Three days ago I started taking Bobbe’s temperature. When it drops two or three degrees Fahrenheit the puppies will arrive within twelve hours. The first day I couldn’t hold onto her. She was NOT amused. I didn’t get a temperature. The next day Bill helped me. Without Bill holding her she would have escaped once again. The thermometer read 100.4. The third day Bobbe only shivered a little when Bill held her and I commandeered the thermometer. It read 99.9, but took a long time to “beep”. This morning is the first time I took the temperature in the A.M. It read 100.4.

I checked on her a few hours later and found what was left of the thermometer. No parts were ingested, but the thing was unusable.

We started with Bill and me at “A” with our backs to the long horizontal mirror. Allen and Sophie were on the centerline facing us about 10 metres away. We’ve practiced from these positions several times in the past. Allen called out movements, starting with the horses stepping forward, meeting, then stepping back. Well, Z and Z stepped forward with great enthusiasm, but going backwards was a slow, twisted journey. We tried again. Same result. After a few more ridiculous attempts I suggested that we change positions. Blue and Kye had their backs to “A”. And, they performed the same slow, wiggly reinback. That’s when I said, “There must be something different with the lighting today. I’ll bet the mirror is messing up these horses.” We abandoned the mirror and placed the horses perpendicular to it. Allen called out the first movement and all four horses walked forward and backwards on cue and straight.

The pas de deux saga with me riding one of the Zs and the other Z at liberty continues. Lindsey watched the other morning. Two minutes into the session she pointed out, “Zelador is very upset that you’re riding Zeloso.” Talk about lack of harmony! I dismounted, untacked Zeloso and tacked up Zelador. Behold! A transformation. Zelador was so happy. Zeloso showed his approval by walking to his pedestal, stepping up on it and calmly waiting for me to finish bridling Zelador. So, now it is painfully clear that I ride Zelador and have the extreme challenge of teasing Zeloso into accompanying us.

Our square dance caller just phoned and I brought him up to date on the movements the horses can do. He’s pleased that they can back up, that we can do a grand chain and a do-si-do. He’ll come here next week and finalize the pattern. Yippeee!!!!

On another note, two women came to Winsong Farm last Saturday to see what we’re doing with the horses. Here’s the feedback.

“We thoroughly enjoyed watching Zelador & Zeloso on Saturday.  It was so enlightening to see how much they enjoyed performing for us, and how smart and loyal to you they are.  It really puts in to perspective how we interact with our own horses, there is so much we really don’t understand about these magnificent animals (and how much we underestimate their intelligence)!  It was a real treat to watch your liberty games, thank you!”

Last Tuesday Bill and I had just brought the horses in from the paddocks. It was 6:30 in the evening. I’d been on my feet for over ten hours. As I walked back to the house I noticed he had the extension ladder leaning against a small branch on a tree north of the lower barn. I figured he’d be up there soon, sawing off dead limbs. I continued to the house, wondering why with all the jobs he could be doing on the farm that he’d picked one that would best be done with a ground person.

About ninety minutes later Bill entered the house. I was watching television with a vizsla on my lap. He muttered something. I caught a few words and hit the mute button, “What did you say?”

“Just that, ‘That was interesting.’”

“WHAT was interesting?”

“I was up the ladder and it twisted. I had to grab a limb. The ladder was at a ninety degree angle to the branch. I knew if I tried to move it there was a good chance it’d fall.”

“WHAT???? Are you insane? Why were you up there in the first place?”

“Well, there was this one branch…”

The vizsla left my lap as I turned to stare at this PhD Physicist. “Why did it twist?”

“When I was positioning the ladder against the tree I couldn’t get the base level. It wiggled a bit.”

“So you climbed up…”

“I grabbed a limb. My arms were going numb. Then, as I was hanging there, I remembered that Sally was still on the property, at the upper barn with her horse. I called her name and she came to help. I sent her for two lead lines so that I could secure the top of the ladder, then had her hold it at the base.”

The next day I saw Sally and called out to her, “Thanks for saving Bill’s life.”

She smiled and said, “It was so strange. I was in the upper barn and heard my name. I looked around, but couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from.” (I understood her dilemma. As she scanned the area searching for the person calling her, looking UP didn’t instantly pop into her mind.) However, after repeatedly hearing her name (from a distance of 70 metres) she pinpointed the source of the sound.

