How Did It Get to Be May?
May. 6th, 2011 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseThank you so, so much to everyone who boosted the signal and sent back pings and book orders and mentee bookings and one lovely Camp signup. I did get flights to the Nebulas, and will be there with bells on. There is a public signing btw that Friday (the 20th) from I think 5:30-7, with masses of authors in attendance, so if you're in the area and are moved to stop in, come and say hi. And if you're attending the event, our panel is Saturday at 2:30, and is about backlists and ebooks and making it in the brave new world.
We are still more than a little wheezy at the price of hay, which has gone up 30% since the winter, so if anyone missed the book sale or the mentee sale and wishes they hadn't, send me a ping at capriole at that gmail thing.
I lost all my mail and all archives last week, destroyed when my mail program crashed and reinstalled in -just- the wrong way, so if you sent me mail and I didn't reply, that's what happened to it. I have no history prior to last Friday. Slowly rebuilding the address book, and hoping I didn't lose anybody irretrievably.
That was one bad Mercury retrograde.
Horses are happy however, and we've been doing quite a lot of that collection thing with Pooka, which feeds into my work with the mares as well. Finally really getting the feel for -being- his hindlegs with my seatbones, and being able to connect with his sacrum through my sacrum even from 20 feet away on the longeline. He can still turn into the warp-powered exercise ball, perch me on top and try to take off, but it's getting progressively easier to go from on to in, connect and collect and really, finally, ride the rocket.
The one who has the most trouble with this concept of plugging in is Camilla, on which more below. The ones who find it easiest are Gabriella and her daughters. The Girlz I would expect; they've been here since they were babies. But the Divine Miss G has been making up for lost chosen-human time in a very big way. She has that laser-beam stare on me All The Time, as Carrma does on T. And she demands her share. Yesterday she let me know she wanted Walkies. Walkies are a thing she is very good at. She has no problem leaving the herd, and she loves to explore. I think I may have found another Awesome Trail Horse(tm).
The Girlz are somewhat jealous of this, especially Ephiny who is not bonded (though we love each other dearly), but it's helping me figure them out, too. The challenging one, as always, is Camilla. I adore her, smile whenever I see her, but lately I've come to realize that it is about her.
If she were human, she'd be in the autism spectrum. She's high-function on a daily basis, does very well in the herd, understands and settles well into routine and daily discipline. She wants to be ridden and worked. But I've always known that the world comes at her on too powerful a frequency. Take her outside of her routine and everything is too strong, too fast, too loud, too much. She tracks every step like a mobile GPS, but get her off her map and she starts to fry. Then she explodes.
All horses have some variation of this. Some can get very herdbound. One trains them by taking them out at gradually greater distances for gradually greater lengths of time, and/or by taking them out with trusted horse friends, and most of them eventually adapt. But Camilla has had an edge of danger to her that has kept me from doing much of this at all. When I have pushed her, she's physically harmed me, or else shut down and refused to move.
Pooka is a challenge to take away from the herd, too, but that's stallion instincts talking, and he clearly likes to go out. He's like Capria: gets excited at times and can be a handful, but his brain isn't frying. He's just being a horse, with testosterone added to the mix. I can toss him on a trailer and take him anywhere. He loves to travel.
Camilla, no. For years I never quite found the approach that would work for training her under saddle. The normal approaches--both the gentle way and the "show her who's boss" way--left me with an angry, and in the latter case thoroughly fried horse.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with her physically. She's an outstanding athlete, a true Airs horse, and a splendidly scopey mover. She's a beautiful and very old type of classical horse. But mentally, she's...different.
When we came round to the horse-yoga thing, Camilla let us know we were on the right track. Camilla is a Storyteller in the yoga universe. She loves the quiet, the calm, the way you breathe, the way you move. These things help her focus, and help filter the world that's always been so overwhelming for her.
Still not doing a lot with the saddle work, though she is asking. The groundwork, asking her to line up her spine and rock back onto her hindquarters and move from there, pushes her right to the edge of what she can tolerate. She's not ready for me to be in her back or body rather than on it, though we've managed this in a lesson or two with S--but lessons on that level are, again, just a bit more than she can take. I hope to be able to get her to the point that she is up for them on a regular basis rather than once or twice a year, but it will take time.
Interesting to figure this out. When I was talking to the Wonder Shoer about it, she came over and stood next to us with her head down, almost as if asleep, but in a way that said, "Yes. That's how it is." When we changed the subject, she lifted her head, shook herself, and left.
She comes over when we're talking Story in yoga class, too. Leaves when the topic changes. Camilla has Stories. It's taken her a long time to teach us how to listen to them.
