Another visit to James Roberts yesterday. He doesn't have any courses on a present so it was an opportunity to see him working with his own horses for a change.
The theme for the day was definitely Liberty work, and we watched a nice session of him playing with his own working horse "Princess". In particular he was working on zone 5 driving at Liberty, over emphasising his direction of focus of both the eyes and the belly button as he asked for serpentines up and down the school. As he said, this was to improve her response to his focus when he is riding her so that he has to use his hands less which are normally fully occupied with the lead rope to the young colts he starts. Princess is used a lot for ponying young colts as she can interact with them as a horse and move them around. So James directs Princess who in turn directs the colts getting them to yield to pressure. She is the perfect horse for this as she can look cranky and forceful enough to get the youngsters to respect her without getting aggressive.
In the afternoon he gave a lesson to a young man who has just arrived at the yard as a livery. (Lucky guy !! I'm not jealous at all !). After the usual brieifing on the Plan (see link on right side) they started working on "Have horse catch you". This was the first time I had seen the catching game as played by James. Basically the horse was put at Liberty and then made to move around the school while the student walked with purpose and "crankiness" around the inside of the arena, regularly putting pressure on the horse to keep moving. The result was this fit young pony cantered around the arena for about 1/2 hour with the occassional directed change of direction. From the ponies head tossing you could tell that she did not like this sudden assertion of leadership from a human. As James suggested the pony had been at the top of the pecking order for years and it was a bit of a shock to the system to find that she no longer was. As time progressed however the head tossing reduced and the horse lowered her head and started to show signs of relaxation and submission. The key was to pay close attention to her expression. To start the head and nose were tipped out and away form the owner, but slowly the head straightened. As soon as she glanced at the owner he had to turn and walk purposefully away for her. The mode of his walk was all important. He had to demonstrate his positive leadership qualities and so walk as though he knew where he was going and was thus worth following. The pony stopped and pondered him for a while before deciding that he was not worth following and turning away again, at which point she was immediately sent out on the circle again. Some minutes later and another glance. The owner turned and walked away again and she pondered him for much longer. So he just walked repeatedly past her as she decided whether or not to accept his leadership. On one pass he just asked her to move her front legs to get her "unstuck" and she then willingly followed him. However it was not all over, as he came and sat in a chair she again turned and left him, but was helped on her way to more circles. Only a short time passed and she again turned and asked for permission to come to him and then stayed with him for a long while as we all discussed what we had just seen.
James suggested that the owner do this for another 3 or 4 days to really get the bond and leadership established before moving onto "Halter with Savvy". This is what I mean on my Plan website where I say "don't pass onto the next item of the plan until the current one is solid".
Why is this so important. Well if you horse is travelling around you, looking to the outside and tossing it's head, as long as it is not doing so in fear or right brained, it is in effect swearing at you and giving you the finger. It does not see you as the leader but as an inconvenience that occasionally does things to it rather than with and for it. That is not a healthy relationship to have with an animal you are going to trust your life to.
All in all a very interesting day. On arriving back at the yard I checked out the "Have horse catch you" with Filly and found it was not really up to standard to start with. I therefore played the game and in only around 10 minutes it was pretty good again. I've made a mental note to be a little more conscientious in checking each box on the plan and make sure that each is done with excellence before moving on in the future.
The theme for the day was definitely Liberty work, and we watched a nice session of him playing with his own working horse "Princess". In particular he was working on zone 5 driving at Liberty, over emphasising his direction of focus of both the eyes and the belly button as he asked for serpentines up and down the school. As he said, this was to improve her response to his focus when he is riding her so that he has to use his hands less which are normally fully occupied with the lead rope to the young colts he starts. Princess is used a lot for ponying young colts as she can interact with them as a horse and move them around. So James directs Princess who in turn directs the colts getting them to yield to pressure. She is the perfect horse for this as she can look cranky and forceful enough to get the youngsters to respect her without getting aggressive.
In the afternoon he gave a lesson to a young man who has just arrived at the yard as a livery. (Lucky guy !! I'm not jealous at all !). After the usual brieifing on the Plan (see link on right side) they started working on "Have horse catch you". This was the first time I had seen the catching game as played by James. Basically the horse was put at Liberty and then made to move around the school while the student walked with purpose and "crankiness" around the inside of the arena, regularly putting pressure on the horse to keep moving. The result was this fit young pony cantered around the arena for about 1/2 hour with the occassional directed change of direction. From the ponies head tossing you could tell that she did not like this sudden assertion of leadership from a human. As James suggested the pony had been at the top of the pecking order for years and it was a bit of a shock to the system to find that she no longer was. As time progressed however the head tossing reduced and the horse lowered her head and started to show signs of relaxation and submission. The key was to pay close attention to her expression. To start the head and nose were tipped out and away form the owner, but slowly the head straightened. As soon as she glanced at the owner he had to turn and walk purposefully away for her. The mode of his walk was all important. He had to demonstrate his positive leadership qualities and so walk as though he knew where he was going and was thus worth following. The pony stopped and pondered him for a while before deciding that he was not worth following and turning away again, at which point she was immediately sent out on the circle again. Some minutes later and another glance. The owner turned and walked away again and she pondered him for much longer. So he just walked repeatedly past her as she decided whether or not to accept his leadership. On one pass he just asked her to move her front legs to get her "unstuck" and she then willingly followed him. However it was not all over, as he came and sat in a chair she again turned and left him, but was helped on her way to more circles. Only a short time passed and she again turned and asked for permission to come to him and then stayed with him for a long while as we all discussed what we had just seen.
James suggested that the owner do this for another 3 or 4 days to really get the bond and leadership established before moving onto "Halter with Savvy". This is what I mean on my Plan website where I say "don't pass onto the next item of the plan until the current one is solid".
Why is this so important. Well if you horse is travelling around you, looking to the outside and tossing it's head, as long as it is not doing so in fear or right brained, it is in effect swearing at you and giving you the finger. It does not see you as the leader but as an inconvenience that occasionally does things to it rather than with and for it. That is not a healthy relationship to have with an animal you are going to trust your life to.
All in all a very interesting day. On arriving back at the yard I checked out the "Have horse catch you" with Filly and found it was not really up to standard to start with. I therefore played the game and in only around 10 minutes it was pretty good again. I've made a mental note to be a little more conscientious in checking each box on the plan and make sure that each is done with excellence before moving on in the future.
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