I was relating this “story” to Christi. She shook her head, “And to think, he’s probably the smartest man in the neighborhood.”

We ended the session and discussed the possibilities. In my opinion the “good” horse is Zelador. He tries to do what I want. Zeloso, the class clown, delights in pretending to do things, then leaving. Logic dictates that I ride the clown and direct the good horse. But, in spite of this plan the next three times I tried the pas de deux I rode Zelador.

We start with each horse on a pedestal. Zelador steps off and we walk over to Zeloso. I give him a treat and tell him he’s wonderful. I motion for Zeloso to step off and walk with us. Each time Zeloso chose to walk counter-clockwise along the arena wall. I was happy with that. I put Zelador on the inside and was somewhat able to keep Zeloso near us. My goal was to start both horses in the Spanish Walk as we headed back to the pedestals. Every once in a while, it happened. The main problem was I needed to get a bit in front of Zeloso to slow down his walk and cue the high leg lift. He obviously knew my plan and put his walk into over-drive. Try as I might I couldn’t maneuver Zelador in front of his brother.

Generally speaking when we approached the low pedestals Zeloso happily stepped up on one. With this accomplished I rode Zelador to the other one. That’s the finish of our act.

Each time we practiced things went just a bit differently. “Unpredictable” clearly described our pattern. The last time Zeloso took off at the canter and ignored me. Hardly “show-worthy”.

Today I rode Zeloso and let Zelador roam free. Initially Zelador was a bit miffed. He wanted to be the special horse under saddle. My challenge was to make him feel VERY special because he was at liberty. Things went soooo much better with the class clown “under control”. (Of course there was that one time when Zelador thought he could get even with Zeloso for all those nips in the paddock!)

As we were walking along the wall Zelador put his front feet on the tall pedestal. I think he was trying to be the BIGGEST! I did the Spanish Walk with Zeloso around the pedestal. When Zelador stepped off he was very eager to show that he, too, has a spectacular Spanish Walk. Boys!

For our second run-through Zelador would not leave his starting position on the low pedestal. Hmmm….I walked around him a few times. I stopped and stroked his neck. I gave him a treat. Finally he stepped off! This time when we passed the tall pedestal he hopped up and stood there on all four feet. Zeloso walked around it doing the Spanish Walk. (Ah, a predictable routine seems to be taking shape.)

I directed the two towards the finish pedestals. Zeloso sprung up on his and Zelador walked to the piano. I rounded up Zelador and we tried the finish again. This time Zelador went to see Ann Clifford who was trying to take photos and not become “interesting”.

Somehow I got both horses on pedestals and ended the session. An hour later I took them, one by one, to the arena to play the piano and the instruments. As we were walking near a pedestal I said, “Zelador, are you ready? Hup!” He stepped up on the pedestal and received a treat. That’s when it occurred to me that this was an excellent opportunity to school “getting up on a pedestal” (something we’ve been doing for five years!!!!!) I also realized that it’d be helpful if I could teach Zelador to step on a pedestal when I was quite a few feet away from it. Zelador had no problem doing this. I increased the distance. No problem. My final request was asked when I was over 12 feet from Zelador and 15 feet from the pedestal. Terrific! With any luck Zelador will happily accept this trick even when I’m riding his brother.

Yesterday four of the six horses (there’s a rumour that we might have access to seven horses, however one of the original six has graciously said that she will drop out if “six” is the preferred number), were able to practice square dance movements. There’s also the possibility that if we have seven the eighth “horse” will be a human riding a stick horse.

We were also thinking that four horses might be a perfect number to perform in the arena because there isn’t a lot of room width-wise (about 18 metres). And, maybe, we could do two different dances with four horses. In that scenario, horses one through four would perform the first dance, then a few horses would leave the arena and the new horses would step in (creating a total of four) for the second dance. Our minds are “open”.

Allen Kalpin was our leader. As a young man he square danced on horses in Arizona. He had us practice:
-do-si-do
-allemande left
-grand right and left
-swing your partner
-travel side by side
-four steps forward, four steps backward (bow to your partners)

Surprisingly things went really well! My husband Bill and I rode our two horses, Zelador and Zeloso. They’ve been buddies since they were born six years ago and were comfortable side by side.

