>\n
We stopped and dismounted. I rubbed on her for a while. We went to disrobe. \u00a0We have just started to disrobe without Fancy being tied up. \u00a0A partner would stand still while her saddle was being made ready to exit from her back. \u00a0A partner would not try to stick her head in the tack room to root in a feed sack while the human is encumbered with a nearly 40 lb saddle and saddle pad. \u00a0There are many lessons during the time Fancy and I spend together!<\/p>\n
I had a lot of fun today. \u00a0This is a journey! \u00a0I’ve been thinking of a suitable nickname for Fancy. \u00a0I have come up with FANCY FIERCE!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What a day. Fancy is a strong minded filly. \u00a0She has no hesitation at all to invading your space, stepping on you or walking away to investigate something much more interesting than me. \u00a0We \u00a0have been working on eliminating these concepts beginning the our first day together, nearly a year ago. \u00a0At this time, she is to stay with me and not move a foot unless I give it permission. We walk in unison. \u00a0We stop at the same time. \u00a0Her head does not get in front of my body.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fancy","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5284,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}