How We Worked Out Our Hill Problems

How We Worked Out Our Hill Problems

If you have been reading about Trifecta's trail adventures from the beginning, you will know that he has had problems controlling his speed going downhill for a long time.  I don't think this is an uncommon problem with young horses at all.  That is, unless they lived in the mountains of West Virginia like Dante.  Cruiser and Cole had no control over their feet going down hills, and I was able to teach them how to do it in just one session by going up and down the hill over and over until they slowed down.  I did it with Cruiser in the saddle, and I did it with Cole on foot.  After just one session, I only had to fine tune their training.  

That didn't work with Trifecta.  He would rush down the hill, we would turn around and do it again once or twice and he would seem fine.  The next time--he would be back to rushing again.  Sometimes he would do well for one or two times--and then he would revert again.  This went on over so many rides.  He just didn't seem to be able to consistently control his hindquarters.

It helped if I stopped him when he got too fast so he could get himself together before proceeding.  Sometimes I had to stop him multiple times to make it down a short slope.

In the early days, he had trouble going uphill, too.  He would put his head way up into the air and with great no coordination, rush up.  Ellen solved this problem for me.  Most people with clicker trained horses teach their horse to lower his head on command by pointing down.  It is one of the easiest things to do.  I also taught Trifecta to lower his head when I was in the saddle by jiggling the rein.  Ellen recognized that Trifecta's problem was that he wasn't using his head correctly.  While we were going up a steep slope, she walked beside him, bent over and pointed to the ground to encourage him to lower his head--it worked like magic.  The very first time, he discovered it was easier to walk up the hill if his head was lowered and he used it like a fulcrum.  That became his verbal command.  "Fulcrum."  I never had any more problems going up hills after that.  We just "fulcrum" up.

The down hill problems persisted.  I am so glad that Ellen has spent a lot of time walking with us on our rides because she figured out how to explain to Trifecta how to go down hills.  We started to realize how much he was paying attention to the way that she was moving.  Ellen showed him what we wanted.  We decided on the command, "control," because he needed to get control of his body.  We have 2 short, steep slopes we have to go down to get to the first river crossing.  Ellen tried shifting her weight back, deliberately placing her feet and making hand motions to simulate his front feet.  My job was to lightly squeeze alternating reins as he stepped down.  I didn't think that that would help him--I was doing that to teach him a cue from the saddle.  

As we would go down the slopes, she would say "control" and use her body language.  He would watch her--and then he started to match her steps.  I couldn't believe it when it seemed to work.  This wasn't the instant cure like "fulcrum," but it was helping.  It didn't take long before he started to watch her hands whenever we needed controlled walking--such as going down the steep river bank--another thing I had been struggling with.

Lately, she has intentionally left me alone to go down the slopes.  I say "control" and give him his rein cues, and it has been nothing short of amazing to me.  When he is really good, I will give him a click/treat to let him know, but I don't do it all the time, and he doesn't seem to care.  I think this is another instance of us showing him how to do something easier--and he likes it better.

Back to Trifecta's ability to follow hand signals; we had one other extraordinary incident.  A few weeks ago, we had some much needed rain, river bank was muddy.  If we ride the horses way on the left side of the trail, the mud isn't so bad.  There is a lot of mud if you ride down the center of the trail.  If we go way to the right--it is horrible.  That morning, Trifecta saw all the mud and decided he would try going on the right side since it didn't look as muddy as it actually is.  When I realized what he was going to try to do, I stopped him and tried to guide him to the far left--but we would have to cross the muddy center.  I called to Ellen.  She came over, talked to Tri to get his attention, walked to the far left, stooped over and with both hands pointed exactly where she wanted to go.  Wouldn't you know that he immediately marched across the bad mud to the spot she pointed where the mud wasn't as bad and then marched down to the river.  I was simply shocked.  This wasn't something we trained for--he just deduced what we wanted him to do.

Sometimes we just need to think outside the box when we train horses.  With Trifecta, it is a common occurrence.  

A Most Wonderful Ride

A Most Wonderful Ride

I rode Trifecta out with Kevin and Starry--something we have only done a couple times before.  Ellen planned to join us on foot, but we decided the river would be way too cold for her to cross.  She said she would drive down to the park and meet us on the other side of the river.  Just in case there might be a problem, she would wear her old shoes so she could cross and help us out.