We are still more than a little wheezy at the price of hay, which has gone up 30% since the winter, so if anyone missed the book sale or the mentee sale and wishes they hadn't, send me a ping at capriole at that gmail thing.
I lost all my mail and all archives last week, destroyed when my mail program crashed and reinstalled in -just- the wrong way, so if you sent me mail and I didn't reply, that's what happened to it. I have no history prior to last Friday. Slowly rebuilding the address book, and hoping I didn't lose anybody irretrievably.
That was one bad Mercury retrograde.
Horses are happy however, and we've been doing quite a lot of that collection thing with Pooka, which feeds into my work with the mares as well. Finally really getting the feel for -being- his hindlegs with my seatbones, and being able to connect with his sacrum through my sacrum even from 20 feet away on the longeline. He can still turn into the warp-powered exercise ball, perch me on top and try to take off, but it's getting progressively easier to go from on to in, connect and collect and really, finally, ride the rocket.
The one who has the most trouble with this concept of plugging in is Camilla, on which more below. The ones who find it easiest are Gabriella and her daughters. The Girlz I would expect; they've been here since they were babies. But the Divine Miss G has been making up for lost chosen-human time in a very big way. She has that laser-beam stare on me All The Time, as Carrma does on T. And she demands her share. Yesterday she let me know she wanted Walkies. Walkies are a thing she is very good at. She has no problem leaving the herd, and she loves to explore. I think I may have found another Awesome Trail Horse(tm).
The Girlz are somewhat jealous of this, especially Ephiny who is not bonded (though we love each other dearly), but it's helping me figure them out, too. The challenging one, as always, is Camilla. I adore her, smile whenever I see her, but lately I've come to realize that it is about her.
If she were human, she'd be in the autism spectrum. She's high-function on a daily basis, does very well in the herd, understands and settles well into routine and daily discipline. She wants to be ridden and worked. But I've always known that the world comes at her on too powerful a frequency. Take her outside of her routine and everything is too strong, too fast, too loud, too much. She tracks every step like a mobile GPS, but get her off her map and she starts to fry. Then she explodes.
All horses have some variation of this. Some can get very herdbound. One trains them by taking them out at gradually greater distances for gradually greater lengths of time, and/or by taking them out with trusted horse friends, and most of them eventually adapt. But Camilla has had an edge of danger to her that has kept me from doing much of this at all. When I have pushed her, she's physically harmed me, or else shut down and refused to move.
Pooka is a challenge to take away from the herd, too, but that's stallion instincts talking, and he clearly likes to go out. He's like Capria: gets excited at times and can be a handful, but his brain isn't frying. He's just being a horse, with testosterone added to the mix. I can toss him on a trailer and take him anywhere. He loves to travel.
Camilla, no. For years I never quite found the approach that would work for training her under saddle. The normal approaches--both the gentle way and the "show her who's boss" way--left me with an angry, and in the latter case thoroughly fried horse.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with her physically. She's an outstanding athlete, a true Airs horse, and a splendidly scopey mover. She's a beautiful and very old type of classical horse. But mentally, she's...different.
When we came round to the horse-yoga thing, Camilla let us know we were on the right track. Camilla is a Storyteller in the yoga universe. She loves the quiet, the calm, the way you breathe, the way you move. These things help her focus, and help filter the world that's always been so overwhelming for her.
Still not doing a lot with the saddle work, though she is asking. The groundwork, asking her to line up her spine and rock back onto her hindquarters and move from there, pushes her right to the edge of what she can tolerate. She's not ready for me to be in her back or body rather than on it, though we've managed this in a lesson or two with S--but lessons on that level are, again, just a bit more than she can take. I hope to be able to get her to the point that she is up for them on a regular basis rather than once or twice a year, but it will take time.
Interesting to figure this out. When I was talking to the Wonder Shoer about it, she came over and stood next to us with her head down, almost as if asleep, but in a way that said, "Yes. That's how it is." When we changed the subject, she lifted her head, shook herself, and left.
She comes over when we're talking Story in yoga class, too. Leaves when the topic changes. Camilla has Stories. It's taken her a long time to teach us how to listen to them.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 06:36 pm (UTC)And yay on getting to the Nebulas.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 06:58 pm (UTC)I once knew a very herd-bound mare, a quarterhorse, whose stupid owner sold her to a stable attached to a fancy hotel near Santa Barbara. Being ridden by guests, half of whom didn't even know how to ride, drove her to being vicious. She was put down, unfortunately, after biting a guest very badly. But looking back I wonder if she too had the horse version of autism.
