Butterfly training & event prep (Equidays: part 3)

This is part 3 of the "Equidays prep" series.  If you are joining in late and would like to catch up, here's part 1.

Well here we are, I blinked and it's all only a week away.  Funny how time does that. 

​I've been struggling to do as much as I would have liked because the weather has been absolutely horrendous.  Either pouring rain or gale-force winds (not even exaggerating! Check out the video).  Not exactly ideal horse training weather!  It was literally almost blowing me off my feet at times.

So how's my plan progressing?  Well, I've walked Hokey down the road to a friend's arena and taken him to the RDA indoor again by himself, and each time he's been calm and connected (more or less).  He's getting the hang of all this and I think being off grass and on supplements is helping too.  

I've got costume and props sorted for the night show - can't show you what it is but I think it's pretty cute.  Also have the routine pretty much decided.  He has really been struggling with his 'park' while in the new environments though, so  I guess we'll have to see how that goes during rehearsal. I might have to minimise that particular part and let him stay close to me.

We've got our rehearsal times - we only get one 15 minute slot the night before the show to familiarise the horses with the big indoor arena. Not as much time as I'd hoped for, but it is what it is.

Since I don't have any relevant photos for this blog, here's some cute ones from the Multi-Species training clinic a couple of weeks ago.  So much fun!  These gorgeous faces belong to animals from Bullswool Farm Park.

Another interesting tangent (my favourite sort): I talked in the first of this blog series about training my nervous butterflies to fly in formation.  I thought it was worth pointing out that while this has in fact been done in real life, with real butterflies!  

 

"...the music began to swell, and...I watched in awe as approximately 2,000 red and orange colors fluttered across the space in front of me. They undulated in a beautiful tight formation and landed on the far right side of the garden.
Then there was another swell of music and about 2,500 purple and blue butterflies fluttered in a similar manner from the far left to another location on the far right. Then...close to 5,000 butterflies of multiple colors took off from a location across from me and fluttered straight toward me and over my head, settling into their trees and bushes far behind me. There were tears in my eyes, and I was speechless! I had been so much in the middle of the process I had yet to truly appreciate how beautiful this behavior was."
- Ken Ramirez, "The Butterfly Project"

 

Using careful shaping and positive reinforcement, Ken Ramirez trained 10,000 butterflies to fly in formation between two points.  Here's the description of this amazing feat and how it was trained, it is well worth a read.  So there's my reality check.  Training like THAT is happening in the world right now.  Incredible, and humbling.

Next week I'm teaching the RDA holiday program as usual (Mon-Wed), and then heading straight to Equidays.  Not sure if I'll get a chance to do another blog from the event, but you never know. 

I will leave you with this rather entertaining video in which Dan & Dan demonstrate exactly how one should handle the situation when carefully laid plans go awry - with humour and calm confidence.  May I channel that attitude in the days to come!

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So there you have it.  ​​Once this is over it'll be back to normal programming.  I've got a ton of topics to write blogs about but don't hesitate to suggest a topic or ask a question and I'll add it to the list!

xx Bex