Beege tells me he's not at all confident when he runs around and whinnies when I take Odin out. How to help a horse with arthritis find confidence? 1) Routine: take Odin out as many days in a row possible, even if just for 15 minutes. Beege will eventually understand that Odin is coming back and that he does survive separation. 2) Practice some skills that Beege is good at: targeting, friendly game, backing up, moving forward, changing direction, sidepass over a log in both direction (left to right needs more practice), weave around cones, turn on the haunches and forehand.
Recently I mentioned a book by British trainer, Vanessa Bee, also founder of obstacle competitions for horses. Her books explain very simple training methods to keep you and horse safe plus do some fun exercises. Because this farm is a horse farm turned to chicken/pig farm and back to horse farm, there are a bunch of things around that make great obstacles: logs, trees from which to hang flags, a grown over sand round pen space. Plus I have cones given to me from another horse person.
Two logs set in parallel can make a chute to walk forward in then back out and/or side pass over, turn on the forehand, sidepass in both directions facing the other way, walk around the mounting block to the first flag attached to the snowmobile trailer, weave around the cones, then target the flag hanging from the tree, reverse, turn on the forehand then stop in a bare sandy spot that will eventually be designated with a hula hoop on the ground. Visual cues are good.
Beege and I practiced this pattern three times, not perfectly but pretty good really. He even let me touch him with the flag, which he usually regards as a dangerous firebrand that is going pierce him through the heart. What I think is that taking him through a few exercises that give him confidence, teaches him that he can be confident about other obstacles. Then I tried to take him through the course at liberty.
He obliged me for a little while, it was a little sloppy but after we targeted the final flag in the tree we were supposed to turn on the forehand and stop on the sandy spot. Nope. He wanted to be with Odin again who was in an adjacent pasture. We will work on longevity. Perhaps a little clicker training with treats as a reward to keep him with me for a little longer.
This afternoon I will work a bit with Odin, maybe get on him again with the bareback pad.