Back from a brief time away. I have not been lazy however as I am busy writing a website that describes the plan as explained to me by James Roberts. To say it is a lot of work is an understatement. There is so much to explain and research to do to get it all to make sense. It is of course improving my knowledge greatly so is well worth the effort.
Back to the horses. Most effort has been put into Billy recently, and the riding is progressing well, except for one aspect. Going forwards is an issue, which is a bit problematic for a race horse. On the other hand back up is amazing !
Last night I decided to get help from Ritchie and I will describe the session in some detail as it was interesting.
I started playing around 14:45, with deadline of 16:00 so that we could go to the cinema. (Kings Speech : very good). I got Billy from the field and managed to draw him to the gate which given the mud at the entrance was a Godsend. Not strictly "having the horse catch me" but not bad. He stood quietly on the other side of the gate as I haltered him and then willingly walked to the yard with me. After a foot wash I got him into the school and continued with the plan. There was a lot happening on the yard and he was edgy about all the noise. Touch all over was kind of all right, but he would not standstill. Place the feet was even trickier but we managed in the end. Alarm bells were beginning to ring. For the prepare to ride section I asked for some circles with the odd transition, halt walk trot and back down. This was actually quite good, but with a little trouble on the right circle. He has always been a little unconfident in this direction.
He still seemed on edge though and did not appear the calm relaxed horse I was used to. He had spooked several times, but to say the flight distance was short would be an understatement, which is a big improvement over the old days were a couple of laps of a field was common.
Rope around was really not good at all with a resistant Billy, not the usual willing to please horse.
He did not look like a horse I would want to ride. Thank God for the plan which allowed me to test this from the ground.
What to do now ?
I had noted in the past that he was worried about going to the end of the school that opens to the outside, and this direction had definitely been an issue when trying to ask for forwards whilst ridden in the past. Rode my first bareback buck a while back !! I needed an exercise that emphasised going forwards, had me close by for confidence (circling was out) and was repetitive and calming.
I don't know where the idea came from but I selected zone 3 driving. This consists of "leading" the horse not from alongside his head, but from abeam his withers or even further back, where one would sit when riding. This is done online (although I have done it at liberty with Filly) with the carrot stick resting on his withers in a neutral, friendly position. If he moves too slowly I lift the stick, move it to his rump (phase 1), wave it up and down (phase 2), lightly tap (phase 3), stronger tap (phase 4). The stick returns to the withers as soon as he is back in the correct position. Should he try and turn across me then the stick can be used alongside his head to drive him back to a straight line, again with phases. If he turns away then a feel on the rope to bring him back to straight is all that is needed.
To add purpose I also simulated "following the rail" by just walking accurately round and round the school. Eventually I want him to do this with NO corrections at all whilst ridden.
To start he was very very worried when walking towards the spooky end, and some "ninja" stick and rope work was needed to keep him moving, but slowly he calmed down and we got some really confident laps.
This was not before he gave me a black eye however. To make him go deep into the corners and not cut them short I was asking for him to go deep into the corner and then we would stop and rest. Thus the corners become a place of rest and relaxation. He didn't understand this to start with and with me standing by his side he decided to try to come out of the corner and past/through me. To be fair he lifted his head over mine (he did knock my hat of though, a grievous crime), but unfortunately the heavy lead rope snap whacked me above the eye. Sore !! I am proud to say that I did not let it out focus me and we continued with the session whilst I wiped blood from my eye.
Eventually we had a calm Billy and after a quick run through the plan again it was time to get on. The idea was for Ritchie to help by using the 22 foot line to back up my requests for forward aids, but Billy was not happy having her near us as I got on. As soon as she retreated 10 feet or so he neatly positioned himself against my legs and I could mount. Interesting !! Maybe having two of us near him was putting to much pressure on him.
I started with all the usual post mounting exercises, starting with the most important, "stand still". Lateral flexion
Ritchie was at the end of the loose 22 foot rope throughout this process. Now it was time to ask for forwards, which had caused so much trouble in the past. The idea was for me to apply my aids in slow phases and Ritchie could add an additional phase by applying a draw to the rope. This worked well and after a few attempts we were getting him to move forwards with phase one pressure from me. This just means lifting the rope to get his attention and "smiling with all four cheeks". i.e smile and tense the buttocks. Amazingly light for so early in his riding training.
In the end this was a very successful session, and it really showed the value of the plan to check the horse is safe to ride prior to mounting. In this case is revealed that the initially calm Billy was not as confident as he appeared to be. This allowed me to do something about it before I mounted, saving physical damage to myself and mental damage to Billy
Back to the horses. Most effort has been put into Billy recently, and the riding is progressing well, except for one aspect. Going forwards is an issue, which is a bit problematic for a race horse. On the other hand back up is amazing !
