Cob Jockey

While doing groundwork with Disco the other night, I was struck by how different my perception of him is today vs what it would have been five years ago. Before Kate's hippie Dressage and after Kate's hippie Dressage.

Disco is a slow twitch kind of guy. I have never seen him spook, never seen him make a quick cut sideways. Nothing intimidates him, and it feels like it takes things a while to get from his brain to his feet.

Finally getting somewhere with ground tying. By the way, we were under a Wind Advisory for 40+mph gusts at the time, and the indoor sounded like it was going to blow apart. Good pony.

I, on the other hand, am fast twitch. I do everything fast. I grew up running fast. I used to get in trouble for doing my school work too fast. I have spent the last decade being told to slow certain movements down in order to go faster and lift more weight in CrossFit. Connor is fast twitch, and so are my dogs, who feel joined at the fast twitch brain to me (well...one of them does).

The slowest of all the slow twitch brains, and we love him for it.

On the one hand, sometimes I wonder if this makes Disco and I incompatible. On the other hand, Kate has given me the tools, thought processes and introspection needed to see him for what he is and meet him where he is. To develop sensitivity and reactivity instead of diminish them.

Take backing in hand, for instance. Kate teaches that you need to give the horse four seconds between picking up the knot underneath their halter to where you start to apply a feather light pressure on the bridge of the nose, because that's how long it takes the brain to process that new stimulus.

Flicking his ears back and forth between paying attention to me for his next cue as we did groundwork at the mounting block, and to the sounds of PM chores and dog chaos in the barn aisle

Fast twitch me wants him to back the second I think I want him to back, the same joined-at-the-brain feeling I get from Meatloaf and from Connor. Is it not disobedience if he doesn't? Is it not training the wrong thing if I don't expect an immediate response? I often apply too much pressure too quickly as a result, and he feels slow and dull to me.

But.

If I take a deep breath and slow my brain down, slow my hands down, I notice that he just needs a second or two after my hand touches the knot, and then he backs at the lightest touch. Wait a second, that's not slow, nor dull. That's him responding in exactly the time frame Kate says he should need, as a horse.

Lead changes clearly make sense to him!

Now I should say, this is for things that are not yet automatic responses for him. For new things, I have to give him space to process and an appropriate level of escalating pressure. Once a thing IS automatic, for the most part he responds immediately and with such a soft aid. He's desperate to work and to give me the right answer almost robotically once he learns something new. 

You can see the moment when fast-twitch Connor decides he's had enough of Disco being in the lead, speeds up and cuts him off to remind him who's in charge (Connor is still, for now, very much in charge of their field).

It struck me that without Kate, I would have made this horse dull. 

I would have asked too loudly and too quickly to ever give him a chance to learn subtlety, and he would have shut down and got resentful. He may still, I don't know, I'm not an expert horse trainer and I do expect to make mistakes with him. But Kate has at least given me a chance to meet him where he is and to see him for what he is.

It's kind of cheating to practice ground tying when he's absolutely exhausted after running around like an idiot with Connor before his lesson, but hey, seize the day right? PC: Leah