#dani diary

[schapendoess]

A little update as I haven’t been posting much over the summer: Dani spent the summer recovering from an injury and growing into herself some more so now she’s a chunky monkey ready to start back into work! I need to get a nice confo shot of her as she seems to have come out of her ugly duckling stage somewhat and I’m so excited for how she’ll look once she’s fit!

[schapendoess]

Dani was absolutely amazing today!! Today I finally got to feel a nice forward moving trot with her using herself with a couple small glimpses of a real frame!!

She is getting stronger and I can’t believe how much her trot has changed. Her staying forward with a nice big stride is steadily improving as well as we both get more fit.

She was also avoiding her corners but with a few rewards when she was in them made her perfectly happy to stay in them.

 We also achieved the start of a left bend and a leg yield to move her into her corners. She fought the contact and was unsure of what I wanted but once she was rewarded for the correct movement she got the idea extremely quickly and when I asked again she was an eager participant.

[shslshortie]

God damn it that's still wasn't even my last post. I just feel like he is great cuz like he ain't even really touch me like just like a little kind of like a nudge or like a pat but like I kind of wish I had kissed him or like actually cuddled cuz that would have been nice but it's like now I'm just like and kind of upset and kind of frustrated so I don't know. I'm also glad he didn't or I didn't cuz my little was right there and so is his girlfriend so was their friends so I don't know. It would have been weird either way but now I'm just kind of like well who knows?

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Also if anyone actually reads through all of these can you please tell me if this actually makes sense cuz I'm just going to rambling and like talking but I don't know if the audio text reader typer thing is actually getting it so I'm also too drunk to check but it's fine. Thanks. Sorry?

[schapendoess]

Dani tried to kick me today

that was fun

I was in the round pen with her doing back-ups with +r and I got distracted by my dog and yelled at her and then Dani got frustrated and the way she shows it is through turning her butt towards me. I moved out of the way so no harm no foul

[schapendoess]

learning about learning theory has really changed my perspective on the equestrian community 

going back to my old barn just makes me sad. many of the trainers are SO against anything to do with positive reinforcement, and the one who occasionally does gets made fun of for it

I’ve always tried to be the kindest I can be to my horses and recently learning that positive reinforcement can be a valid way to train a horse has really opened my mind. I taught all of my horses tricks using treats but having a trainer from the show circuit it never crossed my mind until relatively recently that I can have a horse who really wants to work, and not just because they like the exercise but because they are interested in working for a what I have to offer them

taking a break from the horse world was really an eye opener. its been a year since i officially sold my mare and I’m sad she’s gone but I’m glad I now have the opportunity to restart an OTTB and incorporate +r into our program