Another two good days with Billy.
Yesterday I followed the plan all the way to mounting (excluding saddling of course) and he behaved impeccably. As soon as I got on the mounting block, and with no aid from myself he walked calmly over and gently nudged against my legs as if to say "get on with it, mount up". I got on twice yesterday, once with another horse in the school and each time he was very well behaved. I pushed a little harder and managed to get several steps of backup and very nice lateral flexions. Strictly the order should be reversed but I wanted to move away from the mounting block such that if he moved sideways with the lateral flexion he did not bang his legs. He is still a bit clumsy like that I did not not want pain to be the result of my sitting on him.
We are not neglecting basic ground work however and I am incorporating new things into the preparation to ride. Yesterday I worked particularly on his sideways which had made him unconfident in the past. As I had noted with Filly previously the mere act of having been on Billy has greatly improved his confidence in me and the rapport we have. I thought I had just imagined it with Filly, but I am seeing the same effect again.
Filly was still being difficult and attempting to dominate yesterday. Touch all over was a bit better with much less tail swishing and biting attempts. Placing the feet is actually a dream with her, no issues at all. Again choosing my moments carefully I re asserted my right to be the leader and all went well thereafter. It is a continuous battle, but I feel lucky to be training her. She really stretches my savvy level, not to mention improving my reaction time. I am working on some basics again that she has become a bit slack on, but now incorporating them in the plan.
As a slight change in tack I also spent much more time just cuddling her. She always craved contact but the biting issue had tended to put me off a bit. Whenever she tried to bite I just wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big long gentle cuddle. This disarmed her and we got on much better towards the end. I guess a top horseman would have worked this out a while ago, but I don't have that much experience. All I can do is try different tactics and see which ones work, and in the process gain that much needed experience for myself.
Back to today's training with Filly. This started well but then another horse entered the school to have a first ride. This seemed to really really upset her. She reared up, span round and acted generally in a very RB way. I could not get her to settle. I apologised and rapidly departed the indoor school for the outdoor. I thought she was being frightened, but one of the others in there thought she was just being naughty, which made me analyse the situation more closely. She was calm whilst the other horse was just being lunged and we had made good progress with lateral flexion moving onto indirect rein on the ground. We had also played some YoYo game over a pole. (With the other horse being lunged I had restricted space). It wasn't until the rider got onto the mounting block that she started to play up and it coincided precisely with that moment. It got worse as the rider lay over the other horse, bringing a comment about bad timing. I don't see why these events should suddenly make her feel aggressive towards me. In addition her ears had become fixed and her eyes unblinking and wide. This seems like classical RB behaviour to me.
In the outdoor school with her adrenaline running high I made her move her feet a lot with travelling circles at trot and canter. To start they were very unconfident with lots of pulling back, but slowly the familiar pattern calmed her down and she did some nice controlled circles. She did try to crowd me at times, but a sharp slap with the end of the rope on the barging shoulder corrected that. As I was taught a while ago, have a look at the flex of the horse as it come towards you. If it is curved so that it is pushing its shoulder into you it is trying to dominate by invading personal space, so react by protecting that space. After 10 minutes of this she was calm enough to go back into the indoor school, now empty, and actually get on her. Nice lateral flexion, but due to my weight no more was attempted.
Back to Billy again. I prepared him for his fourth ride, and again we flew through the plan with no hitches at all. Even placing the feet is getting good. I recruited one of the other horse owners to just watch in case there was a problem and got onto the mounting block. Not as good as yesterday with coming over to me as I actually had to give two taps with the carrot stick to get him in position to mount. Mounting went OK, but he did move a couple of steps, I suspect because he had not braced his feet enough prior to me mounting. My fault for not preparing him well enough.
Today I wanted to ask for more movement, so started with lateral flexions. A little bracey to start, but eventually they past the 4 ounces of pressure test easily. A lateral flexion is where the horse is asked to stand still and just turn his head round so his nose is near your leg. I'll put the whole plan on the web soon with all of this explained. Next I asked for and easily got several steps of backup. Stopping him going backwards was a little tricky, but basically I just totally relaxed in my seat and acted like a sack of spuds.
We then moved onto indirect and direct rein exercises. I had done many of these on the ground in the prepare to ride section.
The indirect rein starts with a lateral flexion, but then I look down and back at his hind quarters. This shifts my weight on his back and acts as a phase one cue to move his hind legs away from my gaze. Then my leg goes back and applies a little pressure behind the girth area. No kicking please. After a few seconds of no response I took my hand and lightly tapped his flank until his hind quarters moved away from the pressure, at which point I rewarded him by instantly removing all the cues and becoming the sack of spuds again.
I could go through all the exercises we did, but suffice to say all went very well and they will be written up soon in the new website I am slowly putting together.
Dismounting was easy with no movement on his part and a nice cuddle.
Yesterday I followed the plan all the way to mounting (excluding saddling of course) and he behaved impeccably. As soon as I got on the mounting block, and with no aid from myself he walked calmly over and gently nudged against my legs as if to say "get on with it, mount up". I got on twice yesterday, once with another horse in the school and each time he was very well behaved. I pushed a little harder and managed to get several steps of backup and very nice lateral flexions. Strictly the order should be reversed but I wanted to move away from the mounting block such that if he moved sideways with the lateral flexion he did not bang his legs. He is still a bit clumsy like that I did not not want pain to be the result of my sitting on him.
