Larisa came to give Ritchie and me a lesson a couple of days ago. This got me focussing on what I need to do to get Filly and more importantly myself ready to attempt an audition test on the Parelli program.
To be honest gaining qualifications and recognition is not so important for me, but the levels assessments have the advantage of a) providing focus for the play sessions and b) making sure that I am on the right track with the development of my horsemanship.
We started with working on Filly's backup. She does go backwards but at the pace of an inebriated snail. What I was after was a nice snappy backup with a relaxed neck. The key was the timing of my phases. In the past I have tended to go very slowly through each phase until I got the response I required at which point I relaxed to reward her for the try. This had caused a niggle in my mind for a while and Larisa brought that niggle into focus. What was needed, at Filly's stage was a slow phase 1 then if I didn't get the response I wanted to fairly rapidly escalate through the phases 2, 3 and 4 and maintain 4 until I got the response. The key on achieving the try was to NOT quit the pressure altogether but rapidly go back to phase 1 and keep asking for the try. Thus the reward is not a complete removal of the pressure but a rapid reduction back to the original command at phase 1. In the case of backup a long phase 1 resulted in her usual snail impersonation. A quick escalation to phase 4 got her a bit quicker so back to phase 1 to maintain her new sloth impression ( a bit quicker ). Thus I now have a strategy for improving almost any aspect of her behaviour through the use of successive approximation.
We then moved onto improving the circling game. If you remember from precious posts I am after 6 laps of the circle whilst maintaining gait, direction and looking where she is going whilst I remain at neutral in the middle. This had been improving for sometime but she still tended to ease in on the circle, getting closer to me. I was afraid of micro managing her but Larisa had me be much more particular. I needed to correct her direction as soon as I could detect her mind or body even thinking about coming closer. Once we had achieved 2 laps at a reasonable standard Larisa had me start to "over correct" her. Thus if she came in 1 foot on the circle I sent her 2 feet out even if it meant moving out towards her to supply the needed rope. This whole exercise took a long long time. The 2 required good laps had to be consecutive, so if she needed any correction the count started again. I know James says I should know the number of laps completed but to be honest I lost count. Sorry James.
If you remember I have also been having trouble maintaining trot through a figure of 8 pattern. Larisa analysed this as her not following the feel on her halter as I asked for the direction change. She was slightly hesitating as she came around the corner resisting the halter pressure. As she hesitated she broke gait. Thus we needed to improve her "follow the feel". The exercise we used was to circle her and apply some pressure to the halter to bring her nose in (phase 1), if she resisted then we used the driving game to drive her hind quarters away and thus bring her nose around. As soon as she yielded to the pressure on the halter all pressures were removed and she could again quietly circle me. Very soon she was becoming very light in zone 1 (her nose) and we managed some very nice smooth flowing direction changes.
I have been playing with these games over the last couple of days on my own and the improvement has been rapid. Today we managed 2 good laps, including walking over a pole around a foot off the ground, in a field full of grass. Very satisfying
To be honest gaining qualifications and recognition is not so important for me, but the levels assessments have the advantage of a) providing focus for the play sessions and b) making sure that I am on the right track with the development of my horsemanship.
We started with working on Filly's backup. She does go backwards but at the pace of an inebriated snail. What I was after was a nice snappy backup with a relaxed neck. The key was the timing of my phases. In the past I have tended to go very slowly through each phase until I got the response I required at which point I relaxed to reward her for the try. This had caused a niggle in my mind for a while and Larisa brought that niggle into focus. What was needed, at Filly's stage was a slow phase 1 then if I didn't get the response I wanted to fairly rapidly escalate through the phases 2, 3 and 4 and maintain 4 until I got the response. The key on achieving the try was to NOT quit the pressure altogether but rapidly go back to phase 1 and keep asking for the try. Thus the reward is not a complete removal of the pressure but a rapid reduction back to the original command at phase 1. In the case of backup a long phase 1 resulted in her usual snail impersonation. A quick escalation to phase 4 got her a bit quicker so back to phase 1 to maintain her new sloth impression ( a bit quicker ). Thus I now have a strategy for improving almost any aspect of her behaviour through the use of successive approximation.
We then moved onto improving the circling game. If you remember from precious posts I am after 6 laps of the circle whilst maintaining gait, direction and looking where she is going whilst I remain at neutral in the middle. This had been improving for sometime but she still tended to ease in on the circle, getting closer to me. I was afraid of micro managing her but Larisa had me be much more particular. I needed to correct her direction as soon as I could detect her mind or body even thinking about coming closer. Once we had achieved 2 laps at a reasonable standard Larisa had me start to "over correct" her. Thus if she came in 1 foot on the circle I sent her 2 feet out even if it meant moving out towards her to supply the needed rope. This whole exercise took a long long time. The 2 required good laps had to be consecutive, so if she needed any correction the count started again. I know James says I should know the number of laps completed but to be honest I lost count. Sorry James.
If you remember I have also been having trouble maintaining trot through a figure of 8 pattern. Larisa analysed this as her not following the feel on her halter as I asked for the direction change. She was slightly hesitating as she came around the corner resisting the halter pressure. As she hesitated she broke gait. Thus we needed to improve her "follow the feel". The exercise we used was to circle her and apply some pressure to the halter to bring her nose in (phase 1), if she resisted then we used the driving game to drive her hind quarters away and thus bring her nose around. As soon as she yielded to the pressure on the halter all pressures were removed and she could again quietly circle me. Very soon she was becoming very light in zone 1 (her nose) and we managed some very nice smooth flowing direction changes.
I have been playing with these games over the last couple of days on my own and the improvement has been rapid. Today we managed 2 good laps, including walking over a pole around a foot off the ground, in a field full of grass. Very satisfying
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