Noticing the Smallest Change November and December were challenging months for me as my mother has been recovering from a serious surgery. Trips to the barn were a low priority and I didn’t have time to do much when I was there other than check on Sonny’s supplements and clean him up a bit. But Mom is now well enough to be left alone so yesterday I was happy to get down to the barn with enough time to actually play with a horse. Sonny is recovering from an ankle injury that also happened in November (it really was a bad month) so he can’t do much at the moment. Fortunately our barn is now host to several horses that are being used in a new Delaware State Police mounted patrol and their owners have invited me to play with the horses. So yesterday, I played with Jack. Jack is the center horse in the picture and when I first met him last summer, he reminded me of my first horse, Max. Both Jack and Max are RBI, although I didn’t know that when I bought Max. Max had been professionally trained. He was very obedient and tried very hard to do what I asked but he had no personality. When I would go into his stall he would just stand there looking away from me and tolerating whatever I wanted to do. I hadn’t heard of natural horsemanship when I bought Max but fortunately, I gave him just what he needed, lots of Friendly Game. I spent lots of time grooming him and, because I was a novice rider, took things nice a slow. Gradually, Max’s personality started to emerge and we formed a bond that lasted 23 years, until Max died at the age of 32. Jack is the spitting image of Max and like Max he is very obedient but he lacks any exuberance so the few times I have played with him in the past, I have focused on building a relationship. Yesterday, when I led him from the field, I noticed that he trailed along behind me, not pulling on the lead but not walking up next to my shoulder like a partner so I decided that the focus of my session would be to see if I could get him to be a little bit more connected. Jack lives in a field so he was blanketed with a heavy rug and a Lycra® under blanket. I had taken him into the indoor arena to play and it took a few minutes to wrestle him out of his clothing. At one point, I had to take his halter off to remove the hood and he stood next to me without moving but I could tell from his body language that he was not really relaxed. I groomed him for a few minutes, looking for itchy spots and watching his reaction. After a few minutes he was licking and chewing and occasionally looking in my direction. Since Jack is so compliant, I thought I might focus on something to increase his curiosity and started with the touch it game, driving from zone 3. The arena was sent up with a number of jumps and Jack would approach the jumps but was hesitant to go up and touch them. Rather than forcing the issue, when Jack had reached his threshold and stopped, I would then ask him to squeeze between me and the object. After a few squeezes, when I got a good lick and chew, I would then send him to the jump once more and most of the time he touched it with his nose. It was very windy yesterday and our indoor arena makes lots of interesting noises in the wind. In the beginning of the session, Jack was very distracted by the wind noises and he would throw his head up and orient toward the noise. As our session progresses, he became more relaxed and more focused on me. After about 20 minutes, I took Jack over to the mounting block to play. The mounting block in our arena a three step monster that is about waist high on most people. I sent Jack over to the block and waited for him to touch it with his nose. Then I climbed up to the top step of the block. This put me quite a bit higher with than Jack’s head and he was clearly uncomfortable with that. Through approach and retreat, Jack was finally able to come and stand next to the block with me towering over him and he allowed me to stroke him all over while standing calmly. I played with Jack for about an hour before wrestling him back into his body liner and rug. There had been a lot of licking and chewing and by the end of our session, Jack had even given me a good blow out and a yawn or two, all good signs. But the best sign that I had made some progress was the difference in Jack’s position and body posture as I walked him back to his field. Rather than dragging along behind me as he had done coming in, Jack walked at my shoulder, ears pricked, stepping along at the same pace. When I stopped, he stopped at my shoulder and even gave me two eyes in a tiny bit of a question. And when I removed his halter in the field, he stayed right with me while I gave him a good scratch on the neck. Before I discovered natural horsemanship, I looked for big shifts in my horse’s performance to tell me I was making progress. I probably wouldn’t have noticed any of these little changes, the shifts in body position, the licking and chewing, the yawning or blowing. But when a RBI is as obedient and compliant as my Max was or as Jack, is it is these little changes that tell indicate you’re on the right track. It is these little changes that tell you the relationship is getting stronger and the horse is getting more confident. Building the skill to recognize these little changes is one of the things that makes me a better horseman, and I know by the way Jack stayed with me when I turned him out yesterday, that he recognized it too.