I was feeling out of sorts, but pony chores still needed to get done.  In the course of moving ponies from one place to another, I fed a treat to a pony that I usually don’t treat.  I gave in to the look in her eyes that said, “I know you’ve given treats to the other mares; what about me?”  I immediately knew I was going to regret the decision.  In my experience it takes as long as three months before a pony who’s been given a treat will stop looking for one.

It was right after the holidays, and my brain was a little foggy and I was a little achy.  I was pretty sure I knew what the source of my discomfort was; I had gone off my usually healthy diet and eaten more sugary foods than normal from Thanksgiving through New Year’s.  I had cleaned up my act but then relapsed on a long road-trip, eating leftover Christmas cookies to pass the time.  After that, though, I ended up having trouble walking.  It took even longer to clean up my act than it had before.  This wasn’t a new downward spiral for me; I’d been here many times before in my life.  I knew I needed to shape up, but I also knew that I would likely succumb to dietary indiscretions again; history has definitely repeated itself in my life in that department.  Then I heard a podcast that gave me new insight and new motivation.

The title of the podcast (click here) was about detoxing the brain.  What really sucked me in, though, was the link the doctors made between poor dietary choices and decision-making.  I was obviously well aware of the link between poor dietary choices and inflammation in my body.  But what was new to me was the link between poor dietary choices and brain fog and the downward spiral of poor decision making that results from that brain fog.  It turns out then when our body is inflamed, so is our brain, though we rarely recognize it because we feel so out of sorts.  And when our brain is inflamed, with brain fog being a tell-tale symptom, we tend to make decisions differently.  Instead of making decisions with long term benefits and strategic goals in mind, we make decisions that result in shorter term gratification.  And those shorter term types of decisions tend to be self-fulfilling.  Eat the leftover cookies as a treat on a long ride in the car rather than avoid them, then suffer even more and make more bad choices.  It’s not just a mental cycle; there’s biochemistry behind it, too, which is what makes it so challenging to undo.

So, getting back to treating that pony….  I wasn’t feeling well, and I made a decision to feed her a treat which made her happy in that moment and I was happy too because I made her happy.  But when I’m feeling well, I don’t succumb to that look from those big brown eyes, and instead her manners are better and our relationship can be focused on expanding her skills rather than me fending off her attempts to get in my pockets.  And I am happy because she’s a better pony than she was before.

Now that I understand the impact that poor dietary choices have on my decision-making, I see a lot of patterns in my life that perhaps I can now reshape.  I’m more motivated than ever to stay clean!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Stories like this one populate my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I am bringing my Fjord gelding Torrin back into work after a long time off.  When Torrin is out of a working mindset and under saddle for the first time in awhile, he will sometimes lower his head, waggle it back and forth and then occasionally waggle his whole body before offering a small buck and then taking off at a run.  I’ve worked with him long enough to arrest this sequence before it progresses too far, and when I’m successful, it will even make me laugh!

I was thinking about my work with Torrin when I wrote the article “Don’t Drill Them,” inspired by a very simple, clear, and accurate discussion of the topic by an owner of two of my ponies (click here to read it).  A conventional approach to dealing with an equine who is out of a working mindset and has lots of energy is to lunge them to get their excess energy out of them or at least reduced.  I’ve never ascribed to this approach.  For one, I appreciate an active walk, like Torrin has, and I don’t want to work it (drill it) out of them.  And second, my goal isn’t to get their energy out of them; I want their cooperation in the activity I have in mind and for them to use their energy in that activity.  Lunging seems different from what I do; instead I want to work them on-line in a way that is about communication, where I can ask for their cooperation and then assess their willingness to give it.

I do put Torrin out on a circle, and I ask for particular gaits, transitions between gaits, and changes in direction.  If he changes gait on his own (usually up when he’s not in a working mindset!), then I know he’s not ready to be ridden safely.  In fact, he’ll often start his amusing sequence, lowering his head, waggling it back and forth, etc, including trying to take off at a run, which of course only goes as far as the end of the line in my hand (and a few steps on my part to arrest his momentum!)  I will continue to ask for compliance with my requests of specific gaits, changes in gait and direction, and when Torrin chooses to work with me rather than go his own way, then we will progress to the activity I had in mind when we came together.  I’m definitely not drilling him; I’m continually asking for something specific and assessing Torrin’s response.

One day I went out to work with Torrin, and he was lying down napping in the sun.  I put his halter on and stepped back, inviting him to go work with me.  He got up and followed me out the gate.  When I put him out on a circle, it was clear I had a cooperative pony, so I mounted and took a short ride.  On this day, I’m afraid if I had done much work on-line at a trot or canter, Torrin would have woken up more completely and reverted to his playful self!

Today after several days in a row of his antics on-line, Torrin showed me in an on-line session that he was willing to listen and respond promptly to everything I asked.  We then took a marvelous ride with not a step misplaced.  I didn’t do a prescribed number of circles at each gait or a prescribed number of gait or direction transitions; that approach feels like drilling.  I did just enough to know we had two-way communication.  Torrin’s response was feedback that not drilling works very well indeed.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

There are more stories like this one in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.