Kelly Marks - Perfect Manners

Kelly Marks heads up an organisation called Intelligent Horsemanship. She studied under Monty Roberts for some years, and they still work together quite often, but her methods have really taken off here in the UK. She is, without a doubt, a very experienced horsewoman.
Now, what bugs me about a lot of these organisations, like Parelli and Enlightened Equitation, is that they tell you they have brilliant methods, but then share absolutely nothing with you unless you're prepared to pay quite a lot of money for it. (The British Dyslexia Association is exactly the same!)
But Kelly Marks has actually written a book to share lots of her methods, and the one I've been reading is Perfect Manners. If you've read it, I'd love to know what you think of it.
I don't know what I thought it would be about (like the title's not a dead giveaway!) but I read it last January, so I could see if it 'worked' on Max. All I was interested in was the section on Join-Up, so I think I must have skipped the first couple of chapters and got straight on with it. You can read about my rather thrilling experience here . But after that I left it for nearly a year, and now I have Barnaby and not Max.
But the thing is, Barnaby is a very arrogant, dominant horse (but not nasty, and not a bully). Mr O has coped with this by... being Mr O. He has used brute strength (being a man) and stubbornness (they don't actually come much more stubborn!) and this has won the day.
But I am a woman, with the average woman's strength, faced with a horse who barges out of his stable, with no way of being able to stop him. And as my strength isn't likely to undergo a massive increase any time soon, I had to find another way of getting Barnaby to improve his manners.
So a couple of months ago, I turned to 'Perfect Manners' once again. I did Join-Up with him back in November. It's a method of getting your horse to want to be with you and respect you as his leader, but more importantly for me, the horse learns to respect your space. I have to say, it worked brilliantly. We were running round the school together, jumping fences side by side. It was fabulous.
Then we went back into the stables and shortly afterwards Barnaby jumped over the stable door. You know all about that. And it left me wondering what the point of Join-Up was, and what it had actually achieved.
This was followed by five or six weeks of snow, so I couldn't do anything with Barnaby at all. But in this time I managed to read the chapters I'd skipped, and it turns out these are the chapters with the key stuff in it.
Then on January 2nd I took Barnaby into the manege to lunge him and he had a fit because he'd got so much energy. I ended up doing Join-Up with him again, and again it was fabulous. He followed me everywhere.
Now then...
I have noticed that he doesn't like me putting his headcollar on from outside the stable door. But I can't go in without him being tied up, because he'll barge past me, so I can't go in unless I've put the headcollar on. I've waited patiently for him to stick his nose in the headcollar, but he actually steps backwards, further into the stable. My first thought, was, 'He's stepping backwards, inviting me in.' Then I realised he's stepping backwards, out of my space. I decided to risk opening the door and the possibility of being flattened. He took two more steps back. I was stunned. I put the headcollar on, changed his rug and turned him out.
The next day, the same thing.
I can't tell you how fabulous this is, not being crushed against a stable wall, while half a tonne of horse cruises past me.
Next thing:
One of the exercises to teach your horse manners, is to get him to stand still without moving. Standing with your arms outstretched means, 'stand still.' Putting your arms down, and looking down (and non-threatening) means 'come to me.'
I rode Barnaby Thursday and afterwards had to open the gate. It opens towards you and you have to make your horse step backwards to get out. I decided to try what Kelly Marks suggests. I stood there with my arms out, meaning 'stand' and walked backwards to the gate. Barnaby stood motionless. This had to be a fluke, so I put my arms down and glanced down and he immediately began to walk towards me. I was so thrilled I was trembling. I caught his reins, gave him a rub, and we left the arena together.
Then on Friday they were in from lunchtime onwards as it was snowing quite heavily. I fed Barnaby at tea time as usual, but afterwards he kept banging his stable door. At first I thought he hadn't realised I'd put his haynet up. I watched him really closely. He realised he had my full attention and looked down at his rug, giving it a little nip. I realised immediately what he wanted. Normally after tea, I would take his turnout rug off and we'd have a big scratching session. This movement meant, 'Hey mum, can't you get this rug off and give me a groom!' I couldn't believe it. I opened the stable door, he stepped back, I took off his rug, and the grooming commenced. I'm not sure who was happiest.
We aren't out of the woods yet, but at the moment, I can't believe how much he's changed in such a short space of time. I've learned a lot about him, but a lot about myself, and the way I am around horses (not very assertive). I would recommend this book to any horse owner. If you read it and read it before putting it into practice, it'll reap rewards. Unless of course, your horse has perfect manners already. There will be more to come on this topic I'm sure.
For now, I thought I'd leave you with a little video snippet of what this grooming/scratching session really involves.
See here. It's well worth it.
Have a great day everyone,
Mrs O.

