So much to tell you and so little time.
To start with I spent yesterday with James. More of this later. The good news is that he has looked at the website I have been building and said it was ok to publish. There is a link down the right hand side of the blog. It is not finished yet, there are still many boxes to complete, but I will add to them slowly as I get the knowledge and time. I may need to edit some as my savvy grows as well. All changes I will announce on the blog. Please let me know by email or blog comments if you think there are mistakes, it isn't clearly written, or more information that should be entered.
It is important to note that in effect each box is a test. Each test must be passed for the level you are working at prior to moving onto the next box. For example in the riding section if you cannot "follow the rail" to the level required for level 2 then don't continue onto the other patterns until you can. Each step builds on the last. This takes great discipline but remember "take the time it takes so that it takes less time". Please also note that the usual disclaimers about horse safety, training and equipment apply to the site !
Back to the horses. We played a nasty trick on Rick the yard owner. The whole yard was in on it including Sue his girlfriend ! I had asked Rick to help me with Billys first ride, and 2 days ago he said he had time. I prepared Billy thoroughly and he past all the tests in the plan up to "mounting with savvy". Some I had to work on for a while as he was a little unconfident. Eventually Rick came into the school to help and I asked him to hold the end of the 22 foot line and stand back a bit. Billy gets worried if there is another person near the mounting block and refuses to stand still. Rick looked a little confused at this as he is used to helping get the horse to stand whilst the rider mounts for a first ride. With Rick safely away Billy nudged into my knees with his side and after a brief scratch I got on. Not even a flinch. Rick is not daft and commented "If this is the first ride you must think I'm stupid", or colourful words to that effect !! But his initial face was worth the effort.
I did need Ricks help however. Lateral flexion and backup are going well as is indirect rein (I thought, more later), but getting Billy to move forwards with aids from me is not good, actually not happening. I needed Rick to check that he did not have any confidence issues moving forwards with me on, and for this wanted I a strong guy who could at least control Billy long enough for me to get off if it went wrong. In the event Billy followed Rick around the school with a lowered head totally confident, thus passing the test with flying colours. Now what to do. Every time I asked for forwards he would kick out, prance and put in little bucks. His feet were stuck. A pub dinner with Sue and Rick to celebrate riding Billy followed.
James HELP ! I went to the Foundation Station with Ritchie yesterday just to watch. No courses on, just observe him training young and problem horses with his staff, and do some advanced training of his staff in the afternoon. As always there is way to much information to impart in a blog, yesterday could fill a book in itself, but one snippet gave me insight into the Billy problem.
He was teaching Clare and her horse to ride with contact and getting the horse to start moving forwards with contact was proving difficult, as with Billy, backup and prancing were good. I had seen this picture before. Getting a horse to start moving with contact means moving the hind feet first, getting them to step off with a hind foot lead. The hind feet are the driving feet and push the horse along. The front feet are really just balancing feet to stop the nose dragging on the ground. To unstick the feet James got Clare to do a very slight indirect rein first by squeezing with just one leg and then once that leg moved, squeeze both to get the forward movement.
Chatting to James afterwards he confirmed that I should do this with Billy. My mistake in the indirect rein had been to add rhythmic pressure with my hand on his hips if the squeeze from my leg did not work and compounded the problem by thinking I had passed the indirect rein test. Of course hand tapping is not part of the test, but the leg squeeze is. I had not yet taught Billy to move at all off leg pressure (porcupine), but of rhythmic pressure from my hand (driving game). The fix is going to be to ensure I can get indirect rein from leg pressure so that leg pressure starts to mean something to him. I can train this on the ground of course by playing the porcupine game with my stick or fingers in the spot where my heel will apply the pressure. Simple and obvious really once you work it out.
I hope this also emphasises the need to really pass each test in the plan before moving on or the rough spot will just pop up somewhere else, not be obvious and could cause a serious problem.
One thing James keeps repeating is know what the finished product is supposed to look like before starting the fundamentals. He advocates repeatedly watching level 4 dvds even if you are only at level 1. This experience has really consolidated in my mind what he means.