Ron Marino rode, Pax, his six-year-old Canadian (big boned, stocky horse) side by side with our twenty-year-old Quarter Horse/Appaloosa, Kye ridden by Allen Kalpin. They, too, worked well together. Allen declared that Kye is the perfect square dance horse. He’s nimble, agile and very responsive to cues.

Whereas Kye was super, Bill was a challenge. For the “swing your partner” EACH and EVERY time he forgot to have his horse’s head in front of the horse’s shoulders. The head was bent towards the partner. I had to reach over, move Zeloso’s head, then take Bill’s hand as we “swung”.

Also, when Allen called out two moves, Bill did the first one and usually forgot what the second one was.

On the “grand right and left” I had no problem joining hands as I passed each rider, except when I came to BILL. Hmmm….

Perhaps husbands and wives should NOT be partners in a horse square dance.

Talk about talent, agility and curiosity!

When I showed Brown Sugar the ridged ball he put his head to the floor and sniffed it. No turning away.

Nice horse!

I found a dog toy at a pet store and bought it for the horses. It’s a large ball (bigger than a soccer ball) and has four holes in it. Each hole is about two and a half inches in diameter. Inside the ball is another ball. I figured I could place treats in the ball, the horses would roll it and the treats would randomly fall out. The Clicker Training books/DVDs talk about “intermittent rewards” and how the animal gets very keen trying to activate the article that gives the reward.

I placed the ball on the arena floor and fetched Brown Sugar. I removed his halter and he walked over to this new piece of equipment. He sniffed it, nudged it and a treat came out. He ate it. He nudged again and three treats came out. (So far the rewards weren’t “intermittent”!!!)

After two more nudges the treats were gone.

I put the ball on a shelf and walked with Brown Sugar to some other toys.

Later that day I asked Ron if he could cover some of the holes. He could and did. The next morning I repeated the “intermittent” exercise with Brown Sugar. The ball now had two holes. Once or twice a treat did not emerge after a nudge. But in a very short period of time the ball was empty. Need to cover one more hole!

That afternoon I saw Ciara and took her to the arena to see the new toy. I led Brown Sugar into the arena and turned him loose. He walked directly to the ball and quickly emptied it. Ciara giggled. I went to Brown Sugar to lead him back to the stall and this totally obedient (to this point) horse wouldn’t budge. I asked him to step to the door again. He stood his ground. “Third time’s a charm” (at least that’s what I was thinking), but “no” he stood still. Every other time he’d been in the arena we’d played with several pieces of equipment, walked up on the pedestals, etc. It was obvious that Brown Sugar enjoys his outings and expected to play with several of the toys, not just this ball.

At that point I thought, “If you want the horse to change what it’s doing, you need to change what you are doing.” So I picked up the ball, placed it in front of his nose and walked out of the arena and into his stall (left hand holding the ball, right hand on the lead line). He followed happily. Ciara laughed.

Albert Ostermaier’s Piaffe method: Zelador and Zeloso understand to pick up the hind legs on cue for the piaffe. They are not picking up the front legs every time. I figured I needed to teach them to do that. The problem is: how to I use one hand with the long wand to cue the hind legs, the other hand to cue the front legs and still have a clicker in my hand to click when the horse gets it right. And I do want to use the clicker for this because the animals learn faster with the clicker AND retain the lesson.

I started with cueing the front leg nearest me using one hand and that hand had the clicker in it. My cue was: I touched the top of the leg (on the outside near me) very lightly with one finger and waited for the horse to do something. I didn’t speak a word, just touched lightly. Of course both boys figured out very quickly to pick up that front leg. Click/treat. Then when the horse offered the other front leg I clicked/treated. I wasn’t too worried about getting alternate lifting. I figured the hind legs which would be touched, first one then the other, with the wand would help the front legs. And, it worked. Zelador looked at me and appeared to be thinking, “this is very simple. Why didn’t you ask me CLEARLY weeks and weeks ago.” Zeloso was quick to offer diagonal pairs.

