Sorry updates have been a bit slow recently. More work exams and studying for them got in the way. Either the blog or the horses had to take a back seat, and obviously it was the blog. Therefore this blog will be a quick roundup of several sessions.
Billy
Riding on Billy carries on. I have been religiously using the plan and have to report it really pays of. It does take time to perform of course, but the old saying "Take the time is takes so it takes less time" is really apt for this process.
I had a Parelli instructor, watch me go through the plan the other day. Rather than a traditional lesson I wanted a progress check. She just quietly watched me go through all the steps to prepare Billy to ride and commented on each section. She generally thought I was doing a good job, which was a relief as I would hate to feel I was harming Filly and Billy, but had a few pointers to improve it further.
I'll mention those here, but they will also make it into the correct sections of the website (as will loads of suggestions from Petra).
The first main comment came from the Standstill section. Please remember that I am training a young horse here, not a mature old faithful. It was felt that I needed to get more active with the freindly game during the standstill. The drunken/skipping walk was fine, but swinging the carrot stick and slapping the ground with the savvy string was not vigorous enough. When I upped my energy it was clear that Billy did not look totally confident, not right brain either, but clearly not happy. I had missed the signs as they were extremely subtle to me but an experienced eye could see them. Of course as soon as it was pointed out it was obvious. So what to do ? I maintained a rhythmic slapping until my wrist hurt waiting for him to soften, head lower and blink more often and preferably lick chew and snort. No change, he had gone inside himself and just stood still. Move him a few steps was the suggestion to get him out again and continue. THis worked like a dream. He now looked more unconfident which was a good thing as he was no longer hiding his emotions. Slowly he started to get that all this commotion was nothing more than friendly game and relaxed. Not completely that will come with more sessions, like the one last night, but sufficient to pass the test.
Saddle with Savvy. Yes we put a saddle on him in the correct section of the plan. I had been riding bareback up to now, but it was deemed that he was ready for saddling. He actually took this very well but got in to trouble with Ritchie for chewing her favourite saddle. Young horse eh !
Now it was time to move him around in the Prepare to ride section. Of course in true natural horsemanship style the stirrups were just left to flap. Isn't it useful to see what your horses reaction would be if you lost a stirrup whilst you are still firmly on the ground ? So we circled him, to start with at walk, then trot, then canter. He was a little unconfident to start with, but no real bucks or tantrums. Well there was a few tantrums, but they were not due to the saddle. On right circle he often baulks in this one spot. Apparently I did the correct thing by just passively applying porcupine pressure to the halter by leading out in the correct direction with my arm and waiting whilst he pulled back hard. He quickly learned that pulling back did not release the pressure, but continuing on the circle did. This was an important porcupine game to win. We were looking for the head to really lower and ideally for an adrenaline releasing snort. This took a long time coming. I had in the meantime resorted to the old favourite of travelling circles to make his left brain kick in and think through the problem. We never did get a snort, but then I have rarely heard one from him in the past. We did get a softening and lower head however, so accepted that.
Pre flight checks. Rope around went well as did indirect/direct rein, although I was given some pointers on how to make this more effective. It was suggested that the zone three porcupine that I have been working on in the prepare to ride section to improve the indirect rein should be done every time I ride and thus promoted to the Pre-flight check section permanently. In addition a lateral flexion towards me whilst standing next to the saddle should also be included on every ride.
We now got to mount with savvy. This was the first time anyone had ridden in a saddle with him so we took great care here. There was lots of getting one foot in the stirrup, standing up in balance facing forwards rubbing the opposite side of his neck and getting off again. When he looked happy and confident I started swinging my free leg back and forward. Think of the sensation this must give under his saddle and you can see why this will feel new to him with all my weight in one stirrup. Finally the leg was swung over and I sat on him. He looked very chilled by this point and so we did the correct thing. NOTHING. We just relaxed and stood still.
The usual Lateral Flexions went well with much much less biting this time.
Now it came to the problem area of getting him to move his feet. This was done mainly by doing dozens of direct reins, asking the front feet to move off and hoping the hind would follow. In effect every time he stopped I just asked the front feet to step off again in a different direction. This was a much better technique than the indirect rein, asking the hind legs to move that I had been attempting. Soon we had many steps of forward movement. To up the impulsion levels a bit as soon as he was moving I would up my energy, move in time with his gait and slap my leg to create a little commotion pressure on his back. Getting the timing of all this right was really difficult, especially whilst trying to listen and respond to an instructor ! But we did make progress and I think both Billy and I felt much happier towards the end.
I put all this into practise on my own last night. Wrist ache again in the standstill section, but a bit better. I also spent a lot of time circling him in a spooky spot in the school as when riding he really resists going towards that spot. Some really good spooks resulted, then a change moment occurred. Rather than just charging past the spooky bit he stopped quite suddenly, looked into that corner licked and chewed and confidently carried on the circle. The change was sudden and profound. Passive persistence in the proper position pays off again !!
This really translated into a better ride. After a longish time of the continuous turns at the other end of the school he, again quite suddenly, decided to walk confidently along the wall to the bad corner. He was even confident enough to very calmly stop and with me on his back poop there, not an adrenaline loose poop, just a regular one. Next time round he had to smell it of course, but that was to my benefit as it made that corner interesting. I made a point of getting off near that area as well to make it a place of comfort.
I'll come to Filly in a later post as this is quite enough for me to write, and you to read for one day !! Suffice to say she is well and the instructor absolutely adored her.
Billy
Riding on Billy carries on. I have been religiously using the plan and have to report it really pays of. It does take time to perform of course, but the old saying "Take the time is takes so it takes less time" is really apt for this process.
