​Jalila comes through the string curtain hanging at the front of her shed. My friend titled this picture Silly Jilly.

​I am behind in my posts and there’s nothing I can do about it. No excuses. No good reasons. Just busy, like everyone else I know.
The Straightness Training (ST) exercises designed to help humans better understand herd dynamics were especially enlightening for me. A lot of the “natural” horsemanship programs address a form of these ideas but they have never rung true for me. Marijke’s explanations and guidance have given me tools to improve my relationship with the mares and bring it to a completely new level, one of true friendship.
It was fascinating to do this exercise with two different horses, Jalila and Shiraz. Shiraz is dominant in the pen but submits to me more than I’d like. Her past experiences with what is commonly called “joining up,” caused her to view being with me as a negative, though less negative than going away from me. Neither situation was positive in her eyes. Establishing confidence and trust is needed for her so we can come to a good working relationship.
Jalila, on the other hand, is totally submissive to Shiraz in their pen, but makes every effort to dominate me. She is not aggressive and some of her efforts are subtle. After watching the videos and playing with the Meet & Greet concepts I found that I was misinterpreting some of Jalila’s communications. I was misreading concentration as anger or a nasty attitude. I had also mistakenly overlooked some tiny aggressions as insignificant. Keeping us on an even keel can be as simple as not allowing that ubiquitous 4” half-step or seemingly innocuous lean into my space. Fascinating! After several days of entering the herd with new tools for influencing and interpreting the horses’ responses, every aspect of our interaction, be it in the pen, at the hitching post, or in the arena has shifted to a place of mutual understanding.

​I’ve been watching Marijke de Jong’s Straightness Training (ST) program for a couple of years and finally decided to take the plunge and sign up for a course.
Wow! I’m blown away by the way it clarifies my understanding about training horses. The language and concepts in the ST program are familiar to me; I have a long history with classical dressage, beginning with training at the Potomac Horse Center in Gaithersburg, MD in the 1970’s, but the focus and clarity this course brings is welcomed.
I am doing case studies with my 5 year-old Arabian mare, Jalila, and another Arabian mare, Shiraz. Jalila’s compromises were not caused at the hand of man, but Shiraz has experienced the full brunt of misguided training and suffered both physically and mentally from it. The two are exact opposites in their needs and responses; so working with both them is a perfect storm to enhance my learning curve.

MY TOOLS:

• Clicker Training to reinforce desired behavior and insure that Jillie understand exactly what it is that I want from her and feels rewarded when she provides it.
• TTEAM Groundwork to build confidence and add interest and variety to our efforts.
• Agility Exercises to strengthen our communication with each other and build the necessary relationship for liberty work.
• Bodywork to support Jillie’s development and comfort in her training program.
• Connected Groundwork to address areas of concern when they arise and help develop Jillie’s ability to travel in a functional posture.
• Straightness Training to develop Jalila’s mind and body and improve the effectiveness of my training methods.

 
MY GOALS:

• Getting Jillie to perform all of her groundwork and liberty tasks in good (functional) posture. I don’t just want her to do something, I want her to do it correctly and well. This will make every element beautiful and beneficial.
• Clicker train Jillie to touch perform some complicated tasks by having her touch cones and balls on sticks as part of her obedience and brain integration physical therapy program.
• Use TTEAM groundwork to maintain concentration skills in slow tasks and introduce her to obstacles and elements that she will encounter in her agility courses.
• Perfect my ability to lead Jillie effectively on a loose line by establishing consistent use of body language and signals to guide her without picking up the line in preparation for liberty and agility work.
• Continue to support her with regular bodywork and work to develop evenness in the opposing muscle groups of Jillie’s hips and shoulders to support functional posture by following the Straightness Training program.
• Document out progress on my website to share experiences, elicit comments from friends and pressure myself to stay focused. 

II am new to the Straightness Training program and am excited, inspired and motivated by it. Marijke de Jong presents an amazing amount of focused information and clearly defines exercises and goals to make every horse the best athlete possible. I love it and will share Jalila’s progress as I make my way through it.