There was one thing that Kevin and I were a little worried about.  With the last rain, a large log was washed up on the shore right where we cross.  When I rode Trifecta down the hill the day before, he saw it and got very worried about it.  I didn't take him down the river bank to see it, since I didn't plan to cross, but I allowed him to stare at it for a couple of minutes.  He doesn't get worried about many things, so I took his concerns seriously.  Kevin was a bit worried how Starry would do, too.  His vision doesn't seem as good as it used to be, and sometimes he thinks the most normal things are a threat.  That is why I was really glad Ellen would be on the other side of the river.

Leading down the street, mounting and riding down the hill went so awesome that I thought someone switched my horse with a much older, more experienced one.  Trifecta led the way down, which always makes Starry a happy horse, because he just doesn't like to be a leader. 

When I made the turn to go down the river bank, Trifecta immediately saw the log and his head went way up in the air.  Before he could act out, Ellen started calling him on the other side of the river.  He was so happy that she was there that he hurried down the river bank to the edge of the water--then he noticed the log again.  His head went up, and his eyes got big.  I told him to go walk up to it and take a look.  He was torn between curiosity and caution, but he got close enough that if he really stretched his neck he could touch it.  I told him to try, so he did.  When he touched it and realized it was just a piece of wood, he immediately, and I mean immediately, decided it wasn't worth one more moment of his time.  Instead, he turned and looked across the river.  By now, Starry was also by the river and was unconcerned by the log.  Trifecta focused on Ellen and decided crossing would be the most fun thing to do.

He did get a click for stepping into the water.  He then crossed like a gentleman, walked up the river bank and turned to the right.  Now, this is really big because on the last few rides, he has been fighting me about wanting to go to the left--refusing to follow Ellen or the other horses.  I clicked him for it and gave him his treat.  When I restarted him, he tried to spin to the left.  

I have been experimenting up at the barn with how to thwart this behavior.  Even up there, he had been getting stubborn, trying to explore areas where I didn't want him--and then things would spiral out of control.  All the big trainers suggested keeping him moving to control his feet to deter him from wanting to go the places I didn't want him to go.  That did work when he would enter the indoor arena when I wanted to ride past the door, but it didn't seem to help anywhere else.  On the trail, our disagreements involved him wanting to go on little trails that lead to the river or out to the street.  His worst spot--and the spot where the whole habit began was at Willow Bend.  I went through a couple weeks of extreme frustration.  

With a lot of thought and observations, I decided he either enjoyed the conflict or felt that it was what I wanted.  I decided to try something new--I would stop.  It seems counter intuitive to stop him--because stopping can also be misinterpreted as a reward--but keeping him moving just kept things getting worse and worse.  I just had to make sure I stopped him when we were facing the direction that I wanted to go.

The first time I tried this at the barn, he was trying to go down the driveway that goes behind the barn instead of staying on the track.  I forced him into a turn and stopped him so he was facing the track.  We stood for about a minute, I asked him to walk and he did--right back on the track.  This didn't solve all my problems; we still had a lot of work to do, but now at least I had something that had a chance of working.  We practiced it a lot up at the barn.

So when we went up the river bank, stopped for a click/treat and he tried to go to the left--I circled him around to face the right, stopped him for a few moments and asked him to walk where I wanted him to--and he did!!!  The plan worked even out on the trail.  

We headed out on our ride.  Trifecta was leading with Ellen walking alongside us.  He was really behaving well.  When we got to those little trails that were giving us problems, I could feel him bending to go down them.  I just bent him the other way--a thing I was working on with him in the arena for the last few weeks for just this reason, (shoulder-in) and it worked.

The next big test was Willow Bend.  There I had to turn him to the right and go down a short slope at the same time.  Ellen walked with us on the left side to discourage him from wanting to go straight instead of turning.  I felt him bend--and down we went!  This is the first time I have been able to get him down the slope without even a little resistance--and usually a lot of resistance.  He got a click for that, too.

I told Ellen that I thought I would trot a little.  Since Kevin was planning to just walk, she said she would fade off and walk with Kevin.  Trifecta marched on down the trail, but he didn't seem too keen on trotting.  I had him walk a ways so we could get around a bend and no longer see Ellen and Starry.  I then asked him to trot, which he reluctantly did.  I kept him going until I could feel him moving in a more forward manner and clicked him.  When I asked him to trot again, he went more willingly and much faster.  After a while, we stopped and just walked.  

