I had time for a very quick play session with Filly a few days ago. As usual I was sat in my chair in the middle of the school and we played on a 22 foot rope. The main theme again was circling. I am really working on trying to get the circles circular. As Ritchie always says she does beautiful Easter eggs, maintaining gait and her own direction.
To make them more circular I have been working on the sideways driving games so that as she edges in on the circle I have the language to say "please get back on the circle". I light flick with the stick and string towards her shoulder usually does the trick. Of course this is done in phases. Phase one is a stern look as I give in the yoyo game. Phase 2 is lift the stick off the ground, phase 3 start to bring the stick over my head, phase 4 aim the string at her shoulder. If she had come so far in on the circle the string could tag her off course, thus if she made a large error in her direction there was a phase 5.
After a few sessions of this she is beginning to repsond to phase 1 sometimes and always to phase 4.
I really made a point of making a game out of this for her. Ideally she wanted me to just remain slumped in my chair in neutral. This is one of the differences to lunging. In the circling game we do not micro manage her gait and direction, we let her make mistakes and correct them. Her puzzle was to work out what she needed to do to stop me from picking up the stick and flapping it at her.
Circling may sound boring for the horse, and micro managed circling undoutably is. You could see from her expression that this for really engaged her brain. Her ears were pricked and attentive and when I asked for a hind quarter disengagement it was quick and accurate with the slightest instruction.
I also had a single cone out on the circle in front of me to act as a "question box" for changing gait. As we know Filly loves cones ! Everytime she stopped at it she had to pick it up, chew it etc. Ritchie was watching from the door chatting to one of the other yard members. She joked that it would be good if Filly could pick up the cone and bring it to me. Two minutes later Filly did just that.From 20 feet away she grabbed the base of the cone in her teeth, walked over and waited until I had it in my hands before letting go, with a very smug look on her face. As Ritchie said the challenge now is to get her to do it on command !
Finally news about Billy. He is doing well, the swelling on his legs is going down, but he is getting very bored in his box and his mischievous side is coming out !!
To make them more circular I have been working on the sideways driving games so that as she edges in on the circle I have the language to say "please get back on the circle". I light flick with the stick and string towards her shoulder usually does the trick. Of course this is done in phases. Phase one is a stern look as I give in the yoyo game. Phase 2 is lift the stick off the ground, phase 3 start to bring the stick over my head, phase 4 aim the string at her shoulder. If she had come so far in on the circle the string could tag her off course, thus if she made a large error in her direction there was a phase 5.
After a few sessions of this she is beginning to repsond to phase 1 sometimes and always to phase 4.
I really made a point of making a game out of this for her. Ideally she wanted me to just remain slumped in my chair in neutral. This is one of the differences to lunging. In the circling game we do not micro manage her gait and direction, we let her make mistakes and correct them. Her puzzle was to work out what she needed to do to stop me from picking up the stick and flapping it at her.
Circling may sound boring for the horse, and micro managed circling undoutably is. You could see from her expression that this for really engaged her brain. Her ears were pricked and attentive and when I asked for a hind quarter disengagement it was quick and accurate with the slightest instruction.
I also had a single cone out on the circle in front of me to act as a "question box" for changing gait. As we know Filly loves cones ! Everytime she stopped at it she had to pick it up, chew it etc. Ritchie was watching from the door chatting to one of the other yard members. She joked that it would be good if Filly could pick up the cone and bring it to me. Two minutes later Filly did just that.From 20 feet away she grabbed the base of the cone in her teeth, walked over and waited until I had it in my hands before letting go, with a very smug look on her face. As Ritchie said the challenge now is to get her to do it on command !
Finally news about Billy. He is doing well, the swelling on his legs is going down, but he is getting very bored in his box and his mischievous side is coming out !!
No comments:
Post a Comment