Busy Bunny = Happy Bunny!

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you're enjoying the first few days of 2011. As the title says, I've been pretty busy, but to be honest I'm looking forward to everything returning to normal.
We had a lovely dinner with Pongo and Missis on New Years Eve, and got back in the early hours of the morning. This kind of wiped out New Year's Day, which is a shame. Now I have a sore throat, which I'm not exactly thrilled about.
Over Christmas I've been praying for my friend Diane's daughter, Joanie. She went into labour on 23rd December and finally gave birth on December 27th. That's quite a time, isn't it? They've nicknamed the baby 'Grinch' because he stole Christmas! The poor girl was exhausted when she finally gave birth, but I'm sure the sight of her new baby son made it all worthwhile.
I've seen on a blog somewhere how to make a little box. I would love to credit this to that blog, but I can't remember where I saw it. Anyway, I've made this little box from a chocolate orange box Mr O got for Christmas!
I've used my Nellie Snellen dies to cut the ovals for the front. No matter how talented you are, it is extremely difficult to cut a good circle or oval, whether you use scissors or a craft knife, it doesn't look that good. With the dies and the Bigshot, though, it's a doddle.
Here is the top:

I've had that stamp for ages, and never used it. I'm going to buy some little baby socks to put in the box. I'm pretty sure I've got a matching card somewhere, so I'll send it up via Mr O next week. I hope she likes it.

Finally, there has been some action on the horse front, as the snow has slowly slipped away. Barnaby has been incredibly badly behaved, though. On the first day I took him into the manege to lunge him, but he was kangarooing on the end of my arm all the way there. Once Mr O opened the gate, I'm afraid I took the cowardly option and let go. He went careering around for quite a while, with the lunge line trailing behind him (not a good idea at all, as if he treads on it he could injure his neck.) After a little while he let me pick it up, and I decided to take it off and do some join up with him. It was brilliant, as he caught on really quickly, so we played tag around the arena, and we were jumping over the trotting pole side by side, which was fabulous.
The next day we went to catch him, and he just went mad, galloping up and down in the field. It took ages to make him stand, and Mr O put his head collar on. He managed to get Barnaby as far as the gate, but Barnaby suddenly whipped round and set off, dragging Mr O behind him and breaking the headcollar. To be honest, I was tempted to leave him, but Mr O goes back to work on Tuesday, and if I haven't got upsides of him by then, I've had it.
Eventually Mr O got him in and tacked him up and took him out for a hack. Barnaby had calmed down a bit by then. He's all mouth and trousers at the moment, as he has loads of energy, but no stamina, which is a good thing.
So today I've plucked up the courage to get on him myself. I took him into the school and he was like a coiled spring at first, looking for something to spook at, but after a couple of minutes he settled down. I kept changing pace and direction and he soon began to concentrate. He's not as supple as he was after five weeks off, it was like riding a cardboard box, but it'll soon come back. I really want to do the dressage at the end of the month, so that will give me something to work towards. At least he didn't go bucking and leaping around the school. Most of my horsey friends on facebook are having the same problem, so I'm not alone. I'm hoping to hack him out tomorrow. I'm sure if I go with Mr O, he'll be fine. Here's hoping!