I am finding that I do need to carry different treats because the horses appreciate getting bits of carrots, but aren’t overly appreciative. I read about carrying a variety of treats a month or so ago, but really didn’t see the need. Now I do. Alexandra Kurland wrote in her book, “Clicker Training for Horses” that she has several different types of treats at hand. One for ordinary things, one for neat things and one for super breakthroughs. In the past I’ve given multiple ordinary treats for the breakthroughs. Now I’m going to have some of those molasses/oats/etc. treats at the ready!

Today Zelador was very sweet about “shaking the tambourine” and “ringing the bell”. (Zeloso broke the heavy duty string that held the bells to the support beam! I had asked him to ring the bells and he took ‘ringing’ to a new level. He didn’t look surprised when the string broke and he was left standing there with the bells. I had to reattach the leather strip with a thickish rope.)

With Zelador I stood about ten feet from the wall, facing the wall. Zelador stood in front of me (his butt to the wall). I said, “Zelador, shake the tambourine.” It was to my left (his right). He turned 180 degrees to the right, went to the tambourine, shook it, click, and he came to me for the treat. I said, “Zelador ring the bells.” They were to my right and to his left. He politely turned to his left, walked to the bells and rang them. Click. Then he came to me for the treat.

The other day I let him chase and play with the big ball. People LOVE seeing him do this. I’m a bit hesitant to let him because I’m afraid he’ll get hurt. But, there are all of those YouTube videos of horses acting like maniacs chasing the big ball and they don’t appear to be hurt. Well, I took a chance again today and let him play with it. He had a wonderful time and came to me when I positioned myself in the arena so he could see me. If I’d stayed far away from him he probably would not have noticed me. He came happily. As we were walking together we passed the tall pedestal. I motioned for him to get up there. He did and I used this opportunity to carry the big ball and put it away. The horses understand the distinction between me carrying it (the big ball game is now over) and rolling it (the game is still ON). We’re having a fund-raiser for the Toronto Cat Rescue October 17. We’re figuring out the acts and I know people would love watching him with the big ball.

It’s not quite 9:00 in the morning and the weather is already hot, hazy and humid. Grrr…

Rick Parker (http://www.canadianwrangler.com/) stopped by for a few minutes and suggested the horses learn some new words and demonstrate that they understand them. He hinted that they could differentiate between the bells and a tambourine. Enough said. As he drove down the farm laneway I fetched Zelador. I turned him loose in the arena while I attached the half-circle tambourine to the support beam west of the bells.

The entire time I was organizing this new musical instrument, Zelador was helping. He quite enjoyed putting his nose between me and the knot I was trying with the binder’s twine around the beam.

I had a clicker in my left hand and a pocket full of carrot treats. Let the games begin!

I stood quietly at the beam. Zelador looked at me. He looked at the tambourine. He nosed it. Click/treat. He quite likes turning me into a vending machine. Within a few minutes it was clear that he understood that touching the tambourine was a rewarding experience. I added the cue: “Where’s the tambourine?” No problem with that set of words. He nosed the instrument/click/treat.

We took a short break and practiced putting toys into the plastic garbage pail. He’s not “letter perfect” on this, but he gets the toys into the pail often enough to keep me happy.

I walked to the bells and asked, “Zelador, are you ready? Can you ring the bells?” He did. I led him to a point equidistant from the tambourine and the bells. I asked, “Zelador, are you ready? Can you ring the bells?” He looked at me and walked to the tambourine. He played with it. I was quiet and stood still. He played and PLAYED. I remained silent. He played some more, then walked to the bells and rang them. Click/treat. He played this new game five times. Each time I mentioned the bells and each time he tested to see if I knew what I was talking about. After dutifully teasing me with the tambourine he always ended up at the bells/click/treat.

Thinking back on the session I’m quite amazed at his game. He knew what the word “bells” means. He understood to ring them. BUT he wanted to have a little fun, so he went to the new instrument to see if I’d “break down” and reward him for this new trick and forget what I’d asked him to do. After not receiving a click/treat from me at the tambourine he could have walked to any place he wanted to in the arena. He could have gone to the half door and gazed out at the farm. He could have called to his brother to find out what he was doing in his stall. But, no. Even though Zelador had his own agenda, he still acknowledged the “rules” (try really hard to do what Winnie asks). Amazing.

I brought Zeloso up to the arena and introduced the tambourine. We moved to the bells and finished with me asking for one, then the other. The class clown went to the head of the class. Each time I asked for something he went to it. No mistakes.

