I am supposed to be flying in the National Gliding Championship at Lasham this week but am actually sitting at home watching it rain. Give me more time for the horses though.
All sorts of news after a short blogging break.
Play Day at Larisa Taskers'.
This was a great fun day with 18 horses turning up. I had flown in overnight from Philadelphia so was feeling a little tired. Didn't bother going home, just straight to the play day. Fantastic weather for it, if a little hot. I spent some time playing with Mini, still working on getting his mind engaged on the circle as he has the tendency to tune out as a result of past lunging. I use travelling circles a fair bit for this so that obstacles keep appearing in his path. That way he has to "wake up" to avoid them :-) . As a tactic it seems to work well. He also has a tendency to lean on the halter at times. I used two methods to overcome this. First I asked for a direction change every time he leant thus putting a stronger feel on the halter, but a feel with a purpose to direct his feet in a new direction. As this progressed I just applied a little more pressure every time he leant and released as he flexed his neck towards me. The trick to this is not to leave the release to long. I have a boundary for my arm beyond which he can move my arm but with increasing force. As soon as he releases enough to but my arm back inside the boundary all the pressure is gone. This is a little like using a patience pole but as we don't have one I have to use mu body and arm instead. This takes longer as my arm cannot provide such a sharp edged boundary as a pole does so my intention cannot be conveyed as clearly.
I also got to play with some of our friends horses which was really good fun. I basically concentrated on getting straightness on a circle with both of them where each part of the body is the same distance from me as they circle around. Any body zone that is too closed is gently requested with my focus then stick and string to move out. As I always say "you can never play with too many horses".
Riding Bonitao.
This has been going really well, to the extent that I went for my first solo hack out on him recently. We had great fun exploring the woods together. Two highlights were chilling out while he grazed at a beautiful natural pond in the woods, and when we arrived at a very steep part of the trail having him ask me what to do and then accepting my leadership to walk down the slope. We did get a little lost which resulted in a longer ride, but that just added to the fun.
In the indoor school I have continued to work on my cantering which is now getting much better. The key was forgetting to worry about HOW to have a good canter seat and just concentrate on how the canter felt in my body letting my body work out how to achieve the desired result for itself. I could go off into a discussion on sport psychology and motor engrams but will save that for another blog. We have also been practising weave and figure 8 pattern without reins. This is great practise for focus. I find that if I again forget about the details as to where to put arms, legs etc but just focus then it all goes pretty well. Start to micromanage my body and we wander off to explore the school at random.
Time to head to the yard for more fun, and if it stops raining a hack.
All sorts of news after a short blogging break.
Play Day at Larisa Taskers'.
This was a great fun day with 18 horses turning up. I had flown in overnight from Philadelphia so was feeling a little tired. Didn't bother going home, just straight to the play day. Fantastic weather for it, if a little hot. I spent some time playing with Mini, still working on getting his mind engaged on the circle as he has the tendency to tune out as a result of past lunging. I use travelling circles a fair bit for this so that obstacles keep appearing in his path. That way he has to "wake up" to avoid them :-) . As a tactic it seems to work well. He also has a tendency to lean on the halter at times. I used two methods to overcome this. First I asked for a direction change every time he leant thus putting a stronger feel on the halter, but a feel with a purpose to direct his feet in a new direction. As this progressed I just applied a little more pressure every time he leant and released as he flexed his neck towards me. The trick to this is not to leave the release to long. I have a boundary for my arm beyond which he can move my arm but with increasing force. As soon as he releases enough to but my arm back inside the boundary all the pressure is gone. This is a little like using a patience pole but as we don't have one I have to use mu body and arm instead. This takes longer as my arm cannot provide such a sharp edged boundary as a pole does so my intention cannot be conveyed as clearly.
I also got to play with some of our friends horses which was really good fun. I basically concentrated on getting straightness on a circle with both of them where each part of the body is the same distance from me as they circle around. Any body zone that is too closed is gently requested with my focus then stick and string to move out. As I always say "you can never play with too many horses".
Riding Bonitao.
This has been going really well, to the extent that I went for my first solo hack out on him recently. We had great fun exploring the woods together. Two highlights were chilling out while he grazed at a beautiful natural pond in the woods, and when we arrived at a very steep part of the trail having him ask me what to do and then accepting my leadership to walk down the slope. We did get a little lost which resulted in a longer ride, but that just added to the fun.
In the indoor school I have continued to work on my cantering which is now getting much better. The key was forgetting to worry about HOW to have a good canter seat and just concentrate on how the canter felt in my body letting my body work out how to achieve the desired result for itself. I could go off into a discussion on sport psychology and motor engrams but will save that for another blog. We have also been practising weave and figure 8 pattern without reins. This is great practise for focus. I find that if I again forget about the details as to where to put arms, legs etc but just focus then it all goes pretty well. Start to micromanage my body and we wander off to explore the school at random.
Time to head to the yard for more fun, and if it stops raining a hack.
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