While on vacation earlier this summer, I found a project that inspired me and I knew Jillie would enjoy: Horse Agility Training may provide tools for relationship building and some challenging and fun activities. I took Vanessa Bee’s book, The Horse Agility Handbook: A Step-By-Step Introduction to the Sport, (ISBN-10: 1570764883 -- ISBN-13: 978-1570764882) on vacation and read it. Her ideas are clearly presented and offer great advice about how to insure you build the kind of relationship with your horse that is necessary when you “take that lead line off and your horse is free.”
Agility Leading is the first step and it requires a set of consistent signals based in body language to communicate directional and speed changes without bringing the rope into play. Easier said than done, at least for me. I was on unfamiliar territory and, even though she was patient with me, all I heard from Jalila was: Which hand points the way? What? Why are you over there? What-Is-UP-With-You?
My first efforts left me completely demoralized. The loose line idea is so foreign to me! Vanessa Bee says: Leave your wands and your clickers by the hitching post. You will be far too busy communicating with your horse to be bothered with them.
BUT since I am not competition bound and Jalila and I have a history with clicker training, I decided to find something she could target that would also help me focus and be more consistent while establishing a set of signals. Wands and ropes serve other purposes for us. I needed something entirely new for this new activity. I looked at a lot of expensive options and finally settled on a 69-cent purple fly swatter! It turned out to be the perfect solution. See for yourself in this short video.
We’re a long way from going off lead, but we are getting the basics down and learning a lot about each other in the process.
​

FIRST: A couple of weeks ago, I made the difficult decision to put Parker down and relieve him of his suffering. A new horse came onto the property and Parker transferred his power to her and let me know that he was ready to go.
R.I.P. PK and thank you for all you taught me.
Jalila’s blog post:
My chiropractor gave me some brain gym exercises to help correct my brain imbalance (see previous post) and one of them is to move my eyes quickly to different targets in the space in front of me. Doing this made me think of Jalila touching the tennis ball I have stuck on the end of a dowel.
The translation of this kind of thing from human to horse isn’t exact. For one thing Jillie moves her head and comes into direct contact with the object; I hold my head still and move my eyes. And horses process visual information completely differently than humans do. They are challenged in depth perception and focusing due to eye placement and they have a blind spot under their nose, so the similarities between my eye exercises and her touch-the-ball exercises are nearly nonexistent! But one idea did inspire the other.
Jalila has difficulty locating the ball when it is placed high and to her right. Lower to the ground and about chest level on either side is easy for her and high on her left is only a little bit of a challenge. This exercise provides great situations for her to problem solve and with practice, she perfected it. I enjoy watching her figure things out, and the clicker work adds variety and entertainment for both of us in her training process. She takes getting a reward seriously and loves carrots and chunks of watermelon rind; especially in the intense heat we’ve had this summer. 

​If you followed Jillie’s blog last summer, you might remember that one reason she was in such bad shape when she came to me and was having so much difficulty coping with life – being haltered, touch, holding her feet up for trims, sequencing her gait patterns, etc. Her Applied Kinesiology (AK) exam revealed she had an imbalance in the right cerebellum of her brain that was preventing neurological messages from arriving at their intended destinations and resulting in some muscles being “turned off.” This is what led me to the conclusion that, “If her brain is not 100% onboard, it is not only ineffective to continue training, it is unfair and must be extremely frustrating for her.” (See POST 11/20/2106). Then a most fascinating thing happened to me. I went for an appointment with my Network Chiropractor because I was noticing some wobbling when I was putting on socks or walking in the dark and my feet hurt. She listened and said, “That sounds more like a brain thing.” She had me do a couple of movements and I wobbled badly. She said, “You have an imbalance in the right cerebellum of your brain that is preventing neurological messages from arriving at their intended destinations and resulting in some muscles being “turned off.” Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the floor. She worked on my foot and gave me some exercises to engage my brain. I told her that was exactly, and I mean verbatim, what my horse had. She wondered how in the world you would ever figure that out in a horse? Long story.
In different worlds this idea ranges from expected, to kooky to just plain crazy. I always knew I had extreme sympathy for my horses but this experience indicates a depth of empathy I do not yet comprehend. I don’t know who’s mirroring whom here, but I’m keeping my eyes open, even though I’m not sure exactly what I’m watching for.