I have actually been on leave for quite a while now and you would think that would give me more time to write. Quite the opposite has happened. More time off has meant more opportunities to play with horses. My motto is that "you can never play with too many horse". If you think of the number Pat has interacted over the years it runs into the many thousands.
So what have I actually been up to.
Bonitao.
Lots of riding, obviously. I have still been doing a fair bit of one rein and halter riding, but also indulging in looping the lead rope back to the halter to have a second rein. The good news is that all that one rein riding seems to have paid off. We did loads of walk and trot to canter transitions the other evening and I actually had trouble getting him from canter back to trot he was so forward going. Now I am sure that without the one rein practise old habits would have kicked in and I would have pulled on both reins. In practise I found that even on a few occasions when I really really wanted to slow him down my new muscle memories of relaxing in the saddle, adopting a power position and bending him to a halt came to the fore and we "gracefully" transitioned back down. I don't know what got into him that night, the transitions to canter where amazing, lifting the reins and a squeeze with my buttocks was more than enough. Great fun.
We had also heard that the yard manager had trouble catching him one day. So I went to see the problem for myself, and sure enough he did not want to come in. "Have horse catch you" came to mind and so the "catch me game" was utilised. The snag was that I arrived just before a big rainstorm in the hopes of getting him in before it hit and failed. As a result the catch me game was played during very heavy rain, which turned to hail. I did not feel I could stop the game having started for fear of teaching him how not to be caught. Eventually I got two eyes from him so I could turn and walk away and he came with me to the gate. This was then followed by playing the game in the indoor school which at least served to dry us both off a bit. In the school I was better prepared and had the 45 foot rope with me. Whenever he looked to comfortable on the circle around me I could throw the end of the rope out towards him. The first evening this took around 30 minutes, the second 15 minutes and last night two laps of the school !
Last night we also played in the savvy park field at liberty, which was some of the best fun I've had with a horse. We tried out nearly all the obstacles and wound up climbing the big cross country bank at liberty, one of the first times he has been on it.
I am also trying to get fitter myself so I now have the habit of taking him for a short run through the woods which he seems to really enjoy. People take dogs for a run who aren't as good at "heel work" at Bonitao, so why not ?
Dodger
I have also continued helping Gary and Helen with Dodger who I always love to play with. The last session was preparation for the hoof trimmer. For this I decided that we needed him to be thinking to his feet and so utilised exercises that would emphasise this. We played in a field with a considerable slope which immediately aids us in this. To start with it took some time to just get a nice circle at walk using the stick and bag as a cue. Once this was achieved we could switch to the indirect / direct rein pattern. In this pattern we ask for the hind quarters to yield away whilst circling to get the hind legs to cross through, then when they are facing us ask for the fore quarters to yield away into an opposite direction circle to get the front legs to cross through. This is a great exercise to get the mind thinking about the foot placement.
Having got this tolerably smooth we moved onto lead by the leg where a loop of soft rope is placed just below the fetlock joint and then pressure applied to ask that leg to pick up and move forwards. This helps soften up the porcupine response to the leg and again "mind to the feet". We then used the rope to pick up each leg as though to pick out the hooves. The advantage of using a rope for this is partially safety (no delicate human bits near the hoof) and partially to save our backs. Once lifted we increased the time it was held up to a maximum of 1 minute.
The result? The farrier said that he was much improved over the last time his hooves were trimmed 6 weeks ago. I am sure that this is also due to the fact that Helen and Gary never drop his hooves these days when picking them out. These little things are little but they do add up to something bigger than even I would have believed possible when I started this program.
Salvadora
I have not mentioned this little horse before. She is an ex-polo pony housed at Shana and doted on by Patryck. She has of course been ridden before, but not maybe in the most savvy of styles. As a result we have been playing lots and lots of friendly game with her to build her trust in us. Not that friendly is all we play as this would be a mistake. Once her confidence is up she can become quite pushy. In fact we have played all the seven games at various times, but not necessarily in the normal order. One thing I have found as I have progressed in my own knowledge is that now the seven games are almost instinctual I tend to pull the right game for the moment out of the tool bag as I need it. I try to keep in mind what game I am playing at each moment, but the order has become less important.