We are not neglecting basic ground work however and I am incorporating new things into the preparation to ride. Yesterday I worked particularly on his sideways which had made him unconfident in the past. As I had noted with Filly previously the mere act of having been on Billy has greatly improved his confidence in me and the rapport we have. I thought I had just imagined it with Filly, but I am seeing the same effect again.
Filly was still being difficult and attempting to dominate yesterday. Touch all over was a bit better with much less tail swishing and biting attempts. Placing the feet is actually a dream with her, no issues at all. Again choosing my moments carefully I re asserted my right to be the leader and all went well thereafter. It is a continuous battle, but I feel lucky to be training her. She really stretches my savvy level, not to mention improving my reaction time. I am working on some basics again that she has become a bit slack on, but now incorporating them in the plan.
As a slight change in tack I also spent much more time just cuddling her. She always craved contact but the biting issue had tended to put me off a bit. Whenever she tried to bite I just wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big long gentle cuddle. This disarmed her and we got on much better towards the end. I guess a top horseman would have worked this out a while ago, but I don't have that much experience. All I can do is try different tactics and see which ones work, and in the process gain that much needed experience for myself.
Back to today's training with Filly. This started well but then another horse entered the school to have a first ride. This seemed to really really upset her. She reared up, span round and acted generally in a very RB way. I could not get her to settle. I apologised and rapidly departed the indoor school for the outdoor. I thought she was being frightened, but one of the others in there thought she was just being naughty, which made me analyse the situation more closely. She was calm whilst the other horse was just being lunged and we had made good progress with lateral flexion moving onto indirect rein on the ground. We had also played some YoYo game over a pole. (With the other horse being lunged I had restricted space). It wasn't until the rider got onto the mounting block that she started to play up and it coincided precisely with that moment. It got worse as the rider lay over the other horse, bringing a comment about bad timing. I don't see why these events should suddenly make her feel aggressive towards me. In addition her ears had become fixed and her eyes unblinking and wide. This seems like classical RB behaviour to me.
In the outdoor school with her adrenaline running high I made her move her feet a lot with travelling circles at trot and canter. To start they were very unconfident with lots of pulling back, but slowly the familiar pattern calmed her down and she did some nice controlled circles. She did try to crowd me at times, but a sharp slap with the end of the rope on the barging shoulder corrected that. As I was taught a while ago, have a look at the flex of the horse as it come towards you. If it is curved so that it is pushing its shoulder into you it is trying to dominate by invading personal space, so react by protecting that space. After 10 minutes of this she was calm enough to go back into the indoor school, now empty, and actually get on her. Nice lateral flexion, but due to my weight no more was attempted.
Back to Billy again. I prepared him for his fourth ride, and again we flew through the plan with no hitches at all. Even placing the feet is getting good. I recruited one of the other horse owners to just watch in case there was a problem and got onto the mounting block. Not as good as yesterday with coming over to me as I actually had to give two taps with the carrot stick to get him in position to mount. Mounting went OK, but he did move a couple of steps, I suspect because he had not braced his feet enough prior to me mounting. My fault for not preparing him well enough.
Today I wanted to ask for more movement, so started with lateral flexions. A little bracey to start, but eventually they past the 4 ounces of pressure test easily. A lateral flexion is where the horse is asked to stand still and just turn his head round so his nose is near your leg. I'll put the whole plan on the web soon with all of this explained. Next I asked for and easily got several steps of backup. Stopping him going backwards was a little tricky, but basically I just totally relaxed in my seat and acted like a sack of spuds.
We then moved onto indirect and direct rein exercises. I had done many of these on the ground in the prepare to ride section.
The indirect rein starts with a lateral flexion, but then I look down and back at his hind quarters. This shifts my weight on his back and acts as a phase one cue to move his hind legs away from my gaze. Then my leg goes back and applies a little pressure behind the girth area. No kicking please. After a few seconds of no response I took my hand and lightly tapped his flank until his hind quarters moved away from the pressure, at which point I rewarded him by instantly removing all the cues and becoming the sack of spuds again.
I could go through all the exercises we did, but suffice to say all went very well and they will be written up soon in the new website I am slowly putting together.
Dismounting was easy with no movement on his part and a nice cuddle.
1 comment:
Hmmm. something to consider. when the other rider came in the arena, it seems you paid a little attention to them, until they started to mount. it could be, rather her reacting to them, she was reacting you your reaction to them. if you were watching in anticipation of something going wrong, you would lose your connection with filly, and this too could be upsetting to her. Leaders don't pay attention to things that don't matter. simply by giving it more of your attention could be a signal of 'alert'.....maybe she is thinking....."hmmm, it's bothering him, maybe I should be bothered too and get ready to GO"
of course horses can be sensative to thier surroundings on thier own, but they look to the leader for how to react. If the leader has a lazer gaze on something.....horses do pay attention to that.
Something to lick and chew about, as you have mentioned in several posts the number of other riders in the arena, and thier comings and goings. That alone caught my attention....that it seems to catch YOUR attention. The next few times you play with your horses, pay attention to what you pay attention to and just how much attention you give those things and for how long. Try an experiment, of doing both paying attention, paying no attention....and paying attention to the opposite of it. Maybe pick a piece of pooh on the ground and act as though it is the most interesting piece of pooh you have ever seen, and see how the horses reactions change.
Have no idea if it will help, but it might be a fun experiment.
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