I had not intended doing a short session as I had time and the weather was fantastic. However we achieved all the goals I had set for the day so quickly that I felt it was right to stop early. We spent the remainder of the time just quietly grazing.
Those goal were : maintain gait, maintain direction and look where you are going. No change there then !
We started by just doing some gentle circling, being particular about the distance at which she circled me. She is so responsive to me driving her out onto the circle now that a hard stare is normally enough to correct her back onto the circle.
Once we had managed at least 2 circles at walk on each rein with no corrections from me we moved onto the "look where you are going" part. For this I set up a jump at about 18 inches with low jump wings to allow the rope to pass over it easily. I now asked for circles that passed over the jump. In the past she had often tried to evade the jump altogether, normally barging between me and the upright. This had improved over time but I was not prepared for the sudden change that happened yesterday. One of the more difficult parts of this exercise is to get the horse to "maintain gait" as the cross the jump. If they come in at walk they tend to leave at trot, or arrive at trot and leave at canter. The "squeeze" over the jump seems to act to accelerate them over the jump as the pressure of the jump behind them propels them forwards.
Not for Filly any more. I started by asking for circles at walk. As she approached the jump she slowed down and very very carefully picked each hoof up as she calmly walked over the pole before picking up her walk pace around the circle. She did look at me to see if her effort deserved a reward of course, and the first couple of times it did. After that I required two passes over the pole to get the reward.
I then added changes of gait to get her more engaged in the task. Every time she crossed the pole I waited half a circle and asked for her to transition from walk to trot, or trot to walk and we played the game at the new gait. I feared that having got her to trot over the pole a few times I might loose the "maintain gait" at walk. Not a bit of it. She was very careful as she crossed the pole but really put effort into maintaining gait and actually seemed to enjoy the game.
I also checked out her "lead by the tail" which was passable if not enthusiastic. The grass was way more interesting !!
All in all a very good day in beautiful weather with a very good friend.
Those goal were : maintain gait, maintain direction and look where you are going. No change there then !
We started by just doing some gentle circling, being particular about the distance at which she circled me. She is so responsive to me driving her out onto the circle now that a hard stare is normally enough to correct her back onto the circle.
Once we had managed at least 2 circles at walk on each rein with no corrections from me we moved onto the "look where you are going" part. For this I set up a jump at about 18 inches with low jump wings to allow the rope to pass over it easily. I now asked for circles that passed over the jump. In the past she had often tried to evade the jump altogether, normally barging between me and the upright. This had improved over time but I was not prepared for the sudden change that happened yesterday. One of the more difficult parts of this exercise is to get the horse to "maintain gait" as the cross the jump. If they come in at walk they tend to leave at trot, or arrive at trot and leave at canter. The "squeeze" over the jump seems to act to accelerate them over the jump as the pressure of the jump behind them propels them forwards.
Not for Filly any more. I started by asking for circles at walk. As she approached the jump she slowed down and very very carefully picked each hoof up as she calmly walked over the pole before picking up her walk pace around the circle. She did look at me to see if her effort deserved a reward of course, and the first couple of times it did. After that I required two passes over the pole to get the reward.
I then added changes of gait to get her more engaged in the task. Every time she crossed the pole I waited half a circle and asked for her to transition from walk to trot, or trot to walk and we played the game at the new gait. I feared that having got her to trot over the pole a few times I might loose the "maintain gait" at walk. Not a bit of it. She was very careful as she crossed the pole but really put effort into maintaining gait and actually seemed to enjoy the game.
I also checked out her "lead by the tail" which was passable if not enthusiastic. The grass was way more interesting !!
All in all a very good day in beautiful weather with a very good friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment