The Art of Natural Dressage

Working with the Horse's Initiative
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:08 pm

All times are UTC+01:00




Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 47 posts ]  Go to page Previous 1 2 3 4
Author Message
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:16 pm 

Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 3:25 pm
Posts: 18
Thanks, Romy. I will look at the post. Here is the picture of how bored Phoebe looked with the games this morning. :)
Well, that didn't work. I have the picture saved on Google+ and I thought since it has an internet address it would work. But, It didn't. I will have to try something different when I have more time.( See picture of Phoebe looking bored, in the "pictures and videos" post)
In the meantime, I will read over the post of ideas and see what I can come up with for Phoebe. :yes:


Last edited by KeliNM on Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
   
PostPosted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:30 am 
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:42 am
Posts: 2147
Location: Vienna, Austria
I also highly recommend the thread that Romy posted. There are so many ways to initiate an interaction, but I think they are all about finding a common language. That process takes time.

The way I see "just being with your horse", is not just being with my horse at any place, but at HIS place ;). I meet the horse at his home, in the herd. And there, I behave by their rules, trying to blend in with their customs. If I remember correctly, I wrote about that in more detail in the aforementioned thread...

Regarding playing with horses, I think horses are in generally curious by nature, but they are also wary by nature. As I experience it, playfulness comes out only against a backdrop of safety and all games need established rules at first. That applies especially to playing with objects.

With Mucki, it took a long, long time to have him play with me when we are alone in the arena. At first, I mostly met him in his home, among his herd buddies, in the environment where he felt absolutely safe. Even there, it initially took a while for him to engage in playful interaction with me.
Then, in the beginning, I spent most of the time playing, but the playing was actually a means to find a mutual language together. I learned how to use my body language so that Mucki could understand it, and Mucki learned what I meant by certain cues that were not so intuitive.
From that common ground, we were able to have fun with other games, like playing with a ball for example. But I had to explain to Mucki that objects (that were uninteresting, or even scary before) could be used as toys.

_________________
Volker

The horse owes us nothing.


Top
   
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 47 posts ]  Go to page Previous 1 2 3 4

All times are UTC+01:00


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited Color scheme created with Colorize It.