Wow, has it been a while since my last post! Kinda been through hell and back work-wise and university-wise since then: work got tough with deadlines, and uni got tougher with its deadlines, and I got to be a nervous mess as the result.
My work with Becky, unfortunately, also got a bit neglected, though that was also partially due to the fact that just about when all these deadlines hit, she got herself injured. Basically, she got into a battle for leadership with a younger and stroppier mare, and lost. I am not sure how the other mare fared (nothing but minor scratches I think), but Becky ended up with a deep cut just below her shoulder, which put her out of action for better part of 6 weeks. I am very lucky that Maya of the Bridlewood Farm, where Becky is boarded, was happy to wash her and generally look after her on daily basis, while I was struggling with all the other stuff in my life.
But Becky is OK now, and uni is over for the semester.
My first couple rides back were just about remembering how to ride, particularly at a trot. I think prior to this hiatus I spent a lot of time doing a sitting trot, as I found that it was easiest for me while I was working on Becky’s flexion. So I was completely unused to rising trot and was feeling very unbalanced. However, since we’ve now had to take a necessary step back, we are not concentrating on flexion – just getting Becky enough to work in rhythm and to start dropping her head and relaxing her body so that the steps are long. My latest ride on the weekend was all about that, and about illustrating to me quite colorfully a concept that we learned about in my psychology course: shaping.
Shaping is a concept from behavioral school of psychology and is underlying in training of complex behaviors. Basically it’s about identifying the behavior that you desire to teach, and, starting from the behavior that you are getting, persistently rewarding the approximations of what you desire – i.e. rewarding the tries – gradually getting more exacting in how close a try has to be to the desired behavior. Really, this concept is what I’ve been using all along with Becky, I just now know the official definition of it! However, on the weekend, it was illustrated very clearly that shaping has to start from the behavior you get, not from what you were getting, say, 6 weeks ago.
Becky was quite antsy from the very beginning when I pulled her out of the paddock. So were all the other horses for some reason. Her walk was far too rushy – normally I have to work to get her to stop dragging her hooves – and when it came time to trot it was obvious that her mind was not really on the job. Marina was trying to get me concentrating on keeping my rising extremely even, both in rhythm and the time of rise, just to give Becky a beat to follow, which she was trying hard to ignore. It was all building up to a huge fight which finally blew into bucking when other horses in the nearby paddock started galloping around.
So that was the behavior that I was starting with.
The next time round the circle, at the same spot she bucked, Becky started to wind up for another go. But Marina just insisted for me to keep rising at the same rate, even though Becky was almost trotting on the spot or sideways, obviously having a titanic struggle with herself over my insistence for her to keep trying to match my rhythm and her need to concentrate her attention on what was happening in the paddock. It seemed that my rhythm won out and she moved past that spot without bucking. Even though what was happening was probably looking atrocious from the outside, this small shift in attitude was a definite step in the right direction and, as Marina prompted, me I gave Becky a pat and started to softly talking to her (instead of what I normally would done, which would’ve been to grit my teeth and prepare for another fight the next time we went around). And all of a sudden, Becky dropped her head, lengthened her stride and visibly relaxed. Oh she wasn’t perfect by any means, and her steps shortened and her head came up again at the same spot in the circle, when she came into sight of her running mates in the paddock, but it was all a mile better than bucking. So I kept talking to her and petting her for a few more circles, where she got a little better still. And at that point we quit – still being very far off the nice soft trots I was getting 2 months before, but also quite a way from the jittery, distracted and, frankly, dangerous horse I was riding.
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Posted by: KristenCobb30 | March 18, 2011 at 04:03 AM
The author's point that prayer is still a powerful tool and suggest that even the kind of mindful prayer he outlines at the end can be messy, pleading and misguided...at least for those of us in transition.
I am very grateful for this article, as it is helping me on a path of turning back towards prayer, which I've long forsaken except in times of desperation.I remain religious and choose to live a worshipful life.
Posted by: Coach outlet | October 28, 2011 at 05:40 PM