Last night I decided to get help from Ritchie and I will describe the session in some detail as it was interesting.
I started playing around 14:45, with deadline of 16:00 so that we could go to the cinema. (Kings Speech : very good). I got Billy from the field and managed to draw him to the gate which given the mud at the entrance was a Godsend. Not strictly "having the horse catch me" but not bad. He stood quietly on the other side of the gate as I haltered him and then willingly walked to the yard with me. After a foot wash I got him into the school and continued with the plan. There was a lot happening on the yard and he was edgy about all the noise. Touch all over was kind of all right, but he would not standstill. Place the feet was even trickier but we managed in the end. Alarm bells were beginning to ring. For the prepare to ride section I asked for some circles with the odd transition, halt walk trot and back down. This was actually quite good, but with a little trouble on the right circle. He has always been a little unconfident in this direction.
He still seemed on edge though and did not appear the calm relaxed horse I was used to. He had spooked several times, but to say the flight distance was short would be an understatement, which is a big improvement over the old days were a couple of laps of a field was common.
Rope around was really not good at all with a resistant Billy, not the usual willing to please horse.
He did not look like a horse I would want to ride. Thank God for the plan which allowed me to test this from the ground.
What to do now ?
I had noted in the past that he was worried about going to the end of the school that opens to the outside, and this direction had definitely been an issue when trying to ask for forwards whilst ridden in the past. Rode my first bareback buck a while back !! I needed an exercise that emphasised going forwards, had me close by for confidence (circling was out) and was repetitive and calming.
I don't know where the idea came from but I selected zone 3 driving. This consists of "leading" the horse not from alongside his head, but from abeam his withers or even further back, where one would sit when riding. This is done online (although I have done it at liberty with Filly) with the carrot stick resting on his withers in a neutral, friendly position. If he moves too slowly I lift the stick, move it to his rump (phase 1), wave it up and down (phase 2), lightly tap (phase 3), stronger tap (phase 4). The stick returns to the withers as soon as he is back in the correct position. Should he try and turn across me then the stick can be used alongside his head to drive him back to a straight line, again with phases. If he turns away then a feel on the rope to bring him back to straight is all that is needed.
To add purpose I also simulated "following the rail" by just walking accurately round and round the school. Eventually I want him to do this with NO corrections at all whilst ridden.
To start he was very very worried when walking towards the spooky end, and some "ninja" stick and rope work was needed to keep him moving, but slowly he calmed down and we got some really confident laps.
This was not before he gave me a black eye however. To make him go deep into the corners and not cut them short I was asking for him to go deep into the corner and then we would stop and rest. Thus the corners become a place of rest and relaxation. He didn't understand this to start with and with me standing by his side he decided to try to come out of the corner and past/through me. To be fair he lifted his head over mine (he did knock my hat of though, a grievous crime), but unfortunately the heavy lead rope snap whacked me above the eye. Sore !! I am proud to say that I did not let it out focus me and we continued with the session whilst I wiped blood from my eye.
Eventually we had a calm Billy and after a quick run through the plan again it was time to get on. The idea was for Ritchie to help by using the 22 foot line to back up my requests for forward aids, but Billy was not happy having her near us as I got on. As soon as she retreated 10 feet or so he neatly positioned himself against my legs and I could mount. Interesting !! Maybe having two of us near him was putting to much pressure on him.
I started with all the usual post mounting exercises, starting with the most important, "stand still". Lateral flexion
Ritchie was at the end of the loose 22 foot rope throughout this process. Now it was time to ask for forwards, which had caused so much trouble in the past. The idea was for me to apply my aids in slow phases and Ritchie could add an additional phase by applying a draw to the rope. This worked well and after a few attempts we were getting him to move forwards with phase one pressure from me. This just means lifting the rope to get his attention and "smiling with all four cheeks". i.e smile and tense the buttocks. Amazingly light for so early in his riding training.
In the end this was a very successful session, and it really showed the value of the plan to check the horse is safe to ride prior to mounting. In this case is revealed that the initially calm Billy was not as confident as he appeared to be. This allowed me to do something about it before I mounted, saving physical damage to myself and mental damage to Billy
3 comments:
Great plan! Hope the eye heals fast... :-)
Petra Christensen
Parelli 2Star Junior Instructor
Parelli Central
All sounds like you did a good job to me, though I am not so sure your claim to fame is 'saving yourself injury'...he he....hope the black eye feels better soon....owie!
Good point. It was to be the other horses first ride and I was nervous about having Filly in the school whilst this happened in case we caused the first ride a problem. I tried to keep my energy down, but she knows me well and could have picked up on my concern.
We have lots of young race horses being started at the yard at the moment, although I am the only one using "natural" methods.
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