The Domino Effect

I haven’t been posting on here nearly as much as I’ve wanted to, but to get back into the swing of things I figured I’d talk about the best Ride me and Domino have had together- ever!

Usually, being LBI, Domino hates going forward. He’ll plant his feet, maybe even give a little stomp in protest, and give me a look that pretty much says, “Go ahead squeeze all you want! I’m a thousand pounds little girl, go ahead and make me move! I dare you!” It can get pretty frustrating at times especially when he decides to start backing up instead of moving forward. My boyfriend’s sister who sometimes gets on him says his antics reminder her of this scene from Spongebob Squarepants. He’ll just keep backing up, and backing up until finally I have to turn him and get him to halt.

I decided to ride him last weekend and get to the bottom of why he did this and how to motivate him to move forward. We started off as usual- a couple steps forward then some head shaking and backing up. It continued like that for a good ten minutes before he planted his feet and refused to budge at all. I squeezed with all my might and tried to turn him a couple times to get him going that way, but nothing! Then he decided that he wanted to smell every poo pile in the arena and have a nice visit with the gate.

Naturally I fought against him. I tld him no, and pulled him head up what seemed like a thousand times. When he finally stopped at the gate and refused to move away no matter how much I squeezed or tugged, that’s when the beggining of my “AH HA!” moment began. I relaxed, sat the reins on his withers, and went as loose and slouchy as a sack of potatoes and in my mind I said to myself, “You know what? I don’t care anymore. No one is here to see us look like goofs, so we can just sit at this gate all day long if that’s what you want to do. Your back is comfortable enough.”

We sat there for a good long while and then finally he started to walk off and around the arena. We went a whole half lap before we came upon a poo pile and I decided to just let him sniff it. I guess he got his nose full and off we were again at a nice working walk. I decided to take him to ever poo pile I could spot, let him get him get his sniffing in, and cue him to move on to the next one. Eventually after doing this around 5 times he got so bored with the gate and poo piles that he wanted to move forward. We went around the arena 5 times without a break in his walk. It was amazing. I always hear Pat and Linda say “Make their idea your idea”,  but I had really misinterpretted it. Giving Domino what he wanted really made his distractions boring for him. They weren’t a game of lets-see-how-much-it-takes-before-she-gets-mad anymore. Hopefully our next ride will be twice as good since I have this new psych tool to use.

This semester I’ve been studying human development in my psychology class. Our most recent topic was Identity crisis in adolescents and the continuing development of our identities throughout our lifespan. I’ve always been pretty confident in knowing who I am as a person. However, I couldn’t have been more off when it comes to the personality I display while working with my horse.

I’ve recently (within the past year) become more confident and more extroverted in my behavior. I didn’t give much thought into this when playing with Domino, but now that I’m scanning through my memories and analyzing our play sessions, I can definitely see a difference in my outward self when I’m with him compared to a few years ago.

When I first started working with him I was very introverted, and I believe I was using more soft body language than I have been recently. I’ve noticed I’m more demanding and pushy with him- more prone to fight him on something than retreat and ask again. This has to bother him as he’s a Left Brained Extrovert and wants things his way. I’ve had to battle with him for dominance before during our first year, but never like we are now.

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For the past couple of nights playing with him I’ve more carefully monitered the way I display my emotions and softened my tone of voice and body language. It’s seemed to have worked well for us so far. While he’s still trying to be pushy with his face and is still crowding me at times, he has been much more responsive and cognitive of his actions lately. Our connectivity has also has a boost in the past couple play sessions.

Being human is what I was born into, and sometimes it’s hard to lose the preditoty nature that’s been imprinted on me. However, when I just let go and start acting like a partner instead of a teacher, that’s when things click.

I think that’s the biggest thing I’ll have to overcome with Domino- Myself.

Challenge excepted!

I remember the very first time I “met” Domino. I was in the second stall of the lesson barn where I took riding lessons. His mother was quietly standing there beside me while I groomed her in preparation to ride. That’s when it happened- while brushing her flank a small tiny hoof tip stretched it’s way into visibility through her skin. I remember touching his little foot through her skin and having him kick at me. It was an amazing feeling- enough to make my little thirteen year old self squeal with delight shouting, “He kicked me, He kicked my hand!” I suppose that’s when I should have know that something special was in store.

I wasn’t a very large part of his life at first. The most we shared were trail rides when someone would ride his mother and he got to tag along with the rest of the group, and there was one occasion where I began teaching him to pick up his feet. Other than that we weren’t too involved in each other’s lives. I was more taken with a stallion we had on the property at the time. That horse was my first big step towards natural horsemanship, so I suppose Domino should be grateful for me being more taken with the other horse.

After the Lesson barn closed up, I left and went onto taking lessons elsewhere- eventually quiting after I entered highschool. Luckily, in my junior year, my school created an equestrian club group. I jumped at the chance, and began going to Graham Equestrian Center on saturday mornings. This is where my real foundation in the Parelli methods came from. I eventually took lessons full time with Jim Mcdonald at Graham until the horse I worked with, Jesse, passed away from a freak accident. I stayed away from horse stuff for about a year after that due to the grief I was feeling.

Domino re-entered my life in 2009 when I went back to the old lesson barn in hopes of finding the location of the other horse, Saleem, that I had been so taken with years ago. While I didn’t find Saleem that day, I found myself with an offer to start working with Domino from the new owner of the barn. She was lacking time to work with him, and he wasn’t exactly the type of horse you could afford not to take your time with. He was naughty, Impulsive, and the most forward-aholic horse I’d ever met, but he was intriguing and intelligent like his father had been.

I worked on basic things like catching him, the friendly game, and not bolting every time he got frustrated or confused for the first year. He was quite the handful, but I loved every minute of it. I kept at it until he finally trusted me. And after that, we were golden. Learning things was so quick and easy. By the second year we were playing with tarps, excersize balls, and plastic bags like he was born around them. I was proud of myself for coming so far with him.

in August of 2011, Hook (the other elderly horse he was kept with) became ill and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The owner of them both, Jenni, offered to give me Domino for free since I had done so much for him. I scrapped together all of my finances and became the proud owner of Domino in July. We have been progressing through Parelli ever since.