The park had been working on the pedestrian bridge earlier, but it seemed like they were done so I was going to ride until we reached the next river crossing--our usual turning spot.  We were nearly there when I started hearing pounding and electric saws.  That really disturbed the little guy, so we just stood to allow him to listen for a few minutes.  As I started to turn him to go back towards home, he tried to zoom forward.  I made him stop and stand and then tried again.  This time, he was a little better, but still wanted to rush.  I don't know if it was because of the construction noise or because he wanted to get back to his buddies--who were now approaching.  We managed to work through everything, catch up with them and then headed on home.

He was walking much faster, so we practiced stopping and waiting for Starry to catch up a lot.  It is a good lesson to learn; patience.  At the river crossing, we left Ellen, who I am certain was happy that she didn't have to cross the ice cold water.

I decided to try letting Starry go first up the hill.  Immediately, Trifecta wanted to walk up to him and start playing.  This became the biggest challenge of the ride.  I just wouldn't let Tri get close enough to Starry to harass him.  After a few minutes, Trifecta settle down and followed behind Starry at a safe distance.  About halfway up the hill, we practiced stopping and waiting for Starry to get further ahead--the reverse of stopping and waiting for him to catch up.  It is funny how the exact same exercise is emotionally completely different depending on where you do it.  We were about 2 thirds up the hill when Kevin was able to stop Starry and Trifecta peacefully passed him--the final test--and he passed.

Overall, I was very pleased with the ride.  Of course, it wasn't perfect, but I saw improvements and we both had fun.  I can't wait to do it again.

Fairy Floss Update

 Fairy Floss Update

I have had Fairy Floss for more than a year now, and she went from a special needs cat that I wanted to help in tribute to my previous cat, Thunder, to being my best little pal.

As you may recall, I adopted her from the Cleveland Animal Protective League because nobody wanted her.  She has skin allergies that were hard to control.  She was at the APL for 6 months, except for a short time she was out for adoption and was returned because of her allergies.

I was able to manage them fairly well through last fall and winter, but they flared up in the spring, so we were back to the vet.  We did some experimentation with bathing, worming and medicines before the vet figured out where most of the problem was stemming from.  A blood test showed that she was allergic to a number of things but most allergic to yeast--and she was getting yeast infections in her ears.  Now, I treat her ears once a month and flush them out twice a week.  She is still itchier than the average cat, but she is so much better and doesn't need any other sort of treatment.  The hair is growing back on her belly!

Then there was the incident with her torn ligaments in June.  Most of the problem was caused by her getting tangled up in my legs, but some of it might have stemmed from all the steroids she had been on to treat her allergies.  Steroids can cause ligaments to weaken--which I am positive contributed to Cruiser's torn suspensory after we treated him for a few months with steroids for that awful cough he had.  Anyway, the operation was a success.  I did everything the vet said, and she healed quickly, but she still had a little limp.  The vet felt she may never have full extension of the leg after the operation.

Once she was cleared to have regular activity, I set up a physical therapy box for her.  It is a long, low box with three poles to step over in it.  So, she has to step over the side of the box, step over each pole and step out of the box.  If that wasn't enough, I put a small box outside each end of the physical therapy box for her to step up onto each time.

You may wonder how I got Fairy Floss to participate in her physical therapy sessions--with clicker training, of course.  She was a clicker cat before that accident ever happened.  I had her jumping over jumps and through a hoop, climbing up boxes and spinning.  It took no time at all to teach her a physical therapy routine.  She just loves it.  She would go through it 12 to 15 times a session.  

Wouldn't you know it--my instincts were right.  She no longer limps; even at a trot.  

The silver lining to the dark cloud of the accident was that the x-rays showed that Fairy Floss has severe arthritis in her hips.  I am now treating that, too.  She can run faster than ever!

She has become extremely attached to me and follows me all over the house, sleeps with me at night and loves to cuddle.  The only way I could have a better cat was to get Thunder back--she is that great.  She lost her home because her previous owners got a baby and she became depressed and quit using her litter box--a terrible thing to happen to a cat.  I am so happy I was able to give her a happy ending to her sad story--and she did the same for me.

I am so glad to adopted special needs cat.