To start with I spent yesterday with James. More of this later. The good news is that he has looked at the website I have been building and said it was ok to publish. There is a link down the right hand side of the blog. It is not finished yet, there are still many boxes to complete, but I will add to them slowly as I get the knowledge and time. I may need to edit some as my savvy grows as well. All changes I will announce on the blog. Please let me know by email or blog comments if you think there are mistakes, it isn't clearly written, or more information that should be entered.
It is important to note that in effect each box is a test. Each test must be passed for the level you are working at prior to moving onto the next box. For example in the riding section if you cannot "follow the rail" to the level required for level 2 then don't continue onto the other patterns until you can. Each step builds on the last. This takes great discipline but remember "take the time it takes so that it takes less time". Please also note that the usual disclaimers about horse safety, training and equipment apply to the site !
Back to the horses. We played a nasty trick on Rick the yard owner. The whole yard was in on it including Sue his girlfriend ! I had asked Rick to help me with Billys first ride, and 2 days ago he said he had time. I prepared Billy thoroughly and he past all the tests in the plan up to "mounting with savvy". Some I had to work on for a while as he was a little unconfident. Eventually Rick came into the school to help and I asked him to hold the end of the 22 foot line and stand back a bit. Billy gets worried if there is another person near the mounting block and refuses to stand still. Rick looked a little confused at this as he is used to helping get the horse to stand whilst the rider mounts for a first ride. With Rick safely away Billy nudged into my knees with his side and after a brief scratch I got on. Not even a flinch. Rick is not daft and commented "If this is the first ride you must think I'm stupid", or colourful words to that effect !! But his initial face was worth the effort.
I did need Ricks help however. Lateral flexion and backup are going well as is indirect rein (I thought, more later), but getting Billy to move forwards with aids from me is not good, actually not happening. I needed Rick to check that he did not have any confidence issues moving forwards with me on, and for this wanted I a strong guy who could at least control Billy long enough for me to get off if it went wrong. In the event Billy followed Rick around the school with a lowered head totally confident, thus passing the test with flying colours. Now what to do. Every time I asked for forwards he would kick out, prance and put in little bucks. His feet were stuck. A pub dinner with Sue and Rick to celebrate riding Billy followed.
James HELP ! I went to the Foundation Station with Ritchie yesterday just to watch. No courses on, just observe him training young and problem horses with his staff, and do some advanced training of his staff in the afternoon. As always there is way to much information to impart in a blog, yesterday could fill a book in itself, but one snippet gave me insight into the Billy problem.
He was teaching Clare and her horse to ride with contact and getting the horse to start moving forwards with contact was proving difficult, as with Billy, backup and prancing were good. I had seen this picture before. Getting a horse to start moving with contact means moving the hind feet first, getting them to step off with a hind foot lead. The hind feet are the driving feet and push the horse along. The front feet are really just balancing feet to stop the nose dragging on the ground. To unstick the feet James got Clare to do a very slight indirect rein first by squeezing with just one leg and then once that leg moved, squeeze both to get the forward movement.
Chatting to James afterwards he confirmed that I should do this with Billy. My mistake in the indirect rein had been to add rhythmic pressure with my hand on his hips if the squeeze from my leg did not work and compounded the problem by thinking I had passed the indirect rein test. Of course hand tapping is not part of the test, but the leg squeeze is. I had not yet taught Billy to move at all off leg pressure (porcupine), but of rhythmic pressure from my hand (driving game). The fix is going to be to ensure I can get indirect rein from leg pressure so that leg pressure starts to mean something to him. I can train this on the ground of course by playing the porcupine game with my stick or fingers in the spot where my heel will apply the pressure. Simple and obvious really once you work it out.
I hope this also emphasises the need to really pass each test in the plan before moving on or the rough spot will just pop up somewhere else, not be obvious and could cause a serious problem.
One thing James keeps repeating is know what the finished product is supposed to look like before starting the fundamentals. He advocates repeatedly watching level 4 dvds even if you are only at level 1. This experience has really consolidated in my mind what he means.
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