Hello to all that know me, and those who dont.
Where to start?
After the past about 16 months have flown by ( in my bed) I’m back.
Shilo is very well (and fat ) he is going to be 6 years old in April, and I’m nearing 50... and have gained a couple of pounds whilst recovering.
I’m ready to continue Shilo’s training, but I fear not to start where I left off, but from the very beginning. ( just as it was going so well )
Today, out in the field, I did a ( sort of ) join up, I shooed Shilo away from me and he ran and hopped and bucked, I turned my back on him and walked away, he came up to me and I shooed him away again, I continued my walk, Shilo kept to my left side and walked adjacent to me, but not in front, his head low and licking and chewing ( he has not forgotten who is boss) he again came to me and I again shooed him away, this time turning into him and straight at him, he moved away like a missile, he walked with me about 4 meters away, on my left ( the distance made smaller by him, his head again low, licking and chewing...now I changed my body language, my head low, shoulders stooped and stopped walking, I turned my shoulders away at an angle, my body too at an angle and waited, Shilo stood looking at me, ears towards me, head not to high, I walked an S figure up to him and past him.. HE FOLLOWED. I could not believe it.
Good start.
Day 1 over.
I’m training Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Failing my boy is NOT an option.
Nice to be back.
Best regards
Dionne.
Where to start?
After the past about 16 months have flown by ( in my bed) I’m back.
Shilo is very well (and fat ) he is going to be 6 years old in April, and I’m nearing 50... and have gained a couple of pounds whilst recovering.
I’m ready to continue Shilo’s training, but I fear not to start where I left off, but from the very beginning. ( just as it was going so well )
Today, out in the field, I did a ( sort of ) join up, I shooed Shilo away from me and he ran and hopped and bucked, I turned my back on him and walked away, he came up to me and I shooed him away again, I continued my walk, Shilo kept to my left side and walked adjacent to me, but not in front, his head low and licking and chewing ( he has not forgotten who is boss) he again came to me and I again shooed him away, this time turning into him and straight at him, he moved away like a missile, he walked with me about 4 meters away, on my left ( the distance made smaller by him, his head again low, licking and chewing...now I changed my body language, my head low, shoulders stooped and stopped walking, I turned my shoulders away at an angle, my body too at an angle and waited, Shilo stood looking at me, ears towards me, head not to high, I walked an S figure up to him and past him.. HE FOLLOWED. I could not believe it.
Good start.
Day 1 over.
I’m training Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Failing my boy is NOT an option.
Nice to be back.
Best regards
Dionne.
Good luck with Shilo, I can't wait to read about your new adventures together ;)
Nice to hear from you.
How’s it going with your mare? I guess you are leaps ahead of where you were a year ago.
Merry Christmas by the way. Is the weather in France as terrible as here in Denmark?
Yes, I’m sure that there will be a few adventures to read about from Denmark in the coming months.!!
I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle, though I imagine the first month or so will be ground training, I don’t want to gallop ahead and tempt fate....3 falls from Shilo at full gallop is just 3 too many, however, I have made a promise to myself not to employ the services of so called horse trainers, I did well by myself, before the lady on question made my life a misery, so I’ll do well by myself this time too, with Monty’s and the Uni’s help.
Dionne
Good to have you back. Fingers crossed for you and Shilo's continued progress!
Went out on the field this morning. Shilo and his two compadres came to me instantly, nothing new in that. So I walked away towards my barn and they followed ( breakfast !)
We have what in DK is called a loose drift, which means that the horses can come and go as they wish, there is hay on offer 24/7, 365, but only in the barn. They have access to a large field with grass and a paddock area. I only shut the door to the barn if the weather is REALLY bad, and I mean lightning and violent storm, I keep them in on New Year’s Eve too with locked door. My horses eat and sleep together in a large communal area in the barn, I do not have conventional stalls. I do however have an area in the barn where the farrier can work, where I groom and so on. On very bad weather days, like today, it is not possible to train outside, so I use the farrier area to groom and train, as goodas possible in limited space.
So then, today I have had Shilo in the farrier area, introduced him again to his rope halter, no metal, played with it around his ears and body. No problems.
Picked his feet, ok.
Trained in getting his head low, also ok.
My husband was outside, and Shilo was distracted by him, but just some gentle correction and breathing work on my part and all was ok.
I bounced my body into his whilst grooming, no reaction.
Before the break, I was working on ground tying Shilo, so I tried again whilst grooming his back legs, and he stood, with the rope coiled in front of him.
Backing up also no problem with very slight pressure on the rope.
He was also very conscious of my space when I walked him into the communal area, no pushing etc, even though I guess he knew that the session was over and could just run if he wanted to.
He didn’t bolt out of the barn door either, he stayed in and watched me put my brushes and so on away.
Tomorrow I may try him with the Dually halter, it’s alot heavier than the rope halter, but it’s the one I want to use again for the rest of the training.
This might sound all very basic to most of you, but I’m walking baby steps with him, I want Shilo to want to be with me, I want Shilo to enjoy the sessions and I want success.
Over a year is a long time for Shilo to go without any training, but he has remembered everything so far.
I am so very proud of him.
Glædelig jul og godt nytår.
Det er dejligt at være tilbage.
I bought an old school bell from Amazon and I rang it just before they received breakfast and dinner, I did this about 5 times,and then when they hear the bell, if the wind is in the right direction, they come in.
