About Me

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USDF Region 1, United States
Rigitta is a 2005 Lipizzan mare,(Pluto II Dixana x Rheia), that I finally found Dec 2010 after a 2 year search for a Lipizzan. Many adventures and new found friends later, Rigitta and I begin our partnership and eventual dressage competitive career. Rigitta has not been started yet so this will all be from scratch just like my 2007 Dutch Warmblood, Cedar(Theo), has been. I am an over 50 Adult Amateur Dressage competitor. I am a supporter of the Nokota Horse and have owned several. ... www.nokotahorse.org ... Amy Dragoo is helping me with my Blog photos. Majority are from her. ... AK Dragoo Photography, LLC ... www.akdragoophoto.com ... You can follow her Blog here: http://akdragoophoto.squarespace.com/view-all-posts/ ... Also a shout out to Sarah Casey and Waltzing Horse Farm Berlin, New York where I got Rigitta ... http://www.waltzinghorsefarm.com/ ... Make sure you click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page to see everything that has been happening since the beginning of the adventure!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The noise of plastic in the morning

Introduced the plastic bag on the end of a dressage whip this morning.  I knew even though she was now used to the plastic bags in my hands that doing it a new way would mean starting all over.  She is not connecting the dots yet.

I started up the scale of what she knows already before doing the new task.  The towel all over her, the crackly plastic sheet all over her, the plasitic bags in my hands all over her...all was fine.  Presented her with the bag on the end of the whip and predictably she was alarmed, so slow work and I just asked her to accept one task.

My goal was for her to stand still as I waved it up and down beside her on both sides of her.  It took a slow 20 minutes with lots of breaks to decompress before achieving the goal.  She had to learn if she tried to move forward away from it that I would back her up, if she tried to back up away from it I would bring her forward again.  I left her alone if she moved sideways away from it so that she had one way of "escaping".  At the end of the 20 minutes she didn't move and was calm as I repeated it on both sides of her.

Then I gave her a good grooming all over, that she loves, including her face so she could feel all warm and fuzzy with me again.

The old saying of wash, rinse, repeat and change the shampoo brand daily works for Gitta.

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