Fishing poles

First a quick announcement. If you look on the right side of the page there is another link to the start of a new website "Parelli Framework". I have struggled for a while to get all the "principles" and "qualities" in my head. It then occurred to me that some things appear in more than one place, and some link from one set of values to another. To straighten this out for myself as much as anyone I decided to create a diagram that lays all the sections out and provides links between them. Hard to explain, so just head over to the webpage and you will see what I mean. In time each block will be "clickable", but there is so much to do that it may well take months if not years !
Back to the fishing poles.
I have been playing with Filly online again, concentrating on getting her forward going and straight on a circle. In the past I have spent so much time getting the forward out of her to make her safe to be around, I now have to put some back. Gone are the snappy hind quarter disengagements to get her to stop, now I ask her to stop with her body aligned with the circle. This is done with body language to start, followed by a light wriggle on the rope and then flapping the stick and string out in front of her. Should she turn in a little pressure to the side of zone1 / 2 soon gets her back on the circle. Being bright this took her very few tries to master. The reason to loose the disengagement is that it works against forwardness. It is still there in the toolbox if I need it, but to be avoided now when possible.
The test for forwardness at the walk is that her hind foot should strike the ground around 1 to 2 hoof prints in front of the point just vacated by the front foot. We are not there yet but she is now at least on the front hoof print. This exercises her responsibility to "maintain gait" which includes the extension within a gait. (Incidentally did you know that there are 167 identified gaits of the horse !!). If she slackens off I go through the phases to ask her to extend again. Should she trot I ask her to return to a forward walk, carefully applying "braking" pressure to get her to slow down a little bit. Often this is just a slight waggle of the stick way out in front of her. It's fun watching her puzzle out what I am trying to get her to do and in a strange way I finally really feel we are having a conversation, it is not just me directing her, it's also her saying "try putting that another way, I don't get it yet". This then puts the onus back on me to figure out how best to convey my wishes. Mentally taxing, but really rewarding.
Finally we get to the fishing poles.
Not only do I want forwardness I also want her to be straight on the circle. By this I mean her body should be arced so that all parts of her near side are at the same distance from me. No nose pointing to the outside or hindquarters skating around sideways. To achieve this I have to be able to direct individual zones of her body so that they can be moulded onto the circle. Thus if her shoulder is pushing in towards me then I need to be able to push it out. One of the easiest tests for straightness is again to study the foot falls. I want the inside hooves to be following each other on one track and the outside on another. Often the inside hind is on the track of the outside front. To correct this the hindquarters actually have to be pushed out so that her hip is swinging on the correct line, not pulled in as may seem the more natural thing to do.
So how to influence the individual zones of a horse whilst sat in a chair 22 feet away from her. The stick and string can be used, but are not consistently accurate enough. The answer gleaned from videos of Pat and first hand from James is a Panfish Pole. They are telescopic glass fibre poles of various lengths, but are not available in the UK. A quick search on ebay found a good substitute however. I bought a 3m, 4m and 6m pole. I can tell you now the 6m is too long, but can be used for spares on the other 2. The 3m is about the right length for a 22 foot line. On the end I tied a small bit of plastic bag to make it visually obvious.
Now I have a precise communication tool. It is easiest to hold it vertically for a neutral position and then when one of Filly's zones pushes in on the circle I can very precisely lower it and waggle it towards the offending point and influence the bubble around that zone to move it back out. Note I do not touch her with it, it would probably break if I did, just push the air around that zone away from me. It is proving very effective. Filly does not seem too worried by it, almost relieved that she can finally understand what all my imprecise stick and string waving has meant all this time.
I would caution that using it whilst sat in a chair with a horse circling on the end of a line does take some practise and concentration. Rope tricks of the unintentional kind can easily ensue without some care and attention !!
Fishing pole link