I'll write more about her in the future, but right now I want to stop writing and start playing !!
So what have I actually been up to.
Bonitao.
Lots of riding, obviously. I have still been doing a fair bit of one rein and halter riding, but also indulging in looping the lead rope back to the halter to have a second rein. The good news is that all that one rein riding seems to have paid off. We did loads of walk and trot to canter transitions the other evening and I actually had trouble getting him from canter back to trot he was so forward going. Now I am sure that without the one rein practise old habits would have kicked in and I would have pulled on both reins. In practise I found that even on a few occasions when I really really wanted to slow him down my new muscle memories of relaxing in the saddle, adopting a power position and bending him to a halt came to the fore and we "gracefully" transitioned back down. I don't know what got into him that night, the transitions to canter where amazing, lifting the reins and a squeeze with my buttocks was more than enough. Great fun.
We had also heard that the yard manager had trouble catching him one day. So I went to see the problem for myself, and sure enough he did not want to come in. "Have horse catch you" came to mind and so the "catch me game" was utilised. The snag was that I arrived just before a big rainstorm in the hopes of getting him in before it hit and failed. As a result the catch me game was played during very heavy rain, which turned to hail. I did not feel I could stop the game having started for fear of teaching him how not to be caught. Eventually I got two eyes from him so I could turn and walk away and he came with me to the gate. This was then followed by playing the game in the indoor school which at least served to dry us both off a bit. In the school I was better prepared and had the 45 foot rope with me. Whenever he looked to comfortable on the circle around me I could throw the end of the rope out towards him. The first evening this took around 30 minutes, the second 15 minutes and last night two laps of the school !
Last night we also played in the savvy park field at liberty, which was some of the best fun I've had with a horse. We tried out nearly all the obstacles and wound up climbing the big cross country bank at liberty, one of the first times he has been on it.
I am also trying to get fitter myself so I now have the habit of taking him for a short run through the woods which he seems to really enjoy. People take dogs for a run who aren't as good at "heel work" at Bonitao, so why not ?
Dodger
I have also continued helping Gary and Helen with Dodger who I always love to play with. The last session was preparation for the hoof trimmer. For this I decided that we needed him to be thinking to his feet and so utilised exercises that would emphasise this. We played in a field with a considerable slope which immediately aids us in this. To start with it took some time to just get a nice circle at walk using the stick and bag as a cue. Once this was achieved we could switch to the indirect / direct rein pattern. In this pattern we ask for the hind quarters to yield away whilst circling to get the hind legs to cross through, then when they are facing us ask for the fore quarters to yield away into an opposite direction circle to get the front legs to cross through. This is a great exercise to get the mind thinking about the foot placement.
Having got this tolerably smooth we moved onto lead by the leg where a loop of soft rope is placed just below the fetlock joint and then pressure applied to ask that leg to pick up and move forwards. This helps soften up the porcupine response to the leg and again "mind to the feet". We then used the rope to pick up each leg as though to pick out the hooves. The advantage of using a rope for this is partially safety (no delicate human bits near the hoof) and partially to save our backs. Once lifted we increased the time it was held up to a maximum of 1 minute.
The result? The farrier said that he was much improved over the last time his hooves were trimmed 6 weeks ago. I am sure that this is also due to the fact that Helen and Gary never drop his hooves these days when picking them out. These little things are little but they do add up to something bigger than even I would have believed possible when I started this program.
Salvadora
I have not mentioned this little horse before. She is an ex-polo pony housed at Shana and doted on by Patryck. She has of course been ridden before, but not maybe in the most savvy of styles. As a result we have been playing lots and lots of friendly game with her to build her trust in us. Not that friendly is all we play as this would be a mistake. Once her confidence is up she can become quite pushy. In fact we have played all the seven games at various times, but not necessarily in the normal order. One thing I have found as I have progressed in my own knowledge is that now the seven games are almost instinctual I tend to pull the right game for the moment out of the tool bag as I need it. I try to keep in mind what game I am playing at each moment, but the order has become less important.
I'll write more about her in the future, but right now I want to stop writing and start playing !!
No comments:
Post a Comment