In which we dance the Dragon Tango: two steps forward and one step back
After the wonderful breakthrough a few days ago, I was eager to "cement the lesson" by practicing it on the trail. Fiddle had other plans.
We rode out yesterday with the Usual Suspects, and I could feel the Cloud of Snarkiness building. Some days, she is completely content to tag along at the end of the train, and other days I'm riding a horse they should have named "Road Rage." Guess which horse I had yesterday?
Yeah.
We practiced the halt-to-trot transition with excessive praise early, and she responded really well...until it was time to separate from the group and go solo.
This is where Fiddle's personality is important to understand: she would rather be Right than be Good.
She figures that she knows how things "ought to be".
If I ask her to do something else, she figures that I'm probably Wrong, so she points out my Wrongness. If I insist that she try the new thing, she gets mad--not because she doesn't want to do the new thing, but be…
We rode out yesterday with the Usual Suspects, and I could feel the Cloud of Snarkiness building. Some days, she is completely content to tag along at the end of the train, and other days I'm riding a horse they should have named "Road Rage." Guess which horse I had yesterday?
Yeah.
We practiced the halt-to-trot transition with excessive praise early, and she responded really well...until it was time to separate from the group and go solo.
This is where Fiddle's personality is important to understand: she would rather be Right than be Good.
She figures that she knows how things "ought to be".
If I ask her to do something else, she figures that I'm probably Wrong, so she points out my Wrongness. If I insist that she try the new thing, she gets mad--not because she doesn't want to do the new thing, but be…