I had a Parelli instructor, watch me go through the plan the other day. Rather than a traditional lesson I wanted a progress check. She just quietly watched me go through all the steps to prepare Billy to ride and commented on each section. She generally thought I was doing a good job, which was a relief as I would hate to feel I was harming Filly and Billy, but had a few pointers to improve it further.
I'll mention those here, but they will also make it into the correct sections of the website (as will loads of suggestions from Petra).
The first main comment came from the Standstill section. Please remember that I am training a young horse here, not a mature old faithful. It was felt that I needed to get more active with the freindly game during the standstill. The drunken/skipping walk was fine, but swinging the carrot stick and slapping the ground with the savvy string was not vigorous enough. When I upped my energy it was clear that Billy did not look totally confident, not right brain either, but clearly not happy. I had missed the signs as they were extremely subtle to me but an experienced eye could see them. Of course as soon as it was pointed out it was obvious. So what to do ? I maintained a rhythmic slapping until my wrist hurt waiting for him to soften, head lower and blink more often and preferably lick chew and snort. No change, he had gone inside himself and just stood still. Move him a few steps was the suggestion to get him out again and continue. THis worked like a dream. He now looked more unconfident which was a good thing as he was no longer hiding his emotions. Slowly he started to get that all this commotion was nothing more than friendly game and relaxed. Not completely that will come with more sessions, like the one last night, but sufficient to pass the test.
Saddle with Savvy. Yes we put a saddle on him in the correct section of the plan. I had been riding bareback up to now, but it was deemed that he was ready for saddling. He actually took this very well but got in to trouble with Ritchie for chewing her favourite saddle. Young horse eh !
Now it was time to move him around in the Prepare to ride section. Of course in true natural horsemanship style the stirrups were just left to flap. Isn't it useful to see what your horses reaction would be if you lost a stirrup whilst you are still firmly on the ground ? So we circled him, to start with at walk, then trot, then canter. He was a little unconfident to start with, but no real bucks or tantrums. Well there was a few tantrums, but they were not due to the saddle. On right circle he often baulks in this one spot. Apparently I did the correct thing by just passively applying porcupine pressure to the halter by leading out in the correct direction with my arm and waiting whilst he pulled back hard. He quickly learned that pulling back did not release the pressure, but continuing on the circle did. This was an important porcupine game to win. We were looking for the head to really lower and ideally for an adrenaline releasing snort. This took a long time coming. I had in the meantime resorted to the old favourite of travelling circles to make his left brain kick in and think through the problem. We never did get a snort, but then I have rarely heard one from him in the past. We did get a softening and lower head however, so accepted that.
Pre flight checks. Rope around went well as did indirect/direct rein, although I was given some pointers on how to make this more effective. It was suggested that the zone three porcupine that I have been working on in the prepare to ride section to improve the indirect rein should be done every time I ride and thus promoted to the Pre-flight check section permanently. In addition a lateral flexion towards me whilst standing next to the saddle should also be included on every ride.
We now got to mount with savvy. This was the first time anyone had ridden in a saddle with him so we took great care here. There was lots of getting one foot in the stirrup, standing up in balance facing forwards rubbing the opposite side of his neck and getting off again. When he looked happy and confident I started swinging my free leg back and forward. Think of the sensation this must give under his saddle and you can see why this will feel new to him with all my weight in one stirrup. Finally the leg was swung over and I sat on him. He looked very chilled by this point and so we did the correct thing. NOTHING. We just relaxed and stood still.
The usual Lateral Flexions went well with much much less biting this time.
Now it came to the problem area of getting him to move his feet. This was done mainly by doing dozens of direct reins, asking the front feet to move off and hoping the hind would follow. In effect every time he stopped I just asked the front feet to step off again in a different direction. This was a much better technique than the indirect rein, asking the hind legs to move that I had been attempting. Soon we had many steps of forward movement. To up the impulsion levels a bit as soon as he was moving I would up my energy, move in time with his gait and slap my leg to create a little commotion pressure on his back. Getting the timing of all this right was really difficult, especially whilst trying to listen and respond to an instructor ! But we did make progress and I think both Billy and I felt much happier towards the end.
I put all this into practise on my own last night. Wrist ache again in the standstill section, but a bit better. I also spent a lot of time circling him in a spooky spot in the school as when riding he really resists going towards that spot. Some really good spooks resulted, then a change moment occurred. Rather than just charging past the spooky bit he stopped quite suddenly, looked into that corner licked and chewed and confidently carried on the circle. The change was sudden and profound. Passive persistence in the proper position pays off again !!
This really translated into a better ride. After a longish time of the continuous turns at the other end of the school he, again quite suddenly, decided to walk confidently along the wall to the bad corner. He was even confident enough to very calmly stop and with me on his back poop there, not an adrenaline loose poop, just a regular one. Next time round he had to smell it of course, but that was to my benefit as it made that corner interesting. I made a point of getting off near that area as well to make it a place of comfort.
I'll come to Filly in a later post as this is quite enough for me to write, and you to read for one day !! Suffice to say she is well and the instructor absolutely adored her.
2 comments:
It's great to see all your work. Thank you for sharing with the rest of us. Have you thought of joining Parelli Connect? The tasks checklists are quick to scan, check and assess where you're at with each horse. Here'a a link to sign up.
Stacey
Ritchie and I are already on Parelli connect. I like to blog here though so that non-members can follow us as well. I hope the website is of use, it is also my training notes of course ! I read it regularly myself as a refresher. 9 Step Backup now done as well, but not reviewed by Petra as yet.
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