It’s because I had difficulty walking for a time, so it helped me enormously, and now I just ring the bell and they come running, great for when it’s raining !,
Now, I don’t know if it’s my imagination, or maybe wishful thinking and I’m sure that someone in here will know, but I think Shilo knows that I’m injured.
He is not the same horse he was nearly two years ago.
I know that he is maturing, but still a young horse at 5 1/2.
He just seems to me to be more gentle with me, and very willing to work with me.
The days of him bolting off at the sight of me are no more.
I have used alot of time in the barn with him during my recovery, just sitting and observing, I like to do that the most, especially in the evening.
As I have gotten stronger I have done little jobs like sweeping and so on, and just being there, I think ( but I don’t know) that doing ‘nothing’ has done something.
Can Shilo feel that I am injured? Does anybody know?
It's been pretty bad all through December, lots & lots of rain (though it's a good thing i guess). I was going to complain about the cold but i'm pretty sure it's nothing compared to Denmark ^^
I hope you're alright now, it must have been scary to fall like that and I don't think you're imagining things, horses are really good at reading people and Shilo must know you really well by now.
I remember last year, right when i was having major behaviour issues with Dayka when she was living alone, my old shoulder injury came back. For a few days I could barely use my arm and the first day i went to handle her she was super gentle, lowering her head for me, not moving at all during grooming, giving me her feet on her own (which she never did at the time) etc. For the few days that i was in pain she was super sweet and as soon as my arm was better she switched back to normal :)
It's great that you're going back to the basics, you can never do too much of that, if anything it'll strengthen your bond.
I was debating whether to share this next because i have no idea if it's at all relevant to your situation with Shilo but i had a wonderful exprience during the summer with Dayka that really helped me with some of our issues.
She started getting sarcoids at the beginning of 2017 and for 6 months i tried all sorts of things that only made them worse until a friend told me about shiatsu. I gave it a try out of curiosity and it worked wonders. (to be honest i was extremely skeptical about the thing until i actually saw what happened)
But the best part was the surprise that i got a couple of days after the session. Dayka suddenly stopped being spooky on hand and while ridden. It was like a switch had been flipped. Overnight (and without changing anything on my part) she stopped trying to bolt and panicking when scared. Don't get me wrong she still spooks at certain things (like chainsaws) but she contains herself and actually waits for me to tell her how to react when, before the shiatsu, she would just shut me out and i'd have to fight her to keep her under control. And for most things that used to make her lose it she just ignores them now. We had made some progress before (compared to how difficult she was originally) and I thought we had come a long way but this was beyond anything i even thought would be possible.
I talked about it with the lady who did the work and she told me that sometimes unbalances happen in the body and mind that can prevent certain blocks from being resolved, no matter how much work you put in. We've had another session since then and Dayka feels so much better "in her skin" that now, we go riding with another young horse and SHE is the one comforting him and calming him down !!
So anyway, like i said i have no idea if that would be relevant to you and Shilo but this experience was so crazy for us I thought i'd share it with you ;)
ok i'll stop now or i'll never shut up^^
I have no idea What shiatsu is...like acupuncture for horses maybe?
I’ll google it.
I would say that your experience calls for some reading about, on my part.
Maybe it will be relevant for Shilo and me in the future, but I think I get from your message that you think the fall x 3 from Shilo is the reason I got injured... easy mistake to make, because you could not know that I was operated again on my spine, infact, just after the falls, but not because of them, you see, I have a sickness in my spine and 3 slipped discs in my neck and 2 in my lower back.
I will have to see how Shilo handles me on his back again before I can see if he spooks.
Spooking from the ground is something I worked a lot with 2 years ago, and I always have Bud’s ‘cup of worry’ ( old post on the forum ) in my mind when dealing with Shilo.
I really need to make sure that Shilo is not going to bolt or worse when riding him, so I’m doing double/ treble ground work, he needs to be bomb proof - or better ( I am laughing now)
I’m due for another MRI scanning and other tests on 23 Jan, I have some nerve issues in my right arm and hand after the surgeries, if all goes well then I’m planning to book myself some riding lessons at the local riding school, I want to work on my balance and just gain confidence before attempting to back Shilo again, I won’t be riding him before I am as sure as I can be, and as prepared as I can make myself.
My family think that I am stupid, so I don’t get support so much from them.
I don’t have any horse interested friends, so I’m pretty much alone with my project.
I don’t worry about what the others think of me, I refuse to sit in my bed or a chair all day, and I refuse to let myself and more importantly Shilo down.
I made him a promise, that I always would look after him, that he would never be sold from me, and that we would, some day ride off into the sunset together, and damn it that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Sorry Lucie, that was far too long and way off topic.
Congratulations on being brave enough to know you have to follow your own path!
I've had serious back surgery years ago and I 'm absolutely sure my horse knew how vulnerable I was, she did take care of me, on the ground and in the saddle.
"Relationship first" is one of the terms from Joe Camp, who uses a lot of Monty's methods.
Safety is paramount, so always stay safe, but most of all enjoy the bond you're building with Shilo. Whatever comes later in life, at least you've followed your own feelings and that is never a thing to be sorry about!
Please keep us posted,
Miriam
I never answered you question about shiatsu, sorry about that. Yes it's like acupuncture but without needles. It's bodywork using the acupuncture points (amongst other things)