The trouble with intelligent horses is that they are smart enough to recognize small differences and get nervous, but they figure things out quickly and then cause trouble because they're bored. It's a fine line with Ferriana between introducing something new and she misbehaves because she's anxious, or over-doing the repetition and she misbehaves because she's no longer interested. There is a very slim window there in the middle where she's in her ideal learning spot: calm, but interested. Fortunately I've met and trained her type before, and I find this technically challenging horse extremely satisfying!
For example, Ferriana was doing fine in the round pen tied for grooming, tacking, and then working. When I moved her to the barn for grooming, however, she nearly melted down. Despite me doing the exact same things with her, in the same order, she was concerned about the new location. When nervous, Ferriana's default power move is attempting to intimidate a human by shoving the person with her body, or aiming a swift kick with her hooves. While she's fine with me picking up her hooves to clean them in the round pen, tied by the barn is a different story. To keep things familiar to her, I backtracked to picking up her hind feet with the rope draped around her pastern and using the voice command "give me your paw" just like I did when I initially introduced lifting hooves in the round pen. She did aim a kick at me a couple times during this process, which earned her a smack on the buns while I shouted "no".
Most horses look somewhat contrite when I administer the rare swat of discipline. I don't have to do it very often, and I reserve it for real safety issues such as kicking, striking, or biting. Interestingly, Ferriana was not in the least abashed at being reprimanded. She actually gave me a look of disdain as though she was skeptical that a mere mortal such as myself would attempt to correct her. There was no contrition in her expression, but she did quit swinging at me. Respect is important.
We took a few days to acclimate to the new spot, and now things are going much more smoothly. Ferriana still worries if I disappear into the tack room to get something while she's tied, but at least she's looking to me for safety and security rather than ignoring or avoiding me. Today after her workout in the arena on the lunge line over jumps and touring the indoor portion while tacked up I had her tied at the horse trailer. Because she needs to learn some patience I left her there with some hay and water while I went about getting the next horse ready to work.
Ferriana was SO MAD that I left her there. I wasn't far, just in the barn, but I wasn't paying attention to HER. She did some ferocious pawing at the ground. She tossed her head. She stomped her feet. She swung her body from side to side. She even lifted the hay bag in her teeth and launched it onto the roof of the trailer. It merely ricocheted off the ledge and returned to crash down on her head, covering her in undignified hay strands.
In between techniques she would pause, stare into the barn at me, and demand that I come get her RIGHT NOW. Mostly I ignored her, which totally infuriated her. Once or twice she did give it up and stood quietly for a moment, so I wandered out to give her a cookie and a pat, but she only received attention when she was being quiet. Eventually she quit for about five minutes and stood nicely just eating from the hay bag. I went out to get her, lavished praise and cookies upon her highness, and put her back in her paddock.
I rarely see a horse look so surprised. "You mean all I had to do to get back to my paddock was stand quietly?" It was pretty funny to see her so worked up, then give it up, then realize that she could have been put away a half hour ago. I swear you can see the hamsters running on the wheel in her head as she figures these things out.
Ferriana is now fine to groom while tied at the barn, and she's fine to tack up in a saddle, so she's ready to start learning about bits, then steering and ground driving. This way she knows voice commands, how to wear tack, how to steer, and I have brakes before I ever get on for the first time. That also makes me sitting aboard only one new thing for her to process, since by the time I mount she's used to all the accoutrements that come with riding. Since the next step is bitting, I needed to make sure that her teeth are in good shape.
Dr. Landes came out today to do a few other veterinary things for us, and he humored me with adding Ferriana's dental to the appointment. When she arrived several weeks ago and Dr. Landes gave her a rattlesnake vaccine, she did strike at him with her front hoof. Now that she knows better, it was much smoother to give her sedation for her dental. Once it had taken effect she was ready for her dental evaluation.
The incisors did need to be balanced, and she had some impressive sharp points farther back in her mouth. It's really good that we did this dental before introducing the bit! Especially with a horse this intelligent, if I were to put a bit in her mouth and it hurt because she needed a dental, she would never forget it. Now that her jaw slides smoothly and her teeth are level she's ready to learn about steering and ground driving.
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