Rick Parker also suggested that I put the driving harness on the horse and practice long reining/ground driving with the horse wearing the harness and the bridle with the blinkers. Well, sounded like a good idea. I asked Brenda to help me. The harnesses are hanging on the wall in the arena, protected by old bed sheets. Surprisingly the harnesses were dust free and they’ve been hanging there for many weeks. I know precious little about putting a driving harness on a horse. Rick showed me ONCE while we were fitting each harness to each Lusitano. Brenda knows less. We placed the harness on the two low pedestals. One piece was totally unrecognizable so we ignored it. I thought one set of straps looked like they should go over Zelador’s head with a section of the gizmo against his chest. Brenda wasn’t all that sure. Turned out, that’s the first and last thing I got right.

Zelador was pretty good about all the shenanigans. We successfully put the bridle on him after at least four major adjustments to the numerous straps. The first two times we held the bridle beside his head. This was a pretty smart move on our part because if we’d been successful getting the bit in his mouth we would have learned that the blinkers were at his cheek bones. I’ve always known that Zelador’s head has “depth”…

Somehow we got the croup piece on and the girth. But there were straps here, straps there and we were lost as to what to do with them. We congratulated ourselves on getting all but that one piece of leather on the horse and decided it was time to take everything off and return the leather to its old bed sheet. We did not bring Zeloso to the arena to see if we could get his harness on him. Yep, we have two harnesses (single horse harnesses). Rick Parker fitted each harness to each horse. With my “trained” eye the only way I can tell which harness goes on which horse is: one of the bridles has some fancy stuff on the browband. That is Zeloso’s harness and since Zeloso is our “fancy” Lusitano (always does everything with a flourish) I have no problem remembering: fancy goes with fancy.

Going to need some help harnessing each horse…

Rick Parker also took a look at the floor piano which is on the plywood on top of six bags of shavings (three under each side). “I don’t think they can see the keys.” He had a point. The mylar covers and protects the piano. It also clouds the image (white and black keys). The contrast between black and white which we see without the mylar is greatly reduced. This could explain why Zelador delights in sliding his nose across the keys, sort of like someone sliding a finger along the keys. He knows I want him to touch something. He can’t really figure out what he’s touching and he isn’t quite sure how he creates the sound because he doesn’t feel like he’s pressing anything. However, he loves the noise that the piano makes.

Rick said, “Why don’t you put a button on the key then some wood above the key. The horse can see the wood. When he touches it he will feel that he’s moving the wood. He will then hear the sound. Then the horse will understand how the sound is made.”

I thought this was an excellent observation. That evening when I relayed the information to Bill I ran into a brick wall. Bill has a PhD in Physics. Often his brain gets in the way of him doing something I’d like him to do…like put a button on a key and wood on top of the button. Or does this resistance have nothing to do with science and everything to do with THE WIFE asking! I’m pretty sure if Bill and Rick talked about this conundrum, Bill would find a solution.

Rick Parker also talked about creating a car console with the windshield wiper lever, a horn, a steering wheel…

I can see this in my mind’s eye: Zelador at the wheel. A ball attached to it so he can easily turn the wheel. I call out, “Turning left!” And he activates the turn signal. Of course there’s no problem honking the horn!

…And to think that Rick said, “My wife and I are always saying, ‘Winnie has way too much time on her hands.’”

Yesterday he went to the jingle bells and rang them…repeatedly! He loved them. He didn’t want to leave them. The noise he made with the bells was huge! And THIS is the horse that first met the bells in February and was afraid of them. YES, AFRAID. He wouldn’t touch them. He stood about three feet away and wouldn’t get an inch closer. I’d stand at the bells, jingle them softly and extend my hand towards Kye (with a treat). He would stretch his neck and sneak the treat.

Over a period of time he would not run away when I draped the line of jingle bells (on a long piece of leather) over my forearm. As usual, there was a treat for Kye in my hand. He’d stretch his neck and barely be able to get his extended lips on the tidbit.

I’m sure that he talked with the boys at night, “I got NINE treats for almost getting close to the bells. How many treats did YOU get for ringing them? None? One?!!!”

I told Bill about his bell-crazed horse. His comment, “With Kye it just takes time for the coin to drop.”

I muttered… “a LOT of time!!!”