Join Up

Poor Mr O was woken by the sound of his mobile going off at 5.30am and again at 5.55. It was the alarm company to say the alarm had gone off at work and could he go and check it out. This was fine when we lived in Worksop, a mere ten minutes by car to where Mr O works, but now he is forty-five minutes away, and isn't the first person on the list to receive a call. Where were you all, huh? So Mr O had no choice but to get up and go to work, sans tea, sans breakfast, sans everything.
My alarm clock (Barnaby) went off at 6.50 and I decided to get up, so staggered downstairs and outside, to be greeted by a mini-blizzard. I decided that horses are, in fact, horses, and turned them all out. This hadn't been the original plan, I'd meant to do some work with Max, but thought it would be a bit mean while it was actually snowing, so decided to muck out instead.
Update: the rubber matting in Zak's stable is fabulous. It takes me ten minutes to muck out instead of forty-five. What a blessing. I just sweep all the muck to the front, shovel it into the barrow, and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, there's a clean stable. I put half a bale of fresh straw down and it's fit for the King's Horse.
I must tell you, though, that when I went to turn Max out, I put his head collar and lead rope on as usual, opened the stable door, stepped right in, facing him, and made him walk backwards six steps before turning him out. It was worth it just to see the look on his face. It said, "You don't do that to me! Who do you think you are?" but he still did it. By golly, he is going to learn to respect my space if it's the last thing I do.
We got the horses in at lunch time, and I decided to take Max down to the manege. I just put his lungeing bridle on, no saddle, and took a lunge line with me. We walked down to the livery yard, enjoying the view together, and got to the manege. I let him off the lunge line, and sent him away. There are two cute mares in a little paddock quite near one end of the school, so Max set off to join them. They didn't take much notice of him, so he went bucking and leaping round the school. I swooshed behind him with the looped up lunge line, to keep him going. He stopped dead again, imploring the mares to notice him, but they gave him the cold shoulder. He turned to look at me. I walked up to him, stroked him and walked off again, but he didn't follow me.
I sent him off round the school again. Ideally this would be a round pen, but it didn't really matter. I have loose-schooled Max quite often in the past, and can actually say, "...Aaaand Max, Turn!" and he will do it on command.
Anyway, he kept trollying round, but got a lot slower, then really started to walk round with his head low down, which is apparently a good sign. I moved in, eyes down, and turned in front of him and walked off, and to my absolute joy, he followed me. I burst into tears, and really struggled to stay calm and keep the momentum. I gave him a rub on the forehead, and clipped the lunge line back on.
Then I stood about four feet away from him and called him to me, and he looked at me in astonishment, then walked towards me and stopped. I don't know which of us was the most surprised.
Then I made him back up. I really had to concentrate to stay on track, as I was feeling pretty emotional by now. I wiggled the leadrope in front of him, and he immediately and smartly took three paces back. It was the most massive bit of obedience I've ever got from him. I repeated the requests, and he did them again. I gave him another rub on the forehead, and led him out of the arena.
He walked behind me, all the way home, quietly, with his head down, ambling along at perfect peace with the world. I paused at 'Terrifying Rock' for him to have a sniff. I led him up to it, and he completely ignored it and ate the grass about four inches away from it. Bizarre! Normally it is the scariest thing in the world, and well worth a little leap around. Today... nothing.
We got back to the stables, and the next most striking thing was Barnaby's attitude to Max. Barnaby had his ears back, looking very aggressive, as if to say, "Why have you been out?" and Max showed him his teeth, saying, "I don't have to listen to you, I've got mummy!"
Then Barnaby tried to insist that they groom each other, and Max made no move to go near him. I stood and groomed him, and stroked him all over, right up to his ears, which he normally hates, and he stood there motionless and let me do it. Altogether it was a thrilling experience and very emotional. I do love this horse, and so want him to be okay with me. I think today, we may have made a breakthrough.