Having the brush cut down beside her usual trails, for instance, spooked her hugely. Not that they were cutting as she passed by, I mean. Just the change in view.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 07:05 pm (UTC)She projects a LOT of freakout energy. She has calmed down considerably with maturity, and she's a love to handle within the herd, but if she were dumped into a situation like that mare, she'd have been dog food long ago. :(
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 07:32 pm (UTC)I am curious -- what is Camilla's breeding? Any lines run into, over, through CII Erica? My 1/2 Lip is by him and I would say the same about him mentally as well. (This is the horse that my husband gets on with the best and the horse prefers him to me.) Does Camilla get along well with the herd all the time?
I don't mind if you take this off list too.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:03 pm (UTC)She has close friends in the herd, and some she squabbles with but then is buddies with (notably Pandora). As a herd member she's great--very easy, helps raise the babies, keeps the younger ones in line. With nine horses in an eight-horse setup, I have her sharing a largeish pen for dinner. She plays really well with others.
I did have a mare once (no C. Erica, but Almerina lines which are notorious for producing difficult mares) who when sold ended up alone a paddock because she got along with no one. She's the one who nearly fractured Capria's hock.
Horses are weird. I had a message this week from the lady whose barn Gabriella was boarded at before she came down here, and she was asking after her. "That mare is a real character. I kind of miss her, though I don't miss her arguing with my mares." Gabriella doesn't argue at all here. Goes out of her way not to get into fights, though she has been making moves to go up the herd order at mealtimes. (No luck there. All the ones above her are firm alphas or alpha-favorites.)
Gabriella has shown me what it is about Camilla, actually, by being so outgoing and unfazed by the outside world. And yet, her previous owner talked about how she had "fears" and needed a lot of gentling down and reassurance when she arrived. I know the owner before that had given her the best of care, so it wasn't that she was a rehab. She just wasn't comfortable where she was. Here, she's totally at home, very confident and wonderfully full of herself.
I wonder if Buzz just doesn't feel that he's home? My mare that was so bad in the herd turned out splendidly for her new owner--once she had her own human and her own paddock to herself, she settled down and became an awesome all-around horse.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:32 pm (UTC)Now I *really* want to meet her. (It's been just about long enough that the bad times have paled a bit.)
Crumble was just like that. So much of what you say resonates - their defense mechanisms might be different, but the underlying reaction is the same. And having 'normal' horses - even spooky or tense or explosive horses does *not* prepare you for the experience.
The only thing that helps is to expand their comfort zone slowly - Crumble's, ultimately, included fireworks and plastic fluttering right next to the arena - but it was a slow progress and he was rarely happy leaving his field. (He did not really care about having members of his herd with him.)
I'll be happy to talk more about the things that did help him.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 07:51 pm (UTC)It took me about a year to work out that my horse wasn't just (overfed, underworked, reacting to wind/cold/noise/other, taking the piss, etc) _but that his reactions were way off the map_. Because sometimes they weren't (Oh Shit! moment: when he stepped on an empty coke can and looked slightly gruntled about it) and they depended a lot on his general state of mind (when he was thoroughly relaxed, he was fine with fireworks. If he was already on the edge, a falling leaf could be Too Much.)
I got *a lot* of flack for it. My firm conviction is that in most other hands, he would have been declared unridable, and he undoubtedly *was* dangerous when pushed. And yet, classical training _did_ work for him, and in the end, I had a horse with normal spook-stop-think reactions who could totally freak out (pigs) and wind down in the space of fifteen minutes instead of needing three days.
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Date: 2011-05-07 05:12 pm (UTC)It also brings to mind, I wonder if this is why the SRS had tended to just breed the mares and not use most of them to work?
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Date: 2011-05-13 06:31 pm (UTC)They do train the mares btw. Driving training, and saddle basics--about training level--before they go to work making babies.
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Date: 2011-05-13 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 06:32 pm (UTC)I can't do voice phone, but I can be texted btw. 520-256-7853.
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Date: 2011-05-08 04:37 am (UTC)I did miss the book sale and wish I hadn't, so will email you.
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Date: 2011-05-13 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 12:49 pm (UTC)Fascinating about how Camilla is different and how you are finding ways to work with her. You have a beautiful way of describing how she is and how she tells you what what she wants and when she is ready for it.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 07:03 pm (UTC)We would be honored to have you come visit the horses. :) I'll send you an email so you'll have my address and contact info.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 12:55 am (UTC)Nebs
Date: 2011-05-18 03:50 am (UTC)Nebs
Date: 2011-05-25 01:10 am (UTC)